Welcome to the fifth part of my transcription of Alan Pardew’s long and very revealing interview for BBC Radio Newcastle’s ‘Total Sport’.
In this one, Pardew spills the beans about Newcastle United’s alleged pursuit of Mevlüt Erdinç, and whether he or any other new strikers might be joining joining the club before the end of the transfer window. He also spouts on the new signings so far and how he thinks they will adapt to the Premiership, the “huge fees” paid for them and how he needs to ‘mark the cards’ of the fans on Summer spending.
Total Sport:“Is Mevlüt Erdinç someone that you’re pursuing?”
Alan Pardew:“Well, it’s very difficult to comment on players when no agreement has been reached and he’s one of those players where we have no agreement so I don’t really want to comment too much. (more…)
Pardew: Can he bring the entertainment back to SJP?Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, has been speaking in a rare interview of his plans for the new season, saying that he wants to set up the team to be more “exciting”. The usually reticent supremo also added that new signings such as Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux and Yohan Cabaye will give his side a “renewed hunger for the forth-coming campaign”.
On bringing a little excitement back to Newcastle United’s style of play Pardew said:
“I am hoping to deliver a side that looks a little bit different, and our style will change a little bit too.
“I am hoping we have a really exciting season – and that is how the team will be set up, to be exciting.
“I can’t wait to start and be around the city and the club again.”
He then expressed delight on how well his new squad is taking shape and gushed about his five new players (including Ben Arfa and Gosling) adding: (more…)
Birmingham target, allegedlyBirmingham allegedly want Newcastle’s Leon Best. Dan Gosling and Hatem Ben Arfa gets in some early pre-season training. And Michael Owen seems to have upset a few people.
With all the speculation about who we might be buying, I’d quite forgotten that other teams might want some of our players other than Jose Enrique.
If you believe the Mail (no tittering), freshly relegated Birmingham are after Leon Best to replace Cameron Jerome who Alex McLeish seems resigned to losing. I actually thought Leon Best did a decent job for us last season, getting 6 goals in 12 games, and of all our current strikers he’s the one I’d most like to keep, but I guess it depends on who we bring in over the summer to enhance our goal-scoring capabilities.
How much do you think Best is worth anyway?
Both Dan Gosling and Hatem Ben Arfa have made an early return for pre-season training to ensure that they’re fully fit for next season. (more…)
£10m bid acceptedNewcastle United’s team could take on a distinctly French feel if the club’s transfer plans work out as they want.
Apparently Lorient have accepted Newcastle’s £10m offer for Kevin Gameiro and it’s now up to the player to decide if Newcastle can trump his first choice of Valencia.
A couple of things are definitely in our favour.
First of all, Mike Ashley’s policy of paying entire transfer fees in one go is said to have been one of the main reasons why Lorient accepted the offer. Valencia on the other hand would be paying in instalments, as per Spanish football’s standard operating procedure.
Second, in terms of persuading the player himself to come to Newcastle, it certainly won’t hurt that we have Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa in our squad to help their fellow countryman feel at home, at least linguistically.
On paper the triple-pronged French offensive of Cabaye and Ben Arfa in midfield and Gameiro up front looks exciting and hopefully the new Frenchies will be able to adapt to Premier League football fairly quickly. (more…)
Whispers are untrueNewcastle United manager Alan Pardew dismisses ‘whispers’ alleging that Ben Arfa will never be the same player after his broken leg.
Apparently there have been ‘whispers’ that Hatem Ben Arfa will never properly recover from the double leg break inflicted upon him by Nigel de Jong.
All I can say is that they must have been very quiet whispers as I hadn’t heard them. Pardew, however, must have better ears than me because he had heard these whispers and responded thusly:
“I would dismiss that straight away. I don’t see any problem with him coming back just as good as he was.
“You’re talking about a really bad break. And I think we were buoyed by his last visit because he was a lot, lot better within himself.
“I think anyone who has suffered an injury like that, you’ve got to give him time, you’ve got to understand what is happening.
“You don’t rush it and we won’t with Hatem.” (more…)
