Looks like Sam Allardyce is now turning his attentions to securing Habib Beye for Newcastle now that the Senegalese has returned from holiday.
Newcastle’s squad is off to Austria on a 10 day training camp and it looks like Sam would like to get Habib into the club and to the training camp as quickly as he can.
We’ll look at where we are with this potential signing.
Habib Beye
Beye is heavily experienced and stands 6′ tall and can play either right back or center back and is currently captain of French club Marseilles. With Geremi having signed and can play in either full-back or defensive midfield positions - the capture of Beye would be another player to fit straight into Newcastle’s defense.
We also believe there has already been some preparatory work done on our side to tie up Beye - and we know that Sam has already been given position to talk to the Senegalese by the Marseilles club. So by now Newcastle may already have done a lot of the spade-work for this deal – we certainly hope so. The transfer fee for Beye is thought be in the region of ₤2M and would again be yet another good buy for Newcastle.
We think this deal could go through quickly this week – we hope this deal will go through quickly this week.
Here are some facts regarding Beye – who is a very experienced player.
Habib Beye was born in Paris, is Senegalese and has played 125 times for Marseilles scoring 4 goals. He joined Marseilles in 2003 from RC Strasbourg - where he played 134 games scoring 8 goals and was a firm crowd favorite. He is rated a very accomplished defender in French football and prefers to play at right back - although he is also comfortable at center-back. He made substitute appearances in Senegal’s matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, against Denmark, Uruguay and Sweden, and is now a regular feature in the Senegalese starting line up.
Comments welcome.
21 responses so far ↓
1 Stephen // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:00
Excellent signing its amazing how he gets these players for bargains he aint a man like Alan curbishly who just put 16 million on the table for Bent he doesnt care how much he spends but he is a good manager though but getting back to Beye he is captain and i remember when when played themin the semi-final of the u.e.f.a cup and he was outstanding and he is captain so will bring wealth of experience and for another small fee.
Big Sam is doing great things with this team only last season we looked a mid table team going nowhere fast now top 7 atleast is on
2 James // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:29
LB ,Plus another Goalscorer after beye i rekon,has geremi signed yet??
3 Cicero // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:31
Habib Beye would be a great signing for us. The squad is starting to take shape with cover for different positions. And with Edmilson coming in either Oct/Nov or in the January window all we need now is a class leftback either Bridge or Shorey. I still think there may be 1 or 2 surprise big name signings yet to come but it will be hard without European football to offer.
Just a word of caution, with all these new players coming in it’s going to take them 4 or 5 months to start playing as a team. All the other teams who finished above us are strengthening too and have more settled squads. Top 8 finish would be reasonable anything better will be a bonus.
4 Callum // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:33
Maybe if we sign him, he’ll be our new captain although i dont know how good his English is. But again, another great bargain by Big Sam, now all he needs to sign is a few left backs and maybe one more centre back and depending on whether Owen and Martins stay, another striker will be needed and then if Edmilson signs in January that’ll further improve the squad, although he sounds a bit greedy to me but still a good player when fully fit
5 Chris // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:42
For those asking about Geremi. They have stated on the NUFC Official website that the Geremi deal is agreed. They’re just waiting for his work permit. Excellent signing. They’re also saying it’s a free transfer.
6 Magpie Rich // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:45
I’ve read we’re also after Czech Republic international fullback Jaroslaw Plasil (currently at Monaco) & Norway international centre back, Brede Hangeland (currently at FC Copenhagen). It would be interesting to know whether Plasil is a left or right back. Ed, do you know any more?
7 Ed Harrison // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:46
Chris - we think it is a free transfer - but the 2M is signing on fee - in other words Chelsea get nothing from the deal - but that should be made clear once the official announcement is made.
8 SteveP // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:46
Beye will be a good buy if indeed he signs, think the hardest thing will be getting the whole defence to gel in time for start of season.
We def need another right back, not sure about central midfield we have ramage who can also fill in here as well as huntington and I’d like to see local lads given a chance as squad players
I can’t see anybody buying Owen or Martins now that both Liverpool and the Arse have showed their hands and bought elsewhere, Chelsea dont need him and my understanding is that Ferguson is looking for a striker in the mold of van-nistelroy, drogba, other than the top four Newcastle and maybe Spurs are the only sides who can realistically challenge. Obviously all bets are off on martins if an italian club comes in for him.
9 Ed Harrison // Jul 3, 2007 at 9:57
Magpie Rich - no more than I’ve read - Plasil is 6′0″ tall and played recently against Wales - played midfield I believe. He’s played 109 times for Monaco (5 goals) and around 17 times for Czech Republic (1 goal).
Brede Hangeland is a 6′5″ Norwegian center-back who has played 45 times for FC Copenhagen (1 goal) - since 2005. Before that he played 114 times for FC Viking and scored 6 goals. He has represented Norway 30 times with no goals.
10 nightfall // Jul 3, 2007 at 11:05
plasil is DMC
11 Ed Harrison // Jul 3, 2007 at 12:10
Stephen - completely agree with your points.
12 Ed Harrison // Jul 3, 2007 at 12:11
nightfall - OK - good.
13 nightfall // Jul 3, 2007 at 12:38
Ed - glad to help…
btw…great blog!!!
oh plasil is DMC, but when monaco played in CL (the season when they were runners up) he also played as AMC…with rothen on the left and giuly on the right
14 jacobmannjones // Jul 3, 2007 at 14:47
Steve P nailed this one… How long will it take the defence to gel into a cohesive unit? They will not be in place for the 10-day minicamp, so it may be tough going early on come August even though Big Sam has added some quality back there (with more seemingly on the way!)…
But will they know one another well enough to make a difference early on in the coming campaign???
15 Obafan // Jul 3, 2007 at 16:10
Habib Beye would be fantastic for us. As I read between the lines I think we can be hopefull of him signing by the end of this week as BS wants Beye to join in Austria to get to know his new teammates.
Seave P - I’m sorry to comment on your opinion, but I don’t think Ramage is ideal to play in our defence; last year he showed us that he doesn’t reach the premiership level at all. I would like to see BS sell him rather today than tomorrow and then hoping that we don’t need to pay to get rid of him ;-). Huntington is good backup!!
Can anyone tell me what the situation is with Edmilson, because some are commenting in a way that he has already a Newcastle player?
16 Ed Harrison // Jul 3, 2007 at 16:33
It seems like Geremi was a free signing - there’s no word today on the 2M signing on fee - so not sure what the real deal is with this - but if it’s true Sam has brought in Viduka, Barton, Rozehnal and Geremi for around 8.8M - what a deal he strikes - and sure there are more good deals on the way.
17 És // Jul 3, 2007 at 16:36
how could he be so cheap? I will not complain but, in my mind it is something that is not right….
how big stadium have marseille and PSG? I hope they could play in front of 50000 gordie fans, something bramble and boumsong could not because the pressure etc…
18 Ed Harrison // Jul 3, 2007 at 16:40
Obafan - Edmilson is not signed and we are still negotiating with Barcelona. However the news from creditable sources is that Edmilson has agreed in principle to the move. We don’t think AC Milan is a threat - and we don’t think his wages are a real problem (despite what the media is saying) but the delay may be in sorting out what to do because of his injury. If we can wait until Jan 1st (he will not be fit until November in any case) then we think Sam could strike a great deal and get him for very small fee - just 6 months before his contract runs out. We think it’s almost a done deal - but of course it’s never done until it’s done.
19 Ed Harrison // Jul 3, 2007 at 16:41
In addition - we think Sam has already done some spade-work on the Habib Beye deal - so we at the Newcastle Blog think Beye and Edmilson are high likelihood for success for us - that they’ll actually happen. We think both will be great at the toon. Beye’s price we think is around 2M.
20 dave bulman // Jul 3, 2007 at 22:30
beye would be a good signing,but like previous comments ,team will need time to gel together.big sam has brought in some good experienced players.i would like him to buy some good young defenders,need to splash out a bit and show we are club on the up,davies, shorey or bridge would be nice or even heinze from man utd.not just get older experienced players cheap or free.spurs are buying up alot of great young players,speaking of spurs defoe could be bought from them for around 9 million.
21 Obafan // Jul 4, 2007 at 22:16
Thanks Ed Harrison for the info about Edmilson. I hope we can land him, that would be fantastic. Beye is highly rated by me, so hopefully he can be introduced in a few days to the toon army.