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Newcastle pair now available for relegation fight

8 years ago
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The Newcastle United relegation fight will see both Papiss Cisse and Cheick Tiote available to play their part, barring injuries…

The pair were the target of clubs in China looking to recruit ever more players from the top European leagues, with the likes of Ramires moving from Chelsea for mega money.

The final stages of the transfer window in China also saw former Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins join Shanghai Shenhua, the club which Cheick Tiote travelled for talks with in January – though no deal went through.

However, the transfer window has now closed, so both Cisse and Tiote will remain at St James Park now, at least until the summer when both will have only one year left on their Newcastle contracts and we will surely see the two of the move on at last.

Earlier this week it was reported by The Mail that Cheick Tiote wanted to move to China and had been offered a package which would give him £70,000 a week take home pay, after tax has been accounted for.

However, it was claimed that Newcastle had blocked any transfer, having accepted Steve McClaren’s advice that he couldn’t afford to lose either Tiote or Cisse with Premier League survival still in the balance.

A number of Chinese clubs including Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan were said to be willing to meet the player’s wage demands.

Newcastle had originally been more than willing to sell the player for £6m but now both player and clubs will have to wait until the summer before anything can happen

Cheick Tiote was one of 26 players who travelled to La Manga for the training camp, though he was one of only six players who weren’t either in the starting eleven or on the bench, with no explanation given by the club as to his absence.

With Newcastle desperate for defenders and strikers in January, it was a major surprise to see all three buys to be players who play across the middle of the pitch, including two central midfielders in Shelvey and Saivet, which added to an already congested area of the squad which also comprises Colback, Anita, Tiote, Wijnaldum and de Jong, whilst Moussa Sissoko also played centrally when at Toulouse.

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