No deadline day defender for Newcastle

toonsy

No deal for Mariappa
It looks as though Newcastle United will not be bringing any defensive cover to the club in the final few hours of the transfer window.

This comes as the strongest link we’ve had with a defender looks set to join Wigan who have had a bid accepted by Watford – a bid that is said to be lower than ours!

So it looks likely that there will be no Adrian Mariappa at Newcastle, no defensive cover, and no hope should an injury occur to either Mike Williamson or Fabricio Coloccini in the final 16 games of the season.

I’m finding it hard to be annoyed about this to be honest. I mean I would have loved us to have got some defensive cover in, but I’ve maintained all along that Mariappa wasn’t the answer. What is the point in bringing in backup who isn’t any better than the backup you already have? Essentially we’d be in the same pickle, with or without Mariappa.

At this point people will tell me that Adrian Mariappa had a good game against Tottenham at the weekend which is true, but basing an opinion on just one game is a flawed argument. I remember when James Perch had Jonas Gutierrez in his pocket a couple of seasons ago… Point made.

However we’ve had the time to look at better options and have failed to do so which risks disrupting what could potentially be a cracking season for us. Of course there is still time in the window for things to change, but at the moment it’s looking unlikely and we’ll end up with no defensive cover until Steven Taylor returns. Get well soon Steven. Very soon!

Of course every cloud has a silver lining and this transfer window has been no different. Defensive cover was our priority, but we did manage to bring in a new striker in the guise of highly-rated Senegal international Papiss Demba Cisse, which was quite a fillip when it happened a couple of weeks ago.

You see, it’s not all bad news, and at the moment we’re yet to sell anyone which for a fan if NUFC is an absolute bonus under this regime!

With a few hours remaining, I’d be reasonably happy if it stayed that way!

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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146 thoughts on “No deadline day defender for Newcastle”

  1. I really think the club should have focused on bringing in a loan at CB and then tried to sign a younger up and coming type player in the summer. it doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend much on a CB when Taylor will be back for next seson.

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  2. It looks as though both Vertongen and Mbiwa (sorry about spellings) will be available in the summer, so it’s understandable the club don’t want to break the bank to bring cover in now.

    As has been proved with the Cisse deal, they will spend money if the right player is available.

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  5. Steve – we should know soon enough. Club said they would try and sort his contract after the window, and his agent was supposed to be flying over in the next few days too! Fingers crossed!

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  6. Its not just cover for injuries we need, although I suspect Collo might be playing with one at the miit. It is a red card, 10 bookings, or retrospective suspension we also need cover for. Perch was good against a championship team last week, but we wont be playing any more of them this season

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  8. TC, apart from Cisco, Collo is the last of our ‘overpaid players’ left Do you think his agent will let him sign a contract for half his current basic wages. And do you think MA will let him run down the last year of his contract to leave on afree, when he can get a fee for hi ❓ m this summer ❓

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  9. There`s time yet, maybe Mariappa was a smoke screen as Watford denied final bid received today.—Maybe a Cisse like covert bid on the cards?

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  10. Steve – no I don’t think his agent will let him sign a contract for half his wages cos I don’t think that is what he will be offered. Therefore that would be mental.

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  11. Oi oi radgies! 😛

    Sitting wi Dekka and Big Mick noo at wor hoose in Benwell.
    Pure class watching this sky sports like. Big Micks off his box on tack and is phoning up Watford taking the ****!
    He keeps putting in spoof bids for this **** defender! He’s off his napper and howling when Pardew hand on the tele.
    Dekka is proper smashed and knocking oot some rave tunes on me new decks a got for crippa. 😆
    Here man! Big Mick was saying before, ” ROTARY, PURE MUGS THE TOON FANS LIKE IF THEY THINK AM GANNA BUY ANOTHER PLAYER LIKE”.
    You’ve got to respect Big Mick for being honest like! Thats canny shweeet a think cos he could just say nowt y’kna. Pure doylem like Pardew like. Big Mick telt him to gan on telly and pretend wu ganna try and buy someone. Everytime he comes on the box, Big Mick rubs his hairy **** on the screen!
    Pure utter respect . 😛
    Here, the bizzies are knockin on the door so am ganna nash cos a reckon they’ve foond me stash of lead a nicked from the school roof last neet.
    Just tek some whizz afore a nash cos a kna the doylems winnit catch is like when am fully chalked up like!
    Laters Gaters! 😛
    Toon! Toon! 😆

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  12. bigsteve…..i dont think colo is overpaid at all. he is our rock and is one of the best defenders we have ever had. we should offer him a new deal on same money over four years then a coaching role.

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  14. So Wigan are a bigger club than Toon – unbelievable. Perhaps we should ask to take someone like Colo Toure on loan and offer to pay £2000 per week of his wages.
    Can only hope we have bigger fish to fry this evening but expect now we can’t go down or win anything that will be it until the summer

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  17. B1GSTEVE says:
    January 31, 2012 at 15:34
    Mds do u think Collo willbe with us next season
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    I guess I’m an optimistic one but i think he’ll sign a new contract. he seems to have really settled and he is different from the other high earners that left in that he keeps his head down and mouth shut. Plus, he plays a simple, smart man’s game which should allow him to be effective for awhile yet. They’ll have to at least keep him on his current wages to do so though and give him an extra 3 years

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  18. Thanks Rod 😉

    These young un’s with their cordless android pods probably can’t even open the link. 😀

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  20. Ridgewell to West Brom done deal 2.5 mill surely we could have gone for him as we did last season. Does nobody from the British leagues want to do business with Newcastle. I think Llambyarse pisses them all off.!!!

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  22. Alimagpie, he’s moved from Villa to Birmingham to West Brom in the last 10 years, so my guesses are he’s too settled in the Midlands and was never a likely candidate for a move up North.

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  23. Fair one Rodzilla, shame like. Just seen that Mariappa wants to come to toon, will just have to wait and see but I’m not holding my breath

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  24. BBC Live Text:

    “Micky Gray in Leeds via text, on 81111: “Just seen Clint Dempsey at Kings Cross getting on a train to Newcastle. Wouldn’t comment why.”

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  27. Corluka went out on loan and would have offered us good cover. Bassong may still be available too. The players are there for us if we want them! We just seem to be overlooking loan deals even though I believe that would be our most viable option.

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  31. Now that it’s clear no one coming in i hope to god we don’t let anyone go or lose anymore defenders to injuries or red cards. Also Alimagpie@20- don’t laugh but iv’e long thought that Eng clubs don’t like doing business with us because of Lamearse and his bull in a china shop approach ,vile man imo.

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  32. I guess we are looking for positives after a disappointing window it seems. Do people really think Perch is as good as Mariappa at the centre back position? I would think not. Even if we bring in a proper CB in the summer (and if we don’t lose Colo in which case we need at least 2) then we will still need cover at CB! This is ridiculous, it just keeps going round and round with no answer. We have added depth and quality at almost every other position yet nothing done at CB for a few years now. Why is that? We have all seen what happens when either Colo or Willo (or both) go down. It has been a glaring deficiency for a couple of seasons now. By spending 8 or 9 million on Cisse will we have any money at all to spend in the summer or is that it for the year? How can we let such a promising league position potentially just slip away? Bizarre to say the least but nothing new for us I guess. 🙁

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  34. To be fair on watford/mariappa, he’s much more likely to get 1st team footie at wigan then he would for us, he’ll only be back-up and when Taylor is back fit he’ll be forth/fifth choice. If Tottenham/Rednapp weren’t tools I’d suggest we put in a reasonable bid for bassong(I know he deserted us and many hate him for it, but he’s still better than Williamson. Problem is they are tools and will ask for 8-12m despite not having played a PL match in ages. 🙁

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  35. The thing with Mariappa though Andy, is he’d be cover for both centre-back AND right-back, and most likely get a good few run-outs because of it.

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  36. Rodzilla
    why would he need to cover rb, we’ve got six full-backs, four of which are right-backs 😕

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  37. How would Mariappa be fourth or fifth choice when Saylor is back Andymag? I would rate him third or fourth choice and that is if we don’t lose Colo either now or in the summer. Who else do we have? Kadar has no future with us based on Pardew’s attitude toward him and Remie Streete is only 18 so we are threadbare. I won’t even mention Perch as a CB because he has no future there. At best he is cover for a defensive midfield position but really we need to get rid in the summer. Just can’t understand our approach. It appears Wigan’s bid for Mariappa has been turned down as well. Is Arsenal really interested in him? Too many rumours to sort out right now.

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  39. GeordieTwo
    Saylor, Colo, Willo then Marriapa and perch, so forth.
    Though since two will be playing at the same time he would be the second back-up. 😐

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  40. G2 if no one leaves i will be happy,but cannot belive the lack of planning on a c/h the diff between 5th and 12th finish is about 3mil beats me this one

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  41. Andy, who are our 4 right backs? You’ve lost me there.
    I view Santon, Raylor and an inexperienced Ferguson as Left-backs, and Simpson and Perch our only Right-backs – and neither of those two would be guaranteed a start.

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  42. Spot on icedog. This is cutting your nose off to spite your face as far as I can see. We have been horribly exposed in defense already this season in December. We will rue the day (and the windows) that we sat and did nothing to improve the defense. Llambias should be judged by what happens from now til summer by the owner. If we fall several spots in the table due to an injury to Colo or Willo he should be sacked plain and simple. Thanks I see now Andymag but almost certainly Colo is going to leave in the summer as we just will not offer him a contract extension in line with his current salary (70K a week I think).

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  43. Colo may be a bit more realistic than you think – he’s getting on, he’s not getting International recognition and he may not get those wages elsewhere. Plus I have a feeling the new wage structure is based a lot on bonus payments for results which he may well be interested in if they potentially come close to his current wage over a term where he can wind his career down.

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  44. Can’t believe that Jabba is willing to gamble that we’ll be able to maintain our position, never mind trying to push on, with out bringing in a CB that we have known we needed badly for so long.
    And it appears there is fans that are ready to buy the clubd excuse that the right players wern’t available now but our main targets will be available in the summer. 😆 😆 😆

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  47. Ah Blip, silly me.

    The point I was trying to make before Andy jumped down my throat was Mariappa would be twice as likely to get a start as he’d be covering two positions. This is obviously why we were after him – his versatility.

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  48. nufc will contest Cabaye’s FA charge, with the backing of Brighton defender Adam El-Abd. if the ban stands, Cabaye will miss the derby

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  49. Santon is a RB. That was the position he played in most for Inter and although he can play with both feet, he certainly prefers his right.

    Raylor has always been a RB.

    Simmo is a RB.

    Tavernier is a RB.

    Perch can fill it at RB when required.

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  50. Disappointed if we don’t get a CB in but happy we have signed a cracking player in Cisse – he would have cost £15 million last summer and we got him for £9 million – the club play hard ball on transfers and won’t get rolled over- they won’t pay over the odds or more than they think a player is worth which is a good thing IMO.
    Not long for Tiote and Krul to have their medicals now – thought they were definitely off to Chelsea and Spuds 😉

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  51. ICEDOG@40- So right there mate, to me this is sheer lack of ambition . what’s the point of a great forward line if we leaking goals .We have /had a great chance of clinching 6th place but i feel we have blown that now.

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  52. Not surprised they are contesting the charge Batty but I doubt it will get overturned even with El-Abd lending his support – can’t remember it happening too often

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  54. Sorry to have a go at some, but there’s some serious lack of understanding (and major learning difficulties) on display here today.

    We KNOW that the club only sign contracts that make sense for them. So if a club wants daft terms (e.g. sell-ons) or too high a price, or an agent is taking the **** with his fee, or the player wants unreasonable wages or release clauses, etc. – then no deal. Surely we know that now??

    So why is anyone surprised that the Mariappa deal hasn’t gone through and that he may go to Wigan instead? Isn’t the reason obvious?

    Why say “we’ve had the time to look at better options and have failed to do so”. Based on what evidence? To me it’s clear that our recruitment machine is easily the best in the country, so if we don’t sign anyone it’s because there simply wasn’t the right deal out there for the right player.

    The Toon’s recruitment machine have emphatically earned more respect than they’re getting, and it pisses me off 👿 . We’ve got Cisse in, and so far not lost anyone we’d want to keep. Yes, we’d all like a CB and it may yet happen – but we need to deal with the fact that it’s January and good deals are as rare as hens’ teeth. It’s not lack of planning, skill, or even Llamearse’s legendary charisn’tma. It’s because the club is no longer staffed by mugs.

    Rant over. :mrgreen:

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  55. Gary I think you’re missing my point too @49.
    Raylor and Santon can’t play in two positions at the same time. Yeah fair enough they’ve both played RB but seem to be preferred at LB. And if by your post you’re saying we’ve got 5 right-backs, then we’ve now only got 1 LB in Shane Ferguson.

    That said, my logic with Mariappa was simply the fact he’d be cover for RB and CB, and his competition would be Perch, Simpson, Saylor, Williamson and Colo.

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  56. Cabaye hasn’t actually been done yet; the charge has just been started. So it’s far less of a stretch to think he’ll get off. Good news (and a big surprise) El-Abd is helping. He was a cheating, violent ***** during the game; why the sudden morality?

    Still – good news all the same. I’ve not seen a replay, but that boot in the face looked pretty innocuous and accidental to me. Hopefully the FA will agree.

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  57. Compared with the CB situation we are absolutely overflowing with potential RBs as far as I can see although I would never use Perch there. In fact I’m not sure I would let Perch be assistant to the tea lady even after the Brighton game. He looked fairly solid against them but they’re only an average Champs side sitting tenth I think. Pardew has said we had that game well in hand! He must be taking his happy pills again! Not that I blame him with Llambias as managing director. Can’t remember if I’ve ever seen such an unbalanced team. Instead of bringing in so many young midfielders (I haven’t really counted but there is Vuckic, Abeid, Gosling, Moyo, Edmundson, Inman, and Adjei so that’s at least 7) why didn’t we bring in a couple of young CB’s to train when Pardew gave up on Kadar? Is there a rumour going round that CB’s carry vile diseases? Are we afraid of CB’s? Do we consider CB’s as relatively unimportant to a team’s success? I would just like to know.

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  58. I wish someone would have asked Pardew in that press conference why he doesn’t seem to give Kadar a chance.

    I’d love to know how an international defender who fits our youth policy is not even given a shot.

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  59. …that’d be Mariappa being 1 of 6 players fighting for 1 of 3 positions. It makes sense to me anyway.

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  60. Spot on, Whumpie.

    Unfortunately some people don’t seem to understand how hard it is to bring anyone of any quality (even quality back up) in this window. 😐

    Most clubs will want to keep hold of their best players unless they already have a replacement – as was the case with Cisse. Some may argue that QPR seem to be doing ok, but look at who they are signing – utter ***** that no one else wants!

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  61. Still gutted that Kadar hasn’t sorted himself out. He’s got all the tools; just needs the attitude adjusted. What a waste of a great opportunity for the lad. 🙄

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  62. Whumpie@54-Lack of understanding maybe but major learning difficulties i think not. never an expression to be bandied about unless you fully understand what a condition like that is like to suffer from. Very offended mate .

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  63. BBCSportBBC Sport

    BBC Sport understands that defender Adrian Mariappa will not be joining Wigan from Championship side Watford.

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  64. BBC Sport @BBCSport Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
    BBC Sport understands that defender Adrian Mariappa will not be joining Wigan from Championship side Watford.

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  67. Newcastle United FC @NUFCOfficial Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
    Defender James Tavernier has joined MK Dons on loan until the end of the season. More on nufc.co.uk #nufc

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  68. RODZILLA – Surely if I’ve managed to name five RB’s and one is needed to play at LB that still leaves us with four options to choose from? Not rocket science. Mariappa would only ever get in the team at CB.

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  69. I can’t believe QPR now expect Barton and Gibril Cisse to co-exist! I’m going to offer my hoops-supporting mate a tenner that they’ve come to blows by the end of the season.

    End of the week, actually. 😆

    If Ashley can attempt to rename SJP, perhaps QPR should just rename the team? Something like “***** R Us” or “Violent Bastards United”? 😆

    Jees, I crack myself up.

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  70. What happened to the “recruitment machine” when we needed a CB last summer Whumpie? If by the recruitmetn machine you mean Llambias I would start looking for some spare parts. We have made some terrible mistakes as well as some brilliant moves as far as I can see. Who gave Ranger a new long term contract? I think it was our recruitment machine. What team is still paying Xisco and Smith huge wages? I think it is us. Who brought Kuqi in last season? I seem to recall it was us as well. Who gave Shola a contract extension even though he is slow and getting slower? I just don’t buy the idea that our recruitment machine is God’s gift to the Prem. They have made some good moves and some horrible ones much like most teams. A note of realisim is needed at times. The kind of money being spoken about for Mariappa should be no problem at all for us and as Rodzilla has said he is quite versatile. I think the CB controversy is going to be ongoing for some time yet especially with any further injuries.

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  72. 1730: More news coming in now regarding Watford’s Adrian Mariappa, who has reportedly turned down the chance to join Wigan. He would prefer a move a Newcastle, Sky Sources have claimed.

    sporting life transfer centre

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