Looks like Vertonghen is unlikely...

From today's Sunday Times:

Newcastle’s bid to sign Jan Vertonghen, Ajax’s vaunted Belgian centre back, is likely to be scuppered by interest from bigger clubs — with Manchester United joining the group of elite suitors monitoring the 24-year-old.

Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City are also admirers of Vertonghen, on the market for £20m last summer, but who now may be available for less than £10m. Vertonghen has just 18-months left on his contract and Ajax are more amenable to selling the player — especially as they have been knocked out of the Champions League. Ironically, the Dutch side have been drawn against United in the Europa League.

With Nemanja Vidic out for the rest of the season with knee ligament damage, Rio Ferdinand increasingly susceptible to injuries and Phil Jones and Chris Smalling regularly pressed into service in other areas of the pitch, United need another central defender and Martin Ferguson, their chief European scout, has attended several Ajax matches in recent weeks, including Sunday’s 4-0 win over Den Haag. It is thought that he has principally been monitoring Christian Eriksen, Ajax’s brilliant young Danish playmaker, but that Vertonghen is now also being given serious consideration as a United signing.

Vertonghen’s agents, Nakhli Mondial, confirm Newcastle have been in contact with them about their client but Vertonghen, club vice-captain, has been at Ajax for more than five years and says he would only consider leaving for a major club who are chasing honours. He has doubts that Newcastle are in this category.

Manchester City looked hard at Vertonghen last summer but were put off by Ajax’s asking price and elected to sign a cheaper centre-back, Stefan Savic. However they need cover for Kolo Toure, scheduled to leave for the Cup of African Nations after City’s FA Cup tie with United on January 8. The Cup of African Nations lasts until February 12 and Toure’s Ivory Coast side are one of the favourites.

Roberto Mancini, though, has been told that his club’s priority in January - with UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations in mind — will be to jettison unwanted players. Carlos Tevez, Wayne Bridge and Nedum Onouha are among those up for sale. Should City manage to raise signficant funds, Mancini may be allowed to bring in some cut-price cover for Kolo Toure and his brother, Yaya, but Mancini is very unlikely to be able to pursue more expensive targets, such as Villarreal’s Giuseppe Rossi, until the summer transfer window.

Tottenham are also monitoring Vertonghen but Harry Redknapp’s priority is an attacking player. Arsenal are long-term admirers of Vertonghen, an international teammate of Thomas Vermaelen. He is similar to Vermaelen in terms of being able to score goals from centre back — he has 21 goals in 151 league appearances for Ajax — and is considered a modern centre-half in the Gerard Pique mould, thanks to an ability to step into midfield and make a constructive contribution to his team’s passing moves.

Tottenham and Arsenal are also interested in Gary Cahill but Bolton’s England defender is moving closer to a switch to Chelsea. Meanwhile Sir Alex Ferguson has warned his side about the dangers posed by Wigan, United’s Boxing Day opponents, after impressive draws for Roberto Martinez’ side against Chelsea and Liverpool in their last two games.

“I watched the Wigan-Chelsea game and I thought Wigan were terrific. Their possession of the ball against a good team and it says a lot for the philosophy of their manager that they continue to play good football, irrespective of their position in the league,” Ferguson said.

“We’ve got a very good record against Wigan but we’re not taking that for granted. We’ve got to keep our foot on the pedal the way we’ve been doing and hopefully get the result we want.”

Ferguson believes Wigan will survive the drop again. “I said a few weeks ago I wouldn’t put Wigan as one of my relegation teams because every year they dig out results you don’t expect, especially against the bigger teams,” he said. “They beat Arsenal last year and lost 5-0 or 6-0 to Chelsea but this year they played excellent football against them and could have won the game, could have had a penalty. They’re not on my list of teams to go down.”*

 

Last year people were saying Carroll would be leaving for a bigger club...


Never happened.

 

Tell me something I don't know.

 

Polar bears are left handed, or left pawed.

Bet you didn't know that.

 

Bano watches you at night.

 

!!!!

 

I knew it though

 

Well give yourself a round of appaws....

 

That was awful

 

It's bearly acceptable...

 

You should probably give up on them fur now...

 

Yes, we here on the Newcastle board distract ourselves from potential bad news with puns and accusations of stalkery. You're welcome.

 

I've heard w-ursa, like this one.

 

oh dear!

 

A minor pun for a major subject...