Barton and Enrique departures – will they be replaced?
Posted on August 3rd, 2011 | 41 Comments |
Joey Barton was given a two-week fine for his renegade Twittering yesterday, which probably comes as no surprise to anyone. It certainly didn’t surprise Barton himself who said:
“Ha ha the inevitable, 2 weeks wages fine has just arrived. Needless to say it shall be appealed forthwith.”
Barton also accused the club of releasing ‘false reports’ about the situation to the press, saying:
“Everyone here knows I speak the truth.
“I also have too much respect for my teammates and the fans to get in a tit for tat war with them. I have too much self-worth and dignity.”
He was also apparently quoting both Orwell and The Smiths on Twitter but this particular debacle is beginning to get on my nerves now so I won’t bother with the quotes. Barton was made to train alone yesterday and I reckon his inevitable exit will come quite soon.
As, it seems, will Jose Enrique‘s, which is another situation that seems to have been dragging on since the Stone Age. Our old friend the Daily Mail suggests that a £10m deal is all but done to take Enrique to Liverpool. As usual, the newspaper merely reports it in omniscient fashion rather than offering anything that might reasonably be called proof, although there’s a good chance they’re right in this instance.
Liverpool have been the main contenders to sign Enrique from the start so it should come as no surprise if the player ends up there, despite the fact that they don’t offer the Champions League football Enrique said he was after.
I’m now more interested in who we bring in to replace Barton and Enrique. I presume that if we did get £10m for Enrique it wouldn’t mean Pardew had £10m to spend on a replacement because the standard mantra at the moment is that any transfer fee received would have to cover wages, agent’s fees, signing on fees, nights out at the casino etc., which by all accounts costs many trillions.
So, at a guess, we’re probably looking at a left-back in the £6-£8m range. There were rumours earlier in the summer that we might be interested in Celtic’s Emilio Izaguirre and with the Scottish club particularly keen on Forster it might just be possible that some sort of swap deal is in the offing.
As to Barton, I’m not sure he will be directly replaced as I have a feeling the club would say they’d already accounted for his departure with the acquisitions of Marveaux, Cabaye and Abeid and the return from injury of Dan Gosling. Both Gosling and Jonas – and Raylor for that matter – can play on the right of midfield.
Having said that, rumours have been stirred about our ‘interest’ in Tranquillo Barnetta since it became clear that Barton was leaving but personally I’d be surprised if we made a move for him.
There is still of course the matter of getting another striker, which has always been thought of as a priority for the remainder of this transfer window. I’d guess we will see a new striker of some sort and a new left-back but beyond that I doubt there’ll be any more signings this summer.
Onwards and upwards eh?
Another miserable day for the Toon.