Carroll, Morrison, Hoilett and Zaha. All rumours – no action yet.
Posted on January 12th, 2012 | 27 Comments |
After yesterday’s rumours about Andy Carroll‘s potential return to Newcastle, people have been queueing up to dismiss it all as twaddle. Apparently Newcastle have denied they’ve had any contact at all with Liverpool about Carroll and Carroll himself allegedly Twitted that it was rubbish, although the only quoted denial I could find was from Kenny Dalglish, who yesterday said:
“Och aye the noo, I am worried about the people that invent these rumours. They have absolutely no foundation whatsoever. I don’t need to justify what is in the paper. I have stood up – and always will stand up – for the players.”
And yet the rumours seem to persist and a lot of the press still think Carroll will eventually return to Newcastle, possibly at the end of the season. Make what you will of it!
Meanwhile, other press reports are suggesting that we’ve had a £500,000 bid for Manchester United youngster Ravel Morrison turned down. Sir Alex has said that the creative midfielder is a “very, very talented boy” but apparently feels he needs to get away from the ‘distractions of Manchester’, which he thinks may be contributing to his bad behaviour. Morrison pleaded guilty to two counts of witness intimidation last year and allegedly keeps missing training sessions.
The Telegraph reports that Sir Alex is hanging on for a better bid than £500,000 and a decent cut of any subsequent fee when he’s sold on.
Junior Hoilett has been on Alan Pardew’s shopping list for a while if press reports are to be believed and rumours are once again bubbling up about our interest in him. The 21 year old Canadian winger – who has 10 goals in 74 appearances for Blackburn – is said to be worth £7m and a Blackburn ‘source’ has said:
“Newcastle might be the club who make a move for Hoilett, that is the buzz around Blackburn at the moment.”
Another player we’re supposedly after is the 19 year old Crystal Palace striker Wilfried Zaha. Apparently Palace value him at £10m, which seems a bit excessive for a 19 year old with 6 goals from 74 appearances. The Daily Mail suggests that Zaha is keen to stay with Palace until at least January 24th to see how they do in the second leg of their Carling Cup semi-final and, assuming they get through, does not want to miss his chance of a Wembley final.
Whatever happens on that one, I’m pretty sure we won’t be paying £10 for him. Apparently Stoke, Liverpool and West Brom are also interested in the player.
According to the Evening Chronicle we might well be on our way to finally getting Xisco off the books and saving ourselves £50k/week in the process. Apparently the club is trying to tempt Deportivo – who currently have him on loan – to take the player permanently. I wouldn’t bet on it – we’ve been trying to get rid of him for years and yet he’s still on our books!
So far though, it’s all talk and no action. What we’re reputed to be after as a priority is a central defender but I hope we don’t leave it too late, planning on picking up some cut-price bargain as the transfer window counts down its final minutes. We’ve fallen foul of that before.
Anyway – do any of the players mentioned take your fancy?
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.
I’d love Hoilett to come here. He is a cracking player and an absolute steal for 7 mil, and maybe thats just in Ashley’s price range. Not too bothered about Zaha or Carroll tbh as far as I’m concerned Carroll has made his bed and now he has to lie in it. This united lad sounds like he could be another Ranger but for 500k its worth a punt surely and if its good enough for Carr then its good enough me!