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Now That's What I Call Transfer Rumours! 7

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KaKa

KaKa

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Yeah, he looks really good. Lot of hype building around him though. Going to be some competition for him. We'll have to be quick.

 

Hope Tsygankov comes on too, he's a really good player as well who's only being kept out by their older talisman Yarmolenko on that right side.

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Paully

Paully

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https://theathletic.com/3611055/2022/09/22/goalkeeper-super-agent-richard-lee/

 

When former Watford and England goalkeeper Ben Foster decided to retire this month, he got a phone call. Newcastle United wanted to sign him.

The person on the other end of the phone was Richard Lee, described by Foster on his YouTube channel as a “super goalkeeper agent” (as well as being Foster’s former No 2 at Vicarage Road).

Speaking to The Athletic, Lee explains his role in the game: “It’s basically a big jigsaw, where you have to fit the pieces together — or a game of chess where you have to be three or four moves ahead.

“I’ve got Google alerts set up on over 300 goalkeepers in the UK and around the world. I check every match, half-time and full-time, for any keeper substitutions.

“I’m in contact with every single goalkeeper coach to understand their needs and keep spreadsheets so that I know where the gaps are — and where they may appear.”

So when Newcastle were in need in the early weeks of the new season, Lee was prepared.

“I got a bit of intel that Karl Darlow (Newcastle’s backup goalkeeper) had gone down,” he says, “and straight away my mind went to Ben, and I found out he was on their contingency list if anything went wrong.”

Lee called Foster, who was a free agent and 39 years old, after his Watford contract expired at the end of last season.

“I asked if he’d be up for Newcastle and his response was, ‘Yes, that sounds very interesting’.”

Some admin needed sorting quickly: “Ben wasn’t under contract with me. It was more based on us being friends and keeping an eye out for him, which he wanted me to do. I’d always been very respectful of his previous agent so never trod on toes there.

“I got Ben to send me a message saying that I was, in fact, acting on his behalf, which I screenshot and sent through to Dan Ashworth (Newcastle’s sporting director) as, often, players with no official agent have all sorts of people claiming to represent them.

“(Ashworth) was in a meeting with the manager (Eddie Howe), discussing the situation, and he said he would call me back. He also called Ben, who he knew from (their time together at) West Brom, to say that he was going to progress with the conversation.”

Negotiations began.

“Dan made his initial offer and then Ben was telling me where he was at,” Lee says. “Dan was very good, being creative and also reasonable because I knew the role they wanted Ben to do.

“The figures were starting to get crazy. Ben was in another category to the other goalkeepers they were looking at, so he had a lot of power due to his Premier League experience. On every phone call, Dan and I would try different methods to bump up the money to get it closer, because Ben wouldn’t budge.

“Just to complicate matters, I’d just arrived in Dublin for a client meeting and I was intending to stay at the airport for six or seven hours and then fly back out that day. Not only did I have to be upfront about the fact that the planned meeting was going to be interrupted with these negotiations but there was no (phone) reception in the airport, so I had to keep walking down the road to get a signal.

“Dan came back and said they’d hit the number and let’s do it. That’s when I called to break the news to Ben. I didn’t think there was any issue, but there was a weird feeling when he said, ‘Give me half an hour’. Because he had said if I get to that number he would say yes.”

Newcastle had significantly improved their salary offer and made it a season-long deal rather than just a short-term one until January.

“That was when I got the call (from Foster) to say, ‘Rich, I’m not sure’. We had a few more calls and shared a few messages in which it sounded like he was coming round to it, but then I got the final call and I knew at that point it was a no. He’d asked for that figure almost not wanting them to get there, and the moment they accepted it that provided clarity in his mind that he was done.”

Instead of signing to continue his playing career, Foster retired. Newcastle ended up signing Loris Karius, the former Liverpool keeper who was also available on a free, until January.

“Naturally there’s disappointment because he would have been perfect for the role,” Lee says. “As an agent, you get a real buzz when things like this come together. It may sound silly but I was imagining being on that journey to Newcastle, knowing you’ve done a significant deal for a player — these are your magic moments. So it was a feeling of deflation after an exciting, adrenaline-fuelled day.”

Not that he was annoyed with his long-time friend.

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kingxlnc

kingxlnc

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For Jan, it has to be

 

Maddison or top draw RW

Pedro

A CM - e.g. Haidara / Sangare

 

That relegates Almiron, Shelvey and gives us a decent first sub change in Pedro. 

Keeps the upward progression. 

 

CM and RW are absolute musts this window, has really cost us big time already

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The Prophet

The Prophet

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January is going to be interesting. Stavely said it's generally a window they won't look to do too much business in, but this one is quite unique straight after a world cup. Howe will be pushing, so you'd imagine it'll be another moniter the market and see what presents itself job.

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Optimistic Nut

Optimistic Nut

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36 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

January is going to be interesting. Stavely said it's generally a window they won't look to do too much business in, but this one is quite unique straight after a world cup. Howe will be pushing, so you'd imagine it'll be another moniter the market and see what presents itself job.

 

I think if we're in the running for Europe which we should be, they'll get a couple in to get there.

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bowlingcrofty

bowlingcrofty

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Think we’re going to start to move towards quality over quantity now that we’ve got a pretty solid first XI. 1 or 2 in January and then 3 or 4 in the summer.

 

Now we have Ashworth and Eales here I’m confident we’ll have our deals lined up to go when the window opens. 

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BoSelecta

BoSelecta

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11 minutes ago, bowlingcrofty said:

Think we’re going to start to move towards quality over quantity now that we’ve got a pretty solid first XI. 1 or 2 in January and then 3 or 4 in the summer.

 

Now we have Ashworth and Eales here I’m confident we’ll have our deals lined up to go when the window opens. 

2 in January would be great. If we then qualified for Europe we’d need more than 4 in the summer. 

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Mikky

Mikky

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8 minutes ago, BoSelecta said:

2 in January would be great. If we then qualified for Europe we’d need more than 4 in the summer. 


Yep 6 away I reckon from making an impact on the top 8 at least - will solidify us in terms of quality depth 

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KaKa

KaKa

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The one good thing that will come out of the recent struggles in the final third is that the issues will be addressed this January without hesitation. No chance they let this carry on as a potential issue through till next summer now.

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