Pardew: More hot air?In an interview with the Evening Chronic’s ace football reporter, Lee Ryder, Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo exclusively revealed on Saturday that he will be playing Demba Ba centrally “in 90% of the games next year” in a bid to keep Senegalese hitman happy on Tyneside.
Pardew said:
“Demba wants to play in a central role. He wants to get himself chances to score goals, and I think that in 90% of the games next year that’s where he will play.”
But what could this mean?
Will Pardiola be abandoning his fancy foreign experiment with the 4-3-3 formation and return to his good old fashioned, decent, British 4-4-2 with Ba and Papiss Cisse as the two big lads upfront? Or will it be Cisse who will be shunted to the flank this time, or even left on the bench as an impact sub? (Admittedly, those last one would be somewhat doubtful!) (more…)
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: (more…)
Pardew: The silly season intrigue continues!Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew, played down transfer fever at the club, saying that he doesn’t expect too many players to be coming in during this transfer window.
Speaking at his first press conference for the forthcoming pre-season programme, instead, Pardew preferred to put the emphasis on younger players such as Mehdi Abeid and Haris Vuckic breaking through for more first team action in the absence of departees such as Peter Lovenkrands, Danny Guthrie, Leon Best and several others. The Grey Gaffer said:
“I don’t envisage too many coming in.
“We have a lot of young players here who haven’t played much football.
“People like Mehdi Abeid and Haris Vuckic.
However, he was heartened that the club were still looking at players who could take the club forward, adding: (more…)
Santon: Roma rebuffed and intrigue over right back slot.Davide Santon has given an “exclusive” interview for Italian football site, “Calciomercato” (football market) which was published yesterday. In it, he lifts the lid on rumours linking him with Rome, as well as a making some telling remarks about Alan Pardew’s plans for the right back position amongst other things.
Firstly though, he spoke about his disappointment at missing out on a place in the Italian side for the recent European Championships in Poland and the Ukraine. After mentioning that Santon had returned to the command of Alan Pardew “to toil under the pale English sun” (very pale in the case of Tyneside), the interviewer, Marco Guidi, suggested that Santon would have gladly given up his holidays to join the Azzurri for the championships. Santon replied:
“It would have been great. But it wasn’t to be. Prandelli (Italy coach, Cesare Prandelli) has made his choices and I have limited myself to cheering for the Blues in front of the TV. They had a great tournament until the final. We must say that Spain is very strong and when we were down to 10 it was almost impossible to get a result.” (more…)
Bigirimana: We should find out soon if rumours are true.There seems to be mounting evidence that the signing of Coventry’s Burundian youngster, Gael Bigirimana, is on the cards at Newcastle United.
As regular readers may know, I don’t usually go in for these transfer rumours without solid evidence, however site regular, “Stephen C,” referred me to this story claiming that Bigirimana would be having a medical tomorrow, suggesting it was from a source he trusted so I thought I would check it out further.
Since then two independent sources claim that he has already been seen at the club’s Benton training ground, one from an NUFC fan on Twitta who I don’t know, and another from someone I do know. So, after all that, whilst I wouldn’t claim that it is certain by any means, after checking it out, I certainly wouldn’t discount it entirely either, but whatever the veracity, if he has indeed been at the club for talks and a medical is due tomorrow, we should know soon. The player has been the subject of speculation as a possible Toon signing for some time, with fees of anywhere between £500,000 and £1.2 million being suggested. (more…)
