Wage demands too excessive?A senior Newcastle United source says we’re going off the idea of bringing Charles N’Zogbia to the club due to his approach to things.
It seems that Newcastle are cooling on the prospect of bringing Charles N’Zogbia to the club, mainly due to what they see as ‘mercenary tactics’ by the player.
Newcastle have apparently been quoted a £12m fee by Whelan’s mob for The Zog and the player is said to be demanding £60k a week in wages, which apparently brought on such fits of expectoration in Mike Ashley that he almost brought up all the pies he had for breakfast.
A ‘senior Newcastle United source’ told The Journal:
“The N’Zogbia situation is turning into a bun fight, there are a lot of clubs in for him and there is a lot of confusion about what his intentions are.
“It seems he is waiting to see who offers him the most money, that is his priority and is that the sort of person we want to play for Newcastle United?
“He is a very talented boy, but is he just a mercenary? We are considering all of these things. We need to have a long hard think about it because it is a lot of money to spend on one player who left under a cloud.” (more…)
Ash-bashing QuinnFormer Newcastle United striker Micky Quinn attacks Ashley for (potentially) letting Barton go and suggests that our transfer policy consists mainly of trying to buy cheap foreign players we can profit from in the future.
Former Toon striker Micky Quinn has launched a scathing attack on the head honchos at Newcastle United and in the process has confirmed that Arsenal have a legitimate interest in Joey Barton, which I originally doubted.
In an interview with talkSPORT, Quinn said:
“I know through a third party that Arsenal have enquired about Joey Barton. What I’m gutted about as an ex-Newcastle player is that the spine of the team, the personality of the team is going to be gone.
“Why are they letting players like Joey Barton go if they have any ambition, but it’s only going to Arsenal’s gain. He’ll put a bit of steel into that Arsenal team, he goes forward, he was made captain, he’s grown up and he said himself that he’s making up for lost time for stupidity and injury, he wants to get to the top.
“I think Joey has settled down a lot now, we know he’s a bit of a hot-head, we know he’s paid on and off the pitch for his stupidity but he’s settled down.(more…)
Is he worth £10m?Whilst PSG set a £10m price tag on Mevlüt Erdinç, who Alan Pardew has admitted to being interested in, Newcastle United are also allegedly looking at Daniel Sturridge and a Spanish winger.
Newcastle have been linked to Mevlüt Erdinç for a while now but it seems that the injection Qatari money into Paris Saint-Germain means they have less need to sell Erdinç to fund their recent purchase of Kevin Gameiro.
PSG have thusly set the price for Erdinç at €11.3m (roughly £10m) which, according to the French press, is likely to ‘cool the ardour’ of the clubs interested in the player, the most prominent of which is apparently Newcastle.
The Sunday Sun picked up on the story and they suggested that Newcastle is still very interested in the player but would look to play a waiting game and attempt to negotiate that price down whilst they’re doing so. (more…)
Nolan in a flapKevin Nolan allegedly reacts angrily at his treatment by Alan Pardew at Newcastle United.
I spent most of yesterday wondering where the ‘source close to Nolan’ from the News Of The World had gone and I’m pleased to say he’s popped up today. Allegedly Nolan is positively fuming at the lack of support he received from Pardew over his new contract and eventual departure from the club.
The ‘source close to Nolan’ said:
“Kevin is disappointed with Alan Pardew. Kevin is especially disappointed because he made a point of supporting the manager when he first arrived at Newcastle.
“He thinks Pardew paid lip-service to keeping him at Newcastle. He feels let down and he’s furious with his former manager. Kev expected him to try harder to keep him at the club during contract talks.
“The incentives they wanted put in Kev’s contract were all about how high up the league table Newcastle finished. “They are managers’ clauses, not players’. If they’d wanted him to be manager, they should have given him the job.” (more…)
Another midfielder?It will come as no surprise to Newcastle United fans that the club is now being strongly linked with another midfielder with French connections, although Arsenal’s alleged interest in Joey Barton may be a little more surprising.
I am most disappointed to find we haven’t signed any new players yet today. Ashley oot!
There is a fair bit of gossip though and I’ll summarise a couple of the grooviest bits of it here. Bear in mind though that the gossip provided in this article is done so by professionals and you must under no circumstances try this at home.
This might be hard to believe, but we’re being connected with yet another midfielder in the shape of Adel Taarabt. There were rumblings about him a few weeks ago too – and we did apparently get a £5m bid for him rejected in January – but the fires of speculation have been reignited with some comments Taarabt has made recently. The QPR player said:
“They want me to stay four years on the same terms. I don’t want to sign for four years then after one year I am going to be back in The Championship.
“No disrespect, but if we keep the same players, it will be very difficult to stay in the Premier League when you are playing Manchester United and Chelsea.
“I helped QPR win promotion but they will not offer me a better contract. They say I am already on big wages.” (more…)
