Mike Ashley – Still playing a percentage game on transfers

July 26th, 2012 | 35 Comments |

Most are told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing to quote Shakespeare. In terms of what is verifiable, the club have made a few derisory bids and have rattled a few cages in the hope of unsettling players, possibly in the hope they will submit a transfer request, or even go on strike to force a move at a price which is way below the market. The most recent examples being a €5 million (£3.9 million) for Yohan Cabaye’s former Lille team mate, Mathieu Debuchy, a French International left back who is now valued at around £9-10 million since the recent European Championships where he impressed, another €5 million bid for Ajax’s Dutch International midfielder, Vurnon Anita, and a highly confusing chase for another Dutch player, FC Twente centre back, Douglas Franco Teixeira. Indeed, the pursuit of Douglas has been so confusing that even Twente’s chairman, Joop Munsterman, was led to remark, “It’s unclear precisely what Newcastle and Douglas want.” Perhaps he doesn’t know what one UK banker said of Mike Ashley, that “He likes to park his tanks on people’s lawns.” Whilst there have been reports of higher bids in some quarters of the media, they have not been substantiated, just “understood” or “suggested,” which can be media speak for “complete and utter guff.” Now of course, the latest attempt to park his tanks has been has been a concerted and brazen attempt by his manager Alan Pardew to unsettle Andy Carroll at Liverpool, with Pardew assuring Carroll that he has no future at Liverpool and that the Merseyside club must let him go at a much reduced fee, preferably to the club who sold him in the first place. (more…)