And beyond that, if what you want is assurances of playing time, "we totally want you, but we're hoping that your team goes bust so we can get you for pennies" doesn't really suggest that you're a huge part of their plans.
And that. This is where our reputation for handing young players chances in the team really pays off. That and the fact we made Bordeaux a fair offer and you can instantly see why we were the most appealing option for Mara.
They may now want him or Mara may have just been a name on their list and not near the top. It just seems really weird for Newcastle to play it like this otherwise given their riches. Can understand Mara and team not liking their lack of respect for his club he and the lack of respect to him too. Just think Newcastle’s whole play here is weird if they actually wanted him from the start.
They didn't want him from the start - their main target was Ekitike who turned them down. Quite amusing to see young players turning them down TBH.
In addition to his performance with Bordeaux, he dominated the Toulon Tournament last month en route to France's victory. Scored 3 in 3 in the group stage (including 2 against Argentina), scored two against Mexico in the semis, was the top scorer and named the second-best player of the tournament (after Venezuelan midfielder Telasco Segovia, who I learned about three minutes ago, and who we should clearly sign).
Quite interesting to see a few fans on twitter with a negative reaction to this - "only 7 goals last season" / "too young and inexperienced". I bet if we spent £30m on broja these same fans would be going mad. Yet Mara scored more goals, in fewer games for a club that were far worse than we were last season. He also finished the season very strongly and had great summer, finishing top scorer at the Toulon tournament. Ligue 1 is of course an easier league, but by all accounts he had a better season than Broja and cost significantly less. Seems a very good signing to me.
I think this guy is the alternative to Broja. Or maybe he was preferred to Broja. With Saints keeping their cards close to their chest it's hard to tell!
NUFC fan in peace. I mostly agree with you here. I hadn't heard anything about this (not been mentioned by any of our fans that i know of) so first i heard was your mod coming over to mention it on our board. I honestly very much doubt we were in for him to any degree, we're being linked with pretty much every player in the world this summer and obviously most of them are just lazy journalism of just throwing our name in too and have no basis. It's obviously possible we were and he would fit our profile but as they mention with Ekititke we put all our eggs in that basket and missed out, that only really fell through last week so all of our moves from here would be an afterthought. I simply don't buy the idea we were holding out to pull a swift one over Bordeux, we were actively working on Ekitike instead - we were remarkably open about that. If we did try for this guy then he's absolutely correct in saying he was more wanted by Southampton and has probably made a good choice, but that's if. Anyway, hope he does well for you and he may well turn out to be a bargain. Good luck for the season ahead. I didn't realise we were a scummy club now by the way. Interesting!
If I remember correctly we did a similar thing with Steven Davis. We could've got him on a free but paid £1m for him when Rangers were in a similar position to Bordeaux.
If you don’t know Segovia you haven’t played enough football manager Mara is also good on the game as well, no idea about him in real life
TBH I hope you never had any serious interest as the idea any club would hang around a club like vultures waiting to see if a club would go bust to pick up players on the cheap is quite frankly repulsive, particularly if said club has billions of pounds.
Oh absolutely. To quote my post I gave in response to you on the Newcastle board: "ps. If that is true then it's a sh!tty tactic that I would be disappointed my club were involved in, I just happen to not actually believe it's true."
Tobasco Slovenia doesn't appear to have made much of himself in my save. Transferred to Pacos de Ferreira, and a decade later he's still there. Mara meanwhile has 111 league goals in a long and storied tenure with Mainz, including twice being the Bundesliga's second top scorer.
ok, this seems like solid business chaps. Thanks for all the updates, first time ive ever heard his name. when between the lines suggests he might be the future of french football i get a warm fuzzy feeling. hope this one gets done quickly
