The Sun is reporting today that Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear will try to sell a number of Newcastle players so he doesn’t have to sell his number one star goalkeeper Shay Given, in order to fund new players coming into the club.
Joe Kinnear – needs to sell before he can buy – why??
The Sun is reporting that Joe Kinnear will try to sell Spanish pair Xisco and Jose Enrique, who cost Newcastle a total of around £12M, and have hardly displayed that kind of class. although Xisco hasn’t even been given the opportunity.
But with owner Mike Ashley unwilling to fund any deals with up-front cash, Joe must sell some of the players he may not want, in order to get the players in he does want.
And in the January transfer window that has to be a very difficult task.
After all the hullabaloo that’s gone on at Newcastle since September, and with Mike Ashley announcing a week ago he will keep the club, we would have thought a good will gesture would have been to give Joe say £10M to £15M to get some new players in, and then he can could wheel and deal selling players after that.
It certainly doesn’t put the owner in a good light with Newcastle fans because Mike owes it to Newcastle and the club, which he almost decimated over the last few months.
£10M would allow Joe to get in 2-3 players quickly and at least we would have some momentum going, but as long as nobody comes in for the Magpie players on sale, presumably there will be no incoming transfers, and that has to be a possibility, unless Mike relents and gives Joe some money, which he may have to.
We would even be willing to give some cash, if that would help, but a quick look in the piggy bank shows we are around £10M short of the £10M required – oh well.
Two of the midfield players Joe is said to be keen on are include Rangers captain Barry Ferguson and Portsmouth’s 6’4″ powerhouse, Papa Diop.
Kinnear said:
“One deal will automatically trigger the next one. So I’m banging on the door hoping that the buying club will make a decision.”
“I just hope it never comes down to Mike suggesting I sell Shay Given.”
Mike – are you listening?
Presumably that means that at least some clubs are interested but if Joe really does sell Enrqiue he will need to bring in two lest backs in January, and we don’t see that happening.
And a couple of players he could try to sell, and this will change as January progresses, are Alan Smith and Charles N’Zogbia.
We getting a little tired of Charles always talking about wanting to leave Newcastle so perhaps that would be a way to get the cash but we shouldn’t let Charles go on the cheap either, and if we have to do that we had better make sure we have another winger coming in, and also that we are secure at left full back.
We’d be OK letting Alan Smith go, but the problem with Alan is that he hasn’t played since August, because of his Achilles injury, and it may be hard t0 sell him in January, and that may have to wait until the summer.
But one thing is for certain, and that is we’ll be doing quite a number of deals in the summer, and it will be for those players whose clubs wouldn’t release them in January.
As fas as players leaving Newcastle in the summer, they could include Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Alan Smith, Claudia Cacapa, David Edgar, Steve Harper, Xisco, Jose Enrique, Ameobi and Butt. That’s 10 players right there.
It will depend on who we manage to unload in January, and who signs their new contracts this month, since Ameobi, Harper and Butt still haven’t signed their contracts, and are still mulling over the offers.
Owen, Viduka and Smith leaving in the summer will free up around £230K/week in wages – and the only one we’d miss would be Michael.
Comments welcome.
249 comments so far
valle
Jan 5, 2009 at 5:40 PM
Comment #241tom_mad_tom… Tom why are you so mad?, dont take it so bad, just try to be glad and stop being sad. (read that out loud in Eminems voice)
Ian
Jan 5, 2009 at 6:15 PM
Comment #242My only surprise is anyone above is surprised.
Ashley is an idiot, no good pretending anything different, completely raving mad.
He is about to lose around £150m and is still bothered about £1m here and £3m there!
He is allowing Owen and other players to unsetttle his business and does nothing!
How about buying the Owen replacement now, this window when Owen has half a season to go? Why not use Given to fund some of the purchase? If they will take one of our players we want shot of as part payment all the better, Smith would be best as he has decent wages. This would settle the team down as we would have our strikers Martins and the new striker for next season, while Owen is still here.
Then spend money out of his pocket on defenders preferably to clubs who may take other players we want rid off, even if it is for very little.
Get control of the club and the playing staff, at the moment they have control and influence over the team more than the management.
They wont, before long when another couple of key players leave there will be no team left to build on.
welshgeordie
Jan 5, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Comment #243david craig works with sky sports he is a north east reporter
bill
Jan 5, 2009 at 7:06 PM
Comment #244It’s a sad state of affairs right now, and the problem is I cannot see it improving in the short term. It is obvious to me that a lot of the players are very unhappy at NUFC, this being highlighted by Shay Given’s lawyer’s comments and the fact that a number of player contracts have not been offered or those that have been offered, have not been signed.
The biggest problem here is one of stature within the game, because most people in football will know the situation at NUFC through the player / agent grapevine and at present players will be reluctant to sign for NUFC even if Ashley was trying to sign them. As I see it, they will probably get in a couple of loanees until the end of the season. The club will be sold to whomever, with a depleted squad because those that are out of contract will probably move on. It will leave the new owners with a very small squad which will have to have millions spent on it to field a team. This of course may all change should we be relegated. It’s a total mess.
Sav
Jan 5, 2009 at 7:49 PM
Comment #245Ed, your ads are covering the ‘Comments’ section. Howay, man. Get it sorted.
Tom Mo.
Jan 5, 2009 at 10:00 PM
Comment #246I mean I guess I just don’t understand, but if we have to SELL to BUY…it doesn’t solve any of our d*mn problems. we are trying to buy more players to have a bigger squad but penny pinching ashley wants to sell before buying……..he really IS incompetent…
TheWad
Jan 5, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Comment #247Don’t get me wrong I am no big fan of the current regime but let’s take a step back and see what has happened since wise and co have come in. We have bought Colocinni, Jonas, Bassong, gutherie, Xisco and Nile Ranger and unlike the previous regime without spending tens of millions of pounds. Bassong and to a lesser degree Jonas have been real finds, gutherie is getting better with experience, colocinni looks good when alongside Bassong and Ranger is one for the future
The problem I have with Wise and his team is that he hasn’t brought enough players in. We have needed full backs for years now particularly on the left and this is now Ashley’s 4th transfer window and we have only managed to bring Beye and Enrique in. Come Dennis we need more, sort it out!!!!!!!
mark stafford
Jan 6, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Comment #248ashley is not welcome back, until he redeems himself with purchases. Why exactly is Wise still there, I am not convinced by any of his signings as of yet!
Ian
Jan 6, 2009 at 9:46 AM
Comment #249The problem with selling before we buy when we already are short in numbers means if they do not sign we are in a worse position.
The team just keeps getting more expensive to replace every single transfer window, the value of Newcastle’s team must be less than half of when Ashley took over, not exactly good business, even if he kept the better players on long contracts he would have kept some value in the team.
Take away the old Shepherd signings from this team and there isnt much left, if they use their last transfer window as a guide then they need to buy double the players as half are no good, and that is if they can still manage to find the quality of Jonas and Guthrie, but remember their scoring is low for their positions, if the same scoring percentage applied to strikers then we would be relegated, the goals added up wouldnt keep us in the premiership.
Ashley and co need to get an abacus out as they arent any good at simple addition. Their planning will take us down, if we hang on this season (lucky if we do) we will be gone next.