Don’t count on Debuchy signing just yet.

Posted on December 31st, 2012 | 26 Comments |

Mathieu Debuchy.
Not him again!
News has been circulating all over the UK and French media that a deal for Lille full back Mathieu Debuchy had been resurrected, and that the Frenchman would sign for Newcastle United for a fee of around £5.5 million in the imminent January transfer window.

So I decided to probe deeper and chase up the original French story which “broke” the news. It turns out that it is another one of this “According to a source close to the club” stories which are, more often than not, specious guff.

Here is my (dodgy) translation of the original as it appear in the French Journal “La Voix du Nord” or “The Voice of the North”

“The deal is not yet official yet, but according to our information, Mathieu Debuchy will no longer Lille in 2013. While its leaders finalise at this very moment an agreement with Newcastle (Premier League), who wanted to him to come this summer, the side prepares for the departure of the 27 year old. A page turns.

“This is the end of a beautiful story between a boy who has the club of his heart. Since the story of the transfer started this summer and failed, something was broken between Lille and Mathieu Debuchy. Since then, the side struggled to smile again with Debuchy not at his best (I’m struggling a bit here – wt), although he eventually evacuated the frustration. But then he thought to finish the season, despite his differences with the board, despite the departure of (Mickaël) Landreau (Lille’s goalkeeper who left the club for Bastia at the beginning of the season), the side saw the situation accelerate suddenly. Newcastle need reinforcements after shipping eleven goals in two games against Manchester United and Arsenal, and Lille and need cash. This time, the two sides quickly agreed, at least in spirit, while the final details are resolved at this very moment. (This sounds suspiciously the specious logic that is the stock in trade of cheap, disreputable hacks – wt)

“According to a source close to the English club, the two clubs agreed a transfer would be in the order of €6 million (around £4.9 million at current rates, not the £5.5 million quoted in the UK – wt), and discussions are now focusing on the various bonuses linked to this transfer. But the conclusion of the case means there will no longer be any doubt that Debuchy will be a Magpie for the coming years. It goes back to Yohan Cabaye, his friend, with whom he won the Championship and Cup double in 2011. But also several French players such as Ben Arfa, Obertan or Marveaux.

“Lille, which continues its economic transformation as we had suggested before the Christmas holidays, the departure of the French international will help relieve the financial strain and (Djibril) Sidibé (the 20 year old left back signed by Lille in the last transfer window) offer the opportunity to express themselves more. It remains to be seen how the rest of the group will digest this new beginning. And if it will help recruiting offensive players before the CAN (Cup of African Nations – wt), which is not at all certain.”

ANTOINE PLACER.

And that is it, though it is perhaps worth noting that the writer claims the story came from “a source close to the ENGLISH club,” not the French one.

Just to add to this if I may, Debuchy himself has been giving very mixed messages in his interviews, generally giving me the impression of being a bit whiny, cheeky, and possibly in need of a good slapping from his manager and chairman.

Finally, it would seem strange that Newcastle United would go into more protracted negotiations for the player after Managing Drector Derek Llambias claimed that they were led to believe by Lille that they had a deal in the Summer, but that they somehow misled Newcastle United on the deal. Derek Llambias said at the time:

“Debuchy was a target and we were led to believe it would be around six million Euros but that was never the case, it was a lot bigger than that but it was pounds as well. We worked really hard on it and were keen to do the deal but if you can’t afford it…you can’t afford it. You can’t keep going down the road of saying, ‘Oh well it is only another 2 or 3 million.”

And if they tried and failed again, that would make Llambias look like even more of an incompetent clown than he already does, which is saying something.

But we’ll see one way or the other in January no doubt.

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

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Comment on this post

26 Responses

  1. Until hes pictured holding a black and white shirt at st james i wont believe it and the same goes for ba to chelski after all it was only last week he signed for arsenal and liverpool the week before that!

  2. Can’t blame Demba for wanting out even with the supposed Add ons he is
    a bargain.
    If he does go to Chelsea I think he will be immense as they will
    Create way more opportunities for him.
    Even if we get Debuchy in I can’t see our fortunes on the pitch
    Changing much.

  4. From the skysports website:

    “An update on Demba Ba’s future and Sky Sports sources have learned that the striker’s representatives held unproductive talks with Chelsea on Sunday evening and he is unlikely to move to Stamford Bridge. The Newcastle United player’s representatives will now begin talks with other clubs, with Arsenal and Liverpool among the teams linked with a swoop for Ba.”

  6. @SirJasonToon: I agree people think this guy will suddenly solve our defensive problems. Football is not plug and play. Just buy the 11 best players in their respective positions in the world and they will beat everyone. No, there needs to be direction and organisation. There is a lack of organisation in the back four since last season and especially now that Pardew started working with them 4 out of five days a week it has gotten worse. If he does indeed arrive he will look no better than Williamson under Pardew then the fanatics on the other site will start blaming Collo “not fit for EPL”, “past his best” etc.

  7. Micheal I reckon if Ashley gave Pardew £100million to blow in this window we would still be very mediocre and still be a very unorganised.
    That’s just the way it is.

  8. if it wasn’t for ba’s goals we would be in the bottom 3 right now.

    pardew knows this – so for the sake of keeping him in his job he’ll be desperate his agent continues pricing him out of a move this jan window.

    right i’m off to the sports direct sales to get an outfit for the neet’s knees up.

    all the best people x

  9. Isn’t Debuchy more well known for his attacking abilities more than his defensive abilities ? Maybe we can just be like Barcelona and be so good at attacking and keeping the ball that we don’t really need any defensive players (or maybe not). Still no convinced we will sign him anyway… I want official confirmantion.

  10. the silver gobs***e is spouting in the chronicle, which is a rare occassion, saying they are after debuchy, and another centre back.
    not one mention of demba ba, being replaced, then again who ever gets replaced, in this crap ashley regime?
    wouldn’t suprise me if the lunatics are pinning their hopes on that dutch young’un, denzel slager.
    these class acts, ashley and co, are always looking for a cheap bargain.

    sjt, your right there, you could give that divvy pardew, any amount of money, and he still couldn’t get a team together.
    he more or less said in today’s chronic, that he has no say, on who comes in.
    “it’s not my area, i just cross my fingers, and hope someone comes through the door”, what a way to be on, you couldn’t make it up.

    roy i think i’ll get mesel alang fatties in’ aal, to buy some snazzie black adidas trackie bottoms, so a can be king of the charver’s the neet.
    all the best for the coming year to one and all, divvent get too much pop doon yer gregories, an’ spew aal ower the shop.

  11. another story in the chronic about some 21 year old streaker, who got onto the pitch, during a european game.
    newcastle are doing their nut, because the kid only got a 300 quid fine, and they are looking to take out a civil case, against him.

    what about all the young families who had to witness dekka dracula llambias, streaking across the pitch, after losing a bet, with fat boy ashley.
    f**kin’ hypocrites, they should have taken a case out against that horrible owld cnut!!!

  12. Like a few of the people who have commented above I don’t believe anything nowadays until they’re holding a toon shirt. Good work worky as usual for tracking down the original story, everyone else just seems to have taken it at face value

  16. I saw Pardew moaning about having to put Streete on the bench. I don’t really blame Pardew for his moan, but it didn’t take genius to see there was a good chance that this would happen with Taylor’s injury record and the total lack of defensive investment in the summer.

    I really cannot see how Ashley and Co. would risk relegation and the 30-40 million reduction in annual revenue for the sake of shelling out about 10-15 million, one time on a couple of defenders. We will soon see in this transfer window if this has dawned on them.

  17. Worky: do you have any stats on where we lie in total wages paid to the squad? Are we going for the Blackpool model of spending as little as possible and going down? The whole thing falls apart if you get relegated.

    The other thing that Ashley is doing is trying to implement a unilateral salary cap and that is not possible when teams like Spurs have twice the revenue, Arsenal have 3 times and Man U 4 times. He probably should forsake balancing the books to ensure Premiership survival.

  18. GS says:
    December 31, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    “Worky: do you have any stats on where we lie in total wages paid to the squad?”

    GS, I do seem to recall reading somewhere fairly recently that we were something like 13th in the wages table, but don’t quote me on that. I don’t have any current, vaguely accurate stats to hand right now.

    I think that Chelski are top according to Deloitte, followed by Man City. No prizes for guessing those two, though not necessarily in that order. I think most people would have guessed that Man City were top now.

  20. FFS Debuchy is a done deal, get used to it.
    And we are about to lose our prolific scoring center forward Ba, because of a policy (salary cap) that has yet to work at any club.
    We can only hope a recently out of form Cisse can pick up where Ba has left off.
    Hopefully a decent CD is in our future, two would be better, but no chance of that happening, i suppose.
    Sell Tiote, bring in Sissoko.
    Sell Williamson and Perch, i dont give a damn who we get to replace them, who could be worse.
    Obertan can go also and take the sick note Gosling with him, how long does it take to figure out these things.
    Building a side is replacing obvious failures with better players, who the f*ck is in charge of these things ? f***ing Ashley or Llambias.
    Get someone who knows what the f*ck they are doing FFS.
    This club is being run by incompetents and until we hire someone (a GM) who knows what he’s doing, nothing will change.
    Ashley’s been here for five years, stumbling around in the dark, guided by the incompetent Llambias, hiring and firing and in general taking one step forward and two back.
    He should look at the Fenway group, a professional sports operating organization, who saw what happened with Dalglish and immediately set out to remedy things.
    An over the hill manager who bought the wrong players for silly money, was fired, along with an obviously incompetent GM Comoli.
    They replaced Dalglish, with a successful young manager
    (some on here may disagree, but that remains to be seen)
    Who has introduced a modern concept of football (as opposed to route one with a big old fashioned English style center forward targeted in the box)
    If we are going to get any kind of success from this side, Ashley has to hand over the reins to someone who undestands the requirements of putting a side to-gether and playing a modern form of the game.
    But as of now the triumvorate of Ashley, Llambias and Pardew is a recipe for failure.
    Ah well !

  21. Pardew says Ba is upsetting the team and some writers of other BLOGS accept this hook, line and sinker. How is Ba upsetting the team? He always seemed a bit sulky anyway, so his demeanor is probably not that different.

    Zlatan has always had a moan and it seems that every team he played for won their league.

    How can’t you (the other BLOG writer) see that the Ba excuse is just that, an excuse, a crutch for someone who blames everybody and everything except himself. Ah, it has been a distraction for the last 10 games, that’s why we lost 8 of them. I see now.

  22. Worky…….looks like you were spot on re the Chronic..le story…… kudos

    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2012/12/30/nufc-striker-demba-ba-set-for-talks-with-chelsea-72703-32517249/#ixzz2GYKIxMkU

    Today’s story suggests that Marveuax is dejected at the present run of play… dejected? I live in a house full of Mackem supporters, does he know how I feel?

    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2012/12/31/sylvain-marveaux-insists-nufc-players-are-dejected-72703-32519264/

  23. chuck @ 21-I think you’ll find it’s the tense of the verb in that first sentence that’s the problem.

    Your take on what’s happened at LFC v here is spot on, though. Watching them destroy QPR where we labored and labored and labored was a revelation. I give FSG a lot of credit for knowing to cut bait even at a high price. They were headed nowhere with KG and now look well on their way to being a top side again.

    GS-absurd, innit? If Ba’s upsetting the team, I guess they’ll be happier in the championship without him. Besides, should Ba be going on about how great everything’s is when in reality we’re staring relegation in the face?

  24. Just amazing to me that Ba could be an “excuse” for anything. Arguably the one player so far who hasn’t gotten injured, suspended or spent weeks on spectactularly bad form. Other than him and HBA, ALL of our PL regulars got some ‘splainin’ to do about their performances this season. If you ask me…

  25. Colindm says:
    December 31, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    “Worky…….looks like you were spot on re the Chronic..le story…… kudos”

    Thanks Colin, but pointing out guff in the Chronic is like shooting fish in a barrel. I know that people like to be told what they want to hear but I still can’t understand why so many people actually believe the tripe in there, and Mark Douglas in the Journal as well. This is a bit from one of Douglas’s latest articles:

    “One of his agents – the well-connected Barry Silkman – was in the capital last night to begin discussions over what promises to be a complicated and protracted transfer.”

    Silkman was vaguely involved in Ba’s move to West Ham but he is NOT “one of his agents.”

    “The same could be said about the deal to take Debuchy to St James’ Park, with the transfer apparently off as recently as last week.”

    “United took decisive action on Saturday night, however, striking a deal worth around £6million to bring Yohan Cabaye’s close friend to Tyneside.”

    “Debuchy is due in Newcastle on Wednesday and is likely to take in United’s match with Everton. Neither party expects personal terms to be a problem, with United preparing a five-year deal for the 27-year-old.”

    “Newcastle will be delighted to get their man, having tracked the France right-back since Chris Hughton’s first season in the Premier League. Last summer they expected to bring Debuchy to Newcastle, only for Lille to raise their asking price to around £7million after the European Championships, at which he performed with eye-catching aplomb for France.”

    http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2012/12/31/61634-32519059

    Just from reading the way he has written his piece, I would bet that Douglas has extrapolated all of that from the French story I translated at the top, which you can read for yourself. Debuchy is still worth north of £10 million, and despite misinformation about his Lille contract expiring at the end of the season, it actually runs to 2015. On Loic Remy, Marseilles are a the biggest club in France and like a big Premiership club and they can’t be bullied by a pair of comedians like Ashley and Llambias. If they decide to sell, they’ll be looking for around £15 million, AND he’s having a goal drought ATM too. What they have to Remy is a relegation battle and I can’t see Ashley sweetening it by offering him Chelsea / Man City style wages.

    Hacks lie and distort everyday, but what local hacks are writing about Newcastle United is just getting completely out of hand now.

    On the last thing, my sincere condolences. :-)

    Right, I’m off to get ready for New Year now so please don’t think I’m rude if I don’t reply to anyone for a while.

  26. tunyc says:
    December 31, 2012 at 7:19 pm

    “GS-absurd, innit?”

    tunyc, innit? I thought you were from NYC, not Dalston or Tottenham or somewhere like that. ;-)