Wayne to Bridge the gap at left-back?

Posted on August 17th, 2011 | 42 Comments |

Newcastle allegedly thinking about loaning Wayne Bridge.
Somehow I doubt it
Newcastle United are allegedly considering a move to take Wayne Bridge on loan if they fail in their attempts to sign Erik Pieters.

This is one from the Daily Mail. They claim we’d consider paying £80k/week to bring Wayne Bridge to Newcastle on a season long loan if we don’t manage to sign Erik Pieters.

Personally, I think that’s poppycock and the Mail doesn’t even attempt to justify its claims in any way whatsoever. It merely states that we will ‘consider a fresh move’ for the player if all else fails.

I rather suspect such ‘consideration’ will amount to about 2 minutes of side-splitting laughter from board room at St James’ Park. Manchester City are apparently not keen to pay any of Bridge’s wages if he goes out on loan and there are even rumours that they want £2m up front merely for the privilege of loaning a player from them.

I really can’t see any of this appealing to Ashley’s methods of running a football club. And rightly so in this case. We need to ‘build’ a team for the seasons ahead rather than just plug holes in it for the short term.

There really is no excuse. Enrique’s departure has been on the cards for months so we should have been well-prepared for it. Then again we’ve allegedly been looking for some sort of ‘Carroll replacement’ since January and still haven’t got one (unless you happen to think Demba Ba is it), so we should hardly be surprised.

Rumour has it that Erik Pieters will cost £6m and 30k/week in wages, which seems reasonable enough for an international left-back, so – assuming the player has been scouted properly and is what we’re after in a left-back – that’s where our priorities should lie.

Aly Cissokho is allegedly our ‘backup target’ if we make no progress with Pieters, although as far as I can tell Erik Pieters is the man we’re really after.

I thought Jonas looked less effective without Enrique during last weekend’s game. Raylor tried his best in an unfamiliar position but Enrique was also Jonas’s ‘foil’ for forward movement up the left and the two had a good understanding on the pitch. I would hope Jonas could reach a similar understanding with someone like Pieters.

Admittedly I’m only basing this on one game but I thought the ‘glaring holes’ were mainly where we thought they’d be: namely a left-back and a decent quality striker. I think we missed the creativeness of a Ben Arfa sort of player too, although I’m worried about Benny at the moment. Has he just been extremely unlucky or did his double leg break cause more long-term damage than we’re being told?

I hope not.

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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42 Responses

  1. Convinced we’ll end up with none of the supposed “big Money” signings mentioned for LB or CF & end up with loanees!!

  2. 2 million for him lmao give him a miss i say cissko or peters prefer cissko meself but would be more than happy with peters

  3. We are going to get linked with every left back there is at the moment as everyone knows we are looking to sign one up. Same for forward men.

    Personally I agree with post 1. We aren’t going to get anyone else in through the door. There’s just a load of hot air coming out of the club, and it’s not from the new Dyson hand dryers Ashley spent the Enrique money on.

    But I’m not worried, we have new gates at the training ground and we’ve bought the grounds man a new flask for his tea.

  4. Ha ha ha how unlikely!

    Pay what we got for Jose and buy Pieters, stop screwing around. His wage demands are less than Joses so whats the problem? Unless its with his club…. but we can meet the price and wages.

    I still have a problem with players on 30k and more, like its the minimum wage. When most of us earn less than that in a year. Sorry for that leftfield remark

  5. This is Fatman we’re talking about. As I’ve mentioned on Ed’s blog are these all REAL bids (Neil Taylor, Erdinc, Pieters) or is it just about conning the media to print stories to give us the impression that Fatman and Slimebag they give a f’ck ?

    I recall what my friend had said earlier in pre season (from a coaching staff mate of his)member). Fatman wants to spend as little as possible in keeping this club in the BPL. So now £6m or £7m signings are just fantasy and not reality. We’re the new Everton ? Except we dont play like them :(

  6. Well you know Ashley`s strategy sell a player before you bring one in. Furthermore make a pfofit on the deal, therefore if he received 5.5m for Enrique he will not pay 6m for a replacement, he wants his profit. We struggled at left back against Arsenal don`t put us in the same position against the unwashed. Bring in a proper left back for Saturday!

  7. We have all read the views of new players coming to the club. You know the usual “Big Club, Couldnt wait to join etc etc” and amongst those I recall reading Cabaye’s comments about buying into the “project” that was presented to him before he joined.

    Is there really a project of any description going on at this club (please God tell me the “Arsenal of the North” isnt it) or is it just BS to get players to sign ?

  8. Didn’t puppet Pardew say a big chunk of the Carroll money was being used to offer Jose a new contract, wages etc? That’s free now, plus his transfer fee!? It’s just one line after the next with these lot, if we dont get a LB in for weekend, not Bridge, I’m going to be sick

  9. I think more or less everyone knows the drill now.
    Sell and replace with much cheaper options,freebies,kids or just soldier on and not even bother filling key positions at all.

    Sad.

  10. Yup kinda leaves Anal’s reputation where it was, down the toilet.

    https://nufcblog.org/2011/05/enrique-to-be-offered-%E2%80%9Cfantastic-contract%E2%80%9D-claims-pardew/

    Did he say “Two players in early next week” after the Arsenal game or is it just something programmed into his small brain to spew out when he’s cornered in an interview ?

    This from January 2011 “Alan Pardew has talked about the transfer window today, from Newcastle’s base out in Portugal, and he says the deals will probably go through in the last day or two of this transfer window”

  11. Final thought. 47k on Saturday so the missing 5k would have spent approximately £150k on seats (average seat price of £30?)plus maybe another £10k on products and services ? Enough to pay Pieters wages plus AN Other ?

    Maybe Fatman’s trying to see how low it can go ?

  12. To be honest it better getting someone in regardless of what they are loan or not. At least it will give US until Christmas to sort out permanent cover. We can think about the next transfer window. Least bridge on 6 month and maybe similar for a striker takes away the issues we have at the moment. Purchases aren’t the be all and end all decent loanees will do a job regardless and apparently marcheda from man u has been mentioned although might not be ideal. Anyone fancy giving xisco a second chance? At this moment I do.

  13. i wouldnt want to rely on bridge ideally. however he would be better than nothing. i do think we will sign peters though. the player seems to be up for the move and he is an experienced international defender. fits the bill of younger cheaper players. i wish we had given johnny woodgate an offer. had a blinder for stoke at the weekend. cracking signing IF he stays fit but so far so good for stoke

    another striker we can cross off our speculative list is kerrison from barca. he has signed on loan for cruizero once again.

  14. Brilliant back-up plan for Jose’s exit. There was no plan.

    Pieters is on his way with PSV for there Europa cup tie, but he’s too expensive, the same price as Enrique, meaning if Ashley sanctions the move he wouldn’t have made any profit. 6-7 million for a Dutch international…

    This Lyon player is 8 Million apparently, so that’s 7 Million too much. As for Bridge, it wouldn’t surprise me. He would take a drop in wages for a loan for a season, otherwise he won’t play. He has been crap ever since he past the age of 25. Just because he’s 31 doesn’t mean this story is BS, remember Shefki Kuqui… Total farce. Check out the journal comments today.

    Keegan “you know the price, it’s 3 Million, they go and offer 2 Million, the bid gets rejected”.

  15. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    August 17, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    “Don’t see how this is anything more than ‘press-mess’ tbh.
    He’s over 30.”

    Rubbish, if it’s a loan it will be sanctioned. He doesn’t want to spend anything Clint.

  16. is wayne bridge that bad’a player like??? – tho he did help get west ham relegated before pissing off!

    it’s just like when we got relegated & all our rabble done off aswell – i aint got anytime for those type of players – so he can go f@ck himself.

  17. jimbob,
    aye maybe mate.
    But Kuqi was a back up striker, a body.
    Bridge wouldn’t be back up.
    But hey, who knows?

  18. I’ve got no problem with Bridge at lb – he’s pretty decent – but this is one time when Ashley’s reluctance to only pay a fraction more than we got for Enrique for Pieters is truly irritating. Just do it!!

  19. Clint, I’ve just lost the will mate. Soul destroying the whole thing, when you think about it in depth.

  20. oh dear i’ve just remembered – wor demba – helped get them relegated aswell.

    never mind i’m sure that our understanding fans can forgive him for abandoning a sinking ship – just like they did with the c*nts that left us when we dropped a division.

    nice.

  21. dont expect anything decent to happen,with this regime.
    of course we’ll get the usual guff from these conmen,about how tireless the work is going on behind the scenes.

    at the end of this window,i see us ending up with bridge or nicky shorey for fullback.
    i can also envisage “parnocchio” getting desperate,and a**e crawling to fergie to get macheda on loan.
    fergie is the puppets hero,so i can see him looking to sir alex,to pull him out of the s**t.
    alex thinks this mug pardew is a joke anyway,after his childish attempts to ask fergie for help during the “BARTON TEA PARTY”.

  22. a very probable statement to be made by mr pardew in approximatley 2 weeks time.

    – we just couldn’t quite get them over the line and as a result we are where we are –

    hope not like – but that’s your cards marked lads.

  23. Just noticed that Peter Odemwingie wants away from WBA. There’s our striker problem solved and he won’t cost as much as Sturridge.

  24. I’ve certainly nothing against Loans (not Bridge!!) so the two I have in mind are Sturridge & Van Aaaholt…unrealistic…most certainly!

  25. Alan Pardew – September 1st,

    Naa, we tried for the last 7 months to get a striker in and a new left-back. We made bids for players such as Gamiero knowing full well we wouldn’t get them. We wanted Neil Taylor, but Mr Ashley didn’t see sense in paying over 1 million for a defender. When the bid for Enrique came in, we couldn’t wait to get some wonga, but when we are after a player Mr LLambias drives a hard bargain. I’ve been really impressed with Raylor, Perch and Ameobi. I also believe my 4-4-2 formations vs teams with 5 in the middle are genius.

    Hope not, still 2 weeks to see. :-)

    Oh Forster’s on his way.

  26. aye Forster on loan to Celtic for the season

    ironic he didnt want to warm the bench here yet he is now one of 3 keepers “fighting for the shirt” up there…

  27. jimbob,
    i don’t spend a lot of time getting het up about it mate.
    I’ve got a lot happening atm & i’ve never been an avid transfer window watcher. If we get players in-cool, if not, well, what can we do?
    I’d love for us to get a decent striker & LB in in the next week or 2 like. But there’s nee way i’m giving meself an aneurysm in the meantime, based on divvy press accounts of what we’re apparently gonna do next.
    Believe it when i see it, kinda thing!
    ;)

  28. It’s good for Forster to gan north, good practice, he needs it. He ain’t getting a game ahead of Harper & Krul anyway, is he?

  29. Hopefully Forster will get the No. 1 jersey again and keep improving. Wouldn’t mind seeing young Alnwick start in a few cup games.

  30. Thought I had heard that soderberg may have been going out on loan but I guess not now due to Forster going Celtic. Either one would be good in between the sticks gaining some experience.

  31. Harry,
    yea, you could be right mate.
    Soderberg has sat on the bench a few times, so i guess he would be back up. Alnwick has just come back from the under 20’s WC, so he must be coming along, hey?

  32. song gets his 3 match ban for the ‘Joey stomp’, it sounds like a new dance craze.
    :)

  33. Yea hopefully we have a future England No.1 on our hands. I’m not being harsh on Harper but he’s only got a season left in him so it would be wise to give soderberg a run out and see how he goes.

  34. I think Harper’s got more than a year left mate.
    ‘Keepers can easily play ’til 40, look at Freidel, top ‘keeper still at 41.
    We have some even younger ‘keepers coming through too now.
    Not a problem position for us, more a problem of who to play really.

  35. Hugh,
    i seen him sloping off there with a ‘jazz mag’ under his arm.
    Just thought everyone needed to know, it’s not unusual with this club, warts n’ all!
    :)