Paper Talk - Tuesday July 5

By Jebediah
July 5 2005

Jebediah’s roundup of Mondays tabloid newspapers, and a look at the stories and rumours involving Newcastle United.

The main stories in the tabloids today revolve around the continuing saga of Craig Bellamy and his future. Bellamy was told not to come back to training when it started again yesterday, which surely signals the end of his Newcastle career. However, finding suitors for the temperamental Welshman has proved to be harder than some might have thought. It appears that David Moyes is still interested in bringing the player to Everton, the only problem could be wages, as offering Bellamy what he is on now would smash the structure at the club. However they can offer him Champions League football, all be it in the qualifying round.

The Star has reported that Simon Davies has urged Moyes to sign his compatriot Craig Bellamy. The two know each other well from playing for Wales together, and Davies has said it would be worth bringing him in even at a great expense.

Following on from that story, both The Mail and The Sun have reported that Everton are head of the queue for the striker. Rumours from yesterday were that David Moyes spoke face-to-face with Bellamy, and Everton's board are happy to back their manager.

However, The Mirror has taken a different view to the other papers, saying the transfer is not moving forward because of Bellamy's wage demands. According to the paper, Bellamy is refusing to take any sort of cut on his current £50k p/w salary, but Newcastle have given their man permission to speak with Celtic and Everton.

The Mail has reported that Birmingham are still interested in taking Nicky Butt off our hands. The former Manchester United man had a disappointing injury plagued season, but Steve Bruce is a long term admirer and would like him to bolster up the Blues midfield.

Final transfer news from today is that local rivals Sunderland have offered a contract to former Newcastle man Olivier Bernard. The French left back has been linked with a move back to his former club, after walking out in January due to wage demands not being met. Apparently, he spoke to Newcastle officials at the end of the season saying he would come back on the terms that Newcastle originally offered, however his request was not granted and he is now a free agent.

Another day passing with no news of transfers inbound is worrying, and I fear that all this work on getting rid of Bellamy, and possibly Viana has given us less time to seal some transfer deals of our own, which we desperately need before the new campaign.