Newcastle have made another official bid for Watford center-back Adrian Mariappa.
Adrian Mariappa – last bid made by Newcastle
Alan Pardew has told Sky Sports that Newcastle have now made their final offer today for the 25 year-old center-back, and if Watford turn that down, which is likely, Newcastle may not get another center-back through the door today.
We don’t know if Newcastle have a Plan B in case the Mariappa bid is turned down, but Watford want £4M for the player, and Newcastle are unlikely to pay that much, for an unproven player in the Premier League.
This is what Alan Pardew said today:
“We have made our last bid now and it’s a final bid so if he doesn’t come today then he probably won’t come to this football club because in the summer we will probably look elsewhere.”
Maybe the best deal Newcastle could offer Watford would be to pay say £2M up front, but then pay the other £2M (or less) in installments, based on the number of first-team appearances Mariappa makes at Newcastle.
Since Newcastle pay their transfer fees up front in cash, Watford would still get more money up front than any other clubs said to be bidding for the player, which includes Wigan Athletic.
Of course we’d be a lot happier if we get some cover in for Coloccini or Williamson today, otherwise we will have only James Perch and/or Tamas Kadar available in case the two first choices are injured or get suspended before the end of the season.
It’s important Newcastle do well in the remaining 16 league games, because we have a decent chance of finishing in the top seven in the league, and even qualifying for the Europa Cup for next season.
Since that could mean big bucks for Newcastle, we would have thought that Mike Ashley and Derek LLambias would be keen to get cover in, with Steven Taylor being out for the rest of the season.
But it’s all been very quiet at Newcastle so far today, and that’s more good news than bad, since at least it looks like we will not be losing any of our top players, like we lost Andy Carroll last January.
That’s got to be good news, even if we don’t manage to bring in another center-back.
The latest on the transfer front is Liam Ridgewell of Birmingham is undergoing a medical at West Brom, and we tried to bring him in last August 31st, but were unsuccessful, so he’s not coming to Tyneside.
And 31 year-old Wayne Bridge of Manchester City, who was a target of Newcastle back in 2002 when he was at Southampton and Bobby Robson was the Newcastle manager, is going on loan to Sunderland until the end of the season.
Comments welcome.
256 comments so far
Toon_Tom
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:32 PM
Comment #1But they say that we have not made any sort of bid today?????
Smokescreen?
Bid for Samba please 😀
Toon_Tom
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:32 PM
Comment #2Raylor to Liverpool?????
SurefootedShola
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:33 PM
Comment #3The work ethic and determination has dropped off, that’s why we’ve been shipping goals. That’s a direct result of missing Saylor, Ba and Tiote, each one of those is a leader in each of their positions, all will take the game by the scruff of the neck.
Never underestimate what having an energetic ST charging everything down and always moving does for a teams psychology
ToonIcon
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:34 PM
Comment #4most boring transfer d-day in recent history be glad when its over
kevymartins
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:35 PM
Comment #5@toon_tom
no smokescreen we made a bid an it was rejected i bet mariappi is sitting with regret now wigan or nufc ooh let me think duh
are finall bid means were done for today good market for us
smith out
cisse in
Beattie25
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:35 PM
Comment #6Arrrrrrrggghhhhh my head is so confused by this football club. I hate this secrecy and smoke and mirrors! Just come out and say ‘we are doing what we can’ or ‘no we won’t be buying anyone!’
I can’t relax until 11 now
Szarka
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:37 PM
Comment #7: O
http://www.skybet.com/cms/breaking-transfer-news.shtm?name=Cheick+Tiote
😀
hdavid23
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:43 PM
Comment #8Szarka, this is not funny. My heart stopped when I saw transfer news and Tioté in that link.
markmac
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:45 PM
Comment #9lol me too but for 83m you can have him
Szarka
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:47 PM
Comment #10hdavid : Hope others do too 😀
kevymartins
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:48 PM
Comment #11The only way were losing tiote is if its a straight swap for messi 😀
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:48 PM
Comment #12szarka ill burst u.
nufc mad man
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:48 PM
Comment #13i have been out most the day but by the way i read these blogs it seems like 0.1% chance of getting a CB
gazza going fishing
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:51 PM
Comment #14Mike Ashley has no intelligence of the game at all. Pardew has probably a limited budget and salary cap, so he can’t go over the final bid amount. Ashley see’s it as well if we don’t get one now, we can get one in the summer
Beattie25
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:52 PM
Comment #15Nufc mad man
That percentage is way too high
GeordieGesus
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:52 PM
Comment #16ToonIcon@4, you prefer the excitement of last Jan 31?
ToonIcon
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Comment #17piersmorganPiers Morgan
BREAKING FOOTBALL NEWS: @themichaelowen has been sold. 1st pic of new owner: http://bit.ly/aYumwi
Robby Bobson
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Comment #18Ive accepted that James Perch and Danny Simpson are our 3rd and 4th choice centre backs now.
However for those optimists, if you watch the press conference, when asked if Mariappa is the only target Pardew stalls says “errrrr I think that is all yes”.
Didnt sound very convincing when he was saying it.
hdavid23
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:55 PM
Comment #19ToonIcon, LOL :DDD Btw. Pards said we were definitely not buying a striker this window and here we are with Cissé, so we can’t be sure that we won’t get a CB.
GeordieGesus
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:56 PM
Comment #20ToonIcon, ROFL 😀
Beattie25
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:56 PM
Comment #21It’s weird because for 2 weeks there has been a relatively small amount of Ashley bashing. But I feel that if today there is no cb it may be harder than ever. He knows how to cause a fuss and for the first time ever, you know what, I might join in.
7 hours to go…
Dannyo
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:56 PM
Comment #22Obviously, if there is no CBs coming, they have thought about the risk around this. We’ll not buy anyone for the sake of buying, plus we’ve gotten our number 9.
It’s good, but perhaps not as good as it should’ve been.
In Pards we trust.
ToonIcon
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:57 PM
Comment #23didnt mean of our club GG ment the whole day its boring on ssn the websites are quiet
nufc mad man
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:57 PM
Comment #24well i will give it till the end as i remember how late it was before santon was signed. if we don’t well those we were saying are too negative maybe only got 1 thing wrong which was that we were going to sell a player
kevymartins
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:57 PM
Comment #25@hdavid tbh i think we wer’nt suppost to sign cisse but we got him for a good price and could’n turn him away
ToonIcon
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:58 PM
Comment #26but piers morgans transfer exclusive at least made me have a good laugh lmao
SurefootedShola
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:58 PM
Comment #27We should really pay a relatively small fee for Douglas now (say 2.5m), because he’ll have more suitors when he’s available for nothing in the summer, then we could end up paying triple that price for a top class defender. Come on slimmer of the year!
jamesnufc86
Jan 31, 2012 at 3:59 PM
Comment #28Nobody knows what will happen , but I have a feeling that is it for us, it does show a distinct lack of planning again not to bring in some cb cover. Even bassong on loan would do me
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Comment #29@ kevy dont talk such b o l l o c k s wernt suppose to sign him absoloute shit talk
toonashwin
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Comment #30ok beatie25 we wont buy nyone
gorgonzola
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:02 PM
Comment #31Honestly no CB yet…..this is really worrying…. I cant seem to grasp the logic here our main CB is off injured and our second no 1 if injured, hell we are looking down the southend of the table…
Magpies-till-d3ath
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:03 PM
Comment #32There hasn’t been any real transfer activity involving us except the mariappa bid.
ToonHero
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:04 PM
Comment #33Just drove past st james’, no sight of tv crews if anyone was intrested.
WWJBD
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Comment #34@nufcfans NUFCfans
Watford Observer reporting that Wigan’s latest bid for Adrian Mariappa is higher than #NUFC’s final bid of around £1.75m. #DDLive
Shop is shut then it seems
Thump
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Comment #35@ToonHero: They’re most likely going to be at the training ground mate.
ToonDownSouth
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:07 PM
Comment #36WWJBD
Better take shelter from this blog, until such times as we win a game. Then it’ll all be happy again (;
Very worried though – I think the issue is that the club want to finish top 10 this season. Not going to put a lot of effort in push for 7th when that’s not our aim.
gorgonzola
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:07 PM
Comment #37Wigan outbidding NUFC….what will I live through still….
Beattie25
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Comment #38How much did we bid for Ridgwell in the summer?
Here is a good question. Say we don’t get a CB what would you have preferred? Leaving Cisse till the summer and risk loosing him to a rival but with the money spent on him we get vertohogen for 8 mill or get cisse in now before our rivals and leave the cb until the summer?
nufc mad man
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Comment #39ED if we don’t sign a CB, which seems certain,
a good poll i think could be wether signing cisse or a CB would have been better
kevymartins
Jan 31, 2012 at 4:09 PM
Comment #40@boom feck off …..clearly pardrew said we wer’nt signing a cf we had a what was it 13mil bid rejcted in the summer so if you got offerd him now for under 10mil would you tke him? i think so