Pardew unsure about Enrique but remaining hopeful
Posted on June 21st, 2011 | 11 Comments |
The Enrique situation still seems to be dragging on without solution and, in a recent interview, Alan Pardew used a quartet of successive ‘bigs’ to demonstrate what he thinks about Enrique but also says he remains unsure about the player’s future:
“I’m still hopeful that Enrique – who was a big, big, big, big player for us last year – stays at the football club and we can entice him to stay, and obviously we are still working on that.
“Jose’s holidaying and doesn’t have too much on at the moment, so we are not confident we can keep him, but we are not scared of losing him. It’s somewhere in between, really.
“When you have only got a year left on a player of his ability, of course you are vulnerable, and I think it’s nervous times for us on him.“
I just wish he’d make up his mind one way or another so that we can plan accordingly, although he could be biding his time for a few reasons.
Maybe Enrique wants to see how he thinks the incoming transfers at Newcastle will work out before committing himself. Maybe it’s the case that if we show enough ambition in his eyes he’ll sign on the dotted line.
A second possibility is that he’s just waiting to see which other clubs are prepared to vie for his services. He has previously expressed a desire to play Champions League football, so he could be waiting for a club that’s already there – such as Arsenal or some continental outfit – to make the right offer. Or maybe he’d settle for a club like Liverpool if he perceives they have a good chance of challenging for a Champions League place next season.
A third option is that he’s unhappy with the contract Newcastle have offered him and negotiations are still on-going to try and sort that out. We have heard that there has been a good contract offer with good wages but we don’t actually know what’s gone on in that respect.
Rumour suggests that we’re within a smidgen of signing Swansea left-back Neil Taylor, although the intimation from Pardew is that he isn’t seen as a replacement for Enrique. Pardew said:
“If Jose goes we will be back in the transfer market.”
So I guess from that we could conclude that Naylor is being brought in as a backup and understudy rather than a nailed on first-teamer.
There’s still plenty of time of course. It’s only June and we still have over two months of the transfer window left.
Yeah i hope he doesn’t go but i’m getting a little fed up with all the talk he needs to make up his mind, surely he knows if he’s staying or going??, i do note though that cesspool seem to have gone off and not being reported for the time being so maybe thats a good thing, come on Enrique do the right thing and let us know