It's on then it's off again!Newcastle United are allegedly negotiating to take Swiss winger Tranquillo Barnetta from Bayer Leverkusen whilst Enrique is off to Liverpool pronto.
According to The Journal, we’re already making a move to sign Tranquillo Barnetta from Bayer Leverkusen, although The Journal – in a Daily Mailish fashion – simply states this as fact rather than offering any evidence as to how they know this.
Nevertheless, it seems to be true (that we’ve made a move for him anyway) if the comments of Barnetta’s representative are anything to go by. Barnetta’s British representative Barry McIntosh said:
“As it stands there is not a hope in hell that he will be going to Newcastle. In fact I am angry at their attempts to do it, and behind my back also.
“They have made an approach, but their offer equates to somewhere in the region of £40,000-a-week – which is just ridiculous.
“Why on earth would Tranquilo move to Newcastle for less money? No offence to Newcastle, he would possibly consider going to Arsenal, Liverpool even Tottenham for less – but not Newcastle.
“They have known all along, what it would take to land Barnetta and what he is earning now, and this sort of offer really does border on ridiculous.”
Swiss midfield target?Newcastle United are allegedly pursuing yet another two midfielders in an attempt to build the largest midfield in history. Birmingham’s Craig Gardner and Bayer Leverkusen’s Tranquillo Barnetta are today’s offerings.
Of course, not all transfer speculation is true. In fact most of it isn’t. But if you ever needed an extra hint that some of it might not be true then you need to look no further than Newcastle’s alleged attempts to sign every midfielder in world football. And there’s a couple more to come in this article.
Craig Gardner has been mentioned in connection with Newcastle a few times recently and it seems we’re in a race with the Mackems to sign him having supposedly matched their £5m bid for the player.
The 24 year-old Birmingham player’s first choice of position is central midfield, although he can play on the right of midfield and as a right-back too, which might at least provide some cover for Danny Simpson. Gardner has scored 17 goals in 132 appearances which have all been for Midlands clubs, first for Aston Villa and then for Birmingham from 2010 onwards.
Last season was a fairly decent one for Gardner in which he bagged 10 goals in 37 appearances, making him the relegated club’s top scorer. (more…)
