Tel reveals precisely why he definitely ‘rejected’ Arsenal and Man Utd moves to join Spurs

Editor F365
Arsenal transfer target Mathys Tel
Mathys Tel and his many transfer options

We’ve got Mathys Tel listing the many reasons he rejected Arsenal and Manchester United beyond the obvious one of never having the chance to actually join Arsenal or Manchester United, plus a big Exclusive that Newcastle are either going to build a brand-spanking-new stadium or not do that.

 

Park life
Fascinating stuff from Luke Edwards in the Telegraph today about Newcastle’s stadium plans, but from a confident, punchy start it quite quickly goes off the rails.

Newcastle leaning towards building a new stadium next to St James’ Park

That would be huge. Literally and figuratively.

Exclusive: Board understood to be on verge of recommending £1.2 billion project for new home overlapping current Leazes Stand footprint

Okay, pretty exciting. And ambitious.

The project is an exciting and hugely ambitious one, which would give Newcastle the second-largest club stadium in the country behind Manchester United’s Old Trafford.

See?

Intriguingly, the new stadium would be constructed using an overlapping footprint, which means it would be built on some of the land St James’ Park currently stands on.

Now there are some alarm bells ringing here. The benefit of this plan is that it reduces the amount of green space Newcastle would be building over in Leazes Park when compared to an entirely new footprint, making it more palatable to the local council. But there are obvious and known issues with this strategy, not least that it surely means spending at least some time playing home games elsewhere for a club that doesn’t have the benefit of, say, a great big sparingly-used national stadium 12 miles away.

It is also thought the proposal could allow Newcastle to continue playing at St James’ Park while the new stadium is constructed and would not force the team to relocate their home games.

Laughs in Spurs.

Although it remains to be seen how this would work in practice – a temporary relocation could still be needed – and it is not clear at this stage whether the capacity would be reduced while some of the work is carried out.

Mediawatch is neither a stadium architect nor a stadium builder. Not professionally. But we will confidently state that there is almost zero chance of this kind of overlapping build taking place without said ‘temporary relocation’. And apparently the nearest suitable ‘home’ for such a relocation is f*cking Murrayfield. We’re starting to have doubts about all of this.

As too apparently is Edwards, who started so very punchily but gets less and less confident as the story wears on.

Although the club remain adamant that a final decision has not been made – this will be up to the majority stakeholder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, when it is presented with the two options of rebuilding St James’ Park or moving to the new site – there is growing momentum behind the new stadium plan.

Still quite confident here.

Newcastle is a host city for the European Championship in 2028 which is another complicating factor.

We’d say so, yes.

However, although the club believe they have found their preferred option, they still want to consult supporters before making a final decision and will make a presentation to the Fans Advisory Board later this year.

Definitely less confident now.

There is also the chance that PIF will reject the idea to move, given the high costs, the opposition to leaving St James’ Park from a large number of fans and the potential for the project to be delayed by legal challenges.

As a result, the second option to rebuild and redevelop St James’ Park also remains on the table.

Oh.

The estimated cost of that project is believed to be around £600-£800 million, which is half the price of the new stadium.

There are still some within the club who would prefer to stay put, but even they recognise the advantages that a new-build, multi-purpose stadium with state-of-the-art facilities would bring in terms of maximising revenue.

Interestingly, an expanded St James’ Park, with a huge new Gallowgate End, would have a capacity well in excess of 60,000. For some that is big enough to satisfy demand and the team would also be able to continue playing there while the construction work took place. It would also be quicker to finish.

That screeching sound you can hear is that of a man talking himself out of his own exclusive.

A firm decision will not be made until the proposals have been presented to fans and PIF, who will have the final say on which option they want to take.

Heard you the first three times you said this, fella.

There has been a sizeable shift in thinking at Newcastle United. Having pretty much decided they wanted to stay at a modernised and expanded St James’ Park this time last year, the preference now is thought to be a move to a new purpose-built stadium in the shadow of their existing home.

It is a shift in opinion that is widely shared among fans. When the club conducted a survey last year, more than 70 per cent wanted to remain at St James’ Park. Anecdotally, though, more and more people have come round to the idea that, to compete as a modern European power, Newcastle need a larger, state-of-the-art home.

Who needs the boring hassle of surveys and their inconvenient results when you can just ‘anecdotally’ conclude the opposite?

But even with that anecdotal support, Edwards seems increasingly uncertain of his initial position.

Staying at St James’ Park is the simpler, cheaper and quicker option. Building a new stadium is extremely expensive and would take a long time to finish. A timescale of seven years has been mooted, but it could be even longer. Newcastle could well be playing at their current home for most of the next decade.

Expanding and modernising St James’ Park, Telegraph Sport understands, could be completed in around five years and the team would be able to carry on playing there while the work is carried out.

The Newcastle hierarchy is moving closer to making a new stadium its preferred option, but there are still a lot of stages to go through before a final decision is made.

As with everything in life, the easier and cheaper option can sometimes make more sense than the grander, more expensive one to those who hold the power to make those calls. This is a story that has not yet reached a definitive conclusion.

So after all that we get to this: they might build a new stadium but also actually they might not, nobody really knows. Thanks for that.

This isn’t Edwards’ first Exclusive on the future of St James’ Park, by the way.

‘Newcastle considering ‘massive redevelopment’ of St James’ Park
Exclusive: Proposals far grander than initially thought, with multi-purpose venue and overhaul of city centre under consideration’ – October 6

‘Newcastle United want to turn Gallowgate End into the own ‘Yellow Wall’
Exclusive: If staying at St James’ Park, club will look to turn stand into one of the biggest in Europe’ – December 11

He’s got a lot of bases covered at least. Probably worth a story about Newcastle not actually bothering to do anything to St James’ Park at all, just to be on the safe side.

 

Tel me more
To the Mirror now for far more important content. Transfer content.

Mathys Tel reveals why he made Tottenham transfer over Arsenal and Man Utd

Is it… because Arsenal and Man Utd weren’t actually that arsed in the end? Apparently not, because the intro doubles down.

Mathys Tel believes Tottenham were ‘the best option’ after choosing to reject interest from Manchester United and Arsenal.

Did he? Did he choose to ‘reject interest from Manchester United and Arsenal’? And you can already guess based on every other Mediawatch ever written how many times he mentioned either Manchester United or Arsenal when talking about his decision to spend four-and-a-half months at Spurs.

And the Mirror accidentally say the quiet part loud for him about halfway through.

Arsenal and United failed to back up their initial interest with the Red Devils opting against paying the loan fee Bayern wanted.

He never fancied them anyway.

 

Squad goals
The Daily Star out here out-sh*thousing their big Reach brothers over at the Mirror with this headline.

Man Utd ‘seal £8.3m deal’ as Ruben Amorim revamps squad after transfer deadline

It’s certainly one way to report Tyrell Malacia’s loan move to PSV.

 

Headline of the Day
And an early contender for headline of the year, frankly, from The Sun

EXCLUSIVE: Vinnie Jones buried my tortoise alive while landscaping our back garden