The Newcastle United manager has no fear of making a deal which would cost the club up to £25M for a single player and beat the Tyneside club’s transfer record.
Kevin Keegan – will pay £25M for a single player
Kevin Keegan spoke to the Sunday Sun today:
“Spending £25 million on one player doesn’t frighten me one bit,â€
“You have to target big players. If you have a budget, it’s like any budget: if you have ‘X’ million, you can divide it into one or two players, or four or five.â€
“We’ll be in there pitching for some very good players. If you don’t bowl, you can’t knock the wickets down. We might get hit for six, but we might get a wicket.â€
But we lost out on Modric, and that was presumably because we offered £20M, but Dinamo Zagreb wanted £25M, and if we had paid the extra £5M, Luka would have been a Newcastle player today.
But given what happened late Friday night Keegan sounded a note of caution.
“We may end up on July 7 with no one because we don’t offer them enough – and I don’t mean just financially.â€
“You hear Thierry Henry say he wants to be back in London, and that is a well known fact with a lot of foreign players,â€
“It helps Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal and works against us.†“But we are where we are. We’re not going to move this franchise like they do in America.â€
“Players have to move here, they have to live here, they have to put up with the weather and they have to enjoy playing in this stadium.â€
But we have probed that that doesn’t put off players since Luka Modric was very keen to move to Newcastle, but the club wouldn’t budge past the £20M fee.
Being so near to capturing a fantastic player, there hopefully will be some explanation on what really happened, so at least Newcastle fans know what the situation is.
Comments welcome.
57 comments so far
Fernando
Apr 27, 2008 at 2:53 PM
Comment #41@jacob fair comment mate.
everyone’s been spending several folds more than newcastle. while we have been paying off our debts.
but say we don’t get to recruit quality players this summer, that would be considered and seen as bad performance i.e. having dennis wise and corp has added no value to the club. They have a clear mandate on what they have to do, i hope the desire of frugality doesn’t affect our industrious movements.
I hope all this shrewdness is going to pay off with good quality players next season. Be it if we ‘ve never heard of the players names.
millepede
Apr 27, 2008 at 3:02 PM
Comment #42modric aint worth 25 million anyway, thats an outrageous price!
Fernando
Apr 27, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Comment #43i know some ppl won’t like me saying this.. but u’d be happy to see spurs suffer
i bet we will see that he’s-modric overrated next season just like all the spurs players.
scottish mag
Apr 27, 2008 at 3:17 PM
Comment #44not nakamura he has one good game in 5 and all he is good at is free kicks, mcgeady would be a much better option.
i think players like nigel de jong, jefferson farfan, jonathon de guzman would be good for us, dont see why we couldnt get them.
Tom_Toon
Apr 27, 2008 at 3:21 PM
Comment #45De Guzman is too good for us. Cruyjf rates him as the best talent in holland and wouldnt let us sign him.
Farfan has said loads of times he doesnt want to come to england and Nigel de Jong is dm and im not sure if we could get him.
Toon1978
Apr 27, 2008 at 3:42 PM
Comment #46Graeme i totally agree with you mate but them players are more realistic. Them players will do nothing for us but we need to keep our feet on the ground here and realise we are not gonna get top international players because they want CL football. If we end up with the likes of them players i mentioned in the above post i will not be happy at all but thats the way it goes.
Yahya Ahmad
Apr 27, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Comment #47Why dont we go for Diego for 20-25 mil, Fernando Amorebieta for 15 mil,Christoph Metzelder for 10 mil, David Bently for 10-15 mil and Aiden Mgeady for 10-15 mil!
jacob
Apr 27, 2008 at 4:13 PM
Comment #48Joe McSporran and Mad Jack McHaggis from Cowdenbeath – Jocky Claymore from Raith Rovers reserves – net spend of £127.00 and a sack-full of battered mars bars. There you go Mr Ashley!
Tooner
Apr 27, 2008 at 4:26 PM
Comment #49I wouldn’t mind Bentley on the right hand side. He’d be better than Geremi in the 4-3-3 and better than Milner in the 4-4-2. I think he wants out of Blackburn so we may have a chance on that, but I still would imagine him moving up to a club that could offer European football rather than a seemingly lateral move to Newcastle.
The real problem is the clubs location and our lack of anything to offer in footballing terms. To get a big name, you are going to have to throw money at them, both in terms of the transfer fee and their wages. I’m hesitant about that because we’ve had some “big” players come for big wages and we’ve seen how that turns out.
Get some up and coming players who want to prove themselves for that next big move to a huge club, get us UEFA or CL football and hope to god they want to stay on.
Otherwise throw money at players and watch them ride the bench.
No top 4 rejects, please.
RyanTeh
Apr 27, 2008 at 4:28 PM
Comment #50I don’t think that modric worth 25 millions euro. They spend so much will somehow end up like leeds in the past. Seriously, modric is a good player but can he well. (adapt to English style of playing) Chelsea has buy so much players but they can’t even buy themselves the champion? Well, I do disappointed about we’re losing out to spurs but I just can’t see we just spend that much on 1 individual. Wise propably already go and talk to others which United interested. Don’t be suprise if we can sign someone better than Modric.
Leo
Apr 27, 2008 at 6:29 PM
Comment #51did spurs spend 25mil, i thought it was 15.8mil???
apan
Apr 27, 2008 at 6:29 PM
Comment #52we are put to ransom and we are not stupid enuff i think 25 mil for a player who we are not sure can do well in EPL is bullsh*t
steve
Apr 27, 2008 at 6:38 PM
Comment #53Lets face it most foreign players want to live in London, it helps that they can almost go out in anonymity as opposed to the toon where they are constantly hassled be supporters – Spurs paid an initial 16 million rising to 25 million which I reckon is far to steep – Spurs have agreed to sell Berbatov in the summer as there’s no way they can play together in the Ramos’s preferred Spurs formation (he’s likely to be going abroad tho on the info I’ve been given)
I’m not sure we need a star signing just some good players
chuck
Apr 27, 2008 at 8:35 PM
Comment #54These are the players we can attract, followed by a list of mediocre to decent players , but all castoffs from other premier clubs, was the statement from one fan. o
Well sure, could probably survive the premiership in a mid level to survival role with this type of player if thats what your ambition is.
It`s too cold, they dont want to come up here, any one been to the city of culture lately, Liverpool is a real dump, lacking decent hotels , eating places, a horror show , but they can attract top talent.
Face it we could have had Modric , but would`nt pay the asking price, probably Mort, does`nt want to be seen as an easy touch.
Soh! either splash the cash Mort or doom Utd. to mid level mediocrity resulting in a gradual falling of attendance and eventual relegation,
God knows we could become another Sunderland.
marcus owen
Apr 28, 2008 at 12:36 AM
Comment #55Usually so so manager will get player at 25mil and get rid of them next season with only half the price or less. In other words, good and smart manager can always do it the other way round. So far at Newcastle, our managers are mostly in the first category. Hope kk is in the second category.
Tim_Toon
Apr 28, 2008 at 8:09 AM
Comment #56Tom_Toon, I really don’t understand you. You run the rule over most signings, saying we can’t attract them etc., but then you come up with some no-name players that I doubt our scouting network has even heard of.
Money talks my friend. Offer them enough and the VDV’s and Diego’s of this world will be on our doorstep. Splash the damn cash Mr.Ashley!!!
Eric
Apr 28, 2008 at 9:28 AM
Comment #57So now the Daily Mirror Mirror on the toilet wall claims we missed out on Diarra and Sol Campbell too. Since when has KK even mentioned these two let alone enquired about them. I believe we must all ignore everything these media hacks write. It is shite usually. For one I will not believe anything from now on until I see KK shake hands with a black and white striped recruit on the grass of SJP. Our big named players to be (and I do not think we will get any) are not to be drawn out of some hat sitting on a desk in the Mirror, the Sun or the NOTW and then spat out like some piece of unwanted kebab.I said it before and I will say it again – the whole Modric saga stank to high heaven, something rotten went on and I am sure some media hacks had their dirty mitts in it!