Smith has been the ultimate professional during his time with us. He’s never kicked up a fuss, never got in any trouble or controversy off the field and is supposed to be one of those senior voices within the dressing room. Unfortunately it’s the football side of things that lets him down.
At the age of 30, Alan Smith has found himself in an awkward position. He no longer has what it takes to play in the Premier League week in and week out. Partly due to injury and partly due to the position in which he plays, he has become surplus to requirements and has been told that he can leave Newcastle if he chooses.
As I said at the start though, this is not a sentimental decision, not from the NUFC perspective anyway. They want his wages off the books, quite rightly when you consider that the club are shelling out £60,000-a-week for a player that is of no real use to us.
The problem with that wage is that nobody is willing to match it, which is why no club will come in for him. Leeds have been sniffing around, but they can’t afford to pay him anywhere near what we have to each week. It’s a shame as I’m sure Smith would quite fancy a return to the place where it all began for him, but I’m not sure he would want to drop his wages by so much in the process.
Luckily there is a solution, according to The Sun anyway. Apparently Newcastle will agree to pay Alan Smith £30,000-a-week for the remainder of his contract with Leeds stumping up a further £15,000-a-week to take his wages to £45,000-a-week.
Now I know it’s The Sun and it may well be bollocks, but it would certainly be a move that would make business sense. Paying Smith £30,000-a-week would save the club £1.56 million over the next year which is not to be sneezed at. Then next season, when Smith’s contract runs out, they would obviously save the rest.
I’m not a fan of paying people money to move clubs, but it’s the only way we are going to shift him on in my opinion. There is a cost saving to be had and Smith gets more football. Everyone is happy, right? It would seem that way.
As with all rumours/gossip etc, exercise caution when believing them!
Yes, I’d definitely do this.
We don’t need his cheerleading
Jobey07(Quote)
This is a win win situation .
Toonale(Quote)
Now it is just down to negotiating the exact amounts so that all three paries are happy.
Premandup(Quote)
1st
Geordie1(Quote)
You see my post about Erdinc on the other thread?
raffo(Quote)
Good luck to him, it would be good if he had a stint with Leeds and he got back to looking like he was enjoying his footy – something I don’t think he really has since he left them.
StaffsToon(Quote)
If it was me I’d be happy turning up at Benton for another year.
£15,000 a week is a lot to give up.
geoff777(Quote)
He is the ultimate professional because he sucks and he is being paid a fortune. Ashley is a business man and paying 30grand a week for nothing is better than paying 60 grand a week for nothing. Once we get rid of him we’ll be a better stronger team.
Charlie(Quote)
It looks like the Sun have just re-hashed an old story, Toonsy. Apparently Smith said a few days ago that he wouldn’t accept a pay cut by going back to leeds:
http://glorygloryleedsunited.blogspot.com/2011/06/smith-tell-leeds-no.html
Chris G(Quote)
Leeds fan in peace – the difference between Smith’s wage bill after the additional 15k works out just about to our salary savings having offloaded Schmeichal – if this works out it should really put the cat amongst the pigeon as a fair number of Leeds fans don’t want to see a return for the same reasons that many of you want to offload him – ie injury
jon(Quote)
We have been linked with Little Donky, he would be company for Big Donky,the only problem would be would he haw he haw ways get a game? 🙂
Toonale(Quote)
Smith is unshiftable 😕
toonsy(Quote)
Alan Smith is my favourite player when he played for Man Utd, and I was buzzing when he joined us. It has been such a shame how his career has panned out.
Yes, Jon Arne Riise has played a bit in it, but I personally blame Fergie. He played him in centre midfield insterad of up front where he belongs.
I personally think we should keep him, purely because I think (no actually I KNOW) he is amazing, so I really hope he doesn’t leave.
Please don’t go!
Jamie McKellar(Quote)
The only stumbling block I can see is the £15,000 that Leeds are shelling out… Leeds refused to improve the contract of Bradley Johnson from £4,000 to £11,000 last month (quite rightly too!) which is why he will sign for Norwich next week.
Despite all the (Red) baggage that Mr Smith would bring with him to Elland Road, he is just the type of player we need. He would allow our your attacking midfield to express themselves a bit more, and with more than half our goals coming from midfield last season we can only hope that is a good thing…
Time will tell, but LUFC no longer have a reputation of splashing the cash.
Dirty Leeds Blog(Quote)
DLB….would he be accepted back by the majority of Leeds fans?
Ditto the last sentence if you insert NUFC. 😉
richietoon(Quote)
As a Leeds fan, the rumour falls over at the £15k per week we are supposedly throwing in. he way we are going, we’d be lucky to pay the whole team that much combined. If I were Alan Smith, all things considered, I’d turn up and sit on the bench every week and do lots of physio and take the £60k his contract affords him. Then next year, head back to Elland Road fresh.
Ron G(Quote)
****** off Smith
Dave(Quote)
We don’t want him
JH(Quote)
Ron…The risk with doing that for Smith is if you were to get promoted it’s doubtful you’d want him in the Premier league.
richietoon(Quote)
…..or in the Championship it appears 😆
richietoon(Quote)
eh?
why the furk would we pay a player 30k a week to play for someone else?? Can we not just give him to another club?
When does his contract run out?
…..can we not just sack him on the grounds of being ****?
Rodzilla(Quote)
Rod – 😆
This shows exactly why Andy Carroll was NOT forced out of the door. Alan Smith is demonstrating perfectly well how hard it can be to shift a player who doesn’t want to go. See, you can sit on a contract 😉
toonsy(Quote)
Oh, and he has one years left on his current deal
toonsy(Quote)
To be honest we probably just need to take the hit and pay him up, am sure if we offer to give him 750k – 1 million to cancel his contract he’ll take it and be able to join another club on lower wages, save us a little bit of cash and free up a squad place
stevep(Quote)
Rod…unfortunately not, even if you gave him away you’d need to find another club willing to pay those wages, which just ain’t gonna happen. The same goes for Xisco, I’d be shocked if he goes anywhere other than on loan in the next 2 years 😥 …all the power is with the players, none can be forced out. 🙄
richietoon(Quote)
TOONSY mail,haveing tea break,bloody knacked here
icedog(Quote)
@toonsy – same way geremi sat on his **** doing nowt and picking up his wages, jack all the club can do
stevep(Quote)
eh. my comment isn’t showing
Rodzilla(Quote)
Ice…you should have your feet up and a JD in hand while your lass is away man!! 😉
richietoon(Quote)
is now
Rodzilla(Quote)
Ice – Got it mate. Don’t work too hard bud 😉
toonsy(Quote)
Cheers for the reply Toonsy & richietoon.
….crazy eh. I tend not to look at player transfers from that side of the fence. Bananas.
As much as Smith seems a decent lad, his footballing days were pretty much finished by the time Ferguson pulled the wool over our eyes. He was ace at Leeds, then the big injury and switch from CF to CM as much as buried him.
…oh well, in that case maybe the Sun story would make some sense.
🙄
Rodzilla(Quote)
RICHIE went to bed with j/d last night,the sod wouldnt let me get up this morning 😀
you know what its like packing up a house to move,and ime on me own 🙁
icedog(Quote)
Ice…not really, I let the removals do all the packing, customs inventory etc 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere, and can’t blame him really. Blame FFS and ridiculous contracts 😕
Newkie(Quote)
RICHIE aye kna what your saying,problem we have is have to empty house quick trying to store it in diff places,as his container isnt due for a few weeks,and guy who bought house is wanting his gear in asap,fu!k sick,off again noo
icedog(Quote)
Ice…the removals I used packed it then took it away to storage before shipping it over here, much easier 😀
richietoon(Quote)
lucky git 🙁
icedog(Quote)
Newkie….Wasn’t Smith signed after Ashley took over? 😉
richietoon(Quote)
before i gan off,talk toon have bid for sturridge,and stoke have had 10mil knocked back for him,storey is toon will go to 15 mil,and not the 20mil chelsea are asking,laters
icedog(Quote)
take it easy Ice 😎
richietoon(Quote)
ice, ye can’t drop a comment like that then disappear man!
…where’d ye hear that? Great news if true, I reckon we could get him for that, and I’d have him over Wickham or Long any day of the week. Come in number 9???
Rodzilla(Quote)
I don’t want to dwell on history too much, but we are talking about a player that went from being an out and out striker, to an attacking midfielder, to (at NUFC) a ‘holding’ midfielder.
Since he left Leeds back in 1679, he’s done next to nowt, and even less since his arrival at SJP. Injuries, age and uselessness have contributed to his contribution of SFA. Not one goal..
Four seasons, not one goal.
And the smug ***** scoffs at a reduced wage? If I were as ***** at my job I’d be unemployed.
Some toon in oz(Quote)
If we have bid for Sturridge I would be well happy,got a feeling that 15 mil wont do the trick though and doubt go any higher than that
Big Gman(Quote)
Well apparently we aren’t even interested in Sturridge….
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2011/06/29/hot-off-the-press-today-s-evening-chronicle-72703-28800345/2/
toonsy(Quote)
You might well be right,but if its reported in the Chron then chances are its a load of old kak,some of the rubbish they come out with is laughable at times
Big Gman(Quote)
dont get people on here..some times…we get 3 players in for nothing already..becasue they dont cost anything..people moan…they are good players..and better then what we got…are 5 year plan…we got ben arfa..if fit better then anything in the prem…so who would of thought we would get him…transfer window has got 2 months to run…at least we havnt left it 2 the last day..which we have been doing…no body apart from man u have bought any1 with real money…and henderson who went 2 liverpool for that money..must need to wake up…he is **** and would u wont your club to waste that kind of money like we were doing on owen and others and paying smith those wages..its a joke..get real..we are moving froward…a lot of u were saying we would get relegated…i said we would be ok and the league is ****…we need to move up slow..not quick like some fans becasue we stayed up…
asim(Quote)
Sorry, but Smithy was OK when at Leeds but never really fulfilled his initial potential as an out and out goal scorer. For a midfielder he can’t really tackle properly and why Fergie signed him I’ll never know. Probably to pee off the Leeds fans.
Please keep him. We have enough dead wood.
DAPPY(Quote)
BTW Mr McKellar. How do you rate Smithy as your favourite player above the likes of Ronaldo at the time? Are you talking about football or some other criteria?
DAPPY(Quote)
I see lots of hate for Smith here? Consumate proffessional, long career at the highest level, whats he ever done to deserve that? He has signed a contract for a specific amount of time, for a specific amount of money. Why, would he, his agent, or anyone in their right mind want to reduce that contract? This does not happen in the real world, and if people were truly, truly honest, they would not consider taking pay cuts either. (slight snipe at NUT) I for one wish him all the luck in the world, wherever he may end up. For what its worth I think he will pitch up at NUFC and try to play a part in the team. That is the job he is contracted to after all.
martin(Quote)
Toonale it may be a win win but it’s not quite a win win win situation.
Smith will lose almost £800,000 in wages over the next year if he takes this offer up (£15k x 52). i wouldn’t be prepared to take such a large paycut just to play regularly at the end of my career
…so not quite win win win
Mr Lew(Quote)
As a Leeds fan I was sad to see Smith leave Leeds but under the circumstances, after Ridsdale “lived the dream”, he had no real choice in the matter. Old Rednose at OT never really knew what to do with Smith and when he did manage to get into the team he broke his leg. I too am surprised at some of the ‘vicious’ comments regarding Smith from the Toon Army and agree he does not deserve this. One of the things Smith will always be remembered for at Leeds is the fact that he waived his part of the transfer fee to help Leeds, how many Premiership ‘prima donnas’ would do that?
However, I can see why he is ‘refusing’ to do that at SJP, after all it seems the majority of fans, if this blog is representative, do not rate him. My advice to Smithy is hang in there son and see out the rest of your contract. The fact that NU have to pay him so much even though he is not in contention to play is a sad reflection on the management at Premiership clubs in general and at SJP in particular
Oldlufc(Quote)
On the contrary Oldlufc. It was a sad reflection of us before we got relegated and wasted money on players like Smith. We’ve gone the other way now though, much like Leeds, and don’t waste a penny. Our owner makes sure of that.
toonsy(Quote)
If Alan Smith really wants to continue to play football as a first team player he would take the drop in wages from 60.00 a week to 600.00 a week to play for Leeds. That is all Bates would allow to be paid to a new player on a free to play for Leeds, hence no new player at Leeds this season as no player of any reasonable standard would accept these wages unless they already had 10, 000,000.00 in their bank account ….so obviously only players that Sam and Harry have had through their books come into that category….hang on did Sam not buy Smith …….
JOHN(Quote)