Souness - Emre Wants To Join Newcastle
Following contradictory quotes over the weekend from Emre's agent
Ahmet Bulut, claiming no deal had been reached for the midfielder
between Newcastle and Inter Milan despite the player saying he will
play for United, manager Graeme Souness has come out and spoken about
the situation.
Souness said:
"We
still hope to do a deal with Emre - we want him and the boy wants
to join us. But we haven't come to an agreement with him yet.
"He's one player on my list. He can play wide left, through the middle
or off the front. He's a good player who can play in a number of positions."
As I understand it, Inter Milan are holding out for more money and
are suggesting that other Premiership club's will give them what they
want but those club's won't be able to afford Emre's wages which we
can and as Souness said, the player wants to play for Newcastle so
it's all up in the air at the moment. A compromise will be reached
by the end of the week in one shape or another. Whether the player
heads to Tyneside however, remains to be seen.
I personally feel he will become a Newcastle player.
Olivier Bernard On His Way Back?
An interesting piece in today's Northern Echo regarding Olivier Bernard:
Bernard has spoken to Graeme Souness in an attempt to engineer
a remarkable return to Newcastle just six months after walking out
of the club.
The French full-back has told the Magpies manager he will now accept
the original contract offer he turned down when he severed his ties
on Tyneside in January.
And, with Bernard's replacement Celestine Babayaro having failed to
impress since leaving Chelsea at the turn of the year, Souness is
understood to be giving serious consideration to the defender's proposal.
Bernard became embroiled in a long-running contract wrangle during
the first half of last season as his representatives attempted to
persuade chairman Freddy Shepherd to match the terms of his previous
deal.
Shepherd refused to up his offer - Bernard was understood to be wanting
£30,000-a-week - and, after a series of increasingly acrimonious exchanges,
the 25-year-old joined Southampton in the January transfer window
despite having played in all but three of Newcastle's games to that
point.
He signed a short-term deal on the south coast and helped bolster
a previously porous Saints' defence in the final four months of the
campaign. Ultimately, though, he was unable to prevent Southampton
dropping out of the Premiership.
That relegation has forced a major reshuffle at St Mary's, with Bernard
one of a number of players to be told they will not be offered a new
deal.
The Frenchman has been linked with a possible move back to his homeland
but, after first crossing the Channel in October 2000, is keen to
find a new club in England.
That has led to a considerable climbdown, with Bernard contacting
Souness personally to offer his services ahead of the new campaign.
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