As far as we can tell, by looking through our archives we have never ever been linked with Lyon’s French International play-maker Yoann Gourcuff.
Yoann Gourcuff – 26 year-old French International play-maker
But there is news today that clubs supposed to be after the player are Arsenal and Newcastle, and that they have made no contact with Lyon – well maybe, just maybe, that’s because they are not interested in the player?
It’s true that Arsenal were linked with Yoann last summer, but Newcastle were not, and it seems Lyon are prepared to sell him this summer, and the Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas is ready for offers coming in, and this is what he told the French press.
“I don’t know if there will be offers,” “But his current level should attract some clubs.”
Gourcuff has played for all the France youth sides, and 29 times with four goals for the full French side.
Yoann started his career with Lorient back in 1992 when he was six years old and his father was the manager, and he moved to Rennes in 2003 where he spent three seasons.
He then joined Inter-Milan in 2006 for a fee of €4.6M (£4M) and was there for two seasons before joining Bordeaux, where he had been on loan for a year and stayed for one more season when Laurent Blanc was the manager.
And the 6’1″ player then joined Lyon in 2010 for €22M (£19M) and that transfer fee should be enough to put Mike Ashley off trying to sign the attacking midfielder, who can also play as a second striker.
Yoann is a gifted player, but we don’t expect Newcastle to be interested in him this summer.
What do you think?
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75 comments so far
jimmysmith
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:17 AM
Comment #41Would Newcastle still offer the same deal to Remy and would he take it. QPR in the Championship can’t be at all appealing, or has his stock risen further and beyond our reach now.
Certainly looks like he’d do the business for us.
Jail for Ashley
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:18 AM
Comment #42Lilongwe,
You’re being silly now the point I’m trying to make is that goal scorers aren’t so easily replaced and by taking big money for Cisse would leave us with hardly any strike options and no evidence what so ever that somebody would be brought in this summer.
Indian Magpie
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:18 AM
Comment #43Best Academies in the world according to UEFA:
1 / Ajax
2 / Barcelona
3 / Dortmund
4 / Real Madrid
5 / Liverpool
HullMag6
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:20 AM
Comment #44Lilo that s what I meant by unfortunate exception they only showed their hand when it was as good as signed and sealed. No legislation for 11th hour outflanking moves.
Lilongwe Geordie
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:25 AM
Comment #45Jail,
I know the point you are trying to make, and I agree, goalscorers are precious. But Cisse doesn’t fit in with the way Pardew has us playing. And you started the silliness by mentioning Carroll! 🙂
If Pardew learns, or is taught anything by the ‘new coach’, and we start playing with width and creating chances in and around the box, Cisse is worth his weight in gold (Although that is less then we have paid for him). Until then, we could get a striker who scores 13 goals in a season and can hold the ball while the midfield labours to join him.
spitfire_
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:26 AM
Comment #46Rudy Garcia to Roma… and we stuck with our clown… but after all the clown’s should be at the circus… everything is at place.
northernirishtoon
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:27 AM
Comment #47You would nearly think some of the bloggers on here will pocket a percentage of the transfer fee from the sale of our players
Sell cisse, sell cabaye, sell Ben arfa
Why sell our best players?
Unfortunately the propaganda being spewed by the club is manifesting itself in some of the supporters and its sad to see
This window will unfortunately open everyone’s eyes to the fact that newcastles board lack any ambition and we are in serious trouble of being left behind by the other mediocre teams around us
Sad sad times!
jimmysmith
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:30 AM
Comment #48If there was a 500 km an hour bullet train from Kings Cross to Newcastle Central we’d have far greater clout in the transfer market.
Guess it’ll happen someday.
archaeomag
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Comment #49We should sign people with more distinctive hair – Fellaini and Colo in the same team – awesome !
But the management have no ambition and just cant see that!
Lilongwe Geordie
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:33 AM
Comment #50Indian,
The only one there that surprises me is Liverpool. Although, Real isn’t particularly obvious either (Casillas and…..)
It is obviously heavily linked to historical data, the only club at the top level to have produced numerous youngsters at Premiership level recently in the UK is surely Man U. Giggs, Becks, the Nevilles, Scholes, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Welbeck, Cleverly, Gillespie…. There are most likely others but it is too early and I am hungover!
Jail for Ashley
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:33 AM
Comment #51Lilongwe,
This is a serious blog so we shall both agree to stop being silly 🙂
Lilongwe Geordie
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:35 AM
Comment #52Jail,
Ha, you are correct. No time for fun and japes here. This is serious business.
dbpjake
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:35 AM
Comment #53Carroll and Nolan back. They both miss our wonderful long balls
Laurent Robert 32
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:38 AM
Comment #54On the Cissé story… Play Marveaux centrally in behind the forward/s then Cissé would score more goals. Getting the team to have a purposeful, interlinking attacking idea would also get him more goals, instead of sitting back close to our own 18 yard box with Cissé isolated for huge chunks of a game. It’s nothing short of a disgraceful misuse of a goalscorer.
Cissé can’t be blamed when the lad is given scraps to score from. Even Messi and Ronaldo miss chances, so he can’t be expected to score every chance he gets.
Pardew should be focusing his attention on building the team round providing chances for Cissé, not how to provide a wall to make it harder for the opposition to score on the edge of our box. All that will do is mean we’re less likely to score and more likely to concede.
expatmag
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:41 AM
Comment #55Long
I saw evidence of a sort of keeping the ball on the deck against Arsenal in the last game of the season but the problem there is that Pardew has us set up too defensively and therefore the support from midfield and the lack of width plus the space between the midfield and the forwards doesnt lend to his tactics.
He needs to be mpre ambitious and unafraid of the opposition plus he needs to get back to the basics of pass, move ands pressure the opposition.
dbpjake
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:43 AM
Comment #56N’zogbia doesn’t get played at villa either, him and bent yes please
Lilongwe Geordie
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:44 AM
Comment #57Jail,
In Seriousness, I understand your point, and were this a club with a decent manager, and a club/league/sport where logic is the norm, then I would agree, selling Cisse is a ridiculous notion. But……
Charlie Austin would cost around 7million, strong, can finish, able to hold the ball up. That is roughly a third of what Cisse, if sold, will be sold for. Arguably, a better fit in terms of style for Pardew. Not exactly ambitious, granted, but if we are persevering with Pards, we might as well give him the tools that suit him.
Laurent Robert 32
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:45 AM
Comment #58Get French Football (@GFN_France) tweeted at 9:11 AM on Sun, Jun 09, 2013:
PSG’s Mamadou #Sakho has called Monaco an “interesting project” and says “anything is possible” in football #ASM #PSG (@FrenchFtWeekly)
(https://twitter.com/GFN_France/status/343641515224072193)
Hopes are fading.
expatmag
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:49 AM
Comment #59LILONGWE
If you are going on that logic regarding Austin in Cisse out, we might as well sell Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Tiote, Colo, Mbiwa and Marveauax and replace them all with untried PL /European standard players
solano
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:51 AM
Comment #60Blog Exclusive: The big news this week coming out of the club has nothing to do with signings…though our transfer budget may be affected…the old St James’ Park gates will be transported from their secret location and go for refurbishment before being erected at a later date outside SJP!!
The club will herald this as a great PR event to show how much they care about the fans and the city…neglecting to mention that they tried to block the project at every turn for 2 years!
You heard it hear first sports fans…how exciting, eh?
solano
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:52 AM
Comment #61hear? ahem…here! 😉
Lilongwe Geordie
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:54 AM
Comment #62Expat,
There have been patches where we have played decent passing football throughout Pardews time here. Some/Many on here would say that those patches are in spite of Pardew, not because of him.
Pardew has been labelled as overly defensive many times prior to joining us. It was one of the West Ham fans biggest gripes, that there wasn’t the beautiful passing and attacking football that they had come to know (God knows what they are making of Fat Sam, or maybe they have become more pragmatic).
I would love him to prove me wrong, and for him to learn, and play attractive, expansive football, utilising wingers and intricate passing with high pressing. Playing it on the deck and passing doesn’t just improve your attacking, it also improves your ability to regain possession as you have players near the ball at all times, and can immediately press the opposition.
I just find myself struggling to find a reason as to why a man who has been doing a job for a decade, would suddenly change his methods.
croftus5678
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:59 AM
Comment #63the thing i dont understand about people saying we have not replace xx player is that surely we would have had to have a top rate team capable of finishing in the top 4 consistantly before we replace like for like ?
we do not need a best or a lover the best thing i see us needing a replacement for is ba but even he was not enough to push us into top 4.
just my opinion but ba is a better striker than cisse and we would have imo been better finding a striker for alongside ba then cisse ! but he went to chelsea through no fault of the club and we have to go with what we have.
if i had a say in the club i would say go for bony with all i had if he scores with cisse great…if he doesnt and cisse cant score then get a partner for bony…and use cisse to change the formation around to lone striker when needed
Lilongwe Geordie
Jun 9, 2013 at 9:59 AM
Comment #64Expat,
Untried PL/European standard? That perfectly describes every single player you mention prior to our signing of them, so I don’t really get your point?
I wouldn’t shed any tears over the departure of Marveaux, far to hit and miss for me. A 20 minute man off the bench in my opinion. HBA is hugely overrated by NUFC fans. He has all the skill in the world, but lacks a top players footballing brain. Cabaye and Colo would be the hardest to take for me, but Pardew can use them. They can both hit direct balls, rather than long balls, so would be of use to us even with Pardews tactics.
John Tudor
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:00 AM
Comment #65there will few ins but plenty of outs we will be forced to watch crap hoof ball till jan then watch panic buys in jan loan,if any decent players come as ever its only for the wonga
dbpjake
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:00 AM
Comment #66Solano, why do they even pretend to care?!
Jail for Ashley
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:01 AM
Comment #67solano,
Good morning,I read that book the man in the high castle a couple of years ago ,a similar book but not science fiction is Fatherland by Robert Harris.
ASHLEY OUT.
expatmag
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:03 AM
Comment #68LILONGWE
He has to learn or leave and be replaced because even the teams considered to be lower than us like Southampton, Palace, Swansea, WBA,Wigan,
etc have modern progressive coaches who have developed their skills based on possession football.
It is the modern way. With the influx of so many foreign coaches to the english game, the PL is morphing to a more european style where even smaller clubs are outplaying bigger teams at times. The PL is no longer the blood and thunder fast paced league it used to be.
Pardew needs to change his ways and quick or else we will be left behind.
Last season, he was intent on playing 4231 but the way he set the team up despite his catalogue of injuries, didnt support this system.
That is why he needs 2 quality wingers who can create and score plus moving Ben Arfa into the no.10 role where hde would be more effective.
croftus5678
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:06 AM
Comment #69@57 lilong
i too like the fact charlie austin comes cheap for english is still young and has good attributes but i would not replace him for cisse untill he is proven to be better.
by all means sign him alongside cisse as 2nd/3rd choice but we need a tried and tested in cisse in case new recruits dont settle and thats not to say we cant cope without cisse as i think goofy if upfront could match or improve on cisse’s goals last year (the ones that stood) but i do like to be on the safer side and improve the team than risk on untried.
solano
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:07 AM
Comment #70JFA….Aye, Fatherland was easier to read, but ultimately, probably not as good as ‘High Castle’. Still,’what if’ scenarios are interesting…what if Chris Mort had stayed as MD? What if the fans had stayed away for 3/4 games after KK was forced into a corner and resigned in 2008? What if NUFC fans weren’t gluttons for punishment? What if we had ambition?
lesh
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:07 AM
Comment #71What’s all this gosh about no signings as the window’s not open til July 1st? It could open at any time and that wouldn’t stop us signing anyone. Never heard of post-dated contracts?
The reason we’ve made no signings are the same as last summer – our MD’s watching the cash-flow!
No pre-season planned yet? We man for South Africa and despite last year’s cancellation of the same plans, we’ve no plan B.
Maybe Cabaye’s comments came as no surprise – we’re run by amatuers!
lesh
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Comment #72• gosh = tosh!
gfp13
Jun 9, 2013 at 10:40 AM
Comment #73If he’s willing to come on relatively low wages and not a massive transfer fee then i would take him. Even if he has had a few injuries in the past, the talent he had as a youngster may still be in there and it’s a risk vs reward situation. If we pay 5-10 mil and get him in lowish wages I don’t see why this would be a problem. In behind cisse (or whoever our striker is going to be)
roe997
Jun 9, 2013 at 12:07 PM
Comment #74A little off topic guys. Iv been reading the blog several years now but im not much of one to get into commenting, but i would like to ask for fellow toon supporters for thier help. Im raising money for cancer research uk buy competing in a total warrior 10k iron man up the lakes on 4th august. I would appreciate it if you could take a look at my online page at http://www.justgiving.co.uk/michael-roe. There are several charity involved in total warrior inc h4h. These are truly good causes so please feel free to donate and help me beat the total warrior challenge. Thankyou
Owldman
Jun 9, 2013 at 2:05 PM
Comment #75@43 I cant see how UEFA can rate Liverpool as on of the top five academies, I cant actually think of any of their current squad apart from Gerrard who have come up through the ranks they have bought players who are 18 , 19 , or slightly older but you cant class these as acadamy players .I think Aston Villa have more home produced talent in their squad than Liverpool