Thursday, August 04, 2011

Swiss cheesed off *

Should ASBO leave Tyneside (looking marginally less likely this evening), then we're apparently hoping to replace him with Bayer Leverkusen's Tranquillo Barnetta. So let's just dip a toe in the water and hear how negotiations are going from the Swiss midfielder's British agent Barry McIntosh, shall we?

"As it stands there is not a hope in hell that he will be going to Newcastle. In fact I am angry at their attempts to do it, and behind my back also. They have made an approach, but their offer equates to somewhere in the region of £40,000-a-week - which is just ridiculous. Why on earth would Tranquillo move to Newcastle for less money? No offence to Newcastle, he would possibly consider going to Arsenal, Liverpool even Tottenham for less - but not Newcastle. They have known all along what it would take to land Barnetta and what he is earning now, and this sort of offer really does border on ridiculous."

Hmm.

(Incidentally, is anyone else slightly bemused at the idea of £40,000-a-week being "ridiculous" for being too little, rather than too much? Cue a moan about the good old days, jumpers for goalposts, when it were all fields etc etc.)

One player who definitely won't be taking up ASBO's position on the right side of midfield for the forthcoming season is Wayne Routledge, whose protracted transfer to Swansea has finally been completed. Let's just hope he doesn't embarrass Jose Enrique or whoever we have playing at left-back when we visit the Liberty Stadium...

* Well, it was either that or "A bee in his Barnetta"...

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4 Comments:

Blogger oldbobaycliffe said...

why should newcastle be expected to pay higher wages than arsenal liverpool or tottenham and as for going behind his back the correct way to sign a player is contact the players club first.if i was barnetta i would get rid of this idiot or at least remind him who is the player and who is the hired help

8:46 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hasn't it already been established this afternoon that this joker doesn't represent Barnetta at all?

9:04 pm  
Blogger Ben said...

If that's the case, Anonymous, I wasn't aware - can you point us to a source?

10:26 pm  
Anonymous PJ said...

Having seen Barnetta in action for Swiss national team & Bayer, suffice to say he's one of the best midfielders in europe. And he can drive a team forward single-handedly at times(ideal/better replacement for Nolan). Getting him for 6mil. is a steal. His wages can't be higher than 60-75k/week (in suros it's be ~75-85k). Pay his worth, get him in! As it is we are looking likely to field the weakest striker lineup in the history of EPL come mid-Aug!

12:15 pm  

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