O/Brien signs!!!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Unofficial Newcastle United Football Club BBS : One Thread

Taken from MDAS

Andrew O'Brien has completed a £2m move to Newcastle United.

The 21-year old Harrogate born defender and his father met with Geoffrey Richmond and Jim Jefferies at the Bradford & Bingley Stadium on Friday afternoon when they were advised that an offer had been received from Newcastle United.

Jefferies passionately told O'Brien that he did not want him go and the Chairman confirmed that he wanted to enter into negotiations for a new substantially enhanced contract to keep O'Brien at Valley Parade.

O'Brien however understandably felt that his International prospects would be improved with a move to St. James' Park and reminded Geoffrey Richmond of a promise made more than two years ago when it was stated that if the opportunity came, the club would not be unreasonable and stand in his way.

Under the circumstances surrounding the transfer, the club hopes that the supporters will fully understand Andrew O'Brien's position in which basically we have been left with no choice but to let the player realise his ambition.

Said Chairman Geoffrey Richmond: "I have seen every one of Andrew O'Brien's 150 games for Bradford City and in many ways this is the most difficult transfer I have had to sanction but can only wish him every success in the future and very much hope that he makes a great success in his football career both at Newcastle United and on the International stage."

Jim Jefferies continued: "Whilst it is true that a number of players have departed from Valley Parade in recent months, this departure is different to all others in that I desperately wanted him to stay but in all of the circumstances there was nothing at all which could be done to keep the lad at Bradford City."

Speaking from home last night, Andrew O'Brien told us: "I shall be for ever grateful to Bradford for giving me the opportunity and would like to thank the Chairman for keeping his word and thus giving me the chance to fulfill my International ambitions. I would also like to thank the supporters of the club who have always been fantastic towards me. Bradford City will always be close to my heart."

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Answers

......dippedy do.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Good Luck lad, many will be expecting you to become part of a defence which keeps a clean sheet for the first time in months.

Are we to assume that if O'Brien comes into the team, he will displace Caldwell? If so we are short of height at the back because Hughes and O'Brien are below 6 football I believe.

Is the all round defendsive ability moviong away from the aerial threat? How many centre forwards apart form Dunc, Les and Quinn can offer that threat?

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


I cannot believe we've turned into a coventry style team. It wasn't that long ago we were attacting big name players and were actually being taken seriously as a football club. I hope we don't turn into a 'Man. City'. Oh, we are a big club, honest guv.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

yup who'd have paid out for the paltry sum that it cost them to sign Hutchison or McCann or even the munchkin himself

It may be money well spent, if we keep a clean sheet and therefore get another point this season then I'll be happy

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


We've signed the wrong player IMHO, should have been Molenaar. He's

more like what we need, a commanding center half who can play a bit.

And he's a big bastard as well.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001



The official club site has two lines on the signing. They recognise our need for a big centre half by claiming he's 6'3. Rothmans have him at 5'10, I wonder which one is right ?

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Mac, maybe there just stretching the truth a bit. Aswell as the player!

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

He's 5'10" on soccerbase as well. Maybe he was wearing one of those Guinness hats on Saturday.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Perhaps NUFC have a database problem and were looking at the historic stats for Liam O'Brien ;-P

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

I suppose that if we continue to use the frame of reference that makes us bigger than Barca and our ground the best in the World, we shouldn't be surprised if he was reinvented as 7' tall.

Previous interesting claims had Steve Harper aged 4 years prematurely and Given lose 2 inches in height since he signed.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001



mebbes someone's been back to that brothel in marbella and their measuring devices got all out of kilter......ahem....

;-)

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


"I never take it for granted that I'm going to be picked for Newcastle, but if I am picked that day it will be very strange for me," added O'Brien.

Strange is an understatement. The way our defence plays you'll think you are still playing for Bradford.

At least he will know the Bradford side inside out, which is a bit much to play for a scouting report!!

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


Let's just hope he doesn't get confused and start doing Bradford any favors!

Previous interesting claims had Steve Harper aged 4 years prematurely and Given lose 2 inches in height since he signed.

Is that a surprise given the defense in front of them? ;-))

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


Cut 'n' pasted from one of the BCFC bbses:

We have all watched OB these past few years can anyone really say that he has become the player we all hoped he would be. For me he has always been inconsistent and continues to make silly errors like the goal he gave away at Ipswich, his back pass to Walsh for the ManU game,the own goal at Sheff.Wed last season.People say he is only a young lad but so is Cole and Carrick who really showed that OB was out of his depth against West Ham.For me OB was to nice a person to be at Centre Back,he lacked the kind of aggression that a Tony Adams or Dean Richards has and many a time when he brought the ball out of defence you expected him to develop a nose bleed. At best he is a good 1st Division player maybe Robson will get out of him something more. I hope for OB's sake he does.But Mick McCarthy is a good judge of player and he continues to pick 1st Div. players over OB for the R of I team.In the meantime I think 2m is good business.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


more of the same then?

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


I'll wait until I see him play for us before I make any judgement. The Bradford fan may be looking for weaknesses in his game which he will undoubtedly have for such a young man.

When Goma left, some people on here started to criticise him about his concentration so I wouldn't read too much into this.

Another signing in the "One for the future" category but with the two Caldwell's it is slightly perplexing.

The Robson signings with the exception of Bassedas and Acuna all seem to be young promising talent which will be complimented by better players when Robson spends in the summer.

These players which we are now looking to for the great performances will be required to do the steady thing next season whilst the new guys will be the ones expected of.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


To my recollection, most of the people who criticised Goma did it before he left - and they were accurate.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Maybe a bad example chosen by me but we all knew he was leaving sometime in the near future.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

I don't like to critisice players before they've had a few games . But yesterday we were told we would be signing Rivaldo quality players and today we get a lad who no one else was interested in even at £1.5 million. Do we really need any more squad players?

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Exactly, Rik. As Jim Royle might say - "Big club, my arse"

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Playing devil's advocate here...

Who thought anything of Marcus Stewart when Ipswich signed him? How many goals has he gotten this season?

Jaap Stam...10mil pound tree trunk, everyone laughed.

Sami Hyppia...who? ha ha ha, Houllier.

Marion Pahars....??? And he's got a girl's name too.

Shay Given has not been first choice for Ireland in nearly a year, but he's not a bad player and we'd have no problems getting a good price for him if we sold him

Not trying to say O'Brien is going to turn out as good a player as those mentioned above, but maybe we shouldn't jump on the kid's back until he's played a few matches. Course trying to shine in this team right now isn't going to be easy. The last thing he needs is supporters labelling him a failure before he's even pulled on the shirt.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


That's true Ciara, but also remember that Stam took a good three months before he did anything of mention at Man Utd, so "a few games" may be a little too few to judge him.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

£98 Million left as O'Brien signs

Yesterday Douglas Hall stated that he intends to put up to £100 million into Newcastle United so that the club can buy the best players available . Today Bobby Robson put the wheels in motion by splashing out a wopping £1.5 million (plus another £500k appearance money) for Irish U21 International Andy O'Brien. Newcastle headed a host of clubs clamoring for the the signature of one of the best young defenders in the world. Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United were all said to be interested in the player, but dropped out of the running when Newcastle tabled the massive bid. O'Brien signed a lucrative 5 year contract before flying out to Cyprus to link up with his Irish team mates. Meanwhile Newcastle are believed to be in a race against time to beat the transfer deadline for yet another world class player. Having already snapped up Wayne Quinn from Sheffield United for an earth shattering One Million pounds. Newcastle are returning to Sheffield , but this time to Hillsbourgh . This time they will have to battle against Juventus , Andlelect and Inter Milan for the signature of hotshot Gilles De Bilde. The 29 year old Belgian ace was on loan at Villa earlier in the year but the unambitious midlanders backed out of a permanent deal when a £2 million price tag was mentioned. Newcastle with their new found wealth and ambition won't be put off by the hefty price tag. "We are determined to bring in the best " stated Douglas Hall "Newcastle United can attract any player from anywhere in the world. In my opinion we're already bigger and more financially stable than the likes of Barcelona." Certainly after signing the likes of Quinn, O'Brien and the likely addition of De Bilde, Newcastle have made it clear which direction they are moving in.

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001


Methinks Douglas has spent too long in the sun. What he meant to say is that he's going to spend 100,000,000 pesetas.That'll explain the quality of our recent signings. I hope I'm wrong but watching Ipswich against Bradford recently on Sky, I noticed that the Ipswich forwards ran rings around O'Brien for most of the second half.I can remember thinking "Oh God I hope we don't sign him. Wendy

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2001

Well, we have singed him, so we need to give him a fair chance, which we will.

The problem I have with the signing is that it doesn't appear to address any of our major needs. The lad is certainly not the commending centre half we desperately need, and from what I've seen of him he looks a quiet lad - probably a decent sort - who is unlikely to be a defensive organiser either.
In truth, he looks a very similar player to Aaron Hughes, and Gary Caldwell - who is not far from challenging for the first team. Indeed, O'Brien's signing could now retard Gary Caldwell's progress.

I guess it's a case of grabbing a good young player at a reasonable price when one becomes available, but I'm afraid it smacks of TSM's "six left-backs syndrome" to me!

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ