Toon’s chase for £10 million Debuchy: Separating the facts from the fiction

Posted on July 21st, 2012 | 17 Comments |

Mathieu Debuchy.
Debuchy: Still a long way to go.
Yes, I know that there have been previous reports that a move Lille full back, Mathieu Debuchy is “imminent.”

I also know that Debuchy himself has come out of the closet with his desire to leave the club, that a rumoured €6-7 million bid (£4.7 – 5.4 million), or alternatively, a £6-7 million bid has been made by Newcastle United (Possibly by undiligent writers confusing the euro figures with pounds Sterling figures). There has even been a report that Debuchy was booked in for a medical on Tyneside at one stage. However much of this (apart from Debuchy coming out of the closet which was a direct quote) has been completely ubsubstantiated twaddle written for the titillation of Newcastle United fans, some of whom are positively engorged in anticipation of his imminent arrival. In this piece I shall endeavour to separate the fact from the fantasy, or rather, the parts which can actually be substantiated.

One thing which is certain is that Newcastle United did make a derisory £4 million bid for the player, which was confirmed (and laughed off) by Lille’s manager, Rudi Garcia, when he said:

“I do believe that Newcastle have faxed an offer of €5 million (£3.9 million), but they must have the wrong player.”

No higher bids have been since been confirmed by either Newcastle United or Lille, they are just “understood” or “reported” to have been made by newspaper hacks and copy and paste bloggers. Of course, it isn’t beyond the realms of possibilty that a higher offer has been made, but there is nothing whatsoever to back up the claims that I can find, and believe me, I have tried!

One thing that is for sure is that Debuchy does want to leave Lille now, and his club are resigned to the fact that it will happen in the fullness of time, however they have also expressed a wish to find a replacement before this takes place. Debuchy himself is also resigned to the fact that it would be unfair to demand that the club let him leave for a fee which is unrealistic, and has said on the matter:

“Lille can refuse any insufficient offers. The clubs must reach an agreement. That is not yet the case.”

Which brings me to my next point. Even if Newcastle United HAVE made an improved offer of €6-7 million, it would still be something short of his real worth in the current marketplace, a value which has, incidentally, been increasing since the whole imbroglio began. Of course, this has largely been as a result of some fairly impressive performances (in a mostly lacklustre French side) on the recent big stage of the European Championships. When this whole thing started, his value was thought to be around £8 million. However, since the Euros, and also the player being constantly in the spotlight and linked with major clubs such as Inter Milan and Chelsea as well as Newcastle United, this has now risen to something more like £10 million. What is more, Lille themselves undoubtedly know this and prefer bide their time until they have both found a replacement, and the big boys arrive at the party fashionably late. Having written that, it has been rumoured that Debuchy, like another ex Lille player who is now at Newcastle, Yohan Cabaye, has a release clause in his contract, though this time the figure which has been bandied around is appoximately £8 million. However, like much of of the stuff written about the chase for Debuchy so far, there is no substantiation for this, and it remains within the realms of gossip and speculation. Even if it were true, the highest estimates of unsubstantiated bids allegedly made by Newcastle fall short of this sum, and even if there were some truth in them, I think it would be doubtful if Lille were to let the player go for significantly less than figure named in the release clause rumour, and it may not be to Newcastle United either, though time will tell as always.

Anyway, in conclusion, I think it is fair to say that a Debuchy move to Tyneside is still far from imminent at this point, and that there is still some way to go before it is.

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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.

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17 Responses

  1. the stories of debuchy,douglas and carroll are starting to drag on a bit nearly every week its the same old news on how we are chasing these guy’s. think should wait and see on the official nufc website or even this one for our next bunch of Newcastle players

  2. I for one will be gutted if it doesn’t happen. He looks perfect for the toon & I’ve been drooling at the idea of him linking up with Cabaye & HBA. Pardew had previously suggested he thought there would be progress on our targets next week, although it was such a vague statement it was probably largely said to satisfy the hungry fans & based on hope rather than an astute understanding. I for one think we did very well last season but (as many do) remain to be convinced by the silver supremo when it comes to tactical and commercial understanding & his role in the transfer market. His personable nature seems to help him gain a lot of respect & has built a good team spirit…fingers crossed he has the capacity to learn & continue to grow in the role but the suggestion of bringing AC back worries me he will revert to type & 4,4,2 as opposed to a more flowing game promised at the end of last season. Signing Debuchy would suggest a commitment to an improving side with better flowing football & be a welcome belated 51st birthday present for our manager.

  3. I have only seen Debuchy playing in the European Championships and he was impressive particularly going forward. He is probably the ‘finished article’ and with so many French players already at the club he would probably settle in quite quickly and easily.

    But is he better than Simpson? In my view, Simpson hasn’t done much wrong. He has certainly had more than his fair share of goal line clearances. His weakness, IMHO, is going forward. He doesn’t pose a threat. To be fair to him nor does Santon but this may be because of Pardew’s tactics.

    However, with such good central midfield players in Tiote and Cabaye together with the potential of Abeid and now Bigi they could allow the two fullbacks a more attacking licence without unduly weakening the defence especially if Colo and Saylor are at the heart of it.

    The club has shown with Cisse that they are not afraid to spend ‘big’ (but not in the ManCity, Chelsea sense). Whether the Cisse payoff has emboldened the board to spend high again we shall see but they know from Enrique’s stance that Simpson looks increasingly likely to refuse a new contract.

    If all else fails is Tavernier the answer?

  4. As you’ve said, apart from the direct quote from Debuchy, the rest is speculation, even the release clause, no one really knows how much we’ve bid & what the release clause value is… or even the fact that we’re still in the market for the player…

    What ever happened to us chasing Pieters & moving Santon to the RB slot instead?? that rumour which has been going around for well over a year suddenly stopped!!!!

    Personally, I’m bored with these protracted transfers, had the same with HBA, why can’t we just get the deal done & move on to the next :(

    As for the Poll, how do you know that SD aren’t paying anything for advertising at the club, it’s also pure speculation they’re not imo…

  5. Not surprised at all!
    What? did everyone expect another Cabaye deal, a steal?
    Appears Ashley has this reputation of being a hard nosed dealmaker, who gets deals done by offering hard cash.
    Well nothings changed except the assembly line for cheap French players, not to mention the Dutch, seems to have, come to a halt.
    It would seem unreasonable to expect to pay under seven or eight million for Debuchy who is a proven French international player(unlike Cabaye, he has no contractual clause that lets him go cheap)
    Thats what it’s all about folks, the word is out he is a cheapscate possibly leaving clubs and players reluctant to do business with him.
    We know both Guthrie and probably Simpson are outta here, yes it was about money, or lack of it.
    I got a feeling Ashley wants a winning side and believes he can do it on the cheap, yeah right!
    Seems like a repeat of last summer where we failed to sign any defenders untill a late move for Santon(who did’nt get a game until well after Christmas ?)
    We have known who our targets were from day one, why cant we get em signed ?

  6. Chuck @ 5

    ‘..We have known who our targets were from day one..’

    Should that not read ‘..We have read in the papers who our targets were from day one..’ Unless you have a secret contact with Graham Carr !

    Toon69 @ 4

    ‘..apart from the direct quote from Debuchy, the rest is speculation..’

    Yep, in the last few years Newcastle, by and large, have gone about its transfer business behind closed doors keeping their ‘cards close to their chests’ and refraining from making any pre-contract announcements. It’s generally been the players agents and the selling club who have ‘spilled the beans’.

    Modibo Maiga was a classic case of Newcastle refusing to be drawn into price hike blackmail and instead went for plan B and got Cisse in the next transfer window which is how it appeared.

  7. KAMAR
    I am only paraphrasing Mr. Carr, who in an interview explained how he works with both Ashley and Pardew.
    Compiling lists of potential targets prior to the window opening.
    It’s based on the teams present requirements, and lists the potential targets in an order of price,quality and availability.
    And no i have no secret anything with Graham Carr, only quoting him.

  8. KAMAR
    Cisse was always on our radar, but was listed at around
    £15m. (obviously too rich for Ashleys blood)
    For whatever reason his price went to somewhere in the region of £10, an offer we could’nt refuse(though i believe Ashley took some persueding)nothing to do with any plan B, you assume.

  9. He’ll be just getting back ftom vaction, so evrryyhing so far is shoite.
    Also lille will be trying everything to get as much as possible. Nothing has changed, the same press bs since day one, slightly rehashed to appear as NEWS.
    Nothing ha changed

  12. Kamar says:
    July 21, 2012 at 10:40 am

    “Modibo Maiga was a classic case of Newcastle refusing to be drawn into price hike blackmail and instead went for plan B and got Cisse”

    Kamar, I would like to think that Cisse was “Plan A” all along, because if he wasn’t then they got it the wrong way ’round and it was sheer luck rather than judgement. ;-)

  13. Why is Pardew giving Simpson so much playing time in pre-season? Is he warming him up for Reading? Could it be that an improved contract for Simpson is “plan B” in the pursuit of Debuchy?

    Now there are quotes on the official site from Simpson about being verstile. Maybe it is not a foregone conclusion that Simpson is leaving?

  14. Worky @ 12

    Hell of a deception (even better than we are going to invade via the Pas-de-Calais). Fooled me but that’s not too hard!

    OK, so which right back are we actually going for?

  15. chuck says:
    July 21, 2012 at 11:12 am

    “KAMAR
    Cisse was always on our radar, but was listed at around
    £15m. (obviously too rich for Ashleys blood)
    For whatever reason his price went to somewhere in the region of £10, an offer we could’nt refuse(though i believe Ashley took some persueding)nothing to do with any plan B, you assume.”

    Chuck, Cisse was another one who allegedly had a release clause in his contract, rumoured to be around £14 million. The price Newcastle United got him for was a deal which was somewhere around £7.5 million rising to £9 million. However, Freiburg thought they were dead set for relegation from the Bundesliga when the deal was made. Miraculously though, even though he was their top scorer at the time, they seemed to actually get better after he left, and they escaped the drop eventually. Clubs such as Ajax and Lille aren’t worried about such matters though, they are top clubs in their respective leagues and in the Champions League too. Twente are a fellow Europa Cup team as well.

    The thing about Lille though is that they have been growing greatly and have had to finance a great big stadium just like Arsenal, which is immense in comparison to the old one It’s almost as big as SJP (50,000).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Stade_Lille_M%C3%A9tropole

  16. Kamar says:
    July 21, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    “Hell of a deception (even better than we are going to invade via the Pas-de-Calais). Fooled me but that’s not too hard!”

    Kamar, you know how much inaccurate guff there is in the media, which is enough to fool most people unless you’re a sad get like me who just spends hours chasing everything up!