Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle has laughed off claims from Besiktas president Serdal Adali that the Turkish giants will sign Magpies midfielder Joe Willock.
Besiktas made repeated attempts to sign Willock over the summer, and with his contract expiring at the end of this season, there was a belief that his future may have been in Istanbul.
With Newcastle having major competition in the midfield area, that certainly felt like the direction of travel. But when Jaissle succeeded Eddie Howe as the club's new head coach, things started to change.
Willock's key role under Jaissle
Willock quickly became a player the former Al-Ahli and RB Salzburg head coach relied on, and he made it clear to the Magpies' decision makers he did not want to lose the 27-year-old.
He remained on Tyneside and has made a fantastic start to the season, featuring in all seven matches across all competitions and scoring three goals.
However, Besiktas' interest has not waned. Adali outlined his confidence in the Turkish media that Willock will still join Besiktas inside the next 12 months.
Adali's confident claim
"There were players we couldn't sign in the summer," Adali said. "Our manager wanted Willock. From day one, it was Willock, Willock. Nobody knows this, but I brought Willock's whole family to Istanbul."
"They picked out a house, and they had video calls with [Vincenzo] Italiano and Onder [Ozen, Besiktas director of football] at least ten times. Furthermore, we went to see the player in person twice. His contract ends at the end of the season. He can sign a pre-contract in the winter."
"They had asked for £20 million. We can sign him in January – in fact, I will sign him. The only player the manager wanted that we missed out on was Joe Willock. We genuinely need someone there."
Jaissle's response
However, when those quotes were put to Jaissle in his pre-match press conference ahead of Newcastle's trip to face Coventry City on Monday evening, the 38-year-old laughed before replying: "Yeah, I hear that every day.
"I think he's talking about it also every day, so in general, I think it's our player. We're really happy with him, and I think you see that also on the pitch. He's a top, top player; he can deliver unbelievable performance, and I see even more potential with him, so we are happy that he's here."
The elephant in the room, of course, is that Willock's contract situation remains unresolved. As such, he can sign a pre-contract with foreign clubs from January before his contract expires at St James' Park at the end of June.
When asked if he would like the former Arsenal youngster to sign a new deal at Newcastle, Jaissle replied: "Yeah, you can definitely imagine that, how highly I'm talking about him, so there's not the worry from our side."
