Newcastle set to sign Karim Ziani?

toonsy

Karim Ziani.
Ziani to Newcastle? More rumours.
Newcastle have apparently reached a deal with Wolfsburg for the services of Karim Ziani, according to several overseas news publications.

Now we’ve been here before with regard to news of potential new players reaching us from overseas sources, but on the other hand, this is the exact same way that most of us found out about our initial interest in Hatem Ben Arfa.


I guesss much of this depends on how accurate these respective news outlets are. If they are on the money then it would appear that we have agreed a deal of around £2 million for the Algerian international midfielder who will seal a three-and-a-half year deal, subject to a medical, at some point in the next week.

Ziani is 28 years old and has made 60 appearances for the Algerian national team. He can play in a number of different positions across the midfield or he can play the withdrawn striker role. He is known for his technical ability and creativity rather than his goalscoring ability.

As I said, there is nothing confirmed in this and not much has been heard about it over here in the UK, but if true it would be another face through the door to add to the ranks, and it would give us another option when it comes to unlocking defences.

Ziani is said to prefer a move back to France, where he started his career, although as yet there appears to be little interest and only a loan deal from RC Lens could be on the cards. Ziani would choose a permanant move over a loan though, which has apparently opened the door for Newcastle.

Wages could have proved a stumbling block, but it would appear that the player has lowered his demands to agree a move to Tyneside, again if it is true. I mean for all we know it could be an agent jostling for a move and using the name of Newcastle to stir up some interest.

What do you think?

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.

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126 thoughts on “Newcastle set to sign Karim Ziani?”

  1. another string to the bow is the way i see it,cannot judge by you-tube but seems to have pace and bit of guile you need that in P.L.if he can hangle it.
    still in the huff like 🙁

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  3. Toonsy have you been playing with the fonts ?
    Ice fuk it mate thats it outa the way now onwards and upwards eh old bean 😆

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  4. DAVE my worrys is if this is the snides tactics i fear for us what was the point of putting a def/m on (tiote) at that stage of game not even 100 % fit now banned players not up for it imo,was ashley behind the use of first teamers i have my fears on that too

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  7. Ice Imo Pards takes 10% of the blame but the players have to stand up and take the other 90% mate it just wasnt good enough, the only player to me that tried was Joey but he must have lost his passing boots as his passing and set plays were **** tonight, but the goal was a cracker.
    as for Tiote I have watched that a few times and I dont think it was a red but he is an aggresive player so refs will watch out for him

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  8. DAVE thats joeys problem he doesnt always turn up at some games,if we get this new guy we might get a good price for him 😉

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  10. Stardy nice to see you’ve turned up but it looks like Stu is a no show

    Ice you dont get rid of a star player mate so dont try that one with me old bean 🙂 for that im going to remind batty about the money you owe him 😆

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  13. Whad de ye mean he is a no show?

    Ive been warming up for 3 hours, Enzo Calzaghe got me fingers supple and Stephen Hawking me brain?

    Bet he is sat bottling it with his trainers, Vanessa Phelps and the Chuckle Brothers

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  15. Cannot see this happening to be honest. Agents being dicks.

    As for today, get over it!

    We’ll not be in a position to win a cup until we get a better squad and god only knows how long that will be.

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  17. DAVE cannot bring me-sel to watch it m8 ime in the huff with the whole show.
    batty asking if you have been on other blog

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  19. Ice I havnt been on for a few days mate I thought it was easier that way as I have unanswered questions, and I feel uncomfortable like being in someones house when you know they dont want you there 🙁
    Ice maybe if you get the chance tomoro watch it mate it looks bad but he got the ball

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  20. Stardy and Stuart we are declaring the fight null and void and were with-holding the purse 🙁

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  26. Sorry Stu but there was nowt we could do we had to give everyone a refund when you’s didnt show up 🙂
    Reet lads thats me for tonite catch you’s tomoro

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  30. Well apparently we’re in the market for “someone like David Bentley”. Hm, well that could link us with midfielders from any club in the world couldn’t it :P? I don’t think we really have interest in Bentley, Spurs usually expect ridiculous sums for their players, a cheap overseas buy seems much more likely with Ashley at the reigns…hope its true but hey, who knows?

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  39. Based on a bit of youtube research it would be nice to get a player of Ziani’s calibre, just for something different really-plus the idea of him on the right and arfa on the left strutting their stuff is mouthwatering..but again-its only youtube, its unlikely he turns out those kind of performances week in week out otherwise we wouldn’t be linked with him for 2mil, and finally-he’s getting on a bit-does he fit the squad profile? Wouldn’t complain though gives us another decent option as opposed to routledge on the right or smith/guthrie in the mid.

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  40. We need to get an international class winger like this in. Even if he isn’t the best thing since sliced bread. Routledge couldn’t cause a league 2 side problems last night. Our team looked like an absolute pig down the left without Enrique and Jonas. Pardew you need to play Kadar at LB when Enrique is out. Keep trying Perch there but you will come to my conclusion in the end. Our squad with everyone available is strong but we have never got everyone available so we need more cover. We have to hope the FA let off Tiote, 3 match ban and then another 2 yellows he will get a 2 match ban, this is getting rediculous. We should offload Smith to Leeds and bring in another DM IMO. Just signing a winger in this window isn’t gonna be enough now.

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  41. On the youtube he looks like a bigger, better Routledge. I would be happy if we got him, I don’t care that he’s 28. It’s not that old it means that he’s at the peak of his career like Barton. We need someone to improve us now not in 5 years time. In 5 months time we could be back in the tile giant go outdoors safestyle division or whatever it’s called now. 🙂

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  42. What a nightmare of a day. I didn’t think Tiote deserved a red card for that tackle. He did get the ball and as far as I could tell just went in with one foot not two. Amazed that when the pitch was invaded no one caught the guy who punched the Stevenage player. Hope the guy gets banned for life from games and doubly hope he wasn’t a Newcastle fan, but guess he probably is. Did anyone see the Barton incident after the game finished of him stotting the ball off the back of a Stevenage players head? Hope to goodness he doesn’t pick up a retro ban for that. All credit to Stevenage today they totally out played us over 90% of the pitch. Just shows how much we need strengthening. But to be fair we only had 4 first choice players starting the game, Barton, Nolan, Coloccinni and Simpson. Just goes to show how bad our second string players are when they are out played by league 2 players.

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  43. We did look tired though, thank god there’s a week to prepare for mackems. Even so I wouldn’t expect league 2 players who are almost amatures to have better fitness than newcastle players. Maybe some of our players need to look at their lifestyles and stop the all night benders ect.

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  45. To be honest, looking back, we made a few mistakes. Firstly, Pardew picked the wrong team, considering this was our 5th match in 13 days. He should have put a few youngsters in for they would have been motivated to do well and would not have been as “tired” as the first teamers were. Secondly, he should have brought on another midfielder at half time, for that’s where we were losing the battle. I can understand why he brought on Tiote. There was something like 20 minutes left and if he could win control of the midfield, we’d have a good 20 minutes to get something from the tie. Who else would have made a difference from the bench? Anyway players like Perch and Smith are just not good enough. I hope he sees this and gets rid of them.

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  51. he had to get that pile of shi t Smith off though. I don’t ever want to see him again. He is an embarrasment to all the talented players in the lower leagues that play for the love of the game and have other jobs to support themselves financially. Seriously what can Smith do that you and I couldn’t do if we lost weight and got fit. He can’t even string two passes together! I bet he’s not even that fit compared to a boxer or proper athlete.

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  54. With all this talk of Ziani how has no-one mentioned the fact that him and Benny had a massive falling out at Marseille? Its great looking at Youtube but Ziani is a bucket of **** and I dont want him anywhere near or club or upsetting our Arfa 🙂 Would much prefer Gradel or Larsson

    On the result yesterday, not even that bothered we got knocked out, thought it might happened. Wafer thin at the minute and the players have been putting in a serious shift over the last week or two maybe its for the best. On the ”other” blog Ed moans about Pardew making excuses…..what does he expect? Absolute dribble journalism. Of course he’s going to make excuses and try and fan the flames. Biggest disappointment was Cheick’s red card going to be a massive loss for next weekend. That Stevenage fan was a disgrace too no place for that. Disgusting

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  55. On watching Tiotes challenge a few times – it looks to be just a great tackle. He jumps – holds his leg back until he is sure he is going to win the ball cleanly. He is to the side and infront of their player, studs weren’t raised, tackle was in a direction away from their man, personally I would appeal it – it certainly wouldn’t be a frivolous appeal.

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  56. I also thought it was a great tackle, inch perfect but the fact he left the ground will prob be the downfall of an appeal if one occurs

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  57. Aye he waited till he could reach the ball and then hit it with one foot. There was almost zero chance of causing an injury and the player made a big thing about it but he wasn’t injured. In contrast watch a De Jong tackle, where he goes in heavily, with no control of weight or direction and is very likely to seriously injure somebody. Yet Tiote gets a red card. Next time someone says ‘well De Jong got the ball’ Tiote got the ball! and he knows how to tackle!

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  58. Tbh I think it was just a case of the referee getting a rush of blood to the head and letting the fairy tail get to him. Iv’e never rated Mariner very much, would have prefered to have Dein again. Even a yellow card, although acceptable, would have been a poor decision.

    It’s not a case of, you can’t tackle in fooball anymore. Its a case of who you play for, whether your home or away and who the ref is and that really is wrong.

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  61. Newcastle have appointed controversial Iranian businessman Kia Joorabchian as their football advisor.”

    Is this good news or bad news ?

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  63. morning all, couldn’t give a **** about the cup, and to be honest, knowing our fans, come tuesday morning I doubt most people will, especially with who we’re playing on Sunday!

    Had my tickets for a few weeks now, can’t wait, already talked logistics and how not to get stabbed!

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  67. Bad news imo. Mind you, if he can throw another tevez in our direction I wouldn’t mind 😉

    Just doing some errands at the moment. Will be back in action soon.

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  68. Batty – Seen that. Think its bollocks personally. Would Man U have 8-10 mill to splash on a left back?

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  71. Once Smith is booked during a game – that is him finished with any involvement. Since he could be booked for almost every tackle he makes, as he never stays on his feet, that makes him unplayable in my opinion. Forget the fact he offers nothing going forward, he offers nothing as a defensive midfielder either. Despite his recent bad form Guthrie should have played alongside Nolan. Barton stayed on right instead of the more and more under-performing Routledge and Ferguson or even Lovenkrands on the left.

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  74. BATTY the snide should never have played tiote game was gone at that point and he wasnt 100%,that tackle was ok after i watched a few times.have you seen BOBBY S,comment?

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