Spain or England?The battle to sign Lorient striker Kevin Gameiro is looking like increasingly like it’s a two-horse race between Newcastle United and Valencia.
It seems quite possible that Kevin Gameiro will be lining up in black and white next season, although unfortunately that could be the black and white of Valencia rather than Newcastle.
The Lorient striker has generated a lot of interest and apparently 12 clubs have so far enquired as to his availability, including PSG, Sevilla, Spurs, Villarreal, Fenerbahce and Schalke 04, but it’s looking increasingly like a two-horse race between Valencia and Newcastle as to who signs him.
Allegedly our 11 million euro offer was enough to persuade him to take a look at our facilities, although I can find no confirmation as to whether he has actually done so (or will do so).
The player himself has supposedly expressed a preference to join Valencia and the club’s sporting director Braulio Vazquez and chief executive Javier Gomez were due to meet with Lorient president Loïc Fery in London to discuss a transfer. However, that meeting was cancelled when Lorient discovered that Valencia were coming to the table with less than 10 million euros in their pockets, for which they won’t even consider letting Gameiro go. (more…)
Wearing black & white next seasonThe Lille manager announces French midfielder Yohan Cabaye’s departure to Newcastle United at a press conference.
After his final league match for Lille yesterday, Yohan Cabaye told Lille manager Rudi Garcia that he would indeed be playing his football for Newcastle United next season.
At a press conference after yesterday’s game Garcia said:
“Yohan announced yesterday to me first, then the whole group, that he has made his choice to join Newcastle. It is a choice that I respect, although I would have liked him to stay with us.”
It has apparently surprised a few French pundits in that he’s leaving a team with European qualification for one that finished 12th in the Premier League, but allegedly Cabaye is looking for ‘new challenges’.
Allegedly he cost us about 6 million Euros (£5.2m), which was the cost of his contractual release clause at Lille and it is said that he has signed a 4 year contract at Newcastle. (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…)
We have to improvePardew says something or other about Barton’s contract and Newcastle United transfers in general.
Top of the morning Geordies. After all the excitement of transfer rumours to keep us amused over the last week or so, absolutely nothing is happening on the news front today.
In fact, so bereft of Newcastle news are we today that The Express decided to make some up. Well, sort of. They say that Mike Ashley ‘stormed out’ of St James’ Park in disgust after our 3-3 draw with West Brom and add that he did so ‘minutes after the final whistle’, apparently in anger at losing a few million by dropping to 12th place and in embarrassment at ending up below the Mackems.
I suppose it depends upon your definition of ‘storming out’ and I expect they’re covered by not saying exactly how many ‘minutes after the final whistle’ he did this alleged storming.
Personally I need to be wearing a long coat to storm out of anywhere. I firmly believe that coat-tails need to be flapping in ones wake to do a decent storming out. A hat helps too, to emphasise the dipping of the head in a meaningful way as you burst through the exit. Anything less than that is merely ‘leaving in disgust’, which is quite a few levels below a genuine storming out. (more…)
French press says ouiAlan Pardew has attempted to persuade Gervinho to sign for Newcastle United and allegedly a deal is all but done for Lille midfielder Yohan Cabaye.
If the Daily Mail is to be believed (ahem), we should find out after next weekend whether or not a £15m offer for Lille striker Gervinho has been accepted.
Apparently Alan Pardew met the striker last week to try and persuade Gervinho – who has professed a preference to go to a club playing Champions League football – to sign with us rather than bidding rivals Arsenal and Liverpool.
Gervinho doesn’t want to make any decision about his future until after his Africa Cup of Nations qualifier for the Ivory Coast on (next) Sunday June 5th.
Unless the offer is a stunner and Pardew has done a top-notch job on the persuasion front, the player’s preference for Champions League football makes me doubtful about seeing Gervinho lining up in black and white next season. That would be a shame because the 24 year-old striker – who can also play out on the wing – looks to be in good form having scored 25 goals in 54 appearances for Lille, helping them on their way to the league title this year. (more…)
