Only ONE winner in Newcastle and Chelsea Ivorian swap?
If you remember, in the summer I touted the possibility of a swap deal between Newcastle United and Chelsea, with the Magpies getting Daniel Sturridge and a big chunk of cash in return for having to part with Cheik Tiote. Fast forward a few months and Sturridge is a pretty important part of Chelsea’s set up, but with Michael Essien still on the treatment table, their interest in Tiote hasn’t waned. So, now I’d like to propose a different swap deal, an Ivorian for an Ivorian, Cheik Tiote for Salomon Kalou.
Cue howls of disbelief and Newcastle fans saying “do you mean Salomon Kalou? That Chelsea flop who can’t find the back of the net to save his life? The man who spends more time warming the bench than he does on the pitch?” Yep, he’s the man I’m talking about, but before you write off the 26-year-old, let me tell you why I think it could be a good move and then you can make up your own minds about whether he could resurrect his career at Newcastle.
Rewind five years and Kalou was one of the hottest prospects in the Dutch league, resulting in Chelsea splashing out just shy of £10 million on him. However, it’s never really quite worked for Salomon at Stamford Bridge. He’s shown flashes of brilliance yes, but those have been few and far between and for an attacking player, his goal record of 1 in 4 isn’t anything to write home about. He has stagnated at Chelsea and wants more first team football, something he could get at Newcastle.
He fits the bill in terms of Newcastle’s transfer policy, being a player who has gone off the boil a bit, but is still young enough to recapture previous form and play at the top for plenty more years. Given Chelsea’s wealth of attacking talent, the Magpies may be able to get him on the cheap, something that can’t be said of Tiote. Due to Newcastle’s position in the table and Tiote’s long-term contract, the Magpies are right where they want to be in any future negotiations and will be able to demand big bucks.
In an ideal world Newcastle would keep hold of Cheik Tiote, but we all know that money talks for Mike Ashley and if he was presented with an offer that was too good to turn down then he’d probably take it. A deal of around £15m and Kalou would probably represent that and with Chelsea in a little bit of disarray, then they’ll be desperate to get their man. That’s a position that Newcastle can take advantage of and if Tiote was to leave at least then there’d be a positive to it as well.
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November 23rd, 2011
£10m + Sturridge or no deal
November 23rd, 2011
We are in 3rd place because of talent like mr t. sell him and we never going to progress. but our club owners only interested in money i think. how sad. cant take it with you mikey.
November 24th, 2011
In my earlier post i forgot to mention, that in all likely hood this tiote to Chelsea speculation is nothing more than pure an utter shite drummed up by some half arsed sports journalist, so he can fill some space in the back pages of the rag he writes for. There’s always plenty of mileage in a story that involves Newcastle, because as we all know from past experience’s people just love to hear some gossip when it has anything to do with the Black & White part of the northeast.
November 24th, 2011
Well its a non-starter for me, Kalou is an ok striker but not worth our best MF to date, plus the rumours now is that Manc Citey are also interested in Tiote & willing to offer £20m too… so lets see which multi-billionaire is willing to get the man.. I say slap a £40m, no make that £50m release clause on Tiote right now & se who comes looking then… lol lol lol
November 24th, 2011
If nothing else we can be sure that Ashley won’t be taken for a mug. If there is one he knows its the cost of things including his own players so he’ll squeeze every last pound out of the deal.
We just have to hope he then spends some of it on the team!
November 24th, 2011
Tiote is my favorite player, I would be satisfied if we got Sturridge for him. Solves our striker problem which is crucial. We may not get another midfielder like Tiote but he could be replaced. Plus our midfield is pretty good. We cant just rely on Tiote or maybe we have been doing that too much anyway. A decent midfielder is cheaper than a top striker.
November 24th, 2011
What a joke now way would we do this, it would be like david ngog to bolton :L
November 24th, 2011
I think Chelsea are going to be another Arsenal soon anyway, regular top 4 finishers and qualifiers for Champions League but no trophies coz I think Man Utd and City are going to be sharing those between them.
I don’t think Tiote will want to go, he seems genuinely settled and happy to stay at Newcastle, look at how well Modric is doing at Spurs since they fought Chelsea off with an even bigger offer (which I think is firmly in Ashleys mind, £35m offer for Modric) the same money as Carroll and that happened to be Pardews reference.
I hope they do ring and ask and Lambastard tells them to f**k off and slams the phone down… and they don’t ring back like Liverpool did
January 22nd, 2013
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January 22nd, 2013
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