Newcastle won't pay over odds for Boumsong
Newcastle will not be held to ransom as they attempt to prise defender Jean-Alain Boumsong away from Rangers.
The Glasgow club confirmed yesterday that they had rejected a bid, believed to amount to more than £7m (€10.19m), from the Magpies for the Frenchman, and reports from north of the border today suggest that their asking price is £10m (€14m).
However, Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd held his nerve at this time two years ago as he called Leeds’ bluff over Jonathan Woodgate before getting his man, and the noises coming out of St James’ Park this time round are very similar.
Club insiders have insisted that their bid is a take-it-or-leave-it offer, and with Rangers having bowed out of the UEFA Cup with last night’s 2-0 home defeat by the player’s former side Auxerre, they remain confident that they can succeed.
However, they will not get involved in an auction despite the urgency with which they need to find a replacement for Woodgate, and manager Graeme Souness, once in charge at Ibrox, has several targets in his sights.
His pursuit of Boumsong has been well-documented and is ongoing, and the Magpies firmly believe that there is a genuine chance of him playing his football on Tyneside early next year.
They are hopeful that transfer regulations which prevent a playing moving twice during the same year should not come into play because the Frenchman signed a pre-contract agreement to join Rangers last December.
