Haidara confirmed, Sissoko on way plus a bid made for Thauvin

toonsy

Welcome to NUFC, Massadio Haidara
Welcome to NUFC, Massadio Haidara
Newcastle have secured their third signing in as many days as Massadio Haidara joins from Ligue 1 club Nancy.

The 20-year-old has put pen to paper on a five-and-a-half-year deal at St James’ Park and becomes United’s fourth signing of the January transfer window following the recent additions of Mathieu Debuchy, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Yoan Gouffran.

The fee, although officially undisclosed, is believed to be in the region of £3 million although Haidara is expected to be used as cover for Davide Santon first and foremost with an eye on him developing for the future. Not exactly a “development squad” player as such, more of a backup player who can step in. Hopefully anyway…

Haidara has represented France at under-19, under-20 and under-21 level and has already notched up over 50 competitive appearances in club football which isn’t bad for a 20-year-old. He will wear the number 19 shirt recently vacated by Demba Ba.

Speaking to the club website, Haidara admitted it was the desire of United to sign the youngster which helped sway the decision.

“It was the desire of the club to sign me up which was the most important factor. It was nothing to do with the league position,” Massadio revealed.

“It was really all about the club’s desire and willingness to sign me up. Also, I like the club’s ambition to strengthen the whole team so we can improve our league position. That’s what appealed to me so I didn’t hesitate,” he added.

Meanwhile, as has become customary, Alan Pardew also had his say on the signing.

“Massadio is very highly-thought of in France and he’s somebody who our scouting team have been greatly impressed by,” said Pardew.

He added: “At the age of 20, he will only continue to get better but he’s already played a lot of games in his country’s top division and represented France at under-19, under-20 and under-21 level. He’s strong and quick and we’re looking forward to seeing him develop here.”

Meanwhile, in other transfer news, it seems as though Moussa Sissoko is on his way to Newcastle after his current club revealed on their website that a deal had been agreed for this transfer window and not in the summer as had been suggested by some.

He is apparently on his way to Newcastle as we speak and a deal is expected to be announced tomorrow with a fee being mentioned of £1.8 million which isn’t too bad for a player who as recently as one year ago was being touted around at values upwards of £15 million.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, one of those French gadgies that has called most things right this window has revealed that the president of Bastia has received a €3 million offer from Newcastle for their attacking midfielder Florian Thauvin which he is considering.

With all these signings it’s becoming like a French football advent calender!

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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270 thoughts on “Haidara confirmed, Sissoko on way plus a bid made for Thauvin”

  2. yeah, prem, that’s it, I think–we gambled and almost (and may still have) got burnt. These new players seem very good, but I’m still very nervous about them gelling. Lots of good teams on paper. Fingers crossed, it all snaps into place, but that, too, is a gamble.

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  4. I think we should be able to give the Europa League a real go now.

    We can now basically play our (so far) league team in Europe since we’ve essentially bought a new first team this month, lol.

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  5. I’m not sure, Sharpy. Even with Colo staying, I feel like we need another.

    I dunno–Willo and who else as cover? If, come the end of the season, we’ve got Saylor & Mbiwa in the center, Colo off to Argentina and then we’re down to Willo and maybe Perchy for cover again, aren’t we? Or do we have a youngster coming through the academy? Is Streete a CB?

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  6. FSOTC, we’ve got Curtis Good who we bought in the summer. Pardew was watching him on Tuesday in the League Cup Semi Final. He’s on loan to Bradford.

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  7. FSOTC Crossan is a French League 1 reporter and commentator. He’s had a lot right this window.

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  8. does nobody else think it will take time for these new lads to gel into a good team.
    Defeat at the hands of villa is a very real possibility.
    Its early days yet.
    We need a real slice of lady luck now, just to lift us clear of the drop zone.
    If we survive, next season will be a cracker.
    Apparently we are going to close in on the top 4. 😯
    Like we nearly did this season.

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  9. BB

    I don’t think Yanga M’Biwa will take long to adjust. He is perfectly suited to this league. Same goes for Sissoko. Gouffran I can see taking a little bit of time, but that’s about it.

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  10. Yeah, I’m worried about them gelling. Saylor may not be fit and will have ring rust, Colo’s distracted, Mbiwa’s playing regularly, but may have communication issues & need time, etc…

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  11. We still need a striker, who do we want from Siem De Jong or Ricky van horsewinkel ?
    Do we know what colos plans are then. All gone quiet now.

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  12. BB i dont think it will take all that long ,they all know each other because they all play for les Bleus meaning when the French national team are together they train with each other . Class players can adjust quickly to new surroundings just look at Cabaye and his mate Debuchy .

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  15. BB, I know Colo’s got personal problems. I drove past him earlier this evening. He was stood on Westgate Road with a bottle in a brown paper bag, shouting at cars and pissing on the pavement. Read into that what you will…

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  16. That vid of Sissoko was pretty good, seems very versatile and looks pretty rapid, especially considering he’s supposed to be a holding midfielder, granted he’s a box-to-box one though. With Cabaye, Tiote, Anita and Sissoko we’d have four international players competing for two (possibly three positions), add to that an up and coming CDM who has a variety of choices in which country he represents, a Slovenian u21 international who if he can stay fit for long enough would get a senior appearance and a similar story for Dan ‘ACL’ Gosling.

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  19. Stu it,s hard to believe how many players we have singed this window. and just shows how scared the Regime must have been to lose out on the extra tv money next yr 😉

    Rod maybe his bit on the side threw him out 😆

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  21. FSOTC – I don’t disagree we need further cover at CB, but based on the fact we’ve already got 5 (assuming all goes well with Sissoko) I fancy we may only get one more through the door – if we’re lucky. If that was the case, I think we’re more in need of a goal scorer if we do enter a relegation battle. Then address the CB issue in the summer coz at the moment we have Colo, MYM, Saylor, Willo, then Perch, Tav, Dummett, Streete with Good to come back from Bradford.
    Up front we have Cisse, Shola and now Gouffran, with only Campbell as back up. Cisse and Shola aren’t scoring and Gouffran may take time.

    If I’m honest though, I’d like us to get Thauvin for around €3-4m and Kurt Zouma from Marseille for around the same money. both 19ish and would be fantastic players – costing a hell of a lot more in the next season or 2.

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  22. Dave, I’ve heard all sorts of rumours. Inevitable really. Interesting he’s not said owt about the whole affair (no pun intended). Guess we’ll soon find out…

    Reet, I’m off… 😎

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  24. Will be pleased when we finally get Sissoko in. Just hope all these signings jel together , as in all the excitement of the newbies let’s not forget we are still 2 points off the bottom 3 . 😉

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  25. Sorry, got Zouma wrong – he’s 18 at St Ettiene and would probably cost closed to £7-8m. But he’ll be world class.
    Speaking of centre forwards and St Ettiene – the PEA link has all gone quite this week, did that one die in the water or is he still a possibility?

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  26. Another couple of players would be out of this world Sharpy. I like the look of Thauvin but do we really need him? Would rather go after an out and out striker and spend all the remaining funds on one. Again we seem to shy away from certain positions, CB and striker. The Mbiwa deal is fantastic but not enough if Colo walks and Gouffran may not be nearly enough if Cisse doesn’t regain form. A good striker would set us up for a great finish to the season mate.

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  30. G2 ,Yes another striker is needed but we need a quality CB more as I’m pretty sure Colo is off one way or another.

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  31. Sane (don’t know how to do the accent) from Bourdeaux (sp?) evidently tweeted something along the lines that he’d be coming to NUFC soon (even though the google translation was unclear, it was interpreted that way on the Crossan twitter account. He deleted the tweet and apologized to fans.

    Of course, my French blows and I’m relying on google translate and 2nd hand sources for all of this, so pinches of salt all around, on me!

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  32. Here’s a screengrab of the tweet he erased. I google translated it, but am not clear on what it means. I think he’s got some French abbreviation stuff in there along the lines of *** and ITK and LOL.

    These youngsters and their abbreviating assholery. Honestly, WTF?

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  36. Wiki says that Sane is a Senegal international so not only would he hook up with Gouffran again but Cisse could do him a goat curry 😛
    Not sure how much Sane would cost like, but I’d be floored if we got a another CB and CF before the window closes as well – I just can’t see it at all.

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  37. Aye Kimtoon, we’re bringing in 4 or 5 new players yet we still have worries about CB and striker! It’s amazing when you think about it really. Surely after the Mbiwa deal was completed we should have gone after the Ba replacement? I just can’t buy the idea that Gouffran is the right player to replace Ba. It just isn’t going to work out that way. On the other hand if Gouffran gets Cisse going we can probably scrape by at the front barring injuries. But when have we ever had luck with injuries?

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  39. So who does everyone think is the best signing this window? there are so many of them its hard to choose but i think Mbiwa will be the one that makes the biggest difference straight off .

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  40. If we sign Thauvin to, i think we prepare us for some guys to leave this summer ( Cabaye, Benny….) and can see this winter as a good time to sign them so they have time to adapt for next season and that affraid me a little bit

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  41. Yeah, it’s probably a load of horse ****, but my ears pricked up because while pretending to be a scout over these last few weeks of drudgery, I landed on his name as a prospect.

    Speaking of horseshit, my methods are:

    1. Look at “goals against” in a variety of leagues
    2. cherry pick the best few
    3. eliminate the big name teams
    4. look at their defenders that have put in lots of minutes
    5. eliminate older players and very expensive ones
    6. Voila: Prospects!

    Bordeaux are 2nd in “goals against”, so by that definition, the 2nd best defense in France. I figure the kid must be doing something right…

    You may have noticed one major flaw here: I’ve never watched most of these guys play! Ha!

    But, funnily enough, doing the same exact thing (except substitute goals scored for goals against) I picked none other than Papiss Cisse as a striker we should target this time last year. Hoo-ha!

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  44. sickipediabot ‏@sickipediabot
    Joey Barton must be one annoying c**t. He’s only been there for 6 months and the whole of France is emigrating to Newcastle

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  45. GT
    From the article/interview I read about him it doesn’t sound like he’d be on throwing of a 433, sounds more like he’s partnering Cissé upfront.
    On Aubomeyang (?)
    Just signed him on FIFA he has to be the quickest striker I’ve ever had, absolutely rapid. Speed 92 😯 , says he’s from Gabon aswell.

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  46. George Caulkin ‏@CaulkinTheTimes
    Softly, softly, but more optimism tonight that Coloccini will stay at #Nufc until end of season.

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  50. Anyone know roughly how much Sane is likely to cost?

    G2 – who knows how Gouffran will turn out. To be fair, were we ever gonna replace Shearer?, when Ba came in on a free I read people saying HE was no replacement for Carroll. As you say, with Gouffran, Benny, Marv, Sissoko, Cabaye and Anita in and around Cisse, who’s to say he won’t find his scoring ways again.
    Personally I think we do need a centre forward as another option. Another CB would be nice but not essential now we have MYM and Colo looks set to stay

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  51. Axel I think Mbiwa will have the quickest and most important impact, but for some strange reason I think Gouffran will turn out to be a good buy and TBH I had never heard of him but have just had that funny feeling all day 🙄

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  52. Fans@122 ,Thanks ,guessed that was the one since the other sanes arn’t CB 😉 Ain’t read all the post so wasn’t sure like.

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  54. Using my other “wondrous scouting method,” I keep returning to Alejandro Arribas at Osasuna. He’s 23, a CB and plays for Osasuna weekly. Despite being in the relegation zone, Osasuna are 4th in goals against–one goal down from Real Madrid.

    Malaga are 1st, but all their defenders are too old. Atletico Madrid are 2nd, but they’re on a roll and are 2nd in the league. Can’t see them letting players go cheaply. And Real Madrid? Well, it’d take crazy money to get any of their players.

    Has anybody seen this kid play? http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/alejandro-arribas/profil/spieler_137174.html

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  56. FSOTC – so for arguement sake we spend €5m on Sane – does anyone else see Ashley releasing a further (say) €10m for a centre forward?

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  58. Yeah, very good question, Sharpy. On past evidence, up until this week, no. But now that he’s opened the wallet, well, maybe. There is supposedly a bid for this Thauvin kid and there are rumors about the wondrously named van Wolfswinkel and Siem de Jong, but hard to say how much is in those rumors.

    I’m feeling sligthly optimistic that Jabba’s seen the light and knows he needs to spend more and that this flood of activty means he learned a lesson.

    Then again, he loves a gamble and that’s how we got in this mess…

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  61. SHARPY17 @125
    Spot on, you just don’t know what a player is going to be like at a club until they are there. When Ba arrived on a free people were not hugely excited by it, he had scored a few goals for West Ham but we didn’t all say, ‘great we’ve signed one of the best strikers in the prem’ or anything like that. I don’t think you can even say, ‘is player B here to replace player A’. It doesn’t work like that. I don’t think we needed a CF that wants to come in and be number 1. We needed a forward who can complement Cisse. That’s what we have got with Gouffran. Plus the safety net of someone who can do a job there if required.

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  63. Sane’s a little older and more experienced, but Spain’s a better league with more technical players. Tough call…

    I also came up with Diagne at Freiburg in the Bundesliga and Tomovic, Savic and Roncaglia–all at Fiorentina. They play with 3 CBs or some crazy ****.

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  64. BD – you not defending the reality train, which says we couldn’t get a better manager than pardew whilst Ashley is here? Why couldn’t we get a top manager if ashley decided he wanted one? You must have missed that question.

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  65. FSOTC – I think there may be a chance we get Sane and Thauvin for around €9m or a De Jong, RVW or PEA for around that kind of figure. To use the NUFC term 1 ‘purple’ or 2 non purple players but I’d be amazed if we got a purple and Sane. If that makes sense.

    DJG – exactly mate. If he comes in and makes a major contribution to us winning games, I don’t mind whether he’s scoring as many as Ba did or not, if we’re winning that’s all that matters.

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  68. FSOTC – I think it’s also worth considering how the nationalities work out in our league. Traditionally French defenders have been more successful in the EPL than Spanish ones. I know that’s not a hard and fast rule and that all Spanish defenders are not suited for the EPL but have a think of how many teams have one in there back 4 compared to French. There must be something in that I’d have thought.

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  70. Djg – the least said about him the better. I’ve noticed his posts have become increasingly desperate. I can’t be bothered interacting with a hypocritical idiot like that. Someone (ice?) once said arguing with him is like trying to staple water to a tree. I wrote a 25 page letter to his independent witnesses, but he’s not got a response in him, just some crazy big brother **** on here thats humourless and off the wall. What’s that about? I think people can now see him for the aggravational fool that he is. A big clue is in his ridiculous government health warning.

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  72. as good a signing as Sissoko is, Yanga M’Biwa is by far the biggest coup.

    Sissoko was always likely to join a mid-level club as he was in a position to demand high wages due to his contractual situation. I doubt the top teams would be willing to offer such high wages to a lad who is still young and relatively unproven.

    Yanga M’Biwa’s situation is a bit different as he has proved himself at Champions League level and by captaining and winning his domestic league. He really shouldn’t be here, but I’m glad he has bought into what we are trying to do. Hats off to the regime for convincing him NUFC is the place to be.

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  74. Selfishly and as a yank, I’d like to see us go for Jozy Altidore up front. He’s having a barnburner two seasons in Holland at AZ and I think he’s radically improved recently. He’s only 23.

    Just looking at stats, PEA has 8 goals and 4 assists in 20 starts. Nothing to sneeze at and 23 is optimum age to pick up a player if you believe Soccernomics. Worth a try, certainly, but Jozy’s got 14 and 3 assists. Netherlands may not be as good a league. Dont’ know…

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  75. B&B , you and Troy just need to hug it out 🙂 🙂

    You can’t blame him for stiring you if you draft a 25 page letter over a wind up on here mate 🙂 🙂

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