I thought we had to make a decision by December if we were to buy him at the end of the season. Anyone know the state of play on his NUFC future. Are we going for him or not? or are we still thinking about it?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Answers

It'd be criminal if we let him go in my opinion....I also wonder whats going on with Bernard, I read somewhere that he's out of contract in the summer!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

No hard information one either I'm afraid. My belief is that Distin is on loan until the end of the season.There was some information floating around a couple of months ago that suggested Bernard was out of of contract at the end of December as he'd signed a one year contract last January.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

well...he's going to be a very BOLD player for us next year, and we will have two rocks at our back-four in double D, Dabizas and Distin!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I heard that the clubs were fighting over a fee after PSG upped their original quote by around £2mil. Apparently they said £2.5mil when we took him but now want £4.5 - £5mil

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I recall hearing something like that, too. We really should get this kind of thing in writing to avoid a situation like this.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

£4.5m could be a bargain. Consider that Stam went to Lazio for £16m and then got banned for a drugs test.

Also remember Helder, who was on loan and played well - a bit like Distin as well - but we couldn't stump up the cash and lost out. Defenders of Distin's quality don't come around often, especially since he has a left foot which makes him even more rare. We should definitely go after him. CL football next season would more than pay for him should we make it.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I think it would be unusual for a Club releasing a player on loan to pre-agree a permanent transfer fee, and certainly they couldn't be forced to do so.

Part of the rational for letting somone like Distin to go on loan is to allow him to impress the Club asking for him, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to me for the fee to be agreed after that loan period is complete.

If the receiving Club doesn't want to take that risk they have an alternative - buy him up front, and take the risk on his value. Seems to me you can't expect to have it both ways.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Agree Clarky, but I hope it doesn't end up at £8m or something stupid like that after he leads us to glory (I hope)

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I don't see what's wrong with saying we want to 'test drive' a certain player for a certain length of time with the proviso that we will buy him for x amount of money if we like what we see. Or the club owning him making a similar offer. It's no-lose for either side and you know what you're dealing with up front. If anything it could be to the owner's benefit by asking a slightly higher price than usual for purchase in return for a loan spell. Sort of like leasing a car. Might not be usual practice, but I don't see why it can't be done.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

re. a fixed fee after a 'test drive' - I remember YBR saying something like that about a player we had just got on loan i.e. "the loan deal has fixed a fee, so we can buy him at the end for £**** if we like him".

I thought it was Distin. Can any one else remember?

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Sounds like Saha. ... but YBR wanted an extesion of the loan period

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

no it definitely was not Saha - more recent that that.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

I think it's fairly common to agree a price up front -Robbie Keane springs to mind when he moved from Inter to Leeds.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

Still can't believe we didn't go back for Helder. He WANTED to play for us. That's so important when signing players. He knew he could live on Tyneside.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

It was certainly announced as a 4mil if we like him deal at the start.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

My understanding is Distin was going nowhere at PSG. Not on a par with Marcelino, but similar in that there was not much question over ability, more with his attitude. Under these circumstances a trial with a fixed fee at the outset is not unreasonable and is in the interests of both parties. With Marcelino, if we could do the same for £4M we would be delighted, but we wouldn't be foolish enough to think someone would shell out £4M without having a good look at him first to see whether he would fit in.

Don't know whether this actually was the case with Distin, but I thought so.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

I would be more dissapointed if we missed out on clinching the long term signature of Bernard. He isterrific, he is FREE and he's got a good attitude. I rate Distin but wory about his temprement, wasn't he a problem player for the PSG coach? I'm sure that there are other decent central defenders around in the £5m price bracket if we don't get him, I wouldn't be too upset.

As for Helder, isn't he 31 years old now?

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Half the team have had problems with the PSG coach! I read an article about the loan system just last weekend. There are two differnet types of loan system used in France. The first one is a standard loan where a young player goes on loan to get some first team football. This often has guarantees regarding appearances, but there is no option to buy the player, outside of a normal bid under the transfer system. The second type of loan agreement has a purchase clause at the end of it, which is normally agreed in advance. This loan is used for players recovering from injuries, or players that might not have been seen in live action too often by the buying club.

Laurent Robert: "There is a great central defender at PSG who has fallen out with the coach" YBR: "I can't buy him if I've only seen videos of him"

The answer, take him on loan, and buy him at the agreed fee at the end.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002