'Trying is the first step towards failure'Seven months after the sale of Andy Carroll, Newcastle United have, to the surprise of no one, failed to sign a suitable replacement to fill the void up front.
A day of deadline drama, in which saw United lodge a “bid” for FC Twente’s Bryan Ruiz, has ended up falling flat on it’s face as Newcastle, for reasons unknown, decided to try and bring in a striker by submitting a bid 4 hours or so before the close of the transfer window.
Mr. Ashley had a helicopter ready to swish our man from the clutches of Martin Jol’s Fulham waiting in the capital, but (shock horror), the inevitable news from David Craig was that “unfortunately” United just couldn’t quite seal the deal for Ruiz, and also defender, Liam Ridgewell.
This ‘bid’ seems slightly reminiscent of last January’s “attempt” of bringing in a player (Charles N’Zogbia) just hours before the window closed. So after fans have endured a summer of rumours or “smokescreens” as I’d prefer to call it, Newcastle have failed in their quest to find a striker.
Swapsies?Rumours abound that Wigan may be interested in Newcastle United winger Wayne Routledge. Could some sort of swap involving N’Zogbia be in the offing?
The Sun is rumouring that Wigan might be preparing a £2.5m bid for Wayne Routledge to replace Charles’ N’Zogbia if he leaves the club as expected. N’Zogbia has in fact not gone to Austria for pre-season yodelling practise along with the rest of the Wigan squad, thus creating some sort of expectation that his transfer out of Wigan is perhaps close.
Apparently a £9m bid for N’Zogbia by Villa was rejected by Wigan recently.
Maybe Ashley will quote a ‘special price’ of £5m for Routledge for non-Champions League contenders, rather like Wigan allegedly did for us when we first showed some interest in The Zog!
Rumours tend to snowball, so of course this particular one has resurrected our interest in N’Zogbia and plays to the idea of some sort of swap deal being arranged.
Personally I think that, even if we took £2.5m off the N’Zogbia’s price and gave Routledge to Wigan instead, it might still be seen as too expensive for another midfielder given that, presumably, some money will need to be kept back for a striker of some sort. I suppose there’s always the possibility that Ben Arfa could be used as a striker and another midfielder could be recruited in his place, although I tend to think we want to recruit an out-and-out striker as a priority. (more…)
£1.5m bid rejectedCeltic are still interested in Newcastle United keeper Fraser Forster despite getting their first offer rejected, and the Charles N’Zogbia rumour has been resurrected a bit.
Celtic are likely to pursue Fraser Forster with increased vigour – along with increased money – after getting their £1.5m offer for the goalkeeper rejected.
Celtic boss Neil Lennon said:
“Obviously I need a goalkeeper. A bid has gone in for Fraser Forster. At the minute they are saying he’s not for sale but we will maybe pursue that again later on.”
Since he’s never actually played a game for the Newcastle first-team and has expressed a strong desire to join Celtic, I think there’s a good chance the Scottish club will eventually get their man.
I think it will be hard enough for Pardew to keep Harper and Krul happy as both players will be making a claim to be the first choice keeper, and keeping a third goalie – one who’s just come back from a season of first-team football – happy is probably asking too much. I reckon £2m-£3m will probably see him between Celtic’s sticks next season. (more…)
Wage demands too excessive?A senior Newcastle United source says we’re going off the idea of bringing Charles N’Zogbia to the club due to his approach to things.
It seems that Newcastle are cooling on the prospect of bringing Charles N’Zogbia to the club, mainly due to what they see as ‘mercenary tactics’ by the player.
Newcastle have apparently been quoted a £12m fee by Whelan’s mob for The Zog and the player is said to be demanding £60k a week in wages, which apparently brought on such fits of expectoration in Mike Ashley that he almost brought up all the pies he had for breakfast.
A ‘senior Newcastle United source’ told The Journal:
“The N’Zogbia situation is turning into a bun fight, there are a lot of clubs in for him and there is a lot of confusion about what his intentions are.
“It seems he is waiting to see who offers him the most money, that is his priority and is that the sort of person we want to play for Newcastle United?
“He is a very talented boy, but is he just a mercenary? We are considering all of these things. We need to have a long hard think about it because it is a lot of money to spend on one player who left under a cloud.” (more…)
Only left due to KinnearA source close to Charles N’Zogbia indicates that the player really wants to return to Newcastle United and only ever left because of Joe Kinnear.
According to The Star, Charles N’Zogbia is most certainly Newcastle-bound, which would seem to suit the voters on this particular blog. As our vote stands as I write this, 80% of readers want The Zog back at the Zoon, although only 33% would pay Wigan’s ‘special’, inflated £12m price for non-Champions League contenders.
The newspaper has sallied forth and hunted down a ‘source close to The Zog’, who had this to say:
“Charles never really wanted to leave. It was Kinnear he fell out with, not Newcastle.
“He has kept in touch with several of his former team-mates and told them he would love to go back.” (more…)
