Monday, February 21, 2011

Quote of the day*

"It is flattering that Liverpool are interested. I've also heard that Manchester United and Aston Villa have asked about me. They are both big teams and I'm not closing the door on anyone. I'm ambitious and want to play in the Champions League. I want to win things. I'm OK at Newcastle but I aspire to more. I love the fans here and suffered with them when we were relegated. But we have to be realistic. Newcastle aren't performing well."

Jose Enrique's alleged comments to a Spanish journalist, as reported by the Sun. He's since issued the standard defence - namely, that what he actually said has been taken out of context and grossly misrepresented.

It's a difficult one to call, this. On the one hand, as I've said before, it's no surprise that Champions League clubs might be sniffing around given the level of his performances over the last season and a half, and no doubt knowing you're in demand is flattering. However, the comment about us not performing well just doesn't ring true - fair enough, the actual results haven't been great since Christmas, but the displays have been largely good and deserving of better points rewards - so it's to be hoped this is primarily media mischief-making.

Meanwhile, Fraser Forster made amends for his recent red card against Rangers in the Scottish Cup by keeping a clean sheet as Celtic strode to a 3-0 win and an eight-point advantage over their Old Firm rivals at the top of the SPL. It was a good weekend for a couple of our other loanees too, with Ben Tozer scoring Northampton's goal in a 1-1 draw with Aldershot and fellow defender James Tavernier playing his part in a 7-2 romp for Gateshead at Wrexham. Among the Heed's scorers was Martin Brittain, who's been plying his trade there since 2009.

And finally, there's a review of the book to which Paul and I contributed, Pay As You Play, up on The Two Unfortunates. While Gershenkron flags up the limitations of the Current Transfer Purchase Price as a measurement (it can't take into account wages, for instance), his verdict is largely favourable.

* Well, last Friday, at least.

Labels: , ,

Share

1 Comments:

Blogger Michael said...

Interesting that Pardew revealed wages would now be counted up front in Newcastle's transfer dealings. Something to ponder when we're spending the Andy Carroll cash this summer.

9:27 am  

Post a Comment

<< Home