There is news today that both Liverpool and Newcastle have set their sights on 23 year-old Lille striker Gervinho, according to reports coming out of France.
Gervinho – Newcastle target in the summer
This is not the first time Newcastle have been linked with the Ivory Coast International (19 caps, 5 goals), and he was said to be a target of a number of clubs in the January transfer window.
But Lille wanted to keep the player to help them win the French League – and they are currently at the top and a full 5 points clear of second placed PSG after 22 games, but the French club have agreed to let the ambitious player leave in the summer.
Gervinho has scored 10 goals in 21 games so far this season and can play on either wing or as an out-and-out striker, and Newcastle have identified him as one of the strikers they will go after to replace Andy Carroll, who elected to join Liverpool for a massive £35M last month, to the dismay and disappointment of Newcastle fans everywhere.
It also seems though that Newcastle will go after Johan Elmander – that’s if the big Swede doesn’t sign a new contract at Bolton Wanderers, and therefore becomes a free agent this summer, available for nothing.
But it now seems that Liverpool have also become interested in the player, who is valued at aorund £10M.
Gervinho turns 24 in May, and started his career at Belgium club Bevern in 2005, and moved to French club Le Mans in 2007, before joining Lille in 2009.
The 5’11” tall player has played 40 times for Lille with 17 goals, and in 160 first class appearances he has scored 40 goals, and from what we can tell, he looks a very good player.
Gervinho’s contract runs out in 18 months, so Newcastle may be able to get a decent deal on the player, maybe.
And of course having the great Cheick Tiote at Newcastle, who is quickly becoming a big star on Tyneside, and seems to love it at Newcastle, will help to lure the player to Newcastle United.
We hope Cheick will help lure the player to Tyneside, because Gervinho was one of the two Ivory Coast Internationals that Cheick thought would be good at Newcastle.
The other one is Seydou Doumbia, a 23 year-old 5′ 10″ striker, currently at CSKA Moscow, and since Seydou moved there last summer, he’s scored 12 goals in 15 appearances for the Moscow club. He joined from Swiss club Young Boys and scored 50 goals in 64 games while there for two seasons – that sounds impressive!
It should be a very interesting transfer window for Newcastle fans this summer, because for the first time in a long while, Newcastle have significant money to invest in bringing good players to the club, with the £35M the club got for big Andy Carroll.
That amount will however be spent on transfer fees and wages, so the whole amount will not be spent purely on transfer fees.
Comments welcome.
45 comments so far
lewytoon
Feb 11, 2011 at 9:49 AM
Comment #11st! 😀
NOVA2967
Feb 11, 2011 at 9:53 AM
Comment #2I am guessing Elmander demands big wages since he will be coming for free. Dont think we will sign him.
This Gervinho guy looks a good prospect and could team up with ranger nicely. I do beleive Best and Ranger will be a good pairing until the summer.
Its are midfield that is class and almost anyone could score goals with Barton swinging crosses in. Loven, Ameobi, Carroll and Nolan have done it and I think anyone who comes in will do well
cyprus
Feb 11, 2011 at 9:59 AM
Comment #3I hope we sign this guy, to keep Tiote company as well as to use his talent. The Ivorian presence at Chelsea (plus money) is a worrying lure…
andy d
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:05 AM
Comment #4We need to stop this £35 mill to spend, we all know maximum will be £20. Remember salaries and increases for current players have to come out of this.
This lad looks a great prospect, and if his attitude is great like Cheick he will be fine!
HWTL
super bartooon
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:07 AM
Comment #5Has there been a single blog entry without the mentioning of andy carroll and his transfer go on Ed get over it already he might have a been a big fella bigger than Newcastle United Not a chance Jog On Carroll Howay The Lads.
Ed Harrison
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Comment #6andy d – that’s a good point – I’ve put a clarification in the article – and yes – the £35M will not go just on transfer fees.
GeordieGerman
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:12 AM
Comment #7We’ll not get him. Liverpool will offer silly money end of.
dave 1961
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:13 AM
Comment #8FA to ban players who snub England
FA bosses will stun football next month by launching a long-awaited fightback against Premier League clubs that sabotage the England team.
An epidemic of player withdrawals from England sides this week convinced FA officials that enough was enough.
They are now so fed up with England teams being undermined, they are ready to declare war on clubs who try to cheat the system.
Starting from the next international date, they will ban players who fail to report for England duty from playing for their club the following weekend.
They were ready to make an example of Newcastle striker Nile Ranger this weekend after he pulled out of Wednesday’s England Under-20 match against France without first being checked over by FA medical staff.
Ranger was to be banned from playing against Blackburn tomorrow, but they were forced to postpone the action when they realised Manchester United defender Chris Smalling had been allowed to cry off Under-21 duty without reporting to England.
FIFA rules give the FA the power to prevent a player whose injury has not been verified by England medical staff from playing for his club for five days after an international fixture.
Until now, the FA has not enforced the rule as a gesture of goodwill towards clubs but 22 withdrawals from the full England side and the Under-21s, Under-20s and Under-19s has forced them to act.
The FA are determined to present a united front for the next round of international fixtures at the end of March and enforce the FIFA rule.
If a club insists on fielding a player who had pulled out of an England match without consultation, that club will forfeit the match the player plays in.
The rule would not have affected Steven Gerrard’s availability to play for Liverpool against Wigan tomorrow because his groin injury was checked by England medical staff.
The FA’s new get-tough approach is sure to antagonise Premier League clubs who have grown used to trampling over the England set-up.
But their hard-line stance will delight supporters who blame the clubs’ reluctance to release players for England’s continuing failures at international level.
Newcastle have been identified as a problem club for the England team after previous arguments over the availability of Andy Carroll, who has been sold to Liverpool.
They were desperate to protect Ranger from injury after Carroll’s sale and an injury to Shola Ameobi left them short of attacking options.
But an annexe to Fifa’s statutes is clear.
“A player who has been called up by his association for one of its representative teams,” they say, “is, unless otherwise agreed by the relevant association, not entitled to play for the club with which he is registered during the period for which he has been released or should have been released pursuant to the provisions of this annexe.
“This restriction on playing for the club shall, moreover, be prolonged by five days in the event that the player, for whatsoever reason, did not wish to or was unable to comply with the call-up.”
The problem is not confined to England.
In a bizarre case, Sparta Prague withdrew Czech duo Tomas Pekhart and Vaclav Kadlec and Croatian defender Manuel Pamic from international duty for fitness reasons this week – then fielded all three in a friendly against Zenit St Petersburg in Spain on Wednesday.
In an apparent attempt to disguise the players’ identities, their names didn’t appear on the teamsheet and the three wore jerseys with teammates’ names on them – Pamic playing as Jakub Podany, Kadlec as Pavel Kaderabek and, most bizarrely of all, Pekhart, who is white, as black Cameroonian midfielder Martin Abena.
Sparta’s plan seems to have been rumbled when a Czech journalist recognized the players in photos posted on Zenit’s website.
Geordiedoonsooth
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Comment #9NO one is bigger tha NUFC there have been some huge players that have come & gone over the years that were better than Carroll. Shearer, Ferdinand, Beardsley, Ginola, Asprilla, Gascoigne, Waddle, MacDonald, Milburn, Shackleton and further back Gallacher.
dawid182
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:17 AM
Comment #10He’s a winger in Lille…
gunnarnufc
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Comment #11Get both Gervinho and Doumbia! Put Gervinho and Bem Arfa to play as inside forwards on the flanks and get Doumbia to lead the line in a spearhead attacking formataion.
KTHXBAI
GeordieGerman
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Comment #12dave 1961, Read this in “The Sun”. Made me smile. The FA wanted to make an example of Nile Ranger, but had to back down when so many other players withdrew. The easy solution is to stop having waste of time friendlies in the league season.
Jarra_Mag
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Comment #13People are talk about the £35 million received for Carroll as if that is all we should have to spend this summer and that it should also go towards player wages etc….
What about the sky money and anything Ashley was planning on putting into transfers if Carroll was not sold?
Are we saying that we would have had zero investment if we didn’t do the Carroll deal?
If so then thats a joke, our owner should be investing in the team. I know it is not going to happen but it would only benefit the club in the long run….. we can only hope for a £50 million war chest this summer and another 2 top class strikers, its time for the owner to show how commited he is!
carrollsinger
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:31 AM
Comment #14The fa are kak we own a player out right they shouldn’t have a say! End of
dave 1961
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:32 AM
Comment #15To me it shows a grudge at the fa about NUFC no matter what the fa think they can do it against EU employment law, if they try it we will need 50,000 complaint to our emp demanding action against the FA.
Stuart
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Comment #16You’re right like Jarra Mag.
MA should have been giving us at least £20m this summer anyway, so add on the carroll money and we should have £55m funds this summer.
I highly doubt it, but you never know with the fair play laws coming in next season, Ashley might have abit of a blowout as IMO we only need a few top class players and a few cover players and we’ll be challenging for europe.
wynsleap
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:02 AM
Comment #17Gunnarnufc (11)
Totally agree – sounds a great idea.
Anyway why would Liverpool need yet another top striker? Maybe Platini should look at squad number limitations for each area of the team so that clubs like Chelsea and Man Cty can’t buy six world class strikers etc.
veto
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Comment #18when they say the 35 mill will no just go on transfer fee’s , managers these days work on the basis that whatever money they get a players contract and fee’s come out of that money aswell , pretty standard for them to have to work their transfer budgets out with these fee’s in mind
Rotonda heights
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:23 AM
Comment #19gunnarnufc
that would be awesome wouldn’t it.
I think gervinho, Marveaux and Leroy fer would be fantastic signings. sadly I’ve got more chance of winning the euro lottery draw !!
Mags
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:29 AM
Comment #20Dave 1961 – (8 & 15)
I could not agree more about double standards from the FA depending on whether you are a top 4 club or not.
I have already written to the FA asking them to confirm whether the article in the Sun is accurate.
Whilst writing to them, I asked them again what punishment they were going to give to Sunderland for the ‘attack’ on Stevie Harper / encroachment on the pitch. I had previously written to them about this and had a response back informing me they were to write to both clubs, since when – a deafening silence.
All I ask is that each club is treated exactly the same. Not too much to ask? 😀
Oleg G
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:40 AM
Comment #21Gervinho and Doumbia ?
Doumbia not coming unless something exta special will happen (at least not to us). End of story.
Gervinho – Maybe will come because ot Tiote.
Why? Because except that there is nothing for him here. He, as everybody else hears about the unstable Newcastle club with their crazy Owner.
+ Liverpool will make his price go up to 13-14M and will take us out of the race, again, unless he will say no to Liverpool and that his dream (yeah right) is to come to Newcatle.
I prefer to be passimistic and later be wrong, then get my hopes up.
Like with that Turkish player before and after the World Cup. We talked about him for so long, also around 10M I think. In the end didn’t get him or anyone of that quality.
Money or no money, we are not attractive enough. Only our personal relations can help. And that is – Our players know other players and they are friends, or, we have a great manager (We don’t) who with his charisma and charm can make players come in.
Oleg G
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Comment #22wynsleap // Feb 11, 2011 at 11:02 AM
Problem. How do you define “World Class Striker”, or any other position. No one will ever agree to that. The only way is that teams will spend max what they earn (Without tricks of – someone buys the players contract out of the club – the owner for example and then the team signs the players for free, thats not fair play obviously).
jlarsen
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Comment #23this guys appearance is stupid. get off that bandana then ok
StevieGee
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:47 AM
Comment #24It’s all well and good getting Ivory Coast players in and this guy looks like a decent player.
The problem comes when we have a number of African players and then they all eff off for the Africa Cup of Nations and we are left 3 or 4 players down with our first team squad shot to bits.
Chelsea have struggled with this in the past and they have a much better squad than us
Stuart
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Comment #25Dont worry stevie Gee, by the time the african cup of nations comes around we’ll have already bought all the players and sold them on at a profit, then brought in a few english free agents haha.
Sinner
Feb 11, 2011 at 11:52 AM
Comment #26I doubt Gervinho would be joining us.
Cant see us competing with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool for him.
One realistic target would be Marveaux.
He seems to have play his last match for Rennes.
We need to get him on pre-contract.
Another player we should be going for would be Taiwo,really good defender.
He just annouced he wont be signing the contract thingy with Marseille.So he is free to go in the Summer.
Get him!
Also,Juan Abin would be another free agent in the summer and rumours AC milan wants him/
We can snap him up.
These types of players would definitely improve our squad.
And guess how much we would need to pay for them??
Nothing. D:/
And if we have around 10m to spend during the transfer window,get a striker in!
😀
Oleg G
Feb 11, 2011 at 12:05 PM
Comment #27Sinner // Feb 11, 2011 at 11:52 AM
But Gervinho is not in the same position as Marveaux, why are you comparing them as one or the other.
Sinner
Feb 11, 2011 at 12:09 PM
Comment #28loool,im not comparing them,im just saying we should go after players like Marveaux who are free agents coming the summer.
Jarra_Mag
Feb 11, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Comment #29@veto I’m not contesting that fact, my point is why does everyone seem to be content with the £35m when we should have more available including sky cash and whatever Ashley was going to put in the kitty for the summer any way.
£50m would be more like it and I appreciate that would include wages
Stuart
Feb 11, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Comment #30Why can’t we go for both then Sinner?
As unlikely as it might be that we get Gervinho, we may aswell try. If it does come down to a choice between us and liverpool I’d expect him to come to us as he isnt likely to get many first team games for them as they have Suarez and Judas.
Gav00Toon
Feb 11, 2011 at 12:30 PM
Comment #31Could be the new Drogba.
He can play WF or CF, be a great addition to the team.
Hope we get him.
gorskino10
Feb 11, 2011 at 1:05 PM
Comment #32@Oleg G
Why would Gervinhio join cause of Tiote but Doumbia wont who is also Ivorian and has stated he wants to go to EPL as he isnt a big fan of living in russia at CSKA both could happen but i doubt it.
Robby Bobson
Feb 11, 2011 at 1:19 PM
Comment #33See people are reading too much into this 35million.
Ashley doesnt take money out of the club, instead has all his debt against the club for when he sells it. So surely this 35million goes into the clubs bank account, making more money available to transfers.
It seems that Ashley looks at each transfer individually then assesses the clubs ability to fund him. So surely it makes it more likely we will buy players. If theres debt then i;m guessing the 35million will be reduced, if we have abit of spare money it will be added to the 35million.
Not rocket science really.
DarloGeordie
Feb 11, 2011 at 2:28 PM
Comment #34This was in The Sun today so its just newspaper talk at the minute, to be honest I don’t believe a word that comes out of the club until things actually happen, its all smoke and mirrors and we will end up with someone like cookie……
Mancgeordie
Feb 11, 2011 at 2:57 PM
Comment #35i think there will be more than the 35m we got for carroll the club stated at the beginning of the season we was goin to consilidate with what we have and build this summer i reckon it will be a revolving door at the toon this summer with a few coming and going think that nolan and jonas will be the 2 of our bigger names to go this year with ben arfa playing nolans role and marveux taking up the left and we will prob sign ireland if he does well and hopefully get marveux and gervinho or elmander and i don’t think we will sell tiote unless he asks to go
Mancgeordie
Feb 11, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Comment #36thats not to say we will spend it cos maybe we don’t have to, but we do have a enough to turn us into a top 8 side
coolcatcarter89
Feb 11, 2011 at 3:04 PM
Comment #37coolcatcarter89 // Feb 7, 2011 at 6:57 PM
The summer.
Out:
Lovenkrands – £1m – £15k p/w
Smith – £0 (Leeds, fingers-crossed) – £60k p/w
Xisco – nominal fee – £35k p/w
Sol – Contract expired – £20k p/w
Perch – £500k – £15k p/w
Raylor – £1.5m – £25k p/w
Krul/Forster? Approx £5m – £15k p/w
Income = £8m
I’d estimate that would slash, including Andy Casserole’ wage and Joey’ admirable pay-cut, £200k off the wage bill, use £60k to give Cheick and Jose their well-earned wage rise, probably doubling their basic salary, £60k to pay for a shiny new striker.
In:
(Shiny, new, prolific, mega striker) – £20m – £60k p/w
Elmander – Zilch! – £30k p/w
Gervinho – £10m – £40k p/w
Chamberlain – £10m – £15k p/w
Warnock – £5m – £30k p/w
Outgoings = £45m Wage total = £175k
Net spend (including fee for AC) = £2m
Wage bill = -£25k p/w
Voila! Everyone is happy.
If Mike is feeling generous, push the envelope and sign an accomplished CB for a maximum of £8m . Together, with a clean bill of health, we’d have an awesome team, with two quality players for each position, not to mention a few exciting youngsters to berth in the Carling Cup. Nobody can tell me this isn’t realistic, surely?
mattyNUFC
Feb 11, 2011 at 3:17 PM
Comment #38i’d be happy with:
Gervinho
Doumbia
Ashley Williams
….and throw in Balazs Dzsudzsak for fun??? That’d be a team to challenge the title, let alone the top four
toon18
Feb 11, 2011 at 5:26 PM
Comment #39I’d love to see gervinho in a front 3 with arfa and another new player.
……barton….tiote….Ireland
Gervinho………?………..Ben Arfa
? = elmander, Lukaku, doumbia, best?
PureGeordie
Feb 11, 2011 at 6:09 PM
Comment #40theres a few free agents of good quality who will improve our squad, by adding quality and depth to it:
Upson
Taiwo
Larsson
Pratley
Marveaux
Albin
Kranjcar
Elmander
Out:
perch
raylor
campbell
gutierrez?
xisco
and then the AC money can be spent on a big name forward, imagine the squad after this!