Former Newcastle United target Tranquillo Barnetta will become a free agent in July.
Tranquillo Barnetta – available on a free transfer
The Swiss International winger was a target of Newcastle’s last summer, and has been a long term target of the Magpies, and the fee last summer was said to be around £6M for the Bayer Leverkusen player.
Tranquillo turned 27 on Tuesday, and he scored on two free kicks in quick succession against England in the Euro 2012 qualifiers on 4th June 2011, when Switzerland drew with England 2-2 at Wembley, and he looked a very good player in that game.
Bayer Leverkusen’s General Manager Wolfgang Holzhauser had this to say on the club’s website yesterday:
“Tranquillo has turned down our offer and he will leave us on June 30th.” “This is very regrettable because we wanted to extend his contract, but we could not reach an agreement financially.”
A serious knee injury kept him out of the side last season, and he appeared only once for the German club.
But he was a star player before that, and by our reckoning he played 188 times in the Bundesliga with 23 goals.
Barnetta has played 59 times for Switzerland with 9 goals, but it’s not clear whether Newcastle will now be interested in the player.
It seems as though his wage demands may be high, but maybe the Magpies will look into what wages he is demanding, and then see if it would be worthwhile to sign the player on a free transfer.
But with Ben Arfa, Gabby Obertan, Sylvain Marveaux and Sammy Ameobi – and new boy Romain Amalfitano – all able to perform well on the right wing, he may not fit into Newcastle’s plans these days.
We don’t think he does.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
26 comments so far
Graeme
May 24, 2012 at 10:14 AM
Comment #1Has he escaped from the Hotel then??
Colo-Sus
May 24, 2012 at 10:18 AM
Comment #2@Graeme
He must have mate, been locked in Jesmond Dene since 2009,
He isnt even that good in my opinion, but worth a punt for free
WWYCD
May 24, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Comment #3I hear Zogbia, Gervinho, Gameiro and Erding are all targets as well
GeordieToon89
May 24, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Comment #4His wage demands wont be that high he wanted 35k per week at them to stay and they couldnt give him it
GeordieToon89
May 24, 2012 at 10:20 AM
Comment #5We should get Luuk De Jong when Ba leaves
SupaToonKid
May 24, 2012 at 10:20 AM
Comment #6From Last Post:
ilovetoon8788
There are so many better options than Kalou; younger players who are better, with much more potential and much lower wage demands e.g. Junior Hoilett, Matty Phillips, Ola John, Hueng Min-Son & Wilfried Zaha. Aswell i expect Kalou will after just winning the CL will want to join a side who are competing for it next season also if we have Kalou, Ba and Cisse that’s a lot of African fire power we’ll be losing for a month to the ACON.
SupaToonKid
May 24, 2012 at 10:22 AM
Comment #7We need to get a central midfielder that gets 10 goals a season i.e. Sigurdsson; could Barnetta do that?
Indian Magpie
May 24, 2012 at 10:28 AM
Comment #8Transfer Central TNC ?@TransferNewsCen
Ron Gourlay(Chelsea): “We may have two big-name centre-forwards scoring 25-30 goals for us next season.” -S
redondo77
May 24, 2012 at 10:35 AM
Comment #9http://www.newcastleunited-mad.co.uk/news/tmnw/ashley_wont_budge_on_pay_cap_to_keep_demba_ba_745322/index.shtml
this is probably why nufc refuse to offer Ba new contract
Indian Magpie
May 24, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Comment #10Emile Heskey having his Sunderland medical
https://twitter.com/BU5HY30/status/205592510070923264/photo/1
graham cwarr
May 24, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Comment #11@Indian that could mean anyone. @Redondo do you believe everything the papers write?
Colo-Sus
May 24, 2012 at 10:41 AM
Comment #12WWYCD
Haha
Thats what I said the other day mate,
same old names
lewytoon
May 24, 2012 at 10:42 AM
Comment #13out:
ba
simpson
best
lovenkrands
guthrie
gosling
kadar
In:
amafilmato
sigurdsson
butterfield
debuchy
clyne
yapou-manga
Pieters
hoillett
realistic.
redondo77
May 24, 2012 at 10:42 AM
Comment #14graham
I thought we all wondering why the club refuse to offer new contract and I said “this is probably why”.
graham cwarr
May 24, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Comment #15Two big name strikers scoring 25-30? Fair enough they won the champions league but finished 6th in the prem. 50-60 goals for two strikers for them seems a bit far fetched. I wonder if torres is one of the “big names”
graham cwarr
May 24, 2012 at 10:46 AM
Comment #16@Redondo. Sorry in that case. @lewy that is realistic. Promising young uns in
redondo77
May 24, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Comment #17graham
even if I believe everything the papers write, it doesn’t cost me anything. it is only reading materials, it’s not like i’m going to offer ba new contract or sack ba.
davybtoon
May 24, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Comment #18U lot really believe we haven’t tried to sign ba on a new deal I don’t, i would b very dissapointed in demba if he decided to walk away after only 1 season with us, but on the other hand he would b one of our star players that would easy to replace de Jong, giroud
TorqToon
May 24, 2012 at 10:59 AM
Comment #19I sure we HAVE offered Ba a new and improved deal without any kind of release clause…but something must’ve happened and he may well have turned it down. If so and he wants to leave then we should let him. He served us very very well this season and without him we would t be where we are now.
On barnetta…I would sign him up! Great player – albeit hampered by injury this season but a low risk transfer in my eyes. Also seeing Chelski are / have released a number of players, anybody else like the idea of taking Michael Essien to the toon? Obviously wages could be an issue but he would be great cover for Mr. T during ACON and any suspensions/injuries that he is fairly susceptible too?
Beattie25
May 24, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Comment #20Ba has a proven track record of ditching his clubs.
If he does it again he is nothing but a mercenary with a bad knee.
If he doesn’t then he could be a pivotal player for nufc.
Either way I am happy!
LooneyToon41
May 24, 2012 at 11:29 AM
Comment #21@19 Torqtoon. Michael Essien at his best was top class, imo. But he’s 30 this year, and will be looking for one last big pay day. Plus, he WAS top class. If ever there was a signing we shouldn’t make it’s Essien…. think Smith, Owen,Nolan etc. Good luck to him, quality player… but no thanks!
TorqToon
May 24, 2012 at 11:34 AM
Comment #22@Loony Yeah fair point mate! I guess he will look for the big bucks and head to china or somewhere for a final payout. My thoughts were if he DID take a pay cut and purely wanted to play in the best league in the world for another season, he would do well at the toon. But not at the expense of our strict wage structure a la Owen, Martins and Xisco !
gfp13
May 24, 2012 at 11:58 AM
Comment #23Torqtoon correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t essien also African? Ghanaian? Meaning he would also be away for ACON. Just a thought. But even so I would still happily take him if he was to lower his demands. He was a world class cm and maybe hasn’t been at his best since a bad injury but it takes time to recover and I haven’t seen him play too much this season so who knows he could well get back to his best
toonincheek
May 24, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Comment #24On Barnetta – bit too old now to fit in with the policy of ensuring a re-sale value at the end of his contract.
Then again, does that matter if he’s a free agent?
On balance, I think I would rather go for a younger player who should develop. Sign Barnetta and there will be less opportunities to blood the younsters.
And then there is his injury. Can’t see us paying too much until he has fully proved his fitness.
A non-starter, I think.
Solaidback
May 24, 2012 at 3:42 PM
Comment #25I doubt the Toon will go for this gadgie as he’s over 26 end of…. I’ll be surprised if they all of a sudden contridict their transfer policy completely..
As for not offering Ba over 50k/wk, since when have we had a 50k/wk wage cap?? Isn’t Colo on more than that already??? BS story released by silly gets trying to get a rise out of Toon fans… 🙁
Charlietoon
May 24, 2012 at 5:20 PM
Comment #26Colo is on more than that but he is also one of the top two or three centre backs in English football. Ba is an excellent striker but he has only been with us for one season and has not scored a goal in what 12 matches? I’d love to see him stay as I can see him and Cisse both playing and scoring even if they aint on the pitch at the same time.