Toon’s chase for £10 million Debuchy: Separating the facts from the fiction

Posted on July 21st, 2012 | |

Yes, I know that there have been previous reports that a move Lille full back, Mathieu Debuchy is “imminent.”

I also know that Debuchy himself has come out of the closet with his desire to leave the club, that a rumoured €6-7 million bid (£4.7 – 5.4 million), or alternatively, a £6-7 million bid has been made by Newcastle United (Possibly by undiligent writers confusing the euro figures with pounds Sterling figures). There has even been a report that Debuchy was booked in for a medical on Tyneside at one stage. However much of this (apart from Debuchy coming out of the closet which was a direct quote) has been completely ubsubstantiated twaddle written for the titillation of Newcastle United fans, some of whom are positively engorged in anticipation of his imminent arrival. In this piece I shall endeavour to separate the fact from the fantasy, or rather, the parts which can actually be substantiated.

One thing which is certain is that Newcastle United did make a derisory £4 million bid for the player, which was confirmed (and laughed off) by Lille’s manager, Rudi Garcia, when he said:

“I do believe that Newcastle have faxed an offer of €5 million (£3.9 million), but they must have the wrong player.”

No higher bids have been since been confirmed by either Newcastle United or Lille, they are just “understood” or “reported” to have been made by newspaper hacks and copy and paste bloggers. Of course, it isn’t beyond the realms of possibilty that a higher offer has been made, but there is nothing whatsoever to back up the claims that I can find, and believe me, I have tried!

One thing that is for sure is that Debuchy does want to leave Lille now, and his club are resigned to the fact that it will happen in the fullness of time, however they have also expressed a wish to find a replacement before this takes place. Debuchy himself is also resigned to the fact that it would be unfair to demand that the club let him leave for a fee which is unrealistic, and has said on the matter:

“Lille can refuse any insufficient offers. The clubs must reach an agreement. That is not yet the case.”

Which brings me to my next point. Even if Newcastle United HAVE made an improved offer of €6-7 million, it would still be something short of his real worth in the current marketplace, a value which has, incidentally, been increasing since the whole imbroglio began. Of course, this has largely been as a result of some fairly impressive performances (in a mostly lacklustre French side) on the recent big stage of the European Championships. When this whole thing started, his value was thought to be around £8 million. However, since the Euros, and also the player being constantly in the spotlight and linked with major clubs such as Inter Milan and Chelsea as well as Newcastle United, this has now risen to something more like £10 million. What is more, Lille themselves undoubtedly know this and prefer bide their time until they have both found a replacement, and the big boys arrive at the party fashionably late. Having written that, it has been rumoured that Debuchy, like another ex Lille player who is now at Newcastle, Yohan Cabaye, has a release clause in his contract, though this time the figure which has been bandied around is appoximately £8 million. However, like much of of the stuff written about the chase for Debuchy so far, there is no substantiation for this, and it remains within the realms of gossip and speculation. Even if it were true, the highest estimates of unsubstantiated bids allegedly made by Newcastle fall short of this sum, and even if there were some truth in them, I think it would be doubtful if Lille were to let the player go for significantly less than figure named in the release clause rumour, and it may not be to Newcastle United either, though time will tell as always.

Anyway, in conclusion, I think it is fair to say that a Debuchy move to Tyneside is still far from imminent at this point, and that there is still some way to go before it is.

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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1078 articles on this blog.

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