Here in sunny Manchester, according to the Evening News, Distin is set to sign for them, probably by the weekend. This has almost been confirmed by KK's assistant - Doncachie (Or whatever his name is).

If this happens it's a bloody disgrace - is Distin the kind of player who would sacrifice CL football for a couple more thousand a week? Well we'll see soon enough.

If Distin doesn't sign, the pressures on re Bernard. 2 decent loan players who are good additions to the squad, they shouldn't be allowed to end up at another Premiership team.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Answers

I don't really want to see him go, but the fact is he isn't worth the wages of Laurent Robert.

BR will be looking for centre backs from now until he gets the players he wants and will undoubtedly have more than one player he has his eye on. Despite playing pretty well, Distin is never comfortable on the ball and his passing is atrocious at times.

He is good, but not that good, and if he puts wages ahead of playing in the CL showing his skills off to the world then he needs his head sorting. I can't believe NUFC are offering him peanuts, but £25k pw is too much for someone who hasn't really truly proved himself yet.

If we lost Distin we could cope. If we lost Robert, we couldn't (especially in the CL). I just hope if Distin goes, Robert doesn't follow him out the door.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

I can't see anyone coming in for Robert to be honest. He hasn't proved it yet at the top level plus NUFC would want mega bucks and no other team would take the risk at this point IMHO.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

May add weight to Konchesky story.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

If true, it's a pity but hardly the end of the world. We can find other CBs as good as him without too many problems. I'd like to see him stay, but if his attitude is wrong...au revoir.

How much of this is the player and how much the agent though?

I also hope that this doesn't affect Robert. Only time will tell.

The summer transfer madness begins here, folks...

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Steve, it's 100% agent. Guaranteed.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

As others have said, if he'd prefer money to top level European football...good riddance. I wonder if this might help convince Gary Caldwell that he's still got achance with us?

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

It sounds like Robert was hitting some form towards the end of this season. Maybe this will make him want to stay, and this might convince Distin to take the 15k, and Bernard might then stay too. Ever the optimist.

Any good French restaurants in Newcastle these days? (I'm out of touch).

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Lynda, Bernard isn't a loan player...he's ours but out of contract...

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Yes you're right Gav - my mistake.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Distin is better than Dabs and has fitted in quicker in his loan season than Robert has. Maybe it's easier to defend, although Dabs would again make that assumption dubious.

If Distin doesn't join us then we have to find two centre halves as we all know in our hearts that Dabs just isn't up to it. Gary Caldwell will be good enough but looks like he's not going to be in our team next year.

The FLC have been trying to get through to speak to Russel Cushing and he has been stuck in meetings form 9 to 9 by the sounds of it, and lots of the 'problem' ha sbeen Distin.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

See my post on the "Distancing from Distin" thread.

I'm quite sure the Club want to sign him. However, I suspect the problem isn't just Distin's wage demands, but the effect conceding to him could have on a number of the 1st team squad.

Given the overall situation with football Club finances, future tv revenue etc., this will be being viewed as a critical issue.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Latest press speculation has Arsenal entering the picture for Distin, and perhaps prepared to up the anti by offering PSG more than the £3.8m already agreed with The Toon.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

According to TalkSport - Bobby is quoted as saying he is frustrated over the contract situation re Distin and also Given. Both are hedging on contracts. The contracts 'are on the table' apparently. NO mention of Dyer and Bernard...............

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

It has been claimed by the players agent that Silvan Distin is set to join Kevin Keegan's Man City this summer, despite Liverpool and ourselves both wanting his signature.

The stumbling block, according to his agent, is that Distin wants to play at centre back rather than left-back.

Four Premiership clubs have met the asking price for the player, and it is a straight battle between the four to meet his demands.

"He would have been more than happy to stay at Newcastle, but he wants to play as a centre-back rather than a full-back," said agent Willie McKay.

"Manchester City are one of the clubs interested and I think they are favourites to sign Distin.

"He was impressed by them in their FA Cup match at Newcastle - they play good football under Kevin Keegan and have passionate fans." Bliddy hell, the players are deciding where they'll play now. KK's shagged if he wants to play him 'out of position'. Remember the bollocking he gave Beresford one time for not covering for Ginola? What the hell's he gonna do if SD decides he wants to play somewhere other than as directed? So, if we find the readies for a bigger fee, and an inflated wage, and let him play where he wants, he'll sign. He can sod off!

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

He is our best centre back, I can't see that being a problem.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

This cant be true, just something the agents says so he doesnt have to say that Distin wants more money.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

.......spot on, Sudden.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

No idea whether this is true or not, but it`s perfectly reasonable for SD to want to leave if he`s going to play in a position he doesn`t think is his best. He doubtless has international ambitions and if they`re best fulfilled by playing regularly at centrehalf then why would he want to stay and play out of position? (and I imagine the French central defensive positions are up for grabs given that they`ve lost or will lose due to age the likes of Blanc, LeBoeuf & Desailly). Look at JDT - played out of position and lost a year of his career. Now look at him. Then again, some people may remember Spotty McDonald leaving us because we insisted on playing him on the right of midfield. He thought if he went elsewhere to play right back he could play for England...... This story may be plausible - if Uncle Bobby does have 2 World Class players lined up there`s every chance one of them is a central defender which may leave Distin at left back. Don`t forget, this is NOT a case of a Newcastle player refusing to play where his manager tells him to. He`s a PSG player who is weighing up his options. He doesn`t owe us anything except professionalism and effort IF he signs.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2002

ADK - what if Distin is one of the two world-class players we have 'lined up'?

Also, what if Distin's best position just happens to be LB, irrespective of what he himself thinks? To be honest, while he has played very well for us at LB, I reckon he has been almost as error-prone and positionally defficient as Dabizas when playing CB. However, his blinding pace often gets him out of trouble caused by poor positional play.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2002

Distin really believes he is the best player in the world, you should watch they way he staggers about proudly, it reminds me of Eric Cantona, who walked differently, but strutted about as if to say "I am great"

This is more than anything just the French mentality of being above everyone. At centre back he has some good attributes, like being able to win a header against almost anyone, but as Clarky said, his positional play is terrible, his distribution is awful and it is only his bulk and strength coupled with his pace that gets him out of messes.

Remember his mess up against Everton when he let in Alexandersson by moving out of the way of the ball and then gave a look of "it wasn't me, like"? Could this move on to something else? Imagine their is a mistake that proves more costly, Distin refuses to blame himself and it divides the dressing room. Robert had to be told be Shearer apparently, but I reckon he has overall responded quite well to it.

Distin is basically Titus Bramble only French. I'd rather have Distin than Bramble in that sense as while it sounds like the both have big egos, at £4m Distin is better value than a £10m Englishman.

However, we NEED a REAL centre back who can organise, calm down and take control of our defence, someone like Jaap Stam or even Keown. Keown is almost as fast as Distin, just as strong, but his positional play is first rate, his leadership skills fairly good and his experience second to none. I sincerely hope Keown doesn't get a new contract at Arsenal, and I'd be chuffed if we signed him.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2002

The latest from Lolo has this question:

Sylvain Distin isn't going to stay at Newcastle. Can you give us any news?

II believe that he is at Manchester City today for a medical. That's too bad that he has to pack his bags, but I understand why. Newcastle hasn't moved very much and they weren't in line with the offers from other clubs. Sylvain wants to finalise his contract before he goes on holiday and should sign in the next few days.

He then goes on to say that he hopes we sign some good players for next year. He'd like it if we signed another attacker as we struggled without Bellamy.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

Hehe Mr Lolo is still our best source of information.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

Clarky, I actually agree, when I`ve seen him he has looked better at left back, but it`s what he thinks that counts when he`s making his decision. And if Distin is one of the world class players we`ve got lined up it`s going to be a disappointing summer! He`s good but he`s not that good (although it would seem that he might disagree)

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

Speaking of lolo, Alta Vista offers another gem in it's latest mistranslation:

Moreover, there was an enormous offensive waste

Is he talking about:
a) our profligacy up front against Soton
or c) Robbie Savage in the ref's room?

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

hey, what happened to b)?

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

or not to b)

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

That is the question

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

ICNewcastle AKA The Evening Chronicle have cottoned on at last and reckon Distin will be in Manchester in the next 48 hours to have a medical - probably read the Robert bit on here yesterday.

I'm really very p@ssed off with Distin about this!

Let's hope Given doesn't force me to add his name to the list of people who will get their's come the (footballing) revolution.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Please ingore spurious apostrophe in previous post.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

I don't understand why YBR bothered to play him Saturday, unless he wanted him to get injured. The Club must have known by then that he was on his way. I would have preferred to watch somone who wanted to play for us, not someone who's used us. In a similar vein I would have preferred to see Harper instead of Shay, and maybe Elliot instead of Bernard (although I concede Elliot's shite). Just my opinion.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Further examples of questionable man management, or at best a lack of thoughtful management. This possibly relates to a feeling that the contract side of the business is the province of someone else at the Club, but is muddled thinking.

In addition to Dyer and Given, I most certainly would not have played Distin on Saturday. I haven't a clue what the situation is with Bernard's contract, but he may have been 'missing' also.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Well if they do go I'd like to see the club 'leak' what they were offered, and what they demanded, so we can all see what greedy b@st@rds they are - or not.

And if Distin does go to City I'll be sacrificing to the gods of poetic justice and offering prayers that they go straight back down.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

With the exception of Hamman, and Cole(?), I can't remember anyone who left us in Premier League times and subsequently prospered. Although I suspect there will now be a list produced, slowly, as the day progresses.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

JDT ;-)

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Apart from him?

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Ginola - footballer of the year at Spurs.

The contract issue is going to come up again and again - personally I don`t agree that Distin has used us and if he wants to go somewhere else that`s his choice. He came to us on loan and as far as I`m aware he worked hard, by and large played pretty well, and fulfilled his obligations to the club. He was never our player and owes us nothing in terms of loyalty - we might have had a right to expect that if we had bought him outright but from a loan player?

My understanding of the deal we had with Distin and PSG was that at the end of the season we would decide if e wanted to go ahead and buy him. No risk on our part, no committment to the player or to PSG. Surely we have to understand that the player will have viewed his loan in exactly the same way as the club - a risk free opportunity to decide if Newcastle is right for him.

Put yourself in a similar position - you`re working for an employer on a trial basis. The employer won`t give you a long term contract for a year even though you have worked hard and performed well. At the end of the year you get a more appealing offer from a different company who have been impressed with your work. They are willing to offer you something your current employer isn`t (in Distins case either money, the chance to play centre half, who knows). I know which I would choose.

Bottom line? If we wanted him badly enough we should have signed him sooner. We waited so we could see how he would work out so we took a gamble. Same applies to Domi.

This is not the same as the situation with players like Hamman or Domi who were under contract and stabbed us in the back. As far as I`m concerned if he goes elsewhere then whilst I won`t go as far as wishing him luck I won`t be bearing any grudges.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Not arguing with that ADK, I'm just of the opinion that Distin is okay but not great, conseqently I won't lose too much sleep if he moves on because he think's he's worth more than the Club is prepared to pay. Or else where do you stop? Give him £30k per week, £40k? The Club has clearly taken a view that he is worth x and no more. KK on the other hand thinks he's worth more than we do - but then Kev always was prepared to pay the earth plus a bit more. Now I would be upset if Dyer, or Nobby, or Robert or Bellamy (I think that's it) were to move on. They're world class (IMO), the others are just okay. And I don't think recent performaces by Distin, including the mare he had on Saturday, merit big bucks. I for one would luv it, just luv it, if Nobby, Dyer and bellars skinned him consistently for three hours next season. No, not bitter, just a little miffed.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

I actually agree with you about not being overly fussed if he moves on, I think we might well be able to do better. I`m also all for the club not allowing itself to be held to ransom especially in cases where we aren`t running the risk of letting a valuable player leave on a free. See below from .com - obviously no idea if these figures are accurate but it would appear that we valued him considerably lower than Man City. Also interesting that the figure we supposedly offered perhaps isn`t as high as some of us might have expected of a 4 million pound premiership player.

"Sylvain Distin is turning his back on Newcastle United to sign for Manchester City in a dispute over £8,000-a-week. The French defender will join Kevin Keegan's City rather than the manager's old club Newcastle in a £4m switch from Paris St-Germain this week. The reason behind the Distin dispute is that he wanted £12,000-a-week after tax and was offered £12,000-a-week before tax"

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

He's still the best centre half we've had this season so it makes very little sense to me. If O'Brien gets over his crisis of confidence (pretty obvious from where I was sitting) then that'll be something, but if we intend to compete on the playing fields of Europe with that bandaged hand sticking in the air then we might as well ask to drop down to the Uefa Cup now and spare ourselves the embarrassment. We need to have someone seriously good in the bag or we are being idiots over this.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

So Distin wants £20,000 a week (which is £12,000 after tax). His demands are considerably more than we were offering (almost 70%), unless we could work out a way to pay him without incurring tax. Perhaps Man City are resorting to brown paper envelopes? It would appear a little rash for Man City to be paying so much in the current climate, with no European football and a squad who at present would be unlikely of making Europe next season.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

If he wants to play for a struggling team, let him. We can send him a postcard from europe. If his motivation is purely money then he's not going to get respect from anyone. I hope city go straight back down, and then we'll see how he feels about it. Mercenaries are ruining the game, FFS he's only twenty something with one season behind him, it's not as if he's established. So when keegan quits around christmas expect distin to be surplus to requirements.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Hmm, so we offered 12k, he wanted 20k, thought we might have offered 15/16k. ie split the difference. Mind you, if City have offered 20k, then he'll deffo be off, no matter what we offer beneath that. He clearly hasn't thought about the relative impact of the win bonuses. (How do they work BTW?)

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Terry, you've hit on one of the reasons we, as fans, will rarely be in a position to sensibly judge these contract negotiations. I'm sure the package is very complicated, with all sorts of win bonuses/tax free signing on fees and the like. We're fishing in the dark a bit. Hence our opinions of the guilty parties will be based more on our opinions of the individual characters concerned. ie NUFC management are incompetent (which Clarky seems to believe based on his close(ish) knowledge of their dealings over the years) , or the players/agents are greedy mercenaries, especially the foreign ones (another popular stereotype). The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

I don't think anyone can accuse FS of contract mismanagement, he's proved to be a sound negotiator and refuses to be held to ransom which I think is very worthy. I place the blame wholly at the agents doorstep, signing for anyone else except the three that finished above us would be a step down.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Syme, call me biased, but personally I can't understand anyone wanting to sign for any club but the Toon. And as I said to Galaxy on Saturday, it must be weird (and rather sad) to support anyone but us. If we ceased to exist, I'd still watch footy, but I wouldn't support or follow any one club directly. It's just not natural.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Distin has looked like he may be a very good centre half but no more so than say Goma, and definitely not as good as Helder while he was here.

Keegan's choice of centre half wasn't one of his strong points. No one could ever agree which of Albert, Peacock, Howey were the best pairing which in my eyes means they weren't good enough.

NUFC have clearly offered him £1m a year to play football for a team he says he likes, in a city he says he likes. If he has changed his mind then best to find out now, rather than him doing a Domi.

We have seen some decent performances from him and we feel encouraged by the view that he is better than Nicos but that doesn't make him that good.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Is Keegan getting on everyone's tits the way he's starting to get on mine?

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Accuracy of the quoted figures not withstanding, 12k a week is considerably less than a million a year. If it was me I`d take the Champions League and get by on the 360,000 pounds a year (after tax) Newcastle have offered, but it`s worth noting that the extra 8000 a week Man City have offered is a huge amount of money. Don`t judge him too harshly if he takes it.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

ADK is entirely correct. If Distin has been offered £1m pa by Man City and only £600k by us who could possibly object to him signing for City?

At £12k per week he would probably be one of the lowest earners in the 1st team squad, and for someone we are prepared to pay £4m for, this frankly looks something akin to an insulting offer to me, and I certainly wouldn't criticise the blerk for going elsewhere.

Final point - how come we've had this guy here for over 6 months, have agreed a transfer fee with his Club for him, and yet we are still able to miss the target by a country mile regarding his personal requirements. Looks like we've done a cracking job in ensuring SD is Premiership-ready for Man City's inaugural PL season, while wasting all that time and effort that has gone into trying to accomodate him into our back four. Brilliant job NUFC - now start all over again!

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Fair play to the club....lets stop being held to ransom and paying inflated wages...otherwise we'll be bankrupt in 3 years time when the sky deal is renegotiated! it has to stop somewhere, I realise that other players are on more but that's not reason enough for us to continue mortgaging our future...

For once we are in a position of strength when negotiating! we have the champions league carrot, players should be falling over themselves to come to us....we shouldn't have to pay top dollar for a change....

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

£20k per week, times 52 weeks, makes over £1m. That is what we have offered, and everyone pays tax, so he loses 40% and ends up with only £12k per week, £600k per year.

Man City must have offered him £1.6m per year so that he gets the £1m in his pocket, a huge wad of paper to make that weekly pay of £20k. (Maybe they could invent £1000 notes for footballers so they could get paid in paper, although I'd guess the guy selling Chronicles wouldn't thank you if you tried to buy a paper with one)

So we're talking about whether Distin is really worth roughly £5m worth of wages for a three year contract, on top of the tranfer fee. I sense money has got out of hand and that maybe this is just a bit too far. 5 million will use up more than 3000 season tickets each of the next three seasons.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

According to .com it was: Offered 12k/w before tax, wanted 12k/w after tax. Like I give a damn! I'll take it! I doubt if many of our defenders - except Martha, are on more than 12k a week, and I doubt if Shay was offered much, if any, more.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Anelka's agent apparently wanted £40,000 pw for Anelka's wages, but Liverpool negotiated it down to £20k pw.

It's obvious that the agents are just out to make as much money as they can.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

From teamtalk:

"The Maine Road boss sees the left-sided defender as the ideal replacement for the recently retired Stuart Pearce and swooped when he learned Distin was in dispute with The Magpies. "

So much for him leaving to play at centre back, what a load of bollocks.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Pilgrim - my (admitedly failing) recollection is that Aaron Hughes new contract was suggested to be £15k per week. If AH is on £15k pw, you can bet your @rse that Dabz will be one similar money. I very much doubt whether players like Speed, Solano, Bellamy and CC are on less than that, probably £15-20k pw. AS (£35k) and Robert (£25k) will be on the highest wages.

I suspect that Given, with a 2-3yr-old contract, is currently on not more than £10-12k.

All supposition I know, but it looks to me as though £12k pw was never, ever a starter for Distin.

I also suspect Shay Given has also been offered ca.£12k pw - also a non-starter given his current status both domestically and internationally.

As to Gav's point - setting about reducing the wage bill is all fine and dandy, indeed commendable. However, unless this same approach is being applied across the PL Clubs at the very least - which I seriously doubt - then our bold declaration of intent to build up the quality of our squad ahead of our CL participation is simply verbal diarrheoa and doomed to failure - as Man City have apparently already demonstrated.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

"From our own perspective, if the lure of cash means Distin is prepared to chuck away the chance to play CL football in front of 50,000 punters, having already sampled the atmosphere on Tyneside, then Keegan and the blue moonies are welcome to him". NUFC.com

Given that the the reported difference in wage offers is £8,000 per week fcs, and that the guy is from France not bloody Wallsend, does anyone really buy this naive sh*te?

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Maybe we can persuade Pearce to re-join for 1 season. I'd play him ahead of Elliot ;-)

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Agree with you clarky.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

I agree with Gav. Wages are going to have to start coming down, and it's probably only Manu that will be able to afford crazy wages players are asking. So apparently even Liverpool have negotiated Anelka's demand to half of what he asked. Unfortunately them's the breaks in a bad economic climate. It's happening in IT, and it sucks, but that's the reality.

Distin has only been with us for 1 season, compared with how long for Dabs, Hughes, etc? I still think it would be far better for his career to stay with a top PL team playing European football. Experience counts more than wages, imo, as long as you're earning enough to live on. As I said elsewhere.....how difficult is it to live on whatever is left after taxes on 12k/week? I'd love to have that problem and be doing a job I really love!

Maybe I'm just speaking from my own experience at having grabbed money ahead of solid experience, getting burned, then learning how much more good experience counts than hefty pay packets(as long as the pay is enough to meet a decent but not extravagant standard of living). As I said, just my feelings, he's obviously free to make his decision. I'm just very disappointed with it.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

Clarky, you`re spot-on. It seems to me that it was fairly clear that Distin was good enough to want in the squad some months ago. We should have sorted it out one way or the other back then. Paul, I haven`t seen City play this season but I would imagine Stuart Pearce has been playing in the centre of defence and not at left back.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002

ADK, there was a report on Sky Sports News about it, saying KK wanted a new left back, I am 100% certain it was left back.

What I don't understand is how he has two agents. There's the Papa Rioux bloke (or whatever his name is) and willie McKay - which one is his REAL agent?

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

......the one who gets the most dosh for him!

Seriously Paul, I think the French players tend to have a French Agent and a 'UK Representative'.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2002

Paul, I stand corrected. No wonder KK wants a new left back if he`s been playing Pearce there - SURELY he`s too slow these days for a full-back!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Hasn't Pearce announced his retirement from football?

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002