Kiefer MacDonald

Newcastle all but sort of announced two months ago that he would probably be moving in the summer.

There were strong links to Bayern, strong links to us.

This is going to sound really childish, but the fact that Barca are now also in the mix and have actually moved so quickly to get him makes me think he must have been better than I even thought.

I'm even more annoyed.

So do you think, I'm going to put it in my agenda, do you think Liverpool's, I've put it in inverted commas, if you like, fall from grace is a factor here.

Do you think had Liverpool retained their title, let's say, Liverpool would have been in a much stronger position to compete for Anthony Gordon.

I'm assuming they did still want him.

That's my big assumption.

Well, we are going to find out just what Liverpool's lure still is or not, Kiefer.

It feels like we've had, I don't know, in a certain sense, off the pitch, a succession of questionable blows.

I mean, I thought the announcement of Xabi Alonso going to Chelsea was a blow and I'll still stand by that.

I think...

Anthony Gordon going to Barcelona is a bit of a blow.

I'm not going to lie about that either.

Reports were breaking yesterday that Leipzig are adamant that Jan Diamante will not be leaving the club this summer.

Sometimes teams mean that, sometimes they don't.

I mean, I do very strongly remember them being adamant about Naby Keita not leaving one summer, and that being the actual case, albeit we boxed a deal to down the line.

I think the last time we got a big play around Leipzig was that Dominic Sovoslav.

That was a release clause.

have been some rumours about Diamandier release calls.