Pieters, Roux, Barton … it’s all go with Toon transfers

Posted on August 26th, 2011 | 38 Comments |

Erik Pieters: Toon deal close to completion?
Agent pretty sure transfer will happen
Could it be that Newcastle United are indeed closing in on a ‘double swoop’ for a left-back and a striker? And will Joey Barton leave or not?

Rumours abound that we’re close to finalising deals for both Erik Pieters and Nolan Roux, although I think it’s always worth waiting to see them at an SJP press conference holding a black and white shirt before getting too excited.

The story with Erik Pieters has us agreeing a £6m+ deal for the 23 year-old left-back, which presumably also accounts for any financial clauses in his contract that were allegedly a sticking point with the deal originally.

Pieters’ agent Piet van der Pol said:

“I don’t know the exact numbers of Newcastle’s offer, but I’m pretty sure that the transfer will go ahead.”

I would imagine Pieters would slot straight in as first-choice left-back but I wonder what will happen to Ryan Taylor. I sometimes think he’s worth having on the pitch just for his set pieces given that goals in open play haven’t been our speciality since Andy Carroll left. Or at least it seemed that way until Sammyobi scored that cracker last night.

Then again if, as speculated, some sort of deal for Nolan Roux is on the cards we should have another player capable of scoring goals. Word on the street is that the Brest man will cost us anything from £7m-£10m depending upon which story you choose to believe, although I’m supposing it will be nearer £7m than £10m if we’re interested.

As to Joey Barton, things are still unclear. He is allegedly ‘thinking’ about a potential move to QPR, although I have no idea what particular points about the move he’s cogitating. QPR do have a rich owner and thusly potential to build but they’re not the Champions League side that it’s generally thought Joey was hoping for a move to.

And if he does move, will we replace him? My guess is that we wouldn’t at this stage and that if he’s going to be ‘directly’ replaced – i.e. in terms of getting in someone to specifically cover the right midfield role he’s been playing – it would happen in a later transfer window. But what do I know? There’s still 5 days of the transfer window left before Deep Throat retires to the beach with a packet of lozenges and a copy of the Daily Mail.

I’m presuming all Maiga interest has now ended and that other names mentioned in this transfer window – such as Barnetta or Cissokho – are now not applicable.

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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Comment on this post

38 Responses

  1. Roux sounds shite.
    Read a review yesterday.

    What happened to Best and Ba and Lovvenkrands last night?
    Poop.

  3. 23 yrs old Nolan Roux:

    he has one cap at the French U21 level.

    Nolan has played 62 times for Stade Brest with 21 goals and is the son of former professional player Bruno Roux, who is currently the manager of amateur club AFC Compiègne.

    not a mind blowing record, but one of those goals is a belter from 40 yrds

  4. I read that ba and tiote are fasting. hence their slow and subdued early season performances. gosling had a shocker against scunthorpe but lets hope more games get him up to speed. cabaye for me looks good in parts but aint controlling games quite yet. again maybe some time is needed. as for transfers. i would have preferred cissokho to pieters but thats just nit picking! also would love santon to sign and replace simpson. simpson has no attacking instincts at all!!! Modern full backs need to be attacking.

  5. good article el toro, here it is for those too lazy to follow the link:

    On Tuesday afternoon various media sources picked up the story that Brest striker Nolan Roux was a target for English side Liverpool. Some sources even going as far to say a fee and contract terms had been agreed and the 23 yr old would be on his way to Anfield on Friday or Saturday to have a medical before completing the deal.

    The young striker has rose to prominence very quckly in 2009/10 he scored 15 goals as he was a huge part of Brest’s promotion to Ligue 1. However his first season in the top flight was hampered a little by injury, he scored 6 goals and was mostly impressive.

    To give you an idea of what the player is like here are some tweets from the top Ligue 1 reporters airing their thoughts on Roux:
    Matt Spiro – Writer and broadcaster for Ligue1.com

    Nolan Roux is 23, great potential. Scored 15 goals to get Brest up, only 6 in debut top flight year but had injury. I’d guess €6-8m.
    I had pleasure of commentating on Roux’s goal in the Brittany derby vs Rennes. Pure class.
    James Eastham – French football scout and betting expert

    If they can get him for £7-8m it would be a bargain. Outstanding prospect.
    He has a fantastic attitude, great movement, workrate and much, much more than a goalscorer. A potential French international.
    He’s right-footed but decent on both sides, I can see him playing wide as well as through the middle.
    Jonathan Johnson – Writer for Sky Sports and French Football Weekly

    Hot prospect. 23 yr old striker, 6 goals, 3 assists in 28 games. A former Lens youth player. Possesses great speed and positioning.
    Superb performance for U-21′s in his only match for them v Croatia.
    Son of Bruno Roux, 15 goals/5 assists in Ligue 2,strong player will adapt to Premier League, unfinished article, versatile-striker or winger
    It’s clear to see that Nolan Roux is very highly rated, fans too often only look at a strikers goal ratio and determine if he is worthy or not. There is much more to being a top striker than putting the ball in the back of the net and Roux has the ability to be one of the leading strikers in Europe.

    If the deal goes through and Liverpool acquires his services they will have a very able player that will be a great addition to their squad.

  6. i liked this bit:

    He has a fantastic attitude, great movement, workrate and much, much more than a goalscorer. A potential French international.
    He’s right-footed but decent on both sides, I can see him playing wide as well as through the middle.

    fits the mould!

  7. I guess Hugh that on radio you wouldn’t be able say what you wrote ‘…Word on the street is that the Brest man…’

    We will have all the ladyboys in Thailand supporting us.

  8. I thought Best would take this chance to show what he could do – so perhaps he has, it looks like he (with Lovers) is not PL class.
    It proves beyond doubt we need a decent proven CF, preferably (in my view) one with a good PL record and there appear to be 2 available to buy – Bendtner & Defoe, and after 3 games I’d settle for either (even in the short run we would get our money back). Any of the touted foreign based players would be too much of a risk in our position.

    Otherwise I’d go all out for Sturrige on loan and hope he opts to stay.

    Otherwise – job done last night, good first 3 games, Arsenal point, 3 from 5under1and away and an away cup win! well done! next up Fulham are beatable – things are not as bleak as some are painting them.

    HWTL

  9. Could it be that Newcastle United are indeed closing in on a ‘double swoop’ for a left-back and a striker? And will Joey Barton leave or not?…..

    if we sign this left back does that mean we’re stronger than last season? at best we’re standing still – but in truth we’ve probably gone backwards in this department – but hey feel free to get all excited – but i wont be.

    sign a striker for £7/£10 million? no chance – expect a freebie & you wont be disappointed.

    will joey barton leave? i hope he stays with us for the rest of this season at the least.

  10. Milner on Nolan Roux
    very good posting, thank you, looks very convincing. My only worry is that others have looked at him and passed him over, possibly because he is over-priced, but he does look better than what we have.

  12. From the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper today:

    English translation:

    Erik Pieters now gives himself that a transfer to Newcastle United is approaching. “If a club from the Premier League you would like to have, and that’s the case, then you know that the financial resources available,” says the defender of PSV in the AD.

    © anp It can now be very rapid. “Sunday with PSV at Excelsior or already on the bench at Newcastle United. I do not know. Well, it’s just beautiful. I myself have not seen much of Newcastle United, but my buddy Tim Krul (goalkeeper for the English club) keeps me informed

  14. @ray croper well another gloom merchant_ my the winter nites must just fly by–how did u feel after Sunland game–a bit excited a bit happy or did you sit and moan that if so and so was still here it would have been 6-0.I expect that youll boycott the game on Sunday? God help anyone sitting around you haway the lads and support this team man

  15. @13 – i’ve got a complete ban on attending anymore games while the fat shithouse is at the club – but if you want to go for pre match drinks on sunday then i’ll be more than happy meeting up with you for a nice little discusion about what gets me excited these days.

  16. Playing on my mind this morning;

    If Barton stays: GREAT, we have a battler.

    …he may get offered X year deal if all goes well at the end of another good season

    …he may just see out contract, but we get him for a year.

    HOWEVER,

    if he goes… it will give other midfielders a chance. Mainly, if there is shuffle around, Vuckic! This guy is ready, not just for cameos.

    So I guess its win win in a way. Last night tho, I did think we missed that – BITE, that ‘get stuck in’ player. In fact, tho, I did think S.Taylor did just that when he came on. But sometimes you need more than one player.

    This brings me back to Vuckic… he is a one of them players. Which he gets going in the long term is will be just that. Along with Cabaye of course.

    Maybe I have answered my own concern while typing this…

    …Good luck at QPR Joey. Thanks for last season.

    :)

  17. Well roux certainly looks calm in front of goal and he knows where the goal is so we’ll just have to wait and see……….

  18. @14 – Whilst I understand the frustration and anger towards fat lad, I just don’t get the whole ‘boycott the match’ notion. If anything we should be aiming to pack it out and increase revenue, because the sooner fat lad gets his money back the sooner he’ll sell up and bugger off.

  19. @17 – & i just dont get the whole – when he gets his money back he’ll bugger off notion – he’s a ruthless businessman & if you think for one minute that he’ll walk away from the club when it’s making him money then your sadly mistaken.

  20. Roy Cropper says:
    August 26, 2011 at 11:28 am

    “if you think for one minute that he’ll walk away from the club when it’s making him money”

    Or promote his Sports Direct chain to a worldwide Premiership audience Roy.

  21. At the risk of being hopelessly optimistic…

    My theory on Ashley’s future plan is that once he’s made back his money, and the club is one of the few (only?) with no debt and making money each season he’ll spend the money the club makes (NOT a penny of his own) on the club.

    If we keep wages down, finish top 10 every season and keep 50k-ish coming to each home game we should be able to build a sustainable club that has enough money to qualify for Europe pretty much every season. It’ll just take a few more years of doing stuff on the cheap before we can get there.

    I agree it doesn’t sound especially exciting, but to me it beats the hell out of Shepherd paying £10M + £65k a week for pretty much every player he bought and finishing 12th.

  22. John- It’ll just take a few more years of doing stuff on the cheap before we can get there.

    I just think that tomorrow never comes under MA.
    I refuse to have much optimism while him and Llambias are in charge.

    The AC money was meant to be reinvested plus the Jose Money and Nolan money etc on the team so far it has not.

  23. John T says it doesn’t sound especially exciting – but our current form in all games is WDDDWW, and we have 2 cups and a euro spot to play for. I think we are developing nicely and I’m looking forward with optimism – but with us that 9 shirt demands a hero and will remain the missing link until we get one, certainly no forward currently at the club is capable of filling it.

    HWTL

  24. John T says:
    August 26, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    “If we keep wages down, finish top 10 every season and keep 50k-ish coming to each home game we should be able to build a sustainable club”

    With all due respect though John, Ashley hasn’t finished in the top ten every season, so that’s hardly a fair comparison, yet. He’s finished 12th, then 18th, getting relegated, spent a season in the Championship, got re promoted, fired the man who got him repromoted, failed to get 50kish coming to each home game and finished twelfth last season again.

    Though I think Fat Freddy is the Geordie answer to Satan, you are comparing the lowest results under him to aspirational ones in the case of Fat Ashley. Surely that’s an unfair comparison?

  26. @24

    Fair point, but what I’m saying is that if we can come top ten this season and next (with a good left back and a top striker in that seems a reasonable aim) we’ll be on the up and up. The main point I was trying to make in that post was that I don’t expect Ashley to sell up when he gets his fabled £100M back, but nor do I expect him to just sit there and put the money in his back pocket.

    I genuinely think he wants the club to pay for itself, but he also wants it to be successful – partly out of vanity and partly as a billboard for Sports Direct. If we assume the club is currently being run at a profit, and the profit it makes is paying of the £100M Ashley put in, I think it stands to reason that once that debt has been paid, the profit the club makes will be spent on better players and higher wages.

    To my mind that’s infinitely better than running it on debt and high hopes a la Shepherd.

    As I said earlier, perhaps this is hopeless optimisim, Ashley is an irredeemable tw@t, but…I don’t think so.

  27. Apparently Pardew will welcome Barton back with open arms if he chooses to stay. We’ll see about that!

    Barton has also stated on twitter that he will DEFINITELY making his decision today.

    Let’s hope we keep a good midfielder!

  30. Ok, just a thought… If we get Pieters (i hope so as he looks class)and this feller Roux (better than Maiga or whatever his name is) then I’d think about having Raylor in at RB, and dump Simpson. The bloke is a liability defensively, and is shocking going forward. At least Raylor can strike a dead ball.
    I’d also have Ferguson on the left mid, with Jonas on the right. We’re so much better when we attack teams instead of humping it long. And at least Ferguson and Jonas love taking players on.

    Thoughts?

  32. #30 totally agree we have to find a place to play Raylor just for his freekicks specialty. im not a huge simpson fan either so i dont think hes going to be any worse defensively.

    Glad to see the back of barton – superb on his day but not worth all the trouble and bad club press that comes with him. Cabeye will be a far more talented consitent creative midfielder and hopefully he doesnt have a twitter account!

  33. I dont know if wikipedia is right but it says nolan roux has 62 games 21 goals, thats like a goal every third game, not very prolific!! sad news about barton!

  34. What happened to British football? I remember as a lad, being able to walk the street and meet & greet our heroes, walk past their other interests – funeral parlour, sports shop, butchers, et al – and discuss openly their thoughts on the last game/the upcoming clashes.

    Days when both the team and the fans shared the same railway carriage and when the captain would mingle with the fans on the return journey and explain why the team had just played like a bunch of nob-kockeys.

    Now supporting a team is just a case of slagging of the owners, overpaid foreigners, and wondering where Scunthorpe actually is and why was it built.

    It seems the only way to communicate now is via Twitter a-la Barton, spouting cod philosophy that bears no resemblance to the actuality of Life on less than £60,000 per week.

    Sadly, I hardly know how to pronounce most of the squad’s names, let alone where they live and how they support their meagre football incomes with from outside incomes.

    Meeting any of them on the street for a bit of banter is hardly likely now, without negotiating with their various ‘minders’ (usually involving lengthy contractual wrangles, several fist-fights, and the exchange of a wad).

    Bring back the days when Malcolm (Big Mac) and others before him, would walk down the street, shake your hand, and invite you to his pub.

  35. Sorry for the hold up Kilgore, it’s that f***ing word, Scunthorpe again. I wish the whole place would just disaf***ingpear so I never had to encounter the word again on this ‘blog!

  36. Sorry not interested in commenting on the Barton ting , he is yesterdays news ie chipo paper !

    Re Roux is he instead of Maiga , I quite fancied Maiga after seeing him on u tube Non ???

  37. Kilgore you can still meet supermac in the street going to the hairdressers in gossie , nooadays tho they are trying to put his hair back on his heed not cut it !!

    SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !SOOPERMAC !