Newcastle United: Breaking Down the Danny Simpson Contract Dispute

With the 2011-12 Premier League season behind us, all eyes are firmly focused on the transfer window ahead of us. But, despite the fact that it tends to be incoming players who make the headlines, the potential departure of right-back Danny Simpson appears to be gaining traction.

Back in February, the former Red Devil turned down a contract offer from Newcastle worth £25,000-a-week, a number more than double the current wage he's earning. That probably looks greedy to most, but he claims he only wants to be paid as much as the players around him.

Most consider Danny Simpson to be nothing more than an average defender, and considering that the Premier League's average wage is only £22,353-a-week (as reported by Mail Online), it's hard to really side with Simpson here.

Whilst they're not necessarily a stingy team, Newcastle will be looking at all costs to avoid recreating the squad full of overpaid players that got them relegated to the Championship, and staying firm on an issue like this will help to make sure of that.

The culture of football surrounding Premier League clubs appears to be one of overpaying, but it looks like the Toon want no part of this.

Danny Simpson is going to have a real shock if Newcastle eventually puts him up for sale, because the teams who can afford to pay Simpson as much as he wants will simply see him as an inferior player.

The defender has said repeatedly that he wants to be here because of the European football and the good team built around him, and he'll soon realise that this is also the club that will pay him the most money.

As consistent as Simpson has been this season, he's simply a replacement-level player, and other teams will see this as well. Newcastle won't be too much worse off if he leaves, and actually, they'd even benefit from the extra money they could put towards the salary of an incoming player.

Whether Simpson stays or leaves, the Newcastle backroom staff would like to know what's happening pretty soon, so they can prepare to replace the defender with a new signing.

Rumours have started to heat up regarding both Mathieu Debuchy of Lille and Erik Pieters of PSV, but both depend on whether or not Simpson stays on Tyneside.

As Seen On FTBPro and The Spectator's View.