YAKUBU: “I won’t walk away!” trumpets the Gazette today.
Well that’s nice to know just seven months into the new Riverside fans' favourite's lucrative five year deal.
Yakubu spoke to the media yesterday to say all the usual nice things: “Fulfill my ambitions here... blah blah blah ... playing in Europe... club with potential... good manager... get on well with the lads.... fans are special... blah blah... nice countryside....want to be manager one day....I love your ‘parmo’.
And that should be some reassurance. But what should be a nagging worry is exactly why the club have been moved to roll out the red hot striker to quash transfer rumours.
Remember, we don’t comment on speculation. Yet for the past week the club seems to have left that position and gone far beyond comment and moved into the kind of strange shadow dance we usually only see when a player is at the end of a deal.
Last week boss Steve McClaren was moved to say that UEFA progress against Stuttgart was vital if Boro were to ‘match Yakubu’s ambitions and keep him at the club’.
Why say that now? Has there been some indication that the Yak may want to move on swiftly to a bigger stage? Is it a case of ‘qualify for Europe’ or I’m off?
The sudden spate of transfer snippets should also be a worry. Despite what cynics say about tabloid methodology, stories are rarely fabricated.
There is always something in them. Sometimes the hacks are tipped off by bosses who want to unsettle players. Sometimes by agents who are angling for a move or looking to use the threat of move as leverage for a hefty pay rise.
It may be that club ‘insiders’ have let it be known that their current frontmen are on the way out and they are looking at X, Y and Z as prospective replacements. Let’s hope they go for X and Z first.
Arsenal have been linked and that makes sense. Both Henry and Reyes have been linked with moves to both Real Madrid and Barcelona.
They could sell Henry for £25m and come gunning for Yakubu and it would be hard to see how the player or the club could resist for long when the piles of cash on offer reach £10m... £12m... £15m. They could replace him and still make a dent in their debt.
Likewise Manchester United are sending out strong signals that Hertz van Rentaaal is on the way out (which would explain the long face as he warmed the bench at the Millenium Stadium as United won our cup).
United may be belt-tightening under the Glazers but they could still put together a strong package: £8m + Saha + Darren Fletcher. The lure of Old Trafford would be hard to ignore for most players.
If a bigger club comes calling, dangles glory and cash and a higher level of football under a player’s nose they usually get their way. After all, that’s how we got him in the first place.
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