Toon wants The Zog back whilst Barton and Enrique face contract decisions
Posted on May 16th, 2011 | 21 Comments |
The weekend press contained a lot of football gossip as per usual. Some of it’s probably true but most of it is likely to be nonsense, so please don’t shoot the messenger!
One of the things reported is that there’s been a bit of a stall on Barton’s contract with the 28 year-old wanting a 4 year contract as opposed to the 2 year one offered to him in January. Compromising on a 3 year contract might be the way to go if Joey will accept that, which I don’t think is too much of a risk as he’d still only be 31 at the end of the contract.
On the subject of contracts, The Sun reckons Jose Enrique will be offered a 5 year contract and a decent pay rise if he agrees to stay at Newcastle. I’m not sure how The Sun knows that because all Alan Pardew has had to say on the matter is:
“He’s not indicated to myself or to Derek what his intentions are. We’re still optimistic of course. I’d love to keep him. Absolutely love to keep him.
“But I think we have to be on our guard because there are so many noises about him. I think that’s the nature of the business we’re in.”
Were there shades of Keegan in that comment? “I’d love it, absolutely love it if he stays”.
However, the bad news on the left back situation is that Newcastle have allegedly had a £5M bid for Toulouse’s Cheikh M’Bengue rejected. The player himself has confirmed the Toon’s interest in him, saying:
“It’s pleasing. I have heard about it but the club have refused the offer.
“At the moment I’m not too bothered, I have an agent to look after that and he looks after my interests very well.
“We must see what happens.”
I wonder if Newcastle are planning to try and get M’Bengue regardless of what happens with Enrique. It certainly seems that way given that they’ve made a confirmed offer for the player with Enrique’s future still undecided. Either that or the club is fairly confident that Enrique will be on his way.
More gossip suggests that Newcastle are planning a £6m swoop to bring Charles N’Zogbia back to the club, although didn’t Wigan refuse a £10m offer from us in January? Of course if Wigan end up relegated – something that will no doubt please Ashley, given his spats with Dave Whelan – then it’s fair to assume that The Zog will be more amenable to a move to ensure he’s playing Premier League football and Wigan may need to save on the costs of one of their star players.
N’Zogbia originally left Newcastle after falling out with Joe Kinnear when the manager called him ‘insomnia’, allegedly by mistake. Originally N’Zogbia expressed his desire to leave by saying:
“After four years at Newcastle, I want to reach a higher level of ambition. I don’t think that is possible here.”
Which is odd given that he then moved to Wigan. I know we were having a rough patch but I wouldn’t generally link Wigan to the phrase ‘a higher level of ambition’. Anyway, he later apologised for that statement but said that he wouldn’t play for Newcastle again while Joe Kinnear was manager. Oh happy days!
Apparently we’ll have to fight off interest from Birmingham and the Wearside baboons if we want him.
Usual disclaimers apply to this load of codswallop and I hope you all had a good weekend.
enrique will leave and barton will stay. thats my gut feeling on that one. i am so bored of it all now that i just dont care, stay or go, just make your mind up ffs. life goes on. i do hope that for the first time ever under fat boy, that we can do our dealings very early in the window and then call it a day and prepare for the new season. Wil l that happen…. ahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!