$1million Chinese bid for Joel Griffiths
BY MICHAEL COCKERILL
21/01/2009 4:00:00 AM
Newcastle Jets owner Con Constantine is considering selling star player Joel Griffiths to China for an A-League record transfer fee of $1 million and the club could line up homeward-bound Socceroos striker Mile Sterjovski as his replacement.
Constantine confirmed late yesterday that Beijing Guoan had tabled the record seven-figure offer for Griffiths on Monday night after he had rejected an earlier bid believed to have been around $750,000, and he was now weighing up the situation.
Griffiths, 29, signed a new $900,000 deal to keep him at the Jets until 2012 four months ago but is known to have become increasingly anxious about the rapid disintegration of the title-winning squad. Griffiths is believed to be keen to join younger brother Ryan at Beijing Guoan and, unless he recovers from a hamstring strain in time for this Sunday's final match of the season in Sydney, he may already have played his last game for the club.
Disgruntled Jets fans already coming to terms with the team's spectacular fall from champions to wooden-spooners are certain to be devastated by the likelihood of losing their talisman on the eve of the Asian Champions League campaign.
Ironically, the Jets' first game in the ACL is away to Beijing Guoan on March 10.
Newcastle have developed a reputation as a selling club since Nicky Carle left for Turkey two years ago skipper Jade North [Incheon United, South Korea] and midfielder James Holland [AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands] are the most recent departures but while Constantine makes no apologies for his strategy he admits the decision whether or not to release Griffiths is the hardest he has faced.
"Yes, there is an offer on the table, and, yes, it is definitely a record offer," he said.
"From a business point of view, it's always nice when clubs around the world want your players, and as I've always said, we don't stand in the way if a player wants to go, and the price is right.
"But Joel is a bit different from the rest. We've just agreed to make him our marquee player for the next three years, we've made him our captain, and we're working towards building our team around him.
"Basically, Joel is our diamond. We need him for the Champions League, so I've got to put a lot of thought into this. They [Beijing] want him now, and it's something that has to be decided pretty soon.
"But I've got to be careful, it's such a big decision. Right now, my mind's not made up."
Clouding the issue is the ACL draw, and Constantine admits the possibility of Griffiths playing against the Jets so soon after his departure is giving him "nightmares".
"It will be bad enough having one Griffiths [Ryan] playing against you, let alone two," he said.
"I would prefer that if a deal is done, it doesn't happen until after the group stage [of the ACL]. I don't want him to come back and give us nightmares. But that has to be worked out I'm sure the Chinese team want to do well in the competition, and that's why they want Joel in the first place."
Meanwhile, Constantine declined to identify who the club was looking to bring into the squad in time for the deadline to register players for the ACL [February 11], but it's believed Sterjovski currently on the books of English championship side Derby County has emerged as a strong candidate to replace Griffiths as the club's marquee player should his move to Beijing materialise.
Sterjovski, who has struggled for game time at Derby, is considering coming home from Europe for family reasons and has also been linked to Central Coast Mariners and Perth Glory.
"I don't want to name names, because we always seem to get into trouble when that happens, but there will be some good news very soon, believe me," Constantine said.
