Five players likely to leave Newcastle this summer

Heading out of NUFC?
I was reading an article in The Journal which basically said that Leon Best and Danny Simpson will be allowed to leave the club in the summer.

Personally I think it’s only wise to move those players on if we have better reinforcements lined up, whether they be in the form of promising players from the academy, like James Tavernier or Haris Vuckic, or whether they be brought into the club over the summer.

Then I started thinking that we are going to lose about five players from the first team over the summer if this report is to be believed. Is that too much? Is it not enough? Are we leaving ourselves with a lot of work to do the transfer market?

Well first off we need to look at who is likely to move on. As the report in The Journal suggests, both Leon Best and Danny Simpson will be allowed to leave the club in the summer. Celtic were interested in Best in January and a deal was nearly done, but in the end nothing came of it.

Danny Simpson is likely to be sold if a deal between him and the club can’t be worked out as the club are unlikely to let him walk away for nothing. We’ve seen it happen before with Jose Enrique and it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw it again.

Then we have two out of contract players who will definitely be moved on in the summer. Alan Smith will not get a new contract at this club, well not as a player anyway, and neither will Peter Lovenkrands judging by his solo, emotional, lap of the ground last Sunday. That’s four players down…

The last one is Danny Guthrie who is out of contract this summer also, although it’s not yet certain if he will move on or not. Apparently he’s rejected a new deal although again this is only true according to reports in the press. If true though I really can’t see him signing on again as I feel he is wanting first team football guaranteed and will move on to get it.

That’s five players are likely to be trimmed from the squad in the summer. Some of them we won’t miss, some of them we will, but all of them will need replacing in some form or another, especially with the extra games that Europe will bring.

the question is, can we do it, and with who?

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.

25 thoughts on “Five players likely to leave Newcastle this summer

  1. Replace Simpson with Pieters and move Santon to right-back – Perch and Tavernier as cover…

    Also sign Debuchy and a young striker. Think Ranger will also go this summer.

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  2. Good article; I severely question danny simpson and if he does leave he is surely a fool. He will never play for a bigger club or a club who will be in europe next season. He simply isnt good enough.
    Chelsea arent after him thats tosh but if they were i would understand his decision.
    However it is purely fiancial and in my book why would you leave a club which guarantees you games and is in europe or squander in mid table (if that) for £5k extra a week?

    Same for me applies to guthrie to a certain extent surely he would want to play 25 games a season which he probably would due to europe cups etc next season in the black and white shirt than join a team like villa where he could just as likely end up on the bench aswell.

    Saying all that if we got debuchy and marvin martin as replacements couldnt care a jot!

    The real worry for the english game is arguably our weaker players ie those who could leave; smith, best, guthrie, simpson, willo, ranger, are all british….. sad state of affairs

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  3. To replace Simpson I would either sign Debuchy as a straight replacement or move Santon over and sign Pieters or Boliesen.

    Amalfitano looks like he’s replacing Guthrie, I don’t think Smith necessarily needs replacing as he was virtually 8th choice centre-midfielder and played about seven minutes for us this season.

    I can see Best and Lovenkrands being replaced by one good striker, so that would make four strikers but the likes of Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Vuckic, Sammy and Obertan can play off one. Also with virtually a new batch of reserve players coming in, we’ll have a few striking options in there.

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  4. I’m nervy about all these losses, except for Smith & Loverman (good luck to them, no bad blood).

    Don’t understand all the static Simpson got over the season and wonder if that’s a factor. Best has been very good for us and Guthrie too, but maybe good replacements are already lined up. Let’s hope.

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  5. I thought the rumour was that Guthrie will sign for Villa when his contract runs out. Not sure what we paid for him but we are losing a prem standard player to a rival for nowt if this is true. Can understand why the club would want to sell Simpson while we can still get something for him.

    I think Guthrie is just over the age (24) where we would get compensation as well, or is that just for the first club???

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  6. Dont know if I’m worrying over nothing but, 4 of those five are British, 3 of them English and well lovinghands might as well be with the way he talks.

    Do we not want to keep some form of British core to the team? Or at least some British players??

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  7. I wouldn’t be too bothered about losing Simpson to be honest, I’ve made my feelings know and I’m not gonna lie now. If Chelsea want to buy him… great IMO. We would be better switching Santon to the right and Perch/Raylor as back-up and signing a LB. Simpson looks uncomfortable on the ball and doesn’t attack as well as Santon. Williamson and Simpson can’t distrubute the ball out so it always gets hoofed up the pitch or goes to the LB. Our right wing will improve if we strenghten the right side of defense.

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  8. I don’t see the point in keeping British players if they’re poor or won’t sign new contracts, keeping a player for that reason would be a tad silly. We have young British coming through the ranks and the I’d rather have foreign players if they are better, plus a lot of foreign players have more loyalty than the British money grabbers.

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  9. I dont think I would like to lose all 3 of Simpson Best and Guthrie as I think they are good players. Im sure we could get a better replacement for each of them but I would favour evoloution rather than revolution. Its going to be an interesting summer and I think we are going to add 2-4 players of real quality. However I hope the likes of Ferguosn Vuckic etc etc get more game time. Esp with the europa league and that.

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  10. In every other industry it would be illegal to discriminate on the grounds of British and non-British. They would only be allowed to control the amount of non-EU persons. So I don’t get how football can be any different, we have plenty of EU players and we get all of our laws from Brussels these days.

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  11. And Brussels is a hell hole. I can vouch for that!

    I agree with Lobacka, British or not, if we can improve then we need to cast that notion aside.

    Doesn’t it say a lot that our expendable players are all British? 😕

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  12. Toonsy – good article mate, and your right, I looks like those 5 will definitely be leave. But I can also see the likes of Ranger and Kadar leaving and possibly Harper.
    Personally I’d be looking to bring in 2 left footed left backs and allow Santon to move to the right and have Tav and Perch as cover. I would be looking at Pieters and maybe Olsen from Blackburn who at least knows the league and would give Pieters time to settle in.
    If Guthrie leaves I’d still look at someone like Diame at Wigan and Butterfield at Barnsley or possibly Marvin Martin if the price was right.
    CF – I’d be looking at Rhodes or similar player who can score goals (albeit at a lower league)
    and maybe someone like Fletcher at Wolves or Rodellaga at Wigan.
    Shola can do a job but I don’t see any of our young strikers being close enough for a first team call up just yet. With that I don’t see where our goals will come from during the ACoNs with Ba and Cisse so for me, I’d go with a premier league experienced CF and a young inexperienced CF.
    If Harper left, I’d look to get Jack Butland at Birmingham who’s a great prospect.

    That would be 7 in (forget to mention a CB) and 5-7 out. Then look to the younger players coming through and expect the likes of Obertan and Marv to contribute this season.

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  13. Although Santon on the right may well be less effective….maybe he’d find defending easier, but his primary asset seems to be cutting in….Really not sure how good he is with a cross, not seen him try it much on the left which suggests even when he has the time to try one with his right he doesn’t feel comfortable with it….

    Still don’t think Simmo deserved half the stick he got on here and from fans in general, but we should be aiming for higher if we’re trying to cement ourselves as European contenders….Same with Bestie I suppose, Ameobi seems to have the impact sub down, that’s three good strikers….one problem is that they could all be called up to an ACON though 😯 need to sort that out.

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  14. Personally i would like to see us keep Simpson. He has played almost every game this season in a defense which has seen us almost qualify for the CL, so for that he deserves at least some credit/thanks. But if the offer is on the table is not good enough for him, then I guess it’s too bad. I suspect he also feels a little unwanted by the fans, so that’s probably affecting his decision.

    I’d also keep Guthrie too. I wonder if we guaranteed him every Europa game and first choice behind Tiote he would stay? We could easily spend £5m-£10m and not get as good a central-midfielder as Guthrie imo.

    Best is a difficult one because we all know he’s not brilliant, but at this stage can we attract a higher calibre player than him to just sit on the bench? Every club needs these mediocre squad players, and we are going to be drastically short of strikers during the ACoN if we let both him and Lovenkrands go.

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  15. Definately need a reliable non-ACoN CF like Fletcher or Rhodes, even more so if Best leaves. Can’t see us spending the dosh to get De Jong and especially not as back up. Suppose it depends if a £35M offer for Cisse comes in. 🙁

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  16. Personally rather not lose Simpson or Guthrie, simply because I think they’re good players to have in our squad. With Smith and possibly Ranger also leaving we’d be scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit on the 25 man squad and home-grown players ruling too. And everyone knows decent English players don’t come cheap.

    Having said that, the English player thing, or ‘home-grown’ ruling is a pretty big loophole to be honest (explained at the bottom). Under these guidelines Haris Vuckic and Tim Krul will do. We could effectively sign Gaël Clichy from Man City and he’d be classed as home-grown/English.

    With the unlimited U21 squad members I can see why clubs are so keen to bring in 17/18 year old foreign players, as they’ll turn out to be ‘home-grown’ when over 21, cost next to nowt, and have a big sell-on value.

    Here’s a thought, given this loophole coupled the over-inflated price tags of young British players, are we gona have many British players left in the Premier League at all in 10 years? This home-grown ruling seems to be doing the opposite of what it intended I.E. keep a core of English players in the Premier League, thus giving “more options to the England manager”. Will we be seeing future England squads built up of foreign players ❓
    (relative story)
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/3107896/Sven-Goran-Eriksson-wanted-four-foreign-players-in-England-squad-Football.html

    From BBC website:

    – Clubs register a squad of up to 25 players, which must include at least eight ‘home-grown’ players, at the end of each transfer window.

    – Home-grown players do not have to be English; home-grown players are defined as those who “irrespective of nationality or age, have been affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to 21st birthday”

    – Clubs can supplement squad with unlimited number of players under the age of 21.

    …anyway, Smith, Lovenkrands, and Ranger can all go for me. And to be honest, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over Obertan and Best leaving either.

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  17. 30 Sep 2008

    “As much as Sven stood out, other names did make it on to the first list of candidates, however,” writes Davies. “For all the ‘don’t go back’ caveats, Terry Venables was on it, as was Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson, Marcello Lippi, Bobby Robson, Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson.’

    So even then they had Capello and Woy lined up eh. ❗

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  18. …and no shout for media darling ‘arry either DJG. Suppose his CV was pretty unspectacular 4 years ago.

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  19. Don’t know if any one has heard this yet but it’s a really interesting podcast, shame about the presenters.

    http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/richard-keys-and-andy-gray/120510/damien-comolli-liverpool-andy-carroll-and-moneyball-method-171751

    I think this tactic called ‘moneyball’ really applies to our current structure in recruiting new players and that’s why when we think a player is distinctly average Pardew comes out with the stats to prove people wrong (ala Simpson).

    There’s an interesting article in this somewhere. Enjoy the podcast.

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  20. Ranger, Best and Lovenkrands can all move on. They are decent strikers but certainly nothing more. We still have Shola to bring on as a sub but I think a smaller faster type striker is what we need. Someone similar to Chicarito. Smith gonski. I’d like us to extend Guthries contract as he came in and did so well when Cabaye and Tiote were out. If he is happy to play that sort of role and obviously play more now that we are in Europe I’d keep him. Simpson is a good player and again I think we could really use him if we end up playing in Europe for a while to take the strain off the first 11 but it’s not up to me to say what he is worth being paid. His agent is probably advising him against it as he wont get a sign on bonus and his 10% fee from 25,000 grand a week is nothing spectacular in the world of football….like his client actually.

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  21. i think Fraser Forster will be on his way as well . If Celtic are still interested in Best than a combined deal for the both of them for say 5 million would be good for us ,Celtic and the players ..

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