Remy – On his way to Newcastle, apparently.QPR forward Loic Remy is undergoing a medical on Tyneside today (Monday) after terms have been agreed for him to spend a season on loan at Newcastle United.
Speaking after a charity cricket match at Totteridge yesterday, Newcastle United’s Director of football, Joe Kinnear, had this to say about the pursuit of Remy:
“I would think that we are very close to agreeing that. By maybe Monday or Tuesday, we would be in a position to say yes or no.
“I’m very happy with how that deal is going at the moment. I’m very happy with the conversations we’ve had. I’ve been to QPR and spoken to the people who represent him (Remy), and in my opinion there is every chance that the deal could take place.” (full interview here)
Though the the exact terms are uncertain, QPR manager Harry Redknapp had the following to say a couple of days ago on what they would be looking for out of a loan deal for the 26 year old hitman: (more…)
Part of Mike Ashley’s £25 million transfer profit.Below are a series of tables showing the profits and losses (mostly profits) made by Mike Ashley in player trading since he assumed control of the club early in the 2007-8 season.
Firstly, they are broken down season by season from 2007-8. However, it should be noted the major transfers into the club in his first season as owner were either done in the days of Freddy Shepherd, or were arranged by Shepherd and completed in the transitional period of Ashley takeover, or the first days under the club’s new Chairman at the time, Chris Mort. Players in these two catagories include signings such as Viduka, Barton, Rozehnal, Smith, Cacapa, Enrique, Faye and Beye.
The following ones then display the season by season figures from the 2008-9 season (Ashley’s first full season as owner), with the first purely Ashley signings such as Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Xisco and the rest starting to come in. Of course, these are then followed by successive seasons up to the present day. (more…)
Matthieu Debuchy.Regular readers of my efforts for this blog will know that, like many other United fans, I place little credence in 90% of the stories which appear in the media about who is leaving and who is joining our illustrious club.
There is so much media “noise” going on at the moment about movements, and it’s a case of sorting the wheat from the chaff, as the old saying goes. In other words trying to identify the stories which might, just might, have a grain of truth in them.
Anyroadup, the problem is that in terms of the great Newcastle United, there aint a lot else going on in newsville at the moment, so transfer babble it is!
Here’s some of the stories which might just be on the right tracks – but remember, it’s just me saying this – I’ve read the stories, put the kettle on, had a think and what follows are my thoughts on what might be the stories which run to fruition – selected from today’s vast array of speculation. But who the hell am I to know better than anyone else!
Who's best?Looking back over Newcastle United’s last two seasons since we were promoted from the Championship, one thing it’s hard to argue with is that most of the club’s major signings have been a success.
Much of the credit for this has gone to the club’s current chief scout, Graham Carr, who was brought into the club in February 2010 by previous manager and Carr’s former Tottenham colleague, Chris Hughton. Of the players included below, Carr was involved in all but three of them (James Perch, Demba Ba and Gabriel Obertan).
I have listed eight of the signings made since the club was promoted below. Of course, there have been more but I have left out more peripheral members of the squad such as temporary loanees like Stephen Ireland and Sheffki Kuqi, bairns for the future such as Mehdi Abeid, those who haven’t been able to make much of an impact one way or the other through injury such as Sylvain Marveaux and so on. All of the players listed below have made at least ten first team competitive appearences; here’s a brief résumé of their Toon histories so far. (more…)
French flair or English doggedness?How important is an English spine to a Football Club?
The thought crossed my mind the other day, after pondering the comings and goings from this transfer window:
“Just how important is an English spine to NUFC?”
Many sports pundits have criticized Arsenal over the years for a weak English showing in their teams, and cite this reason for the failure over recent years. On the same sort of note how will our recent shift to cheap foreign imports play out in the long run?
I have to admit, last year looking at the group of Carroll, Barton, Nolan and Harper (to name a few) I always felt that we would stay up. The guys had been through the relegation, bonded in the Championship and knew what had to be done in order secure our Premier League status. But now with the French Revolution going on with the club, how much passion and desire do these guys have? (more…)
