Carroll, Westwood, Enrique, Larsson, Ireland – more rumours than Fleetwood Mac

Posted on January 30th, 2011 | 45 Comments |

Stephen Ireland, Newcastle target
Most likely rumour?
It’s the day before the transfer window closes and it’s a Sunday, which means it’s double trouble from the rumour mill at Newcastle United.

The first unsubstantiated rumour of the day is that, after having their ‘paltry’ £23m-£25m bid for Andy Carroll rejected, Spurs have been told by Newcastle that they must bid £30m to get the player. I find it hard to believe that Spurs have been told they must bid £30m or that they’d get Andy Carroll even if they did bid £30m.

Andy Carroll is of course for sale, despite insistence by the club heirarchy that he isn’t. Every player has some price which, if offered, would see him sold. But I think it’s the case that Andy Carroll isn’t for sale at any price that would be reasonably offered by a club this January.

The second unsubstantiated rumour of the day is that Newcastle are trying to sign Coventry keeper Keiren Westwood in a £500,000 deal. Westwood does have a good record, picking up various Player of the Season awards, but what about Tim Krul? Would we be looking at Westwood as our number two keeper ahead of Krul or our number three keeper behind him? And would Westwood move if it was the latter?

Either way, there are no quotes or anything else that might substantiate the rumour, so it’s probably twaddle.

The third unsubstantiated rumour is that Manchester United and Liverpool will be making a move for Jose Enrique in the summer. Whilst I can see why such teams might be interested in Enrique, I feel the rumour itself is one of those tabloid page fillers that has come about simply because Enrique has still not signed a new contract with Newcastle. There is certainly no evidence to substantiate the rumour.

Today’s fourth rumour is that we’re going back to Birmingham City with a new offer on Seb Larsson. Apparently the offer now stands at £1m in an attempt to outbid Blackburn. This rumour may sound a little more likely but of course there isn’t a quote in sight to back it up.

Finally, the tabloids are reporting that Stephen Ireland is indeed destined to come to Newcastle on loan until the end of the season with an option to buy after that if all goes well. Of all the unsubstantiated rumours surrounding Newcastle I’d say this is the most likely, although I still wouldn’t be surprised if it all turned out to be a smokescreen for something else.

I think I might go back to bed.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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45 Responses

  2. Enrique for 8 million is simply outragous… So we sell who many believe to be the finest left back in the EPL for an amount that wouldnt even buy a replacement worthy of being named in the same sentence.

    As for Carroll, sure he has his price (unfortunately) but im pretty sure we are talking a truly crazy amount like 40+ million.

  5. After last night I would take 25m for Carroll. Out drinking – with a thigh injury which isn’t improving, completely drunk so what happens if he falls over or down some stairs. Total moron who won’t improve what he is with that attitude. My mate asked him for a quick photo, he said ‘nar I’m andy carroll and I’m too good, cya’ – on talent he deserves the 9 shirt, on attitude and professionalism he doesn’t deserve any number at Nufc

  6. Well according to Paul Smith on the Sunday Supplement, the Spurt haven’t even made an offer of £25m for Carroll & they’re not going to either!!!!

  7. With Jose quality, I don’t surprise a bit if top club want him. But 8m ? What the joke. Even 15m is not enough for him and he’s not for sell. They should do some homework before make the offer.

  9. Mark.

    It’s not the first time he’s done something like that. Don’t get me wrong he’s got every right to go out with his pals,
    But when he’s carrying an injury and should be fully focused on getting fit, I don’t think getting laced is gonna help the cause.

  10. Mark says:

    “After last night I would take 25m for Carroll. Out drinking – with a thigh injury which isn’t improving, completely drunk so what happens if he falls over or down some stairs”

    “You get these experts in different fields and this guy is in the Arctic end of Sweden and Andy is flying out there on Friday for a detaile consultation”

    From the Arctic end of Sweden back to the frozen wastes of Gateshead in less than a day ?

  11. Come on ireland you little beauty!!!!!! Buzzin about tht. Dont believe the andy carroll tripe

  12. A player only moves clubs when he wants to move, not when his club wants him to. Players hold all the cards. Andy Carroll will only move when Andy Carroll wants to move and not when Newcastle want him to move. He is living a Geordie boy’s dream and getting well paid for it.

  14. Kamar – actually fella, its a 2 way street… a player doesn’t have to move unless he wants too but a club doesn’t have to sell a player even if he wants to move, so it’s a joint venture if we lose any players, with both the player wanting to move on & the club willing to sell them!!!

    But hopefully, our players are happy at the club & the club doesn’t want to sell, so we shouldn’t have to worry if other clubs come in for them…. ;)

  16. Totally off piste – (or taking the piste?) – has anybody checked out the comparable stats for 08-09 relegation season? I just did on statto.
    For info, we didn’t reach 30 points until April 11th and it took us 32 games. Of course we also had a crap finish with 4 points from our last 6 games.
    Not getting ahead of ourselves – and I’m a natural pessimist – but is 30 points from 23 games “Reason to be cheerful part 1 ?”

  17. To be honest i will be pleased when its tuesday morning and the transfer window is closed and we have all our squad still here . If no one comes in i wont be bothered as long as work is done to get Barton , Tiote and Enrique tied down to new deals before the summer is on us . Remember we have Ben Arfa and gosling to come back from injury plus R Taylor who i dont rate but might just now step up his levels with a new manager at the club . The summer transfer window is when this club will either step up to the next level with more good signings and the clearing out of the dead wood (smith , Xisco , Lovenkrands ? , campbell ) or stay rooted to the midtable and relegation battles for the next season . I honestly think it will be the step up to the next level after all we have had good signings made in the last couple of transfer windows and all within our means . I think that will continue for years to come now with the scouting system we now have after years of throwing away money on poor signings .

  18. Ireland’s a good player, just don’t know where he’s going to fit in.

    I would have thought we’d have a right winger lined up to replace WR?

  19. Yep Ireland is in town for a medical. Probably announced later today, loan with a look to a permanent deal apparently.

    I think he’s a good player, but I also think he’s a tit and as mad as a box of frogs so I hope he doesn’t upset the balance of the squad. And like others have metioned…where will he fit in?

  20. McToon – I think our dressing room is strong enough to cope with one nutter – and as long as it’s just a loan then we can walk away if he;s too disruptive.
    But it might just be that he settles down in the right environment (which I don’t think Man City etc would be!) and becomes less of a tosspot.

  21. well if it is true he is coming in then im guessing barton on the right and ireland in the middle(when he comes on)

  22. Well he did form a midfield partnership with a certain joey barton while at citeh did he not ? They joy of it those too nutters in the same midfield :) now bring in cattermole and the rest of the premiership will be shitting themselves every time they play us . They were very good together though , 2 good players when in form .

  23. Andy Mac and Valle – Andy Carroll was out last night. Seen him with my own eyes. Its quite possible to go to sweden (if he did) friday and be back saturday night after an appointment for a consultation, scan or check over. Don’t believe it if you don’t want to but I’ve nothing to gain by lying. Just letting you know what he’s done.

  24. Agree with Stuart,

    Don’t see the points of us getting in Ireland.

    Smacks of Pardew buying, simply for the sake of buying…

    Where is he going to play? He’s a central midfielder!!!

    We have, Nolan, Barton, Tiote, Guthrie, Gosling, Smith, Ben Arfa – all of whom play in central midfield.

    We are desperately short of good wide players, and we loan Routeledge out???

    Make no sense at all…

  25. was hoping to get in Michael Johnson from man city instead of ireland.Johnson does offer a bit more and would cost a lot less then ireland in wages

  27. Well with Smith out for the season and possibly played his last game for us then i suppose a loan deal with the option to sign permanently is a good move .Maybe Pardew is going to use Gosling and HBA only sparingly because of their injuries and make sure they are fully fit for next season , that would make sense as long as we continue to pick up the points to carry us to safety .

  28. Seems to be stitched on now with the Ireland loan, though nowts certain until the deadline has passed…..http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/11/01/30/SOCCER_Newcastle.html

    Suppose that’s the beauty of the loan system, we can take a good look at him thru to the end of the season, and if he performs well, we’ll have the chance to sign him, if not he’s sent back to Villa, good for all parties involved.

    I’m not concerned about him causing a disturbance in the dressing room, because firstly I would imagine the senior pros, including JB have probably “endorsed” the move, and also the group we have in the dressing room at the moment will keep an eye on him.

    Would love to see a fast right winger signed up, it would just give us another option to our attacking style…

  29. Munich Mag,

    Fast right winger???

    Someone like Wayne Routeledge perhaps? ;)

    Seriously wish they’d given him a fair crack with a run of 6 or 7 games to get some confidence. He definately has some ability.

  30. Mark… I dont know you personally, so excuse me for not believing if you are telling the truth, but fact is that anybody can come to the internet and say anything they want and i would be none the wiser.

    As it is I dont want to believe you, simply because that would shatter my view on the guy.

  31. nufc337… Oh i would love to see Johnson at NUFC as well. Not only is he a great player, but he is a NUFC boy. Unfortunately, that would be to good to be true and it wont happen.

  32. Toon69 says:
    January 30, 2011 at 10:26 am

    “Well according to Paul Smith on the Sunday Supplement, the Spurt haven’t even made an offer of £25m for Carroll & they’re not going to either!!!!”

    He’s probably right, Toon 69. They has been nothing whatsover that is subtantial on this. It just media speculation, and just plain making things up as they go along.

  33. JJ@29…I agree mate, speed is a great asset, and he has lots of it. He may be frustrating, but could be a real matchwinner as a late sub, or when opposing defences are tiring.

    One would have thought that after so many clubs one of the coaches would have managed to harness his undoubted ability, but it doesn’t look like it. Perhaps he’ll come back a better player ?

  35. valle says:
    “Mark… I dont know you personally, so excuse me for not believing if you are telling the truth”

    Whereas I, on the other hand, am less likely to believe a word of this bullshlt. Can you seriously believe that the club would send AC all the way over to Sweden and then another 500 miles up to Umea just so the consultant can take a quick look at him and say “Open wide, cough and turn your head, take these tablets twice a day and now hurry off to the pub you little tinker” :)

  36. damn these newspapers.when they link players like enrique to big clubs like man utd even if they weren’t thinking of him before they certainly take notice.b*******..
    why on earth are we going after that baldie?is he cover for nolan?shouldn’t we make a move for an established defender or a promising young one to shore up our defence especially at a crucial time like this when points are hard to come by and all the more vital?
    hopefully the club is continuing in the same manner it did this summer which means we should find ourselves presently surprised to see a unheralded player who turns out to be a revelation.praying that’s the case.

  37. As a novice fan (and an American as well), I don’t understand why they would want to bring in another goalkeeper. Am I missing something?

  38. jc toon says:

    “As a novice fan (and an American as well), I don’t understand why they would want to bring in another goalkeeper. Am I missing something?”

    No but you will get used to the rumour mongers in the UK media. Vey occasionally its the players and sometimes its the clubs but most of the time its the agents who start these rumours in an effort to “big up” their clients rep and contract :)

    Shepherd allegedly buying Rooney was a classic example of how an agent can manipulate a situation to suit his/her own needs but not necessarily those of his client.

  39. Andymac… How the feck can you read my post and then conclude that you are less likely to believe his story?

    As it is i agree with you, i just dont go to such lenghts as to knock him down and call it bullshit.

    Who the feck knows whats the truth on the net these days? all you can do is put on your own filter and take in what you will and leave the rest out.

  40. AndyMac says:
    January 30, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    “No but you will get used to the rumour mongers in the UK media. Vey occasionally its the players and sometimes its the clubs but most of the time its the agents who start these rumours in an effort to “big up” their clients rep and contract”

    Of course, that definitely happens, but I alot of the time it’s just journos making up specious stories to sell.

    valle says:
    January 30, 2011 at 5:41 pm

    “Who the feck knows whats the truth on the net these days? all you can do is put on your own filter and take in what you will and leave the rest out.”

    By reading the signs, valle.

    When stories say things like “sources close to the club…”, “we understand that…” etc, they’re speculating and it’s probably guesswork. Not necessarily in every case, after all, guesswork can sometimes end up being correct in the end. But most of the time, it ends up being guff.

  41. Worky… True, but in this case it was about Marks story regarding AC. The media is a whole other ballgame, where things are complicated further by that small factor “there is no smoke without a fire” which always make you doubt if the journalism made it up or if it was leaked for some strategic reason… You just cant be sure without a quote.

  42. I see. The whole transfer window concept is quite different here in America. This has been a fascinating month for me.

  43. Valle and Worky Ticket, he was in Aspers last night, I dont really care if you dont believe me, he was there. I have no reason to lie, Id read that he was going to Sweden, but thats hardly the other side of the world. Quite easy in this day and age to fly over and fly back.

    Carroll is always out, as a footballer he is decent and has alot of promise, as a person he is rude, ignorant and has an ego to match the size of himself.

    Its not bullshit, but you think it is so thats fine, your entitled to think that, but just know you are wrong and that is a fact. Ask Aspers to view the CCTV if you want to actually prove me wrong. I truly am amazed that you think its implausible and bullshit to see somebody out in their home city, just because you read he was away to Sweden on Friday. Clearly thickheads who want to be the know-it-all

  45. And finally, I could have proved he was there, if he had of posed for a photo. I could actually tell you something else about him, but you wouldnt believe me so its fine. Anybody visit Shiremoore Sainsburys quite often then you would know.