Newcastle United missed out on signing Ballon D’Or winner for just £12m - according to ex-Sunderland man

The former Newcastle United, Sunderland and England manager has revealed that budget issues following Mike Ashley’s takeover of the club meant that the Magpies missed out on signing Modric in the summer of 2007, less than a year before the Croatian was again at the centre of a transfer saga involving the Magpies.

Allardyce was appointed as Newcastle United manager following the 2006/07 season, but the club was thrown into turbulence during that summer as Ashley was confirmed as the club’s new owner. Modric, meanwhile, was playing for Dinamo Zagreb and Allardyce revealed that Ashley wouldn’t make the £12m available to sign him.

Speaking on the Undr the Cosh podcast, he said: “This was going to be a big challenge. We went through the whole package of who we were going to get rid of and who we were going to bring in, but unfortunately the club got bought under Freddy’s nose and Mike came in.

“I needed six players because we got rid of the ones we talked about with Freddy, and then we were going to buy the ones we felt. We had Modric on our list, Luka Modric, he was £12m or something like that, but the budget didn’t happen.”

Allardyce would be sacked by Ashley and Newcastle United in January 2008 and replaced by Kevin Keegan - only for transfer issues, including one involving Modric, to destabilise his second reign as Magpies manager.