7 placed on transfer list?

Will anyone want our unwanted?
Will anyone want our unwanted?
It has been suggested by the Chronicle today that Newcastle United is looking to offload up to seven players before the summer transfer window slams shut. With current squad numbers sitting in the region of 30, it stands to reason that we need to offload some of the excess.

The names allegedly being touted for sale are Mike Williamson, Mehdi Abeid, Yoan Gouffran, Gabriel Obertan and Sylvain Marveaux. On top of that, there is a suggestion offers will be considered for Papiss Cisse and Captain Fabricio Coloccini (code word for ‘for sale’ in my book). The touting of these players will not come as a surprise to many. Several of them have contracts due to expire next summer, whilst all bar Coloccini and Cisse have been ineffective on the whole during their respective stints at The Magpies.

If this report is true, then there is also a talking point to be had regarding the players that have not been put up for sale. For example Haris Vuckic is listed on the club website as one of the squad’s midfielders, but Shane Ferguson is not. What does Steven McClaren and Co. plan to do with these two alongside the likes of Gael Bigirimana and Curtis Good? For me, Vuckic is still a real talent. His recent spell at Rangers showed what he can do when played in a number 10 role behind the striker. It would be interesting to see him deputize for Siem De Jong this season, who we surely cannot expect to pull off a whole campaign unscathed given his previous injury record with us and current massive lack of match fitness. If our pre-season tour of the U.S is anything to go by, then we can expect a variation of a 4-2-3-1 formation this term. It would make sense to play De Jong behind the striker – and this is also Vuckic’s strongest position.

Gael Bigirimana is contracted to stay with us until 2017, so it is conceivable that he could go out on loan to prove himself this year. He has shown flashes of promise for us in the past, but for whatever reason Alan Pardew and Co. did not fancy him and he has stagnated badly. Surely he cannot be in with chance of making the 25-man squad this season. So if he’s not for sale, a loan must be a serious option for him. Shane Ferguson however is in his last season with us. Newcastle’s depth at left back is not great. Massadio Haidara has been steady enough in the wake of Davide Santon’s exit whilst Paul Dummett’s best position is still being debated. What is certain, is that Ferguson knows how to cross a ball. However, he has never been consistent enough for the first team and always seemed to run out of steam after about 70 minutes. What the plan is for him is anybody’s guess?

An interesting omission from this list is Rob Elliot. With Karl Darlow coming in and Freddie Woodman seemingly progressing nicely, it had been expected that Elliot would be making way. Elliot is actually a very steady goalkeeper and has been very useful to us during his time here. Darlow has not looked the most convincing during the U.S tour and Woodman is still very young and inexperienced. Retaining Elliot is a common sense move. There were many reasons why the club was dragged into a relegation fight last season, but one big reason was surely the lack of depth in goal. When Krul and Elliot were injured the inexperienced Jak Alnwick was thrown into the deep end. He spent more time picking the ball out of the net than he did making saves and it remains to be seen if he will ever player in the Premier League again. We do not want this to happen to Woodman and it seems the club has learnt this particular lesson from the last campaign.

Selling Papiss Cisse is a risk. For all his injuries, inconsistent form and disciplinary problems – he still finished our top scorer last season and is proven in the Premier League. The signing of Aleksandar Mitrovic, one of the most promising young strikers in Europe, is great to see. However, he is unproven at the highest level and cannot be expected to carry us on his own. We have been strongly linked to Charlie Austin – who IS proven in the Premiership. If Austin comes in, then fans would accept Cisse leaving. Letting him go with no proven replacement would be insane.

We have been linked to a couple of high profile defenders in addition to the imminent arrival of Chancel Mbemba. German-born Cameroonian Joel Matip has been mooted in the press as well as the highly unlikely Aymen Abdennour, who is apparently in the verge of a move to Barcelona. Coloccini has looked off the pace for a couple of seasons now and his will to be here has been in question since he apparently tried to engineer back to San Lorenzo. He is in his last year of his contract and it would make sense to offload him – but only on the condition that we get a solid, proven replacement for him. How easy it will be to sell a player clearly on the decline, aged 33 and on big wages is another matter…

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About Shamrock

Like everyone here, support Newcastle United. Not the easiest side to feel good about at times, but it's our side!

347 thoughts on “7 placed on transfer list?

  1. TDS – The club were interested in both. The fact they didn’t see the value in Ayew after they found out what wage he wanted is irrelevant. As for Ings there’s was interest but he choose Liverpool. Pretty fair I reckon.

    Don’t expect you to accept it but your opinion of the press is similar to mine of Ashley and you’ve been pretty critical along with others on here of that.

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  2. The other thing I’d mention is that does anybody really believe a Sports Editor would continue to employ a journalist who just guessed and copy and pasted everyone else’s stories? If anyone thinks that their crackers.

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  3. STUART

    I’m not saying the club wasn’t interested in them, what I’m saying is that it’s pretty obvious that we would be interested in young strikers of a certain pedigree. It’s when they take huge artistic licence and claim that we’re on the verge of signing someone. Being interested in Austin and having discussed the fee does not mean that we’ve put in an offer, let alone about to sign him. The club will have discussed literally dozens of players over the last couple of months in terms of asking their clubs about their availability and asking price.

    My opinion of the press is pretty similar to my opinion of Ashley to be honest…they both will twist the facts to suit their own ends.

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  4. STUART

    If they’re getting hits, then that’s what matters. Look at the football news on a Sunday…there’s about 4 times as much and it’s mostly complete ****. To the extent that I completely ignore it.

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  5. At 285…. are you trying hard to be a ****** or is it something that comes naturally? . I have no issue with snide comments but I do have issues with hypocrites that accuse me of something whilst they are doing the very same thing.. give it a rest ffs…

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  6. I am not sure whether you know how it works, TDS. Richie was spot on above. Club employees give info to their preferred journo. When they give that info, it’s in good faith, but what they say doesn’t always happen. Journo’s do not make things up. When you mention the sunday papers, that is generally because the journo has had the tip off from the players agent. I am 100% sure that the agent is in a lot of cases just inventing alot of what he tells journo’s but the journo’s don’t just make it up. They write what they’re told.

    When they re hash another article you always see a line like “According to reports in the ….”

    Astonished at the level of distrust in the sports journo’s to be honest. they genuinely act in good faith and report what they’re told.

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  7. How else is a agent going to bump up interest in his players if he does not leak imfo to members of the press,cannot understand fans that think it doesn’t happen,part of the game ime afraid,as much as I hate agents as I’ve had dealings with them,it goes on

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  8. @284 I’m a cynic all right, but I agree that journos act in good faith – for their jobs 😉 You might want to try reading my earlier post, though, before you start the straw man attack (this kind of argument is a dead giveaway that your view is on shaky ground)

    And as for the second part, the difference is that I have a good knowledge of how the media works (backed by years of independent research from many people) and you don’t know how Ashley works (except through some psychic ability to read minds).

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  9. Kim I’m about for the next 2 hours of you want me to post your article? I expect Dave is busy looking after his mates family… 🙂

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  10. Well, here’s a good example that you bring up.
    “I am 100% sure that the agent is in a lot of cases just inventing alot of what he tells journo’s but the journo’s don’t just make it up. They write what they’re told.”

    Now, if you are so sure that agents tell lies, surely the journo is also sure, but they write it anyway. Why? Why do they write something they know to be untrue? Is it all simply a public service to fans? 😆

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  11. Bris – My argument is not any gorund other than sturdy ground. It’s how it works. That’s life and get over it. If you don’t know then your research dept needs sacked!

    As for Ashley, you dojn’t need to be a psychic to actually see what has happened over the last 8 years.

    For your info psychic’s are often thought to be able to see the future, not the past… 😯 🙄

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  12. Bris – How do Journo’s know which bit is 100% true and what isn’t? If they did it the other way and assumed everything was false then the papers wouldn’t have any articles at all. So a stupid argument.

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  13. But you keep believing that journo’s just make everything up. That way you won’t read the articles and you won’t need to make any comments on here unless things have actually happened.

    I suppose that means I won’t expect to see you commenting on this blog again on anything that isn’t 100% fact.

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  14. STUART

    I’m not sure you know how it works either!

    Journo asks his contact at the club, “So, is Austin on your radar?”. Contact replies, “Sure, at the right price.”. Journo writes “Newcastle readying bid for Austin” and a whole article about how an insider sees him as the perfect player to partner Mitrovic, that Cisse would likely be on his way out for £6m to some team he’s been linked with before and that Austin is keen on the move. Lies? Not exactly…but pure waffle.

    And you’re off your rocker about Sunday. Truth is that on a Sunday very little actually happens, but there’s a huge captive audience of people wanting to read news on things. Sometimes they literally make things up to fill inches, but often they don’t really have to They can write an entire article on Austin to Newcastle because one club insider said he’s a good player or because his agent says he’d potentially be interested. But it’s really bullshit.

    A journo might often get the seed of a story presented to them, but decent ones (like the BBC or SSN) then validate the story by speaking to the club and other parties to see if it’s true. A Bad journo just expands on the seed and turns it into a big pile of ****.

    That’s why when a possible signing appears on SSN on BBC then it happens at least 90% of the time, whereas some other publications get it right less than 10% of the time.

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  15. We need some 1st team news to come out of the club. The infighting is beginning to bubble up again because there is not much else to talk about! Eric please cease the constant snide comments about the Aussie posters every chance you get. If its a direct conversation with them relating to a legitimate debate then fair enough – but it seems to be ‘off the cuff’ no matter if the Aussie’s are about or not and it’s tiresome. Stick to giving a kicking to Carver eh? Not many people will take too much issue with that!

    So Armstrong looks to be off to Coventry. What do people think about that move? Suggests another striker will come in to me. Would like to see some CB’S come in though!

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  16. STUART

    Why would you call Ashley and others liars and believe nothing coming from them about the club, yet you hold stock in an article written by a journo based on information you say he either got from a ‘club insider’ or a player’s agent?

    There will only be a few people in the know if we’re about to make a bid for Austin and the only way that would be made public beforehand is if the club wants it made public. And that seems unlikely don’t you think?

    They use words like “readying” or “preparing” which mean nothing really because the club are always readying or preparing themselves to bid for players.

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  17. SHAMROCK

    Already posted on the Arma thing. Doesn’t hit at a new striker at all I don’t think. We currently have Mitrovic, Cisse, SDJ, Perez, Goofy and Riviere ahead of him.

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  18. I would not describe Goofy or SDJ as strikers, meanwhile Cisse is allegedly for sale – leaving us with 3 strikers including an unreliable Riviere and a long season ahead. I reckon we are after a striker myself.

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  19. SHAMROCK

    I think Cisse will only be sold if we bring in a striker, but currently we have Mitrovic, Cisse, Perez and Riviere as our first team strikers with both Goofy and SDJ certainly capable of playing there. I think the Arma thing just says that he’s not going to get any games with us this season. I think all 6 of those players would be picked ahead of Arma unless we were just looking to give him time on the pitch.

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  20. I don’t ever think I have called Ashley a liar! NEVER! I have alwasy said I don’t agree with the way he runs the club (maybe that’s changing) but I haven’t called him a liar!

    Big difference!

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  21. STUART

    I apologise then. But you’d be one of the very few who haven’t called him a liar…

    So do you believe everything that the club comes out and says? Did you believe Ashley when he said he was going to invest this summer?

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  22. Stuart “I suppose that means I won’t expect to see you commenting on this blog again on anything that isn’t 100% fact.”

    I rarely do anyway.

    TDS re H2H: I think we went through this last time as well. In short, the season is 35 games long before going into the league cup. Having 18 teams is as close as I can get to us playing each other twice.

    If Solanos Trumpet wants to be in to defend his title, then I’ll increase it to 20. But Solano will have to come on here and ask for that to be done.

    I’d also increase it if Troy wanted to be in it – coz he’s my buddy 😆 Actually I’d consider increasing it for any regular contributer to this blog.

    Community spirit and all that.

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  23. BRIS

    Fair enough. I run a H2H league too and just make it 20 teams so everyone plays each other twice. I don’t bother with the shoot out at the end. Happy with it either way though. But a bit disappointed…I must have been in the top few last season but didn’t check to see how I did in the knock out part!

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  24. Go back through the threads and I actually said I hope he’s right. I did actually have a feeling that we would buy. But I still open minded on it as I would like to see the end result.

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  25. Willo’s been getting a lot of stick on here lately. A ball hasn’t even been kicked this season and everyone’s writing him off. He might have an excellent season for us but then again pig’s might fly ?

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  26. Over the years both Saylor & Willo have done OK with Colo beside them and useless together. From the stats Willo was probably better.

    I imagine that The idea was that Colo would be here for his last season partnered by one of the younger CBs With a replacement for Willo & saylor in Jan.

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  27. I still think the plan is for the first choice centre backs to be Colo and Mbemba with Taylor and Lascelles providing the backup. I can’t believe that we’ll sign another centre back and probably end up with 3 of our top 4 choices with no experience in the PL. And I’d be very surprised if we sign a decent PL centre back…

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  28. Georgio @300: you say MBemba is one of 11 kids. You would think someone could get in touch with one of them or his parents to ask when he was born? They might not be able to give the exact day but you think they might get the year right. It is a bit of a storm in a teacup but you would think it would be easy to figure out.

    Shamrock: I will take your advice. However, I hope Carvs doesn’t do any more interviews as I don’t want to hear any more of his drivel.

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  29. TDS if that were the case, i’d rather see Taylor sold than Willo. I reckon they are about equal in terms of ability and consistency combined. Meanwhile, we cannot rely on Taylor being available when called upon. His injury record is awful. I’d rather have somebody in the squad that is more than likely to be available when required. Somebody pointed out Taylor has played an average of 14 games per season for several years now. That’s not good enough. In terms of raw ability and leadership, he trumps Willo – but he is also prone to massive howlers on a more regular basis than Willo. Neither is an ideal alternative to a 1st choice pairing, but i’d rather have somebody on my books that is likely to be available to earn his wage at least.

    That said, it would be far more beneficial to bin the pair of them and get someone like Evans in to compete with Mbemba and Colo for that starting place..

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  30. SHAMROCK

    That’s the beauty of football for me…we have different but equally valid opinions.

    I think Taylor has been guilty of trying to do much, similar to Colo. I’d rather just see them do what they’re good at. Hopefully with Mbemba and Lascelles in, we have a bit more flexibility there rather than making them just fit in and make do.

    I can’t see Evans moving unless it’s for a first team spot. He’ll probably go to the dirty monkey mackems again…

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  31. Shamrock: I was the one who said Taylor had played an average of 14 games over 8 years. I took it from an article in The Mag where a contributor had gone through his games every season and come up with that average.

    My problem with Taylor is that just when he looks like he is striking up a decent partnership and running into form he breaks down.

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  32. Yeah its a shame Eric. Definitely potential there, but he’s no spring chicken any more and we cant afford to keep carrying him. The PL is the elite level in English Football. Averaging 14 games per season is not good enough for that level.

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  33. Shamrock, you should have mail now. I did realise after I went out this morning that Dave would be busy.

    Big Dave, sorry I forgot.

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  34. I agree, Saylor is an able defender when partnered with the right CB, it’s just a shame he’s made of glass as he always gives 100%. Oh and he does have the odd brain fart to be fair. 🙄

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