Exit door loomsWith Enrique looking more and more destined to leave Newcastle United as each day passes and with Neil Taylor signing a new deal at Swansea, the left-back situation is now a priority for the club.
Newcastle are now pretty much resigned to the fact that they’ll have to hunt for a new left-back before the summer’s out. It seems fairly odds-on now that Jose Enrique will leave and last week Alan Pardew said:
“The noises coming out of Jose’s camp are that he wants to get a new club playing Champions League football.
“We cannot offer him that at the moment, so that seems to be his focus. Hopefully that will change. It is a moving feast. We have got to be ready because if he goes, it is going to leave a big hole in the team and we need to fill it quickly. But he does travel to the United States with us.
“It is not ideal for us, as you can imagine. It is difficult. We have offered him a massive contract for this football club and he does not seem to want to sign it, so it is a very difficult position.
“We have had no concrete offers, but we are going to try and have contingency plans in place so that if we do lose X, then Y comes in.
“We are going to have to give ourselves some sort of chance, so that the deadline-day struggle we had after selling Andy Carroll does not happen again. We not want to be in the same position as last time.” (more…)
(L to R): Hall, Routledge, Williamson, Best, SimpsonJanuary 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…)
Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side!Where will it all end? Newcastle United are making doubtful fans well and truly eat their words as yet another recruit signs on the dotted line. Chelsea’s young Dutch full back Patrick van Aanholt, is the newest loanee joining us initially on a one-month loan deal.
It would seem like this signals that Enrique could be knackered for at least a few weeks, after suffering what we hope is only a strain to his hamstring and nothing worse. van Aanholt was part of the Coventry side when we beat them at the Ricoh Arena in December and has spent the season on loan there so far.
According to reports, he’s been a regular for the Sky Blues and is also an international team-mate of Tim Krul, having played in the same Dutch U21 side. The highly-rated full back could well make his debut in our televised game with Leicester City tomorrow.
