De Jong rejects Magpies for Champions League Germans.
Posted on July 10th, 2012 | 38 Comments |
Having written that, it was for German consumption in a German publication, though it certainly looks as if Newcastle’s plans for the striker are all but dead in the water now, especially with the club being now notoriously unwilling to meet the true valuation of players in terms of both fees and wage terms when the club is in the market for a player.
The Dutch hitman told Bild of his discussions with Gladbach’s coach, Lucien Favre, saying:
“I have spoken to Favre several times.”
“We talked about how he wanted me to play. I’m sure the way he wants to play fits perfectly with the fast pace that suits me.
“I’ve told Twente that I only want to go to Gladbach. Borussia are playing in the qualifying round of the Champions League and I want to take the next step in my career.
“The Bundesliga is one of the best leagues in Europe. To make the next step with the national team I need to go there.”
Oh well. With current owner Mike Ashley’s current strategy for buying players, we would almost certainly never win any bidding war with Gladbach anyway, or virtually any other team if they become seriously involved. We must rely on picking up the ones who fall between the cracks, which has been successful with signings such as Yohan Cabaye and Papiss Cisse, or for otherwise talented players who have a questionmark hanging over them which has deterred other teams, such as Hatem Ben Arfa with the questionmark hanging over his temperament, Demba Ba with the questionmark hanging over his knee, Sylvain Marveaux with the questionmark hanging over his groin and so on.
This transfer window, with the club under pressure to make some signings with several squad players now gone, and, of course, a daunting Euro campaign looming, will undoubtedly be a big test for this strategy. This will be especially true since other clubs know this, and hence have some leverage.
Poll
Do you really think NUFC should go back to the bad old days of winning ‘bidding wars’ with other clubs? Do you regard the ‘true value’ of a player as ridiculously inflated demands of their greedy agents that irresponsible clubs have been stupidly blackmailed into paying, to the extent that major clubs are now going bust? Fans were whinging last Summer that disaster was looming because we hadn’t lashed out megabucks on trophy signings, and had only picked up nobodies like, um, Cabaye, um, Ba, em, Santone…