Egidio Arevalo - Go west.Newcastle are being offered the chance to sign Uruguayan defensive midfielder Egidio Arevalo for £2 million, if press reports are to be believed.
The problem is that those press reports lay in The Sunday Sun, which means it’s highly unlikely to be true.
Still, there have been reports in the South American press all week about the move, which were brought to our attention by regular ‘blogger, Rangerman, so perhaps there is more than meets the eye to this rumour? But is the defensive midfield position a priority? By that I mean would Newcastle not be better off looking at other areas of the team first, like the wings for example? There is currently no cover there, which means that if either Wayne Routledge our Jonas Gutierrez are missing then we end up playing a central midielder out wide, which isn’t the best solution. (more…)
Ben Arfa - Unlikely.I have tried to steer clear of the rumour regarding Hatem Ben Arfa as I just simply don’t believe it.
Still, the reports seem to be picking up in the press, and even though I still don’t believe it, the French press have also started to run with it.
L’Equipe reckon that Newcastle have bid for the unwanted Marseille troublemaker, with a potential fee of £5 million been bandied around for the player who was once dubbed as “the future of French football”.
Now the French press isn’t quite as bad as the UK press for making stuff up as they are regulated a bit more, but that doesn’t mean that everything is gospel. And depending on which particular report you read we could be buying the player, loaning the player with an option to buy, or missing out on the player all together. (more…)
Harper happy at Newcastle.Over the last few days there have been strong rumours linking Celtic with a bid for our number one goalkeeper, Steve Harper.
Rumours are abound that Neil Lennon is looking to test the resolve of Newcastle by launching a bid for the veteran ‘keeper, but they can bid away as much as they want as I believe that Harper just wont leave, unless the bid is at such a level which makes it hard to resist for the club of course!
Harper has been with Newcastle United for approaching two decades now, but he has still only played around 200 first-team games in his career. The boyhood Liverpool fan has found himself in the unfortunate position of playing second fiddle to Shay Given for a number of years and it is only since he has moved on that the Easington born stopper has had his chance to shine in the first team.
At the ripe old footballing age of 35, Harper is approacching the twilight years of his career and will be relishing the chance of being first choice goalkeeper for Newcastle in the Premier League next season. That will serve as motivation for him and should contribute to him not wanting to upsticks and leave to go to Celtic, although if, by some strange twist of fate, he did leave then we already have adequate cover for the stopper in the shape of Tim Krul and Fraser Forster, so there is nothing to worry about in any eventuality. (more…)
Hughton's rhetoric is becoming tiresome.Chris Hughton has revealed today that Newcastle fans are unlikely to see any new faces in at St James’ Park by the time pre-season training starts in earnest next week.
That news comes as a real blow to fans who had hoped that business, any business, would have been done dusted early on in the window allowing manager and fans to relax and prepare for the new season ahead.
The fact that hasn’t happened means that questions will continue to be asked regarding just what is going on, whether we have any money to spend, or whether we are being fobbed off like we have been in the past. Newcastle have been linked with a host of players so far, some on free transfers and some involving a fee, although this latest admission that nothing is happening appears to indicate that Newcastle have done nothing but fire blanks in the transfer market so far. (more…)
O'Brien back for second spell?Newcastle manager, Chris Hughton revealed yesterday that he had made tentative enquires regarding the purchase of Bolton defender, JLoyd Samuel, although an enquiry is all it was and no formal bid was tabled.
But there was also another revelation yesterday, and that was the fact the we have apparently enquired about ‘several’ Bolton players, with Andy O’Brien ‘thought’ to be one of the other players that had been enquired about as Hughton goes about trying to add to the squad before the Premier League season kicks off in August.
I said yesterday that I can see the logic in signing JLoyd Samuel. Granted he would only be a backup should anything happen to Jose Enrique, but it is still a backup player that we need. However, as far as this idea about re-signing old boy Andy O’Brien is concerned, I am struggling to come to terms with the logic for it and can’t for the life of me see why on earth we would need to sign him, especially when we have the likes of Tamas Kadar looking to make the step up to the first team in the near future. (more…)
