One of our Swedish readers Erik, has alerted us that Newcastle have submitted a £4.3M bid for 23 year-old Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson, which is being reported in Sweden.
Sebastian Larsson - played for Birmingham last two seasons
One of Sweden’s biggest football sites, fotbollskanalen.se, is reporting that Newcastle United have bid 50 million Swedish Kronor (about £4.3M) for Birmingham City’s midfield star Sebastian Larsson.
Larsson just turned 23 last Friday, and Larsson’s agent has confirmed that he has been in contact with Newcastle.
We are also hearing the news is on Swedish TV, and that Birmingham want to wait until after Euro 2008 is over, but Newcastle are pressing for a deal now.
The TV reports say that Larssons’ agent and Newcastle representatives have already been in discussions. We would suppose that would be Dennis Wise, but there is also news on Swedish TV that Keegan has also been in on the discussions.
There is also news that Larsson himself has spoken in glowing terms of Newcastle United, as a club, so that’s good news.
Larsson has played 78 times for Birmingham in the last two years, scoring 10 goals and has played 12 times for the Sweden Under-21 side.
Larsson received his first call-up to the full Sweden squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying games against Liechtenstein and Northern Ireland, in October 2007.
He finally made his debut for Sweden in February of this year, playing the full 90 minutes in a friendly against Turkey in Istanbul .
Sebastian was named in Sweden’s 23-man squad for the 2008 European Championships.
He has represented his country 4 times so far and of course Sweden will play Greece tomorrow evening in their first game of Euro 2008, where we expect he will be a substitute.
It’s not clear to us if Birmingham have rejected the bid, but that wouldn’t surprise us if they did, almost as a knee jerk reaction, hoping to get a better price for their player.
Some background on Larsson:
Larsson, who is 5′ 10″ tall, joined the Arsenal Academy when he was just 16 years old from Sweden’s Eskilstuna City FK, his home town club.
A regular member of the Arsenal Under-19 team in 2003/2004, Sebastian Larsson played some games for the Arsenal Reserve side in 2004/2005.
Larsson played three times for the full Arsenal side in the Carling Cup during 2004/2005, and made a further nine appearances in the 2005/2006 season.
In August 2006, Sebastian moved to Birmingham City on a season-long loan and the switch proved to be the making of the youngster.
Comments welcome.
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69 responses so far ↓
1 matt // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:05
premiership proven, has scored some wonder goals and his awareness is unmatched for most 23 year olds already in the league
great move guys, whoever’s responsible.
2 Geordie Gerrard7 // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:13
qaulity, qaulity, qaulity player, does anyone know wether or not he would be intrested in coming to us?
3 ToonKing // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:14
Larrson is great and in our reach, get him, fast .
PS: let’s also get Van der Vaart’s wife
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg229/May261999/24799_6g.jpg
4 Tom_Toon // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:15
Why wouldnt he?
5 reggie22 // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:15
y is it that everynight before a team is goin to play we are ggo to buy 1 var der vaart now larsson that means tommorrow we will all be talkin about turan again then thursday we will be buyin a german on friday a van der vaart again and so on i love the rumours but since modric fell through i just dont hold out till i see em the black & white nice to dream its a shame thats all were doing at the moment !
6 tommyy // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:16
Agree with Tom, it’s a step up from Birmingham is it not?
7 Danny // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:16
Hes too good for the championship….A very realistic player and dead ball specialist!
Will guarantee us at least 5 goals….he should be part of a new 3 man midfield with Butt and Arda!
Do it Keegan…And do it now! We couldn’t ask for a better replacement for Barton…
Very good player…as they all are from Arsenal!
8 ToonKing // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:18
Ed….your killing me mate, every time i post a link it takes 4 hours to appear…the lads are unable to see some serious eye-candy i’m posting here man
9 Swepalle // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:19
what i have read in swe papers he has spoken to Keegan
10 KKK // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:20
Very impressed with Larsson when i’ve seen him this season, works very hard and scores some absolute cracking goals. This could well be the replacement for Emre or with all of this news of Milner to Liverpool (which i doubt) he could be his direct replacement. But i would be happy if we spent up to £7M for him…£4M would be a steal.
11 tommyy // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:20
Just imagine… Van Der Vaart, Arda Turan, Sebastian Larrson, Bafetimbi Gomis, Macelo Mattos. I would be very happy with those players! obviously it will not happen, but just maybe we could get one or two?
12 tommyy // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:22
ToonKing… What is it mate?
13 Nev // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:23
£4.3mil seems abit excessive .. but a very good player
im suprised hes had positive views about him from the previous 6 comments … i thuaght some people mite think hes abit mediocre for us (ya know what some of us are like lol)
over all id give the thumbs to signing him … was birminghams best player last season .. kapo and zartate are the other players that spring to mind
14 Danny // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:26
I am more looking forward to seeing Larrson in our team than a lot of the names mentioned…
Without getting ahead of ourselves I think there are some very approachable players who would make us a very good team next year…Forget the Aimar’s and the like….We should target players under 25 so we can always sell on when their contract is coming to an end and their not staying….
Arda
Larrson
Gomis
Emana
Mbia
Torosidis
These would all make us a better team…What you think boys?
15 Geordie Nick // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:29
£4.3m excessive nev!!!!! its loose change these days for a very good premiership proven player
16 Lew Davies // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:36
JESUS !! You guys crack me up. Talk about fickle.
Actually think this type of player is all we can get this season, but thats ok with me. Deffo not a mistake, unlike these crazy bids for ronaldo/ronaldinho etc. Been there seen it done it, and it dont work. Hopefully things are being managed better now at NUFC, now WE all need to be more patient and accept that things are turning for the better. But it still might take a couple more seasons to come to fruition.
KEEP THE FAITH. TOON TOON.
17 Eric // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:40
Hur ser du på Newcastle?
- Det är en stor och bra klubb och om man är intresserad är det smickrande. Men just nu sköter min agent (Per Jonsson) allt sådant och jag koncentrerar mig på EM.
Basicly a question to Seb from fotbollskanalen.se
What do you think of Newcastle?
- It´s a big and great club, and if they are intrested I´m happy. But at the moment my agent does all of that stuff and I concentrate on the Euros.
And later his agent also says that the ball is with Birmingham and that he deffenetly will leave them to play in the PL.
I for one hopes he ends up in Newcastle then, both a good player in a good age, and also would realy love to have a countrymen in the team!
Tomorrowit looks like he will start on the right, accourding to all “experts”… So you can watch him, although I know we have our “targets” to watch every day…
18 scott9 // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:40
i think he wud be a great signing definatley for 4.3m
19 51times // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:41
I’d be very happy with Larsson, I remember that one goal where he looked so much like Messi is was unbelievable. Fair enough it was against a championship side but it was still some amazing dribbling.
20 Local_Hero // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:50
As a fellow Swede I just want to tell you all that fotbollskanalen is like the Sun and the reporter who made this discovery, Olof Lundh, is a true joke.
21 Tom4Nufc // Jun 9, 2008 at 22:56
I will be happy when he signed, b4 then I wont comment
22 Andy1 // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:00
I’d take Engelaar or De jong. They both looked class tonight. Engelaar could be amazing with his size in the Prem.
23 Andy1 // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:03
Larsson’s a classy player. We’d still need to add a bit more creativity but he is far better than Geremi. He takes a great freekick and is technically very adept
24 Geordie Nick // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:14
andy1- totally agree both were immense 2night, doubt wed go for engelaar with him being 28 dont fit in our youth policy, but id still lyk to see him, but de jong on other hand only 23 so wud be a top signing for us
25 petworth (DC) magpie // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:19
another player I thought we should have been in for before he transfered. I mean what did B’ham pay? 500k? Another steal that wouldn’t have taken much foresight. I rate him a lot but would have a hard time payin’ 7M for him!
And all those who doubt us signing VDV or Moutinho should have a little more hope. You have to put them in a similar class as Modric and we almost had him. I think the boss knows it’s gonna take a signing like that to appease the fans.
26 petworth (DC) magpie // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:20
From the Dutch game, who was the young sub who hit the crossbar? he looked lively.
Anyone know his contract situation?
27 Daniel // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:27
If we bring him in and let Emre go, its basically like for like, except we have brought in a younger, hungrier, less injury prone (there, i said it, he’ll get injured tomorrow) alternative for either the same money or slightly less. We cant have a team full of superstars, and these are the sorts of players that make a team (Rob Lee wasnt a superstar when he signed, nor was Batty and Butt, but look how important they are)
28 Andy1 // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:30
Found this on the Lazio official site. I’m guessing it’s saying we have sold Rozehnal to them.
Here’s the translation I got:
David Rozenhal is gambler of the Latium. The Society communicates to have perfected today its ransom from the English club of the Newcastle so like in the limits reached an agreement on. Twenty seven-year-old central biancoceleste with beyond 40 entries in the National Ceka was one of the protagonists of the success of the Republica Ceka on the Switzerland in the competition of opening of the European in course.
29 Andy1 // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:36
Larsson would be a good signing because he has prem experience and has shown he is capable. He is fairly versatile and he would I am sure love to return to the Premier League straight away. Newcastle will be a step up and he will be hungrier to impress. It is a positive signing where a player will not just be motivated by money.
30 Leo // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:44
QUALITY not qaulity? lol
would put a smile on my face get kapo too
31 Tom_Toon // Jun 9, 2008 at 23:58
Petworth, his name is Ibrahim Afellay, he wants to leave PSV.
32 ToonDaft // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:02
would be a good signing, hopefully the first of lots of quality
33 ToonDaft // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:03
oh, and keep up the great work Ed!!! here’s to a swift 10m hits
34 gonufc // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:10
Hope so. He reminds me a bit of Beckham, great passing and set pieces and scores the odd goal, reckon he’d fit in really well in the 3 in midfield system.
35 Tom_Toon // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:21
Hope to see Salpigidis for Greece tomorrow along with Torosidis and Tziolis of the lesser well known players, all very, very good.
36 Robby Bobson // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:22
Cracking player
Sign him up…he deserves better than the Championship
Its also good to see that from comments others agree so to, and not that we must always try buy the Van Der Vaarts of the world…even tho that would be nice
Ashleys sort of player, cheap and young
37 richie // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:22
for a while now iv been saying we should sign seb, hes a realistic target and i hope it goes tru
i think he is good now but will get even better,,its sounds outrageous but i think he could become one of the best midfielders in the prem in 3 to 4 yrs. iv thought about the age point regardin midfielders,,,
lamps in his early 20’s was good but by no means brillaint
same wit carrick and jenas who have become excellent prem midfielders with age, seb is jus 23 and at present can hold his own and more,,in time he will b even better, i really believe he may hit the levels of some of the players iv mentioned
wat do u all think??
38 Tom4Nufc // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:26
Very outrageous statement richie, but who know’s he has to prove alot b4 any1 can say that, but he would be a good solid signing.
39 51times // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:37
Jenas did well with us but he hasn’t really moved on while at the Yids. We ripped them off getting the money we did for him.
40 petworth (DC) magpie // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:44
I think we all agree with you Gregg let’s just hope we can get him in and at a good price.
Did we ever confirm the Emre’s transfer and a price?
Tom how much you reckon Afellay would cost? Anyone else impressed?
41 Tom_Toon // Jun 10, 2008 at 0:55
Dunno, im guessing in the region of 10-12mil definitely worth it, a great player, a playmaker either from the wing or the centre. Not sure if we could get him, Arsenal, Fiorentina and Barcelona all wan him and he wants out of PSV.
42 DC // Jun 10, 2008 at 1:10
He’ll go for way lower than 10-12 mil.
About 4-5mil i’d say.. He’s only just broke into the PSV first team (due to Van Bommel and Vogel leaving aswell)..
43 Tom_Toon // Jun 10, 2008 at 1:15
He broke into their first team 3 seasons ago mate, you just read his wikipedia page and assume these things.
When did van Bommel and Vogel leave…over 3 seasons ago
44 Tam Toon // Jun 10, 2008 at 1:17
Hi - Seb not a bad player good link Eric. Will watch the Greeks tomorrow tom toon with interest.
45 Tam Toon // Jun 10, 2008 at 1:23
Afellay 7-8 million he is out of contract in 2010.
46 matt // Jun 10, 2008 at 2:24
I also was EXTREMELY impressed with how quickley affelly (sp?) made an impact in that game.
but back to seb:
richie, i dont think your comment was outrageous at all. He could very well become a top midfielder in the prem. I live in the US and had a neighbor who played for birmingham city way back in the 70’s and i’d always go over and watch the city games with him. seb is pure class. Tom4Nufc is just pessimistic. keep in mind these are opinions, buddy. and also take into account you’ll probably shoot down anyone who’s mentioned on here because theyre either too good or not good enough or you dont want to believe it, so, that would leave us with the current crop of over-paid, underachievers, which based on your comments show you’re pretty happy with them.
the last thing this club or its supporters need is more negativity, and i realize there’s a difference between positivity and reality, but im sure most of us are able sift through that without others opinions being trashed.
howay the lads!!
47 Tom4Nufc // Jun 10, 2008 at 2:39
If you read my comment, I was saying he could be great, but isnt atm, lets face it he is no Fabregas atm is he? But I said he could turn out to be great.
48 Frankie Boy // Jun 10, 2008 at 4:05
Probably the most realistic target mentioned so far. Would fit in well with fee and wages cos he will not be on that much with the Brummies, plus his age is a bonus.
The first of many so lets get the bandwagon rolling at last.
Larsson for Barton.
49 neville brewis // Jun 10, 2008 at 4:41
Good player this lad, reminds me of a young Bobby Robson. Will link well with Alan Foggon.Well just 45 mins until the papers are out.
50 seetow // Jun 10, 2008 at 4:59
richie - i wouldn’t consider goldfish bowl a decent premiership midfielder at all. he’s adequate at most things but he can’t do nought. a little like alan smith i would say, just slightly better.
51 Ian // Jun 10, 2008 at 5:21
——————-Given——————
Beye—Taylor—Faye—Jose Enrique
—Turan———Butt——-Larsson—
——————Owen——————–
———Martins——Gomis————
i like this lineup, need another defender though
52 chuck // Jun 10, 2008 at 5:47
Yeah! yeah! sign him, sign anybody, you are so wound up you would sign a fish supper.
For chr**t sake relax folks.
53 seb // Jun 10, 2008 at 7:21
why not… he is better than all our wingers plus he is young
54 Jimmie // Jun 10, 2008 at 7:48
Agree with you Eric - Skulle vara ruggigt kul med en lovande landsman som Larsson i Newcastle!
55 spanishtoon // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:09
Hi guys…i saw andy mentioned this but no one seemed to pick up on it…
David Rozenhal è giocatore della Lazio. La Società comunica di aver perfezionato oggi il suo riscatto dal club inglese del Newcastle così come nei termini pattuiti. Il ventisettenne centrale biancoceleste con oltre 40 partite nella Nazionale Ceka è stato uno dei protagonisti del successo della Republica Ceka sulla Svizzera nella gara di apertura degli Europei in corso.
This basically translates that Lazio have agreed a fee with the toon for Rozenhal and that he is now a Lazio player………good news….notbad player…..but im getting quite into this clear out thing….
cheers guys….nowt in spanish media at mo about toon targets….its all about the game tonight….ill keep you updated though on spanish and italian press translations…
56 John // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:15
cheers spanish toon..Doe’s it sasy what kind off fee was agreed?
57 spanishtoon // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:17
hi john not just yet….but thats from the lazio official site…
58 cg // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:29
Says he’s flattered on Newcastle interest, not “happy” but that would rate even higher imo
Promising lad, watched that Birmingham - Liverpool game, nice nordic pressence there with a “swedish” and a “finnish” goal birm goal.
59 ToonKing // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:50
we should just release every player we have and then sign 23 new playters………..we aren’t a long way off …
60 Ian-original not the one above! // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:50
At last a quality midfielder, happy if we sign this one, we need some more, at least another two for the midfield, preferably one who scores more per season as close to Barry’s record as possible.
Also a scoring defender.
61 Graham // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:59
Maybe thats where the press got our summer transfer kitty from. Maybe its in Krona and not pounds shillings and pence!
Good player, better than what we have got, go get him.
62 The Entertainers // Jun 10, 2008 at 9:12
Larsson impresses me during our game at St Andrews before he went off injured. McLiesh believed its was his injury that let Newcastle back into the game.
He reminds me of Beckham, may not have pace or be dynamic, but his passes and crosses are almost always nailed on.
Besides how often does Wenger get it wrong, even the ones he lets go are always half decent players:
Bentley
Musamba
Larsson
Pennant
Upson
Sidwell
Harper
Stokes……hang on i got carried away with the last one, but you take my point.
63 geordiegraham // Jun 10, 2008 at 9:33
i wud love 2 see him be in wor squad. He’s got potential nd scores some wonder strikes. Sign Zarate also lol. We need some defenders. Emmanuelsom from Ajax a promising good left back. We also need new CB’s somebody like Anton Ferdinand or Vincent Kompany. Maybe even try for Sidwell wot do ya think?
64 Davies // Jun 10, 2008 at 9:34
I have to be honest, when we played Birmingham I was glad he had to go off. Apart from McFadden, Larsson was the real threat. McFadden didn’t get the same service at all afterwards.
I like this lad and I agree that he will only get better. Ididn’t realise he was only 23!!!
With regards to the game last night, I’d never heard of Affelay until he came on, but as soon as he hit the crossbar I turned to my mate and said “he’ll be at Man Utd next season”…..
….and he probably will.
65 figsdad // Jun 10, 2008 at 9:39
Anton Ferdinand Please noooooooo.
another bling boy he totaly crap…
66 Nick C // Jun 10, 2008 at 10:28
Tom Toon and I have had a bit of a debate going on for a while now about proven Premiership quality.
He strangely argues that there ain’t such a thing whereas my opinion is that if you are going to buy a foreigner, surely it is better to get someone who has already done it the Prem.
Larsson is exactly who I would go for if I had anything to do with NUFC. He would hit the ground running and be a great acquisition. Some of the names mentioned from abroad sound great players, but would they settle here? I am not so sure….
67 Eric // Jun 10, 2008 at 10:54
Luque is one exampel of a player that didn´t fit in the PL, at least we know what Larsson is all about, experiance is important. With that said we should not go out and buy players like Riise because of that…
Nice to here everyone so positive about him! Next Lampard, Beckham and Fabregas… hmm, wouldn´t mind him getting that good =) But it´s true he reminds you of Beckham, his right foot might not be as good, but not far from it. And you se the same thing in the national team as in brum, he feeds the strikers with balls time and time again, would be perfekt for Martins and Owen. Geremi isn´t that good of a player anymore imo, but he has a decent right foot and that has given us some goals from Owen under Keegan, with seb we will proboblu get more, and you wouldn´t have to scream yourself yo death every tim Geremi outs a bad freekick..
About Affelay, don´t know were you have hide all this time? He has been well know for me and my swedish friends for about 3 years. .. Realu good player thou, and realy looked sharp when he come in! Tomtoon, 12M punds? isn´t that a bit massive? Will be intresting to se him in a better league…
Ofcourse you have heard about Engelar before, but I have not seen him play much, but he realy impressed me! Know you should not buy a player efter one game, but even if he is 28, you can´t consider that very old, and he can´t be that expensive? Even if he is a dutch national…
Where were Huntelare yesterday? Injured?
68 Tom4Nufc // Jun 10, 2008 at 11:10
Just sign him please
69 shearer 4 pm // Jun 10, 2008 at 19:41
when hes gud hes gud
when hes bad he is terrible
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