Why Newcastle United's move for £26m defender collapsed as Aston Villa swooped in

The Magpies were keen to land the 29-year-old in January after being unsuccessful in their pursuit of Sven Botman from Lille. The player was understood to be keen on a move to the Premier League but Sevilla were not willing sellers while they competed for the La Liga title and remained in the Champions League.

Instead, Newcastle were able to secure the services of Dan Burn from Brighton & Hove Albion and managed to climb out of relegation danger and finish 11th in the Premier League table.

Following the end of the 2021-22 campaign, Newcastle didn’t reignite their interest in Carlos as Villa swooped in to sign the defender for a reported fee of £26million.

Sevilla’s general manager Jose Maria Cruz de Andres admitted that the club wanted to keep Carlos as he explained how close the player came to joining Newcastle in January.

“No, the real reason is we received a good offer in the winter market from Newcastle for Diego,” Cruz told Sport Witness.

“At that time, the player and the agent were very interested in the offer because it was a very good offer for them in terms of time of employment and salary for the player, and commission for the agent.

“We received a good offer from Newcastle, from a financial standpoint. But the problem was it was in the middle of the season and Carlos was very, very important at that time for us.

"We had no chance to replace Carlos [in January]. We had been suffering a lot during the season with many injuries, especially defenders.

“At the time, we were competing to win the league and had a chance to win the Europa League again, after being eliminated from the Champions League. The main reason to not accept the [Newcastle’s] offer was that it was not at the proper time."

Villa then came in with a ‘better’ offer for Carlos in the summer. And with Sevilla competing in the Champions League once again next season, Cruz suggested that the player left the club for the ‘money’.

“At the end of the season, we received a new offer from a different team,” he added. “It was probably better than the first one for the player.

“He told us that we said it was not possible to sell him in the winter market, but we didn’t promise to sell him in the summer.

"We told them that when the season finishes, we will surely analyse offers. There was an offer and this is the reason for selling Diego Carlos, because we didn’t need to sell Carlos to balance the books.

“We wanted to keep Diego Carlos with us, but we understand that a player like Diego, 29, 30 years, it was a very good opportunity, probably not sporting wise, but in terms of money.

"We respect that because we understand that Diego has played very well for us.”