Newcastle's hopes of keeping hold of their captain Fabricio Coloccini have received a major boost after Argentinian club San Lorenzo announced he will not be joining them.
Magpies officials have been locked in talks with Coloccini's representatives this week after the defender stated his desire to return to the club where his father, Osvaldo, is currently a youth coach.
However, on the day Newcastle unveiled their new signing Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, seen by many as a potential replacement for Coloccini, San Lorenzo stated via their official Twitter feed that their move for the centre-back was off.
The Argentinian club tweeted: "Finally, after long negotiations, we announce that Fabricio Coloccini will not join the roster of San Lorenzo. It is not possible to release the Newcastle player … and therefore the club will look for another alternative to strengthen the defence."
Coloccini's future remains unclear given his desire, stated by his father, to return to Argentina for "personal reasons". Newcastle have refused to comment on the situation regarding Coloccini.
But the Newcastle manager, Alan Pardew, whose transfer market frustration has significantly eased this week, must now hope he can at least persuade Coloccini to stay at St James's Park until the end of the season.
The former Montpellier captain Yanga-Mbiwa met his new team-mates for the first time today after completing his reported £6.7m move from the French club – with more compatriots expected to follow.
The Bordeaux striker Yoan Gouffran and the Nancy defender Massadio Haïdara are both poised to confirm deals, while a fourth French-based player, Toulouse's Moussa Sissoko, has also been strongly linked.
Yanga-Mbiwa, who conceded that the club's current contingent of French players had helped him make the decision to move to Newcastle, is excited by the prospect of linking up with Gouffran. He said: "I played against him several times in the French League and is the sort of player who makes it very hard work for defenders. He runs deep to collect the ball and he gets forward and gives the chance to counter-attack. If he came to the club he would be very useful for us."
Yanga-Mbiwa guided Montpellier to an unexpected Ligue 1 title last season and is keen to assert his influence to help the Magpies out of their current strife: "I will do everything I can to help team spirit and make sure we are acting as one from the first minute until the last.
"Last year at Montpellier nobody expected that we would win the league but we had the mentality and solidity to do it with a good team spirit. The Premier League is the biggest league in the world and one of those leagues that everybody watches. One of the reasons I came here was to find out how good I am and to fulfil one of my dreams," he said.
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