£3m for Nolan rejected, but do we need him anyway?

75 Responses

1. Do we need him?? Do we need him?Do we need him?? Do we need him?? Seriously? ? Seriously? Do we need him? He only scored what 12 goals for us last season and a dozen more to safely get us promoted. And ur saying do we need him? Ur fekin out of ur Mind… A true captain and a true leader and this is the respect HD gets? It’s complete nonsense u even publish this article and u call yourself a Newcastle Supporter? so pathetic u even mention that . Find someone else scoring 12 goals from midfield in the EPL.

2. 1st

3. Baro, did you actually read the article? I’m saying we DO need him!

4. I have seen far too many toon fans compare our transfer strategy to arsenal’s and then complain about it pointing to the criticism they receive for “lack of leadership” or for “lack of experience” but I would love Nufc to be in the same position as they are!! That would be a massive step up for us! I am happy our older players arent being given long contracts on big wages as a final payoff before they retire! They will slowly get eased out of the team when younger, better (hopefully) players start to earn a place and then we are left with a player on high wages and not getting into the team (Alan Smith anyone?)! Its about time the club isnt held to ransom by players

5. But I do agree that we need Nolan at the club next season thats for sure!

6. Baro…you seem er…nuts hahah! from what i read, the author is on the side of yes we need nolan. The article has to be objective to make it into a blog in the first place man ffs…
   yes of ocurse we need him. he is our leader and captain and he is the glue that keeps our team held together. he pulled joey through his crap, he looked after carroll when he weas in it too. he scored more goals than anyone and he leads from the heart. it seems crazy that we may have slapped a price tag on him of 6 million cos all that is doing is puttign him up for sale and he will be sold to a prem team.. 6 million is cheap for a home grown prem captain in his prime… joker management of our club continues… why the hell is it so hard to sign any players.. even the ones we already have and say they want to stay?? something is clearly wrong within nufc contracts dept. to55ers.

7. We definately need our captain to stay at the club,yes we do need pacey and skillfull players too. But that doesnt mean get rid of the stand out players aswell, if you say joey and nolan decide to go it could lower morale for the other players. In my opinion i think we need to keep them both but mike cashley is seeing pound signs again,if he got 4mill for joey and 6mill for nolan he probally see that as good buisiness. A lot of young midfielders could learn alot from these 2 and pick the team spirit up.

8. People put their dream sides on different blogs, and Nolan’s name is rarely there.

   which is contrary to what is being said here

   But i think we need him.

9. 6MILL for nolan could be a steal for any of the teams,he true leadership and great experiance in top flight and in lower so lets tie him down while we still got a chance to do so.

10. Baro – ‘Find someone else scoring 12 goals from midfield in the EPL.’

    Florent Malouda. 38 League Apperances. 13 Goals.

    The title of the article is merely putting the question out to the audience for debate. He has already given his answer within the piece of writing.

    Engage your brain next time you staring franctically typing away.

11. I am not going to get myself worked up over transfers and contracts it is out of my hands and not worth losing sleep over.

    If we are replacing players like Joey,Nolan and Jose etc with even better players then fair enough….my heart tells me the spin machine at the toon will make it look like we are chasing continental greats and premiership gods…..resulting in a few championship players and some old freebies.

    My preference is for JB,KN,JE to stay but if they all left the club I wouldn’t be surprised.

12. It’s beyond belief if Nolan is not around next year & I say that in full appreciation of how unbelievable some of Ashley’s decisions have been to date. 28 is NOT 32 & it’s entirely reasonable to expect Nolan would still offer good value to the team for 4 more years given how pace is not a component of his game & how particularly important he’s been for leadership & team spirit. Who could have thought that this summer we’d be facing the prospect of losing 4 of our top 5 players from last year (you know who they are). Most of us readily accept the daft fee for Carroll & we’ve moved on. Most of us support the policy of signing young & being financially sensible after years of chronic mismanagement, but even after everything that’s gone on previously under Ashley, this would be yet another stunning low. It doesn’t matter who or how many they sign, new players always represent an element of risk & must be integrated into a functioning club & team & these guys are a major part of creating that the last 2 years – losing this many of your top core players, especially the top-scoring captain, in one summer would be madness. Even from a purely business perspective this is off the scale in terms of risk management & could only suggest we are now run purely by bean counters who care not in the slightest about building a club properly. If this happens I’ll feel a sucker for yet again believing the comeback since relegation represented them trying to do it properly. I even think it represents false advertising on behalf of the club given all the pronouncements from Pardew that have been contrary to this (not that I’m blaming him but in the absence of any executive statements it’s all we have to go on). If we sell these players, but particularly Nolan, then it’s the final straw for me & I will seriously look at suing the club if they refuse to refund my season ticket. Even if that’s a shot for nothing I’ll do it anyway & make as much of a media stink as possible. (Just to put it into context I don’t live in the UK anymore but keep buying my 2 tickets to make the 3/4 games a season I can get to & to save a seat for my wee football-mad nephew to accompany me in future)

    Sorry for droning on lads but I rarely comment & this has just got me proper riled.

13. 11..jase… of course that is what is going to happen.. try telling that to the ashley is a demi god brigade tho. even after all the windows we have wittnessed they still dont grasp it. talk is cheap they say.. adn we seem to have plenty of that.

14. I think the title of what’s written is what’s upset Baro, to even suggest the question of “is Nolan needed” after the commitment he has shown us is slighty wrong. But we all know he is needed and deserves a decent contract

15. I thinks Mike’s motto is survival of the cheapest.
    If it can be done cheaper he will do it.
    I agree we shouldn’t be paying the crazy wages we used to or silly transfer money on players but replacing proven premiership quality that is part of the first team spine with unproven players is just silly.
    And my gut feeling is this will happen.
    1 step forwards 2 back.

    Ideally I would like the club sold and see the back of MA.

16. yep and so would i. i would ‘just love it’ if we were sold off. you would think now we are in the prem with no debt etc we would be sold with ease saying as he said he only wanted 100 million at the last effort. clearly he didnt want 100 million did he, cos if he did we would have been sold in a heart beat. we are a cash cow, nothing more. ‘survival of the cheapest’…… i like it jase. very apt!!

17. survival of the cheapest

    i like it 2

18. :lol:
    We are are always just a step away from stability Craig and then we have the cart tipped over and it’s back to square 1.
    Not holding my breath for signings I am more concerned about exits…no way can this club push on under this regime constantly messing things up.

    We finished in a decent position considering we lost AC….the plan should be rewarding the lads that rolled up their sleeves and grafted,shift the crap out and add some quality…..it is that simple.

19. I wanted to add that we need Nolan and he needs us too so its symbiotic or mutual. i think we would be worse off without him and so would he.

20. Some pap from the rumours site…. and can we look forward to hearing the staris of

    ’09 Jun 2011 00:32:06
    Claude Debussy from FC Nante to Newcastle United……. ‘

    (ahhh, it’ll be nice to relax to the strains of Claire de Lune over the SJP PA system?)

    And

    ‘Newcastle are closing in on French Under 21 Playmaker Remy Cabella. Cabella who is owned by Montpellier had been on loan last season to relegated AC Arles-Avignon. He has impressed Graham Carr with some outstanding Performances and is set to sign within the next couple of weeks.’

    Ho hum

21. And we have so many trophies with our experience..NOT !!!
    Nolan, barton, Smith, Enrique et al didn’t keep us 2 years ago. In all honesty these payers, bar enrique are never going to take you on to another level. Barton and Nolan are extremely greedy modern day footballers wanting such lengthy contracts. They’re hardly the quickest and most mobile now, why should we let them become the new Butt and Smith in a few years time, still on huge wages. Let them go elsewhere for their pension funds and retirement homes. carroll masked a lot of Nolan and barton’s deficiencies. Nolan can’t run and track back and set up moves and barton never covers Simpson like Jonas covers Enrique. The biggest thing I have against Ashley is that we have a crap manager when so many other good ones are currently available. however, if we are going to get in some younger fleet footed skilsters, I’d welcome that.

22. i agree.. so based on that what are they going to do? get shot of barton, jose, nolan for starters. but its ok as we will replace them with the very best players….that can be bought for a fiver or even better, exploit a clause in a contract and get them for free. Its all well and good getting a few bargins through the door but the general rule with life is that you pretty much get what you pay for. If ashley pays ccc money… well i guess that is where we will end back.
    they all know the second season back in the prem will be tougher than the one we just finished.. so what do they do, they sell off our backbone. pure genious man!

23. Nick if we keep Jose,Barton and Enrique and add some better players to replace the likes of Ranger.Lovvenkrands,Shola,Smith etc we can move forwards.

    Quality and Depth…..simple.

24. 2nd season syndrome shouldn’t really apply to us. we were in the premiership for 16 years prior to our one year out wit the most expensively assembled team to ever be in the championship. As it is teams like Wigan, Blackpool, Stoke, Brum etc don’t have players on the same wages like Colo, Enrique, Jonas, Barton, Nolan etc.

    Plus even if we let some go, we still have ferguson, Vuksic,Tavernier, Lua Lua etc coming through

25. I’m not necessarily saying get rid of Nolan and barton, but it makes me really mad when people say they haven’t been offered new contracts. They have been, just not as long as they greedily wanted, ie till when they are 33/34 as opposed to 31/32 when they can leave on frees.

    Look at the problem we have with Smith on 60k a week for doing nothing. Why can’t they see their 2 years out and if they are still playing well, apply for a one year extension then when they’re in their 30’s, a la Manu?

26. Nick,Vukic,Tavernier and Lua Lua may never come through….it’s about the here and now.
    If these are starting next season I would be very surprised and if they all start week in week out with Ranger upfront then we will be back to the fizzy’s ASAP.

27. Makes me laugh the people complaining that we are being run on the cheap etc etc. It is such a ridiculous comment to make, surely you also want to find players that are value for money rather than simply wasting millions? The money that is saved by getting bargains goes towards everything at the club including people’s jobs! I think its great that our owner is trying to reduce our debt and bring youngsters through! All these people need to get a grip, we finished 12th with our current squad and if we can add a few decent buys we can establish ourselves in the league again and push on from there! There are many people that will never take to Ashley and cant wait for us to be taken over but you have to accept that this will NEVER happen while we have the debt to Ashley and that Newcastle Holdings so in reality you should support nufc working “on the cheap” to get rid of Ashley quicker!

28. nick… second season syndrome does apply to us because we are selling all our prem proven players and replacing them with untested players from cheaper options. that is a fact.
    we have aspirations of being a prem club with a budget of a championship team… something has godda give, either ahsleys wallet or our status in this league.

29. I remember JB comments about being replaced by younger, cheaper & better players, what’s wrong with that. Nolan’s contribution in the past 2 seasons has been immense but lets not get blinded by his contribution to team spirit as it seems likely that the cabal of team spiriters ie Smith, Barton and possibly Harper will be gone. It is probable that enhanced contracts have been offerred if he and JB dont want them its time to move on.

30. we defintely should keep Nolan, 12 goals, and a good leader, although does get lost in some games and seriously lacks pace.

31. 28……that is NOT a fact, that is speculation, as we have sold NONE of our prem proven players, and have therefore replaced NONE of them with untested players. It is pure speculation that any of them will be sold, because as far as both players are concerned they are staying, even if to just run out their contracts

32. 31… carroll sold and replaced with kuqi??

33. Nick 85

    Spot on, there are to many people think that Andy Carroll was a proven prem player, lets wait and see.

34. we need pace…in central midfield..until we adress that this summer..we can move forward….if tiote was playing we wouldnt have lost that game…smith and nolan..we lost that game becasue of them..couldnt get back against west brom…all english players have bleed us dry…so come greedy and dont work at thier game…take the money…look at that greedy b..tard..m.owen..couldnt be bothered and wanks ferguson off at united..

35. I’m sure some people on here live in a dream world where the truth is whatever supports their point! There are people in this thread shouting about how “were selling our best players” etc. Like who? As it stands, we have sold nobody yet at all, so what are you on about? Isn’t this blob written on the fact that the club has REJECTED an offer for nolan, yet still all the anti ashley brigade are shouting about selling off the better players, when in this instance he has done the OPPOSITE! So you hate him for selling players, but you also hate him for not selling them? It’s ridiculous. And yes, the club does need nolan at the minute, but he’s got 2 years left, and with the 2 years he has been offered will see him tied til he’s 32 and to be honest I think he’s incredibly greedy to be expecting to be offered a contract til he’s 35 when he’s still only 28. I’ve never ever heard of any club doing something as ludicrous as that! He will be on massive wages til he is well past it as he will be getting them from 28, and nobody can know how quickly any player will deteriorate after 30. There’s more to it than just pace.

36. 35…….barton is going, jose is going . i would say that is two big players for us mate.

37. it’s all well in good signing younger,better,cheaper,players etc,imo this is one of mike ashley’s biggest flaws,as an owner.
    mike ashley is shortsighted,by his longsightedness,he’s obsessed with signing young players and kids.what he doesn’t realise,is if he doesn’t take care of the here and now,then there will be no long term future.there’s no point signing promising youngsters,when your in league one.there was a story in the chronicle last week,about them signing 8 players from the same local youth team,thats all well in good,but they will not be any use to us for about 7 or 8 years.
    getting on the point of captain tugboat,yes tugboat,that’s what he was being called last close season.he does get important goals,but does lack pace,and can get left behind in some games.
    we could do without him,but only if he was replaced by someone better.yohan cabaye could turn out to be a good signing,but if he comes in,but we loose barton,nolan,smith,and you pair cabaye with guthrie for instance,would this be a step in the right direction?.
    what if cabaye takes time to settle?what if he picks up an injury?,ashley in the past has let players leave,and not replaced them,leaving us with a weak squad.
    imo we put all our eggs into one basket with ben arfa,and look how that turned out,okay we got away with that one to an extent,but ashley cannot go on taking these gambles.that is my biggest fear,that when the season starts we’ll have a weaker squad than before the window opened.

38. Nolan’s legs are too short, we should sell for 6m.

    He cant play the centre mid position cos his legs arent long enough to lunge into a tackle, and he lacks the pace to track back.

    He’s brilliant in attacking roles (and don’t get me wrong, i love him and wouldnt mind if he stayed AT ALL), but surely HBA would play the attcking mid role?

    Sell now for GOOD MONEY, or keep for one more season of inspiration, easing the transition of a new foreign set of players.

39. We need to hold on to the more experienced players in our squad at the moment, they have all done us proud and brought us back up and then held us up with some stunning performances against the worlds finest. im all for bringing in new talent and academy players but as soon as these young stars become big names, are mike ashley and llambias gonna have pound signs flash up and start lining their pockets?? man utd are successful because ferguson has a completely bonded and settled team, he doesn’t have players coming and going every 5 minutes and they don’t see a different manager every month. Dont forget ferguson had 2 games to save his job at one point and now they are the most successful club in prem history. Mike Ashley is a bussinessman, NOTHING MORE AND NOTHING LESS, his heart still lies with tottenham hotspurs. after the teams display over the last 2 seasons i would have given them any contract they wanted and held the winning team together. including Chris Hughton.

40. TROJAN 69
    Can you name any unproven youngsters that we have bought to replace experienced players recently?? Cabaye has played 200 times in France winning the league and amongst some great players such as Hazard and Gervinho… Last season we bought Tiote who had just won the Dutch league and had a great world cup with Ivory Coast as well as Ben Arfa who had been playing Champions League football and linked with £20+M moves to Utd, Arsenal etc previously. Ashley DOES buy quality providing it offers good value…. Surely that makes sense??!!!
    The team we got relegated with was full of “experienced” players such as Viduka, Owen, Martins, Duff etc but that didnt help!
    We havent sold anyone yet and we have offered a deal to Enrique to stay, if he decides to go then that is HIS decision. We offered a deal to Nolan which he rejected… His decision. It doesnt mean that we have transfer listed these players!!

41. mehdi abeid is unproven 17 yr old youngster – but i like that, he’s apparently a starlet for the future (or somethin) – and hopefully a better player to bring on for 5 mins than shefti kuqi!

42. mike ashley is a joke,which other club would sell there top scorer mid season then refuse to give 3 of our best players new contracts which they rightly deserve.£60,000 a week is a average wage for good players.alan smith has been collecting that and has’nt even kicked a ball hardly.we should get rid of of players like him and ameobi.

43. Andrew how can you expect a club of our size to be able to turn down a bid of £35M for a player?? When we then tried to sign Zog at the last minute Wigan were going to sell their best player for £10M!! We have offered contracts to all three of the players you are talking about but they have rejected the offers… I think its good that the club haven’t just given in to the wage demands as per usual! Don’t get me wrong I really want all three to stay beyond their current deals but only if it suits our wage budget etc! The club comes first and always will do for me

44. nolan should stay! for at least another year and then we should look at a new contract,will 1 yr make that much ov a difference to his transfer price. the team needs his leadership and goals! lets remember how many points we had over the relagated teams! maybe his goals were more important than some people realise.also if teams such as “liverpool” and others are lookin at “jose” to improve their back line maybe that is a good reason that we should keep him at “st james”. barton is also comin good now he is calming down and could get better as he feels wanted by the team! a feeling he has rarely had elsewhere. the fact that they wish to stay and play for the club should be enough! we have had too many players that have taken the money and then left at the 1st offer!(owen is top of that list) lets not sell the people we need to remain safe!!!

45. I really don’t see what the problem is. Nolan’s got two years left to go on his contract and he doesn’t have to go anywhere if he doesn’t want to. Please don’t offer me that horseshit about players being forced out. If you’ve got a contract, you don’t have to go anywhere. The players who’ve gone wanted to go.

46. mattyb,you missed the point completley,although i said he was obsessed with signing young players.that was not the point i was making,in the past when ashley has let go of our better players ie n’zogbia,milner,carroll etc,they were never replaced by anyone that was head and shoulders above them.the squad has invaribly been weakened as a result.

47. 36… Barton and Enrique are still Newcastle players, no matter how many times you seem to say its a “fact” that they’re gone, when they clearly aren’t. I’m not saying they won’t go, maybe they will, maybe they won’t, but you’re clearly mistaken, as they are still here, so its obviously not a fact that they’re gone. Come to think of it, has anyone actually made a concrete offer for either player?

    And to Andrew, there isn’t a club in the world that wouldn’t have accepted an offer like that for Andy Carroll. It was a great bit of business for this club sand people need to stop bleating about the past. Oh no, we sold Andy Cole as well! Also, I don’t know which 3 players haven’t been offered a new contract, cos Enrique has, and so has nolan, he’s just being a greedy git and expecting a crazy extension that no club would go for.

48. trojan..ben arfa is head and shoulders above them…and cost nothing…

49. so he didn’t cost anything?of course he did,and he was only signed recently.i’m talking about the reasons we went down,signing a crocked kevin nolan,and a mediocre ryan taylor.our season in the championship,we had a small squad,and we had a small squad last season.
    if we are maintain our progress this season,ashley has to stop his sleight of hand tricks,and strengthen the squad properly.what will be the point,if we loose barton,smith,nolan and not replace them.

50. Asim I am sure Ben Arfa cost 5 Million.

51. tavernier and ferguson are being blooded now it will be a couple of seasons before they are playing week in and out,both lads being groomed for the future.

52. 50… it was 5.5 million and i wouldnt mind betting there was some funky clause that said’ in the event that the player sustains an injury that will or could affect his career then the loaning party are obliged to purchase the player for X fee’ .. you can just imagine that cant you. no way fatty balaty and dekka would by a knackered player for over five million . christ, they wont even buy one that has nothing wrong with him for that price.

53. It seems Arsenal are after BB’s Chris Samba, while Liverpool want Birmingham’s Scott Dann and Mamadou Sakho of Paris St Germain…

    5under1and have supposedly made a £12m triple bid for Manchester United trio Wes Brown, John O’Shea and Darron Gibson. (The Times)

    Also, Wigan’s Martinez could be leaving for the Villa job, and supposedly might take Zog with him (not sure how that works- clearing his desk into a cardboard box, lamp, post it notes, Zog??)..for villa to replace ashly young.

    With Gervinho more likely to go to Man City than us, imo, i’m little worried about the LACK OF nufc signing rumours!

    Out of those names: Gibson and Samba stand out as players I’d want (the former based on either JB or KN leaving)

    Thoughts….?

54. Sakho/psycho is also one actually, to cover the occasionally injured Saylor and not all that amazing-Willo.

55. keegan wanted a left fullback during his tenure,as enrique was still finding his feet.we are still waitng for that cover,after three years.

56. Neil Taylor for 1m from Swansea – hopefully he’s our immenient 22 yr old cover. But if Enrique does go, we’ll need to cover our cover.

57. milner,the way the chronicle were wording the article,it was if this neil taylor was a straight replacement for enrique.if this is the case,then that is worrying.

58. We shouldn’t be in a position where we are discussing the sale of our captain and leading scorer when he has 2 years left on his contract and is still only 28. He is worth much more to us than 6m would buy us in securing a replacement.

    If we wanted to move key figures out, moves should have been made last season or in Jan to put their replacements in the squad so they can be eased in. Especially when we are looking at players largely unproven at this level.

    The purging of Nolan now seems to be predicated on the notion that the mercurial Hatem Ben Arfa will be fit and settled next season. Risky, to say the least.

59. real tricky one this.on one hand you don’t want to tie down an ageing player to a five year deal on a fat paycheck but on the other is the possible lack of a leader figure in the team…
    let’s not push our luck.keep him on for a year.let’s not leave everything up to our capable yet unproven youngsters.if the youngster’s can carry the mantle then we can offload him mid season,but i say we stick to him now,even though i don’t see him ever making any other contribution besides a few goals…

60. GeordioCubano says:
    June 9, 2011 at 7:40 am

    “Sorry for droning on lads but I rarely comment & this has just got me proper riled.”

    Don’t be Geordio, you made some good points in comment 12.

61. stevo says:
    June 9, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    “both lads being groomed for the future”

    I thought grooming by anyone but a horse trainer was bodrering on the illegal?

62. Kilgore,
    i think it’s allowed if the subject has a hairy back mate.
    ;)

63. see w/ham have come back with a joint bid for nolan plus smith of £5mil (if you belive rags) imo if they come back with 8mil we should throw perch and that spanish lay-about in too :)

64. we need to keep our besr players not sell them, nolan on the pitch has epitomised the team spirit that has got us promoted and kept us in the league, ashley needs to invest the 35mil on a keeper, centreback and striker, play nolan behind our new striker a sameobl and lovenkrands arn’t going to score enough goals in what will be a tough second season

65. Hi guys…

    I usually spend my time on http://www.nufcblog.com but the author of that has messed up the comment system so im going on strike untill he changes it :) Looking forward to seeing this blog and if its any good, but im sorry it wont be permanent as i will be changin back to Eds blog as soon as he sorts his head out :D look forward to reading this blog :)

66. Welcome Notts Geordie. Ed probably won’t take that long to get his comments sorted out, but I hope you like it while you’re here anyway.

67. ‘Ad’ Harrison’s blog’s gone very quiet. I thought it was because of the dreadful new arrangements for comments, but it seems equally quiet here! The calm before the storm???

68. Because reading posts by people like Nappa is better than here. :P

69. Nappa? Don’t know why a Mackem would want to read about ‘The great Newcastle club’, how to bolster the ‘defense’ or debate the ‘color’ of the away ‘jersey’ ;-)

70. Toonpiper

    Thats why its gone quiet on eds blog. Everyone has gone on strike in protest :D he normally gets around 500 comments on the last thread he puts up but wont get anything near that tonight :)

71. Is Newcastle taking the Mick off course we need Nolan he’s our leader if he leaves then his friends colo tiote jonas Barton will follow him we don’t want this to happen. He kept us in league this year and helped us get promoted in the championship

72. Amazing really the ‘leap of faith’ or lack there of needed to assume that all read in ragloids could possibly be true.
    No wonder religions(cults/sects) take off.
    :)

73. Right boys, I’m off to the Isle of White festival for the weekend: When i return bleary eyed and stinking of stale-super-strength-cider, I’d like to read the following news:

    “Newcastle complete Signing of the French Cabbage, Shane Long pens 5 yr deal for 25k per week for 3m transfer, Gervinho talks of distant relatives in Jesmond area, Gibson accidentally gets train up north, Sikimbala flees Egypt after Camels go on strike, and 12m rated defender Godin from Athletico writes poem about the beauty of the North.”

    If i do return to this headline, in it’s entirity, I’ll know I’ve done long term damage to my health.

74. Think more about Carlton Cole and resigning Bramble and you might be close. :D

75. Seems like ED has sorted his blog problem and it now scrolls down like before instead of reading up.