Newcastle look to pip Swansea to Sigurdsson

toonsy

Pardew impressed with Sigurdsson
Newcastle are looking to sign Gylfi Sigurdsson from Hoffenheim from right under the nose of Swansea, if reports in the press are to be believed.

The Daily Mail (I knaa!) is running with a story suggesting that Alan Pardew was impressed with the Iceland international in our recent victory over the Swans and has made a number of enquiries regarding the availability of the 22-year-old.

However Sigurdsson’s stock has been rising ever since he joined Swansea on loan in January and the former Reading midfielder has scored 7 goals in 14 appearances for Brendan Rodgers’ side, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by his manager at Hoffenheim, Markus Babbel, who now doesn’t want to lose Sigurdsson in the summer.

Personally I’ve always rated Sigurdsson and wanted us to sign him when we were in the Championship. That season he scored 21 goals in 44 appearances but it was Hoffenheim who took the gamble and signed him up for a fee in the region of £7m.

He started off well in Germany and won the Hoffenheim Player of the Season award in his debut season, scoring 10 goals in 31 appearances. However he has slipped down the pecking order and found himself out of favour under Markus Babbel who loaned him out to Swansea.

Apparently it will take a fee in the region of £8m for Hoffenheim to do business after his stunning second half of the season with Swansea, which I’m personally unsure about. The lad has scored goals at different levels throughout his young career, but I don’t know whether £8m would represent the “value for money” that the club look for in any deal. Right age, right pedigree, but is there enough resale value?

Plus I’m not sure whether Gylfi would want to move anywhere other than Swansea. He is understood to love it at the Liberty Stadium and has built up a good working relationship with his boss which could influence his decision. Not only that, but there is the fact that he would be guaranteed a starting role at Swansea which I don’t think he would get at St James’ Park.

Above is a video compilation of his time at Hoffenheim to give those who don’t know an awful lot about him some more scope to make a judgement. Yes it’s not current, but it does show his strong suits, which are shooting from distance and getting forward in support of the strikers.

Would you take a punt for £8m?

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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77 thoughts on “Newcastle look to pip Swansea to Sigurdsson”

  1. Not sure £8m represents good value, especially when it would likely hold back the development of our own Haris Vukic still further. Good player though.

    Congrats on becomming a dad, Toonsy. Hope wee billy brings us all luck on Saturday and for the rest of the season!

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  2. Agree with TC about the value for money bit and can’t see us paying that much but then if Pards decides to go for him who am I to argue :mrgreen:

    Congrats again Toonsy to you and your lass….and little Billy, hopefully he’s got his looks from his Mam, if not, well…….there’s always online dating agencies 😉 😆
    You’ll love it mate, bet you can’t wait to get them home, all the best.

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  3. Congrats toonsy on the wee lass!
    Future number 9 😯
    And still rocking out the articles…..on thread this lad is a very good player and would love to see him at the toon ive seen him live on a few occasions and his movement and shooting ability is superb.
    I reckon carr would find a sneaky release clause anyway! 😀

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  5. Welcome to the club fella, hope missus & wee one are doing fine, life only gets better from now on 😉

    I personally wouldn’t pay that much for someone who’s only going to be a squad player, unless PArdew knows summit we don’t about which players are leaving this summer & this is a replacement for Cabaye, which I doubt very much…

    If he’s a replacement for Gutherie, then I’d used that sort of money to give Gutherie a better contract & get another player in too.. 😆

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  6. Guys, he is not rated in Germany or Hoffenheim so I am unsure where your information comes from.

    Hope we don’t sign this bloke, would rather give our own kids a chance and only sign players who are better than what we already have.

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  7. I would take him, awesome player when i’ve seen him play. He’s better than Guthers, and Guthrie is 25 now and probably almost at his ability ceiling, Sigurdsson is only going to improve next few years.
    Midfield three of: Siggy – Tiote – Cabaye
    With people like Jonas and Obertan for if we want to revert to 4-4-2

    Don’t think 8 Mill is a gamble, he’s shown he can play in the premier league and is 22. Even if he flopped we’d be able to get a good 4/5 Mill back for him.

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  8. Congrats Toonsy. As to Sigurdsson. He would add to the Squad, but got a feeling I,m gonna be happy with whoever turns up this summer.

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  9. Toonsy -That seems a little bit steep in price to me ,he’s good but not to that value imo. We need to get the defensive issue put to bed first then move on to new strikers unless as has been said the club know something we don’t. When you consider we got Cisse for 8/9 m then £8m seems a bit steep.

    Hope all is well with the family .

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  10. Presumably we’ll be using the money from the Krul sale?

    The Daily Mail know **** all. I wouldn’t believe a word of it.

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  12. Billy…The info is from the Dail Mail 😉

    Jon R….but it’s in The Sun and Mirror too, surely it must be true? 😉

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  15. Richie I hope you don’t actually pay money for all these “newspapers” 😛

    Toonsy – summer 2013 i think mate.

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  16. Actually I think you might be right Dubtoon.

    .com says 2013 but everywhere else seems to say 2012 😕

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  17. By the way. For the twitter fans out there, it’s worth following @davidmcrossan. French based journalist (nufc fan?) always first with translations of any French interviews about cabaye, Ben arfa, possible targets etc. surprised he has so few followers.

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  20. On Harper, his wiki says he signed a new deal until 2012 with no mention of an extension 😐

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  23. Actually you guys are probably right. I remember he did an interview lately where he said he hoped to have his coaching badges by the time his contract is up next year

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  24. I too don’t know if he would be value for money, but without doubt he is a good player and would add to what we have.
    Richie I can confirm that young Billy has been graced with his Mums good looks 😉 but his Dads time keeping 😀

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  29. Toonsy only slightly but 😉 how long till they’re home, as the tend to get you to go as soon asap now. Im sure your head is still in the clouds, it takes a while to get used to it.

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  30. It’s mad mate. Really can’t describe the feeling. If I could bottle it I’d be a millionaire.

    They should be out on Friday. Mum is recovering as the wound is still sore so once the Docs are happy with that they can come home

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  31. We are certainly going to have a big player list if we pick up all these players we have been scouting an linked with… talk about picking names out of a hat…

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  32. That feeling you have won’t go away Toonsy.. although they get bigger and smellier (take Ritchie for example) you still love em like nothing else…

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  33. About bloody time Toonsy jnr arrived! 😎

    I know exactly the feeling, so I’ve been excited for you the whole week… Been checking the blog more for that than for news… haha.

    Congratulations! 😀

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  36. A decent amount of goals true, but if he’s on free kick and penalty duty it might be a little exaggerated. Let’s not forget we now have Cabaye, Raylor, Benny and Ba all capable of decent free kicks…

    Goals from midfield is something we’ve needed for a few years (not just Nolan tap ins, real goals 😉 ) but now we seem to have two of the best finishers in the premiership we should again be looking to feed Ba/Cisse, although goals from anywhere are always welcome. Still, I can’t see where he’d get a start in our current 11? Over Jonas some have suggested, but this lad likes to play off the front man, but Jonas is essentially “the engine.” You can’t just swap them. Would he get a start over Benny, Ba or Cabaye? I don’t think so….maybe if we lost Ba and had to re-adjust…can’t see it tho.

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  37. Toonsy I think it gets better when you’s all get home together in your own space 😉 .

    Aussie thats the think with us we are always linked with loads of players, but I think we will get a player that we have been linked to this time round, unlike the usual unheard of player.

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  38. I agree Newkie.. with our current line up, he would struggle to fit the mould.. Jonas may frustrate at times but he is a good team man.

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  39. I’m not sure about that one Dave, we have been drafting players that are not known to the press for a couple of windows now and I can’t see that changing. Look at Cisse, that came out of the blue.. Saying that if you fling enough mud some of it will stick.. make lots of guesses and one might be right… 🙂

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  40. Anyone know what the odds are for us winning the next five? With my half full head on I just can’t see it but there again with my deluded hat on we certainly can! Some of the counter attacking football we’ve played lately is so incisive. Precision passes, stunning strikes and the odd wonder from Hatem, who is going to stop us?

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  42. AMF/brisvegas – have either of you seen much of this Curtis good kid from Melbourne heart?

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  43. I have Vegas, he seems solid but unspectacular.. He has a good build for the PL but it is a bit of a lottery when it comes to being good enough for a contract. I mentioned yesterday that I can see him being another Kadar..

    I’m a Glory supporter Vegas, should be a cracking game on Sunday… What is your prediction?

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  44. Remember being linked with him when he was at reading and Hughton was mananger so carr probably has him on file and this isnt a knee **** reaction like the press are making out.

    Quality signing if we can get it done as long as we stick with the 4-3-3 and dont shunt him out wide…

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  46. Alreet Toonsy? Congratulations mate. I hope you, the Mrs and Billy are doing well.

    I for one don’t think there’s any truth in this. I mean, he’d be a great addition to the squad but i don’t think he’d get regular football unless we made a good stance in europe.

    I agree that he could have a negative effect on the development of Vuckic also.

    £8 mill far too much. Good player though none-the-less.

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  47. I can see our investment into youth is starting – Heart is having a 10-day trail with us. He must have something about him if they want to bring him all the way over from austrailia.

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  49. Congratulations Toonsy,
    Just wait until you get Mrs Toonsy and the bairn home,you close the door to usher out parents/friends then BANG…………….reality sets in and you become a parent………….scary, but wonderful!
    Well done.

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  50. he plays for a team called Melbourne Heart, Nobby. His name is Curtis Good. 🙂

    He has talent but sometimes that is not enough.. I hope he makes it, there hasn’t been an aussie in the ranks since James Triosi.

    As much as it pains me to say Vegas, I think you may be right with that score line. Enjoy the game mate, it will be a good one.

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  51. Dubtoon, I’ve seen him play a few times, but he hasn’t stood out as being anything spectacular. He’s certainly competent in the A-league, but there are a lot of young competent players playing in the league. He gets good raps from football guys over here.

    Brisbane had a better centre back last year – Luke De Vere. Sadly, he went to play in Korea.

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  53. Fair point Vegas but established EPL players like Emerton have not really stood out on the park this year in the A League.

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  54. Troy I thought you only showed up on here when the Toon are playing poorly… what brings you here tonite 🙂

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  55. Agree, Aussie, I think the A-league is great entertainment, and the standard is rising quickly, as Harry Kewell said the other day, it is far tougher league than he was led to believe.

    And that’s even with many of the best players leaving for Korea, China and Japan. It means the young guys get a chance to shine in a tough competition. It’s why Good got a run in the first place.

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  58. Yeah the A league has certainly improved.. Along with the Toon I watch the Glôry every week… the games are not of the same standard but enjoyable none the less.

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  59. I love the A League … and Foxtel. After 30-odd years of putting up with a football desert in Oz the A-league came as breath of fresh air. There was a time back in the 80s when we didn’t even get Match of the Day and I had to huddle around a radio at 6pm on Sunday to find out how Newcastle had got on … or wait for the result to turn up in Monday’s paper.

    Now there’s live football from around the world at all hours of the day in HD.

    This is how I measure progress in world technology. Long live the communications revolution.

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  60. Foxtel is gold, I love it but my missus gets shitty when I have a weekend of watching football planned 🙂

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  61. Maybe he would fit in better into the 433 formation better than Jonas. I can see Tiote going for £25mil bringing in Diame for free and spending the £8mil on Sig. Diame (holding mid), Cabaye (playmaker) and Sig (Attacking mid) sounds good to me. Can see Defences looking at Ba, Cisse and Barfa and knowing Sig can shoot from distance and not knowing how to play – do they keep high line to stop long shots, or defend deep so they’re not undone by pace on the counter? Would provide an excellent problem for other teams. Most would be caught somewhere inbetween trying to do both and then we can run rampant!

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  63. Congrats Toonsy to yourself and the Mrs! To the new arrival , Welcome to the mad world of been a Newcastle fan! And take it easy on your Dad with night feeds and what not!

    Toonsy , Welcome to the club of not sleeping!

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  65. Rossco-I see what you mean and he would probably fit if we played the upside down triangle formation that Barca play with say

    Ba—-Cisse—-Benny
    –Siggy—–Cabaye
    ——Tiote———

    Right now we seem to be playing
    Ba—-Cisse——Benny
    ——Cabaye———
    –Jonas–Tiote———

    And to be honest, the second one is working so well atm I can’t see them changing it unless we bring in some true quality into the first 11. The second allows Ba and Benny to link with Cabaye much better as they drop deep whereas the first would leave us very exposed at the back.

    Let’s face it, Barca can pull it off because they’re the best team in the world. We still need a lot of the midfield and even the forwards to contribute so that we can be tight at the back. I can’t see us being too cavalier and using an attacking player like Sigurdsson in the deep midfield.

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  66. Newkie – I can see us staying with the same as now (the 2nd formation you mention above) but move Cabaye to Jonas’ postiton. Cabaye is a hard worker and not affraid of a challenge. I think he can pull the strings from there and set up play how he seems fit, and progress forward when chances allow. He can pick a pass from distance so there is not always the need for him to be in the final 3rd. He’d have the option to:

    Hold onto ball with Tiote or Diame (whoever is playing holding mid)

    play to Sig in space (short pass) and allow him to advance, or continue with him when opportunity arrives (counter attack)

    or play one of those wonder through balls (or over the top) he has shown us over the last few weeks that undo the defence and allow one of our from 3 to latch on.

    The beauty of having 3 clinical forwards like we have is that it will make space to slot between the defence as they can stretch the defence and open up those gaps.

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  67. Rossco-I see what you mean now with that formation as Cabaye has definitely proven he can play in a deeper role as a playmaker alongside tiote and has a good tackling/tracking record to boot to fill in for Jonas.

    The problems as I see it are however that whilst I know Siggurson has a tasty shot can he pull the strings as Cabaye would behind the front trio? If not then it seems we’re ignoring probably the most talented parts of our team in the movement of the front three and the passing ability of Cabaye.

    If Cabaye was then asked to roam forward more often from the deep position it would probably mean then Ba and Benny would have to come further back still, to open up options, or indeed in the case of the counter attack. Not such a big deal with Benny, but Ba’s attributes don’t really suit that role.

    Finally, while Cabaye can definitely track and tackle, he’ll be on the ball more often than not whereas Jonas’ job is often off the ball and plugging the holes in the defence as it were. Plus I can’t really see Cabaye ever jostling with wingers as well as Jonas does to protect our full backs….

    Although that problem could be resolved if we had more reliable full backs…

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  68. Newkie – I think your spot on about the job jonas does. He is all over the park, where ever you need him. I think with investment into the defence (a solid CB and maybe FB) Jonas would not need to be relied upon to cover for their incompetencies. I think Jonas is a great asset to the team and often under appreciated for lack of end product.

    And to do with Sig’s attributes regarding pulling the strigs… I don’t know enough about him to say whats he’s like but he’s scored 7 and assisted 2 in 14 games, primarily from playing behind the main striker who makes space for him. 3 forwards would make loads of space for him but maybe leave us vulnerable in defensive numbers.

    Maybe he’s being lined up as a FW as a replacement for Ba on the left side should he decide to leave?

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  70. Rossco-Exactly, replacement for Ba could probably work better than any other scenario. Still, I’d rather we keep hold of good ol Demba… 😉

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  71. Newkie – 100% agree. Much rather keep Ba. Can only see Ba going if PSG come knocking and I wouldn’t blame him if he did go to his boyhood club. I think he’d be a fool to as I don’t think he’d play regular football.

    Could be a good addition as a 4th choice striker. Expensive as a back up but if we’re playing 3 up top then good cover is needed especially for ACoN and injuries. CL football would definatley call for better back up.

    After all of this being said, if Ba does go, I’d rather get another Barfa type player (not an easy task i know!) but someone who is a tricky little speedster. Ba is a great player but not one for beating players like Barfa does.

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  72. I think I would rather strengthen the defence, providing we keep our top players 😕 IMO the rest of the team is strong enough bar maybe a young up and coming goal scorer.

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  73. Rossco-Yeah I think that’s why he’ll stay, they have some top strikers at PSG and whilst Demba would definitely be in the top bracket I’m not sure how often they’d play him. Still I’d definitely prefer him to go to France than go to Spurs or something!

    Yeah he’d definitely be a good player, but I could never see us spending 8mil on someone who wouldn’t be first choice as well as being unhappy to sit on the bench, would be a very bad situation.

    Agree with you on needing a tricky winger as well, after getting Cisse we need one pretty badly for this 4-3-3 imo. An injury to Cisse and Ba could fill in, an injury to Ba and Marveux (when fit) could fit in, along with young guns like Fergie and Sammeobi and possibly Vuckic, but if Benny got injured we’d be in real trouble again.

    So much so that he’s integral to the 4-3-3 really, if benny gets injured then its back to 4-4-2 for us I think. That’s why another tricky winger would be great news, finally some depth there as well as impact subs to change a game around.

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  75. haha ha newcastle you think you can sign anyone remember last year you couldent evan sign our.left back taylor and look at him now one of the best in the prem keep dreaming cabay good enough for your team

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