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Sidwell In - Butt Out?


Guest eyeball_tickler

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i was told on Saturday before the match that we had signed Sidwell on a pre-contract and he'll be joining on a bosman at the end of the season to replace Emre, who is off to Germany.

 

Didn't think you could speak to players in your own league about signing pre-contracts? If he is Emre's replacement then we are going to struggle to create much!

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So, we're looking at a central midfield squad of Butt, Parker, Sidwell & Pattison. Joy.

 

Emre and Butt must be kept with an outright attacking, goalscoring midfielder coming in. Swapping Sidwell for Parker would be a bonus.

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i was told on Saturday before the match that we had signed Sidwell on a pre-contract and he'll be joining on a bosman at the end of the season to replace Emre, who is off to Germany.

 

Didn't think you could speak to players in your own league about signing pre-contracts? If he is Emre's replacement then we are going to struggle to create much!

 

Roeder never uses Emre as an attacking midfielder anyway so it won't make much difference.

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From the guardians rumour mill:

 

Ginger pin-up Steve Sidwell is still muttering words of discontent at Reading. He has now officially been classified as "wantaway" by top Berkshire scientists. Symptoms include appearing in the tabloid back pages everyday and a burning desire to commit career suicide by moving to Newcastle. Our colleagues on the paper reckon Chelsea quite like the look of his stuff though - but if he's anything like Scott Parker (and it's questionable whether Sidwell's that good), he'll rot in their reserves before being shunted off to the Toon anyway.

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Why do we always have to write '___ in, ____ out?'

 

Why not have both players, we need to bulk up the squad and need as many as possible. Yes you can't please everyone but injuries will happen, squads will rotate and their wages will never stop. Euro games (I hope) will also require a constant stream of backups too.

 

Butt has arguably been our best player this season, along with milner, given and possibly martins. Keep Butt and get Sidwell in and we can focus entirely on defence and attacking transfers.  :coolsmiley:

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I think it'll be Emre out, Sidwell in. A pool of three midfield battlers. Who knows, we might battle our way to a 15th placed finish.

 

In all seriousness I know very little about this Sidwell fella apart from the couple of Reading games I've seen and MOTD highlights. Seems more in the Parker mould than the Emre mould, but by all accounts he's a canny player who has stood out at a club who are performing above themselves this season. Considering he's still relatively young and on a free transfer, with so many gaps to fill in the squad, his signing would make sense.

 

We really need to put all the money in defence. I'd be gutted if we lose Emre through this though, creative central midfielders don't come cheap.

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Most Crosses                  Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) 300         

Most Offsides                  Benedict McCarthy (Blackburn) 55         

Most Fouls                      Steve Sidwell (Reading) 80           

Team with most fouls      Watford 471         

Team with most shots      Man Utd 441         

 

Tacklers                          Team Tackles Success rate       

McCann                          Aston Villa 153 70%       

Parker                              Newcastle 148 79%       

Sidwell                            Reading 116 77%         

Xabi Alonso                    Liverpool 114 81%       

Brown                            Fulham 108 73%

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Most Crosses                  Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) 300         

Most Offsides                  Benedict McCarthy (Blackburn) 55         

Most Fouls                      Steve Sidwell (Reading) 80           

Team with most fouls      Watford 471         

Team with most shots      Man Utd 441         

 

Tacklers                          Team Tackles Success rate       

McCann                          Aston Villa 153 70%       

Parker                              Newcastle 148 79%       

Sidwell                            Reading 116 77%         

Xabi Alonso                    Liverpool 114 81%       

Brown                            Fulham 108 73%

 

Indeed he is another Parker?

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Most Crosses                  Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) 300           

Most Offsides                  Benedict McCarthy (Blackburn) 55           

Most Fouls                       Steve Sidwell (Reading) 80           

Team with most fouls       Watford 471           

Team with most shots      Man Utd 441           

 

Tacklers                           Team Tackles Success rate         

McCann                           Aston Villa 153 70%         

Parker                              Newcastle 148 79%         

Sidwell                             Reading 116 77%         

Xabi Alonso                     Liverpool 114 81%         

Brown                             Fulham 108 73%

 

Indeed he is another Parker?

 

Its very worrying if he is to replace Emre.  Looks like he is another hard working crap player. I havn`t seen enough of him to pass judgement without stats but he has committed the most fouls in the premiership this season.

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Most Crosses                  Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) 300          

Most Offsides                  Benedict McCarthy (Blackburn) 55          

Most Fouls                       Steve Sidwell (Reading) 80           

Team with most fouls       Watford 471          

Team with most shots      Man Utd 441          

 

Tacklers                           Team Tackles Success rate        

McCann                           Aston Villa 153 70%        

Parker                              Newcastle 148 79%        

Sidwell                             Reading 116 77%         

Xabi Alonso                     Liverpool 114 81%        

Brown                             Fulham 108 73%

 

Indeed he is another Parker?

 

I think this bit highlights the pointlessness of these statistics.

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Most Crosses                  Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) 300          

Most Offsides                  Benedict McCarthy (Blackburn) 55          

Most Fouls                       Steve Sidwell (Reading) 80           

Team with most fouls       Watford 471          

Team with most shots      Man Utd 441          

 

Tacklers                           Team Tackles Success rate        

McCann                           Aston Villa 153 70%        

Parker                              Newcastle 148 79%        

Sidwell                             Reading 116 77%         

Xabi Alonso                     Liverpool 114 81%        

Brown                             Fulham 108 73%

 

Indeed he is another Parker?

 

I think this bit highlights the pointlessness of these statistics.

 

They probably meant fouls.

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Sidwell - nowt special.

 

 

 

Sidwell - Good player on a free.

 

Really? I've only seen him a few times for full games, and he's looked nothing special. Maybe as a squad player, if we pay him particularly low wages, it'll be ok. We don't need any more journeymen for the first team, we have enough of them already.

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Most Crosses                  Stewart Downing (Middlesbrough) 300           

Most Offsides                  Benedict McCarthy (Blackburn) 55           

Most Fouls                       Steve Sidwell (Reading) 80           

Team with most fouls       Watford 471           

Team with most shots      Man Utd 441           

 

Tacklers                           Team Tackles Success rate         

McCann                           Aston Villa 153 70%         

Parker                              Newcastle 148 79%         

Sidwell                             Reading 116 77%         

Xabi Alonso                     Liverpool 114 81%         

Brown                             Fulham 108 73%

 

Indeed he is another Parker?

 

so, he's another parker who shoots a little better then.

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Guest Invicta_Toon

Butt recently bought Roy Keane's old house in Chesire.

 

Read into that what you will.

 

He's signing for Macclesfield?

 

He was into Keane for some serious gambling debts?

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  • 2 weeks later...

In-demand Sidwell set to make summer switch to Newcastle

 

 

Jeremy Wilson and Louise Taylor

Tuesday April 17, 2007

The Guardian

 

 

Steve Sidwell is likely to leave the Madejski Stadium and move to Newcastle United this summer. Sidwell has attracted the interest of a number of Premiership clubs, but Newcastle have emerged as favourites to sign the former Arsenal trainee.

Although Aston Villa, Everton, Middlesbrough, Manchester City and Spurs have all been monitoring the situation, it is believed that preliminary talks have already been held with Newcastle and that Sidwell favours a move to the north-east.

 

The Newcastle manager, Glenn Roeder, believes Sidwell will add energy and steel to his team. At 24, Sidwell is also the right age to freshen up Newcastle's midfield.

The move could come under jeopardy if there was a managerial change at Newcastle this summer but, despite speculation linking Sven-Goran Eriksson with the club, it is likely that Roeder will still be in charge at the beginning of next season.

 

Sidwell is out of contract at the end of this season and, after he failed to agree new terms, Coppell has resigned himself to finding a replacement. He will, though, continue to pick the midfielder. "If Siddy goes I've got to get at least one more in and maybe two - I'll play Siddy again definitely," said Coppell.

 

Sidwell was left out of Saturday's 1-0 win against Fulham, with Brynar Gunnarsson staking his claim for a place in the centre of Reading's midfield.

 

"He [sidwell] has been playing all the games up until now and it's up to me to show I can do a job there," said Gunnarsson. "It's more than likely that Steve is leaving and that leaves me and James Harper in the midfield. Obviously the manager will buy one or get another player in, but if I do all right from now until the end of the season, I think I have a chance. I'd love to stay there [in central midfield] for the last four games."

 

Roeder will tonight get a chance to assess the fitness of Michael Owen who is expected to play his first competitive match in 10 months when Newcastle's reserves travel to Middlesbrough. But the striker's return is in danger of being overshadowed by a bitter political battle.

 

Owen, who could well make his first-team comeback at home to Chelsea on Sunday, finds himself caught in the middle of a club versus country row between Freddy Shepherd, Newcastle's chairman, and the Football Association.

 

Dissatisfied with the amount of compensation his club has received from football's ruling body in the wake of the serious knee injury Owen sustained playing for England in the last World Cup, Shepherd has threatened to seek an injunction preventing the FA from selecting the striker for the May friendly against Brazil at Wembley and the European Championship qualifer in Estonia in June.

 

Although the FA's insurers have paid Newcastle £50,000 a week since Owen's collapse last June, that represents just under half his weekly salary and the Tyneside club's insurance company has had to cover the remainder. Shepherd has also received about £1.5m from Fifa as compensation. Shepherd engaged the FA's help to persuade Fifa to cough up.

 

Having banked up to £6m in insurance pay-outs and compensation for Owen's absence, this dictates that Newcastle's chairman - who originally demanded £20m in recompense from the FA - will base any injunction on the FA's failure to meet the striker's £150,000 medical bills.

 

Meanwhile Newcastle, who are also likely to field Shola Ameobi, fit again after a hip operation, tonight will be without Damien Duff for the remainder of the campaign due to an ankle injury.

 

 

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