As Man City go into meltdown, many contentious issues are thrown up: the owner even being allowed to be the owner, the state of the finances, the rumours of loans to pay player wages and, of course, the murmurings of Spurs taking them to court. [Read the rest of this entry »]
Spare a thought for Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan. After returning to manage Newcastle last season as replacement for Big Sam Allardyce, you might have expected the Toon boss to have a bit of cash to spend during the transfer window.
But the club is playing hardball, minding the coffers and insisting Keegan shop for youth and potential instead of established class. [Read the rest of this entry »]
They say that if you gave a million monkeys a million typewriters and had them bashing away for a million years, you would end up with the complete works of Shakespeare. One wonders whether Sam Allardyce, if given a million years, a million players and an endless dripfeed of cash could have turned his Newcastle side around. Not only did Allardyce have Newcastle play ugly and basic cave-dwelling football, but he also made some woeful signings.
Reports are coming in that defender David Rozehnal, a £2.9m Newcastle signing last summer by Allardyce, has been summarily flogged to Lazio for £1.4m, that’s a loss of £1.5m folks. So was Rozehnal the worst signing of the Allardyce tenure, or are there worse out there?
It’s about time the Magpies signed another Peruvian. Little Nolberto Solano was something of a hit at St James’ Park, especially with his prowess from free-kicks. Now, Sky Sports report that Kevin Keegan is in the hunt for Juan Carlos Marion, who currently plays for the impressive-sounding Hercules in Spain’s second division.
“I am happy in Spain, but it is logical that I would like to progress in my career,” Marion told Spanish media.
“If any big club wanted to sign me it would be an easy decision. England have a great league.”
Not a great deal is known about the 25-year-old, especially why he’s currently plying his trade in the Segunda division, rather than for one of the top flight teams. It’s clear that Newcastle will be signing a number of players before the start of next season but will Marion be made for Tyneside?
To be fair, if Joey Barton was anything other than a professional footballer, he would have run out of chances a long time ago. However, the Daily Mail report that his career could be effectively over, with Newcastle United planning to release the player who is currently on a suspended £55k a week while in the slammer.
Newcastle are planning to sack jailed £55,000-a-week midfielder Joey Barton unless he agrees to a 50-per-cent pay cut.
Manager Kevin Keegan wants to keep Barton, despite him being imprisoned for six months in May for assault and affray.
But the Newcastle hierarchy, led by owner Mike Ashley, executive director Dennis Wise and vice-president Tony Jimenez, are not happy and could move to dismiss the player even before the case begins on June 30.
Great things were expected of Barton when he arrived at St James’ Park last summer. It was supposed to mark a new beginning forthe ex-Man City midfielder, a new leaf under manager Sam Allardyce. However, a leopard has not been able to change its spots, despite being given several opportunities to do so.
He’s half an inch taller than lankmeister Peter Crouch, and he’s a striker – Kevin Keegan’s favourite position – and he could be Keegan’s first major signing of the summer. It also gives KK the hilarious option of playing the comedy double act of pint-sized Michael Owen, and skyscraper Nikola Zigic…
NEWCASTLE have been offered the Serbian Peter Crouch in exchange for defender Jose Enrique.
Valencia want to take highly-rated full-back Enrique back to Spain and are using giant striker Nikola Zigic as bait. (Daily Star)
Zigic may well be a good player, but is this an advisable move? Newcastle don’t have the most robust defence to say the least, so to offload a defender in exchange for a striker (and King Kev has plenty of them) seems a little bizarre…
Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan is prepared to pull out all the stops this summer in the hope of injecting some pace and speed into his lead-footed squad, and if the early Rumours are true, he may have found two players that meet both of those needs.
The Sun is reporting that King Kev is prepared to make a run at two of America’s best up-and-coming footballers.
Keegan is planning a swoop for USA pair Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore.
New York hitman Altidore, 18, wants a move to Europe while midfielder Bradley, 20, has impressed for Dutch side Herenveen. (The Sun)
Both Bradley and Altidore are relatively young, so the learning curve of adjusting to the EPL might make them projects for next season; however, if both continue to improve like they have over the past couple of years in their respective leagues (Altidore-MLS/Bradley-Dutch Eredivisie), then there’s no reason why both shouldn’t be starting and shining very soon.
The only question remaining is if Newcastle supporters are willing to take a risk on two footballers that have potentially high ceilings, but probably wouldn’t make their mark until the 2009-10 season.
Kevin Keegan has made it clear that he needs to make three or four important signings this summer (as well as re-signing Michael Owen) if Newcastle want any chance of making a move up the Premiership table next year. Setanta is reporting that Newcastle might be interested in signing Toulouse midfielder Achille Emana, if the price is right.
The agent of Cameroon midfielder Achille Emana has stated his client’s interest in a move to The Premier League, amid reported interest from Newcastle. (Setanta)
While Emana might not be the big name Newcastle fans were looking for, he seems to epitomize the mid-level quality transfer targets being linked with Newcastle this summer. He was a key cog on the Cameroon side that fell to Egypt in the African Cup of Nations final, so he does have some quality. But Toon supporters have to be wondering if this is as good as it’s going to get.
Is Emana quality enough to be one of the three or four players Keegan signs this summer, or would you rather he look somewhere else?
If he wasn’t a talented footballer, there is no way that Joey Barton would have been given several chances to redeem himself after a string of unsavoury incidents. The Independent reports the inevitable news that the midfielder has been jailed for six months after attacking two men on a night out in Liverpool over the Christmas period.
The incident happened on 27 December last year while Barton, who was transferred to Newcastle United from Manchester City last summer for a fee of £5.8m, was on bail awaiting trial for two other alleged offences. He punched one man up to 20 times and left a a 16-year-old boy with broken teeth.
This was the same Joey Barton who appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live earlier this season, bleating about how he’d changed and that bad luck had played a massive part in many of the fracas that had occurred on Christmas parties and team trips to Thailand. These words amount to nothing more than that of a hypocrite now that this story has broken and Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan must be thinking very carefully as to handle the situation when the player is released.
It appears that Kevin Keegan is going to be handed a pretty sizeable war chest for new signings, if the Daily Mail are to be believed. The Newcastle manager’s hands were seemingly tied in January, causing the team to tumble down the division until the past few weeks where they have undergone a resurgence of sorts.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that some serious strengthening is required if the Magpies are going to finish in the top eight next season and chairman Chris Mort has pledged that there will be plenty in the coffers to add some quality to a fairly average-looking squad.
Mort said: “Over the summer, we will look to strengthen the squad further.
“In addition to making any immediate fixes that may be required, as with everything else we have done since Mike acquired the club, we will want to acquire players that can help make Newcastle United a top team for the medium and long-term, not just for the next season or two.
“That is why we put a substantial offer in for Luka Modric, who is aged 22.
“It is frustrating that Modric, like (Jonathan) Woodgate before him, should take less money than we offered to move to the bright lights of London, and European football with Tottenham next season, but these are the sorts of difficulties that should get easier to address once we build a squad that competes at the right end of the table.”
Aye, there’s the rub for Newcastle. The old chestnut of trying to attract star names to Tyneside without any guarantees of European football. In order to be at the right end of the table, you need some decent players in the first place – who can the Geordies sign to put them on the right path?
If you ask people what Kevin Keegan is famous for, some of the answers you might expect would be:
1) Managing Newcastle twice
2) Managing England
3) An illustrious playing career for the Magpies and Liverpool
4) ‘That’ live outburst in 1996 where he claimed he would ‘love it’ if his Newcastle team beat Manchester United to the title
However, for the moment, times have changed and Newcastle are no better than a Premier League mid-table team. Therefore, The Times reports that his current duty is to make sure his Magpies team win every match, including Monday night’s clash with Chelsea. Victory in this game would see old foe Sir Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United team retain their Premier League crown, something that Keegan is hell-bent on seeing happen.
“It’s our job to help Manchester United win the title,” Keegan said. “That’s the thing I like about this league – there’s an integrity to it,” Keegan said. “If we were in Spain now we’d be getting an offer of a bonus from Manchester United for beating Chelsea. Definitely. It happens and it’s allowed as well. That can never happen here.
“If we beat Chelsea it’s because we deserve to and if they beat us they deserve to. If Manchester United win the title they’ll have deserved to and the same for Chelsea.”
Indeed, while Chelsea talk about United cracking under the pressure and make comments like ‘the heat is on’, it’s the Blues who have a couple of absolute toughies to finish the season off. You wouldn’t fancy any team to win at St James’ Park right now, while Bolton will be scrapping for their lives on the final day of the season.
Although it doesn’t make it any easier if one of your players appears to be actively courting the Italian club! The BBC report that Arsene Wenger is not too keen on the way that Inter have publicly stated that Alexander Hleb is one of their transfer targets this summer. The Arsenal boss has effectively handed a ‘hands off’ warning to the Serie A league leaders.
“For a club to come out with a statement like that…I think it is disrespectful. It is illegal,” he said.
“We will not accept that between big clubs. If I want a player from Inter Milan, I call Inter Milan,” added Wenger.
“If they are Interested, why do they not call me? If I want to buy someone, I call the chairman and I ask him if he is for sale.”
It’s not clear whether Inter have done anything wrong with their statement. After all, every club appears to be compiling player shortlists at the moment. Most are shrouded in secrecy but the likes of Rafael Benitez and Kevin Keegan have both recently dropped hints as to who they are looking to bring to their respective clubs. Is Wenger just getting frustrated with Hleb but choosing to direct his ire towards Inter instead?
Michael Owen.has been a revelation for Newcastle United in recent weeks, including the brace that put Sunderland to the sword in Sunday’s north-east derby. The striker appeared to be a spent force after signing for the Magpies and promptly getting injured on a regular basis. However, six goals in his last seven matches indicates that this is far from the case.
Nevertheless, Setanta report that Owen’s future at St James’ Park is far from assured, with no new contract talks having taken place up to now.
“At the moment there is nothing on the table for me to consider so it’s hard for me to make a statement about my future. Discussions have not even started yet,” revealed Owen in the News of the World.
It’s a safe bet that Kevin Keegan will be getting his skates on by offering the former Liverpool and Real Madrid a lucrative contract that should keep Owen on Tyneside for the rest of his playing days. KK has already been praising him to high heaven in recent weeks, with the forward options of Owen, Viduka and Martins being the very least of Newcastle’s worries.
“When you’re in love with a football manager, it blows your mind,” goes the Dr Hook song (or something like that, anyway). The Times reports that, ahead of Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby, Sunderland manager Roy Keane has been positively glowing in his praise for Kevin Keegan. The Magpies boss endured a torrid start to his second managerial stint at St James’ Park, but three wins and a draw in the past four matches have seen any relegation fears erased and we can all sit down and watch a nice chilled out derby match – errrr.
“I was absolutely delighted to see Kevin go there,” the Irishman said. “I think a lot of people are losing their love for the game. I watched a reserve game the other night and it was shocking – people were just going through the motions. “You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of Kevin’s enthusiasm. I love that. I bumped into Kevin once or twice when he lived in Manchester very briefly. Football can get very robotic, but that’s not what you see with Kevin because he brings something different. I respect him. He’s got a great enthusiasm and I think that’s a vital component in any manager.”
There’s no doubt that it’s great to have Keegan back in the Premier League, although it did at first appear that he might have been out of his depth upon returning as manager. Victory against Fulham three weeks ago has really turned things round for him and the club and it will be interesting to see how he strengthens the squad in the summer.
Kevin Keegan today wildly lashed out at his critics like a Toon King Lear, and you have to be sorry for the man. Since he has taken over he has been bashed left right and centre, and yet he continues on with his ‘plans’ for Newcastle taking more hits than Rocky Balboa.
One of the main pieces of information that the press used to string KK up with was the fact that after he took the Toon hotseat he admitted that he hadn’t seen a live game since 2005 – and after months of press chortling about this KK has hit back:
“I don’t think being out of the game has had an effect. Yet until we win a game, people can fire anything at you.
“You should do a survey among managers who go to live games. Ask Arsene Wenger how many live games he watches. It would be interesting. I don’t know but I watched an awful lot of TV.
“I knew all about the players here obviously, I knew all about the players at Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal.
“There are the odd one or two — Wigan and places like that — when you do your homework a little bit more.There is no lack of knowledge and I have tremendous knowledge around me as well so I don’t think it matters.”
With fellow basement scrappers Fulham playing the Toon today, Kev has a great chance to get the press off his back and get his hands on the Holy Grail of three points.
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