Vurnon Anita: Personal terms still to be thrashed out.Following on from my previous story, Ajax midfielder, Vurnon Anita, has confirmed that Ajax and Newcastle United have come to an agreement over a fee, but added that he would stay at his current club if good personal terms couldn’t be agreed.
Speaking in a post match interview after Ajax’s first game of the Eredivisie season (against AZ Alkmaar), Anita didn’t confirm if the fee was the alleged €8 million (around £6.3 million) figure being speculated by some quarters of the media, but he did confirm that he is yet to make contact with the Magpies to discuss personal terms, saying:
“Ajax and Newcastle have reached an agreement, but I have not spoken to Newcastle yet.”
He also sounded a note of caution though, adding:
“The complete picture must be good. If talks do not go well, I will stay at Ajax. But I think everything will be alright.”(more…)
Should Newcastle United follow the Golden Rule?That is the maxim which has been known as “The Golden Rule” for several centuries, but how would Newcastle United feel if they were treated the way they have been treating some other clubs recently?
Make no mistake, there have been reams of complete fiction embroidered around our recent attempts to sign players in an attempt to titillate the excited Newcastle United fan. That empty mantra about Newcastle United not being “held to ransom” over players any longer has been repeated constantly, as if other clubs have been somehow unreasonable for refusing to sell their finest players for sums far below their true worth. The longest and most notable saga in this particular transfer window has been that of Lille right back, Mathieu Debuchy, and this is the case I will concentrate on mostly here, as this piece would be far too long if I looked at all of them in the same detail.
Just to get things straight, Newcastle United’s two bids for Debuchy were equivalent to around £3.9 million and £4.75 million respectively (€5 and 6 million). Hacks such as Lee Ryder from the Evening Chronic were incorrect in quoting them as £5 million and £6 million. As to whether this was deliberate, or just lazy and incompetant “journalism” I cannot say with complete certainty. Neither of these bids had a hope in hell of being accepted by a strong Champions League club for a French international player who has three years left on his current contract, and has been estimated as being worth as much as £10 million in the current market. Lille’s Chairman, Michel Seydoux, made it clear himself that we could have had Debuchy for an very reasonable £6.3 million (“Our price is €8 million, because he is a quality player” said Seydoux). However, that may not have been the point as even after Seydoux’s clarification, Derek Llambias persisted with the same strategy of making another derisory bid which he must have known would not be accepted, perhaps in the possible hope that Debuchy might go even further in his attempts to force the club into letting him go at a much reduced fee. In the event of course, it led to Lille withdrawing the player in complete exasperation with Newcastle. (more…)
Ashley: Will he look so smug at the end of August?Of course, there have been many stories in the media linking players with Newcastle United, and of bids being made, nearly all of which should all be taken with a pinch of salt.
Most are told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing to quote Shakespeare. In terms of what is verifiable, the club have made a few derisory bids and have rattled a few cages in the hope of unsettling players, possibly in the hope they will submit a transfer request, or even go on strike to force a move at a price which is way below the market. The most recent examples being a €5 million (£3.9 million) for Yohan Cabaye’s former Lille team mate, Mathieu Debuchy, a French International left back who is now valued at around £9-10 million since the recent European Championships where he impressed, another €5 million bid for Ajax’s Dutch International midfielder, Vurnon Anita, and a highly confusing chase for another Dutch player, FC Twente centre back, Douglas Franco Teixeira. Indeed, the pursuit of Douglas has been so confusing that even Twente’s chairman, Joop Munsterman, was led to remark, “It’s unclear precisely what Newcastle and Douglas want.” Perhaps he doesn’t know what one UK banker said of Mike Ashley, that “He likes to park his tanks on people’s lawns.” Whilst there have been reports of higher bids in some quarters of the media, they have not been substantiated, just “understood” or “suggested,” which can be media speak for “complete and utter guff.” Now of course, the latest attempt to park his tanks has been has been a concerted and brazen attempt by his manager Alan Pardew to unsettle Andy Carroll at Liverpool, with Pardew assuring Carroll that he has no future at Liverpool and that the Merseyside club must let him go at a much reduced fee, preferably to the club who sold him in the first place. (more…)
It's Pimms O'Clock for Pardew.Well, Wimbledon born Alan Pardew loves a bit of tennis (or so he said), and often attends the Tennis championship his birthplace is famous for.
So, Radio 5’s Richard Bacon pulled him in for an interview during the station’s coverage of the latest Wimbledon tournament for a chat. In it he talked about tennis, the recent European football championships in Poland and the Ukraine, as well as some things which undoubtedly be of interest to Newcastle United fans about his tactical thinking for next season, as well as Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba, and also Leon Best’s move to Blackburn Rovers. Here, I’m dropping in at the point where Bacon “grilled” Pardew (sorry for that) on what he can take from the Spanish national side’s performances for his work with Newcastle United.
Take it away, Richard!
Richard Bacon: “As a manager, do you look at Spain and think ‘Do you know what, let’s nick that, whatever they’re doing, I’m going to borrow that’?” (more…)
Graham Carr: A harder road ahead?You may have noticed that Newcastle United’s chief scout, Graham Carr, was very much in the news recently, and much of this was centered around him being given an eight year contract by the club’s managing director, Derek Llambias.
Usually, when a club renews an agreement with it’s chief scout, it hardly gets a great mention. However at the new Newcastle United rounds of interviews were arranged by the club’s press department, it “trended” on Twitter and was even covered in the national press. It was as if the club had renewed the contract of it’s manager. So what was behind this?
Graham Carr is now 67, with a long career in both coaching and scouting behind him, including scouting at other large, high profile clubs such as Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. So why now, in the autumn of his career, is he attracting so much attention? what is it that has made him emerge like a Butterfly from a Chrysalis on Tyneside? (more…)
