Williamson and Ranger sign new five and a half year deals at Newcastle.
Posted on December 3rd, 2010 | 60 Comments |
It appears those rumours were indeed true as it has been revealed on the official club website that both playes have signed new deals that will run to the summer of 2016.
Newcastle seem to be getting the hang of this contract malarkey. Both Andy Carroll and Tim Krul, two of our bright hopes, have been tied down to long term contracts, and rumours are abound suggesting that Steven Taylor has been offered a new improved deal. Now we have the news regarding Mike Williamson and Nile Ranger to add to the good work the club have done in the last few weeks with regard to securing the services of some of our current players.
We’ll start with Mike Williamson, as I have him pictured in the article. Mike is quite clearly happy that he has secured his future on Tyneside after being at the club for only 11 months. This is what he said to the official club website;
“Playing in the Premier League with a club like Newcastle has been a dream for me, and I was delighted to agree a new contract to continue doing that until 2016.”
“I’ve played in the lower leagues before, so to get the opportunity to play at St. James’ Park every other week – and grounds like The Emirates and Old Trafford – is fantastic for me. Me and my family have settled here quickly and it’s great to know that we’ll be staying here for a long time to come.”
So Williamson is obviously happy to commit his future to the club, but what about Ranger? Here is what he had to say;
“I’m absolutely buzzing. I’m loving it at Newcastle. I really feel I can develop here and I can only learn from some of the players here.”
“The fans have been great with me from day one, and even though I’d spent my whole life down south until I came here, this feels like home now.”
Good words from the pair of them, and I think they have both earned their respective deals to be fair. Williamson has been largely solid since he arrived last January whilst Ranger has impressed pretty much everyime he has featured for the first team.
Both of them owe a debt to Chris Hughton of course as it was Chris who brought Williamson to Newcastle and was prepared to give Ranger his chance, although injuries at the time forced his hand a little bit. Here is what the gaffer had to say regarding Mike Williamson;
“Mike has been outstanding for us since he came here. He was somebody who I tracked for a while before we got him, and he has perhaps exceeded even the expectations we had of him.”
“He has a brilliant attitude and in my opinion has been one of the best English centre-backs in the league this season. And I thoroughly believe that his best years are yet to come, so we’re thrilled to have agreed the new contract.”
Hughton then talked about young Nile Ranger’s new contract;
“Nile is a young player who is improving all the time. It’s less than 18 months since he made his first-team debut and he’s coming on in leaps and bounds.”
“Just as we have already done with Andy Carroll, we’re keen to keep our young talent at this football club and agreeing such a long-term deal with Nile is good news for all concerned. We look forward to helping him to mature and become a key player for us in the future.”
So some good news as we all head into the weekend. It’s nice to see that the club seem to be ensuring that the services of the players are secured over the long term. Whilst they are at it, can I point them in the direction of Jose Enrique and Chris Hughton?
Contracts for both of them would be brilliant, ta!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
…does this mean that they are going to let S.Taylor go now that they have a solid defender singed up??
Great news about them both though.