We NEED to sign another centre back.

I know i've already made an article discussing how we should spend our available transfer money, and the signing of a new centre back was part of that discussion. But i think this should be on our list of priorities this summer.

Sol Campbell is ****, but it doesn't matter he's leaving. We don't know when Steven Taylor will be fit and when he'll pick up another injury, i don't believe he's worth the risk. I'd be happy with him as cover and perhaps start a few games, but he's not a reliable centre back. Williamson is a decent centre back, but i personally think we could sign a better option, and it will be crucial if we're pushing for a top 10 place next season. Coloccini was once one of my ones to sell, but he's now probably one of my favourite players at the toon now. He's been brilliant this season, and he's the only CB i'm really comfortable with.

Some people say that because we've got the best goal difference outside the top 5, that we should be happy with our defense and not to worry about it. Take away the 5-0 5-1 and 6-0, and it looks much less impressive. We've scored the 2nd highest amount at home, but only Wigan, Wolves and WBA have conceded more goals on their home turf.

Lets face it, we need a striker to make more of the good service our midfielders provide, yes, but defensive errors, more than not taking chances, has lead to us losing games, and most of the time, we don't even deserve to lose. I've seen us dominate long periods of games, and give away some really **** goals, which could have been provented. You could even see moments of class from Sol Campbell, which, to be fair to him, could have saved us some points, even though we may have forgotten about it.

We have been unfortunate quite a few times this season. I don't think we're short of the record of conceding the highest amount of deflected goals, but we cannot deny our defense needs tightening up. We need another CB, an improvement over Simpson wouldn't be unwelcome, and we need a new defensive coach. I'm sick of this standing off the opposition ****e.

Realistically, who could you see us signing?

I wouldn't my Chris Samba. Strong, good tackler, aggressive in the right sort of way. I'll be much more comfortable when an enemy set play is swung in if Samba is part of the squad. We look extremely vulnerable against teams with big players who know a good set play, and god forbid what we could quite possibly face at Stoke.

Samba could be a leader at the back. We have no players that really seem to organize the back four. Samba could bollock us into shape. He's 6ft 7 inches of metal, and i reckon we could get him if we offered him the wage cap, and offered Blackburn say 8 million. I don't see why a decent portion of the money shouldn't go on a defender. We have the midfield, all we need is improvements on our attack and defense.

Thoughts?

 

Think we do need to sign a centre back, but I think there are other areas of the team like striker that need improving first.

 

I wouldn't my Chris Samba. Strong, good tackler, aggressive in the right sort of way. I'll be much more comfortable when an enemy set play is swung in if Samba is part of the squad. We look extremely vulnerable against teams with big players who know a good set play, and god forbid what we could quite possibly face at Stoke.

Samba could be a leader at the back. We have no players that really seem to organize the back four. Samba could bollock us into shape. He's 6ft 7 inches of metal, and i reckon we could get him if we offered him the wage cap, and offered Blackburn say 8 million. I don't see why a decent portion of the money shouldn't go on a defender. We have the midfield, all we need is improvements on our attack and defense.

Thoughts?

Agree on this. Samba would be my perfect choice to partner Colo. I think 8m - 10m might tempt Blackburn but we'll probably have some tough competition so I'm not sure if we'll get him, he might not even want to come but he'll my number 1 choice, he's proven PL quality and will be a improvement on what we have.

Although are you forgetting we still have Kadar, Perch(I know, I know he might be gone by the end of Aug) and to a lesser extent Tozer? Maybe a CB might be needed but it's NOT something we have to pay over the odds for..

 

Its not like Saylor is injury prone - he got lamped one and then a shoulder injury - before all that he was hardly ever injured?!

 

After signing a striker or two, where else do we need strengthening, other then our defense?
We have Barton, Tiote, Nolan, Ben Arfa, Jonas and Gosling in midfield. We need striking and defending improvements.

 

Ok... so since then he's been injury prone. I don't care if it's him being now injury prone or it's just his bad luck, we cannot rely on him being fit and ready for games.

 

Agree with your points. We have 1 great CB and 2 reasonable ones. We won't spend the whole 35mil on the strikers and the midfield would be crowded if everyones fit (especial if Ireland joins) so other than possibly GK (although we have 3 including Forster) I think CB is one of the positions we should look to bring someone back in

I don't have a list so i'll make up some Premiership ones now
Bassong again
Samba
Shawcross
Squillaci

lol only joking with the last one

 

You better be.

 

Would love a Samba/Colo partnership but I'm happy to let Willo/Colo blossom with Saylor as cover.

 

Tend to think we need cover at right back and left back before we sign a centre back, as who plays right back if Simpson gets injured?, who plays left back if Enrique gets injured or leaves (Ferguson but is he a left back or left winger and think we'd be better loaning him to a Championship Club next year, same with Krul and Ranger). At least if Coloccini gets injured we can still play Taylor and Williamson there.

 

I think defensively we should be covering left back/right back first. Then centre back. All after striker and winger.

Striker
Winger
LB/RB
CB
Midfield
Goalie
Importance in that order, in my opinion

 

We dont want to kill the opposition, thats a red card!

 

If there's spare cash or funds from the sale of possibly the likes of Raylor, Perch, Sol/Kuqi(expired contracts), Smith, Ameobi/Lover??? and maybe Guthrie being loaned out for a couple of months or even sold.. then I'll like to see more competition in the midfield area(yes a CM), I'll like a box-to-box with a Dyer-esque sort of pace, good creativity and technically adept to give Nolan some stiff competition because I'm not convinced by him.

 

lol

 

Well i forgot about Guthrie, i think he's also good, infact he's actually very good. And Pardew is considering buying Ireland if he proves himself. We will have a packed midfield.

 

We need, in order:
Striker
Right Winger
Full back
Centre back

Ideally a new CB would be good but I don't feel it's as important as the other positions

I'd go for Samba or Scott Dann
Would say Hangeland but he would probably be too much as he's been ace this season

 

I personally think Saylor is better than Williamson. I still agree with you in the fact we need another centre half, I am praying that Mr Carr can sort us one out in the summer, hopefully abroad as I dont think we would be able to get Samba who is realistically our only decent target nationally

 

If we covered everywhere else I wouldn't mind another CM as Sanchino says. With our injury record we can be pretty stretched..as we are at the minute!
Would rather see wingers come in though like.

 

i'd have to disagree there mate, our squad has plenty of players capable of playing right wing well there all just bastard injured at the moment.
However we dont have strength in depth in CB which is what we need to push on next year

 

Personally I think Guthrie will be off in the Summer, but yes we do have a packed midfield and some good players in there like Gutierrez, Ben Arfa, Tiote and Barton.