Did Tiote really turn down an offer from Chelsea?
Posted on March 1st, 2011 | 32 Comments |
The player, who has been on the radar of the club ever since he was spotted by Chris Hughton on a scouting trip for Kevin Keegan in 2008 (when Tiote was playing at Netherlands club, Roda JC), has been a colossus in the defensive midfield role at Newcastle. Statistically, the team has been noticably more sucessful on average with him on the pitch than they are without, which was noticable during the midfielder’s enforced suspensions through picking up five yellow cards, and also for a straight sending off in Newcastle United’s FA Cup tie with Stevenage. This success has recently led to the club agreeing no less than a 6 1/2 year contract with the player, with, supposedly, much improved terms and conditions including a wage rise thought to be something around £50,000 per week.
However, this undoubted success has fuelled much specultion on whether massive clubs are circulating with the aim of making an offer for the player, and whether Newcastle United’s owner, Mike Ashley, would resist a substantial offer for the him. This speculation has been especially rife since Ashley accepted an offer of £35 million from Liverpool for another Newcastle United player, Andy Carroll in the last knockings of the January transfer window. The renegotiation of Tiote’s contract has put forward vigously as a sign that despite the Carroll sale, Mike Ashley is still committed to building the club with investment in improved contracts to those who have impressed in black and white.
Which brings us to recent speculation that Newcastle United recently received an offer from Chelsea for Tiote, and that the player himself turned him down. This story purportedly came from the player himself. However, after spending much time reading all the ones I could find, I can’t find a quote anywhere from the player himself that Chelsea made an offer, or that he turned the alleged offer down.
On actual quotes from Tiote himself, this is all I could find:
“If you come to a new club in a new country it is important there is a good atmosphere at the club.” “As soon as I arrived here the players made me welcome. They helped me settle in and meant I could do a good job on the pitch.
“Newcastle life is good for me. It is not like London – London is too busy, there are too many people. Newcastle is not so busy. That makes it easier to focus on your job. For me it is important. I would like to be here for a few years. I can learn here.
“I feel settled here. I enjoy it here. The fans are good and the new manager likes me. The club has looked after me and I do my best for the team and the fans.
“I made sacrifices to be a player, I had to leave my family, my six brothers and three sisters. It was so difficult.
“Now I have a better life and I am happy for that but I had to be focused. In Africa the young boys want to go out all the time, they want to do something different.
“But for me the being different was to make it as a professional. To do that I had to leave that life. Going back would have been like saying, ‘I lose’. I don’t do losing. I want to win every challenge, every tackle, anything.
“When I was little my dad told me, ‘If you want to have something in your life, you have to work hard’.
“My dad is dead now but I think he would be proud of me.”
As mentioned above, there is nothing in any of that from Tiote about an actual bid from Chelsea, or on how he turned down any kind of alleged offer made to him, and this was also the case in all the other stories I read. If any readers out there DID actually see any quotes with Tiote actually saying that Chelsea made an offer for him, and that he turned them down, I would very much like to see the source.
Finally, why it would be understandable for many clubs to be interested in signing such a fine player as Cheik “Lion King” Tiote, I would have thought that Chelsea are the one club who already have two players in the Tiote mould, the brilliant Michael Essien and his precocious understudy, John Obi Mikel, already within their ranks. Like several other stories about the club coming out recently, there is something quite suspicious about this one.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.
TOON have been crying out for a m/player of his type/class for years,hes a gem imo