Ba release clause only for clubs in European competition?

Posted on January 8th, 2012 | 27 Comments |

Demba Ba.
Demba Ba: The plot thickens.
As most of you will probably know, Tottenham Hotspur manager, Droopy Dog Harry Redknapp, claimed in an interview that there was a release clause in the contract of Demba Ba, with well known bastion of truth, the Daily Mail, following up the droopy one’s claims with a story that the figure named in that clause was £10 million.

Redknapp’s words in an interview went as follows:

“Demba Ba’s done great, hasn’t he, everybody’s looking at him suddenly,”

“Anybody could have had him a year ago. Full credit to Alan Pardew, he took him.

“He’s done a fantastic job. What a strike-rate he’s got. He’s probably the most in-form striker anywhere at the moment.

“They say there’s a release clause in his contract, that’s what we all hear.”

“He’s certainly done well and it will be interesting to see what happens there, but at the moment he’s doing great things for Newcastle.”

“He’s off to play in the African Cup of Nations so he’s going to be away for a month or so, so that’s a difficult one.

“At the moment Newcastle have got him and I’m sure Alan wants to keep him. He’d be disappointed if he had to lose him. He’d be difficult to replace.

As mentioned above, the Daily Mail followed up the story, claiming (with no evidence whatsoever seemingly):

“Demba Ba has put England’s top clubs on red alert when it emerged he has a £10million release clause in his Newcastle contract.”

Adding later in the story:

“Although Newcastle have no intention of allowing Ba to leave, he could trigger the release clause in his contract if a top club matched the figure.”

Right-oh. Whilst the club declined not to comment on the speculation, manager Alan Pardew didn’t deny the veracity of Redknapp’s comments, but had this to say after the Magpies’ 2-1 F.A. Cup victory over Blackburn Rovers yesterday:

“I thought, listening to the conversation, that the media tripped him up a little bit, Harry,” Pardew said. “You don’t want to end up talking about other players in the transfer window and I am sure he probably regrets that a little bit.

“He’s a Newcastle player, he has been brilliant for us and that’s all I want to say, really.”

Which almost brings us up to date with the story so far. Despite the club’s claimed policy of not discussing player contracts, I do feel that they would have probably denied this if there was no truth whatsoever in it but time will tell no doubt.

Originally, I decided to hold back on Redknapp’s ramblings, however being a follower of Twitter football gossip merchant, “Football_Agent9”, when I read his latest pronouncements on the matter, I eventually gave in to the gossip! He claims that there IS a release clause, but that it is restricted to clubs which have qualified for European competition. At first he claimed it was Champion’s League clubs, tweeting yesterday evening:

“The release clause for Demba Ba only applies for Champions League teams.”

However he then slightly modified this, claiming a few hours later:

“On Ba release clause – Teams in Europe, so applies to top 6… Irrelevant if they have been knocked out etc, as long as they qualified.”

There have also been rumours that Newcastle United are poised to offer Ba an improved contract, presumably without the release clause! On this he continued in another tweet:

“I anticipate a new contract offer from Newcastle.”

He also made several other tweets on the Ba imbroglio, mostly in response to other’s questions, but you can read them for yourself on his Twitter page.

If indeed there is a release clause, of course, this story will probably have more twists and turns but we’ll see!

There was something else too, but I’m off to bed now to dream about Hatem Ben Arfa’s wondergoal! I wonder if he has a release clause?

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by workyticket in category: Contracts and Demba Ba and Hatem Ben Arfa and NUFC gossip and speculation and Workyticket , with tags:
Comment on this post

27 Responses

  1. I still think our little Mackem Chum “Whees Keys Louise” Taylor in the Guardian made a good point when she asked who is going to pay £10M or more for a player who will fail a medical?
    Would they take a risk on a bloke with a big nail in his leg? Where would they get insurance from?
    We’re OK in all of this as we paid nowt for him.

  2. I wonder if on the 23rd of January @ Southwork crown court that Harry Rednapp will be as free to issue information as he has been in this case, with a bit of luck Harry could go down for around 5 years for de-frauding the british Govenment.

  3. UTD111 says:
    January 8, 2012 at 8:15 am

    “I still think our little Mackem Chum “Whees Keys Louise” Taylor in the Guardian made a good point”

    What are you saying!!!! :-)

    I would have agreed entirely until very recently, but it just keep’s ramming it down peoples throats with so many goals and so few injuries that it keeps getting ever more doubtful. Man City throw those kinds of sums on players like nothing, give them outrageous deals and five minutes later seemingly, they are surplus to requirements. Bellamy was just one.

    I sent you an e.mail a few minutes ago BTW ;-)

  4. harry has shown him self once again to be a sniveling little rat … he make a point time an time again of saying he wont talk about other teams players and in the last 2/3 days has open spoke about Samba, Cahill, Ba , Rhodes and I am sure there are a few more …..

    He is a crooked rat trying to unsettle players. Hate the man. only man i hate more is ‘King’ Kenny … im sure you heard what he said about Suarez.. ‘Where he comes from this kinda thing is the norm i dont see the problem’ that bastard should be banned for trying to defend his Donkey

  5. Thanks guys, just woke up, flu, cant play Sunday golf, no beer pissed off already and now I’ve got to read about two of the most loathsome men in football. One a soon to be convicted criminal the other a proven racist.

  6. We’re all forgetting 1 very important part on this, Why would Demba Ba want to leave the Toon ?

    He recently said he love’s the team, the fans, the crowd & the city, he also said the tightness of our squad players is something he’s never seen before & loves playing for the Toon…

    It doesn’t matter is some scum club like the Spurts activate his release clause, he can still say NO!!!

  8. I think if we retained our best players,shifted those not cutting the mustard and invested some decent wedge this window we could easily push for a euro spot.

    This won’t happen and I said months ago that key players will be sold at huge profit with very little being pumped back into the 1st team.

    Shame as we have the foundations of something really special but the narrow minded pair upstairs are not interested in success as long as we survive then they are happy with that.

  9. SJT don’t start with that mate. You’ll get branded negative. People still sadly believe players will stay because they love a club. It doesn’t work like that. If a top European club comes in for any big name player we have, they will likely go to the highest bidder.

    It’s the same for all of us, Everton, Villa etc.

    Doesn’t matter how big our stadium is, our fans etc. It’s all about playing at the highest possible level. And money of course :-)

  10. more & more gossip about chelski-manu-city still after Tioti – with £25m mentioned again – & he’s not even in the UK!
    I we’re going to take £25m then let’s accept reality and do it now when there’s time to replace him – there are some decent players available – we could have a replacement + CH + CF for that sort of money and end up with a better squad !
    surely we can outbid Wigan for Pieters!

    HWTL

  11. £25m was the supposed Chelsea bid, with City apparently intrested if he’s gonna go it may as well be now for £30m odd! Guthrie isn’t half bad anyway. So long as the money i actually spent because this squad is so thin.

  13. If we loose Ba cos of a clause in his contract then fair enough – we got him cos of a clause in his hammers contract that he could move on a free if they were relegated ! We make £10m out of it, gowd knows what his crafty agent makes.

    Tomkins – The Sunday Mirror says Harry Redknapp believes he is ready to join his squad. Spurs may offer West Ham £8m for Tomkins, with the sale of ­Bassong set to raise £5m of that. I said our offer of £4m was pointless – if we don’t make realistic offers we will end up with dross.
    Or is that the smoke screen plan – under offer for class then “reluctantly” buy lesser cheaper players?

  14. Supermac says:
    January 8, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    “We make £10m out of it, gowd knows what his crafty agent makes.”

    Aye Supermac, but when you buy players on cheap who could be risky on the injury front, you also have to pay for the ones who don’t come off. Ba’s signing has gone swimmingly so far, but Marveaux’s groin is looking like a spin on the roulette wheel which may not come off, and the club has him on a very long contract. Swings and roundabouts.

  15. Brighton or Wrexham in the F.A. Cup next.

    Mid table Championship side or giants of the Blue Square Bet Conference Premiership. It was the Wearside Tramps in the rehearsals apparently.

  17. Aye 69, Mark Hughes favourite to take over apparently.

    Biggest shame though was agent Bruce getting sacked and O’Neill taking over at you know where. It’s wrong and Bruce should be reinstated immediately!

  18. Dont worry about Demba and Tiote everyone theyll both come back with injuries anyway its nailed on.

  19. Ok guys just wondered if anyone else had seen this quote online yet. Demba ba apparently being asked about rumours of a move to psg, and had this to say:

    “Yes why not, it is possible. I have always supported them. But it will be difficult to do that in January”

    Doesn’t sound too good that.

    Now I’d like to say straight off that I don’t know where that’s originated from, but its all over internetland so god only knows where it started, and I’m hoping its utter crap, but what worries me is that its not the usual crap of a “source close to the player” a “club insider” or even just the usual paper lies. (note at this stage I know it still could all be lies!) But this claims to be live and direct from the horses mouth so to speak.

    Hopefully not true, but you never know do ya, and if this clause thing is true, it certainly hints that he never saw his future with us long term in the first place, so make of it what you will

  20. Also, sky sports news have just said that a “well placed source” has said that demba bas buyout fee is not 10 million.

    Whether its more or less is anyone’s guess I suppose

  21. why on earth was Martin O’Neill named the Premier League’s manager of the month for December for two wins, one draw and one defeat in four games ? 7 points out of 12 is hardly earth shatering – Somebody’s golden boy ?

  22. worky says of Sylvain Marveaux – when you buy players on cheap who could be risky on the injury front, you also have to pay for the ones who don’t come off.
    fair enough, but Marveaux & Ba were both frees – signing Marveaux after he failed a Liverpool medical was hailed as a coup at the time & I don’t remember anyone arguing. He is a class player on a long contract and there’s plently of time to get him fit.
    The Maiga situation was quite different – £6m wasn’t worth the risk.

  23. As with Maiga, any one wanting to sign Ba for £10m+ must be mad – so I suppose he’s off to Liverpool then !

  24. Supermac says:
    January 9, 2012 at 12:56 am

    “worky says of Sylvain Marveaux – when you buy players on cheap who could be risky on the injury front, you also have to pay for the ones who don’t come off.
    fair enough, but Marveaux & Ba were both frees”

    Supermac, as Derek would tell you, you’ve forgotten about five years of wages, plus agent fees too. Even with relatively modest wages for the Prmemiership, thats several million. You can’t just keep knacking your groin over and over and expect to be the same, especially when you’re an explosive winger who relies on acceleration and pace.

  25. scott says:
    January 9, 2012 at 12:26 am

    “Also, sky sports news have just said that a “well placed source” has said that demba bas buyout fee is not 10 million.”

    Thanks for the info Scott. On the subject of “well placed sources”, while some are almost certainly just made up, some of them seem to have been by Derek Llambias too.

  26. you that rat bastard harry came out now and told media clause is a lot less that 10m ??? good thing its only liverpool bidding thay arent in europe

  27. worky – “Marveaux & Ba both frees – you’ve forgotten about five years of wages, plus agent fees too. Even with relatively modest wages for the Prmemiership, thats several million”
    It all depends on the contract & its insurance clauses based on the medical – it is a known risk, so if a player can’t play then his contract is cancelled, he looses his “loyalty bonus” (ie the portion of his signing on fee held back) and agreed compensation is paid to the club & player (which in the case of a free is nil).
    The contract conditions must be agreed by FA Euefa & PFA – so a club can’t just take a freebie on a chance without any agreements.
    If the player then wishes to play again he must pass a medical and repay his compensation.
    But of course circumstances vary – Hargreaves was a big money signing for manu – he accepted a cancelled contract & took a free transfer & played against them for city in the cup yesterday!

    But what it boils down to is that I can’t see how anyone would have to pay a player for 5 years if he can’t medically play or indeed face permanent injury if he tried to.