Newcastle to be held to ransom over Gutierrez

Real Mallorca claim they will hold Newcastle to ransom over Jonas Gutierrez and demand £11.75m for the Argentinian winger.

A Spanish judge is set to decide in January whether the Magpies will have to pay for the 25-year-old, who supposedly joined on a free transfer after invoking FIFA's Article 17 - the Webster clause - to get himself out of his contract with Mallorca.

However, the Spanish club are still furious over the transfer, with a lawyer for Mallorca claiming that Gutierrez was still under contract at the club when he signed for Newcastle.

"Newcastle are clearly liable in this matter. They signed Jonas without paying a euro, but the Argentinian was still under contract," lawyer Vicente Morales told The Sun.

"Mallorca and Portsmouth agreed a 10 million euro transfer, but Jonas rejected that and then decided he wanted to leave for nothing."

Mallorca's British owner Paul Davidson added: "We don't want a war with Newcastle, but they need to understand that it's impossible to do business this way."