Newcastle United's Jermaine Beckford bid knocked back

Dec 31 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

Hughton is also hopeful of clinching a deal for Sheffield United defender Matthew Kilgallon, but will not be strengthening in midfield, even though he will be without Cameroon midfielder Geremi from next week.

“Geremi will be meeting up with the rest of the Cameroon squad on January 4, and how long he stays in Angola will depend on how well his country do in the competition,” Hughton said. “At this

moment in time, Geremi remains a contracted player here, and I don’t see that changing. At present, we’re in a fairly healthy position in terms of the squad, and we haven’t had too many injuries, particularly in the midfield areas.

“That has restricted the amount of time Geremi has been on the field, and there have been times when he has found himself out of the match day squad.

“But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a job to do, it doesn’t mean we won’t need him in the second half of the season.

“He’s still a player of good quality, and that’s why he’s been selected to play for his national team, even though he hasn’t had a lot of football this season. He’s out of contract in the summer, but at the moment he’s very much under contract and the only reason he hasn’t really figured is the lack of injuries we’ve had to this point.”

Meanwhile, Hughton says that Joey Barton will be back in training by the third week of January – but will probably not be available for selection until February. The midfielder was back in the public eye yesterday after a series of interviews with BBC radio but is not likely to be seen at St James’ Park until well into the New Year. “That’s the point where we hope he’ll be back training full time,” he said. “After that, there’ll be a period of training and building his fitness back up. Provided there are no setbacks, he’ll be available for selection in no time.”