Toon wants The Zog back whilst Barton and Enrique face contract decisions

May 16th, 2011 | 21 Comments |

The weekend press contained a lot of football gossip as per usual. Some of it’s probably true but most of it is likely to be nonsense, so please don’t shoot the messenger!

One of the things reported is that there’s been a bit of a stall on Barton’s contract with the 28 year-old wanting a 4 year contract as opposed to the 2 year one offered to him in January. Compromising on a 3 year contract might be the way to go if Joey will accept that, which I don’t think is too much of a risk as he’d still only be 31 at the end of the contract.

On the subject of contracts, The Sun reckons Jose Enrique will be offered a 5 year contract and a decent pay rise if he agrees to stay at Newcastle. I’m not sure how The Sun knows that because all Alan Pardew has had to say on the matter is:

“He’s not indicated to myself or to Derek what his intentions are. We’re still optimistic of course. I’d love to keep him. Absolutely love to keep him.

“But I think we have to be on our guard because there are so many noises about him. I think that’s the nature of the business we’re in.”

Were there shades of Keegan in that comment? “I’d love it, absolutely love it if he stays”. (more…)