Gattuso and Diarra to Newcastle? Silly Sunday indeed!

Posted on July 18th, 2010 | 61 Comments |

Gattuso - Toon target? Nee chance!
Gattuso - Toon target? Nee chance!
In amongst the realistic speculation there have been some pearlers over the course of the summer, and that doesn’t look like it is going to end soon as silly season really does begin to swing into action.

Earlier I wrote about Sol Campbell, which seems like a pefectly reasonable acquisition and wouldn’t be out of place. But some of the other names mentioned this Sunday just make me laugh. One of those names is AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso and the other is Real Madrid’s Mahamadou Diarra. You just have to laugh don’t you?

In a funny way I preferred it when it was apparent that we didn’t have any money as all of the wild paper speculation disappeared. Now it seems the press mongs are back out in force, fuelled by our recent £1.2 million pund spending spree on James Perch and possible capture of free agent Dan Gosling, who incidentally could be announced next Friday as that would be the end of Everton’s 14-day appeal period.

Anyway, let’s look at the Gattuso rumour first. The report comes from Italy and claims that we are interested in bidding for the 32-year old Italian who has notched up 73 caps for his country. Celtic and Chelsea are the other names linked with the player, and quite frankly they can have him. At Gennaro Gattuso’s age and status, he would come with a huge wage demand that Newcastle wouldn’t pay, and quite why we are linked with him when it could have been a whole host of other clubs baffles me. It’s still amusing though mind.

Next up on the humour parade, Real Madrid’s 29-year old defensive midfielder, Mahamadou Diarra. Apparently new Madrid boss, Jose Mourinho, is planning to offer him to Newcastle and give him the chance to play first-team football, which he would get at St James’ Park no doubt.

Now the problem with these links, apart from them both being pie in the sky fantasy, is that they are players that would play in a position where in which we already have about 20 players in. Ok, maybe an exaggeration but you get my point.

I’m not saying that Kevin Nolan would keep Gattuso or Diarra out of the team as quite frankly he wouldn’t, but that would only become relevant if we actually signed either of them, which is plainly not going to happen!

I guess the point I am trying to make is why do these papers not bother looking into things a bit deeper and try linking us with players in positions we actually need players in, like a striker for example? Surely that would be more credible? Keeping it realistic wouldn’t hurt either though mind. If it was up to the press it would seem we would be fielding eleven central midfielders this season!

Normally I wouldn’t have bothered with these two links and would have let them drift away into the media archives without so much as a second thought, but I just found both of these foundless, wild and amusing pieces of speculation too funny to leave alone.

Silly season. It’s great isn’t it?

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

Related Posts:

Posted on by toonsy in category: NUFC gossip and speculation and Thoughts and reflections and Toonsy , with tags: ,
Comment on this post

61 Responses

  1. Never going to happen but I would take Gattuso at the club purely for a personal love of him back in his prime. I’d just love to say he’d played at Newcastle and would his signature would probably suck me into buying the new shirt and having his name stamped across the shoulders, haha.

    In all seriousness though, think it’s pretty safe to say neither will arrive at SJP like. As for the Campbell story, that has more legs to it. And I think he’d be a canny signing on and off the pitch.

  2. i love the integrity of the english press,their ability to make up a story is fantastic. i thought the press’ job was to dig for the truth no matter what,not making up silly stories. but i guess good press ethics doesnt count for sports journalists.

  3. diarra,why do we want another defensive mid?we need an attacking midfielder,plus diarra is a mercenary and a whinger.
    on another point did anyone read the article in the N.O.T.W,about chris hughton wanting to make the pitch at netto.com at st james’park smaller,because he feels his back four may struggle to make the step up to prem level,sorry toonsy if your going to write an article on this,just in case lol.

  4. Old men at the end of their careers, who want to play in the Prem on big bucks, and their agents are looking to see who’d be daft enough to pay. Those days have past, it seems – thankfully.

  6. Has CH said we’re after these players?
    Has it been confirmed on .co.uk?

    Cos that’s what will happen if these are true.

    Oh no, it’s just sunday chip wrapper bullshite once again.

    :)

  7. we dont need old players in are team unless they can make a big difference!phil u make a good point and all these stories change each week.we looked fresh and young in the secound half. the way forward pace and hunger.routlegde i hope to god stays fit he is going to worry a lot of teams.all a players will be under 30 apart from harper. we dont need old players to put are young players out of the picture like ch did last season towards the end when he could have played them.they now need games ranger must stay not on loan and fight.

  9. We do need a defensive midfielder, without any shadow of a doubt. But I agree both these rumours are ridiculous. As much as Gattuso is (or at least was) a cracking little player, his wage demands would be huge, he has hardly played for several years due to constant injury problems and he’s 32. Mike Ashley and Chris Hughton have adopted a thoroughly sensible transfer policy over the past year – why would they suddenly abandon it and sign someone like Gattuso? As for Diarra, he’s no spring chicken at 29 and surely would have more attractive options than joining us.

    Having said all that, doesn’t Gattuso have a Scottish wife? Bearing in mind his beloved Rangers have no money, Celtic and Newcastle are therefore the two closest clubs (geographically) who have any sort of financial pull – maybe his wife wants to come back to the UK and he’s asked his agent to test the water? You never know…

  10. This made me laugh,Now im gonna check on “Lesh” site if it is true……..

  11. why if we have alan smith for that role,not my favorite by any stretch,but we might as well use him.

  12. Defensive midfielders…what about Coloccinin and Smith, both can sit in front of the back four and are comfortable on the ball….hang on, they both earn 60K a week…see ya…

    I’m curious to see CH’s starting line up, with or without new signings / loan deals. In my opinion we have some good players, the tactical set-up will be the critical call, and this is where CH will stand or fall, through his tactical awareness.

  14. MM I think you are dead right tactical awareness will be the key,i also think ways of beating opp tactics is with pace which imo we lack in certain areas

  15. icedog I agree mate, last year we lacked a bit pace in defensive midfield, or as they call it in Germany the “backwards movement” from being on the attack to going into defence. I think we’re maybe gonna be sitting deep a lot which will encourage the other team to attack us. I’d love it if CH came up with a tactical move or personnel change which provided us with a superbly balanced midfield quartet.

  16. icedog..looks like it’s just you and me mate…ivverybody else is on holiday ! I wish richietoon was back from his spanish trip..always good for the crack..!

  17. Well if Diarra would fit into our wage structure then i say bring him in , at 29 he still has a good couple of years left in him and he is a better player than Smith . Smith is just too slow these days and is our new nicky Butt , he gives his all and is proud too wear the shirt but will just not be up too it in the prem next season . Trouble is Diarra would not come for 25-30 k per week

  20. TOONSY,you beat a certain other blog on S.C.rumour,it seems it is growing legs,other blog goes with marriage angle,but one rag saying he has agreed to come when he returns from honeymoon,A.W.says this morning he doent know now if he will sign for them

  21. Munich – Nah man, a gay lunch, like a toasted panini with side salad :(

    Jusr because the mother in law is on a health kick, it doesn’t mean that I am. Had half a mind to smash the plate on the floor! I mean, salad on a Sunday? FFS..

  23. Accompanied by a nice fruity glass of pimms… ;)

    Steak and Ale pie, with roast spuds and the trimmings for me, Not boasting at all like…

  24. SC’s been spotted in the toon caravan at Cullercoats. It’s a done deal…

    Toonsy, nowt wrong with a gay Sunday lunch mate, as long as the fluid intake is adequate. Look after the outlaws though, they are important team members…knacking her best china is a bad move politically…

  25. reet lads, gannin for 5K on the treadmill then a couple of sneck-lifters at the beer-garden…Later chapitos !

  26. Munich – I refrained in the end. Can’t be doing with the headache the wench would give me.

    CC – Just addressed the balance by having one of thos microwave burgers :lol:

    It was fooking lovely after that dinner, not bad for shitty dog food meat :lol:

  28. wish you would all nick off with food,soup and broth for me at the mo,just call me heinz :(

  33. strange how the o!hare link died a death when it looked to be something in it a while ago,not even a link to other clubs,maybe there asking to much for him ?

  34. Icedog – I agree. I mean I thought he would be off somewhere but nowt seems to be happening with him.

  35. These speculations are indeed crazy, but are they a bad thing? No, clubs need to hold certain status to link with players like them and we must thank the wild press to hold NUFC with such high regards.

  36. was in the Fourth last Sunday like, they do a nice pub lunch, if any one was going in to town.

  37. Widowmaker says:
    July 18, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    The fact the blog has resorted to talking about sunday lunch only goes to show how much attention NUFC fans give these days to paper speculation.

  38. TOONSY early days like but if news on toon stay quiet,what about seasons best buys to date,mine would be c/f west ham bought for 1mill on low wages rumour is £20000wk,pl exp/internatinal,would have made good buy for toon imo

  39. I couldn’t do that Ice, not with him in it. I can’t spell his name properly :lol:

  40. Well these pieces of speculation are still more realistic than the one at the end of the last season: Puyol for S. Taylor deal with Barca. :DDD

  42. TOONSY sussed me too,another report from rags (metro) on S.C.this time saying he will be made captain of toon,still think theres a coaching bit in there some where imo

  44. I think it would be a shrewd bit of business from Hugton bringing Sol Campbell in for nowt, Everytime i saw him play for Arsenal last season he was their best defender.

    If he plays on for 1 season and helps re-establish us in the big time he would be worth every penny.

  45. The reason they publish this sh!te is because it’s easy. Imagine the journalist having to make hundreds of calls to contacts at Sports management agencies, football clubs and other contacts.

    Later this would require some shmoozing the contact over lunch or drinks, at the reporters expense as the news paper trade is on it’s ass and there simply isn’t the money to cover those sorts of back hand costs anymore.

    More over the paper sales are way down and the need to attract more custom means sensationalism will always gain precedences over the truth; let’s face it Gattuso is more exciting a story than Wee Perchie. Am I wrong?

  50. As I posted on another article, thanks for the highlights. A nice bit of skill there by Vuckic. Anyone at the match that can provide a bit more on how he and some of the other youngsters looked?

  51. Toonsy

    You should do a poll on Campbell, It seems to be quite divided on whether we should sign him or not, Then do one on how you and Chuck can sort out your differences i vote cage fighting… ;)

  53. CC – Could do a Campell poll. Wont do the other one though. That ship has sailed.

  54. sign campbell up,his experience will be invaluble to our chances of staying up,he is also very good in the air defensively and in attack could be worth a couple of goals to us this term.

  55. I say sign Campbell. Veteran cover on a free is always welcomed, plus he showed a bit last year. would give you more freedom to play STaylor at RB (our weakest position in my opinion) and let Williamson, Collo, Kadar, and Campbell duke it out for time in the middle.

  56. wye aye get him signed,costs nowt,and as long as his yellow pages are not telephone numbers,you can’t go wrong.

  57. Good thing you didn’t critisize my recording skills toonsy. ;) Someone wanted some highlights so I did me best. :lol: I have some proper videos of the Forest, Sheff Utd and Plymouth games on though.

  59. Wow the highlights from the Carlisle game were good ! I mean it was only Carlisle, but the pass for Best’s goal was brilliant (was that Routledge who played the pass), good finish too by Best. Great finish too by both Ranger and Vuckic !