Will Billy and Newcastle tie the Knott?

Posted on August 11th, 2010 | 113 Comments |

Billy Knott - A view to a move?
Billy Knott - A view to a move?
Most of you are probably aware by now that Newcastle held a behind-closed-doors friendly against St Mirren yesterday.

And most of you are probably aware that Alan Smith played, that Nile Ranger scored two goals, that Newcastle drew 2-2, and that Newcastle had a new face in the line up.

Step forward 17-year old Billy Knott, who appears to be having a trial with us and played the full 90 minutes of the friendly match. But who is he? Where did he come from?

Well as you can probably tell from the photo, he used to turn out for the Chelsea academy where he had been since the age of 14 after moving from the West Ham academy. Knott can play at left-back or as an attacking midfielder so would appear to be a very versatile player.

He has had some disciplinary problems in the past which is why he was able to play for us yesterday I would assume. Knott was suspended from the Chelsea academy for 2 weeks in 2009 for a breach of discipline. One further transgression in early 2010 led to his dismissal. I don’t know what he did wrong, but it must have been pretty serious to warrant getting the boot.

At the risk of sounding like my father, everyone makes mistakes when they are young. I did, numeorus times in fact, and you will have aswell at some point. We all got chances to learn from it though, and so should this kid.

Knott seemed to be highly rated at the Chelsea academy and would have been playing in the under-18’s already had a cruciate ligament injury not held him back. Obviously he has bounced back from that setback and will be hoping he had done enough to impress the onlooking coaches at Darsley Park yesterday. At least I hope he is hoping anyway!

At the end of the day I very much doubt that Knott will be anywhere near the first-team if we sign him, although with our lack of cover for Jose Enrique you never know! Seriously though, he will more than likely be one for the future, another youngster that will fit into our academy.

I’m not even sure whether or not he will get offered a deal at Newcastle to be honest, but he is unattached and wouldn’t cost any form of tribunal fee or the like, so why not take an extended look at him? It would make sense from the clubs perspective, and give the headline writers a whole host of puns to use, kind of like killing two birds with one stone if you like.

Lets get this Knott deal tied up!

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

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Comment on this post

113 Responses

  1. Yea why not!! If he was at chelski n west ham youth gota have something bout him as they r 2of the best youth set ups in uk! Always look to build for the future n like you said would cost us nothing!

  2. Reduced to signing other clubs young kid cast offs! Whilst were on why don’t we go and sign the 5 or 6 kids we released at beginning of season! Same difference surely?

  3. Worth a look at that price

    Plus with all the comments ive seen about Afra’s Attitude etc. The 2 best left wingers ive ever seen in a toon shirt (Note im 25) Ginola and Robert.

    2+2=??

  4. Dont know why we are considering loaning Ranger out when he has been our most prominent goal scorer in pre season and has more about him now than Ameobi will ever have, sharpness, pace and an eye for goal.

  5. 2n 2n…………because the club has seen the kids we released and deemed them not good enough,whereas Knott was released for discipline problems and not lack of ability.So now NUFC are having a look at him to see if his ability is good enough for us.

  7. jay jay…….I’d give them a bell or ping them off an email.They usually reply quite quickly.

  9. If this kid is any good & he’s a left winger or LB, then sign him up as cover, as we know he’ll probably sit on the bench until the ‘Bull’ gets injured but at least he’s a natural left footer who can cover for both Enrique & Jonas if needed :)

  11. Jay Jay I’m the same and was one of the people who renewed, so shouldn’t be on that backlog of memberships of new members til September, but thought it was end of August when we were due ours?
    Now you’ve got me worried!!!

  14. Here’s some tripe to start the day or…… raise hopes?

    “Nufc
    ireland was spotted outside st james today, well so real radio say anyway, lavezzi sorry for spelling could be on his way in a simalar deal to ben arfa, also on the horizon is a bid for keane and dos santos 1 bought and 1 loan, but only if spurs get bellendamy and redknapps big summer target ashley young, good news for the toon.”

    And more…..

    “10 Aug 2010 18:39:57
    Nufc in:
    S.Ireland: loan/£5.5m
    K.V.Boateng: £4m+ Forster loan + R.Taylor loan
    H.Ben Arfa: Loan
    E.Lavezzi: £5m

    Out:
    Forster, R.taylor– portsmouth
    Xisco:£2m– racing santander
    A.Smith: £2m Rangers
    Ranger: Blackpool loan

    Ben Arfa will sign by thursday and Newcastle will have first option on a £6.3m move next summer which Hughton is keen to take up if ben arfa impresses, Secondly, K.V.Boateng, Hughton is a big fan and with Pompey needing players Newcastles offer of Forster and R.Taylor is thought to be accepted, Steven Ireland has been seen outside SJP club shop today with 2 men in black suits thought to be his agent and representive it is thought he will sign for Newcastle on loan with a view to a £5.5m deal next summer also Newcastle have yet to name their captain due to the signing of Ireland who would take Nolan out of the team, Nolan could possibley switch to Blackburn, Lavezzi wants a crack at the prem and Hughton wants a strong striker and he fits the bill. Hughton will also try to get Sturridge on loan, and will go after a full back in Jan

    These are facts although the Ireland deal is a rumour which seemed dead a few weeks ago but its now starting to pick up again with several people claiming to have seen him. Take this how you want. but it seems strange that Hughton hasn’t yet named a captain.”

    Ho hum, have a good day folks

  15. Richietoon
    Ooooooh he was released for disciplinary problems was he??
    Link please…..as of course this makes all the difference if we sign him??
    WTF

  17. Spot the BBC’s deliberate mistake:

    “Sheffield Wednesday face a winding-up order over a £550m tax bill that HM Revenue & Customs claim has not been paid.”

    Thought we had money problems eh?

  18. lesh

    I’d be v happy with Ireland, some nice rumours theres, hope they come off..

    I’d rather get shot of Barton than Nolan tho, I doubt we’d sell him to Blackburn after the stormer season he’s had..

  19. Jay jay – I had the same problem with my season ticket & the box office were great & sorted. But if you have any problem the direct dial for the box office manager is 0191 201 8455.

    Yeah don’t sign any bloody casts offs….just look how hopeless that bloody nile ranger is & he was let go by southampton….we’re a massive club don’t you know?

  20. Wasn’t Ranger released by Soton for disciplinary problems too. As long as they learn that they have been given a great opportunity in doing a job that all of us can only dream off then i think its worth giving these kids a second chance.

  21. guys…billy knott is a n exceptional talent…..he s got a sweet left foot……last year on youth team scored 4 in 4 games and some of his goals were outstanding…….he s a lb andh he s released not because he s not good..but some disciplinary problems……

  23. what about ranger he was released and we snapped him up, he is worth a punt if he is better than the lb at the club already like dummit n ferguson although iknow ferguson is really a winger

  24. lesh
    sounds good if they can dappen – KPD looks a steal and to offer pompey two players is ideal, they so short of 1st teamers, plus will give FF ideal 1st team experience!
    Can you see the Ireland deal happening tho? is this in addition to HBA?

  26. @24 of course it would b hba and ireland ply in completely different positions, if we cud get these to players plus boateng n lavezzi id b well chuffed lavezzi is brilliant he jus a younger verision of tevez wit his workout rate but he slighty more skillfull, i doubt all these would happen but there is room in the sqaud for all these players esp if rtaylor n forster move to pompey on loan

  29. Why do these rumours seem realistic & sensible? Isn’t it usually Raul and the likes of him we’re supposed to be after according to the press? If that lot happens, i’d be a happy man especially with CH for doing a bang up job with no cash, although it ain’t gonna happen CH has said he’s only after 2 players coming in.

  32. would be a happy man if we got half of them Lesh.
    Hopefully by Friday something might happen with somebody.

  34. i hav to say yes i wud like to add more flair to the team but iam pretty happy wit the signings weve made this window, the experience campbell will bring n pass on to other players will b invaluable, gosling will b brilliant once fit, n perch is a great signing versatile player but i fink he is easily r best ryt back, if we can pull hba deal off that will b great but i wont lose sleep over it if we dont marseille clearly seem to b playing hardball over it, i still fink ch will get a couple of great deals, that cheick from fc twente wud b good were desperate for dm , am happy considering we thought thered b no signings what so ever a couple of months ago

  36. yes davy…..i would take him anyday …..instead of buying 2 or 3 average players……get him….

  37. Jay Jay
    Wey I’m T so will be waiting longer than you then!!
    Might try my luck with the box office too, cheers noir9 for the local number instead of the 0845 I think listed on their website.

  38. he s got to be the fastest player in the italian league….thats just what we are crying out for…..phttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHtjONQVY5kace…blistering pace…check this out….

  40. Put ‘Billy Knott’into Google News and you see that he scored a hatrick for the Mackems youth team in Ireland last week… click on the official match report and they’ve removed his name throughout and just called him ‘The Trialist’. Why – he was obvioulsy the man of the match???!!!!! Embarrassed he outshone all their lot then turned them down?

    (Apparently he scored 6 in 6 games for Chelsea Academy)

  42. just a thought – with todays open door for fans day – do you think there may be signings unveiled?? unlikely i think, but what a great opportunity??
    lets just keep fingers crossed that some signings happen, as we crying out 4 creativity!!

  43. Mark my words…

    Forget about the rumours. We will sign one more unflattering signing this transfer window. Thats all.

    We said no capital outlay, and so far we have spent around 750 000 on Perch and got in two freebies. What makes anyone think we will spend any money on anyone else when four transfer windows under Ashley have told us otherwise.

    At best we MIGHT get Ben Arfa on loan. At best… but I can see that deal falling by the way side too.

    As for Ireland… We have no chance.

  45. jj….alright mate………..even £750k or however much we paid negates the no capital outlay arguement,of course we may still sell someone to get that money back tho ;-) we won’t know for sure until the end of the window tho.

  46. lets think positive!!
    even MA has to see its too big a gamble not to provide sufficient funds (£8-10m) – its money well spent to provide survival, and possibly a top 10 finish!!

  48. So, OM are pi$$ing about eh?

    Could this be why they’ve found the confidence to be difficult. They sell this guy and there’s some cash toward their supposed Fabiano bid and no need to move Ben Arfa on!

    from the BBC –

    “West Ham are closing in on Marseille midfielder Benoit Cheyrou, 29, who is the brother of former Liverpool striker Bruno”.

    http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Transfer-news-West-Ham-close-in-on-Marseille-midfielder-Benoit-Cheyrou-article549107.html

    Now we know?

  50. Waddles mullet, not according to the official genoa website.

    Latest rumour is that he may still go to genoa but then go on loan to Milan, although nothing yet confirmed. did read an article the other day though saying that genoa weren’t offering enough.

  52. yeah read that he would be loaned to AC then that he may play at Genoa instead.Read yesterday that he still hadnt had medical and Pompey still have him down as theirs.
    Me heeds spinning :roll:

  54. Too true rich.
    Expecting at least one by Friday though.
    Working on a striker at the mo.

  59. this billy knott could be a shrewd move by ch like,have a mate who is a real chelski die hard down in london and just got off the phone to him asking bout this young un,he couldnt have rated him higher,says he has a hammer of a left foot and will be good enough to play as cover for jose AND jonas.i say sign him up asap,seems to know where the goal is and fits in nicely with our policy of signing young hungry british players witha point to prove.go for it.cant see ireland signing but would love to be proved wrong,thought he was going to villa but with M’ON leaving maybe he has changed his mind and could well be heading to sjp? hope so.ive a funny feeling that we could be about to sign a flurry of decent players like,ch would have been straight with us about the rumours being bull,he has been very quiet on transfers recently,apart from saying that he hopes to have new signings in team for monday.coz boy oh boy we sure need some pace and creativity just to survive.our most creative player is our left back at the moment.that says it all

  60. Haven’t a clue. Just passing on what I get.
    Up to Ben arfa if he wants to come but club touting Hom about now he made his intentions clear.
    As for striker told it’s a loan as well

  63. Re Ben Arfa he holds the cards as to where he goes.Even if L’OM want to keep him I’ve read that he wants a fresh start away from France with a clean slate so if true it wouldn’t benefit them to keep him.Are Marseille stille being linked to Zog? who I’d guess would be Ben Arfa’s replacement.

  65. Rich

    I dont believe for a minute that they want to keep Ben Arfa, They are seeing if they can get a lump sum for him

    I remember Deportivo doing this when we were trying to sign Coloccini, They kept moving the goalposts and we got him in the end im just sitting tight and keeping me fingers crossed mate… ;)

  66. CC…I agree mate,he wants to go,Deschamp said last week they need to get 10-15% from the wage bill.I think they’re hoping a prem club comes in with a permanent cash deal…..lets hope not.

  68. Morn’! Just back from Italy and pretty busy at graft so football chat might have to wait.

    Apologies for the shameless plug again. And cheers to all the lads who have dipped into their pockets for us.

    The official website is up and running –

    http://www.tourdethink.com/

    If anyone knows of any corporates who may be interested in getting involved, give me a shout.

  69. i think things with ben arfa are finally coming to a head,in fact if it werent for the fact that he is playing for france tonite then we would have known by now.one thing that keeps me hopefull of getting him in is that ch hasnt said its not going to happen over the last few days when all these conflicting reports have surfaced,so the way i see it is the club most still be hopefull of getting him in otherwise they would have said forget it if your going to bugger us about? im not sure i belive those who say ash is making fake bids that he knows wont come off,although after all that he has put us through it is hard to trust anything he does.i do wonder where all the money is going/gone to? all the talk of the play-off final being the richest game in sport?well we got promoted too so where is the money? plus the fact of our attendances etc we should be able to afford 8-10m to sign players to keep us up? benarfa is a steal at 6m but i understand the risk and a loan is the sensible option but if they want the cash only then just go for it,in sure we wont lose out too much if it goes tits up? there are plenty of players out there who would strengthen us at affordable prices,so why wont ash splash? is he just being tight or are our finances really up the creek? i wish we had a chairman who would communicate with us just a little? things went wrong when chris mort left imo.we need a decent experienced chairman working under ash i think,our trnsfer dealings are a little schizophrenic sometimes…

  71. Marseille are holding out for a permanant bid from another club or at the very least another club with a higher loan fee.

    It will probaboy work too. The longer we dilly and dally the more likely we are to lose out. Remember Beckford and Killgallon?

  72. aye Stu but unless it comes from a prem club it shouldn’t matter(fingers crossed)….I’m surprised Bruce hasn’t gone for him as he usually targets our targets ;-)

    Re Killgallon,I don’t think we really lost out there and Beckford…..I think Everton may have told him to stay at leeds and there’ll be a nice signing on fee hence the withdrawn transfer request imo.It remains to be seen how he’ll do.

  73. @stuart79

    i think your dead right there,but im still hoping that the silence from ch means we are still in there with a chance,he obviously wants to come to us otherwise he would have been sold by now,and im sure other teams would be offering bigger wages than us so imo that makes him seem to me that he aint a mercenary and wants to come for footballing reasons? i just think if we got him he would be almost an instant hero to us and it could be a match made in heaven.tis the kind of player we love here and maybe he knows that? please ash just push the boat out for him,maybe he will start to think,and who could blame him,that we arent as bothered as the other teams in for him and he could well think sod it,they dont want me that much,il go elsewhere.then we watch him set another place alight while we plod along with the slowest attack in pl history.i think beckford is going to do that to us anyway at everton.he would of been perfect but the same thing happened there that seems to be happening now.hope im wrong like

  76. dunno like stu, seemed to me like Everton had Beckford tied up a long time before we came in

  77. best out for 3 months,on nufc.com ankle problem.will that mean we need a new striker or will ranger stay? get bellers in NOW!!!!

  78. there’ll be no benny arfa coming – the very best we can attract are championship players/premiership failures or has-beens.

    a – wow – signing for this club is splashing out £2 million on a player & even that wont happen.

    CH has no pulling power & his boss is a fat useless get that wont even try to support him.

    wake up lads and smell the caffeine.

  79. Salty @68 and “…. things went wrong when chris mort left”

    Was this the same Mort who was telling porkies during the Keegan/ Wise debacle?

  80. that sighting of Ireland reported on Radio at St James’………….was probably me by the way,baldy f***er with a sh!te fashion sense ;-)

  81. lesh…….in Mort’s defence he’s a lawyer so telling porkies is just a natural reaction :lol:

  83. So we like to keep our transfer dealings private and yet we’re supposed to believe that Ireland was @ SJP on the same day as a fans open day….not really very likely is it.

  87. @ 79 check your diary – i’ll be painting the toon black/white this weekend.

    your welcome to tag along if you bring your hilarious joke book with you.

    :)

    deep breath batts…

  88. Roy sounding sensible again. I would love to think we could attract Bellemy and Ireland but we havent got a chance if Spuds are interested, even on loan deals. I can see Villa struggling now MO’N has gone, but even they would probably be a bigger pull than us.

  90. batty says:
    August 11, 2010 at 12:01 pm
    stu benny hill could run abit ya kna

    Aye but usually after young women..

  91. @bowburnmag

    you should give Sage a ring, theyre always good for a sponsor on their intranet..

    I’m trying to get a cyclethong going in Newcastle, where every hairy ass bloke has to do 20 miles only wearing a thong..

  98. From official site.

    ”There was also good news as far as Andy Carroll is concerned, with the striker involved all the way through the session despite suffering a back injury picked up against Rangers at the weekend.”

    What a load of bollox that must have been then. Seems like Hughton pulled a fast one on the England u21 team. They should not call him up anymore if you ask me.

  102. Robbie Savage bless him :roll:

    I think Newcastle will go down, they were the stand-out team in our league but we beat them 3-0 at home and drew at their place. Unless they add ten or 12 squad players they could come down. I wasn’t that impressed with them, although they ran away with the league, when we played them we absolutely battered them here and I think they will struggle.

  104. batty says:
    August 11, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    stu stardust was asking aboot u yesterday

    Oh the joy…

  106. odil ahmedov, never heard of him but his name is mentioned on that rumour site along with mancienne (sp)

  107. If he’s been released by Chelsea that means he’s not as good as Van Arnie. Also he’s had trials with Yeovil Town ect so what happened there. Not holding me breath like. Says he was a winger, quite small but quick and his low centre of gravity and pace made up for relatively poor ball control (for a winger) :(. Was moved from both wings to LB quite late so doubt he’s a natural defender. Fair enough he’s a ‘home grown’ player, but why can’t we put more faith in our own geordie boys like Paul Dummet at LB and Connor Newton CM, both are probably as good as this lad.

  108. Leon best has apperntly ruptured ankle ligaments n will b out 3 months so I fink ranger won’t b goin on loan

  109. another well researched report

    “Alan Smith, Xisco and Steven Taylor all got run-outs for Chris Hughton’s side, who are preparing for their curtain raiser against Manchester United on Monday evening, after a season out of the top flight”

  110. I Hope Ranger stays, I think if he go’s out on loan and starts regulary he won’t want to come back to Hughton’s dads army.

  113. Wasn’t spuds in for Ireland but mancs wanted £25 mill??can’t see Ireland coming would love to see him in black n White tho! Really think gio de santos would me gr8 signing tho n would only cost few mill n can play anywhere up top!