News today that Wigan Athletic and Newcastle United are both after Swansea City midfielder Darren Pratley.
Darren Pratley – are Newcastle interested?
The report is in the Daily Mirror and we have no idea if it’s true, but we know Wigan manager Roberto Martinez knows the player well from when he was manager at Swansea.
And in fact it was Roberto who signed the player and made him captain during his time as manager at the Liberty Stadium, and this is not the first time Newcastle have been reported to be after the midfielder, and we were last linked with the 25 year-old in April, when a summer move was possible.
The transfer price for the central midfielder is said to be up around £4M, but that seems high for a player who has not been tested at the top flight of English football, and may be a high risk for that kind of money.
The 6’1″ midfielder has been at Swansea City since 2006, when he was signed from Fulham for £100K, and has played for the Welsh side 147 times with 19 goals.
Darren started his career at Fulham in 2003, and played on loan at Brentford for a couple of seasons from 2005 through 2006, and appeared 54 times for Brentford scoring 5 goals, during his two loan spells.
Newcastle may be interested in this player but we like Wolves’ midfielder David Jones, and if he doesn’t sign a new contract at the Molineux club, he could be available as a free agent in the summer, as his current contract runs out then.
And David has looked very impressive for Wolves this season in the Premier League.
Comments welcome.
15 comments so far
ToonAndy
Nov 1, 2010 at 3:53 PM
Comment #1Championship Midfielder… 19 goals in 147 games …. No thanks 🙂
Was much happier with the link to Matias Fernandez!!
Howay The Lads
Nov 1, 2010 at 3:56 PM
Comment #2This rumour came out last year, but it’s so clearly bull.
He’s a good player, but we’ve already got Nolan, Smith, Tiote, Barton, Vuckic, Gosling and Guthrie all in CM.
I’d say 5 of those are better than him and one is coming through the ranks. If anything we’re gonna have to get rid of CMs at the end of the season.
I reckon Hughton’ll loan out Vuckic, and, maybe even Gosling, which leaves us with 5.
Then I think – I’m not certain though – that Smith or Guthrie might ask for a move unless they’re getting fairly regular games.
Anyway, back to the story: it’s a non-story
atom
Nov 1, 2010 at 4:16 PM
Comment #3If we are gonna start rumours, I would like to start one for Matt Jarvis.
Toonarmy1993
Nov 1, 2010 at 4:43 PM
Comment #4after getting tiote for a bargain of £3.5million, surely we wouldnt pay more for a championship midfielder!
cupiddstunt
Nov 1, 2010 at 5:14 PM
Comment #5HTL Gosling was starting to show for Everton that he can handle the prem so I don’t understand loaning him out.
TA1993 you pay money for what you think you are getting, not necessarily for what they are when you buy them. What I mean by that is when a player changes teams they generally change as a player due to the players around them
a good example of that is Darren Fletcher for manure, a pretty decent midfielder week in week out for manure, shite when he plays for Scotland, so looks good when feeding off and supported by a good team, crap when having to stand up and be counted.
So take the championship out of his title of “championship midfielder” and just say midfielder then ask does he improve what we have and if so what’s he worth?
Thump
Nov 1, 2010 at 5:23 PM
Comment #6Ooo I didn’t know we could format our posts here.
[b]test[/b]
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I also heard that we’re in for Lionel Messi and C. Ronaldo. Just saying.
Thump
Nov 1, 2010 at 5:23 PM
Comment #7So it’s HTML, eh? Learn something new every day!
Howay The Lads
Nov 1, 2010 at 5:51 PM
Comment #8Yeah, cupid, but I don’t see him getting serious game time otherwise.
Barton, Nolan, Tiote and, possibly, Guthrie are all better than him, so it’ll be hard for him to get in the team.
Howay The Lads
Nov 1, 2010 at 5:51 PM
Comment #9Stop being a smart-arse, Thump, and whilst you’re at it, tell me how you do it 😀
Howay The Lads
Nov 1, 2010 at 5:54 PM
Comment #10Wait, if it’s anything like 606, this should work…
Thump’s a smart-arse
BeeGuy
Nov 1, 2010 at 5:55 PM
Comment #11The rumor I might give some gredance to qwould be one about a big, young, rangy striker coming in to back up Shola & Carroll. Oh wait, we have Ranger. Nuff said.
Sav
Nov 2, 2010 at 3:59 AM
Comment #12With Inman, Vukic and Gosling in the background, BenArfa coming back, Smith and Guthrie in reserve, Barton playing out of position, do we NEED another central midfielder?
We are getting to the point where we are looking for top quality players to improve on what we already have.
Not this lad.
Rowan Milsted
Nov 2, 2010 at 7:07 PM
Comment #13I don’t think there’s any truth in this at all. He’s not a bad player… but the overriding question is WHY? As rightly pointed out above, we don’t need any players in this dept. It was like a couple of weeks ago when we were linked (supposedly) with Gilks (the Blackpool goalie) and again you think, not a bad player… but WHY?
If we were to sign a player I’d like to see a young LB, cause if Enrique gets injured we’ve got nobody to cover. Except that Ferguson who looks promising… but isn’t really ready for week-in-week-out Premier league football.
Jack Magpie
Nov 2, 2010 at 8:57 PM
Comment #14I live in Swansea and have watched Darren Pratley since he joined the club. Its only really been the last 3 seasons that he’s developed into a quality CHAMPIONSHIP level player. If he did join the toon, he may be out of his depth, a lot like Perch this season.
Pratley is a brilliant championship midfielder but deffinitely not a top quality premiership player, especially considering the strength of Newcastles midfield already. He’s a player that the swans can’t really afford to loose, but one who would probably warm the bench or play reserves for the toon.
Jack Magpie
Nov 2, 2010 at 8:58 PM
Comment #15PS Kenny Jacket signed him and made him captain for one season not Roberto Martinez