Is someone telling porkies?
Posted on June 25th, 2011 | 27 Comments |
Micky Quinn sparked up a bit of a storm recently by saying that he knew through a third party that Arsenal have enquired about Joey Barton. To be fair he didn’t say what they’d enquired about and maybe Arsene just wants Joey to feed his fish while he’s on holiday, although it’s reasonable to assume Quinn was talking about Arsenal enquiring about Joey’s availability for transfer.
This caused much discussion – particularly on Gunners’ fan boards – about whether or not Barton’s Arsenal material, how much he would cost and suchlike and so forth.
On top of that we had the Journal claiming that Jonas Gutierrez was next for the chop and then – somehow – Coloccini was added in as a potential leaver for good measure.
Yet with all three of these players there’s very little in the way of evidence to suggest that they’re either for sale or have attracted interest from other clubs, and at the end of last week a flurry of reports appeared suggesting that Newcastle have received no enquiries about Barton, Coloccini and Gutierrez.
Mind you, that claim is not – as far as I can see – backed up by any real evidence either! The tabloids simply seem to ‘understand’ that such is the case, presumably via the use of Voodoo.
So someone’s telling porkies: either Quinn or the press or the informant or whoever. Or, to be kinder about it, what we’ve got here is a failure to communicate (to paraphrase ‘Cool Hand Luke’).
Which all goes to show that any and all of this speculation should be treated with a healthy pinch of salt. A lot of people find the speculation fun, particularly in the football-free off-season – and that’s fine – but we should never take it too seriously without substantial, confirmed quotes from people who are likely to know something approaching the truth.
So what of Barton, Coloccini and Jonas? I think a lot of the speculation comes about because of the club’s general policy of reducing wages and seemingly ‘rebooting’ the team with younger, mainly French players. But surely even Ashley must know there’s a balance to be had, mustn’t he?
So what do you think is the future for these three?
Will they leave or will they be here next season in black and white? If all three did go then – along with Nolan and possibly Enrique – we really will have ripped apart the core of last season’s team and whether that’s a good or bad thing remains to be seen.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
i think all 3 will be sold