Five Magpies Fly Away As Newcastle Look To Reshape Squad
French center back Mapou Yanga M'biwa, 25 has left Newcastle for league runners-up Manchester City in a deal worth around £7 million. He signed a 4 year contract with City on Wednesday afternoon, and has said to be disappointed to have left Newcastle, after failing to impress during his time there.
Since Alan shearer joined the club as the manager, he has favoured Davide Astori and Fabricio Coloccini and with the recent signing of Alex from PSG, his chances of first team football were threatened even more. Last year saw M'biwa join French side AS Monaco for the season. He played in 35 league games for the club but it was still not enough to convince Shearer of his abilities.
22 year old winger Sammy Ameobi who was once thought to have a bright future in the game, has been sold to Wigan Athletic in a deal worth £4.1 million. The player, who is the younger brother of former Newcastle favourite Shola Ameobi, has told Sky Sports that he is happy to have been granted an opportunity to revive his career at a lower team.
The first season under Alan Shearer saw a formation that didn't allow room for wingers, so Ameobi found his chances very limited. In the second season, the formation was changed, but he was not picked as Shearer preferred Demba Ba to him. Ameobi stated that there is no bad blood between himself and Newcastle, and that he was very grateful to have been given the opportunity to work there.
30 year old striker Mounir El Hamdaoui has left Newcastle to sign for fellow Premier League side Queens Park Rangers for £1.6 million. The Moroccan striker was signed in the January transfer window of 2012-2013 as a backup forward. He played ten games in that season and scored 1 league goal, but when the transfer window reopened, Newcastle brought in some better targets, meaning El Hamdaoui was overlooked for selection.
Last season, he was loaned out to Serie A side Udinese, where he made ten league appearances, and scored 3 goals. With Udinese making another bid for him when he was transfer listed earlier this week, he decided to sign for QPR, perhaps feeling that he would get more first team opportunities at the smaller club.
João Mário, 21, who joined the club on a free transfer, has been sold to Sky Bet Championship side Millwall for £425k. The youngster was one of many Portuguese youth signings made in the 2012-2013 season. Newcastle never really played him, as he wasn't rated highly by the coaching staff. Newcastle will be delighted with the amount of money they made from the transfer and in a club statement have wished Mário the best of luck in the future.
The final departure is veteran Spanish winger Joaquín, who joins 1. FC Kaiserslautern for £475k. The transfer comes after the player, who was capped 52 times for Spain during his career, was bought by former Magpies chairman Mike Ashley for £2.8 million in 2012/2013.
So a significant loss there, but they will be glad that the player, who played just once for the club, is off their wage bill. He was thought to be on around £82k per week on his contract at Newcastle. He spent the second half of last season on loan at St Mirren, where he made 25 appearances, scoring 5 and creating 7.