Newcastle bid for Djalo, according to agent.
Posted on July 10th, 2010 | 28 Comments |
The players agent claims that both Newcastle and Tottenham have lodged bids in the region of £4 million for the Portuguese striker, although the fact that I am about to quote an agent instantly makes me highly sceptical of this apparent bid.
Both bids are short of what Sporting Lisbon value the player at although Djalo’s agent, Lionel da Silva, claims that it wouldn’t take too much extra to force Sporting’s hand into accepting a bid for the player. We have been linked with Djalo before although that interest surfaced at a time when most of us were still in the dark regarding that whole “capital outlay” nonsense. The purchase of James Perch seems to indictae that we do at least have a small pot of cash to use and hopefully that can be extended a bit more for further reinforcements
“Sporting will let him leave for a fee in the region of €7-8 million,” Lionel Da Silva told Portuguese publication, Record. “The offers we have in our hands, from Tottenham and Newcastle, are over the €5 million mark.
“Therefore, given the difference at stake, I believe this matter will be solved quickly. We have been much more distant before.”
There is no doubt in my mind that these are the words of an agent who is looking to drum up some interest in his client, and for many reasons I doubt that this move would come off, although if it did I would be pretty chuffed as Djalo is the kind of small, pacey forward I believe we are crying out for.
But lets face facts. If there is some semblance of truth in these rumours, and we are indeed fighting with Tottenham Hotspur for the signature then I would suggest that we would play second fiddle to them in a transfer race, they can offer Champions League football after all.
The only thing we could guarantee the player is first team football, certainly a quicker route to first team football than the player would get at White Hart Lane, that is pretty much a dead cert, and surely this premature agent declaration ends our interest at the first hurdle as it goes against our well publicised policy of confidentiality in the transfer market?
As I said earlier, the player has pace which is something we are crying out for, but he can also play in a few positions, chiefly up front or on the wing, which would benefit the squad as a whole and offer us cover in different positions if it was ever needed.
I’m not getting my hopes up based on what some agent says so I will hang fire with any premature excitement, but with this piece of news combined with the Erdinc rumours a few weeks back, it does appear that Newcastle are on the hunt for a nippy striker, a traditional number 10 if you like.
I’ll keep a close eye on this one.
Never seen him play, but from readig the blog, he sounds ok. Lets hope we can get him and why not throw a bid in for Carrick while we are at i. I know, dreaming now. But him, left back cover and a loan or 2 and we should be sorted