Smith owns property in Florida and by his own admission loves the Sunshine State, which is why a move to Orlando City could suit the 30-year-old. Match that up with Adrian Heath, the former Everton midfielder and now Orland City manager, and his admission of how he would “love” to sign Alan Smith and perhaps we end up with a recipe for love, mutual love by the sounds of it.
Of course the other recipe for love would include Smith heading back to his boyhood club for the final few years of his career, although it would appear that the Elland Road side wouldn’t be able to pay him anywhere near what he is on and would actually have to go frighteningly close to his actual worth to get him to rejoin them. I’m not so sure Smith would do that just yet.
It seems that Heath is desperate to get Smith on board and make him part of the plan for an ambitious Orlando City side who beat us 1-0 at the weekend. In fact it’s emerged that both player and prospective manager have even had a chat about Smith’s next career move.
“I’d love to take Alan over here at some point,” said Heath in quotes attributed to The Journal
“We have spoken a couple of times so far and it seems at the moment he wants to sit out the last year of his contract at Newcastle. So I may have to wait but if anything changes, he can come to Orlando whenever he wants. I know he likes it here and I’d love to sign him.”
I’m not surprised that Alan Smith wants to sit on his £60,000-a-week contract. It’s frustrating for us fans but at the end of the day wouldn’t you do exactly the same of there was nobody coming along to offer you the same kind of deal? I know I would.
It just goes to show that it isn’t always easy to shift a player along. If the player has contract and doesn’t want to go then he can’t be forced, even if there is a club interested in him that would play him week in, week out and give him a wage for it.
I’m not quite sure what Heath sees in Smith though to be honest. I mean he was anonymous in the recent game between Newcastle and Orlando so that can’t have impressed him too much. I’d liken it to the chubby chaser at a nightclub – you know there is better out there but you also know you won’t get knocked back by the fat, ugly one. I think that theory applies here also.
So there is a way out for Smith, although unfortunately it would appear that he just doesn’t want to use it and therefore it’s likely we’ll have him on our books for another season until his contract runs out.
Another footballer putting money before playing football? Nah….
Actually talked to him a bit after the game (He’s an extremely nice lad) and I said something like: “Have you considered making the move to florida? i know you own property down here”
Smudger: “It’s crossed my mind, nothing serious at the moment but I wouldn’t rule it out”
You never know. He really is a nice guy though, him, Colo, and Abeid were the friendliest of the players that I met.
Wor Joseph(Quote)
I would love to speak to him;
“So Alan, now that you’re reaching your retirement, do you think you have decided what position you play? Striker, midfielder? Or are you just **** at every position?”
“By the way, thanks for your undying loyalty…”
Why is it, the guys we want shot of most (Shola and Smith) are the ones that are the most loyal. 🙄
JJ(Quote)
Alan needs to wake up and smell the herbal tea! He is a lovely guy but that’s starting to feel like past tense in my eyes! As a Leeds fan and a huge Smithy supporter I am gutted he hasn’t gone back to us but Bates is as tight as and Smithys on a lucrative contract at Newcastle. Cmon you peroxide prat sort yourself out man! oh and get rid of the awful face fuzz lol on a serious note if you are desperate to get rid of Smith you might have to loan him out and pay some of his wages for a year. Heyho
orangina(Quote)
Of course he’s gonna sit out his contract, same as Barton and poss Enrique
Smith hasn’t played as a first teamer for a season and a half, if it was football he wanted he would have left ages ago, fraid he just wants to pick up his cash
stevep(Quote)
I hate this “he’s a nice guy” banter.
I’m sure he is but so what. 🙄
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
Not sure this will happen, Smith will get a game next year for Newcastle as our squad is small when injuries etc really kick in. See Pardew is talking again, starting thing Llambias is writing these statements for him. Fair play to Jose, short career and he is ambitious, will he be replaced???
Manc(Quote)
This was from my mate who went to the Orlando game;
Newcastle bloody united were AWFUL, Enrique played well no bloody wonder he wont sign contract, spiderman Jonas !!!!! Shi@e and as for our strikers…… The Orlando fans loved it, they could have beaten us 4 or 5 nil.
Off to Daytona beach today “WITHOUT” my Toon Top !
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
If we are to let one player sit out a contract and just ‘take the money’ I’d rather it was Smudge. He’s just not justifying the money now, but unlike others, he’s done plenty over the course of his contract, and can be credited as much as anyone with the resurgence of the club post-relegation. I’d rather see him go to somewhere he’ll be playing and appreciated, and I think he should see past the dosh and do just that – but it’s his choice.
But Enrique can now just **** off. Coming over as a petulant diva now and his latest stunt is in nobody’s interest but his own.
Whumpie(Quote)
@whumpie
Jose is in his prime. He has a chance to tie down his future long term with a club playing in euro competitions. He’s allowed the club a bit of time to reinvest the Carroll money and they haven’t .
He has done nothing wrong and is speaking his mind like Barton. He doesn’t see his long term future here, so why shouldn’t he?
Get over it and deal with the truth he is telling and don’t accept the lies the club are spewing.
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
For those defending Enrique (well – it was his agent, let’s face it): Try writing something like that about your bosses and the company you work for, knowing it’ll be all over the press. Would you think they were out of order for firing you?
Bloody unprofessional and selfish; I hope he’s gone ASAP and we can bring through someone else. I’m gutted that someone who was one of my favourite players just a few months back should believe his own (uncapped) hype so much that he thinks it’s ok to hack at team morale just to pursue his own personal agenda. 👿
Hey Jose: how do you find time to tweet in between all those calls from the Spanish national team and champs league clubs? As for accepting all those invitations to go out with your new internationally capped, league-winning mates after you’ve bigged them up…. I just don’t know how you fit it in!
****. **** off.
Whumpie(Quote)
Bobby – Whumpie is the classic ‘gullible’ supporter who thinks everything is rosy and is just so blinded it’s beyond belief.
How many more times do people need showing that the club is rotten to the core with these in charge? It has a cancer, and what do you have to do with cancer? Cut it out!
Stuart79(Quote)
BS9: I don’t CARE what he thinks; whatever your grievances with the club, you don’t make things worse by publicly shouting about it, any more than you or I can!
We KNOW Ashley and co will never use the truth when a lie will do – they got had up in court for it! What we need right now is for our new line-up to start gelling and building some spirit, and this idiot just put a dirty great spanner in that for his own ends.
To me it sounds like he’s feeling undervalued ‘cos his agent says he is. That’d be the agent who stands to make several mil if he moves. Usual thick-as-planks player taken in by a shyster agent.
Whumpie(Quote)
@whumpie
You still living in the land of candy floss trees and cotton wool clouds? 😆
Get over it and applaud Jose for saying it how it is.
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
Stuart: are you even reading all this?
WE KNOW ALL THAT!!
But what the hell do you think you’re achieving by lauding a player who airs the filthy laundry in public??
Of course Ashley lies – he works in football! The industry whose head is Sepp Blatter. Need I say more?
That is irrelevant. What is a BIG problem is that Enrique’s self-motivated moaning will worsen our chances of recruiting more decent players and building the vital spirit in the dressing room.
So if you’re happier seeing the club plummet as long as your views on the management are aired in the press, then fine – be very happy.
Me – I’d rather see us do well next season. Your choice.
Whumpie(Quote)
Whumpie – How can the team perform well if players feel like this? You can bet it’s not just Jose, we know Barton feels the same. Who’s next? Jonas, Tiote or maybe a couple of the new lads…
The problem is the regime – not that the players air their feelings in public, we all know what Jose is saying is true and I would have thought the other players know this too.
If we don’t perform well and everyone blames on the ‘spirit’ it won’t be because Jose and Barton had a pot shot at Ashley in the press it will be because the regime have created an enviroment of hate, disgust and a lack of ambition!
Stuart79(Quote)
enrique was always going to go….welll…no champ league has come in for him yet…if he signs for any1 else..its all about money in this game…he goes we move on….has the club moved on since we got relegeted..yes big time…very quickly..all people go on about is carrols money…forget it…as long as we improve we are moving forward..with or without players…we are newcastle fans that will never change….
asim(Quote)
Footballers have a short career, Jose wants to go somewhere with a bit of ambition and a chance to win something, fair play. Twitter (unbelievably) is part of the modern game, how do we know Jose’s agent is behind it? He just wants out and I don’t really blame him. Interesting to see if we get anyone in or start playing Jonas at left back while Fergie is injured
Manc(Quote)
@whumpie
If players keep shtum about what’s going on behind the scenes then nothing ever changes.
He is merely explaining to the fans the reasons why he is leaving. That’s what I want to hear and don’t blame him one iota for leaving or speaking up.
By the way, for all the candy floss trees and cotton wool cloud brigade, Wigan have agreed a fee with Villa for Zoggy.
Always maintained he would never come to the Toon for an incentive based contract. 🙄
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
Manc – good question about the replacement.
What really gets me is what Jose thinks his tweets are doing to help his exit. Does he really think the boss of a CL club is going to read all that and think “there’s a loyal, professional young player who won’t react badly when I make unpopular decisions – let’s hire him!”
It helps nobody.
Also, I think he’s just plain wrong. As the previous article put very well, he’s moaning about decisions that most people see as perfectly sensible. As for suggesting the club lacks ambition and isn’t buying quality players:
a) Has he not noticed that recent acquisitions are a lot better qualified than he is?
b) Has he never seen a transfer window before? Moan when it’s finished, mate; until then don’t be so bloody naive.
Whumpie(Quote)
@asim
The Carroll money, if actually spent as promised, would really improve the team.
That’s all we ask. No more. 🙄
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
what’s worse? Alan Smith staying silent and happily picking up his wages each month, or our decent players moaning about not getting paid enough? Personally think all criticism towards the board is justified, although there should be a ban on fkn Twitter, I’m sick of hearing footballers talking sh1te on it. The club should introduce a whopping fine for any player openly discussing football matters. It essentially cuts out the journalist and makes every Tom, **** and Jose a bl00dy reporter. 😡
Rodzilla(Quote)
For all the enrique fans we need to wake up that he really is going to leave.
Its catch 22 for the club though as he wants to go they are happy to cash in yet nobody seems to want him! how do you flog a player no one wants?
Would be funny if the enrique twitter was fake as apparently routledge was agreeing with everything he posted! Not sure routledge is after champs football and trophies!
Liam Southern Toon(Quote)
@whumpie
No doubt Jose will go for £5/£6m.
We will replace him for £2m Naylor. Couldn’t tie Jose’ bootlaces.
Nothing more predictable than this regime.
It wasn’t long ago some of the candy floss trees believed Naylor would be Jose’ cover.
Woo hoo hoo hoo. 😆
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
Exactly right Whumpie. It is totally unprofessional to slag your employer off in public in any other business he would be sacked. He has made it clear he doesn’t want to sign a new contract at the Toon and all this latest outburst is about is to make a statement – “come and get me now – the club will want rid of me and you might not have to pay so much as they will want me out”
Problem is we haven’t had an offer yet – CL clubs aren’t exactly beating a path to his door and he is probably getting frustrated.
Also funny how the new contract offer has been on the table for weeks but he has refused to sit down with the club and discuss it and didn’t just reject it straight away. I expect doing what he is doing is cheaper than handing in a transfer request.
The bloke is acting like a complete tw*t IMO – we don’t need players like that disrupting the squad. It’s disrespectful to the likes of Cabaye, Ben Arfa , Ba, Colo, Jonas (all full Internationals- unlike Jose) and proven quality players. The bloke has gone down massively in my estimation and the sooner he is moved on the better or let him rot in the reserves for 12 months and see how many big clubs then beat a path to his door.
3hourswasted(Quote)
Bobby doubt naylor will come he just signed a contract!
Toonsy re thread; would be ideal if smith left but the way our injuries are going we wont have any midfielders left!
Mind you if you were on £60k a week …. wouldnt you sit it out? 😆
Liam Southern Toon(Quote)
@Liam
Naylor just signed a contract . Well that means he isn’t coming here. We rarely sign contracted players.
Looks like it’s plan B.
Fergie you are our permanent left back this season instead of your favoured left wing.
There’s your incentive contract. Crack on. 🙁
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
BS9 @18
1. He’s not explaining anything. He’s spitting his dummy. Even though I agree with him on a lot of points, I know an “explanation for the fans’ benefit” from a “stir some ***** to force a move ‘cos they sold my mates” when I read one.
2. No, Zoggy wouldn’t come here for that. Which is exactly why Villa can have the little *****.
Whumpie(Quote)
@3hrs
I will show my **** in Fenwicks window if he doesn’t end up at Liverpool.
It’s a done deal man.
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
@whumpie
Regarding zoggy. Can you blame him either? 😕
Bobby Shinton number 9(Quote)
BS9 – I actually agree with some of your grievances; I’ve just yet to hear you suggest anything anyone could do to actually improve things.
What do you think the club should do about Jose? Or his replacement? Or a striker?
Whumpie(Quote)
Bobby aye and naylor will want champs football next year! 😆
It worries me that pardew wants one or MAYBE two big names.
That means 1 big name and come sept pardew will say we wont be rushed or pay over the odds for anyone!
Liam Southern Toon(Quote)
@3hrs how do we know he refused to even sit down and discuss the contract? Just wonderIng if I missed something or just going on what Mike’s mate Alan said – if the latter I may struggle to believe a word of it.
Manc(Quote)
Manc – it was well reported that the club couldn’t get him to the negotiation table and he was “blanking” them. If it was untrue it was never denied – there was certainly no comment from Enrique about the contract being unacceptable until his twitter outburst and the deal has been on the table since the season finished. Sorry he had no intention of staying – first he said he would talk to the club when we were safe from relegation and then it was after the season finished – he’s just stalling for a move and now that there doesn’t appear to be any interest (or the club may have turned down and offer – who knows) he’s upped the anti – certainly cheaper than handing in a transfer request.
3hourswasted(Quote)
Liam – sounds about right!
I do think we will see another decent player in though; and one or two out. Probably the traditional last-minute stuff. But that’s not just us – that’s every club.
Some hopeful noises about Erdinc yesterday, but a resounding silence today; was it just press speculation again?
I hate this bit. Good progress right at the beginning of the window just as we’d hoped. Some fall-out from Carroll’s departure , depressingly just as predicted and still going on – such as Jose, and, if he is to be believed, everyone else in the squad including the mascot and the tea lady. 🙄
Then there’s this horrible lull of about six weeks when the quick-jumpers have moved but the agents and clubs of all the remaining players who could move sit and wait for someone to blink.
Then, at 11:35 on the last day, all hell breaks loose. 😐
Whumpie(Quote)
who said jose wanted to go to a club in the CL anyhoo ? was it comical alan ?
the only thing that i’ve read from jose is that the club have no ambition & tell porkies for fun!
good on ya jose lad – the thing is your not telling us owt we dont already kna like.
roy cropper(Quote)
But we only know that because Pardew told us, I don’t believe a word that comes out of that blokes mouth. Anyway he is going and I say good luck to him, just hope he dosen’t end up at Liverpool
Manc(Quote)
Very good article here from the Telegraph on Enrique – spot in IMO
“He has criticised the club’s transfer policy, accused members of the board of lying, implied the new signings are not good enough to replace those who have left and argued Newcastle United will never challenge for honours again under the present regime – just a wild stab this but I don’t think Jose Enrique wants to stay at St James’s Park do you?
To be fair to the Spaniard, his comments on Twitter over the weekend were born out of months of frustration; months of being kept away from the media because the club knew he would say something controversial; months of fearing all the good work that had been in the club’s recovery from relegation was being undone; months of pent up anger unleashed in a few 140 character posts on the world wide web!
But just as newspapers and other media organisations are having to adapt to the rise of social networking sites and their ability to make, as well as spread, the news, so too now are football clubs.
Enrique, probably bored on Newcastle’s pre-season tour of America and wondering why none of the Champions League clubs his agent had said wanted to sign him have made a bid, decided it was time to get his views across.
He might not have even thought about it for very long. It may have just been a spur of the moment decision in a hotel room on the other side of the Atlantic, he may have stupidly thought nobody would be able to read them if he wrote in Spanish, but for me Enrique’s comments on Twitter were calculated and deliberate.
He is in danger of being stuck at a club he no longer wants to play for and in attacking owner Mike Ashley and Managing Director Derek Llambias, he hopes he can speed up his exit.
He has attracted attention to himself and his, erm, “plight”. He has made it clear to his employers that he does not like them or their business plan and he has played the role of the jilted footballer perfectly.
Enrique wants what the fans wants, or so he wants everyone to believe. He wants a bold, ambitious Newcastle United, thrilling the world with its attacking football. He wants Ashley to spend millions on the best new player available, not merely land the best free agents. He wants the board to tell the truth.
His comments undoubtedly strike a chord with thousands on Tyneside. There is frustration at the lack of ambition from the owner, there is still resentment senior club officials once admitted they lied as a public relations exercise when Kevin Keegan was manager, there is still a strong anti-Ashley mentality at a club which has made under-achievement a trademark.
Yet, Enrique has also over egged the pudding some what. Newcastle fans are blindly loyal, but they are not blindly stupid.
They know Enrique has been offered a new contract and they know he turned it down. They know Enrique once said he wanted to spend the rest of his career at Newcastle, comments made when the club weren’t even in the Premier League, let alone challenging for a top six place, and they now know he never meant it.
They know he is an ambitious footballer who first started making noises about leaving this summer long before Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool for £35m in January, but when the prospect of a new contract was first raised 12 months ago.
They know he is a very talented left-back who has improved dramatically from the slight, out-of-his-depth youngster who arrived from Spain and couldn’t get a game in his first season on Tyneside.
But, ultimately, they know most footballers want what is best for them, not the football club they once pledged loyalty to.
They have seen this happen before at St James’s Park and they have seen it happen to others like them, just look at Aston Villa and Stewart Downing.
They know Ashley isn’t perfect, they know he has made mistakes and they know they are hamstrung by his lack of spending , but they also know they will have a football club to support long after both he and Enrique have become nothing more than memories.
Enrique has been disrespectful to the club, he has been disrespectful to new signings Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba and Sylvain Marveaux and as popular as he is, that was a mistake.
Whether he had said it on Twitter or an interview with a newspaper, the impact was the same. He has attracted unwanted attention to a club which does soap operas better than most.
He has given the rest of the country a stick to beat Newcastle with, he has made others laugh at a mess he has created.
Newcastle fans will criticise their club until they are blue in the face, they will moan and they will vilify, but they will not let others do it for them. Not even one of their own players and not even when he might have a point if it is a self-serving one.”
3hourswasted(Quote)
Face fuzz??? Since when does that matter? Its his lack of ability as a football that needs to be adressed, not what the guy looks like. 🙄
The sooner he goes to the US the better, though I fear we would continue paying a huge chunk of his wages over the next season. If he wants a game he’ll move, clealry the ‘nice guy’ cares more about robbing us then getting game time. I thought he would return to Leeds and make amends, but he appears to be putting money as his no.1 priority so theyve probably dodged a bullet. Leeds cant afford those wages, it has nothing to do with them being tight, after there fall from grace I think they are right to cap wages at there club and Smith would be stupid to not understand their situation and there limitations. Hopefully it will see us benefit in the future also, the sooner we get rid of ridiculous wages suck as Smiths at the club the better.
LeeS(Quote)