Viduka's future

[James]

Average £ for every goal, per season:

 

Martins: £359,259

Viduka: £557,142

Owen: £868,000

Smith: £Infinity

Shola: £202,222

 

So not bad for Viduka considering how much investment is going towards other goalscorers.

 

Counting a pre-season goal to remove a mathematical anomaly, Newcastle are currently investing an average of £1,250,000 per goal for an average 38 goals per season.

 

Replacing Smith and Shola with a £6m striker on a four year, £40,000 pw deal who averages 10 per season would change the investment to £550,000 per goal for an average of 47 goals per season.

 

Less money spent, more goals scored, and all totally irrelevent to whether or not Viduka plays enough games.

[Minhosa]

Average £ for every goal, per season:

 

Martins: £359,259

Viduka: £557,142

Owen: £868,000

Smith: £Infinity

Shola: £202,222

 

So not bad for Viduka considering how much investment is going towards other goalscorers.

 

Counting a pre-season goal to remove a mathematical anomaly, Newcastle are currently investing an average of £1,250,000 per goal for an average 38 goals per season.

 

Replacing Smith and Shola with a £6m striker on a four year, £40,000 pw deal who averages 10 per season would change the investment to £550,000 per goal for an average of 47 goals per season.

 

Less money spent, more goals scored, and all totally irrelevent to whether or not Viduka plays enough games.

 

James,

 

Forgive me if I'm wrong but wouldn't residual value come into that thinking somewhere?

 

I.e: Even though Smith ended up having a shitter, he'd still get us at least £4m back. So, over the course of the players career, if you add in the purchase cost and wages etc and then take off the likely fee we'd get back, the actual cost to NUFC is more realistic.

 

Just looking over one season, especially when last year was shite, might also skew the figures?

 

Another example, being if Ameobi goes for circa £3m, he'd probably work out cost neutral or we'd have made money on him.

 

The problem with Viduka is the fat signing on fee, the hefty wages and the even heftier backside. In my opinion.

[Dokko]

Basically my opinion on Viduka is this.  If Keegan believes he can play the majority of our games next season (30-40) then IMO he should be kept for one more season.  But if he thinks he'll only manage another 20 or even less (with his current injury) then we should do our best to affload him, after finding a replacement obviously.

 

We'd be lucky to see 30 starts for Viduka in his entire NUFC career.

 

 

[Guest guyb]

I said at the time you signed him, and Leeds and Celtic fans could probably have backed this up, that there are 2 Mark Viduka's.

 

The motivated, Hungry (no pun intended), target man, who at is best is unplayable and one of the cleverest footballers I've ever seen

 

and the other one that you saw for the majority of last season and we used to see between the months of November to January respectively.

 

Wave a new contract in front of his face and Viduka A used to pop out as regularly as a bloke on a swiss clock but now he's 32, not even that might be enough any more.

 

Class on his day but his days now appear few and far-between.

[Guest Dev]

I said at the time you signed him, and Leeds and Celtic fans could probably have backed this up, that there are 2 Mark Viduka's.

 

The motivated, Hungry (no pun intended), target man, who at is best is unplayable and one of the cleverest footballers I've ever seen

 

and the other one that you saw for the majority of last season and we used to see between the months of November to January respectively.

 

Wave a new contract in front of his face and Viduka A used to pop out as regularly as a bloke on a swiss clock but now he's 32, not even that might be enough any more.

 

Class on his day but his days now appear few and far-between.

 

I agree, it will mostly depend now if he wants to play on to WC 2010. If he's planning on playing he definately has the class to compensate for a slight decline physically over that time, and may put the effort in to stay fit.

 

If he is planning on retiring in 2009 we'll probably see him just eat himself to an early contract payout.

 

I hope after this latest injury layoff he feels like he's had a rest and wants to go through to 2010, but we'll see. I can't see him putting in the required effort to get fit again if he is planning on retirement at the end of the season though.

[Raconteur]

 

I agree, it will mostly depend now if he wants to play on to WC 2010. If he's planning on playing he definately has the class to compensate for a slight decline physically over that time, and may put the effort in to stay fit.

 

If he is planning on retiring in 2009 we'll probably see him just eat himself to an early contract payout.

 

I hope after this latest injury layoff he feels like he's had a rest and wants to go through to 2010, but we'll see. I can't see him putting in the required effort to get fit again if he is planning on retirement at the end of the season though.

 

He's more likely to play for Melbourne Victory in 2009/10 after both NUFC and Viduka fail to exercise the option to renew. I can't see him playing for NUFC past this season, World Cup or otherwise.

 

And frankly, I really can't see him playing for Australia again unless we're desperate. You'll notice Pim Verbeek hasn't asked publicly him to come back or even announce his intentions - I've heard at a few removes that Pim doesn't rate big Dukes and will stick with the likes of Scotty Mac, Josh K and Bruce Djite... (but that's a different argument)

 

[Guest onlyonealanshearer]

Shouldn't Keegan rather get rid of Shola and Smith first as they're not up for it. Oba, Owen, Viduka and young Carrol are a decent enough 4. Sure if they pull off a good signing up front then we should try and get the often injured Viduka off the wage bill. But not untill we have cover.

 

If Keegan does sign a young and untried player it's likely he'll play just about the same amount of games as Viduka did last season but score less goals and give less of an impact. I'd hate to see us lose quality which Viduka is.

 

On top of that we wouldn't have anyone to hold the ball up front.

 

So B, and a first post for me 

[Syrette]

Back to near full fitness according to the Chronicle.

 

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2008/07/14/mark-viduka-plots-early-return-from-heel-injury-72703-21336279/

 

MARK VIDUKA could be back in a black-and-white shirt sooner than he originally expected.

 

And the 32-year-old hinted today that he could end his goal-laden career with Newcastle United.

 

Viduka is back at United’s training HQ today and was joined by new boys Danny Guthrie and Argentina international Jonas Gutierrez.

 

The Aussie target man, who suffered a heel injury at the end of last season, wasn’t due to be back until the end of August or the start of September.

 

But after reporting back to Tyneside he is nearing full fitness again, and there is hope that Viduka could even be able to play a part in the tail end of United’s pre-season programme.

 

The international star goes into the second year of his Toon contract hoping to shrug off last term’s injury-interrupted campaign after undergoing summer treatment on an Achilles problem.

 

Fears that Viduka required surgery were allayed and, after a series of pain-killing injections, the former Middlesbrough and Leeds ace has been putting his feet up over the summer.

 

Last season’s setback ruled the player out of his country’s summer World Cup qualifiers with Australia.

 

Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek desperately wanted the striker involved in the games Down Under after flying over to Tyneside to persuade him to extend his international career at the end of last season.

 

Viduka was plagued by injuries last season, under both Sam Allardyce and KK, with the ex-Celtic man making just 21 starts in league and cup for United.

 

However, despite his up-and-down campaign he netted seven times for the black-and-whites.

 

And the 32-year-old reflected on a disappointing first season in which he had hoped to build on the 19 strikes bagged for Boro in the previous campaign.

 

After suffering an unfortunate and badly-timed calf injury in KK’s first week in charge, Viduka is hoping for an injury-free time next season under Keegan.

 

He continued: “It probably didn’t go as well as I wanted in my first season, but sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to.”

 

And the Melbourne-born star also suggested that he could end his career with Newcastle.

 

“I’ve got this year left on my contract and then the option of another,” he said.

 

Viduka also revealed how much he is enjoying working with Keegan. “Kevin is a very good manager to work for,” he said.

 

“He’s so positive and very knowledgeable about the game.

 

“It’s a pleasure to work with him and I’m looking forward to that for the new season.”

[thewellander]

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but I didn't see it.

 

Just watched JFK's pre-Spurs press conference and he said that he wasn't really moving forward on Viduka's contract because he was under the impression that he was retiring and returning to Australia.

 

Any thoughts? Should we be trying to resign him, at least for another year?

[Yorkie]

He'll go.

 

It'd be nice if we could actually permit Xisco some fucking game-time, then we mightn't have as much work to do in the summer. If he's good then we'll probably actually get by next season with a striking department of Owen, Martins, Xisco and Shola. There's probably going to be a fair bit of work to do in the summer, with whatever manager is here at that time, so if Viduka goes (which i'm 95% sure he will), we could do without having to directly replace him.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Difficult one with Viduka, obviously he's useful if fit but I think his future will be either to retire or continue as he has been, being a bit part player for whatever club he's at.

[Baggio]

We've got the option of another year anyway so there isn't a rush as far as that's concerned.

 

Apparently he's on a massive wage which I can't see the club committing to unless his fitness dramatically improves.

[Ash]

He'll go.

 

It'd be nice if we could actually permit Xisco some f***ing game-time, then we mightn't have as much work to do in the summer. If he's good then we'll probably actually get by next season with a striking department of Owen, Martins, Xisco and Shola. There's probably going to be a fair bit of work to do in the summer, with whatever manager is here at that time, so if Viduka goes (which i'm 95% sure he will), we could do without having to directly replace him.

 

Aye, agree with this. If Viduka is off, it's time to start playing Xisco to see if it will save us pissing around in the summer looking for another striker or maybe even two. Unfortunately, I don't see it happening.

[mofo]

He'll go.

 

It'd be nice if we could actually permit Xisco some f***ing game-time, then we mightn't have as much work to do in the summer. If he's good then we'll probably actually get by next season with a striking department of Owen, Martins, Xisco and Shola. There's probably going to be a fair bit of work to do in the summer, with whatever manager is here at that time, so if Viduka goes (which i'm 95% sure he will), we could do without having to directly replace him.

 

Bollocks that's what the reserves are for man, If xisco can't do it in the reserves then he shouldn't be playing in the first team??

[Ash]

He'll go.

 

It'd be nice if we could actually permit Xisco some f***ing game-time, then we mightn't have as much work to do in the summer. If he's good then we'll probably actually get by next season with a striking department of Owen, Martins, Xisco and Shola. There's probably going to be a fair bit of work to do in the summer, with whatever manager is here at that time, so if Viduka goes (which i'm 95% sure he will), we could do without having to directly replace him.

 

Bollocks that's what the reserves are for man, If xisco can't do it in the reserves then he shouldn't be playing in the first team??

 

How many games has he played for the reserves?

[mofo]

Exactly ??

[Guest Sniffer]

If JFK sees Xisco every day in training and doesn't rate him above ameobi then what's the point of throwing him in when we are desperate for points?

[Ash]

If JFK sees Xisco every day in training and doesn't rate him above ameobi then what's the point of throwing him in when we are desperate for points?

 

One of the first things Kinnear said when he came in was pretty much how pissed off he was that Xisco didn't understand what he was telling him to do in training.

 

I don't think it's to do with ability as he's obviously a decent player.

[Guest Sniffer]

How is it obvious?

[Ash]

How is it obvious?

 

Did you watch him in La Liga for Depor?

[TRon]

If JFK sees Xisco every day in training and doesn't rate him above ameobi then what's the point of throwing him in when we are desperate for points?

 

JFK was ready to flog Enrique last week and he's probably having second thoughts - or at least I hope he is. I agree though, that Xisco isn't going to feature much this season, but when Viduka leaves he might move up the pecking order.

[Cronky]

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but I didn't see it.

 

Just watched JFK's pre-Spurs press conference and he said that he wasn't really moving forward on Viduka's contract because he was under the impression that he was retiring and returning to Australia.

 

Any thoughts? Should we be trying to resign him, at least for another year?

 

I noticed him pulling out of a challenge against Stoke. I think he's lost his appetite for the game. At the top level, anyway.