Twittergate rumbles on as Pardew responds and Enrique gets fined

Posted on July 26th, 2011 | 19 Comments |

Alan Pardew admonishes Jose Enrique over Twitter comments.
Pardew still wants Jose to stay
Newcastle United hit back at Jose Enrique with a fine and a telling off after his recent renegade comments on Twitter.

This Jose Enrique nonsense is a sour old kettle of fish and no mistake. The player is clearly upset by the way the club is being run but whether or not Twitter is the way to go about expressing that is another matter.

In response, it seems that Enrique has been hit with a £100,000 fine for his comments. According to reports in such esteemed places as The Sun, Pardew was ready to leave Enrique with a mere slap on the wrist for his digressions but Ashley insisted on a two-week fine. There is no substantial evidence that Ashley did in fact make such a command of Pardew and it could easily just be the press stirring things a bit, but Pardew has responded to Jose’s Tweet by saying:

“Jose was wrong to put those comments up and I told him.

“It’s a good offer which we have given him and maybe the frustration of the situation got the better of him.

“I want him to stay, he’s a good lad but this didn’t reflect well on him. It was a mistake, he knows it and so do I.“

Hmm, well I’m not convinced that Jose does think it was a mistake. He had plenty of time to think about what he was going to say because, up until the offending Tweet, he has said nothing about the contract the club offered him or his desires to leave Newcastle since his original comments from a few months ago about wanting Champions League football.

Although he might well think it was ‘a mistake’ after losing out on £100,000 as a result. I know I would.

Extolling the evils of Twitter in general, Pardew added:

“Twitter is dangerous. You can say things when you’re emotional, when it’s probably not the best time to express your feelings.

“I’m all for people expressing themselves – they just have to be very careful.”

I’m not sure that blaming the medium Jose used to express himself is particularly relevant as, if it wasn’t Twitty, the same comments could be made in other ways. I don’t particularly like ‘social networking’ (Facebook, Twitter etc.) myself but that’s just because I usually find it extremely tedious rather than ‘dangerous’ as Pardew suggests.

I think one thing’s for certain now though – Enrique has no future at Newcastle United. Maybe he was always going to leave anyway but Ashley doesn’t take kindly to this sort of thing and I think that any chance there was of him staying has now gone, despite Pardew saying he still wants him to stay.

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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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19 Responses

  1. Whether he was frustrated or not he has dropped a clanger, he is employed and well paid by Newcastle and until such a time as he is not under contract there is a way of conducting oneself. He should have faced the manager and if not content with result of that conversation insisted on taking his grievance up the ladder first to Lambias and finally to Ashley. All he has done is engineer his way out of the toon (possibly that is what he wanted) fed stupid fodder to the media and unthinking Geordie supporter who believes everything he reads in the tabloids especially if it is anti-Ashley. So many so called supporters are saying that the club never reveal their financial position or their plans for the future, tell me which company ever reveals this sort of detail to anyone other than shareholders and then only at an AGM. Football is a business get used to this fact and just like any other club information of this sort is NEVER revealed to supporters, why tell your competition what you intend doing next who you want to sign and how much money you have available. It is only press talk stop believing them accept that the club is in a better state financially than it was when Ashley took over so what, is he is preparing it to be sold on later that is business. You may not like it but that is a fact of business life, supporters are rightly emotional about their club but the ONLY THING THAT THEY CAN EFFECT is the noise they make at both home and away matches nothing else. GET real. By the way footballers are the same if they use stupid tactics to draw attention to themselves they are employess and I know what I would do to one of my employees who used the media for their own ends —- Good bye.

    Get real Newcastle supporters.

  2. One thing all this does seem to show though is that the “fantastic offer” made to Enrique was more to do with length of contract, rather than any increase in wages. If he has indeed been fined £100k (2 weeks wages) it shows that he is already one of the highest earners at the club and whilst the club might (justifiably) think that offering somebody a £5m+ contract is a fantastic offer, you can see why he is unimpressed, if he was already on that anyway. More smoke and mirrors.

  3. Couldnt agree more with the first two posts.Pardew is powerless ti do anything anyway.Thank goodness the club is being run in a fiscally responsible way for the first time in decades.Goodbye Jose!

  4. There’s clearly a motive here beyond Jose wanting simply to vent his frustration to the masses – our players (all players!) know that Twitter isn’t regarded by managers and chairman as an appropriate place to sound off; and done in that knowledge, he’s obviously trying to force his way out of the club.
    Goodbye and good riddance as far as I’m concerned.
    We’d all like to see more incoming transfers, and I think we’d all have liked to have Nolan, Barton and Enrique in the squad for the coming season – but not at the cost of ridiculous contracts (Nolan – 60k for five years when he’s already lost any pace he ever had?) which screwed us last time round.

  5. I would think the problem is his new contract was heavily incentivised and if he thinks the squad is not strong enough to meet the requirements he does not see it as a good deal. That no one has come in for him when players are being sold left and right for 20 mill must grate with him and this is his way of getting the price down. He should have the balls to put in a transfer request if he is that desperate to leave but no that would cost him some money so he wont.

  6. Get rid of him. He is embarrassing the club and himself. We don’t want players who are going to throw their toys out the pram when things don’t go their way. Accepting a pay cheque from a club you are agreeing to go by the rules and not whining like a puppy on twitter. Every club has their own policies. Who’s to say he’s going to like the arsenal policy of not spending any cash and employing pussies and wimps. Strap a pair on you cnut! Work for your £50,000 a week and until you are sold stfu!

  7. Hoy him on transfer list and cash in and replace him b4 window shuts. Offer that contract to barton at least hes got some passion for the club and towards the fans.

  8. Cant believe in this day and age so many NUFC fans are so hide bound in their thinking, a conservative lot that would have probably been against Bosman or George Eastham in the day.
    Do you folks not believe in freedom of speech ?
    As for disrespect, bullshit !
    Obviously you are totally unaware of the fact it’s the fans who have been the victims of total disrespect from management, since the Ashley takeover.
    I just find it totally unbelievable that a player could be fined £100k without recourse in this day and age for stating an opinion and believe the players assciation should insist that this problem should be part of the collective bargaining between club and players.

  9. If you slagged off the company you worked for on TwAtter, there’s a fair chance you’d get a warning or even sacked.
    Keep your gob shut, do the the job you’re paid to do and if you’re not happy, Fork Orff!
    Will his comments helphis cause? No! Will they help NUFC? No! Will they bring to light the truth of what really goes on at SJP? No!

  10. Let him go, he’s made a total arse of himself. I completely agree with the likes of Dave @1, Mr Twitch @5 and others saying similar things.

    If he were a bit smarter, he might’ve thought better of making these comments anyway, cos all it’ll do is make your current club want rid of you, it CERTAINLY doesn’t make you a more attractive prospect to another club when you act in such a petulant and unprofessional manner.

    I like this lad a lot as a player, and I’d love us to still have him come the big kick off, but I wonder, with the way the transfer market is at the moment, and the fact that nobody has made any offer for him whatsoever, could it be a possibility that he’s not regarded as highly as we (and he) might think? It’s certainly not cos the left-back market is saturated in quality! But the whys are another point entirely.

    So yeah, he’s made a total knob of himself, get shot of him, cos even if he stays, I suspect now that the toys are well and truly out of the pram, the performances probably won’t be there anyway, and we can crack on with replacing him.

    Only in football can somebody bitch that £50,000 per WEEK is not good enough…

  11. Chuck @8

    I doubt he’s being fined for “stating an opinion” mate, nor do I think the PFA would have a leg to stand on, as they don’t have a say in club policy.

    I suspect the fine is nothing to do with any opinions, such as not challenging for top 6 etc, I think their problem is more than likely to be with him calling them all liars etc, cos that’s not an opinion, surely thats actually technically some form of lible.

  12. scott says:
    July 26, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    “surely thats actually technically some form of lible.”

    Scott, it would only be libellous if it were untrue.

  18. Scott
    Thats just bullshit and you are certinly taking a knee jerk pro Ashley reactionary stance.

    You say..”A petulant and and unprofessional manner does,nt make you an atractive prospect to another club”.

    So why is a guy who put out a cigar in a guys eye, beat up a team-mate and did time for assault, now the darling of the NUFC fans ?
    Bit worse than petulance, would’nt you say ?

    As for the players association, exactly what other body is set up to defend the rights of professional footballers ?
    And why would,nt they have a leg to stand on ?

    You like this lad a lot, eh?
    And state… “would love to still have him come the big kick off” !
    “But he’s made a total knob of himself and you want to get shot of him”, but even if he stays you suspect now the toys are truly out of the pram, the performance wont be there anyway….Erm… why is that ?
    Hey erm you want to make your mind up exactly what you are advocating here ?

  19. For one, I’m not being reactionary, knee jerk or anything like it, that’s your post, not mine.

    So you are disagreeing with my statement that petulance and unprofessionalism won’t make him more attractive? I find that very strange. Are you saying it WILL make him more attractive? That’s ridiculous.

    Your example of barton is rubbish, as his record is horrible as you rightly point out, but that didn’t make him more attractive either. Nobody bar us would touch him at that time, so you’re proving my point for me. That was a case of the club ignoring his disciplinary record, it certainly didn’t help his cause!

    Yes, I would certainly say that joey barton putting a cigar out in someone’s eye is FAR worse than petulant! And I never suggested otherwise so I’m a bit puzzled as to why you thought to mention it. I certainly wouldn’t agree though that joey barton is the darling of the Newcastle fans though! Of the people I know he’s hated by as many as love him, and the incident with the cigar certainly did not make him popular with anyone and to suggest that is ridiculous. I suspect that with barton its more a case that that incident happened years ago and so fans opinion of him has largely moved on since then. I never saw him winning any popularity contests then! Nor now actually. But as I said, I have no idea why you’ve brought that up. Are you somehow trying to say Enrique has find nothing wrong at all purely because its not as bad as an incident years ago involving a totally unrelated person at a different club? Cos if that’s your point then you might want to rethink it

    I say that the PFA wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, because they do not have anything to do with club policy or procedure, and I’m fairly sure other players at other clubs have been fined by their clubs because of their behaviour in social networking sites such as Twitter, and I can’t remember the PFA getting involved then. As I understand their role, a lot of it is to did with contract disputes and other things common in most workplaces, but they can’t dictate what a clubs policy is.

    As for me making my mind up, its not me who’s confused mate. I’d have thought my meaning was quite obvious but I’ll spell it out.

    As I said I like Enrique as a player, he’s been one of our best players over the last 2 years. Of course nobody would want to see a player like that go, under normal circumstances, hence why I would like to see him here next season, if this is sorted out.

    However he has made a total arse of himself, and I suspect, well and truly burnt his bridges. I doubt Mike Ashley really wants someone like that at the club now, I know I wouldn’t want to keep staff who were slagging me off publicly and calling me a liar! And if that’s how he feels about the club, best he buggers off sooner or later, S that type of attitude can be infectious and spread, which could be disastrous for the club both on and off the pitch, bot to mention speaking volumes about Enriques professional conduct.

    And the reason I said that I think his performances will struggle, is because there is a history of players who are trying to force moves playing very poorly, whether deliberately or not, there’s no denying it does happen, especially when a player has already shown such low professionalism. You only have to look at the likes of berbatov at spurs when he wanted out to see that it does happen. He was all but on strike so that they had no choice but to sell him! Who is to say Enrique won’t be the same? Who exactly is he forcing a move to? Nobody else has even bothered to come in for him!