Obertan confirmed, Valencia want Colo and Pardew intimates European football unlikely

Posted on August 7th, 2011 | 14 Comments |

Alan Pardew says Newcastle United are unlikely to achieve European football.
Club needs to wipe its nose
Obertan transfer to Newcastle United confirmed by Pardew, Valencia interest in Coloccini and Pardew intimates that European football may be beyond us.

It looks like the alleged interest in Gabriel Obertan I reported yesterday is indeed true and the deal should be finalised next week sometime. Alan Pardew confirmed it himself, saying:

“All being well, the deal will be pushed through next week. He’s not really had the chance to shine at Old Trafford but he has pace to burn and will bring some much needed sharpness to our side.”

Can’t say I know much about the player beyond what I’ve researched for articles on this ‘blog, but I hope he does indeed shine at Newcastle and I wish him the best of luck.

According to Fabricio Coloccini‘s agent Fernando Lombilla, Valencia are very interested in the player. Lombilla said:

“Valencia are insisting on signing Coloccini, but Newcastle have just named him captain, which is something that hasn’t happened before.

“So it’s very complicated. They love him in England and he even has a song they sing about him, which lasts a few minutes.

“But in a sporting sense, Valencia is a bigger opportunity – and they’re in the Champions League.

“Therefore, there will be a conflict between the emotional and the professional.”

Personally I doubt Coloccini wants a move but, as we know, every player has their price and Ashley would certainly be tempted by a high enough offer. Whether or not any irrefusable offer is destined to come remains to be seen.

Finally, Alan Pardew suggests that European football is beyond us because we just don’t have the financial clout to compete with the top clubs. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Pardew said:

“The problem is where we are now financially means that we can never really fulfil the expectations of the fans.

“They have memories of European football, but the gap is getting bigger as the years go by. The top clubs are getting an influx of money at Champions League level and we have sovereign states owning football clubs.

“It is becoming difficult to compete with the top clubs, but that is not to say we can’t compete at the level we are at. But we are always vulnerable to the bigger clubs, as Andy Carroll proved.

“That makes it difficult to manage but not impossible.

“Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias made it quite clear – the club needs to wipe its nose and therefore we haven’t got investment above our income.

“That is how Mike wants to run the football club.

“Other clubs spend more than they earn and Manchester City have been able to break into the top four for that reason. They have a sovereign state backing them.

“We can’t compete with that. It is very difficult. We can only compete 11 v 11 on a Saturday.”

This is obviously going to be a limiting factor in how much success we can possibly achieve. The likes of Chelsea and Man City have owners with very deep pockets who are running a football club almost as a hobby and they don’t expect to make money.

Newcastle United, like a lot of other Premier League clubs, is being run as a business and must thus attempt to balance the books. Whether or not the playing field will be levelled under the new UEFA regulations remains to be seen.

As to getting more players in this transfer window, Pardew said:

“I’m fairly confident we will get the players in we need. I would like one, or possibly two, in before we play Arsenal.

“The fans have had so many broken promises, not just from this ownership but way before that.

“But we have added two or three good players to the group already and we are going to add to that.

“Once we see the team settle down – and I don’t think it will be in the first three or four games if I’m honest – we are going to see a very strong side.”

Interesting that Pardew is prepared to say we have had ‘broken promises’ from Ashley. Maybe he doesn’t value his job as much as we thought!

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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Posted on by Hugh de Payen in category: Alan Pardew and Fabricio Coloccini and Gabriel Obertan and Hugh de Payen and Mike Ashley and NUFC gossip and speculation and Transfers , with tags: , , ,
Comment on this post

14 Responses

  1. As Collo is on 80 grand a week I can see him going but this would be tragic as our defence is shite wihtout him

  4. Its sad to see statements like that coming from the manager when last season we looked to be building a solid English team. We can only hope that the French revolution will kick in quickly.
    My big worry is that we are bringing in a bunch on midfielders when we don’t have full backs or strikers.
    At least we’re playing a team who are having nearly as many issues as us next week!
    I also think the club over state the expectations – mid table and some nice football is all that we expect at the moment and the more they make out that we are expecting Champions League the more distant the club gets from the fans.

  5. Reality is with the financial situation hitting Ashley hard we now have less chance of him splashing the cash. Unfortunately I can see more outgoings than incomings before the window closes. I just hope that a few of the young players who are showing promise can step up to the plate. Because our chances of achieving European qualification as Pardew has said are remote. I think we remaining in the premiership with the a good cup run has got to be our focus now. Gone are the times when we can afford to splash the cash the reality is we are a lower tier club in the premiership but that said it`s still an honour to support this club

  7. nobody expects newcastle to compete with the likes of man utd.the reality is though,why can we not compete with clubs like stoke city,wigan etc?,all of these clubs spend more money than us.
    norwich city have spent more money than us,thus far in this window.
    so if i’m reading this right,we have no chance of even breaking into the top six?.
    we are hearing the same comments chris hughton was making last year,”we are where we are”,sound familiar?.
    if mike ashley cannot take this club anywhere,then what is the f**kin’ point of him being here?.

  8. ok so everyone knows we cant compete with the spending and lure of man u, man city, chelski, arsenal, liverpool or tottenham. so thats the top 6, of course we cant break into europe. even 7th is a respectable position to finish but doesnt get u european football. and with the likes of tiote, saylor etc always picking up cards we are hardly going to get there via fair play. lets just hope for some canny results this season, most notably against the mackems and hope we play some pretty football and aim for top 8. even that seems quite ambitious for a team that was playing championship football 2 seasons ago.

  9. If ‘money spent’ was anything to go by, we should have been relegated last season.

  10. Trojan…..Mike Ashley will gradually drip drip drip and extract his cash from the club until they are where where he will have them. We will go nowhere with this management, because he will not speculate to accumulate. There is probably no money to be made by playing in europe, why should he take the risk ? Staying in the prem league with full houses at SJP is as far as his ambition reaches unfortunately..

  11. What makes my blood boil?
    Derek lambias is the worst MD ever – no clear vision of the future – no communication with his customers!
    Alan Pardew – does not understand what are expectations really are: we just want the
    Indy from Carroll invested into the team – from that we will have a better calibre of players and we will all know where heading in the right direction!
    Idiots!

  13. Freddie shepherd says:
    August 7, 2011 at 9:46 am

    “Reality is with the financial situation hitting Ashley hard we now have less chance of him splashing the cash.”

    Freddy, Ashley is one of the few people who is actually having a boom time in these days of financial hardship. More people are now clothing themselves cheap, tasteless rags from scruffy sheds like Sports Direct, and his profits have been consistently bucking the trend throughout the recent recession.

  14. Whenever I saw Obertan playing for Manchester United, he always looked good, someone who might rise and get a regular place in the first team one day. However with Manchester United offloading him on to Newcastle, I have a paranoid Newcastle supporter’s feeling that there’s probably a catch somewhere, and he’s now another Alan Smith or somesuch. :-)