With Wayne Routledge shipped out on loan to his former club QPR yesterday, there is talk about who will come in to replace the winger at Newcastle.
Shaun Wright-Phillips – Newcastle interested
We had put one or two players down we thought Newcastle could be after (or was it 100?), and there’s news today, which at least seems true, that Newcastle are after Shaun Wright-Phillips of Manchester City.
Wright-Phillips’ agent has confirmed that Newcastle have expressed an interests in the 29 year-old England International, and in an interesting twist, the agent has said that money will not prevent his client from moving to St. James’ Park.
Newcastle have already said to have made inquiries about both Wright-Phillips and also Birmingham’s Seb Larsson, but reports today suggest Newcastle have gone no further than that for either player.
As we’ve pointed out before, Manchester City really need a big clear-out of some of their players on high wages, in order to be able to balance their books, and meet the new Financial Fair Play rules that UEFA will introduce next season.
Loans are OK for this season, but the Eastland’s club will need to sell some of their players in the summer, and would of course like to sell some of them now, if they can.
Apparently Shaun Wright-Phillips is on a massive £60K/week at Eastlands, and that might pose a problem for Newcastle, since they themselves have to ensure they can balance their books next season too, with players’ wages being the biggest expenditure at any club.
Wright-Phillips agent, Wayne Lindsay, is hoping Newcastle will not be put off by his client’s wages:
“I can confirm that Newcastle United are definitely an option that he does have,” “At the moment, they’re one of four options and it’s really down to the player himself which club he decides to go to.”
“I know what is being said, but I don’t see wages being a stumbling block if he goes to Newcastle. He’s really just assessing what his opportunities and options are and it’ll be a decision taken for football reasons.”
“Clearly it is well documented what his current situation (on the fringes of the Manchester City squad) is. The next move may well be a permanent one so it is important what he decides to do. There isn’t really a timeline as such – it just needs to be done before the end of January.”
It seems fairly simple then if Shaun has four options – and if he doesn’t decide to come to Newcastle, the Tyneside club should look elsewhere.
What Darren Bent has proved in the last two days, is that you don’t want players at the club who are just there for the money – otherwise they will leave when the first better offer comes in – as seems to have happened to Darren.
It was only a month ago Bent was waxing lyrical about the Sunderland club, and we heard him say the same things on Sky Sports yesterday – but this time it was about Aston Villa, who have overpaid for him, which tells you how concerned they are about their PL survival.
Bent is only now at Aston Villa because of the huge wages he’s getting, so let’s not be naive about that, and Darren left Sunderland in the lurch, and manager Steve Bruce had every right to blast the player last night – and good for Steve.
Newcastle must only go after players who really want to play at Newcastle, and even take a pay cut – to do just that.
Otherwise the club shouldn’t even be trying to sign them.
If Shaun decides to go somewhere else, that’s fine – it’s really up to the player himself in this case – even if Newcastle can meet his high wage demands, which would seem unlikely.
But we’ll see, miracles do happen, and in football too.
One last thing, Shaun is a good player and he’s also an emotional player, who would be lifted by the passionate Newcastle crowd, so he may even favor a move to Tyneside – we’ll know soon enough.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
62 comments so far
nimo
Jan 19, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Comment #41I think if he’s prepared to take a cut in wages he may surpise a few of you on here. If you remember the first time round at man city he was an awesome player, fair enough he’s looked nothing more than average of late but he’s not been getting games at city n chelski but he’s a confidence player and when ya not getting games that takes a hit. I mean you’ve only to look at scotty Parker to see how poor he was at Chelsea compared to at the toon n west ham . Having said that 40k is tops I’d pay on his wages. Hopefully big Ian wright has told him to finish his career with football at mind and not the pound
jwheelie12
Jan 19, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Comment #42I a more than happy to see players here on big wages: Ben Arfa, Enrique, Collocini and Barton, because they are class acts.
But the likes of Geremi, Alan Smith and SWP???
No thanks
lewman
Jan 19, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Comment #43swp was fantastic in his first spell at city, thats why chelsea payed so much for him, cant remember if it was ranieri or jose who bought him but they both had an eye for players.
he played well for chelsea at first aswell and scored some great long range shots and has a much better positional sense than routledge but i admit he has lost his way a bit in recent years.
anyway to get rid of wr and to bring in swp would improve our squad even if it is by a small amount, also if he was willing to take 45-50 grand a week then it wouldnt be too expensive for an england international who is 29 years old imo.
some people would probably moan if we got kaka on 80 grand a week for 15 million as they would say he is too old, injury prone and past his best.
szalenik
Jan 19, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Comment #44Adel Taarabt will certainly not be joining us. Routledge is not part of any deal contrary to the opinions of some. He has long left on his contract and has said he will not play for another English club. Qpr are allegedly the second richest club in the world and there is no way they will sell their best player in the middle of a promotion charge. There is more chance Qpr will snap up Andy Carrol tha us snapping up Taarabt.
seadoo
Jan 19, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Comment #45Decent comments here-
href=”http://tinyurl.com/5r4fmpu”
Rollo
Jan 19, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Comment #46Well if SWP accepts the salary Routledge had then I am all for it but I doubt he would.
I could see us playing a 4-1-2-2-1 system with
Harper
Simps-Will-Colo-Jose
Tiote
Barton – Nolan
SWP – HBF
Carrol
kikgras
Jan 19, 2011 at 1:50 PM
Comment #47someone PLEASE tell me how SWP does ANYTHING remarkably better than Jonas?? anything…go ahead…waiting.
thought so…we dont’ need SWP…move on…next.
Mags
Jan 19, 2011 at 1:58 PM
Comment #48SWP = fur coat no knickers
petey
Jan 19, 2011 at 2:08 PM
Comment #49to be honest i rate SWP and everytime i watch him play at least i can tell he puts in 110% whatever the club.
If we signed him i would not complain. we have seen he can score goals from that wing position and crossing isnt as important if barton can come in from the centre as an option to get the ball and cross it in for him….
SWP is still one of the fastest in his position and i rate him over Theo Walcott AND Routledge.
I do not think we will get him however, as i feel he may demand typically high wages what with coming from a team like Man City.
petey
Jan 19, 2011 at 2:11 PM
Comment #50oh and
——–harper———-
simpson–Taylor–Colo–Enrichard (enrique)
SWP–Bartoon–Nolan–Gutierrez
————Ben Arfa——————–
——————–Carroll————–
Ryan_NUFC88
Jan 19, 2011 at 2:59 PM
Comment #51No tiote petey?
Lyons
Jan 19, 2011 at 4:18 PM
Comment #52I SWEAR YOUR ALL DREAMERS ON HERE
DO ANY OF YOU ACTUALLY WATCH FOOTBALL?
SWP would add to our squad massively as would Bothroyd
idiots saying stuff like i’d rather have nothing!
It wouldnt supprise me if this is half the reason we havent signed anyone other than a pre arranged deal.
Prospective players look at the forums to see what nufc fans think of them to be greeted with nonsense rash critical opinions of a miniscule minority of the fans. Take a vote from the 52k fans on a saturday if they would like SWP annd i’d bet my bottom dollar it would be atleast 75%+
DONT BE HATERS ALL YOUR LIFE
AND ONE FOR THE PARDEW HATERS always saying he was shit at west ham… out of the last 7 managers at West ham he had the highest game win% of them all!!!!!!
Lyons
Jan 19, 2011 at 4:20 PM
Comment #53look at some stats, give yourselves some factual info to base your wild opinions on, rather than based on crack!
toonster88
Jan 19, 2011 at 5:05 PM
Comment #54nice piece Ed,all that passion and all,but seriously who would (in their minds thinking they are a premier league player)want to come to newcastle for such a low salary.i guess its best we dont go for those highly overrateds like we did in owen but rather unhidden talents.we have to admit mike ashley aint gonna lump us millions rite?SWP may be good i realy dont care.what i do care is newcastle.isnt a high salaried chap in the team gonna disturb the fragile balance that already exits?
mattyNUFC
Jan 19, 2011 at 5:40 PM
Comment #55man, I hate to seem like that negative fan, but if this is the type of player we are after, which it’s pretty much confirmed we are, i’ve really lost faith in Pardew and Ashley as a whole.
If our emphasis was really on youth development, we would’ve been battling it out for Victor Moses and Fabian Delph last year, we’d be in for Lallana and Oxlade-Chamberlain, we would have ALREADY brought in Sigurdsson and Taarabt, we’d be in the thick of it trying to get Sinclair from Swanswea, not bringing in this journeyman on ridiculous wages who i think is a lesser player than Routledge. At least Routledge had the desire and would have been happy with his role as an impact sub, a mere contributor
This can’t be for real. I almost agree with the second or third post, i’d rather not have him than have him, even with wayne now gone. could prove costlier in more ways than one
mattyNUFC
Jan 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM
Comment #56….and nice shout Indian Magpie #2 about Griezman. those are the folks we should be going for
branunited
Jan 19, 2011 at 6:01 PM
Comment #57signing to stephen ireland on loan, i like is a player magnific and young.
qprmad
Jan 19, 2011 at 6:19 PM
Comment #58For all you sad people who think you still have a chance of taking Taarabt from us. IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN SO GET OVER IT!!!!!!
szalenik
Jan 19, 2011 at 7:28 PM
Comment #59We cant afford Taraabt! It will never happen. More chance of signing Messi than the Moroccan magician. Taraabt at Qpr is a god and is their team captain at the age of 21. They are the 2nd richest club on the planet and know how to keep Taraabts pockets lined if needs be. To be honest we better hope that Qpr dont pinch more than just Routledge from us as they are a buying club now and we are a selling club who will end up being a minnow feeder club for the likes of Qpr come next season. No doubt taarabt will be sold eventually but it will never be to us. Qpr are going to make millions on this kid as he is the next Zidane! In fact Chelsea have now become Qpr’s peasant next door neighbours.
Sav
Jan 19, 2011 at 10:27 PM
Comment #60Rather we went after Matty Etherington at Stoke than SWP. Matty can cross.
mattyNUFC
Jan 19, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Comment #61ha! szalenik, you sound like a R’s fan desperately scared of losing Taarabt! Newcastle a feeder club for QPR? Yeah, you can take all our sh*t, deal?
We can offer Taarabt everything you can only dream of for now
247FOOTBALLHEAVEN
Jan 20, 2011 at 1:00 AM
Comment #62Great Shout Sav, Etherington is very under rated, a class player. Getting on a bit, but would he leave Stoke for us…how sad NUFC v STOKE in the past would have been a no brainer but I’m just not so sure we are attracting good players anymore??? Lyons, cheer up pal, we are all Toon fans on here (except the QPR guy), give us a bit respect pal!!!