News over the weekend that Sunderland are about to make signings of two players who were Newcastle targets.
Craig Gardner – a good young player
The Sebastian Larsson saga may be finally over, as the 25 year-old is expected to rejoin Steve Bruce at Sunderland, as a free agent.
That’s even though former club Arsenal and Aston Villa (his former manager at Birmingham Alex McLeish) have apparently made recent overtures to the Swedish International.
Newcastle were negotiating with Seb Larsson’s agent in Janauary but no deal was made, and with Cabaye, Demba Ba and Marveaux having already been brought to Tyneside, it could be that Seb was pushed down the list at Newcastle.
Larsson played under Sunderland manager Steve Bruce when the Geordie manager was at Birmingham.
Larsson’s father told Sport Folket over the weekend:
“Sunderland have been on really hard since January. Steve Bruce has done much to bring about a deal and been very active,”
“Sebastian along the way pointed out Sunderland as a distinct possibility. We have turned every stone and weighed the pros and cons.”
“The parties agree on the economic conditions and what remains is to agree on the length of the contract.”
“They want a little longer and we want less. But I think there will be no problems.”
News today that Sunderland are in the lead to sign a good player – 24 year old Birmingham midfielder Craig Gardner – but the price quoted of £8M seems a little high, and if Newcastle were interested in the former Aston Villa midfielder, that price could have put them off.
It seemed that Craig could have been a good replacement for the departed Kevin Nolan, since he has a similar game and scored 10 goals for Birmingham last season, their top scorer.
While Newcastle have plenty of money available, they still want good deals , and are almost the opposite of the way the club used to operate in the transfer market under former Chairman Freddy Shepherd.
In those days Newcastle would not only overpay in the transfer market, but they would offer mediocre players huge wages on long term deals, which came back to harm the club, when the player(s) simply didn’t make the grade.
If anything, the Mike Ashley regime have gone too far the other way, but the club has made some very good deals over the last couple of years, so that’s something positive.
Newcastle have had three players in and three players out so far in the summer, and haven’t spent a penny in net transfer funds – yet.
Comments welcome.
47 comments so far
P.I.
Jun 20, 2011 at 9:35 AM
Comment #41Completely agree with @Drona – Comment 22
Saying as how this is all just rumour and hear-say; we’ve apparently signed Marveaux up on a 5 year 60,000 a week contract. He’s being called injury prone and he’s untried in the league.
How then if a proven class player in this division asks for the same amount can he possibly have a greedy attitude? Smith must be the greediest swine going!
It’s madness! Either the club aren’t willing to pay the 12M and so make some daft story up about Nzogbia being a mercinary or the papers have got it wrong, and Marveaux is only on 25,000 and Charlie wants 100,000 a week!
Cant really work it out. I hope its all just a game of cat and mouse and certain stories are reported to throw other clubs or bidders off?
Would still love to see Charles sign. I’ve told him as much on Twitter this morning.
Incidentally theres another bit of strange news, considering he was meant to be in Newcastle meeting with the club, and then supposed to be disagreements over his contract. He’s in Miami on hoiday as we speak.
So the only disagreement would be with his agent, not NZogbia.
toonincheek
Jun 20, 2011 at 9:44 AM
Comment #42I don’t believe for a moment that Marveaux is on a £60,000 a week contract. No way.
Just look at the (approx.) £30,000 a week that’s been reported for the other French player signings.
Davies
Jun 20, 2011 at 10:26 AM
Comment #43Kings Of Toon – Colo was over £10m.
DoctorZelig
Jun 20, 2011 at 11:03 AM
Comment #44Forget Craig Gardner, he’s not good enough.
He’s no Cabaye or Tioté. Thats the class we need to go for. English players are in general to expensive if they are not from our own academy. 8 mil for Gardner who was relegated is insane!
Kings of Toon
Jun 20, 2011 at 12:04 PM
Comment #45Davies
I was on the undertsanding that Collo fee was ‘undisclosed’ and estimated at 10M?
I may be wrong?
Kings of Toon
Jun 20, 2011 at 12:15 PM
Comment #46No Davies
I am right…was undisclosed but estimated at 10.3 million or so im informed.
I would wager that Mike Ashley didnt pay that amount for Collocini.
Sav
Jun 20, 2011 at 12:39 PM
Comment #47No use calling Smith names, lads. In fairness, he’ll lay if he’s picked. Its the club’s fault for signing him and offering such a lucrative contract. We all knew he was crocked at ManU but we signed him anyway. No wonder Ashley is tight nowadays.
In the past, when we used to miss out on our prime target, we’d go gradually down the list. Now, with so much cash available, it may even go the other way – that’s to say we aim for the cheap option all the time and when we don’t get him, perhaps Ashley will have to dig deeply into his AC money and get us someone better?