Two defenders who Newcastle are being continually linked with are Habib Beye of Marseille and Bakari Sagna of Auxerre. Both are full backs and we think both would be good signings for the club. Let’s take a look at them and see how likely their transfers to Newcastle are.
Habib Beye
Habib Beye, born in Paris, is Senegalese and currently plays for French League 1 giants Olympique de Marseille. He is the captain of the Mediterranean club since the start of last season. He has played 125 times for Marseille scoring 4 goals and joined Marseille in 2003 from RC Strasbourg – where he played 134 games scoring 8 goals and was a crowd favorite.   He is a regular starter for Senegal having appeared 10 times scoring a single goal.
He is one of the most accomplished defenders in France’s top tier and stands 6′ tall. His preferred position in which he currently plays is right back.  Sam has been linked with Beye for a couple of weeks now but we don’t know of any bid being made yet. Â
Bakari Sagna
Sagna, who is 24, is destined to leave Auxerre in the summer as he believes he needs to be playing for a top club to keep his place in the France team. Unfortunately the news is that Sagna would prefer Arsenal – but that will only happen if Wenger goes after him and Arsenal seem to be well endowed with right backs right now. The fee for Bakari is around ₤6M – which is reasonable given he’s one of the best young right backs in Europe – and will only get better at Newcastle.
He has recently received his first call up for the full French National side and stands 5’ 9†tall. He has played 87 times for AJ Auxerre with no goals. Sagna has represented the French under-21 team during the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship and plays at right back.
We know we have to sign defenders since we have let quite a few go. These two we think would really strengthen our squad.  The defense is going to be the most important area of the Newcastle team to strengthen – given the frailties of the last several years.  Our success next season in large part depends on signings good defenders this summer.
Comments welcome.
19 comments so far
Soren
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Comment #1Beye and Sagna would defitnitly strenghen our defence. Beye looks like a good experienced fullback, and obviously has some leader abilities as he is captain of Marseille. Sagna is the future and his rated as one of the best full backs in europe. He would fit the bill perfectly at long term, where as Beye would be adding experience and leadership to our defence. Both I my opinion would be great buys.
tom
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Comment #2who’s habib belke?! lolll
nightfall
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:39 AM
Comment #3soren – i agree..the’re both top backs…so they’re wanted by almost every major club in europe… do we have the power (and funds) to challenge those clubs for their signature??
Nick Clark
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Comment #4Can I pose the question. How many French players have worked out at Newcastle?
Soren
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Comment #5Sure hope so. But Arsenal seems to be winning the battle for Sagna, but would he get regular games at Arsenal? doubt it, as the are suited with fullback. We can only hope that the prospect of being a regular first team player, and new manager/chairman, will be enough to lure player to come to Newcastle. About the funds, lets just hope Ashley will provide whats neccesary for Sam, because I’dont think that matching wages or bids will be any problem for us, the problem will be, I think, will be that Sam won’t go out and over paid a player. Which is good, considering our history of overpaid flukes.
Ed Harrison
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:54 AM
Comment #6Tom – I don’t know – changed it to Habib Beye – sorry about that – too many fingers.
Ed Harrison
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:55 AM
Comment #7Nick – good question – answer: not many …. interesting.
Fergie
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:57 AM
Comment #8Sounds good. Perhaps if we can get Sagna it would not only benefit the right back position but also the confidence of Charles N’Zogbia. He had a shocking season last season but it was understandable in a way. He lost his friends Amady Faye and fatherly figure Boumsong, before losing his actual father at the end of last year. couple this with injuries and the arrival of Damien ‘world step-over champion’ Duff and you can see why his form was so poor, not excusing his attitude at Watford. Perhaps a new young French player could help Charlie settle and rediscover his form
nightfall
Jun 20, 2007 at 10:58 AM
Comment #9bakari
http://www.eatsleepsport.com/news_details.aspx?story_id=585063&l_id=1&t_id=52
magpie07
Jun 20, 2007 at 11:01 AM
Comment #10“He is a regular starter for Senegal having appeared 10 times scoring a single goal.” = /
only starting 10 games doesn’t constitute to a regular starter seeings he has played 259 club games across 7 / 8 seasons. I would rather look at Luke young or even Geremi who played a lot of last season a right back for Chelsea, and seems on the way out and back to the smoggies!
Ed Harrison
Jun 20, 2007 at 11:56 AM
Comment #11magpie07 – Luke Young would be good – and probably available for a reasonable fee.
Cathal
Jun 20, 2007 at 12:37 PM
Comment #12about the question about french players-robert performed well for us even if he was overpriced, he won us a lot of games, sibierski did well last yr, and n’zogbia has the potential to be a future star!! and i believe that these 2 full backs would be an amazing success at newcastle, as both are in the chimbonda mould, and lets face it, there is a serious lack of decent full backs in the market!! so lets keep our fingers crossed BSA sells Carr and brings in either Sagna or Beye
Keep Oba
Jun 20, 2007 at 12:42 PM
Comment #13Maybe not too many French born/league players have worked out for us yet, but recently they sure have been with other teams. I would just caution on getting too many African national players this year due to the Nations Cup.
john
Jun 20, 2007 at 2:03 PM
Comment #14sounds good hopefully it will materialise, i have high hopes for the future if we retain mcihael and buy 4 defenders that is. i think we could finish higher that both aresenal and tottenham. This is pending on thier transfers this summer.however i think we need ashleys money very soon to get our targets thier doesnt seem to be a sense of urgency from the man?
DZ Adams
Jun 20, 2007 at 2:48 PM
Comment #15I’ve started reading this site regularly and find everybodies views very interesting,but I really can’t wait for the season to start and end all this hype and speculation and get down to the busines of finishing top six or a surprising top four,if only a good manager comes along when a good one leaves instead of over the last ten years of letting someone dismantle a perfectly good team then having to start all over again it would be frightening where we could be today.
Steven Taylor - Raw Defender with Huge Potential | Newcastle United Blog
Jun 20, 2007 at 4:49 PM
Comment #16[…] then we are well covered in case he gets injured. We did review Bakari Sagna and Habib Beye in an article this morning – and both can play right back and Beye can also play central defense. Either of […]
darren
Jun 21, 2007 at 1:51 PM
Comment #17ginola was great for NUFC and i would have to say that he worked out at newcastle, can’t remember to many more although i agree with cathal robert was also great but only when he wanted to be!
Pete
Jun 22, 2007 at 10:40 AM
Comment #18Super Ginola ;-D
Is anyone keeping count of how many players that we have been linked to so far this season?
We really need to start actually getting some signatures, when does preseason training start?
Is there any update on Mike Ashleys review?
Jeff
Jun 25, 2007 at 11:04 AM
Comment #19preseason starts 2nd July and yeah we need players in now……Is the change over at the top having an effect?Clubs will know Newcastle are on the look out for defenders and you’ll see some crazy prices being thrown about…………I just hope Big Sam has already spoke to his targets and alot of work on the transfers has already been done……….You might see one day he brings in four players or something……..It’s happened before.