I must admit it’s not what I was expecting to see. But that’s probably wrong expectations and a lack of understanding. I keep reminding myself that it’s unlikely Dan Ashworth moved for no reason. It’s the noise and fuss over a fairly average prospect like Ekitike that I can’t quite get my head around. Overpriced and we remain the only club bidding. In the world. Not sure why the alarm bells aren’t ringing.
The fans were told from the horses mouth but the simply ignored as the evidence and thought they could spend hundreds of millions on 3 or 4 players. Newcastle can't afford top strikers so they're buying a top young prospect.
I'm not specifically knocking the lad; it's the furore that's built up when he has absolutely nothing about him. It's just hugely overblown, symptomatic of things like Twitter. We're talking about the same amount of money as Adeyemi, but look at the two side by side; Adeyemi is a full German International with 4 caps, 48 goals from 120 or so senior appearances. Hugo has 20 from just 54 apps, no major caps for France at all and the only interest from elsewhere is rumour.
Who's labelled him as this, though? That's what I can't understand. I've read nothing interesting, he's not in any list of "Europe's top 100 hot prospects" and has no France appearances.
Even Reims chairman was quoted as saying he was astonished at the amount of money people started to quote with regards the lad, he came from nowhere this season, got a chance and has so far taken it. That being said, Harry Kane wasn't hyped anywhere as a kid either till he got his chance.
To me he looks the same as the Scottish lad we picked up, couple of million, lot to learn, nowhere near ready. But most of our transfer budget? Seems ****ing mental. Joelinton, Wood and now Ekitike? I wouldn't trust Nickson to pick a striker if his life depended on it. I reckon he'd have thought Brayson had more about him than Shearer. Then the Geordie fuelled media circus about him being this Dortmund-scouted next big thing is also completely baseless. Dortmund were never interested, I highly doubt PSG give a **** either.
He's got almost 1 in 2 playing for reims and literally every big club in Europe is keen. Newcastle might not even get him and have to turn to other options and it won't be anyone very exciting. Newcastle United may have changed hands, but it's reputation is poor, the facilities are second rate, the city has a reputation as being an awful place to live, the clubs not offering European football and the club hasn't yet managed to organise sponsorship. It makes it all difficult for them to get most of their ideal targets and unfortunately our fans simply cannot get it into their heads that nufc is a nothing club outside newcastle.
Utter bollocks, on every level. Which clubs? Show me the evidence - we submitted a bid, how comes we're the only ones who have if "every big club is keen"?! As I said before, under Ashley/Bruce we were enticing enough to Wilson, Saint Maximin, Almiron, Joelinton. Under the new owners we've then been enticing to Bruno Guimaeres. So how is it now so difficult to upgrade Wilson, Fraser, Longstaff, Burn?
I'm the same as you mate, I've used Adeyemi previously as a comparison and giggled when Dortmund were linked with Ekitike thinking he'd never ever shift Adeyemi out the starting 11. I'm prepared to give the kid a chance but this nonsense his agents seem to be playing is getting annoying. As for CC and his "we can't attract top players yet" - That kind of thinking would never ever have seen us sign Kevin Keegan in the 80's, Malcolm Macdonald in the 70's, Michael Owen (as **** as he turned out) in the 00's.
Then you're not understanding how the games changed and you'll need to sit down with someone because I haven't got the time to explain.
I'm dealing with two delusional fantasists at this point. They know better than the scouts, they think the location, facilities, bigger clubs showing interest, club reputation and stature don't all come into the equation. They don't think all that makes it difficult for nufc to sign top strikers who have a limited budget as they've been told and just ignored. Me? I think it's great bringing in a top young player, it makes sense and could be good value. It's possible first and foremost.
I don't think you could convince yourself let alone me. You swallow everything you want to believe and use snippets of quotes from years ago rather than more recent quotes as facts and evidence. When you are shown more recent interviews you fail to acknowledge it and say people are using mental gymnastics. I don't believe for one second that if we had serious interest in the majority of players in France, Portugal, Italy, Germany that we couldn't land them. Yes certain players will prioritise CL football but that is the minority not the majority. The majority want a better wage and to compete in a better league than what they are currently in. Are AC Milan a bigger pull at this moment in time than us? They can offer CL football but play in a worse league and can't lay a glove on us wage wise. Are Barca, Atletico and Madrid a bigger pull? Yes without a doubt. Are Bayern and Dortmund? Yes. Can all those clubs really buy every single player we're linked with? No. Therefor there will be players out there that would be very interested in moves to us and to say anything else is quite belittling.
I'm not opposed us getting this kid, but this is not true at all. Dortmund, PSG links are just from the usual ***** ITK's
Wrong it's been reported by several journalists in this country and across Europe. This is the thing! People don't understand what goes regarding scouting.. These players are watched for years by scouts all over the world. It's not a case of Newcastle just noticing a player and saying OK we'll just buy him. The player knows other clubs are sniffing around and so does his agent.. They're not objects and have big life decisions at play for them and their families. If nobody else was interested and he wasn't very good the deal would've been done fast. You'll all be sucking his plums claiming you knew who he was just like gamereas in a few months. Or maybe Joelinton who you all said couldn't control a ball not long ago. I keep being told to trust the process but I'm literally the only one that hasn't got my head rammed up my black and white arse.
