No Carroll windfall for Toon.I thought that this one was done a long time ago.
However, rumours have (re)surfaced that despite receiving an absurd fee of £35 million for Andy Carroll when he was sold to Liverpool in January 2011, Newcastle United would still be due to receive 25% of the agreed £15 million fee if he completes a move to West Ham.
This is not true.
The truth is that Newcastle United will only receive a sell on bonus in the highly unlikely event that Liverpool sold him on a higher sum than the ridiculous £35 million they paid for the player. Of course, there is more chance of hell freezing over than this happening, especially now that Liverpool finally seem to be on the verge of putting the Carroll saga behind them.
There was also no substantiation whatsoever for the media stories that Andy Carroll has been “stalling” on the West Ham move in the vain hope that he could make a glorious return to St James’ Park either. (more…)
“Out of many, one.”As Newcastle United’s next Europa League opponents are the Portuguese footballing aristocrats of Benfica, I have been inspired to write a two part guide to the club.
In this first part, I will taking a brief look at the history of the club, as well as taking a look at the links between Benfica, Newcastle United and the North East in general. There aren’t a huge amount and Thursday will be the first time the teams have ever met in a competitive game, but they are quite interesting nonetheless.
History, facts and stats.
The club known as Sport Lisboa e Benfica, or simply “Benfica” was formed by 18 year old footballer Cosme Damião on 28 February 1904. In their 109 year history since then they have become Portugal’s most successful club, with 32 Portuguese League titles, 24 Portuguese Cups plus 3 Campeonato de Portugal titles (the old version of the cup), 4 Portuguese League Cups, 4 Portuguese Super Cups and not least, 2 European Cups won in 1960 and 1961. (more…)
The French Revolution – giving Newcastle some Va Va Voom!It seems a lifetime since signings like Michael Owen and Mark Viduka wore the black and white. Declining, injury prone and nearly always overpriced; these marquee players from the Shepherd era were one of the main reasons we were relegated at the beginning of Ashley’s reign.
On massive wages and having already achieved something notable in their careers, they didn’t seem like they were hungry enough to care about the current club’s situation enough to save us from the drop. Going down to the championship a few years ago turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to the club in years as we found out who was there for the team and who was just there for the money and prestige.
The new policy of signing hungry players with lower reputations and wage demands started with the signings of players such as Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez, who were the first of many similar players to come through the door with similar ambitions and experience. These were followed in subsequent seasons by the likes of Cheick Tiote, Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye, plus the five recent additions to the squad last month, making this transfer policy clearly the most important reason for our fledgling success in the last three / four seasons. (more…)
Gouffran: "Tomorrow I will be a Newcastle player."Many of you out there will know by about the signing of versatile 23 year old Montpellier defender, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, confirmed this evening on the Newcastle United’s official website. You have probably heard about the allegedly imminent arrival of 20 year old Nancy full back Massadio Haïdara too.
The other one which has been slightly more “under the radar” has been that of 26 year old forward Yoan Gouffran, who played against the Magpies in the first (home) leg of our Europa League tie against Bordeaux.
Well anyway, though there has been no official confirmation by either of the clubs involved at the time of writing, Gouffran confirmed on his Twitter site that he will be joining Newcastle United, subject presumably to a medical of course. So here’s a full translation of what he wrote below:
Loic Remy: Deal agreed "in principle" says Marseilles Chairman.The President of Olympique Marseilles, Vincent Labrune, has reported that the club have now reached an an agreement on a fee with Newcastle United for Loic Remy, and that the 26 tear old Marseilles forward is now free to discuss personal terms with the club.
Speaking to French Radio Station RMC, he admitted:
“We have an agreement in principle with Newcastle, it is true, said Labrune. It was therefore authorized to Loïc chat with them. For the rest, wait patiently … “
The fee has been speculated as being €10.5 million, which is around £8.7 million at current exchange rates, though there has been no official confirmation of this at the time of writing.
Ex Newcastle United player and current Marseilles player Joey Barton also wished Remy luck on his move to Newcastle on his Twitter site, tweeting: (more…)
