Dirty David Sullivan spills beans on Ba’s Toon contract (and Ravel bid)
Posted on February 19th, 2012 | 49 Comments |
Sullivan, who of course is one of the owners of Ba’s prvious club, West Ham, claims to have heard amongst other things that Demba Ba would receive no less than 50% of any transfer fee should he be sold on from NUFC, also confirming that his latest club did pay around £2 million to Ba’s agent. He also claimed that Newcastle United bid £4 million for Ravel Morrison, even though he signed to Dirty David’s West Ham for a package which he claimed was only “up to £2 million.” When the transfer went through in the January transfer window, the media only reported a fee of up to £1 million. More on that story later though. Lets get back to the main feature of this story, Demba Ba and his Newcastle United contract.
Of course, as we already know, the African goal machine had a get out clause in his West Ham contract, something which Sullivan bitterly regrets in hindsight seemingly, and the reason why he is now playing for us. However, if what Sullivan said is true, receiving 50% of any subsequent transfer fee should he be sold on from Newcastle would cartainly be another huge incentive for his Tyneside move!
But enough of my pre waffle. After confirming that Ba did have the relegation get out clause from West Ham, Sullivan was asked by the interviewer, Iain Dale:
“How did that work? Did we pay money to Hoffenheim?”
To which Sullivan replied:
“I’ll tell you exactly what happened. We wanted to loan him, but Hoffenheim said they wouldn’t loan him as they could get 6 million euros for him from Stoke. He then failed the medical at Stoke. I went back and asked to loan him again. Again they said no, but they would sell him to us. So we paid €500,000 down, which was almost like a loan fee, and then we’d pay 5 ½ million euros starting the next season depending on how many games he played – one level of payment in the Championship, one level of payment on the Premier League. I’ll have to make the figures up because I can’t remember, but something like 25,000 euros a game in the Premier League and 10,000 euros in the Championship. Demba Ba signed a three and a half year contract with us. We had a deal where his salary would be halved if we were relegated. He said, “Well on that basis, I have got to be allowed to walk if we get relegated”.
“What we should have said in retrospect – but none of us thought he would score so many goals – is that we’d be happy to give him £40 grand a week in the Championship. In the end I offered him £45 grand a week to stay but he wouldn’t take it. What we should have said was that if we don’t halve your salary, you haven’t got a get-out. The failure to put that one line in the contract cost us very, very dearly. As I say, he was on £35 grand a week and I offered him £45 grand a week to stay, but he went to Newcastle. His agent got £2 million to take him to Newcastle.”
Iain Dale: “So do Newcastle now have to pay to Hoffenheim the money you would have had to pay?”
Dirty David Sullivan: “No. That’s why Newcastle could always outbid us. It was our deal with Hoffenheim.”
Iain Dale: “So Hoffenheim got stuffed, then.”
Dirty David Sullivan: “Yup, they got half a million for him. This didn’t work for anyone except Demba Ba, and Newcastle.
“I’m told he’s got a £7 million get-out at Newcastle and he gets half the money over that. They keep denying it but I think you’ll see in the summer – He will leave Newcastle or he’ll get a monstrous rise to stay there. If they get about four million, half will go to him, so if they sell him for £7 million they’ll only net about three because they paid his agent £2 million to get him out of here. Getting £3 million is not bad, but for a player of his quality it’s not fantastic.” (You can say that again, Dirty David!)
“It’s one of those mistakes that happen, but it’s probably one of the worst mistakes I have ever made in my life. It just didn’t enter our heads. It didn’t enter anybody’s head that he’d score enough goals that we’d want to give him £40k a week and his old club £15/20k an appearance and we’d still be relegated. In reality that’s exactly what happened. The agent just threw it in at the last minute. He said “Obviously if his salary is cut by 50% you’ve got to let him walk”. We thought, OK, if we get relegated, do we really want a £40k a week striker in the Championship? Well, we would have because he was devastating. If he was with us now and his knee had held up, because remember, he did have a very very bad knee, I think we’d be 15 points clear, I really do. He’d be cutting through those defences.
“You live and you learn.”
Iain Dale: “You can say that again.”
Hmmm, well that’s not a sure thing by any means. Sullivan only said “I’m told” for a start, implying that he doesn’t know this for certain, and he rightly points out that Newcastle United have denied this. So, at the moment, it is still well witin the realms of “gossip,” though it is intriguing gossip nontheless!
Moving on to Dirty David’s daring swoop for Manchester United’s talented but troublesome youngster, Sullivan began with how the club managed to snare him despite interest from several Premier League clubs, including Newcastle United. Eventually, he speculated that the reason West Ham may have got him was because they were now a Championship club and hence not a rival to Manchester United. Here’s that part of the exchange:
Iain Dale: “When I first heard about this deal I was convinced Harry Redknapp would hijack it, as he specialises in rescuing difficult players. But I suppose he was in court at the time and couldn’t pick up the phone to Sir Alex!”
Dirty David Sullivan: “Ravel is a young man. It might be that Man U let him go because we weren’t in the Premier League. We have always got on well with Man United. Newcastle were in strongly for him, we were told. I really think he will be in our first team before the end of the season. He wants first team football so that appealed to him. I met him, and I think he had never met the owners of Man United. Maybe that persuaded him to come. Time will tell if it was a good signing or a bad signing. But I can’t say any signing we’ve done up to now is a fantastic signing. Actually, to get James Tomkins to renew was a good development – not a new signing, but nevertheless.”
And now for the juicy bit as far as we Newcastle United fans are concerned:
Iain Dale: “Were there clubs on for him?”
Dirty David Sullivan: “Newcastle bid £4 million for him.”
Before I conclude, it must me said that the pornographer who along with his West Ham partner, “Dirty” David Gold, rose from “mags to riches” (so to speak) has come up with some right old guff in the past. Also, as he says himself, he is only going on secondhand information. It may have been a “quid pro quo” in exchange for higher wage demands, after all, Ashley may have figured that for once, he wouldn’t get much sell on value for Ba anyway because of his degenerating knee. This may be the reason why Ba is only on a three year contract rather than Ashley’s preferred 5-6 year ones, but I’m just speculating wildly there. Once again as Sullivan says himself, we may indeed find out if there is indeed something to it in the Summer one way or another!
You can read a transcript of the full interview here.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.
Sullivan was being totally honest here. You should be thanking him for it- you wouldn’t have know it otherwise. Hoffenheim were screwed when we signed Ba, we got screwed when we lost him. You’ll get screwed when he moves on. It sucks, but we all know players are in the box seat and clubs like yours, mine and the Germans are just left to rue what might have been if he’d stayed or our club had got proper money for him.
Onwards and upwards-it’s all about the colours! COYI!