Does Hughton want a Brazilian?

Posted on June 9th, 2010 | 109 Comments |

Fancy a Brazilian?
Fancy a Brazilian?
Don’t worry, I’m not going all namby-pamby on you all by discussing the merits of a certain under-beard style, you perverts. I am instead referring to a certain Brazilian footballer that Newcastle are apparently on the trail of.

Former West Ham striker, Ilan, was surprisingly released by The Hammers after playing quite a large role in their ultimately successful fight for Premier League survival last season, and Newcastle are apparently poised to swoop. The source for this little nugget of information is none other than Sky, so you can make your own minds up on just how much credibilty it deserves, although as the player is available for nothing then you would have to say that Sky have at least got the transfer value near enough spot on! Ilan netted four goals in eleven appearances last term, and a few of those appearances were from the bench, so that isn’t a bad record in all honesty.

I have to say that although he would be a freebie, he wouldn’t be a bad signing. Ilan has scored a goal every three games throughout his career, and that at least puts him level with the strikers we already have, in fact it probably makes him a bit more prolific than what we have right now.

Naturally, Ilan is a bit annoyed with his release from West Ham, and to be honest I was a tad surprised when I heard he had been let go as he always kind of impressed me whenever I happened to be watching West Ham on the TV.

“I did well in the Premier League and I was hoping to continue where I left off next season, but West Ham had other ideas, that’s football,” said Ilan. “I have a good record here and in France so I’m confident that a club in the UK or Europe will call my agent and I can get something sorted before training starts again.”

I think we could do far worse that go for Ilan. The striker has a bit of pace, a good work rate, and can also pull off a trick when he gets the chance to. Four goals doesn’t sound so impressive, but when you consider that they came in a struggling side in which he never really had the time to settle into, then it does look a bit better. In fact it would work out at around the fourteen-goal mark if he had the chance to play a whole season.

It would also improve an area of the team that desperately needs bulking up, in my opinion anyway, and Ilan has already demonstrated that he can be a useful addition in the Premier League.

For me, a move like this would be a no-brainer and we should try and get him signed up as soon as possible. Granted he is 29-years old, but if the club really don’t want to spend that much money in the transfer window, then they can ill afford to be so picky with particulars such as age.

What d’ya reckon?

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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109 Responses

  1. I’d like to see him in in place of Best. He is a chaser and is the sort of guy that if he had played a full season with a team that was not in trouble he would have scored another 10 goals at least and he’d be this transfer windows Santa Cruz. As he is free we could sign him for two to three years, he has premiership experience and if he performs really well he could make us some money and give us the year we need to give our younger strikers more premiership time.

  3. If he’s just been playing for west ham he was probably on big wages and might be expecting the same, if not a decent signing I think.

  4. Craig Leave Best alone you will upset everybody :)
    He’s still young,we never lost when he played blah blah blah.

  5. Granted he is 29-years old-What has happened to the under 26 plan?
    Surely it hasn’t changed again – NUFC Couldn’t plan a Cheese Flan :lol;

  7. worth a punt – but hardly likely happen!! expect signings that no-one has thought of – similar to what happened in January!

  8. According to my sources he was on £19,231 per week at West Ham, which works out at exactly £1m a year. ;)

  10. Haha – that is before tax, Jay Jay.

    If you’d like me to be a little more accurate though… it actually works out at £1,000,012 a year. ;)

  12. If we were to get him, what would we be doing with our other strikers? We have Best, Ameobi, Ranger, Carroll, Lovenkrands. With Ilan that’ll give us 6 strikers.

    We probably have a couple of options – Offload Best/Ameobi and loan out Ranger/Ameobi. I’d be pretty alright if Ranger, Carroll, Lovenkrands and Ilan were our 4 strikers… Good mix of youth and experience.

    Any thoughts?

  13. Haven’t seen enough of him to form an opinion, but why are West Ham releasing him, if he’s any good? They didn’t exactly have a good season did they?

    I wouldn’t gave thought they would want to let him go for nothing if he did well for them – Especially if he was only on 20k a week.

  14. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the kid play but assuming he’s half-decent judging by accounts, then he would appear to be good for the squad if his attitude is good.

    The main concern would be that we may end up with a lot of strikers who are much of a muchness. Without knowing that Carroll and Lovenkrands can take their form into the top flight and knowing what Ameobi has produced in the past, do we have that regular goalscorer we’ll need. I don’t think we are going to score as many goals from midfield in the Premiership, so we need a striker to hit 15-20 goals. Does this Ilan fella really fit that bill?

    There’s always Bestie I suppose…

  15. Best won’t be going anywhere til at least January, and rightly so. He’s only been here for 5 minutes.

    Anyone remember Jon Dal Tommasson? (not sure on spelling)

    I think Ranger will probably go out on loan – hopefully to a club with a tough manager who will knock some sense into him. Maybe he could walk Keano’s dog at Ipswich???

    I’d have no quarms about getting shot of Ameobi BUT ONLY if we got someone with a significantly better goalscoring record at the top level. Not sure this fella Ilan is that man.

  17. TC – despite you allegations(!!..), I’m quite a patient fella on the whole. Got to say though, I think I’ve seen enough of Best to make my mind up. Take your point on Tommasson but my feeling is that he was never right for the English game.

  18. “Aw went to Blaydon Races, ’twas on the ninth of Joon,
    Eiteen hundred an’ sixty-two, on a summer’s efternoon;
    Aw tyuk the ‘bus frae Balmbra’s, an’ she wis heavy laden,
    Away we went alang Collingwood Street, that’s on the road to Blaydon.”

  19. Maybe we could try and offer Best in a swap deal for Pato then Bowburn? ;)

  20. TC-if Milan don’t want him for pato then they’re fools and barca will nee doubt be waiting in the wings, they’ve already has bojan pack his back ;) haha

  22. Scary thing is, I only just about know who Pato is.
    I’m so out of touch…

  24. Best will not b sold get it into your heads, when ppl say they hav seen enough to make there mind whats that he didnt score if your judgin him on that then yea he was poor about as poor as ppls judgment for sayin hes crap jus coz he aint scored his actually all round play is very good he holds the ball up very well n has good first touch, n carroll n lovenkrands were worried enough bout losin there place to him coz most there goals came after he arrived, if am wrong ill hold my hands up but wit a good pre season n some goals under his belts ppl gonna c a different player n its most likey gonna b most nufc fans holdin there hands sayin they wrong not me but then again its typical nufc fans isnt he aint a big name signin so we giv him 5min to judge him n thats minds made up till he is hounded out, ranger will go out on loan we will sign a striker that leave us carroll, ameobi,best,lovenkrands, plus new striker n vukic n airey can play there since there gonna in the sqaud

  25. To be fair BBM, I first found out about him from playing Fifa on the Playstation!

    He is good in real life too tho :)

    It’s funny cos you can always tell the ones who play Fifa on here – there the ones who suggest we should sign people like Slobodan Itchyballsack from FC Whoareya ;)

  26. Best doesn’t look like a PL player to me. I disagree about his hold up play and first touch – The team lost alot of momentum when Best mis-controlled the ball in matches last season.

    Hope he proves us wrong, but he hasn’t impressed and he didn’t impress Coventry fans either – They have had longer to judge him than us.

  27. Didn’t impress “some” Coventry fans, Stu. He did, after all, score some vital goals for them, which must have pleased some people.

    Every club has a section of moaners, Stu – you of all people should know that.

    Imagine what Villa fans must have thought coming on Ed’s blog after we sold Milner* – they probably thought they’d signed… Leon Best! :)

    *for the record I was always one of JM’s staunchest supporters.

  28. Ok I should have been clearer, the majority of Coventry fans weren’t over impressed with him – They were absolutely delighted to get a couple of mil for him.

    “After all he scored some vital goals for them” – He scored 1 in 5 for them – In the Championship.

    Is that a scoring record of a good striker? Especially a PL striker, where he is now playing.

  29. Most of our plyers dont look like pl players according to ppl on here dosent stop most of them bein linked wit pl clubs though so if there good enough to go to other clubs how they not good enough to keep us up we will fine next season

  30. Best needs to go. People say he is young, but 23 isn’t that young for a footballer. His all round play is poor and he isn’t even that fast. Plus his goals record is only 1 in every 3-4 games, all in the lower leagues. His arrival stifled Ranger’s development as well.

    I’d take Ilan for nothing. Unfortunately in our current position these are the kind of signings we need to be making, players of decent quality for little to no money.

  31. davy says:
    June 9, 2010 at 10:09 am

    Just because their linked with PL teams doesn’t mean it’s fact! It’s called paper talk.

    I see Fulham have signed Senderos on a free transfer. Why weren’t we in for him? Or maybe we were…

    I would have thought he ticked all our boxes – Young, free and experienced to boot.

  32. Haha – sorry Stu, my bad. I had no idea you’d taken time to canvas the opinion of the “majority” of Cov fans :)

    He’s only a young lad and he scored around 10 goals for them in the first half of last season.

    Now, considering they finished just 7 points above the drop zone, I’d say they were pretty bloody vital. Wouldn’t you?

  33. So most coventry fans dont rate him that mean that we shud not giv the lad his chance n jus go off what they say we wil c a differnt player once scores goals n if is all round play is poor did he not get a couple of assits

  34. Toon Chicken says:
    June 9, 2010 at 10:13 am

    Just go on the Coventry boards and you’ll see, as it’s obvious you don’t want to take my word for it – Just ask them.

    But to be honest, I just don’t think he looks good enough. Is that allowed? His first touch looked poor, his finishing was poor, his movement in and out of the box was poor and his hold up play wasn’t great either.

    Is that fair enough? He might prove me wrong, I hope he does.

    It’s interesting that you haven’t really given any opinion of him – Youu just seem interested in disagreeing with me and trying to cause an argument.

    Fair enough if that’s how you get your kicks.

  35. There are plenty of examples of players who made the step up to the top flight from The Championship.

    But I think Best’s overall play leaves a lot to be desired to be honest. His touch isn’t great and his build-up play was similar to Xisco, get the ball and drop it off to someone. Which is great to have as part of your game but not the only thing. He’s clearly anxious in front of goal but the consensus appears to be that he’s not a natural goalscorer.

    I’m more than happy to be proved wrong but I won’t hold my breath and wouldn’t lose any sleep if we cut our losses on him.

  36. I’m not taking sides here but as I mentioned a while back, there’s a fairly level-headed and decent Cov supporer joined us about the same time we signed Best and he was pretty chuffed with the outcome.

  37. When we signed best Coventry fans came on to this blog and said he was shite, QPR fans said the same about routledge, and when he left most of us said the same about martins, notice a pattern stuart79?

  38. Nah, can’t say I agree with that jay jay. The subtle differences are that Routledge wasn’t performing consistently enough (which we may yet see) and Martins was essentially the same for us. Not their ability.

  39. I was actually having a conversation with toonie and BBM, Stu. That was until you came along and stuck your big ugly beak in. :)

    There’s little to be learned about a player from a bunch of fickle football fans AFTER he has left the club. Unless you’re talking about an absolute legend I’m sure most opinions sour when players walk out the door.

    Personally, from the little that I have seen of Best he hasn’t impressed me. But I still think it’s too early to judge him.

    I am smart enough to know that there have been plenty of players at the Toon who have been ridiculed in the past and then gone on to MUCH bigger and better things.

    All i’m saying is give the lad a chance – he deserves that at least.

  40. I share your opinion of him, not Prem class at all, but when someone leaves a club supporters of the former club only talk of weakness the player has. Leeds were the same with beckford and they wouldn’t of won promotion without his goals. We are all guilty of it I suppose.

  41. Martins was sh!te, Jay Jay. But at least he had plenty of time to confirm it! ;)

  42. Yep – Jay Jay – we’re making the same point about fans judging players after they’ve walked.

    For the record; take away Best’s goals from Coventry last season and they would have been relegated.

    I wonder how sh!te they think he is now? ;)

  43. Had some great games but missed loads of simple chances, shame really, the lad had ability IMO

  44. I think he had athletic ability, jay jay. Sadly he seemed bereft of even a modicum of footballing common sense.

  45. I remember everyone saying how sh1te Milner was when he left us, and Given.

    Mmmm…

  48. jay jay says:
    June 9, 2010 at 10:48 am
    I know stuart79 and they were clearly 2 of our beat players.

    I was being sarcastic.

  49. Toon Chicken says:
    June 9, 2010 at 9:19 am
    Best won’t be going anywhere til at least January, and rightly so. He’s only been here for 5 minutes.

    Anyone remember Jon Dal Tommasson?……..

    TC, how about adding Andreas Anderssen too?

    Any more who were shown the door at SJP and went on to be world class?

  50. Ilan vs Boyd huh? Ilan just shades it mebbes? Boyd’s lack of pace and potential attitude issues are a concern.

    Some interesting quotes from Chris yesterday:

    “Kris Boyd is a good player, but I can categorically say that there have been no talks at this stage. You never want to say 100% no, but it’s a non-starter at this moment.” Telegraph

    and

    “There are players out there who are available who we never expected to be available, so that changes your thinking as well.” Journal

    If he never expected them to be available, then it doesn’t seem like he could be talking free transfers (unless he means Ilan, thinking he’d be signing for WH?). It suggests the Journal quote might have some truth to it and we COULD spend a bit of cash (‘The Journal understands there is still a possibility a transfer fee could be paid if it is clear it represents a good deal for the club.) Let’s hope.

    Speculation I know, so I could well be over stretching it here! Seems he IS considering Boyd though, but could be more tempted by options elsewhere. Intriguing that he came out and mentioned him by name though. The Telegraph also called him a ‘boyhood Newcastle fan’.

  51. So you just side-step being proved wrong by making sarky comments. Cool 8-)

  53. Geordio – it’s pretty damned obvious he’s talking about Joe Cole ;)

    Shhhhh… divint tell the rags!!

  54. lesh says:
    June 9, 2010 at 10:58 am
    Stuart, Sarcastic [sic] is spelled with a k innit?

    Who cares?

  55. When he left didn’t people say givens inability to come off his line cost us too many goals stuart79?

  56. Going back to this Ilan fella – can anyone tell me what sort of player he is? Not interested in another big(er) lad type; but if he’s small, quick and knows where the goal is (two out of three ain’t bad, Oba) then he could make sense.

    I expect Ranger will go on loan in a last-ditch attempt to get his head on straight. The rest will stay until January, when either Best or Shola will go. That leaves us two big strikers and one quick(ish) one in Lover.

    So if Ilan fits the bill, doesn’t want too much dosh and has the right attitude (vital) then it would make sense.

    BUT

    He’s been linked to us in the press, therefore it won’t happen. That is the only transfer prediction method I’ve found to be reliable. :)

  58. jay jay says:
    June 9, 2010 at 11:07 am
    When he left didn’t people say givens inability to come off his line cost us too many goals stuart79?

    I don’t recall that to be honest. Given was one of the best.

  60. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    June 9, 2010 at 11:09 am
    Sarcastic is spelt with a ‘c’.

    Thanks CLiNT – I thought it unlikely I’d be wrong…

  62. He always got lobbed at free kicks, coming off his line too much then.

    Anyhoo, he’s a manc.

  68. Welcome to the kindergarten. Class opens approximately 50 posts after every article is published.

  69. lesh – people will always argue about the Tommasson thing but Andersson?!?! He was gash man.

  71. The problem with Tomasson was that we had no midfield and no creativity so he was bound to look useless. As for Andersson he looked Ok until he got near the box, which is not much use if you’re a striker. Martins gets a lot of stick from Toon fans, and while he was incredibly frustrating, he still scored a decent amount of goals for us

  73. Stuart-to be fair, I don’t think many people will have branded shay “sh!te”. Everyone knew how good he was and along with. Being disappointed, actually sympathised with him for asking to leave. As for milner, he’s came along way since he was with us. He certainly wasn’t international standard when he was at sjp, moving has helped him develop into the great player I’m sure alot of people knew he had the potential to be. I do agree with you though that fans seem to immediatly brand their hero’s as useless when they move on, happens at every club sadly. Look at smith, Leeds fans hate him and I don’t think he had much say in leaving them for man u.

  75. Gotta admit I couldn’t stand Allardyce’s brand of football-never have done,but the football under CH even at championship level reminded me of the Allardyce days sometimes.

    Do you think we will play some decent stuff in the prem or more of the same but concede more?

  76. Teams need time. Managers need time.

    At the beginning you have to play to your strengths.

    So unless you begin with Kaka, Messi and Ronaldinho it follows suit that you’re not going to play Total Football.

  77. Alladyce came here to build the club – That would have taken time.

    I believe he would have got it right, in the end.

    Ironically looking at our new found austerity, Alladyce would be be the ideal man to manage the club.

    Funny how things turn out.

  78. Allardyce has been in the game along time and has his brand of football that he sticks to TC,So it is not always a matter of time,playing to strengths.

  81. Stuart

    Allardyce was daft enough to alienate himself from his players when he did an interview on Sky when he was asked if he was happy with the players at his disposal, Answering “not really but i cant do anything until january”

    If he was smart he would have played 442 with Martins up top, Milner on the right, Zog on the left wing and Enrique at left back, Also dropping his ridiculous defensive midfield of Butt, Smith and Geremi, Had he played everyone in the correct positons and mixed up the play a bit more, The spotlight would have fell on the team and not him should the shite results continue.

    He may well have bought himself some time and had at least another transfer window to bring in more players.

  82. When you have David Cameron saying it yesterday on every news channel it no longer is conspiracy Stu,unless you like Kool Aid with your Amstel. :lol:

  83. CC says:
    June 9, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    He stuck to what worked or him at Bolton. We didn’t have world beaters so he had to do what he had to do. Considering he bought Enrique as ‘one for the future’ he had to play Nzogbia there.

    We know now that there wasn’t any money to spend in January.

    Hindsight and all that…

  85. Anyway,
    so long as we have a “strong & stable” government, hey?
    Pppffffttt!

  88. lol didn’t realise there were economic conspiracy theorists amongst you lot!

    But… it is FOR SURE at least a TOTAL SCAM if not a conspiracy! The political/ banking cartel have fuelled a massive bubble, then bailed out the banks with OUR MONEY, who are now barely having to see a hit on their BONUSES. Now the public finances are screwed, WE have to pay for all this mess with OUR TAXES, all whilst they print more cash, creating inflation to clear further debt, DESTROYING the value of ANY £££ we’ve managed to save. To rub it in they then charge us Capital Gains Tax on any currency gain we make by trying to switch savings to a safer currency. Fecktards!

    *Ahem… really sorry, I know this is thoroughly off topic and will wind some of you up lads, but it really gets my goat! Besides it kinda relates to present football financial troubles, not least our own.

    erm… Sign Ilan! ;)

  89. There’s a reason why players are available on free transfers…

    After one last pay day (Big wages) or;

    Their sh1te!

  92. Wants a massive salary rise – That much is clear. Chelsea offered him £85k, which obviously isn’t enough.

  93. So was that clear before they let his contract run down?
    There’s plenty of money out there, so he shouldn’t have much bother getting a raise.

  94. ‘Casa St James’s’ – Allardyce, no matter what anyone thinks in football terms, is a COMPLETE C**T!!! %@$*&*!

    erm… DON’T sign Ilan!

  95. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    June 9, 2010 at 1:24 pm

    He wanted £100k a week apparently. He’s on £80k but Chelsea only prepared to offer extra £5k.

    I don’t think he’ll have too much trouble getting his £100k a week – Arsenal, Man Utd, Spurs and City will all offer him that I reckon.

  97. Not too greedy then?
    Good luck to him.
    Poor lad.
    Though i don’t see manu giving him that.
    & anyway, he’ll wanna stay in london, won’t he?

  100. Thing is CLiNT, any of the top four clubs will pay him that because there’s no transfer fee involved I guess.

    I think he’ll end up at either Arsenal or Spurs.

  101. Allardyce’s football was dreadful. Much as it pained me, I was comfortable with the notion of giving him some time. But I was never convinced he would change his style and with results going against us, I have to say I was relieved when he went.

  102. I think Joe Kinnear still has unfinished business and heard he is recovering well getting himself in shape for when big Mick sacks CH at xmas when we are in the bottom 3 :lol:
    He signed that “lucrative” contract but it doesn’t kick in ’til Late december.

  103. Stuart79 says:
    June 9, 2010 at 11:12 am

    CLiNT FLiCK says:
    June 9, 2010 at 11:09 am
    Sarcastic is spelt with a ‘c’.

    Thanks CLiNT – I thought it unlikely I’d be wrong…”

    And the winner of the ‘first to bite’ competition?

    CLiNT…….!

    Oh, in some places, the ‘h’ is silent in booth!

  104. lesh,
    nyam nyam nyam.

    Stuart,
    aye, he’ll stay dooth sooth.
    If i was them i’d offer him a measly £86k.

  106. You’re turning into a real comedian, SJT.

    Bottom 3, Hughton sacked… got any more for us – i’m in stitches here! :roll:

  107. Hang on a minute…

    Allerdyce. Famed for his ability to get Bolton to fight above their weight. How?

    By signing older, experienced players that he could get relatively cheaply because otherwise they’d have to drop a division.

    How far off our new model can you get?? His route only works for a limited amount of time and builds absolutely nowt for the future.

    Also, I believe a manager has to be suitable for the particular club, and his brand of footie was as far off what NUFC is all about as it’s possible to get.

    So yes, it was a silly and expensive decision to lose him, but the right one if you’re Ashley and you have his approach in mind.

    Oh, and Sam’s a corrupt git who produced rubbish football and was failing to get results even at home to the bottom teams.

  108. Should we sign Ilan?, who the f**k knows, just another name on what appears to be an interminable list.

    I havent forgot those who claimed Seamus used to hoof it up the field, could`nt arrange the defenders and was useless on set pieces.

    They were the same ones who, bemoaned that Duff ran around in circles, and that N`Zog was an arrogant ….. though they had never met him , relying on stories from the tabloids.

    BSA, was`nt hired by Ashley and two big dogs at the same club aint gonna get it done.
    Sam was known for his expansive back room people, tv and stat`s. guys, plus an enormous physio crowd.
    So when the fans started getting on his back , it was Ashleys excuse to dump him and his entourage.
    Got no problem with that, not exactly a fan of Sam Ball.

    SJT
    Interesting read, who knows what`s in store for us on the economic/social front.
    For sure the final shoe has yet to drop, there`s no improvement on the economic front and I expect things to get worse.
    Globalism and it`s exponents are under fire, resulting in such things as The tea Party and incumbents being kicked out of office regardless of party, here in the US.
    Working and middle classes are enraged by the attitude of the bankers and the fact though they have received enormous sums from the treasury, continue to use it to provide bonuses for themselves.
    Afraid there will be social unrest and crime always rises during periods of high unemployment.
    My solution, easy, eat the rich !

  109. chuck says:
    June 9, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    “resulting in such things as The tea Party”

    The Tea Party’s nothing new, they’re the gets who used to do all the lynchings. Is there nothing anyone can do to get them out the gene pool over there?