From BBC

Kieron Dyer is warning Newcastle United he will leave unless the club buy big. The Manchester United target said he needed assurances manager Bobby Robson would make top-quality signings before he would put pen to paper on a new deal at St James' Park.

The £20m-rated 22-year-old said Newcastle need to be ambitious and challenge for a European spot.

If I can achieve my ambitions with Newcastle then I'll be delighted to stay Kieron Dyer He told The Sun: "Newcastle have been linked with a lot of big names and we need four or five top-quality signings if we are going to challenge for Europe. "If they don't come up with them then I'll have to meet the manager and the chairman to see what is going on.

"I am a very ambitious person and I want to win things in my career.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Answers

Just as well he's not a foreigner. The gravitas and dignity of a straight-talking Brit would be entirely absent in a backsliding Johnny.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Just spotted your email address toon expat, nice to start the day with a smile.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Agree totally, Softie.

If he wasn't one of us he'd just be another mid-field whinger.

But why can't we have a decent left whinger?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Thanks, Tony.

But an object lesson in not choosing your email address when full of Barolo - inhibitions no longer effective.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

I would like to think it would depend on what "Johnny" was saying, Softie.
When he says publicly that he dreams of playing for Real Madrid, and would crawl all the way to the Bernabau if it were possible, then I find that deeply offensive when he is being paid very handsomely to play for us. I find it offensive because it doesn't need to be said, especially to the media - unless he is trying to engineer his dream to come alive, which of course he is.

When Kieron Dyer says....
"Newcastle are a massive club and we should be buying the top players and starting to fulfil our potential. They are a great club with a wonderful fan base. I just hope they show the ambition that I crave, and the supporters want as well."
...... he is only saying what we have all said. Personally, I warmly welcome him saying this ahead of time - rather than buggering off and then slagging the Club off which is what countless others have done.

To me it says he cares about the Club, and I for one warmly applaud him for publicly demonstrating that.
Let's just hope someone/anyone at SJP is listening.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Off topic toon expat, but do you think you are going to do to Roma what Lazio did to you last season? Couldn't believe they made Napoli look competent!

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Well, the storm clouds continue to gather over young Master Dyer. Does anybody still think we can possibly hang onto him? A few days ago, lots of you were saying how big a test of the club this was, how the board would bottle it and sell, proving how small-time they really are.

But I noticed that nobody posted an answer on how they can just carry on refusing to sell in the light of this stuff. Or whether you can give an example of another club pulling off this trick, faced with a player determined to go. Anybody?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

The board will probably haul Dyer in now and say, "What the hell do you think we've been trying to do for the last month? We are in negotiations with A, B, C and D about signing for the club!"

Dyer will hopefully get the picture and walk away satisfied that the club are trying to get the right players in. Certain things will be out of the hands of the club when trying to sign players but as long as they do all they can, then can we ask any more. They will not baulk at wages and probably transfer fees but the fact is we're not in Europe and no matter how much you try to convince some players that will always be remembered.

Do we want to entice players here purely on money? It hasn't worked out in the past has it. The hardest thing Robson has to do now is sign some more promising players who will improve next year and take us into Europe and become quality players. It is not going to be easy to attract the big name players.

It may all work out for the best but for now I can't see Dyer signing a new contract. Frustrating times!

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

I think so. Despite all the big clubs in Europe forever knocking at his door, all sorts of underhand methods being emplyed t upset him, Newcastle have managed to keep hold of Gary Speed, so yes, it is possible.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

He's not determined to leave the club. He wants to see a successful Newcastle United side and is saying nothing different to Shearer, Hughes and Harper at the end of the season, but they weren't lambasted. He wants the same as us. We see the need for quality and so does everyone else.

Robson and the Board are not stupid and they see the need for better players, give them some bloody credit. The unfortunate thing about Dyer's statement is that it now adds fuel to the already burning speculation but in reality he's saying nothing different to us and other players.

It won't have an effect on who the board are trying to sign, they will know that Dyer wants to be successful, just like the majority of the players.

All it may do is hurry the process up slightly but as long as it doesn't involve premature press releases about players we haven't signed then there shouldn't be too much harm.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

".....as long as they do all they can, then can we ask any more?"

Well yes, I would suggest we can DeB. The present Board are managing the 2nd biggest supported Club in one of the four major Leagues in Europe, and the Club with the 2nd biggest turnover.
Managed properly there is no earthly reason why we shouldn't be competing with Manure, Liverpool and Arsenal for the biggest names and the biggest prizes.

So, why should we continue to accept mediocrity and third best as being acceptable. It isn't acceptable - FULL STOP.

If the present regime aren't capable of managing for success then they should f*** off and let someone else try!!!

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Okay then, how many new players, that didn't play for us last season, will sign before July 7th ?

I'll go for 1.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Clarky,

The angle I was coming from was can we/the club realistically expect to sign World Class players when we aren't in Europe? We could throw money at them but if they really are World Class then we have to be realistic enough to admit that we haven't a hope of signing them.

So we have to go for players that are quality that haven't been really discovered yet and that is always a risky situation.

What else could happen?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Classic first sign of a player wanting to move to a "BIGGER" club.

I douubt if he'll play again for us in a competative match.

Nicely timed, waiting till after the season ticket renewals date has passed

Twat.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Rik, do you think Shearer, Harper and Hughes are twats as well?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Difference with Shearer, Harper and Hughes is that none of the 'bigger' clubs wants to sign them. They won't ever do better than be with us. Same with everyone in the team at the moment.

Only Dyer and Solano are being viewed as potential transfer targets by any other side. If Dyer left we'd be a one man team in other teams' eyes, and often he'll be off playing for his country.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

No no no. Gary Speed won't do at all. You have to tell me somebody who is actually wanted by a some top clubs, who starts talking like this, and who is successfully held onto by the original club.

I can actually think of one - Roy Keane. And even they had to give him a pretty substantial pay rise to do it (never mind the prospects of endless CL football to come, which we can't exactly credibly match).

Any others?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Footballers are payed to play football, They shouldn't talk to "THE SUN" . Indeed they should keep their mouths shut if they are unhappy.

I don't recall Shearer/ Harper saying the club lacks ambition. Which is what Dyer is basically saying. He knows that this comment will fuel speculation so he should have said NOWT. I am very disapinted in him.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Similar comparison could be drawn with Viera at Arsenal. He has said basically the same thing as Dyer and has also recently said he wants Pires to play alongside him in the centre of midfield.

Arsenal have Champions League football and they will struggle to hold onto Viera if he wants to leave. Do we gag all the best players in the world and only let the mediocre ones talk who no other teams want? If WE do that the papers would be full of our players spouting crap, oh sorry they normally are anyway!

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

I expect a 'Muder One' type 'Withdrawn statement from Dyer later on this afternoon.

Sow the seed then say you never planted it in the first place!

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

What the Club have to do is sign a few players who will materially improve and deepen the squad. This is not rocket science - it is what they are there for. Either they can do it, or they can't. If they can't, then they shouldn't be there.

I've been consistently saying since December - when the injury crisis first struck us - that good players are changing clubs every week, while we sit on our hands doing nowt, procrastinating. And still it goes on.

It seems nothing is going now to happen until the Jeffers situation is resolved. If that takes another 3-4 weeks, then another 3-4 weeks will be wasted. 3-4 weeks in which many other good players will have changed hands. Meanwhile, our glaring weaknesses at FB, CH, LW, CM/F remain just that, glaring weaknesses.

I don't believe what is happening has anything to do with the ST deadline, or anything as Machiavellian as that - it is all down to management competence, or the lack thereof.

If the Club fail to sign the players necessary to materially improve the squad ahead of pre-season preparation then I for one would not blame YKD for bogging off - why should he waste his career here in the same way Alan Shearer has?

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Clarky, what sort of Good players are you talking about? Seriously.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

"If they don't come up with them then I'll have to meet the manager and the chairman to see what is going on. "

Don't ignore the most important quote in this interview. That is a thinly veiled threat that if we don't sign what he considers to be good enough players then he will want a transfer. That's not just wishful thinking about how he would like it be, it's blackmail.

He either said it, as it is in quotation marks and does not seem to have been taken out of context, or the paper have made this up in which case Messers Grabbit and Sueyourarse should be retained post haste.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

That is for the Club, in discussion with Bobby Robson to decide - young developing players, Geordies/Brits, established foreigners or cut-price imports, world-class internationals - whatever. That is their job at NUFC; they must decide what the mix is, and who they should target, consistent with how much brass they have at their disposal.

I know you will believe I am trivialising the problem, but really I'm not. The world is full of professional footballers, the vast majority of which are better than what we already have. This is Toon Management's close season project - to be planned and executed as you would be expected to carry out projects in your job.

As long as the squad is materially improved and deepened, we don't really care - we just want them to get on and do the bloody job for crying out loud - before my eyes start bleeding!

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

We really know nothing about what the club are trying to do with regard to signing players. With agents working the way they do that is probably the best option although it is as you say more frustrating for the fans.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Dyer has three years left on his contract. If he wants out that he is no different to Hamann (who was apparently a filthy, dirty Jorman Judas - despite listing all sorts of perfectly reasonable objections to the way our club is run) or Didier Domi (who was a vile, garlic- munching backstabber however limited his first team options had become). Now we are presented with some sort of rationale for this selfsame backsliding on the part of another player, and the only difference in these cases is the players' nationalities.

Don't try to dress him up as some Tolpuddle Martyr. This lad bailed out of his home town club to seek fame and fortune with us. Anybody who offers him more of those than we do will get his signature. What do you really expect from someone who celebrates becoming a Dad by filming himself getting stuck up some teenager? No moral fibre whatsoever. Don't waste your time trying to project any onto his conduct.

[There, who said it was too quiet on here? ;-)]

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

.......... and the players, apparently.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Domi and Goma both left, saying that we lacked ambition. Shearer has repeatedly said that we need to spend as have Harper and Solano. Speed and Barton have both said that keeping Dyer and Solano is probably contingent upon buying. Dyer is absolutely right in what he says. Whether he should have said it is another matter because it makes him look like he's blackmailing us and that he has got tall poppy syndrome. Kieron should remember some of the games he played crap in and that game he got sent off in, games which contributed to a crap season and which kept us out of Europe, making it difficult to get good players.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

As expected, the denial has been issued

Dyer said in a statement: "I would like to set the record straight after quotes which appeared in this morning's Sun newspaper, which were completely misinterpreted. "I am proud to say I am totally committed to Newcastle United Football Club, and especially to Bobby Robson, who has been an inspiration not just to me but to everybody at this club. "I have three years left on my Newcastle contract and I intend to spend them helping the club win the trophies it so richly deserves. "All the players, including me, desperately want to win a major competition - not just for Bobby, but also for our marvellous fans." Manchester United and Leeds may well have tried to rule themselves out of the running for the signature of the £20m rated 22 year old, but speculation continues. A whole host of contintal sides, most recently Inter Milan and Roma, have been linked with a swoop for the former Ipswich player

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

The point is not that there are no better players out there than we already have (as if!), it's entirely to do with which of them will want to come and play for us. They will only come for two reasons, money or success. We already have a large wage bill, so even with the level of support we probably can't afford too much more without offloading some of the less cost-effective members of the squad first. I'll leave it to you to suggest who they might be! Clearly we are on a loser trying to convince prospective signings that major success is just their signing away.

What Dyer is doing is to indicate to allcomers that he believes he could have more success and/or higher wages elsewhere. That is exactly the reaction that likely new signings of the same sort of quality will have, until something happens to change their minds.

Sorry, but I don't believe that any of this is as simple as going out and waving a chequebook under the nose of [insert name of your favourite transfer target here]. As my near-namesake said on another thread.

And still no other candidates for cases of the board successfully "just saying no" I see.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

I don't class Dyer's attributed comments in the same league as Domi's or Harmoan's. Our greatly missed flying Frenchman behaved abominib... abominab... very badly indeed by making complaints then f**king off to France in a sulk until NUFC played the game his way. Disgraceful. Harmoan equally messed us about by making contradictory statements in public and basically slagging us off before going to Liverpool. The stuff Dyer's supposed to have come out with is not helpful, but does echo what the fans have been saying i.e. sign some quality or our best players will leave. The problem is this being made public. I don't think Domi or Harmoan are more criminalised for being foreign, and I think Dyer would get an equally poor reception if he buggered off in similar circumstances. Rather he stayed 'cos he could be a hero.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Well, you lot - with the exception of Clarky - have got me really confused now. As I understand it, it's OK for all of us to piss and moan about the lack of amibition with the Board and how most of our players are rubbish and how all of our foreigners are trash, but if somebody makes an observation about the club that most of us agree with - and he actually is somebody that might be listened to - that's somehow treason?

Sorry, as I said, I just don't get it. If Dyer winds up leaving - and I hope like hell he doesn't - then I know who I will hold responsible. And it won't be Dyer.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001