Because he’s worth it? Villa demand Toon fee for Harewood.

Posted on December 28th, 2009 | 26 Comments |

Wants a swift return?
Wants a swift return?
Marlon Harewood’s three-month loan spell expired on Boxing Day and he reaffirmed his desire to return in the New Year, either on loan or on a permanent basis, to help Newcastle’s push for a swift return to the Premier League. Extending Harewood’s loan would be a safer option but ultimately more costly than we would have surely imagined, if the rumour in The Mirror is true.

Apparently Villa want £250,000 as a loan deal fee, despite the fact that we’ve been paying and would continue to his £28,000-a-week wages. Having grabbed 5 goals in 15 games for the Toon, few fans are still convinced he’s worth an extended loan and if the fee is anywhere near the truth, I would expect fans and board alike would baulk at the proposition.

Chris Hughton has been coy on whether Harewood would be required for the remainder of the season, and the player admitted he has no idea what is going on:

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, no-one has told me anything yet. Players don’t really get involved in that – you never really know until it actually happens so I’ll just have to wait and see now,”

“But my time at Newcastle has been unbelievable. I’ve really enjoyed it, the fans have been great, the lads have been great and I feel I’ve got better with every game.”

“I’d love to come back until the end of the season or longer and finish the job now but it’s up to the gaffer if he wants me and the two clubs to sort it out now.”

Chris Hughton had this to say on the situation:

“This was Marlon’s last game, so for the time being at least, he’s reverted to being an Aston Villa player,”

“I’ve spoken to everyone concerned, and we now have to make a decision with regard to Marlon’s future, just like we also have to make a decision with regard to the centre-half position.”

“We’re in the process of weighing up all the options we have. As soon as we’ve done that, we’ll endeavour to make the decision we need to and try to tie up things from there.”

“We have options, but the main thing I want to avoid is any of the situations dragging on deep into January. My biggest hope is that we can put everything to bed early.”

“We’re aware of the situation, and we know we have decision we have to make. We’re in the process of making those and I’m confident it won’t be something that becomes a protracted issue.”

Harewood has had a fairly chequered loan spell, with periods where he looked disinterested and off the pace but conversely he has weighed in with some important goals. He seems to have had a knack of being in the right place for some of the goals, so perhaps he has an element of the natural goalscorer in him. However, whether our style is not suited to him I don’t know, but we don’t seem to get the most out of him. I’d be expecting more from a centre forward but the direct balls to him don’t stick often enough.

He works hard in brief spells but generally flatters to deceive on that front, and the occasional chase-down or backtracking is not enough if you’re not scoring in every game. We need more contribution from our centre forwards. I certainly wouldn’t be keen on paying any sort of loan fee, so if he does come back, so I hope that’s a load of guff.

As for the time being, as deb wrote in her preview, Andy Carroll or Peter Lovenkrands will hope to come into the available forward spot. It could be an important role to play, because despite Shola’s goal return, we need some natural enthusiasm up there and/or a bit of pace.

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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26 Responses

  1. I’d send O’neill the left over turkey for Harewood, the cheeky git!

    I’d be in 2 minds giving that away for him too.

  2. im not sure hes worth signing even for free if hes going to want the same 28000 a week in wages id go for kris boyd from rangers or beckford from leeds who is also out of contract at the end of the season at the end of the day we need to recruit players not just for the final push of promotion but who can give there all for a tough season back in the premier because we all know ashley aint going to give hughton a lot to spend even when we get there.

  3. re ,,, we could probably sign both boyd and beckford for 4m the pair and there wages combined wouldnt be much more than harewoods

  4. Depends what the situation is with Lovenkrands, if he’s fit to play then I don’t think we need Harewood as four strikers plus Nolan would be enough.

  5. Don’t forget Smith could also play up front.

    We don’t need Harewood. I would take a punt on Beckford though, he’s young and who knows, he could play in the PL. Not sure spending that type of money is on the agenda though.

  6. We have to think about next season, if we don’t sell players the sqaud is good enough to get us promotion where we could sign a better calibre of player, imo harewood and boyd wont cut it in the prem, beckford could be an interesting purchase though.

  7. I wouldnt take Harewood back , I think he is too similar to the players we have and I think he is holding back Rnager and Carrol.

    I would take a punt on Beckford as well Stuart79 , for some reason i think he would score goals in the premiership

  8. Stuart79

    “Don’t forget Smith could also play up front.”

    Yes but we need strikers who can score plus Butt simply cannot start another game this season.

  9. Toon_Factor – “Butt simply cannot start another game this season”

    Why not? He was MOTM against Sheffield Wednesday and played steady against Boro/

  10. Toonsy he can’t pass and always puts us under pressure by giving away needless free kicks in dangerous areas because he’s too slow to make his tackles on time.

  11. Barton12 where did you read that, surely there is only an asking price for something that is for sale. saying that, it’s nearly january!

  12. Jay Jay mate an article by Simon Bird of the comic we know as the Mirror apparantly he asking 130mill now.

  13. Adding my 2pennorth re. Butt I would concede that he probably functions best as holding defensive mid fielder. Does a lot of the simple stuff well (good) but his attempts and the defence splitting longer balls just don’t seem to come off (bad). Also his reactions are slower than his glory years so his tackles are often card attracting efforts (bad). He certainly is a trier and puts 100% into his game (V. good) but his lack of creativity in this team means more pressure on the defence (bad). There has to be a lot of the more mature players out there in the various European who could do what he does but better, starting with a certain Peruvian, not to mention some of our younger players who are champing at the bit to get into the team. I would rather see Lua Lua start than Butt.

    As for Harewood he has done a job for us but I am hoping that Chris was using him to make sure that Carroll and Ranger were fit and fresh to start the New Year, thank you and good bye Marlon.

  14. we should keep Harewood just give Villa the 250,000 or whatever and keep him perminatly in the summer on a free when he out of contract we need to build a squad and he would be a good squad player

  15. One or two typos there:- “at the defence splitting balls”
    “various European leagues” Duh!!

  16. I dont think so barton , I think any player we sign should improve us for the premiership and I dont think Harewood would do that , I would have no problems keeping him for the rest of the season , on average 1 goal in 3 games aint bad considering his lack of match practice etc etc

  17. we got relegated because Cashley had assit stripped us and we were 3-4 quality players short then you add the 8 or so who left preseason thats a large shortfall of players its a squad game Harewood played in the top flight for best part of a decade so he has something and he is available for nowt ,do the sums on top of that he seems a genuine honest humble lad ,the right character for our dressing room

  18. I think we need quality not numbers , we have more games this season than we will have ( if we go up that is ) next season so adding players for the sake of it is just a waste of money imo.

    We have a couple of decent young lads there in Ranger and Carrol and I think we could hamper their development by bringing in a similar type player ie taregt man.

    We will need someone to get goals next season and we need a right winger as well

  19. 5 goals in 15 games is passable but 250,000 for him to remain for the rest of the season? One word-EXTORTION!!!

  20. Untill we sign a decent striker and I dont mean Beckford, Boyd ? eh! not really to enthused about him either, perhaps we should look to hold onto Harewood, but not for a quarter million pounds, tell M`On. to go feck himself.
    The alternative is to go into the market this window, we are going to eventually have to bring someone in, better now to ensure promotion than later.
    Understand there`s negotiations going on with Kilgallon and a good chance he may arrive this window.
    Would like to see Simpson signed, dont know whether it`s in the cards though.
    Need a decent striker, a couple of back up FB`s and a creative AM minimum to go into the PL, that plus Killgallon and Simpson.