Llambias – “We’ll be losing one or two names this summer”

Llambias speaks again
Following on from the previous article featuring Derek Llambias’ exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror, here is the second part.

If you haven’t already read the first part you can do so by clicking here but essentially it is Llambias talking in depth about the naming rights.

It actually went on or longer than I thought it would so I decide to split it into two. This being the second part. From losing players, signing players, Alan Pardew and the possibility of Mike Ashley selling up, Llambias speaks quite openly about the lot. Read on to see what he says.

On losing players in the summer: “We’ll be losing one or two names this summer, but that’ll be regenerated back into the squad. Alan’s plan is to get a smaller squad, with better quality – so the bench is better. That’s our aim over the next two years. We can’t do it all this summer – we’re not sure what the market will be like this summer when we’re trading.”

“We will lose some faces. For instance, Tiote has been with us a year and a half. He is out there. People know he’s a good player. He’s proven in the Premier League, he’s not picking up as many yellow cards, he’s learning. How are we going to stop a big club from coming in for him? It’ll be very hard. One thing in our favour is that we now have a very good side and that might encourage the player to stay. But if someone knocks on the door and says they want this or that money, the reality may be that we have to trade.”

I know people won’t like reading that but essentially it is the truth. If a club comes in with silly money we will sell, but the recent accounts have shown that by selling one key player for large money we can bring in four or five as a result. It’s not ideal, but it’s also how Tottenham got themselves in to a position to resist bids for Luka Modric as the success they’ve earned was built on by selling players like Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick and Robbie Keane for huge fees.

Then there is the chance that a player might want to go anyway, but equally as Llambias said, there is now a chance that a player can see something here and might decide he doesn’t want to ply his trade anywhere else at the moment. Cheik Tiote actually seems to be one of those types and said only yesterday that he is already at a big club so why would he move. The reality is that his attitude may change if another club decides they want to pay him double his wages or something like that. Besides, could Llambias not be referring to the likes of Peter Lovenkrands and Alan Smith who are out of contract in the summer?

On signing Papiss Cisse: “We spend a long, long time identifying our targets and he was our number one choice. But at first we couldn’t afford the price or the salary so we moved on to the next one, which was Maiga. January came and nobody knew Cisse was happening, which is how we like it – those are our most successful deals, without the interference, in terms of upping the price or someone coming in at the last minute.”

On summer signings: “We have targets for the summer, and we’re not in a position of having to beg. People are saying, ‘Ah Newcastle. Of course we want to talk to you’. We do a brilliant video presentation – very sharp, it is great – and it opens eyes to what the club, the fans and the city are all about.”

On selling Andy Carroll: “Sometimes you can’t hold a player back from moving. It’s in their best interests. Take, for example, Andy, and look what he’s getting at Liverpool, several times the wages he was on at Newcastle. The only person who said no to that deal was Mike. The reality is, it’s a risk, it’s January, can we replace him? We couldn’t. It was a risk.”

On new deals for Tim Krul and Fabricio Coloccini: “We’ve made a big commitment to Colo and Tim. People asked why we hadn’t done the deal, but it took a long time – it didn’t happen overnight. Coloccini’s took a year. We never want to find ourselves in a position where we lose somebody like we did Jose Enrique. We didn’t want to lose somebody of his value, or the team building that Coloccini gives you as captain. Colo doesn’t fit our profile in that we wouldn’t bring a 29-year-old in, but he’s here and he’s proven. He’s an all-round top pro and will finish his pro career here at 34. He’s like a Giggs or a Scholes – a solid player and you can build around him. Krul is up and coming and can be anything. We’ve got him on a five and a half year deal and we’re very happy.”

On his sledgehammer negotiating stance: “If we did it for one person’s wages, we’d have to do it for the next and then we’d get a reputation. At the moment, players and agents know that our first offer is very close to the final offer. Once it’s off the table, it’s off the table and it only goes down. It’s never up, it’s always lower. There are more football players than there are clubs. The manager has his targets and we just move on.”

Speaking of the manager, on Alan Pardew: “Alan was the right combination of what we’re looking for and understands where we’re going. He’s a good guy, good with the media, good with the players. Tactically he’s very good – he doesn’t get it right all of the time, but nobody does. And we know how he’s going to play before a game and we like that with Alan. He’s got a passion and he’s settled down in the North-East really well and loves it.”

On interacting with the fans: “We do engage with fans. We met a guy who drives from Bournemouth for every home match, so we invited him to be our guest and for them to ask anything they wanted. We’ve done it for other fans we’ve met in restaurants. Sometimes they’re still critical, but we just say, ‘Come on, just ask us’. At the end of the day, when they’ve met us, it gets them thinking.”

And finally, on Mike Ashley and the possibility of him selling the club: “We’re not doing this to sell up. The reality is that if someone comes up with a chunk of money, I’d have to put it to Mike and he would have to consider it. Would we sell it to someone who couldn’t afford it? No. Would we sell it cheap? No, why would we? We’ve put the money in, done the work and now we may see the upside of what we’re trying to grow.”

Once again I can’t really argue with what he says and it’s nice to hear that there is a plan for the summer already. Cue an immense amount of speculation…

What do you make of it all though?

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.

42 thoughts on “Llambias – “We’ll be losing one or two names this summer”

  1. Interesting that mike was the only one who didnt want to sell carroll 😕
    Hard to believe that but hope you are right toonsy and only the outcasts will leave; xisco, smith loverman ranger

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  2. Good to hear some PR talks by that guy. 😆

    Anyway,arsenal stats has not be good as well,their next top scorer is on 5goals only,which is walcott,recently started scoring.

    They soley rely on van persie atm.We must try our best to beat them. With “England’s/Man United” Howard Webb in charge. 😐

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  3. We have targets for the summer, and we’re not in a position of having to beg. People are saying, ‘Ah Newcastle. Of course we want to talk to you’. We do a brilliant video presentation – very sharp, it is great

    I wanna see it! Anyone? 🙂

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  4. Llambias refers to a ‘sharp’ promo video that paints the club in a very good light………

    Given fans’ scepticism and the need t raise their awarness about the club’s aims etc, might it not be a good idea to show it to ’em? Unless there’s someting confidential in it, going public can’t do any harm….. can it? 🙄

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  5. Tough to argue with anythinany of thgat. The club seems to really be stable and heading in the right direction. Been a long time since we could say that

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  6. Well if our players dinna wanna go, then no need for them to, especially when we get players off the books like Smith, Xisco, Lover, Kadar, etc etc….

    I’ve got a funny feeling the only player likely to leave this summer out of the first team will be either Simmo or Gutters,…. Tiote, Cabaye, HBA, Colo, Santon, etc etc all love it at the club & none want to leave… love Tiote’s quote about being at a big club already so why leave… get in there lad…. well said.. 🙂

    Toonsy.. wots with the smilies… don’t seem to have any..:( havin to do it the owd fashion way.. 🙁

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  7. Think Guthrie, Simpson, Lovenkrands, Smith, Ranger, Kadar are all defo gone. would like guthrie to stay tho. Other possible ones could be Gosling Harper, Willo think obertan will get another year. My team for next season
    Krul Street/Tranvier..Saylor/Douglas..Colo..Santoon

    Corgnet/Caybe….Tiote/Abied

    Marveux/Benarfa Demba/Vuckic Jonas/Sammy/Fergy

    Papisto

    For me this is an awesome team and defo a good fifa 13 team aswell!!!

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  8. Worrying comments re Tiote. Think it’s pretty obvious that he expects there to be an offer for him in the summer and he could go? Well for me we should just say no!

    He’s been in the paper yesterday saying why should he go as he’s at a big club. Take that piece in the paper and stick it on the dressing room wall.

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  9. this is a good read… i like what Derek has to say and to be honest Im placing more an more trust/faith with him and ashley as the days/weeks/months pass. and you can really fault pardew he is doin great, he has made a few blunders but thats to be expected where a top 10 team who are making a move on a european spot hopefully we can secure europe and attract some even better players

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  10. As for losing a few why would he be talking about Smith Lovens etc when we allready know that, and why in the same sentence say we’ll be losing faces for instance Tiote ??? Really cant work that one out, he is basically giving teams a come get him. I don’t trust him at all, and I honestly believe that the players we will loss in the summer well include big players

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  11. OUR TEAM THAT SHOULD PLAY ON MONDAY

    ———————-KRUL————————

    SIMP———COLO–WILO———-SANTON

    BEN ARFA– TIOTE-CABAYE-GUTH-JONAS

    ————————–BA————————–

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  12. I don’t know Dave. I don’t read the Tiote comment the same way. I think every club knows about him and would inquire about him if they were interested, regarldess of ewhat DL says. To me he is proibably our most valuable asset, the player that other clubs would most want, whichis why he used him as an example

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  13. I’m not sure if anyone has seen this but –

    ‘Although they will not be breaking the bank to lift them into that tier, the club’s managing director has revealed MIke Ashley has already sanctioned the funds to cover another major signing in the summer.’

    But I’m guessing that will get overlooked so people can try and twist Llambias’ words to make it sound like we have put Tiote up for sale!

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  14. toonsy, your article is good and provoking but also trips itself up as does dekka… clearly he is not on about smith or loven.. he is on about players of high value.. thats why he linked in tiote straight away to qualify what he was getting at. Then you said it made sense that he did sell a big name so we can bring in four other ones with the money.. but dekka has just said he wants a smaller squad of higher quality. AP said we are light on numebrs about a billion times in the jan window but now he wants to get even lighter? as usual the answer raise more questions than anything else lol

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  15. dan4toon… its not twisting words… he just did it. He said we will loose 1 or two names.. take tiote for example. if that is not punting him out what is 😀

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  16. I don’t have a problem with what he’s saying, so long as we’ve scouted well for replacements and have them lined up. If a club was to come in with a +£20m offer for Tiote I would say take it and invest the money in one good replacement and several youth prospects.

    The only thing is I think he should have stressed a bit more that we don’t WANT to lose Tiote. Some players might read a story like this and think “they don’t want me here anymore”. This perhaps indicates that the plan is actually to sell him. Once again I don’t have a problem with this, so long as they do have a plan and don’t sell him on the last day of the window!

    Just a thought, but could we not play Cabaye in Tiote’s role (like he does for France) and play HBA in Cabaye’s role?

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  17. Jon R.. i would put guthrie on a new deal nad put him in there as i think he is every bit as good as tiote anyway.

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  18. Think of it this way, we bought tiote for £3.5m, we are in a comfortable position both financially and in the league to ask for a carrollesque sum of money if a club inquires, if that would be the case then we’d have improved tiote’s value ten-fold 😎 With our other midfield maestro Cabaye £4.3m, we could ask for more thaqn twenty million if we want. If we sold both of these, then we’d have around £55m, now imagine what Mr Carr could do with that. :mrgreen: Then if someone comes in for Ba then we could use that money and some of the other money from the transfers to get someone like Llorente at Atletico Bilbao (got him in FIFA a few years ago and buy him in every game since) who along with the rest of Bilboa ran Man U ragged in the Europa, but like us they are ok and so can ask for a lot of money, so maybe a better deal for someone no one has yet heard of, a diamond in the rough, if you will.

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  19. Y should we get a smaller sub that stupid r team is small but 5 players from what we need,
    1.A back up keeper
    2.2 Centre Backs
    3.a Centre Midfielder
    4.A Right Winger
    5.A striker
    6 players then sell 3 or 4 but as he said it will be done in 2 years so we will get a right number soon enough

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  20. Llambias is just telling it as it is – god knows he will get castigated either way he spins it. Deny Tiote will be sold and we will hear “they said that about Carroll” he’s lying. So the bloke admits that we can’t necessarily keep Tiote if a big enough offer comes in and people say he’s touting him around and wants rid. FFS people clamour for us to be told the truth and then when it happens we don’t like it 🙄

    If he says Tiote is not for sale at any price we all know that is not true – if we get a “stupid” Carrollesque offer then he will be off (providing Tiote wants to go of course).

    I seem to remember Pardew saying something similar in the January window about the difficulty in keeping players if big enough bids and clubs come in…they didn’t and we sold no-one despite the certainty that some on here said it would happen!

    Losing players is the way if the world and as Toonsy has said Spuds sold Berbatov, Keane etc still got in the CL and only now are able to say no because they have the financial clout. Whether they keep hold of Modric in the summer is still up for debate. Even Man U lost Ronaldo because the price was right and he wanted away.

    All we have now is a better chance of keeping our good players because we are financially sound – it’s not a guarantee but it’s an infinitely better place than we were 12 months ago

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  21. Dan I don’t know how you can say people are twisting his words,
    As for selling players, yeah we can bring in players like tiote Cabaye etc cheap then bring them on on the prem stage where we have done well so far, so we cash in on them and go out and buy more players and hopefully they will do well and we can naybe maintain our position in the prem then if the do well we can sell them on and start over again.
    That would be a total waste of time to the fans who would gain fuk all out of it, and as a team we will never achieve anything because we keep building till we get the 1st storey build then we have to start over again.
    To win anything and to keep getting better yr on yr we need to continue building yr on yr by keepingour better players and repkacing our weaker players with better.

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  22. Llambias has also lifted the lid on Newcastle’s future plans going forward and confirmed that a deal for one cash signing next summer has already been sanctioned by Toon tycoon Mike Ashley.

    😯 😯

    New signing made. 😯 😯

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  23. Dav: If you can sell a player for £30m and get in several players of similar quality then you ARE building the squad!!!!!!

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  24. Why do people mention FIFA in their posts and expect to be taken seriously? Chebs.

    Mate of mine is Ivorian and speaks to Cheik regularly. He reckons there was a £21m bid in Jan turned down. I expect him to leave for 15-18m in the summer.

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  25. How about the regime just say no to offers for Tiote? Unless Tiote wants to leave then we should do everything we can to keep him, he’s a one off that lad and we will not find quality like him for less than £20 million.

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  26. Well, well, we actually do have a PR dept. at the club and they are in full voice.
    With one blog calling Pardew “The Shining Light” and praising his mediocrity
    to compare with the best.
    Then we have the self admitted *****le and proven liar Llambias, spouting a litany of how well everything is going and even claiming Ashley was the only one who did’nt want to sell Carroll, you believe that ?
    It’s actually nauseating, but no doubt swallowed by the more naive fans, wanting success and willing to believe whatever’s comes out of the club, from people like Llambias and Pardew.
    Hey up to you, believe what you want.

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  27. Jon R @24… they have alerady just said they want a smaller squad so thats that theory of yours up in smoke.

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  28. I think he may actually be talking about Ba, he’s on about the team playing well but other clubs coming in offering more money. Doesnt Ba stand to earn a fortune if he buggers off?! 🙄

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  29. The only thing I don’t like is essentially how he advertises the selling of Tiote. Just say we’re not in a position where we need to sell, and that should do it. He may go, but clubs will know they need to fork out. The way in which Pards and Lambias are essentially drilling every other conference “hey we’ve got players to sell” is starting to annoy me to be honest.

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  30. Interesting piece. Tiote is a special player and i wouldnt be in a hurry to sell him, but I am guessing that a deal has been done ( with tottenham ) to the tune of 20mill . Still, good to hear some PR.

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  31. Well, good to see that we have a PR department after all. Now they just need to get their timing right, ie, don’t wait until the damage is done before giving their pov.

    Re: players leaving. Isn’t what he saying that they want to keep the best players but if somebody comes in and the player wants to move then they’ll trade. That is to say, they’ll only sell if the player wants to go.

    The stated aim is to have a smaller but better quality squad. A better quality squad is good. How many times do you see people on here picking a team? Almost always they pick the same players, but in different formations. In that sense we have a small pool of players to choose from, and take off a few because there’s no choice and we have about 10. Once we get to the point where fans consistently pick different teams, we will have the required quality – but it might still only be about 15-16 players, and they’ll be supplemented byhalf a dozen or so fringe players (the so-called back up players) and a development squad, which has also been mentioned in other contexts elsewhere.

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  32. I think they are doing just fine, if we had been relegated under Hall and Shepherd independant offshore trading plc the administrators would be sniffing about. 😕

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  33. I for one would like to believe this. Im an optimist. However there will always be a few fans that are absolute #chebs who wont believe a word anyone says. That’s a given, there’s also idiotic fans that put this club in the media for the wrong reasons. Yes fans… not the club. Can’t remember when we were in the media for the wrong reasons when it wasn’t to do with stupid fans…. specifically the goons who can only afford the reserve seating and cause very un essery damage. Its pathetic. I really don’t see how some people think its good to be doing that. Its actually damaging.. literally! But yeah we’really bound to receive bids we all knew that. If a player turns out to be quality of course there’s going to be interest…. err common sense anyone? If the bid is high we will sell… anyone will. But I doubt riots will be going for less than 20m. However I’d take 20m + their Dutch kid who we once loaned

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  34. lambsass should stop advertising that we are willing to sell top players, if they want them they will enquire but why go around shouting aboot it? and why do we need a smaller squad? i believe there is some fringe players to let go, loven, smith, ranger poss perch , and replace these with better to push the starters ! defender needed me thinks too! but if we do sell NAME PLAYER then that will want instantly resolving by a signing not hangin on 4 a year !

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