Spain beckons perhapsJose Enrique could be the next big name to leave Newcastle United according to The Mirror.
Apparently Atletico Madrid are hoping to table a £3m million bid for the defender we signed from Villarreal two years ago for £6.3m.
Enrique has also apparently piqued the interest of Real Zaragosa but only as part of a loan deal. This may not suit Newcastle at the moment because the temporary wage cuts associated with loan deals might not stack up in a long-term cost-cutting exercise.
I’m not sure exactly what wage Enrique gets but I would imagine it’s in the £50,000/week area, which would fit the profile of the sort of player we’re looking to offload. Left backs, however, always seem to be difficult to recruit so the loss of Enrique could leave us very exposed in that area.
It would be doubly annoying given how well Enrique and Jonas seem to be working together on the left for Newcastle at the moment. (more…)
Enrique: Want's Guti in front of him.Newcastle United’s post Reading love-in continued today, when full-back, Jose Enrique spoke passionately of his “understanding” with gangly Argentinian wing wizard, Jonas Gutierrez.
Speaking to Sand-dancer’s daily, The Shields Gazette, He declared that Guti is the man he would most like to have in front of him as Toon’s Championship season unfolds. Gutierrez has recently been linked with a return to the Premiership with Portsmouth.
However, Toon’s Spanish speaking dynamic duo have formed a very close bond since Guti joined the team at the beginning of last season, and Enrique certainly doesn’t seem to be very keen on losing his left sided partner to the Posh. He also expressed a personal wish for some additions to the much depleted Newcastle squad, after the recent player exodus. He said:
“When Jonas plays, I understand very well how to play with him, I want him to stay because he is very good for the team.
“I play on the left like him, and we play similar football. He has played in Spain, so he understands my game. (more…)
Oba fancies a move to Wolfsburg A few of the papers – such as The Telegraph – are going with the story that Oba Martins wants to join Wolfsburg, the Budesliga champions. Martins told the Wolfsburger Allgemeiner Zeitung (which I presume is a newspaper and not an exotic fast food outlet):
“The Bundesliga is on the up and could soon become one of the best leagues in the world. Therefore I am keen on joining a side that has recently become champions of that division.
“I am hoping this transfer is going to be pushed through real soon.”
I suspect Oba will be disappointed on that last issue. Nothing seems to be getting ‘pushed through real soon’ – or indeed at all – at the moment.
The article goes on to suggest that Martins will be hard pressed to get a regular place in the team given that Wolfsburg’s front two – Grafite and Dzeko – scored 53 goals between them last season. Apparently Newcastle have placed a £10m price tag on Martins. (more…)
Is Joe to return?The Daily Mail is reporting that Joe Kinnear is to return as Newcastle manager and that a takeover is not imminent.
The Mail claims this ‘exclusive’ but doesn’t reveal any source of their information and has no direct quotes from anyone about this, so it’s probably worth treating this report extremely cautiously.
The Mail suggests that an announcement will be made today, so we should know soon enough if there’s any truth in this or if it’s the usual garbage from bored reporters.
There are many rumours circulating about potential announcements today and for all I know some of them may be true. But beware rumour-mongers. They are much more often wrong than right and bear in mind that Ashley’s abysmal communication skills probably means he’s good at keeping a secret and ‘leaks’ to junior members of the SJP hierarchy – which is often where the rumour is said to originate – are unlikely.
The Chronicle reports that another Newcastle player – Jose Enrique this time – has decided to vent his spleen at the current disharmony at the club. It’s the standard sort of stuff, so I’ll just pick one quote from Jose: (more…)
