Pieters on verge of NUFC move as Colo heads for exit?

It looks as though Newcastle have moved pretty quickly to secure a replacement for the now departed Jose Enrique with reports from Holland suggesting that Eric Pieters has told PSV Eindhoven that he wants to leave the club.

I must stress at this point though that it's only a report and there are no quotes to back that part up however, there are now some quotes from the PSV coach, Fred Rutten, who appears to have cleared the way for the 23-year-old Holland international to move to Newcastle and admits that there isn't an awful lot he can do to stop it.

"I would lie in the road to stop him leaving but I fear I cannot block his transfer to Newcastle," said Rutten via quotes that I found in the Daily Mail.

"He is a brilliant defender, but, if it is right for him and the club, I cannot say no."

So we're being linked by name by the manager of the club from which we are trying to sign a player? I'd say that was pretty strong confirmation that we are indeed in for the player.

Of course nothing has happened in time for the game today against Arsenal which leaves us without a recognised left-back for the visit of Arsenal, which I'm still mad about by the way, but at least it looks as though we could have a replacement in next week in time for the visit to the village of the damned.

A fee of around £6 million is said to be on the cards, which kind of works as it's roughly what we brought in from the sale of Jose Enrique and that is pretty much how we seem to be operating in the market these days.

I honestly don't know enough about Pieters to start singing his praises or declaring him the ideal replacement for Jose Enrique, but some our Dutch exiles seem to rate the lad and the fact that he has been capped 10 times for the Dutch national team surely points towards him not being too shabby. Time will tell of course.

But could it be a case of 'one in and one out' again at Newcastle? Some would argue that would be the case should Pieters replace Enrique, but according to Italian website ITAS we could be on the verge of losing Fabricio Coloccini to Valencia.

It's not the first time Colo and Valencia have been mentioned in the same breath over the summer, but it would appear that that there is only one original source - that being ITAS which is essentially the Italian version of The Sun. I really can't see that move getting away from anyone either in Spain or England in truth so I'm just chalking it up as a rumour.

There are no quotes to back it up and it's only a small article stating that Colo has been sold for €5 million, but I really can't see it. Valencia may be able to offer Champions League football, but they wouldn't be able to offer anywhere near the wages we pay our new captain thanks to the financial mess that they are in.

You want to know the real sickener though? It's the fact that no matter how much I believe it's a rumour I still can't fully discount it. We know that everyone has a price under this ownership and there is always a chance of someone offering our board enough to do a deal, even though we are woefully short in defence at the moment.

So there you go. Two bits of speculation - one with quotes, one without - but I thought I'd bring them to your attention anyway.