In demand?Much speculation surrounds Newcastle United’s Demba Ba with rumours of release clauses, interested clubs and new contract offers from Newcastle. So will Demba Ba still be at Newcastle United next season?
Demba Ba has been hailed as the Premiership’s best buy of the season. This and his 16 goals for us this season has obviously attracted a certain amount of attention and we keep reading rumours about clubs being after him.
Blabbermouth Redknapp went on record to say that there’s a release clause in Ba’s contract that might make it easier for clubs to try and swipe him away from us at the end of the season. Redknapp seemed to take a particular delight in publicising that one but I’m sure Ba’s agent would have made that common knowledge amongst clubs anyway, if it wasn’t already.
The latest rumour from The Sun suggests that we’ve offered Ba a new 4-year contract with a much improved salary and terms. The Sun alleges that his salary will rise from £35k/week to £50k/week and that he will also get a £5m signing on fee paid over the 4 years. That works out at about £74k a week, which is not bad although he would probably get offered more by the alleged ‘richer’ Premier League teams if they were interested (Chelsea, Spurs, Man City … maybe Liverpool). Of course any speculation about our alleged offer and the monetary sums suggested depends upon The Sun’s report being true and it could of course be complete twaddle. (more…)
Twice on targetTwo more goals from number 9 Papiss Cisse and one from Ben Arfa prove too much for West Brom as Newcastle United return from the Hawthorns 3-1 victors.
Within the first 5 minutes of kick-off I was wondering where our players had gone and who the imposters in orange were. We looked skillful, confident and fluent in possession, in complete contrast to the team I’ve been watching for that last 4 or 5 weeks. And it paid off too.
Within 2 minutes Jonas placed a pinpoint perfect pass at Perch’s feet in a great position in the box to the left of goal – unfortunately Perch just couldn’t control it. A few minutes later Cisse’s run down the left set up a shot from Demba Ba who forced a save by Ben Foster.
Strike 1 came on 6 minutes. Cabaye took a short corner, passed it to Benny who put in a cross, only for it to be cleared as far as Jonas. Jonas passed it through the defence and to the left for Benny who passed across the goal mouth; Ba stretched for it but couldn’t reach so it was left for Cisse to tap it in. 0-1
A couple of minutes later Benny worked himself into the centre from the right and had a crack at goal from about 5 yards outside the area but it sailed harmlessly high. (more…)
How do we get there?Recently there has been some discussion on this ‘blog as to how Premier League teams qualify for Europe, so I thought I’d set out the qualification rules here and then look at Newcastle United’s options.
First of all the rules:
– England is awarded 4 Champions League and 3 Europa League spots. A further Europa League spot is up for grabs if England places in the top 3 of UEFA’s ‘Fair Play’ league and, if so, that place then goes to the English team who tops the Fair Play League.
– The top 3 positions qualify for the group stage of the Champions League automatically and the team finishing 4th has to win a 2-leg play-off to get into the group stage.
– The 5th position qualifies for the Europa League.
– The winners of the League Cup qualify for the Europa League. If the winners of the League Cup also qualify in some other way (ie. by their league position or via the FA Cup), the next highest League finisher qualifies for the Europa League.
– The winners of the FA Cup qualify for the Europa League. If the winners of the FA Cup also qualify for a Champions League position the runners-up qualify instead. If the runner-up has already qualified too, the next highest League finisher qualifies for the Europa League.
Van Dijk – no relation to Dick – is 20 years old and currently plies his trade at FC Groningen where he is said to have had a ‘breakthrough season’ this season.
According to the Dutch press, FC Gronigen’s General Director Hans Nijland has confirmed our interest in the player and van Dijk’s agent – Martin Henk Chin – has said he is due to meet with Newcastle in April or May, although it should be stressed that the two clubs have had no official talks about van Dijk yet.
Van Dijk started his junior career at WDS19 and then moved to Willem II who didn’t really want to let him go and said:
“We have made every effort to retain Virgil, but he has said he wants a new challenge and would like to develop in a different environment. We obviously wish him every success at FC Groningen.” (more…)
Alan Pardew has suffered some criticism for the way Newcastle United went about getting 3 points yesterday but hails the win as possibly the most important of the season.
It wasn’t pretty and we were outplayed for portions of the game but Pardew defends the win, saying:
“It could well be one of our most important results of the season.
“My players are absolutely elated with the win. Mike Ashley said after the Sunderland game that it was fantastic theatre. It wasn’t much theatre today, but what there was was a real professionalism on the pitch. Both teams put in a full stint.
“The flair players could have done and shown a bit more ‘je ne sais quoi’ but it was a battle and it’s always good to win a battle. I’m really proud of the players today. We knew in the dressing room we weren’t balanced. We knew we had to give a little bit more and we did that.
“Everybody is pulling to trying to get us this finish we need. We are going for Europe, that’s how important this win is. It’s the last 10 games, we have won the 10th game if you like, it makes the task do-able.
“We are not firing on all cylinders. If you win when you’re not at your best, it is a great attribute.” (more…)
