Woe for Ireland, temptation for Barton and Pardew wants a big Dong

Posted on April 28th, 2011 | 21 Comments |

Ji Dong-won, potential Toon target.
Potential Toon target?
Newcastle United titbits: Ireland crocked, Barton of interest to Liverpool and a striker from South Korea.

No doubt you’ve all heard that Stephen Ireland is crocked for the rest of the season with an ankle injury. That, and the fact that he’s only made two substitute appearances for Newcastle, might mean he’s crocked as far as his future at our club is concerned too.

Alternatively, if Pardew is still keen on Ireland and thinks his spate of injuries is only temporary, it might allow the club to offer a fee somewhat under the player’s market value to take him off Villa’s hands.

In my post yesterday I said that I expected Joey Barton to sign a new contract for Newcastle this summer. However, since then – and in a move simply designed to make me look daft – Kenny Dalglish is apparently mulling over the idea of making a £5m bid for Barton. So now I’m not so sure about Barton’s Toon future. I’d like to think he’d sign for us out of some sense of loyalty, but Liverpool might be a tempting proposition for the player.

The other thing I wanted to pick up on comes from our old favourite The Daily Mail, a popular choice of newspaper for those spending some time in an institution. The Mail suggests that we’ve had an £8m offer for Lorient’s Kevin Gameiro turned down and have now turned our attentions to a South Korean striker called Ji Dong-won.

Ji Dong-won is 19 years old and 6ft 1.5in tall, which I’m guessing is big for a South Korean, and plays his football for the Chunnam Dragons. He played 29 games in 2010, scoring 13 goals, and has played 3 games in 2011 without scoring yet. He also has 5 goals in 9 senior appearances for South Korea.

The Daily Mail reports that “Chief scout Graham Carr was in South Korea at the weekend to watch the 19-year-old Ji play for Chunnam Dragons and was reasonably impressed.“. Apparently Ji also had a spell at Reading in 2007-2008 when they were in the Premier League, although I don’t remember seeing him play.

I managed to find this compilation of the striker’s exploits in 2010 and 2011:

Whether or not there’s any truth in the Mail’s report remains to be seen of course.

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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Comment on this post

21 Responses

  1. You were right yesterday. There is no way Barton would be of actual interest to Liverpool. It was just some fanciful rhetoric from an ill-informed hack.

  2. “Whether or not there’s any truth in the Mail’s report remains to be seen of course.”

    Daily Mail? Truth? Heh heh, yeah, right.

  3. Barton to Liverpool? hope not-hes a king pivot in our side and he needs to see some ambition from ashley and co-like the look of this Ji Dong Won tho-mind he misses a few…-has a bit of Andy Carroll style to him in his shooting and ariel ability-certainly looks more lively than an ageing Ameobi and Lovenkrands-try and get Steven Ireland for dirt cheap-sign this Ji Dong Won to go with him and another 2 proven, quality strikers and what ever else we need thru the team and who knows-we need some prolific goalscorers-hey did u see Messi’s second last nite? reminded me of wor Peter Beardsley with his super quick feet dancing thru defences! ;-) go on Peter son! pull ya shirt on!

  5. Well looking at the clips above, he seems to be able to handle himself & only 19, could be one for the future to play along side Airey as a No10, don’t think he’s an out & out striker, so could be a good buy if its gen!!!

    As for Barton, not a chance he’ll leave for Cessepool fella, he’s a Toffee’s fan & always has been, so thats probably les of a story than Dong ffs…

    Another thing, if we get Dong, it will open us up to more revenue from Korea & the likes, so a good buy for business if you ask me… just imagine all those 100’s of thousands & B&W shirts being sold over there.. lol ;)

  6. Dong-Won seems light on his feet, he also seems to have skills with both feet, he has good aerial-abilities, and also he seems willing to shot whenever he gets a chance.

    Can be a new Carroll in this kid. With a little bit of love and a good leader, he can become something really big in the Newcastleshirt.

    But the risk of him being a flop, is always an option. But why sob about it?! Sign him and make him a centretank!!

    HOWAY THE LADS!

  9. According to the Liverpool Echo, Dalglish’s keen on signing any players connected to Newcastle. His next approach’ll be the big one – a bid for the Northern Sinfonia!

  13. what if they have brought in ireland as a replacement for barton,ashley me see this as the only oppurtunity to make some profit on barton.sell barton to the highest bidder,sign ireland for a nominal fee.next season a midfield of ireland,gosling,and possibly tiote if the fat git doesn’t cash in on him.it would be a classic ashley move?

  14. I think Barton is a great player for Newcastle, and while he and Andy Carroll worked excellently together, I don’t really want him coming to LFC. Barton’s mental track record is not great, and he just doesn’t seem like a good fit.

    Personally, I’d rather have Kevin Nolan. I think he’s an incredibly talented footballer, very consistent, and of course a scouser.

    It will be an exciting summer, plenty of movement ahead I think.

  15. Danielle,
    hey, didn’t think you’d want a nevertonian but would take a scouser(red).

    It’s interesting that dogleash wants all these Toon players now, when he couldn’t wait to get shot of ’em when he was actually here.

    Down with the ‘dour scot’.

    What’s also interesting is that liverpool want our players when we’re supposed to be crap & they are so great, in the pundits eyes at least.
    Weird!

  16. Also,
    can liverpoo actually afford to have a summer this year, they’re massively in debt?
    Doesn’t look good for them as we move towards the new fifa rules in the next couple of years.
    How are they ganna cook (ooops! balance) the books?

    ;)

  17. They will manage to wriggle their way out of it somehow. You know how it goes with those top teams.

  18. Danielle Warren says:
    April 28, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    “I think Barton is a great player for Newcastle, and while he and Andy Carroll worked excellently together, I don’t really want him coming to LFC. Barton’s mental track record is not great, and he just doesn’t seem like a good fit.”

    Carroll isn’t exactly an ‘angel’ either, Danielle.

  19. CLiNT they have someone in charge who knows how to work the transfer market , they sold Torres after they signed Suarez & Big Fuker spent 50m got 50m . How much they get for their out going players will determine who they buy .

  20. It will be tiote off to liverpool next week, then coloccini and jonas…. its a load of bull. Its just the press who seem to have it in for us, lets link any newcastle player who’s had a good game to liverpool because thats where they belong.

    Worky, I get your point about carroll and I might get shot down for this but joey barton has had an excellent season, we signed him on a five year deal i think, and 4 years down the line in my opinion he has had one good season, aswell as spent time in jail, got banned from the club for disrespecting our manager after getting stupidly sent off v’s liverpool resulting in suspension for our last 3 games during our relegation.

    The comments about barry and other fellow pro’s was embarrassing, I remember mido saying in public that sol campbell was the easiest defender he has played against, Harry redknapp was furious, as AP should have been with barton. I think he still owes this club massively, I want him to stay and fulfill his ambition to become a role model but will he?

  21. I like the looks of this Ji Dong-won. he seems to need a decent bit of development, but the raw talent and skill looks to be there – good pace and aerial moves and good ball control. Looks like he could use a bit of work on the finishing but he’s 19. There’s the possibility that eh could be the next Tiote-esqe signing. If its not too much to get him tyneside I’m all for it. we need strikers and he could be one step to getting some good men up front. also, don’t know what this lads personality/ego is like. if its also like tiote all the more for it. just be careful, don’t need another tw@t – sorry i mean carroll – who’ll jump ship for a bigger club. and if he was @ reading for a bit, then he’s not totally clueless about some of the “top” teams and their wages.