50-50?Newcastle United have injury worries ahead of their visit to Eastlands on the weekend, so who will be fit enough to play on Saturday?
There are a couple of ways to look at our next three games against City, United and Chelsea: either we’re in with a chance of some points if we have a fully fit squad or we have no chance and it’s therefore a ‘good’ time to suffer injuries, given that we have to suffer them at all. Either way, we do have injuries and I thought I’d round up the latest news I can find on them.
Cheick Tiote had a medial ligament injury which has caused him to miss the last two games. Apparently he’s been working with medical staff all week to try and get fit for Saturday’s game and as far as I can tell it’s about 50-50 as to whether he’ll be fit in time. It’s (usually) caused by a high-impact landing on a slightly bent knee and the fact that Tiote has any chance of being fit for the game at all probably means it’s the lowest grade of medial ligament injury, which can apparently take anything from 2-10 weeks to heal.
Presumably Guthrie will continue to be the man to step in for Tiote if the Ivorian remains injured. (more…)
Fits the bill?Strong rumours are circulating suggesting Newcastle United have an interest in Auxerre midfielder Alain Traoré.
To add to the transfer rumours I posted yesterday, there are additional rumours that we’re in hot pursuit of Auxerre midfielder Alain Traoré.
The Daily Mail claims that the 22 year-old has 6 goals in 12 games this season and, as far as I can gather, 13 goals in 47 senior matches for his career. He also has 7 goals in 15 games for Burkina Faso, which is where he is from.
I wasn’t sure where Burkina Faso was in Africa, so I looked it up: it’s on the Western sticky-out bit of Northern Africa but is away from the coast and land-locked by six countries (Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana and the Ivory Coast). Ouagadougou is the capital.
The Mail suggests that he might struggle to get a work permit though. Apparently this was a problem Manchester United had with the player when they were considering signing him 5 years ago. They wanted him to go to Royal Antwerp, their nursery club, but he was offered a contract by Auxerre and went there instead. (more…)
Krkic - latest alleged Toon targetTypically, the weekend’s press contained many rumours linking Newcastle United to various players, some of which I provide a summary of in this article.
Amidst the rants of Llambias and the mutterings of discontent or otherwise about the stadium renaming, there was also a healthy serving of transfer speculation on the weekend.
One such nugget of gossip has us interested in Roma’s Bojan Krkic. He’s 21, can play on the wing or up front and is said to be worth somewhere in the range of £10m-£15m, which sounds at the upper range of what Ashley might pay for a player but perhaps just about feasible.
There is however a potential problem with his contract situation. Roma bought him from Barcelona for €12m in July 2011 and Barcelona have an option to buy him back after 2 years for €13m unless Roma pay another €28m to get out of the buy-back clause. So even assuming there’s any truth to the rumour and that we are indeed interested in the player, it might prove to be a tricky contract to negotiate.
Krkic’s tally is 29 goals in 112 games, although I have no idea where he played for all those games and in how many he was merely used as a substitute. In his time at Barcelona he seemed to be billed as a striker, although he was behind Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez and David Villa in the pecking order and I would imagine that he would have been a substitute for many of his 104 league games for them. (more…)
Potty-mouthed tirade against past managersNewcastle United Managing Director Derek Llambias serves up an expletive-ridden speech against Keegan, Shearer, Hughton and Carroll.
Amidst all the furore of stadium renaming, you’d think one of the things our Managing Director would try to do is talk around the fans and sweeten them up to the whole fiasco.
Well that might be what a professional would do but Delboy’s response, it seems, is to get sloshed and launch a foul-mouthed tirade against the various managers he’s appointed and dismissed in the past. Unfortunately for Delboy, he did so in front of Toon fans, some of whom taped it.
On Keegan he said:
“Kevin Keegan can’t take pressure. His f****** head was all over the place. Mike Ashley was selling to the Arabs and they wanted Kevin Keegan. The Arabs wanted him, the fans wanted him — perfect!” (more…)
To be replaced by Sports Direct?Newcastle United’s stadium renaming farce has caused quite a stir, although a ‘top marketing consultant’ hails it a success. Meanwhile Northern Rock have pulled out of the shirt sponsorship deal early. Are the two events related?
A marketing gadgie called Jonathon Gabay, who is – according to his website – “trusted by some of the world’s top brands”, has hailed the St James’ Park renaming debacle ‘a good decision’. This might be expected because, according to The Journal, he was ‘unofficially consulted’ about the renaming by the club. Anyway, he said:
“It’s a good decision because of what it’s going to do.
“I couldn’t say what sort of company will come forward. That’s not for me to say but I think there will be a lot of brands that realise the opportunity.
“I already believe sponsors will know what a great place the North East is – the region, the football, the fans – and being associated with that is a fantastic opportunity for brands.
“If there were a suitable brand then I couldn’t see how it can be something that the fans wouldn’t like if the money would be put back in the club to help them do even better.”
And with that last sentence he perhaps hits the nail on the head with: “if there was a suitable brand”. (more…)
