I wonder what tomorrow will bring?Due to my laptop contracting a rather unfortunate illness, it had been difficult to write about some of the recent events conspiring at the Sportsdirect.com@stjamespark stadium. Nevertheless, being British I shall try to prevail when no hope seems assured, put the kettle on, and soldier on with some recent thoughts I have had this past week or so…
Shy and retiring Alan Pardew has, in what I can only described as a show of pure commitment to us fans, given a long interview this past week with ‘Total Sport’ on BBC Radio Newcastle. Now it has been long overdue hearing from our leader, and many of you, I’m sure, were all relieved after listening (or reading) Alan’s take on the summer so far.
What I found interesting was how he talked about the amount of money FREE transfers cost etc. Now obviously agent fees and signing on fees are part and parcel of the modern game. That is football, that is the game today, we know it is not technically ‘free’ but what we do know is, no transfer fee was paid, so with that, it leaves us to speculate how much indeed has gone to the agents and the players. Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux and Yohan Cabaye could not possibly of dented our transfer kitty that much, taking into consideration the ‘£35 million’, TV money, sponsorship deals, gate receipts, sale of Nolan, Shearer’s bar: You get the point.
Would it not just be easier to be honest? If we have no money to spend then just say it? Whatever the ‘truth’ is, Personally, I’m bored of the spins and excuses that I hear frequently from the club every week. Maybe we will spend something, maybe we won’t, but for me it is hard to envisage us spending much.
This is the penultimate part of my transcription of Alan Pardew’s long interview for BBC Radio Newcastle’s ‘Total Sport’ programme.
I know I wrote that last time, and that this would be the final episode, however as many of you may know by now, once Alan Pardew starts blathering, you can take it as read that it will be quite some time until he stops!
In this one he tackles the three goalkeeper dilemma, the thorny issues of the £35 million Andy Carroll booty and the departure of Kevin Nolan, along with that of weaker members of the squad, and what’s to be done with them.
We begin this time with a question from Total Sport listener, ‘Phil’.
“Can you ask Mr Pardew about the goalkeeping sitution? Fraser Forster and Tim Krul, as well as Steve Harper on your books, so all of them will be wanting to play first team football obviously.” (more…)
Wants to join us ... allegedlyNewcastle United appear to have resolved little in the last week. Still no Neil Taylor, Enrique is in contract talks, Mevlüt Erdinç is looking like a no-go, Shane Long said to be the latest target and Llambias confuses at least one Toon fan.
Alreet Geordies, hope you’ve been well while I’ve been holidaying in the Med. I haven’t seen a single British newspaper for a week and I’m completely out of touch with what’s been going on at the club, so – although I’ve tried to catch up a bit since getting back – forgive me if I cover old ground. The only ‘news’ I saw while away was about someone getting married in Monaco, which hardly had me moist with excitement.
One thing I thought might have been completed in my week’s absence is the signing of Neil Taylor, but I note that’s still dragging on. Swansea Chairman Huw Jenkins said:
“Neil has a contract and he is our player for another two years. The question is not whether he will stay with us, it is whether things will go the other way. We will find out the answer to that in the next few weeks.”
However an ‘insider close to Naylor’ apparently said:
“Neil is due back on Monday for pre-season training, but whether he turns up remains to be seen. He still isn’t happy about the situation and is obviously keen to join Newcastle United.” (more…)
Would you buy a used car from these men?I remember thinking that Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias, chose his words quite carefully in the wake of Andy Carroll’s £35 million transfer to Liverpool FC, though perhaps not so carefully in the attack on Alan Shearer that came with it. When defending the decision to sell Carroll and pack him off in Ashley’s helicopter he said:
“Yes, he went in our helicopter. But the sooner the deal was done the sooner we could make our own moves in the transfer market. It was already very late.”
Then adding:
“We will spend in the summer. Every penny of the £35m will stay in the club.”
He also told the Sun:
“Mike Ashley has only ever put money into this football club. He has never taken a single penny out. And he won’t take a single penny of this £35m either – all the money will go to the club and we are already working on identifying transfer targets for the summer.”(more…)
Owlheed: Has the players he wants.Speaking to The Telegraph Newcastle United Managing director, Derek Llambias has said that Newcastle United now have the players that they wanted thanks to acting early in the transfer window, and once again reassured fans that not a single penny of Andy Carroll’s (up to) £35 million transfer fee has left the club.
He also also protested that the club’s new signings weren’t cheap, even though two of three incoming players were available without a transfer fee as such due to contract expiration in the case of Sylavain Marveaux, and contract release in the case of Demba Ba. However there have been rumours of a fairly hefty signing on fees and agent’s fees, as much as £4 million each for the two signings. Llambias told the ‘Torygraph’.
“I can assure everyone that not a single penny of the £35 million has left the club and neither will it. It is all going back in.
“We have acted early and we have got the players we wanted, but none of them have been cheap. We have paid good prices for them. They certainly weren’t free transfers, there are fees and wages to consider.(more…)
