Andy Carroll has come out today and said something that the majority of Newcastle fans knew already – that he is totally committed to Newcastle United, his home-town club.
Andy Carroll – with trophy and baby girl
Carroll told the Evening Chronicle today:
“I think most people know that I don’t want to leave.”“It’s always been my ambition to play for Newcastle United and score goals at St James’ Park, and that’s what I’ve been able to do.”
“I’ve always said that if I get the opportunities to play I will score goals, and hopefully that continues. I’ve been at Newcastle since I was 10 and I’m totally committed.”
Well said Andy Carroll.
There is lots of talk today – coming from the journalists who cover Newcastle – that Chris Hughton will now have to sell some players, if he indeed wants to bring new players into the club this summer, as he has already stated.
But it’s still not clear to us that absolutely no funds will be made available to the Newcastle manager this summer.
You would think it would be fairly easy for the Newcastle club to clarify that news one way or the other – but we guess not.
Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias are still not communicating well enough with Newcastle fans, and whenever there’s a lack of communication it’s always accompanied with a lack of affinity.
Comments welcome.
12 comments so far
Toon Sweden77
May 11, 2010 at 1:32 PM
Comment #1Cant see anyone leave this summer except for Xisco. The current squad will survive the in the premierleague, could be hard to score the goals if Carroll and Lovenkrants gets injured so a new striker would be welcomed.
alan shearer
May 11, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Comment #2sell shola and xisco for money…
get boyd, beckford ,altinop for free
get john arne riise for about 2 mil..though he is 29 but he has still much more to offer..perhaps use him as left winger…he is like gareth bale no.2
peterktoon
May 11, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Comment #3http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2010/05/11/jose-enrique-insists-he-won-t-leave-nufc-61634-26419275/
Felipe
May 11, 2010 at 2:37 PM
Comment #4On the contrary. CH has said that he wasn’t surprised about the transfer situation. He is allowed to sign players, he’s just not allowed to sign them on the never never. Everybody calm down and at least wait until the transfer window opens before we tear ourselves apart!
Newutd
May 11, 2010 at 2:43 PM
Comment #5alan shearer –
Beckford is an ass, and is hugely overrated. Hasn’t impressed anyone since the cup games..
Altintop would demand a way higher wage than what we can give him. He probably wouldn’t have come anyway.
Riise for 2 mil?? He has been one of Romes best players all season, in a season where they CAN win the league, and got to the final in coppa italia (?)
Newutd
May 11, 2010 at 2:44 PM
Comment #6Great news from Carroll in any case.
Zangwill_Ho
May 11, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Comment #7Leeds eyeing Newcastle striker Ameobi
(is it real?)
Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi is wanted by Championship newcomers Leeds United.
Ameobi struggled to take part in Newcastle’s run to the title this season due to injuries.
The Daily Mail says Ameobi could arrive at Elland Road as a replacement for Everton target Jermaine Beckford. Ameobi has scored 11 goals this season but saw his campaign cut short with injuries.
http://www.tribalfootball.com/leeds-eyeing-newcastle-striker-ameobi-831091
Newutd
May 11, 2010 at 2:49 PM
Comment #8JOSÉ Enríque has told potential suitors they will be wasting their time if they try to get him to leave Newcastle United this summer – even though he fears the club may need to sell him to raise transfer funds.
If we sell our best players, we are doomed. Ridiculous if that’s the plan.
WLtoon
May 11, 2010 at 3:14 PM
Comment #9Lets hope Carroll does stay,if MA is serious about what his player criteria shud be for the future of NUFC,then Andy fits it perfectly,young, local and peanuts for wages. IMO i would,nt have Beckford,why has he been on the bench at leeds lately?is it so he des,nt get injured b4 he moves to Everton. Boyd spits the dummy out too much, i think Altintop wud be great for us but would we pay his wages? i doubt it. DinDan would be another who would be a good addition, but again,its his wages. Does anyone know what the wage cap is,last wk it was quoted to be around 30k but it would be no surprise to anyone if it was far less than that.
JIMMYBOB33
May 11, 2010 at 3:24 PM
Comment #10George Caulkin
In a parallel universe, a parallel Newcastle United released a parallel statement on their parallel official website yesterday evening. This is how it read…
Dear Newcastle United supporters,
First things first: thank you. Thank you on behalf of everyone connected with the club, from the players, from the managerial staff and from the boardroom, for your continued backing. Thank you for bearing with us over the past few, difficult seasons and thank you for persevering as we attempt to put things right.
Thank you for continuing to buy your season tickets, your replica shirts, your pies and programmes and thank you for trooping through the turnstiles to shout yourselves hoarse week upon week. We know that you have a choice, that you didn’t have to do what you did and we appreciate the sacrifices some of you made at a time when the economy is in turmoil and finances are tight. In a very real and meaningful way, we simply couldn’t have done it without you.
For a club that haven’t won a domestic trophy since 1955 to record an average attendance of 43,387 in the Coca-Cola Championship was stunning and humbling. Once again: thank you.
Without wishing to open old sores, we recognise that we’ve made some pretty big mistakes. Hopefully, by acknowledging that and accepting it, the process of healing those wounds can gather pace. What’s been so productive about the campaign just ended is that it felt like we were all in it together; team, coaches, fans. In testing circumstances, the club began to renew itself and long may that continue.
In the spirt of that bond, we feel that we have a duty to be open and frank. Just as this is a different Newcastle from the club that were relegated a year ago, it also a very different environment. Money has coalesced at the top of the Barclays Premier League and it is all too easy for clubs to overreach themselves chasing an illusory pot of gold. There were some great times at St James’ Park under Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson and we’d love to repeat them, but we all have to accept that, for the foreseeable future anyway, things have changed.
We’re not trying to apportion blame here – and, in any case, we would deserve a slice of it – but, for whatever reason, the club got into a situation where they were paying exorbitant transfer fees, wages and agent fees, often at the expense of team-building. That can’t and won’t happen again. Successful clubs build and grow and we want to protect the team spirit that has been so evident in the Championship. We want to protect the football club as a whole.
It is our judgement – and that of Chris Hughton, our manager – that we have the basis of a squad that can compete in the Premier League next season. If you look at clubs like Wigan Athletic, Bolton Wanderers and, more recently, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City, you can see that it’s possible to stabilise following promotion and that’s the route that Newcastle are going down. We’ll be relying on loans, free transfers and a bit of imagination. We’re not saying it’ll be easy and we’re taking nothing for granted, least of all you.
Put simply, the pot is empty. In our last season in the Premier League, we made a loss of £37.7m and we’re due to record another loss of £32.5m this season. That’s just not sustainable. Our overdraft – all clubs have them – stands at £20m and it’s already been allocated. Yes, our income from television money will shoot back up again, but the owner has already invested around £300m of his own money into Newcastle and, as far as he’s concerned, that’s enough. As our last accounts stated, there is an outstanding loan of £111m from Mike Ashley that is “repayable on demand,” and, ideally, he’d like some of it back.
That’s reasonable, isn’t it? He’s kept things ticking over this season and we’ve slashed costs, but it’s a matter of record that Mike has twice attempted to sell the club and he just isn’t willing to leave himself further out of pocket. You may not want to hear that, but we hope you appreciate the honesty. To borrow an old phrase, we are where we are.
In the meantime, we want to build a new Newcastle, if you will. We want this to be a Newcastle you can be proud of. A big part of that, as always, will be determined by what happens on the pitch and all players will be reminded of their responsibilities to you, but it also means focusing resources on our Academy structure.
For far too long, this region has allowed its better players to leave and we have to put a stop to that drain of talent. We tip our hats to the work done by our neighbours Middlesbrough and Sunderland in this regard and we want to do the same. And we mean it this time. We’re going to let the experts get on with the job of building scouting networks and providing opportunities and, with a bit of luck, in a few years’ time, you’ll be cheering on a team peppered with skilful Geordies. How good would that be?
We should also say a few words about the media and our relationship with them. It hasn’t always been easy. We happen to think that this club and their supporters has not always been well served by newspapers, television and radio and that we’re sometimes subjected to crude stereotyping, but we also accept that because of decisions taken by this regime and its predecessors, we’ve made ourselves easy targets. In retrospect, there was probably an opportunity to reshape the debate when Mr Ashley bought the club, but he was never very comfortable about assuming a public role and that moment has sadly dissipated.
We have to hold our hands up, too. When we have spoken out, we haven’t consistently managed to get our message across in the way we wanted to, so we’ve taken the decision to let our football and our football people do the talking for us. If you see anything in the papers from now on where Newcastle “sources” or “insiders” are quoted, rest assured that it hasn’t come from us. We don’t want to get in the way of Chris’s work because he’s got a tough enough job without any unnecessary interference from us.
Hope this clears things up.
Thanks again and Howay the Lads,
Newcastle United
Mr Books
May 11, 2010 at 3:43 PM
Comment #11It could be worse – we could be Liverpool
http://premierleaguereport.blogspot.com/2010/05/kpmg-liverpool-fc-on-verge-of.html
Paul141726
May 11, 2010 at 4:12 PM
Comment #12Felipe @ 4- how dare you talk sense LOL. I agree with your statement. The window hasn’t opened yet and already people are figuritively jumping off the nearest bridge. I will not believe the club will not get some players (loan, free or purchased) until it happens (or doesn’t).