Marvellous Marveaux in action for Rennes.Welcome to second in my small series of ‘blogs looking at Newcastle United’s new signings in the latest transfer window. In this episode, I will be looking at free Rennes signing and French Under 21 international, Sylvain Marveaux.
Like the previous subject in this series, Yohan Cabaye, Marveaux is another very versatile little Frenchman with silky skills on the ball. He is just over 5’7″, has a very good turn of speed, and can play in a variety of midfield places with aplomb, though he has been mostly employed as a left sided or central attacking midfielder. He received 11 caps with the French Under 21 side, scoring 4 times, which isn’t bad at all really. However unlike Cabaye, he is yet to play with the full national side. His club scoring record At Rennes was 18 goals in 118 games.
Although a deal for Marveaux has been fully agreed, he will not become a Newcastle United player until July 1st when his current contract with Rennes expires and he becomes a free agent. On his agreement to join the club, manager Alan Pardew said: (more…)
Record transfer?Mike Ashley will have to break his own transfer record if he wants to bring N’Zogbia to Newcastle United.
Whilst Wigan will let Charles N’Zogbia go to a Champions League club for £9m, they will only let him go to another Premier League club – including us – for £12m.
Apparently this is because Wigan believe that any non-Champions League club will be a direct competitor against them to beat the drop next season, which does tend to suggest that Wigan aren’t particularly optimistic about their chances in 2011/2012.
If Ashley did rob his piggy bank to pay for N’Zogbia it would be a new record for him, beating the £10.3m he paid Deportivo for Fabricio Coloccini in August 2008, and it would also be double what we sold him to Wigan for (although we did get Ryan Taylor in with the deal).
The Journal suggests that N’Zogbia would be offered a £55,000/week contract (£2.86m/year) which would probably be at the higher end of the sorts of wages Ashley is prepared to pay players. (more…)
How do you think we'll do in the this transfer window?Well, it’s that time again, when thoughts turn from matters on the pitch, to gossip and speculation on who might be joining, and leaving, the club.
So far, there has been much speculation on whether major players such as Joey Barton and Jose Enrique will renew their vows for several more years, or even leave for pastures new. On the other hand, the club have already made one new signing in the shape of French-Tunisian youngster, Mehdi Abeid, and Shane Ferguson has just signed a new five year deal at the club. Meanwhile, manager, Alan Pardew, has claimed to have several irons in the fire regarding the aquisition of new players. On this subject, the usually reticent supremo said:
“We’ve given a player a deadline this week, so that’ll be interesting,”
“We are pitching for a striker that we bid for – that’s been reported. We’re hopeful on that but we’ll have to wait and see. There’s no real feedback from the club on that. And we’re pitching for another couple of players.(more…)
A good return to the Premiership for the Magpies?When we kicked off this…Er! Sorry!…
Before, long before we’d even kicked off this season, away to Man U, virtually everyone had us down as Championship fodder by the end of the season. Before a ball was even kicked, we had to wade through endless press mongering interspersed with fans bemoaning how we were gonna fail to achieve the standard required to stay in this league.
Most of it, admittedly, was the usual guff and lazy punditry put before us on a regular basis these days, the kind of stuff that’s lacking any real substance or conviction, and is just trotted out when the acronym N.U.F.C. is mentioned. I took with a whole sack full of salt, in fact I looked into buying shares in Siberia, no dice, so i had to just dismiss it as I usually do with that kind of inanity.
The really sad thing though was how a lot of fans didn’t seem to think we would comfortably survive. A bit (lot) like last season in the Championship. But as the games started to tick down, it started to dawn on people that this was indeed a better team than most had decided it was. After the very satisfying battering of Villa at home the hope of Toon fans everywhere must have tangibly lifted, but was dented almost immediately with the home defeat to fellow promotees Blackpool. (more…)
Who is your Newcastle United player of the season?Well it’s that time of the year again, with only two games to go until the end of the Premiership season.
We will neither be relegated nor qualify for Europen competition, and look set to be comfortable somewhere in the middle in what has proved to be one of the most competitive seasons in Premier League history.
Anyway, now is the time when we at NUFC Blog.org ask you to vote for your Newcastle United ‘Player of the Year’. As in last year’s poll, only players who have made more than 10 appearences (inc substitute appearences) in all competitions have been included. This means that players such as Sol Campbell and Hatem Ben Arfa will miss out, but Nile Ranger, who only started four games but appered as a substitute in no less than 23 so far will be included. That’s the rules though, and we must draw a line in the sand somewhere!
There are 19 players who are eligible, which is one more than last year’s poll, which was eventually won by Jose Enrique with 28% of 1856 votes.
