With lots of Newcastle central defensive targets seemingly unavailable in January, we wonder who will be coming through the door today.
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa – Montpellier captain – would be great buy
We suppose if Newcastle can get a good center-back in before 11:00 pm tonight, that will be enough to go with top striker Papiss Cisse, who was surprisingly signed by Newcastle a couple of weeks ago.
As far as who that center-half will be, we’ve been linked with quite a few in the last few months.
22 year-old James Tomkins is not available from West Ham, but Newcastle may go after him in the summer, and Ajax’ 24 year-old Jan Vertonghen is also not available, although his transfer price of up to £10M may be too much for Newcastle.
Newcastle have now had three bids turned down for Watford’s 25 year-old Adrian Mariappa, and we don’t think the club will go back in for him – the last bid was said to be around £2.5M and we started off with £750K.
The local press were reporting that Newcastle would switch their attentions to the continent, with the failure to bring in Mariappa, and we have been linked with Montpellier defender and captain 22 year-old Mapou Yanga Mbiwa.
And there were rumors he may even be traveling to Newcastle for a medical a day or two ago, but no more news on that front, although we think he would be a terrific buy at around £4M for the club.
Cesena’s 24 year-old Yohan Benalouane is a possibility, and since he seems to only play Cup games at the Italian club, the Frenchman with Tunisian parents could possibly be coming in on a loan deal through the end of the season.
Newcastle could also go after some “unknown” youngster and we were linked with 19 year-old Danish defender Jores Okore of FC Nordsjælland earlier in the week. The 19 year-old center-back has been impressive this season and already has two caps for Denmark, although he was born in the Ivory Coast. From what we can tell Jores looks a top young player in the making.
And two English center-backs we have been linked with are Brighton’s 19 year-old Lewis Dunk, who played against us on Saturday afternoon at the Amex Stadium, and Sheffield United’ Harry Maguire, the very impressive 18 year-old.
So those are most of the center-backs we have been linked with in this transfer window, but absolutely no news coming out of the club about anything so far today.
As we said, we’d be happy enough with a good center-back coming in today, but we’d also like to see a youngster or two arriving.
But it seems that 18year-old Manchester United midfielder Ravel Morrison is likely to be joining West Ham today and not Newcastle.
Comments welcome.
67 comments so far
Edd Case
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:13 AM
Comment #1Hope so!
Toon_Tom
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:14 AM
Comment #2“one of these could sign” – thats not exactly optimistic.
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:14 AM
Comment #3mornin ed or whatever it is state side hope ur fingers are ready for action.
Andymax
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:16 AM
Comment #4Hi everybody, my first post after many months reading this Blog.
Sky Sports deadline day;
http://www.firstrow.tv/watch/105032/1/watch-transfer-deadline-live.html
Indian Magpie
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Comment #5damm, i wanted to be first
ilovetoon8788
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Comment #6Seems like Fulham are closing in on Pogrebinyak.
1 of Fulham’s scout have definitely been playing FM..
Toon_Tom
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:18 AM
Comment #7it is going to be a long long day. I have text the wife to make sure she has stocked up the fridge with more beers and to get out some of her fake nails for me to borrow this evening!!!!!!
Nufcjoss
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:18 AM
Comment #8it’s businesstime
ilovetoon8788
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Comment #9Slightly more than 11 hours left window to close. Can we do any surprise deal in 11 hours??
Toon_Tom
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Comment #108788 > stay possitive mate, i do still expect to see a CB come in by the end of the day. The question is will we get who we want, or simply a rush-buy in the last few hours????
davybtoon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:23 AM
Comment #11Am glad am at work today actually bcoz I don’t have to watch sky all day jus to b left disappointed ha, apparently there is only one club in the north east I’ve been watching since 8 n not one mention of the toon
FloridaToon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:24 AM
Comment #12Did anyone else notice how thin(thinner) MA looked at the Albion game? I guess spending that 10 mil make him a bit sick. That or he has had to cut back on the beers because of it.
LewSpi
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:24 AM
Comment #13I’ve finally had my first glimpse of RonVanDam, and it’s just made me hungry for more. What’s the latest, what’s happening Ron?
Dannyo
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:24 AM
Comment #14@ilovetoon
Cisse took 5 hours from arrival at Benton i think mate.
MrToon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:25 AM
Comment #15I hope its Mbiwa, He fits our transfer policy perfectly. Young, French/ African. I must say im not to optimistic about transfers at the moment though. A whole window passing without getting the position filled that we need is still fresh in the memory
davybtoon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:25 AM
Comment #16I’d expect lovenkrands to leave aswell
Toon_Tom
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:27 AM
Comment #17davy – apparently there are “a couple” of teams interewsted in Lovenkrands!
richard
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:27 AM
Comment #18davytoon thats good craig hant a clue what hes talking about.
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Comment #19RON VAN DAM jelavic hasnt even done a medical yet u clown. now snap out of it with the cwarro-esque posts its makin me wonder how u dodged school today did u pull a sicky buddy!
Indian Magpie
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Comment #20I EXPECT THIS ARTICLE WILL HAVE MORE THAN 1000 COMMENTS. 😉
nO IN COMINGS 🙁
Hemel Mag
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Comment #21http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2012/01/31/newcastle-united-close-in-on-adrian-mariappa-72703-30231937/
That would do me
GeordieToon89
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Comment #22Morning all, Mbiwa/Douglas wont sign apparently weve lined Douglas AND Vertonghen up for summer deals, so for today i now think we’ll either get Mariappa or no one but providing our best players dont go then i consider the window a success and just cross every last think on my body that no defender gets injured
Toon_Tom
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Comment #23BOOM > has RVDam’s cover been blown? Is he not really ‘in the know’ have my dreamz been shattered?
Dannyo
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Comment #24@davy
Would be good tbh, A strikeforce consisting of Cisse, Ba, Shola and Best is quite decent tbh. And u’ve got HBA and Vuckic as nr. 10s aswell. Can have a good attacking side from that, on the pitch and on the bench.
If Loven is out it proably means a slight decrease in wages too.
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Comment #25de bruyne deal completed with chelski
Dannyo
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Comment #26Lads, might be some development.
Blackburn are talking to QPR about defender Bradly Orr…
Samba headed out!?
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:33 AM
Comment #27affraid so m8 pitty his names not ron van winkle so he could fall asleep under a tree somewhere and not wake up for a hundred years.
gorgonzola
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Comment #28Get in there common Newcastle get em….make us happy….
Indian Magpie
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:35 AM
Comment #29DANYO sorry mate,
Shola decent, mate get a dictionary out
davybtoon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:36 AM
Comment #30Well seems twitter is starting to go crazy with mariappa to Newcastle will happen
martoon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:36 AM
Comment #31I find it incredible that we have waited until the last day when we knew the priority was a CB. Think we might get the ‘couldn’t get it over the line’ statement again.
OoAhDembaBa
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:36 AM
Comment #32“@SkySportsNews: Sky Sources: Watford reject Wigan bid for defender Adrian Mariappa #SSN #deadlineday”
gorgonzola
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:37 AM
Comment #33Morrison to west ham wth?
davybtoon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:37 AM
Comment #34Jus on sky that Watford reject a bid from Wigan for mariappa
GeordieToon89
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:37 AM
Comment #35Watford reject a bid from Wigan for mariappa.. Colin reckons we dont want mariappa and are focused on targets in other european countries
gorgonzola
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:38 AM
Comment #36martoon I am afraid of that…..
davybtoon
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:38 AM
Comment #37Wigan bid 2m our last bid was only 1.8mil
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:39 AM
Comment #38@indian i dont know what calibre striker people think would be happy to sit on bench for us at moment sholla is a deceny 4th choice for maybe 14 of the 20 in the league
ToonHeart
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:39 AM
Comment #39I have faith, don’t get me wrong but I have a little feeling I will get excited and only to find by tonight we’ve bought nobody in for CB. I really hope we do
BOOM BOOM THE 1ST
Jan 31, 2012 at 9:42 AM
Comment #40ive noticed a lot of cray blogger names popping up recently and they act as if theyve been posting forever some cheeky chappys changing names out there craig coozy burnxie ben planb a few manes that spring to mind.