Back to Spain? Not likely!The new Newcastle United captain receives interest from Spain about a possible transfer.
According to the Spanish press, Seville are interested in trying to take Fabricio Coloccini from Newcastle but please see my footnote regarding this story.
Seville face a few problems in this respect, the first being that Newcastle don’t seem to want to sell him, which is particularly obvious by the fact that he’s just been appointed as captain for next season.
The second problem is that Seville are apparently not exactly flush with money at the moment and – according to the hacks in Spain – Newcastle are unlikely to consider any offer less than the £10.3m (€13m-ish) that they paid for him, if indeed they would even consider that. On top of that they would also have to be able to afford his wages and they’re estimated to be £80k/week+.
So it would seem like a non-starter.
However, while Coloccini’s agent – Marcelo Lombilla – admits it would be a difficult transfer to engineer, he has not completely written off the idea, saying:
“It is not to say that the player cannot end up playing for Sevilla, for he is proud that a club of this calibre are interested in signing him. But to be realistic about the situation – although the player spent some great years in Spain and I could try, it would not be a simple operation.” (more…)
Should we loan him?Rumours abound that Newcastle United might be looking to take Daniel Sturridge on loan for the season to plug the gaps in the forward line.
After having shunned the prospect of a permanent move for Daniel Sturridge when confronted with a possible £20m price tag, Newcastle are allegedly looking to take the player on a season long from Chelsea.
It’s a very tenuous ‘allegedly’ in this case as the story comes from the Sunday Sun. Furthermore, their headline uses the word ‘swoop’ and that immediately raises my hackles and puts me in a negative frame of mind for any story that follows.
The Sun alleges – presumably plucked out of thin air as there are no quotes and Deep Throat seems to be on holiday – that we have money in the kitty for a striker but that Pardew will need to sell to fund further purchases, which has limited our ability to land one of three Continental targets being considered. I don’t really know what to make of that – does it mean the Continental strikers we’re pursuing are outside the budget? I dunno. (more…)
Prefers PSG ... diplomaticallyAlleged Newcastle United target Blaise Matuidi prefers a move to Paris Saint-Germain.
Newcastle has been ‘linked’ with a move for Blaise Matuidi for most of the summer but in a recent interview he seems to be expressing a desire to remain in France. Matuidi said:
“I have a contract with St Etienne and so I was prepared to return for pre-season. Having played well doesn’t guarantee a move.
“My wishes haven’t changed, but there are things I can’t control. I’m a St Etienne player, but what is true today may not be true tomorrow.
“PSG are an attractive club, although other clubs could be attractive too.”
Very diplomatic and all bets hedged there by Blaise.
Apparently there’s a €15m buy out clause in his contract, which I would think is a bit rich for Toon finances and, although Liverpool and Arsenal are also supposedly interested in the player, it seems there have been no actual bids made for him yet. (more…)
Part of Plan C?Newcastle United need another striker and, with Nicklas Bendtner allegedly looking for an exit from Arsenal, the inevitable two plus two has been added to create a possible five.
Don’t you just love a good rumour? No? Well please yourselves.
One that’s bubbling for those with their eye in the triangle is about a possible move to Newcastle for Nicklas Bendtner. The rumour is fuelled by three main things.
The first thing is that Nicklas Bendtner – along with goalkeeper Manuel Almunia – has been left out of Arsenal’s pre-season tour of Asia. The second thing that stoked the speculative fires is that, with the impending arrival of Gervinho, Bendtner may find himself further down the pecking order of strikers. The third thing is that Arsenal are allegedly interested in Joey Barton (and possibly even Enrique) and some sort of swap deal may be struck between the two clubs.
There was a rumour that we asked Arsenal if we could loan the player back in January after the eleventh hour sale of Andy Carroll to Liverpool but apparently they turned us down. There have also been other rumours about our interest in the player but they’ve never really gained much momentum. (more…)
Would like La Liga, apparentlyMarco Pappa (who?), who has been reported as a target for Newcastle United, seems to prefer the idea of a move to Spain.
Now I must confess that I hadn’t heard of Marco Pappa and, anyway, it seems that any ‘link’ he supposedly has with a transfer to Newcastle is enormously speculative and looks a bit like one of those ‘plucked out of the air’ things the press make up from time to time.
The rumour appeared to start while I was lazing on a beach in ignorance of all Toon news, but yesterday Pappa – who currently plays for Chicago Fire in America’s Major League Soccer – expressed a preference for joining La Liga anyway, saying:
“My contract is expiring soon and I am looking at options to play in Europe. Hopefully doing so will benefit my career. I am very grateful to the MLS, but now I am about to take a different step and don’t want to play in my home country.”
What he might be talking about with the ‘not wanting to play in his home country’ bit there is alleged interest in him from Colo-Colo in Chile’s Primera División because he said:
“Yeah, right. There is talk of Colo-Colo, I heard rumours … I want to live different things to move forward in my career. Guatemalans need that international experience to grow.” (more…)
