Toon transfer news: truth or tosh?
Posted on April 18th, 2011 | 24 Comments |
Most transfer news is complete tosh. Occasionally a journalist might pick up a genuine lead and report some transfer news that’s truth, but it can easily get lost in the plethora of tosh that’s made up to sell papers.
Essentially we haven’t a clue, which is my default position on all of life so it doesn’t unduly bother me. I rarely have a clue what I’m doing, which I put down to macroscopic quantum effects but my wife puts down to me simply being a buffoon.
Take your pick.
All of which is a warning that this morning’s missive should be treated as pure speculation as I’m going to report some alleged ‘transfer news’.
Enrique/Spearing
Amidst all the tosh, I reckon one nugget of truth is that Jose Enrique won’t be a Newcastle United player come the end of the summer. That’s just my opinion of course. However the latest press speculation (from The Express) reckons that Kenny ‘Sourpuss’ Dalglish is keen to hijack AC Milan’s potential interest in Jose and take him to Liverpool instead.
A ‘source’ has apparently told The Express that Alan Pardew might let Liverpool have Jose for something between £8m and £15m if midfielder Jay Spearing comes the other way.
22 year old Spearing has stepped into Steven Gerrard’s shoes recently and has impressed Dalglish, although his senior career amounts to just 22 games, only 9 of which have been league games. He has one goal to his name, scored when he was on loan to Leicester City.
Who knows if any of that is true.
Kevin Gameiro
Stretching the truth even further (in my opinion), the News of the World has indicated our ‘interest’ in French striker/winger Kevin Gameiro. The 23 year old currently plays for Lorient, having moved there from Strasbourg for 3m Euros (I don’t appear to a Euro symbol on my keyboard) in 2008. In 173 senior games, Gameiro has scored 66 goals and provided 25 assists, which is a 38% strike rate, although for Lorient it’s 49 goals in 105, which is a 46% strike rate. Not too shabby at all.
Again though, don’t get your hopes up. For all we know this could be as likely as finding Elvis alive and well on Moonbase Alpha (and tucking into a Big Mac no doubt).
Toon Active In The Transfer Market
The Sun has the most reliable Toon transfer news story of the weekend. Don’t laugh, they actually quote Pardew who has said he’s been active in the transfer market:
“We’ve had two or three meetings, we’ve contacted some players who are out of contract in the summer. We’re allowed to do that.
“We’ve contacted a couple of clubs about players who are under contract to see their situation. We’re very much down the road in signing the sort of players we think can add to the club.
“All of the players that we’ve contacted have good experience.
“It’s more about having 150 games under your belt than a 19-year-old with potential.
“They need to have played at a very high level for us to be interested in them and to warrant coming here, in my view.
“There may be one we take a fancy to, but most are established players.”
The Sun then goes on to suggest some of the players Pardew is interested in based on absolutely nothing Pardew has said: Cheikh M’Bengue, Gervinho and Seb Larsson.
Maybe, but the last I heard our club policy was the exact opposite of what Pardew’s suggesting. I thought we were all about finding 19 year olds with potential rather than paying for ‘established’ players with 150 games under their belt.
I’m not complaining either way – I’ve always thought it should be a balance between the two – but this does seem a bit like a policy shift from Ashley. Still, you never can tell with the man – it wouldn’t surprise me of Jose Enrique was on eBay by the end of the summer.
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.
Daniel sturridge is one looking out for but here is to hoping ey gah not seeing newcastle play on the weekend leaving me a little bit well,bare