The Toon winger, who (like Nile Ranger) had a fall out with manager Alan Pardew, was today set to complete his move to Premier League new boys Swansea City.
He prefered a move back to London, but QPR (his first choice) passed up the option to sign him following their promotion last season.
And we understand that the departure of the Newcastle winger will help Alan Pardew’s transfer business with Mike Ashley saying the transfer money will go to the Toon boss.
After several weeks of speculation as to where exactly Routledge would end up this summer, there wasn’t as many options as he thought.
Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City could not find the funds and could not match his Premier League wage demands, so there was only one choice for the Londoner.