Does Demba really have a release clause?

Demba's clause
To be honest I’m little bit fed up of talk of clauses. I thought we’d gone past that time of year and didn’t have to worry about it until next December, but still…

Harry Redknapp has seen to that though as, once again, he goes public when declaring interest in a player. It’s not a new thing although it’s worth pointing out that the bloke went scatty when Chelsea done the same to him with Luka Modric.

The object of Redknapp’s media affection this time around? Much like last January it involves a Newcastle striker, but this time it’s Demba Ba who is the object of the alleged tax dodgers affections. The Tottenham manager spoke rather openly to the media about a release clause in the contract of Demba Ba and admitted that he, along with a lot of other clubs, is interested in the Senegal international.

The thing that annoys me is that Redknapp does this all the time. He’ll twitter on about players at other clubs when he really hasn’t got the authority to say anything about them. It’s a move designed to unsettle players and whilst I’m not naive enough to believe it doesn’t go on behind closed doors I do believe that talking of things like this in public is a step too far.

Still, Redknapp is on trial on the 23rd of this month so if he wants to sign Ba he’ll have to get in there pretty quick!

Now a whinge about Redknapp won’t change anything, but it does make me feel a bit better. I like to have a moan from time to time. The real question is whether or not Demba Has a clause in his contract and just what that clause is. Now not being privvy to personal details (unlike Redknapp seemingly) I’m going to have to use history to try and work it out.

Ba does have a history of having clauses in his contracts. He had one at West Ham regarding his release pending a relegation – a wise move really considering that West Ham were bottom of the table when he signed for them and pretty standard practice for a player to ask for one when the club he is joining is running the risk, and subsequently ended up, being relegated.

However contrary to popular belief he didn’t have a clause in his Hoffenheim contract. Instead it was more of an agreement between the club and player. This is what ultimately caused Ba and Hoffenheim to fall out as Ba felt that the German outfit stepped in the way of a move when a Premier League club (Stoke City) came calling. Ba basically tried to force the move himself although it didn’t work out thanks to the medical and that is when Ba ended up at West Ham.

That is only one side of the story though. We need to look at the other party to get a fuller picture. Would Newcastle United really leave themselves vulnerable in the transfer market? Would they really have such a low release clause in his contract? Could the kings of the contract loopholes have left themselves wide open?

You’d have to say that it’s unlikely wouldn’t you? I mean we seem to spend most of our time scouring for players who have the same kind of clauses in their contracts that the press and Redknapp seem to believe is in Ba’s contract, which kind of goes against everything that the club seem to be doing in the transfer market does it not?

Now I’m not denying that there may be some form of release clause in Demba Ba’s contract. What I am questioning is what the extent of that clause is. It might be something like a relegation release clause or it might be a minimum fee release clause. If it is the latter I very much doubt it will be as low as is being reported by bastians of journalism such as the Daily mail or Colin Warris on Twitter!

None of the local press have mentioned this previously and they are usually pretty hot on things like this, especially Mark Douglas who is on the money 99% of the time. More mischief making by Redknapp?

Surely not, your honour!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

136 thoughts on “Does Demba really have a release clause?

  1. Well, if he did have such a low release clause and he does indeed leave it would only be our clubs own fault and quite ironic if we are honest.

      (Quote)

  2. Its just a classic case of pot kettle black, redknapp speaks as if Ba is there for the taking as we are not one of the’big 5 or6′ it annoys me that he feels he can do this and there should be some rules regarding talking about other teams players who are under contract! the media are as much to blame as they constantly ask managers if there transfer murmurings are true so they can fill newspaper coloms. At the end of the day Ba will probably have some clauses in his contract most players do. But I very much doubt if there will be a release clause in there that says he can talk to clubs if they offer how ever much, possibly a clause that say if a champions league side wants to talk then maybe, but listen Harry you aint in that comp this year and although doin well this season u still aint there yet. Redknapp should be fined! And gagged! He is a hypocrit! I wwould love Pardew to go in front of the cameras and talk about Bale or Modric much like chelsea have. ******

      (Quote)

  3. His release clause is obvious. At the Hammers he had a release clause if relegated. At the start of the season we were favourites to struggle with the pundits, so he insisted on a similar release clause. OK says NUFC if relegated you can go for £10m. We get your signing on fee and wages back, you move on. There is a trigger in there folks. We have to fail before it is available.NUFC & Ba happy.

      (Quote)

  4. I could see him having one, and 10mil is nothing considering we got him for nowt with a (supposedly) history of bad knees.

    He was only worth 8mil a yr ago, A Carroll was worth 35mil a yr ago 😯

    Harry’s a **** for doing this but we’ve had our fingers burnt too, just recently with Swansea and Sochaux so we can’t complain just coz Ba’s now God 😆

      (Quote)

  5. I said yesterday, and I don’t know if anyone else can clarify but I’m sure(ish) when there was talk of Oba Martin’s release clause being triggered and the club give him a whopping payrise and removed the clause that thye came out and said they wouldn’t have those sort of clauses again.
    I agree that if there is a clause then it’s more likely to be a relegation, knees going type thing, if it is a release clause and it is as low as £7m then we were asking for trouble although I can’t see Ashley being that naive(hopefully)
    As Craig says we’ve benefitted from others having them, lets just hope we aren’t about to get a taste of our own medicine! 👿

      (Quote)

  6. Hopefully it is like Taylor of Swansea. £10m and the tax-dodger can talk to Ba, but they will need to pay a hell of a lot more to sign him.

      (Quote)

  7. Rich – That is just it. I really can’t see Ashley/Llambias agreeing to have it so low and so tilted in favour of the player like a straight minimum fee clause would be especially at 7 or even 10 mill. Hopefully 😕

    That’s why I agree with Premandup. I think there would be more to it than is being made out.

      (Quote)

  8. I’d rip up his pay-as-u-play contract and give him a whopping new one, without a release clause.

    he deserves it.

      (Quote)

  9. Toonsy…Aye, Ashley may be alot of things but to lose one of his one of his prize assets underprice won’t be one of them……hopefully.

      (Quote)

  10. Harry’s full of it – just ask HMRC. I wish he’d take his huge, floppy face skin and **** off. Oh, but leave his daughter in law behind. She niiiiiiice!

    Just ****-stirring; there is no clause except the one that lets the club terminate if se go down. Ashley ain’t soft on this stuff.

      (Quote)

  11. There must be some truth in this, I mean media darling ‘Arry doesn’t tell lies does he? 😯
    The thing that gets me is the two assumptions the media and twitchy appear to be making:

    A – that Tottenham, with their dinky 36,000 crowds are somehow a bigger club than United

    B – that Ba would automatically want to leave us to join them?

      (Quote)

  12. To be fair to old floppy chops, I watched the interview in question on sky sports, and it seemed to me that the reporter was asking him loaded questions about Ba, to which Arry gave his response. I was more annoyed with the reporter than with him.

      (Quote)

  13. MrT…..True, but all he has to say is that he won’t comment on other clubs players, that’s what most managers do.

      (Quote)

  14. I reckon it’s realise clause if we were to get relegated. Old droopy can go and swing, he is always doing this and it gets onmy wick but when it’s one of his players he crys his heart out!! Ah well buy the end of the transfer window the biggest move will be Rednapp moving to Bellmarsh HMP!! Tax dodger!! Alleged I hasten to add ha ha

      (Quote)

  15. Davey G – this was in the Northern Echo:

    “Newcastle declined to comment on the situation last night, and said they would never discuss the details of one of their players’ contracts.”

      (Quote)

  16. Utd111..Aye I seen that. Technically though “if” a release clause isn’t in the contract and the club say as much, then they aren’t really discussing the details of his contract as it isn’t in there! 😉

      (Quote)

  17. I am sure ba would be leaving in summer and not January in any case. It will be hard to keep him as in the summer big offers will come in for sure. He may well want to stay on an improved deal but as we all know, instead of paying higher wages, Ashley will prefer the route of selling at huge profit and going cheap again. Not saying if it’s right or wrong anymore, it’s what he will prob do though.

      (Quote)

  18. Prem’s comment @3 seems pretty plausible to me.

    Regarding that Daily Mail article, I knew his knee was a worry, but I never realised he had a 25cm screw in it!!! 😯 Christ. Frankenstein.

    …or maybe Dembacop, or the Ten Million Dollar Man.

      (Quote)

  19. Agreed, it makes sense for the clause to cover relegation, but why would we make it so easy for clubs to poach a good player from us? He was clearly already a very good striker and apparently the only one we were going for anyway,can anyone see why it would be 7mil buyout?

    Not that these guys aren’t prone to mistakes…it would be nice if Lambias came out and just told the world Arry was lying and put it to bed.

      (Quote)

  20. As UTD11 pointed out from the press, NUFC won’t comment, which is quite the correct way to go. Floppychops can learn from that!

    Tottenham are a bigger club though, in ALL areas BAR attendances. Whether that makes them a big club in the long run is another question though…

    Would be interesting to see the attendances they’d get with a bigger stadium though. They have a huge waiting list for season tickets at the moment.

    Quite staggering how their 36,000 being in way more in ticket revenue than our 52,000. Mind you, if they are happy paying £80 a ticket and over £1,000 for the cheapest season tickets then fair enough.

      (Quote)

  21. ….anyway, it’s all just ****-stirring for farg’s sake, it ALWAYS happens – especially to our players, and moreso within transfer windows. Nobody can honestly say they never expected Ba’s name to frequent the sports pages during the annual media transfer-feeding-frenzy. 😯 ….he’s currently one of the best strikers in the Premier League.

      (Quote)

  22. I’m not arsed by it all to be honest, my main concern is he comes back from Africa in one piece!!!

      (Quote)

  23. Would anyone swap our spine of Krul, Collo, Tiote, Cabaye and Ba for anyone else’s in the league?…….I’d probably think about it with Citeh’s but the rest could go and do one for me like :mrgreen:

      (Quote)

  24. Personally I feel that £10m is a reasonable amount considering he was free, has dodgy knees & we weren’t to know how good he was going to be (ie he’s exceeded all expectations).

    £10m is probably more than triple the amount he cost in agent/signing on fees & all things considered represented a good return when the contracts were signed.

    Even if a club met the buy out value they’ve still got to weigh up his cost against his dodgy knees just like Stoke.

      (Quote)

  25. Hated Droopys comment “everyone knows he has a clause in his contract”, well no Droopy everyone didn’t know, but they do now. Hope he gets the book thrown at him on the 23rd

      (Quote)

  26. He probably won’t pass a medical anywhere else anyway, so clause or not may be irrelevant 😉

      (Quote)

  27. Hitman….Hopefully, that’s what he did with Oba, doubled his cash and took the clause out, although the doubling of cash won’t happen these days 😀

      (Quote)

  28. I thought Ba had a degenerative problem with both knees so is the 25cm screw in his right leg a different issue?

    It’s nee wonder Stoke shat themselves seeing 25cm screw in the xray…**** me that’s a huge price of metal to have in yer leg! 😯

      (Quote)

  29. Baring in mind he was a free transfer I will be absolutely stunned if his agent didn’t get a minimum fee release clause in the contract.

    Toonsy – Not wanting to get into the whole ‘big club’ debate but your comment about Spurs being a bigger club I find hard to stomach and accept. I’m not sure their roll of honours is that much more than ours and when it comes to support, we’re miles ahead.

      (Quote)

  30. To be fair he cost nothing and to get £10m within a year is great business.

    He missed a sitter against Man Utd before redeeming himself with a goal.

    I say, sell him and get another freebie and sell him for £10m next year.

    Simples. Football is not rocket science like.

    You say wot you? 😯

      (Quote)

  31. Stuart….I’m sure we all find hard to stomach & accept but Tottenham have consistently been better than us for years, recently won the carling cup & qualified for the CL.

      (Quote)

  32. Batty, me neither 😛

    …Stuart, I think when Toonsy says that about Spurs, he means ‘financially’. I know what you mean though, I don’t like reading it either. 😆

    Witters, aye 25cm is MASSIVE, that’s what I thought, unless the Mail fkd up and it’s actually 25mm. Thing is though, that screw has probably made his leg stronger than it was before.

      (Quote)

  33. @Stu

    I believe Toonsy is making the point that they are currently a bigger club in terms of turnover and financial clout including wage structure which is true. Purely financed by competing in the CL.

    When we were in CL, the tables were turned and in the unlikely chance of that happening unde ashley then the tables would turn again.

      (Quote)

  34. Maybe blogs like this one Sy can start a poll against managers talking about other players contracts, then send it to the FA or PFA in a complaint that Floppychops should be fined for him commenting on our players all the time, he shouldn’t be allowed & it needs to stop!!!

    As for the clause, if there is ne, then I go with the £10m talk too one, meaning a club would need to pay £10m just to talk to him & then big upwards of his market value afterwards 😉 😉

      (Quote)

  35. Btw, Spurts have only been a so-called big club since Joe Lewis poured 10’s of millions in back in 05… before that, they were nowt, they won a trophy every 10yrs or so but didn’t even register on the PL top teams until they consecutive 5th under Jol…

    Even with a bigger stadium & waiting list, they’d probably only just top our 52k home game turn out, its just the fact they charge double or ST’s compared to most clubs, 4th highest in the PL this season & we were 16th so that show where there money comes from, that & being able to qualify for Europe helps them get the players but only over the last few years!!!

    Fecking hate them with a passion!!! 😡 😡 😡 😡

      (Quote)

  36. @Rodz

    Still in a full cast from my hand to shoulder but they’ve put a hinge in the cast at the elbow to allow minimum movement to exercise it.

    The good thing is though, my wife is a seamstress, so shes inserted a hidden zip all
    the way up the length of it, so I can take it off and train my arms at the gym.

    The surgeon would gan mad if he knew. 😯

      (Quote)

  37. I wasn’t going to go today but if there’s no streams I think I’ll pop along. Hopefully might play the like is Vuckic, Arfa, Fergie and Sameobi.

      (Quote)

  38. @Stu

    So you explain why you believe the Toon are bigger. This will be fun to pick apart if he answers. 😛

      (Quote)

  39. @toon69

    How do you come to the conclusion that Spuds would just about top 52k? Whats that based on? I wouldn’t have a clue whether they could top 45k or 65k. 😯

      (Quote)

  40. Whether he does or he doesn’t, that melted wax work should be saying **** like that anyway!!
    I hope Chelsea really disrupt Modric now so he’s handing transfer requests in and all that
    Fucking tax dodging *****!!!!

      (Quote)

  41. hate spurs, hate ‘booooo! im vewry vewry happy’ .. and their fans .. and Ba probs does have a release clause but reckon it is a min of Xmill to talk to him .. and the point, well made above, is that buying club wud still have the risk of his knee knacking up … once again, NUFC got the best deal as we paid nowt … xcept agent fee etc ……. interesting that some of the other big clubs are after taylor from swansea … hes decent.

      (Quote)

  42. Richie 😆

    Troy, ahh, good old wifey with the hidden zip trick. Much easier to ‘feed the tortoise’ now I guess too.

      (Quote)

  43. rodzilla .. how come you know what a rebar is? .. i mean, its obvs to people in the building/steel trade, but you are a designer arent you?

      (Quote)

  44. @Troy

    didnt know you enjoyed the gym 😯

    are you into these metrosexual gyms where guys prance around limp-wristed straighting each others hair or the sweaty beef-cake gyms with big knumbsculls wearing tiny vests 😯

    Was at that DWgym in Byker the other day. wow totally impressive, sauna, pool, loads of weights, cardio and tasty birds.. 👿 shame its 35 per mth 🙁

      (Quote)

  45. Sadly the tortoise was a turtle. It sadly passed away last week. I thought he was hibernating in his cardboard box with straw, so I put it next to the heater to keep him warm. When I checked on him, he was frazzled with dehydration.
    I checked on google images afterwards and discovered he was a turtle.

    It’s ok tho cos I’ve converted it’s shell into a hat.

    It looks niiiiiice. 😯

      (Quote)

  46. Troy – In fairness if you’re going of trophies there’s very little in it. We’ve won the league 4 times to there 2, we’ve won the FA cup 6 times and I’m not too sure how many times they’ve won it, 7? We’ve never won the league cup, they have, but we’ve both won the UEFA cup. Also they have played CL football once. We’ve played twice at least.

    Regarding support, we’re miles ahead, they have so many clubs they have to compete with, we have nobody. Maybe just a quirk of geography but that’s life.

    Who knows, if we get an owner with ambition too we may get back in the CL.

      (Quote)

  47. Still waiting for Stu to reply why he is confused why Spuds are not currently bigger than the Toon. 😯

      (Quote)

  48. Toonpipes, indeed. If you’re curious though I can fill you in with the exact details… I first found out what rebar was in 1995, in a small river valley in Los Molinos del Río Aguas in Sorbas, just north of Almeria. Me and some mates had spent 2 months cycling there from Santander and were camped out for about a week down next to the river. There was loads of massive naturally growing bamboo down there and we constructed a camp out of it. I decided to have a go at making a didgeridoo, and one of my mates (a builder) managed to find a bit of rebar at a nearby dilapidated building, which I used to hollow out the bamboo. The didgeridoo was **** anyway, and I left it there. 😆

      (Quote)

  49. Troy@62, 😯 😯 …..now that’s cool 😎

    (shame about the turtle like, but we all have to make sacrifices for the price of vanity – even turtles)

      (Quote)

  50. Troy – Are you under the impression I think Spurs are bigger than us? I actually think the opposite.

    Sorry for the confusion, it may just be your grammar.

      (Quote)

  51. Rodz .. excellent story .. very pleased i asked now!! .. did you punctuate the 2 months with late night musings such as those you present to us from time to time on this blog?

      (Quote)

  52. @stu

    You were responding to Toonsys post and his point in my opinion was simply based on financial clout and current premiership standing.

    You’ve conveniently missed the financial side of things out, including turnover which in my opinion along with fanbase (not size of ground) are the qualities that decide the size of the club.

    Trophies do come into it to a certain extent, but we often dismiss this point, and I’m sure you have, when the likes of fans from other clubs who don’t consider us big cos we’ve won little in comparison to Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd etc.

      (Quote)

  53. @Troy.. Sorry for the confusion, it may just be your grammar 😯

    maybe you should train your brain and not your arms 😯 😯 😆

      (Quote)

  54. Troy, why do you dismiss the number of trophies won? … if we try to define what makes a club ‘big’ then isn’ that to do with size/numbers in which case number of trophies is same as number of fans / turnover .. for what its worth, i think we are bigger than spurs overall …

      (Quote)

  55. Cheers Witters and TP. Indeed there were late night musings, but back then I didn;t even have a mobile, never mind a computer. We camped rough every night with a fire and just talked bollocks amongst ourselves. Actually rode 50 miles per day and drank a litre of red wine every night for nearly 3 months!! Quality. Did the same in Morocco a few years later, but with zero booze for 3 months. 😯 😆

    …gotta go anyway. Until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other 😉

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *