‘No way’ – Jose. Enrique dismisses Sunderland rumours!

Posted on December 1st, 2009 | 43 Comments |

Left back legend already?
Left back legend already?
If it was possible, given his start to the season, Jose Enrique will have gone up in the popularity polls amongst Newcastle supporters, after he went on record to say he’s not interested in the alleged interest of Mackem boss and alleged Geordie, Steve Bruce.

It’s taken a while for some people to grow to Jose, given his penchant for playing the ball out of defence and occasionally ‘over’ playing it. But this season he has generally done things in the right areas, and is clearly one of the best players in the Championship. The left back has shown defensive resilience together with an appetite for getting forward and his strength and pace allow him to do both to great effect.

Of course, that has led to speculation that Premiership clubs would come looking for him and with the January transfer window sneaking ever closer, Newcastle fans will be cautious over outgoing players. It’s been rumoured that Enrique has several suitors but the latest speculation is that the unfortunates from down the A19 are keen on him. Jose put a smile on the faces of all Mags with his latest statement:

“I don’t care about Sunderland. Even if the newspapers said Chelsea, I wouldn’t care. I worry for my team – I love the city, I love the club and I don’t care about signing for another team.”

“I don’t read the papers because I don’t understand English that well! Some players were joking with me about what it said. I want to go back to the Premier League, that is true, but I want to go back to the Premier League with Newcastle. This is a big, big, big club in England and it is important that it gets back into the Premier League.”

“I say all the time when people ask me, ‘I love this club’,”

“It is normal that our players are linked with other clubs because we are playing well.”

“But I am happy here, I want to make up for the mistakes we made last season. I think when you are happy with the city and happy with the club, you would not want to leave.”

“I know this summer all the papers are linking me and all the other players with all sorts of teams but I’m not interested.”

“From the first moment I’ve been here I wanted to play here and I never thought about going anywhere else.”

Interestingly enough, particularly for any of us who have supported Keegan and/or Shearer during this latest crazy period at Newcastle, Enrique then went on to say, Hughton is the manager he has enjoyed working with the most in his time at the club. Make of that what you will.

“The manager has been very important. Chris has a big opportunity now and I think for me, he is the best manager that I have had in my three seasons at Newcastle, he understands football and the players are happy to play for him.”

“It is the first time he has had the opportunity to do the job properly and he has proved he is a good manager.

“He is the right man for Newcastle at the moment.”

Not sure whether there’s anything beyond that “at the moment” comment? Either way, this is great news for me provided both he and the club ensure he can keep his word, as I’ve not enjoyed watching a player in black and white quite as much for a long time. His performances have been a different gravy to some of the crap we’ve had to watch and he makes it look effortless. Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose…indeed.

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

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43 Responses

  2. “I don’t care about Sunderland” cried Jose.

    “Nobody cares about Sunderland” came the cry from SJP!

    The NoTW was speculating that he may be part of a swap deal with Kieran Richardson coming this way! 

    Jose’s a top man and we should keep him and take Richardson from the Mackems!!  That should teach them not to start rumours.

  3. I fear if fat Mike does sell him as that will leave us without a recognised LB. We could do with bringing  a back-up in rather than letting our 1st (and only) choice go.

  4. Isn’t Kadar also rated at left back? I’m sure he played there a lot last season albeit for the reserves and kids so we may have some back up. As for Richardson – good enough for the mackems to let him go? He’s got a devilish free kick but I’ve never seen anything else about his game. He’s a surly git anyway. No thanks!

  5. Jose came to the Toon with big expectations and a big fee, over five million i believe.
    It has taken him the usual season to adjust to the speed and physicality of English football and is playing well.
    He is a player with deceptive pace and has the ability to get forward in an attacking role, although not tall he is strong on the ball and reads the game well, a solid defender who nly needs to improve his end product when attacking.
    I am sure other clubs have scouted him and i believe he can only improve with time, in which case we would be foolish to let him go.
    So Steve eat your heartout he`s staying.

  7. Chuck

    “although not tall he is strong on the ball and reads the game well”

    6ft 1/2 is quite tall for a full back actually.

  8. Reads the game well? That’s exactly what he doesn’t do well.

    Jose Enrique is a fantastic left back purely for his work rate and ability to never get done on pace or strength, as well as his ball control.

    His only flaw is his passing to feet and concentration in spells/decision making. If he can perfect those he will be the finished product, although being only 23.

    I love the fact people criticised Allardyce and his signings – Smith and Enrique particularly getting heavy stick. Given time, those 2 have turned out to be vital players. Given time, could Allardyce have turned all those “flops” into vital players? I think so. Let’s not forget, we could have a back four of Beye, Faye, Taylor and Enrique if we kept him. We’d have Lassana Diarra and Arshavin too.

    Newcastle all over me, living in the past :( haha sorry lads.

  9. Andy – that’s dead right. I know the football seemed dreadful at the time but it was way too early to sack the guy (I didn’t like him but so what!). Diarra and Arshavin would have transformed the team. It pains me that we swapped that for a ten game crap run under KK then the most dreadful of seasons. Maybe we wouldn’t have needed the maestro Wise either.

  10. So frustrating looking back on the whole event. How we hate Ashley – But Allardyce was a Shepherd appointment. How we love KK, but his appointment ultimately led to our relegation.

    I wonder if there will ever be a time in my life where Newcastle appoint a proven manager on a long term contract and give him funds, and we finish highly and stay out of the press for shenanigans every week. I doubt it. And i’m only 17 :(

  11. I was relieved to be free of Allardyce’s brand of football but I wasn’t convinced it was the right thing to do. I was convinced, like many others, that it was a ‘popular’ decision.

    Why would we have gotten Diarra and Arshavin though?

  12. Arshavin publicly stated he wanted to join us. I thought it was well accepted that Diarra was having a medical up here before Allardyce got sacked. The Arshavin thing is definitely true though.

  13. Do people honestly think Ashley would have signed Diarra and Arshavin? They cost real money, which is probably why Allardyce was sacked when he was, to avoid any spending in the transfer window. And yes he made some half decent signings considering he didn’t have loads to spend, but we were heading for relegation under him the way things were going. Although Barton has been a disaster and Smith contributed very little in the Premiership even though he cost 5 or 6 million.

  14. Maybe my memory is going as I plummet into my thirties.

    I don’t recall Arshavin saying he wanted to sign. Just plenty of rumours. And not sure about the Diarra thing but like I say, could be the old fuzziness creeping in.

  15. Talking sense there Andy for once, yeah i remember Sam saying he would have tried to buy  Diarra  and talking about buying Arshavin, wouldnt have come to us though after his preformances at euro 2000 and something.

  16. macas is right though FCB, he wouldnt have allowed us to spend money like that, Sheaperd would of though

  17. Ah not another debate about the past! I’ll just say we were mid-table and Ashley backed Allardyce like no other manager since he’s been here, which is ironic considering he sacked him! On top of that, Allardyce is reknowned for doing well on a budget, and sacking him would mean compensation for him, so Ashley’s logic there compared with his money saving policy now seems very weird indeed.

  18. “In Russia as well as England they are talking about Newcastle being interested in me and there has been no concrete offer.

    “In principle if they made an offer I would be interested”.

    That’s from Arshavin. We did have a chance to sign him before the Euros.

  19. Macas yes i do think he would of , If you remember we had a bid accpeted for Modric and he was offered terms but he chose spurs a head of us

  20. BBM,

    Alladyce was himself talking to Arsenal about the possible signing of Diarra.  Then he got sacked he went to Portsmouth.

    The Chronicle were reporting that he was in for Arshavin for about £7m too.

  21. Ashley always finds a way to avoid spending in transfer windows, sacking Allardyce was just one of them

  22. Macas, but sacking him meant paying him up the rest of his contract. Then appointing  new manager and probably a ‘signing on’ fee. I think with the appointment of every manager, Ashley’s spending has decreased with each one.

  23. Lads im 100% that we could have had Arshavin if we had off took him before the euro’s but as usual we arsed about then Wenger jumped in

  24. I think that is a very fair assesment andynufc , for what ever reason the club has spent less each transfer window but I honest belive he had the intentions of spending money on promising players such as Modric

  25. Johno I believe from buying the club up until Keegan’s appointment he genuinely wanted to buy our way to being a great club. Not loads, £20mill a year like he stated, but that’s enough.

    The debts obviously were too much for him. He opted for a different method, which, at the time of Keegan being here, threw a spanner in the works so great it backfired awfully. Wrong place, wrong time.

    The burning question I want to know is though, if we get promoted and he puts £20 mill into transfers without too many important players being sold, how or will opinion change at all from fans? It’s all theoretical but interesting I suppose.

    I’ve said all along since we went downhill with Ashley that, despite everything, if in 5 years time we’re a debt free, maybe even self sustaining premiership club with a good wage bill then i’ll be happy.

    Surely people know that the Shepherd cash would have dried up with the debt and current economic climate? Ah i don’t know, it’s all a big ball of what ifs etc.

  26. Andy,

    If we get promoted this season do you think it’s unreasonable to expect all the Sky money to be put into the transfer pot?

    I keep hearing were in the best financial shape we have been in for years so is it the least we can expect?

    We will need at least that just to stay up.

  27. Andy I think football fans in general are fickle and if we were to become the club you described with a realistic chance of silverware/european qualifaction I think most fans would forgive and forget. Im not having a go at anyone are mentioning ‘ the mob ‘ or anything like that but I mean in general fans r fickle like myself

    Shepard would of  been the death of this club in the credit crunch,

    Dunno what will happen if we got up. If we do I think a good chunk of money would need to be spend on a goal scorer.

  28. If we go up, MA will just say he cant risk spending much money incase we get relegated again. don’t get me wrong we need to be self sustainable but the only way of doing that and becoming successful is by having a massive stadium and a wage budget under control, it’s a very slow process without huge finacial investment but it’s worth it in the long run, but if MA is going that way about his business he will need a decent chairman, but he wont try to improve us he will carry on trying to get blood out of a stone. I can see us becoming a yo-yo club unfortunatly.

  29. ashley will be selling at the end of the season because were not as fickle as he thinks and we will never forgive the fat useless c@nt

  30. Jose is still a young player guys dnt forget that he will improve. Dnt sell him when he play badly somtimes. Tores plays badly sometime too.  He is not Shola “young player” but to be fair shola have play well this year. He just bloom at a later age. Just like “andy raid”.

  31. I hope you’re right batty. But one thing i’m sure of is nothing is certain with that fat tool

  40. See the Ressies are getting beaten off Benfield. Hadn’t realised how many of the feckers in that Saints team I’ve played with or against. Belly scored as well, he’s a physio at the town still as well I think. He’ll be pretty smug tomorrow walking around the training ground.

  42. Hmmm ! Jose over six feet tall , perhaps that is the listed height, certainly does`nt look it , but give you the benefit of the doubt.
    Yeah believe MA had probably intended to invest perhaps the stated twenty mill a year, but having spent the first five years worth on top of what Big Sam spent, in year one (The hidden debt from our Geordie con men Freddy & the Halls, to the tune of 100m) that and the recession, obvious had it`s effect.
    So regardless of who owned the club there was never a chance of getting Arshevin or Diarra and I hate to think what would have happened to the club with those kind of debts had MA not bought it at the time.
    Think about it !   

  43. All the talk about Big Sam signing Arshavin makes me ask – didn’t Big Sam choose Alan Smith over Arshavin.

    I am sure I read it somewhere that he choose Alan Smith as a purchase over Arshavin because Smith was an experienced Premiership player.

    How exactly was Allardyce going to get Arshavin and Diarra then?