Newcastle United intend to sign Tottenham midfielder Tom Huddlestone for £6M in the summer, if the Tyneside club can stay in the Premier league.
Tom Huddlestone – £6M summer target for Newcastle?
This is a report in today’s News Of The World, and it’s not the first time we have been linked with Huddlestone for a summer move. The lad has been a consistent performer for the England U-21 team, but has found it difficult to get into Harry Redknapp’s side at Tottenham.
Tom’s played 30 times for the England U-21 side and the 6’3″ bulky midfielder, who was born in Nottingham, certainly has plenty of talent, and he doesn’t turn 23 until this December. He’s played about 70 times for Spurs and before that 88 times for Derby County.
Not sure Tom’s worth £6M, but would be a very good buy for around £4M, and ff course Newcastle failed in a late approach to bring him to Newcastle, on loan, in the January transfer window.
But this will be all dependent on Newcastle staying up in the Premier League, and if we do get relegated, the club will need to unload a number of our top wage earners, who would probably include Owen, Smith, Geremi, Cacapa, Duff, Martins, Coloccini, Gutierrez and Viduka.
The wage bills of those players are close to $510K a week in total, that’s around £26.5M for the year.
Does anybody out there think Newcastle have got their money’s worth from these players? We don’t.
And maybe that’s all the club would need to unload, and then bring in some good younger players in the summer to augment the remaining squad.
But we don’t want to think about that too much right now – we’re still hoping the lads will earn their wages and keep the club up.
Comments welcome.
33 comments so far
Toon_Factor
Mar 29, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Comment #1No truth in it. NEXT
Tom4Nufc
Mar 29, 2009 at 12:10 PM
Comment #2I dont think you can dismiss it mate, there is always a chance that anything can happen! Atleast thats what I keep telling myself when it comes to avoiding relegation! :'(
batty
Mar 29, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Comment #3b0llocks
RyanToon
Mar 29, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Comment #4what a load of B S
ToonRy
Mar 29, 2009 at 1:53 PM
Comment #5Ed why dxo you constantly say ‘we’ its your opinion not ours! People may share the same opnion as yous but alot of fans don’t! gutierrez off our wage bill i think not m8! U must be on summit
GEORDIE69
Mar 29, 2009 at 1:54 PM
Comment #6Gutierrez should be the second name on our team sheet everyweek behind Bassong!!!!
JoeColl87
Mar 29, 2009 at 2:13 PM
Comment #7Gutierrez will be taken from the wage bill by his own admission. Does anyone really think he is going to stick with if we end up in the championship? Surely as an Argentine international, he must still have people throughout Europe wanting him in their teams.
Jan Stavik
Mar 29, 2009 at 3:39 PM
Comment #8For sure some big clubs are after Jonas, he’s a star performer for Argentina. Its amazing that the NUFC staff still think that mediocre players like Duff and Ryan Taylor (!!!) are better than Jonas.
As for the Hudd, I can’t see why he’s needed if Barton, Guthrie and Nolan are fit. He’s at the same level as those 3, we need better people(Mbia etc.), not more average players.
Wigaz
Mar 29, 2009 at 4:01 PM
Comment #9Not a bad player but I’d rather we were trying for players with a bit more creativity & skill to their game like Bennayoun or unrealisticly Deigo. I think we should try sign Kevin Davies upfront & Taylor from Bolton. Got a good hold up player there & a creative midfielder who can score goals. I dont belive any of these links though. Simple reason is we dont even know who’s going to be our manager come next season or what league we’ll be playing in so therefore all these players could change. If we stay up my team next season would be.
==========Harper/Krul=======
Beye==Dunne==Bassong===Jose/Bale
Pennant=Nolan==Yosi/Barton=Jonas/Downing
========Ashton===Oba/Owen=====
Not unrealistic targets with Bruce or Shearer as gaffer. At least we’d have natural width & some creativity in the middle. But then again staying up with be a serious challenge.
neeraj
Mar 29, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Comment #10my friend started this rumor and adebayor to milan one
Tom_Toon
Mar 29, 2009 at 4:12 PM
Comment #11Dunne?!?! Pennant?!?! Benayoun/Barton and Nolan a starter?!?! Ashton the biggest crock in football??!
I’m jus glad you are not manager.
As for Huddlestone, nah, soft as sh…, scared of the tackle, is very slow, all he can do is pass well.
always geordie
Mar 29, 2009 at 4:27 PM
Comment #12huddlestone has no bottle and it is a not a fighter that is why he can’t get in the spuds team. hardly the cv you want for championship football
always geordie
Mar 29, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Comment #13wigaz stick to football manager on your playstation
neeraj
Mar 29, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Comment #14really i find this funny, here is a team fighting for survival but still looking at possible transfer targets next season……..
Rodzilla
Mar 29, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Comment #15…why do these stories keep coming out, like us wanting a goalkeeper as well (Boruc), FFS.
If all these bullsh1t merchants really need to link us with players that badly they could at least try to lie about a more realistic target I.E. a creative/attacking midfielder or target man
sirjasontoon
Mar 29, 2009 at 7:08 PM
Comment #16plop.
Rodzilla
Mar 29, 2009 at 7:35 PM
Comment #17Kaka.
Rodzilla
Mar 29, 2009 at 7:36 PM
Comment #18?
chuck
Mar 29, 2009 at 8:25 PM
Comment #19Dunne, consistently voted best player by team mates for the last three years.
Benayoun, a skillfull player who can both make and score goals.
Bale & Pennant, decent but we should be aiming higher.
Ashton, we already have enough sick notes on the team.
Huddlestone, if we got him for 4m. o`k, still young and could improve.
Tom_Toon
Mar 29, 2009 at 8:43 PM
Comment #20Dunne – consistantly a carthorse, seem trains turn faster. An untalented fat lump of a footballer.
Nothing wrong with Benayoun, but he is too lightwieght for the centre.
workyticket
Mar 29, 2009 at 11:48 PM
Comment #21Tom_Toon, when we are teenagers, some of us think that the constant deprecation of everything makes us seem more ‘knowledgable’ in some way. It doesn’t though, it just makes us look childish and rather silly.
workyticket
Mar 29, 2009 at 11:53 PM
Comment #22And chuck is right (almost). Dunne has been voted Man City’s player of the season FOUR times in a row now. The rest makes quite alot of sense too.
Tom_Toon
Mar 30, 2009 at 12:13 AM
Comment #23Workyticket – Every comment you make, makes you look or rather sound, like an utter fool. Especially the ones in reference to Joe Kinnear.
Tom_Toon
Mar 30, 2009 at 12:16 AM
Comment #24Dunne is an utterly hopeless excuse for a footballer. He is dire. If he didn’t have his build he wouldn’t be of the required quality for a pub team.
He is about 10x worse than Coloccini and having watched Boumsong apart from his time at us, he is about 50x worse than him.
workyticket
Mar 30, 2009 at 12:19 AM
Comment #25Tom_Toon // Mar 30, 2009 at 12:13 AM
“…Especially the ones in reference to Joe Kinnear”
Don’t you mean Bobby Gould, Tom_Toon? 😉
Premiership Manager
Mar 30, 2009 at 1:07 AM
Comment #26Ed.
I can’t believe some of your comments such as asking if we have had value for money from Duff, Martins, Coloccini, Gutierrez.
One week you praise the players and then the next you question their value in the team, some consistency would be good instead of actively giving people ammunition to shoot the team down when we least need it!
Owen, Smith, Geremi, Cacapa, and Viduka IMO haven’t been worth it, however if they had all remained fit and had regular first team football we might all be playing a different tune.
The question you should be asking in an effort to draw the clubs attention is why does newcastle have the worst injury record in the Premiership. Is it the training regime, the coaching, the staff or something else. This is something the club should be looking at as a priority because there is no point in buying new players if they are going to suffer the same consequences as the other players we’ve signed.
As for Colochini he isn’t a 10M player but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad player, however if he doesn’t improve his awareness and pace he’ll end up a very poor investment.
Duff, Jonas and Martins are work horses and very good players who IMO have been the victims of poor management, team selection and a lack of direction/coaching.
Yes Duff is injury prone but he does give 100% and without his efforts this year we would already have gone down. Martins is the same, just look at how many games we have lost when he has played and you’ll find that when he is not playing we rarely win or look competitive. Jonas is a superb player who just lacks the final ball, however that can be remedied with good coaching and time.
All three of the above players are missing one thing and that is a big target man who can hold up the ball and lay it off. The management need to address this because you can’t rely on pace alone and we’ve needed a twenty goals a season forward since Shearer left. Until we sign a quality physical CF, (Carol may come good in the future), we will continue to struggle up front.
I don’t think that Huddlestone would offer anything to the team, as Guthrie, Barton and nolan are far more acomplished players. Kranjker, (Pompey), Richardson, (Sunderland), Jo (from MC), Ryan Babel, (Liverpool) are all players that I’d be looking to sign in addition to offering some of the younger players at the club first team footbal. Rooney and Owen are two very good examples of youngplayers who have transformed their club fortunes at a very young age. We just need a coach with the balls to give them a run, it also gives the established players the incentive to perform.
At the back I’d also rest Colo and play Beye as a centre back with Bassong, leaving S Taylor as RB where he is comming into his own
bennytoon
Mar 30, 2009 at 8:59 AM
Comment #27Some of the comments on here are quality. Saying that you should be aiming higher than pennant and bale is priceless.
Tom_Toon
Mar 30, 2009 at 9:59 AM
Comment #28Ye and who said that you scrawny little smackhead.
bennytoon
Mar 30, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Comment #29tom tit- comment 19 by chuck.
Tom_Toon
Mar 30, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Comment #30Cant wait until you overdose Bennytoon. 🙂
bennytoon
Mar 30, 2009 at 2:18 PM
Comment #31Tom-toon- How very grown up of you. I take it that newcastles relegation form is getting to you and like a spoilt child you are lashing out at everyone.
I bet you are looking forward to the summer transfer window so that you can do your youtube scouting. Forget the foreign stars this year though as you will be operating on a much smaller scale in division 1.
bennytoon
Mar 30, 2009 at 2:43 PM
Comment #32/
Tom_Toon
Mar 30, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Comment #33Its it funny, yet saddening that you claim to be over 13.