Newcastle Confidential: Why William Osula's exit collapsed, cash boost over Yoane Wissa injury, why PIF WON'T pay out for new stadium, the four frontrunners to be vice-captain and a scouting summit to snap up world's best - CRAIG HOPE

It was Newcastle's Saudi owners who pulled the plug on William Osula’s deadline-day move to Frankfurt, Newcastle Confidential can reveal.

A permanent deal totalling around £30million was all but agreed with the Bundesliga club and Osula was ready to leave the Denmark national-team camp to complete the transfer. Newcastle had included a buy-back clause for the striker, who had only joined the club 12 months previously from Sheffield United.

However, Frankfurt changed the make-up of the deal late on and instead negotiated a loan with an option to buy.

That loan move was still set to go through until Newcastle’s majority owners, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, sent instruction for it to be cancelled. Despite the loan fee being in excess of £6m, it is thought PIF believed the new terms favoured the German club more than Newcastle.

And there is now a feeling on the inside of huge relief that the 22-year-old has remained on Tyneside, especially given the injury to Yoane Wissa.

Even before the £55m summer signing was ruled out until after the October international break, Newcastle staff had taken the view that a twist of fate could see Osula make a key impact at some point this season.

With Wissa out, Osula has now featured in all five Premier League games and, after scoring twice in the 4-1 win over Bradford in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, he is the team’s top marksman, with three in all competitions.

Eddie Howe must now decide whether to leave Osula in the starting XI against Arsenal this weekend or go with £69m club-record signing Nick Woltemade.

Either way, the Dane is sure to feature at some point with confidence high on the back of his midweek exploits.

The decision to keep Osula at St James’ Park all of a sudden looks inspired. Had he gone to Frankfurt and been scoring goals - to the backdrop of Newcastle’s recent struggle in that department, with three blanks in front of goal in their first five league games - the narrative would have been very different.

Toon's payout to ease the Wissa blow 

Newcastle are set to land a compensation payout from FIFA after the injury suffered by Wissa on international duty.

Confidential can reveal that club chiefs have applied for the package as part of the Club Protection Programme (CPP), an insurance scheme that covers clubs whose players are injured playing for their country and are then unavailable for more than 28 consecutive days.

Wissa injured his knee during DR Congo’s 3-2 defeat by Senegal on September 9, and the earliest he will play will be the trip to Brighton on October 18. Even then, there is a chance the striker could need longer to fully recover.

It is understood the CPP will cover Wissa’s wages from October 7 until the day he makes his belated debut in black and white.

Why PIF will NOT fully fund new stadium 

When Newcastle do make a final decision on whether to build a new stadium, as is expected, or redevelop St James’ Park, the project will NOT be fully funded by PIF.

There has been an assumption among some that the club’s majority owners would write what has been described as a ‘once in a generation’ cheque to cover the cost.

Chief commercial officer, Brad Miller, said last year: ‘While we’ve got the ability to invest and the commitment and the ambition to invest from the ownership, we only want to write that cheque once. The stadium investment is genuinely a once-in-a-generation opportunity and we want to make sure that we get that right.'

However, Confidential understands that a ‘pitch document’ has been circulated with a view to securing finance on the project. While still at an exploratory stage, it is thought any debt would belong to the club in the long term, rather than PIF.

For example, if the cost of a new stadium is to total £2billion, it could be that half would be funded by PIF and the Reuben Brothers (15 per cent owners) and half taken out as a loan.

Sources have stressed that this is standard practice and is the finance model used by other Premier League clubs when building new stadiums or redeveloping existing ones.

Confidential has been reminded that PIF is ‘not a sugar daddy’ and that the key letter in their acronym is the ‘I’ for ‘investment’. Despite infrastructure costs falling outside the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, the owners will make an investment decision and finance the project in the same way they would other ventures within the PIF portfolio. It is likely that a Special Purpose Vehicle - a new company - would be created to facilitate the stadium project.

If Newcastle do build a new stadium on Leazes Park, as is the preference of the majority working on the project, then the hope would be that it becomes a self-sustaining asset as a multi-purpose venue, much like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which also hosts concerts as well as rugby and NFL games.

The vice-captaincy battle narrows

Newcastle’s players are set to learn on Friday who has been promoted to the role of vice-captain.

The departure of Callum Wilson meant a vacancy among the leadership group which includes de facto captain Bruno Guimaraes and vice-captains Dan Burn, Jacob Murphy and Kieran Trippier. Jamaal Lascelles is club captain.

Eddie Howe oversees a democratic process with each player getting a 1, 2,  3 vote on their choice of team-mate to join the group. It has been the chatter of the training ground in recent days as to who will win the coveted spot.

The exit polls would suggest that the new vice-captain will come from a shortlist of Fabian Schar, Joelinton, Nick Pope and Sandro Tonali. It is thought that Howe spent all day Thursday emptying ballot boxes and counting the votes… (that is a joke, btw).

Graeme Jones' Late, Late Show 

Meanwhile, the Newcastle boss has been frustrated by a schedule that does not allow for as much training-ground time as he would like - and so his players trained under the late-night lights of St James’ Park this week!

Confidential can reveal that coach Graeme Jones led a session in the hour after full-time against Bradford on Wednesday and it involved senior stars such as Tonali, Nick Woltemade, Trippier and Harvey Barnes, all of whom started on the bench with all but the Italian coming on after the hour mark.

It was not just the usual running drill, but a specially laid on session in front of several coaches. The squad then had a recovery day on Thursday before resuming on Friday preparations for Sunday’s visit of Arsenal.

Burn was not in the matchday squad against Bradford but that was a move designed to afford the England defender some rest. He was at the game and met Tino Asprilla and former Newcastle centre back Darren Peacock - so you could argue his night was equally well spent!

Scouts of this world 

And finally, there was a key scouting summit on Tyneside earlier this month.

We understand all of the talent-spotters from around the country and across the globe convened for a post-window debrief.

Newcastle’s scouting operation expanded under former sporting director Paul Mitchell and it will be the job of his successor - set to be Nottingham Forest’s Ross Wilson - to continue that growth and home in on areas of maximum gain.

One thing the club have to do more of is unearthing players from abroad who have gone under the radar of others, much like we have seen at the likes of Bournemouth in recent seasons.

Toon Teaser 

It’s the return of Toon Teaser! And with Newcastle back in the Champions League this season, here's one to set your minds off down memory lane.

Name the FOUR players who have scored 10 goals or more for Newcastle United in European competition… answers revealed next week!