Toon making plans for Virgil

toonsy

Virgil van Dijk
Ok, that title didn’t quite work, so if you didn’t get it or you’re a bit younger, it was an attempt at playing on the title of an old song by XTC called ‘Making plans for Nigel’.

The reason? Newcastle are apparently looking into the possibility of signing highly rated Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk from Groningen in the summer.

Groningen’s General Manager Hans Nijland has confirmed that the defender and his agent are set for talks with United in the near future ahead of a summer move for the 20-year-old who has been in impressive form this season, making 22 appearances and scoring three goals along the way.

Van Dijk is under contract until 2015 so cash will be needed to secure a deal, but with the player looking to move on and test himself on a bigger stage it seems as though any official approach from United would prompt the player to want to move. Even so, I don’t think it will take a huge fee to prize him away and would say that roughly £4m would be enough to seal any deal.

Now I know next to nothing about this player, but in general our scouting is good so I would hope we’ve put the time and effort into looking at the lad.In fact I’m pretty certain we will have so if Graham Carr and Co rate him then it’s good enough for me.

It also helps add to a position that is in dire need of being strengthened – defence! In fact I’d go as far as to say that I’d be happy with us just concentrating on beefing up our defence over the summer, providing we don’t lose any of our first-teamers course. If we do they will also need replacing.

I’m happy that we seem to be pressing on with things in the transfer market and already have plans in place. What is needed is not a major overhaul in personnel this summer, instead we need to carefully add to what we have already, and with this rumoured interest it would appear that we are looking at doing just that.

Maybe we can have a proper pre-season next time to boot!

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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115 thoughts on “Toon making plans for Virgil”

  1. Why has this been made public ,I didn’t think we worked that way anymore. Now with our recent track record for picking up gems all the PL teams will be sniffing around him if he’s any good, offering more cash . Fair enough if we had him signed up to a preseason contract but the deal ain’t done yet .
    Anyway back to the player in question tbh I know zero about him , anyone watched him at all?,is he any good .

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  3. Maybe a transfer fee has been set and they have agreed only negotiate with us? Don’t know though, you’re right we haven’t gone about business this way, HBA aside
    Most of our signings have been completely out the blue which is why i will definitely refrain from entertaining anyone with “contacts” that can’t name them.

    Also haven’t seen him, but have got faith in Carr, if he’s decent it could be perfect, good age to ease him in as either Colo’s long term replacement or to challenge Saylor, if we sign a player mid twenties they will likely want first team guarantees.

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  5. Blimey, Alan Carr’s football senses must be working overtime. 🙄

    …I suppose if he wants to leave Groningen they can’t do much about it, after all, young Virgil must be happy, he must be happy, he must be happy in his work.

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  7. @Kim, it’s ‘Groningen General Manager Hans Nijlan’ who has leaked this supposed news, so it’s not exactly a change in policy our side.

    Guessing Groningen might want to start a bidding war?

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  9. yeah, call me a cynic but I reckon someone from in the club realised he’s a talent and will probably be on his way, so leaked the story to start a bidding war, exactly what we try to avoid!

    So going by this….we won’t be signing him then! 😀

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  10. Blip @7 Well the deal will most likely be off now cause MA don’t like stuff getting out into the public domain .

    Rod@5 😆 😎 , Don’t worry about Carr as Sgt Rock (is gonna help him) 😀

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  11. Richie, I know, fell at the first 😀
    Kim, have no fear, I made little Graham promise us he’d be a good boy. 😎 😛

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  14. We have to sign him cause Virgil Tracy was the bravest of all the thunderbird pilots ,it must be an omen surely 😉

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  15. Got to admit Kim, Virgil Tracy was the first image to appear in my head when I read the title of this article 😆 – closely followed by the face of a lad I went to school with, Alistair Bell, who I nicknamed ‘Virgil’ cos of his massive eyebrows 😆

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  16. Rod if we sign him and he should ever score the fans have to hum the thunderbirds theme 😀

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  19. Kim, my money’s on Nigel 😆

    Nobby, you strike me as more of a ‘Haircut 100’ type of guy 🙂

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  21. Don’t know nowt about him but the fact it’s out there makes me think that we have no interest in him and they’re just trying to get bidders for him

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  22. Kajagoogoo would certainly beat Haircut 100 in a hair fight Rich. Those boys pissed hair gel.

    reet am off. laters……

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  30. BB it means if he gets into any trouble in the next 6 months they might do him for the drunk and disordely charge agen so its nothing realy for a nothing charge 😉

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  31. If we are too move for a young dutch defender in the summer then it should be Jeffrey Gouweleeuw from Heerenveen . He is regarded as the best young defender in the eredivisie by a lot of people here and at 21 already looks ready for the next step up , funnily enough his stats for this season are the same as van dijk’s . Played 22 scored 3 and Gouweleeuw has only picked up 1 yellow card as well , thats impressive for a young CB that has played so many games .Gouweleeuw is without a doubt going to be a big player in the future .

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  32. Cheers Batty, seems like a total waste of time and money then.
    Typical of the legal system in this country. 👿

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  36. BB my guess is between 5 and 7 million would get him and if you wanted to call him gooey looey do it from a distance just to be safe 😉 he is a strong lad .

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  37. Richie and Rodz… Bringing up some if my favourite bands…

    Always been told I was born in the wrong decade for my taste in music.

    Now I see why because you guys are old 😛

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  39. Initially I thought 4m sounded a lot til I read on and remembered Tiote cost 3.5m and look at what he’s worth now!!

    Lets be right, if he can rescue our defence 4m is worth is it. Him being Dutch you could say it would be an INTERNATIONAL RESCUE!!… Ok, I’m sorry 😳 🙄

    Thunderbirds was more my era though 😉

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  41. We never sign unknowns that we all hear about beforehand 😆
    Anyone hope QPR lose so barton goes down? 😉

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  42. crackin jokes Liam ❓
    I want Liverpoo to lose so King Dogshit gets the sack.
    I heard today he stated they could still qualify for the champs league.
    PMSL and they call us deluded 😆

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  44. how fickle manc city fans are.
    Applauding Tevez on.
    w@nkers all of em.
    Mind you I hope he scores now 😆

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  49. Jon, Spurs fan, via text: “10 point lead over Arsenal blown, 4 losses in a row. Levy needs to start taking a long look at Redknapp. To not finish in the top four from where we were is unforgivable.”
    .
    fookin hillarious. :mrgreen:

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  59. Awesome- it doesn’t really matter for us as they’re already in Europe but would love to end above Liverpool.

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  61. Apparently Enrique was at fault for the last QPR goal- maybe this is why we sold him he’s going to be a double agent all that contract stuff was a smokescreen.

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  65. That should give Rangers a big confidence boost prior to their game against the scum on saturday.
    Howay the hoops 😆

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  69. BB

    No way the Scum can catch us now…

    As badly as I feel we are playing – and it has been **** football – we are now practically garaunteed 7th place.

    Wonderful achievement.

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  71. Great set of results tonight, shame Everton couldnt help out, but maybe they are saving themselves for the cup replay.

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  72. FSOTC

    That’s the negative of tonight.

    Every team that played tonight plays better football apart from perhaps Stoke who Id say are on a par with us…
    We really are a terrible side to watch at the moment…

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  73. JJ…..they were never going to catch us, we have taken more points than the scum in the last 10 games or if you want to go on current form we have taken more than them in the last 6 games. People have been believing the medias pro O’Neill bullshit rather than looking at facts. If we have been poor lately then the scum have been worse 😉

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  74. Yeah, their goal differential vs. ours is pretty telling: 15 to our 0. Still, points is points is points…

    You know, it just occurred to me, watching that game from the couch… Is it coincidence, or did we play far better when Best was in the team? He had a very dry patch, but his link-up with Ba was superb, wasn’t it? Hasn’t Ba kind of gone cold since Leon’s injury?

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