The Sunday Mirror carried a story today with quotes from Newcastle United right-back Danny Simpson which suggest that he wants to stay at the club. As we know, Danny has one year left of his current contract but United are looking to agree a new deal now, rather than let him leave as a free agent next year.
An offer is allegedly on the table but Danny and his advisers currently do not feel it reflects his value.
Danny told the Sunday Mirror:
“I’m not a greedy player and I just want to be on par with the other players around me. In football terms, what I’m asking for is by no means outrageous, I want to stay at this club and I’ve been saying that all season. I’ve recently had a baby, I’m happy here and so is my family.
“Hopefully me and the club can find some solution. I want to stay but if I have to move, then I will accept it and move on. But it’s a great club with 50,000 screaming Geordies at the game every week. Why would I want to leave? There is speculation but I want to state, like I have all season, I want to stay.
“Over the last two years I’ve played nearly 80 games and started most of them. I’m not being greedy, this club is on the up, the manager and staff are brilliant – I want to stay.” (more…)
We learned today that Davide Santon was officially a Newcastle player and that, begrudgingly the Daily Mail was correct. Again.
Personal bias aside, the 20 year old utility man gave his very first interview to nufcTV and discussed a few things. An interesting note is that, like many of the new lads through the door, he barely speaks a word of English so perhaps communication could be a problem on our back line?
As always, Rob Scanlon conducted the interview with the new lad and as always, I’m here to give you a taste of what was said.
RS: Davide, welcome to Newcastle United what made you decide to move to England, and why this club in particular?
DS: I came here because it’s always been my dream to play in the Premier League. And to play for Newcastle is even better – to play for such a historical club and such a great club.
RS: Was it a difficult decision leaving the country of your birth?
DS: It’s never easy to leave any country, never mind Italy. It was a difficult decision, but I’ve only been here a short while and I feel comfortable. (more…)
Mike Williamson has been somewhat of a revelation since his arrival on Tyneside, which is more that can be said for other more high profile names that have had the chance to wear the famous Black & White stripes of Newcastle United.
Williamson was signed by Portsmouth in September 2009 but was subsequently forced to play in the reserves as the financial rot set in at Fratton Park. That meant that the South coast club couldn’t afford to pay any more of the fee owed to Watford if he made a first team appearance, which was a shame on a personal level for him but ended up being beneficial for us.
When the new season starts and August rolls around it will see Mike being given the chance of playing top level football for the first time in his career. Again, the ability of Mike to be able to make the step up has been cause of debate between some fans. Some argue that he hasn’t played top flight football for a reason, others say he was just unlucky at not getting his chance last year with Portsmouth. Given that he hasn’t put a foot wrong, other than on his surf board, since he has been here then surely he deserves his shot at the big time, and I will be backing him to succeed. (more…)
Here I continue with the second of four installments of my player reviews for the title winning season just gone.
Last time out we had at look at how our goalkeepers had been getting on throughout the season, which was pretty easy by all accounts as there isn’t that many of them. Now we step up the difficulty and broaden our review to feature our whole defence and look at how they have performed this season. The back four has been a very strong area for us this season, a strange thing for a Newcastle fan to say following year after year of shabby backlines that nobody really seemed to be able to sort out. Granted we may have been playing against weaker opposition, but we have come out on top of them, miles on top in fact and we head to the Premier League with best defensive record in The Championship safely in the bag. I know we have had loan players in the shape of Patrick van Aanholt, Fitz Hall and Zhurab Khizanishvilli but I am going to discount them for this as they aren’t technically our players and only really played a handful of games for us. (more…)
January came and went for Newcastle United fans but not with the usual disappointment following zero investment. No, the 2010 January transfer window proved to be an opportunity when even Mike Ashley realised some financial speculation was the right thing to do, not least because it might see a return on his money. But this isn’t a debate about the owner or his intentions. This is a first glance review of the lads we brought in during the January transfer window and what I think of them so far.
It was clear to a lot of us that we needed recruitment in various areas and while some of the gaps were filled, we also got the surprise package of Wayne Routledge. Not all of the players met with universal glee and obviously the jury is out for all of them still. Each were signed for an ‘undisclosed fee’ which seems to be the order of the day in many modern transfers. So it’s difficult to conclude whether they’re value for money or not, but here goes anyway: (more…)