Joe Willock contract talks are now firmly on Newcastle United’s agenda after the club held firm on both Willock and Jacob Murphy throughout the summer window, turning down a combined £32.5 million in bids to keep them on Tyneside.
The pair entered the final weeks of the transfer window as potential outgoings. The expectation at the start of the summer was that serious offers for either player would be seriously considered, given both are out of contract at the end of the season. Instead, Newcastle rejected the bids and Matthias Jaissle kept his squad intact.
The bids Newcastle turned down
Murphy attracted the most concrete interest. Nottingham Forest came in with two offers in the final two days of the window: first £10 million, then £15 million. Both were knocked back. Jaissle’s view was clear: Murphy’s experience and leadership were too valuable to a young squad that could not afford the void his exit would leave.
The numbers back that concern up. Newcastle United‘s eight summer signings carry an average age of 21, and all of them are aged 24 and under. Losing a 31-year-old with Premier League nous at that point in the window made no sense to the new head coach.
Willock drew interest from Besiktas, who submitted a £17.5 million bid that Newcastle also rejected. The 27-year-old has played himself into Jaissle’s plans quickly, coming off the bench to score in the opening-day draw with Liverpool before starting each of the next two matches. According to TribalFootball.com, Jaissle’s faith in Willock has been backed up by key goals in both the Premier League and the EFL Cup so far this season.
Joe Willock contract talks: what a new deal could look like
With Willock now clearly central to Jaissle’s plans, the clock is running. He can begin talking to foreign clubs in January over a free transfer if no new deal is in place, and Newcastle will not want that situation to develop. TribalFootball.com reports that fresh terms could see his contract extended until 2029, with the club also looking into renewal talks for Lewis Hall and Murphy.
That context matters. Before this summer, Willock had slipped down the pecking order. The exits of Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes changed the picture entirely, opening a role in the middle of the park that Willock has stepped into under Jaissle. The new head coach is a fan of his athleticism in the No 10 position, and the goals have followed. It is a turnaround that has made a contract extension the logical next move, not just an option worth exploring.
The Murphy situation is a different calculation. At 31, a short-term extension of roughly another year is the likely shape of any offer rather than a long-term deal. But Jaissle’s public backing of him as a leader within the squad strengthens the case for keeping him beyond this season, even at the cost of the money Forest were willing to pay.
Whether Newcastle will see a higher offer for Murphy than the £15 million Forest put on the table is unlikely. The club’s decision-makers chose Jaissle’s judgement over the transfer fee, and now they need to turn that short-term call into something more permanent. Joe Willock contract talks represent the most pressing piece of unfinished business from the window, but pinning down Murphy’s future before January arrives is just as urgent for a squad still finding its feet under a new head coach.
Jaissle’s deadline-day window also saw Nick Woltemade leave for Juventus, a move that may have been accelerated by Willock’s form making him harder to shift on. The squad that lines up for the rest of the season is, in many ways, shaped as much by who stayed as by who arrived. Now Newcastle need to make the stays permanent.