Listened to his interview on BBC NE phone in last night and have to say I was very impressed. He was incredibly knowledgeable, very level headed and above all a really good down to earth bloke. Got to admit he is a massive bonus for the mags and I would imagine is just about the most vital ingredient in their progress over the last 2 to 3 years. Said they had another batch of French lads in the pipeline too. I guess the only question is can they all keep turning out to be hidden gems, or will his and their luck run out? Good bloke though and really interesting to see the level of effort required to source these lads.
Well I'm sure you knew I would be first to comment on this Cest The line about his luck running out...massive error of judgement on your part. Him finding gems is not down to luck, he has been watching Cisse since he was 16, Cabaye since he was 19 and Tiote since he was 21. Extensive research is done and we won't move for a player until we have watched him for years and are massively confident he will suit our team and the premier league. As for Carr, you're right he is the vital ingredient for us. most important signing we have made in years, keeps him here until he's 75
Got to agree with Cheik on this one, would you call a Doctor who works hard to save lives lucky? The thing that I like about Carr is that every deal is different, Amalfitano probably won't be a Cabaye (although Carr says he has the potential) but then he was free and will be on relatively low wages, so it's less of a gamble but then I don't think he was watched as much, Cisse cost £9 and HAD to start firing early, he was watched for years! Having said that, I don't expect every signing to be a Cisse or a Cabaye, but looking at his track record, there's no reason we can't expect a gem or 2 every other season! Cheers for the kind words though Syd, I don't think any of our fans are underestimating how important a signing this is!
Not for the first time you've completely missed my point. Yes, the leg work behind signing these players is impressive and certainly extensive but you can watch a player for years; meet him and his family socially; become friends even and believe you have a winner, but when you sign them and bring them to the UK, its still in the lap of the Gods as to how they may turn out. All your players hit the ground running last season and contributed from day one, which is very unusual. To expect that to be the case every time is even beyond the most delusional among your lot? Surely. Not even Man Utd, City, Chelsea or any of the other lesser mortals in this league can guarantee that level of successful recruitment every time. Unless you think Carr has the answer to football alchemy, you may well cash in on a couple this summer (and you all know its very much a possibility) and find the replacements not as quick to settle, or just not find their feet as quick. That would effect your season hugely. For every Arfa, Cabaye, Tiote or Cisse, there is a Marcelino or Xisco waiting in the wings. My point is will the next batch be the former or the latter? That's all. If you don't sell anyone, then you will have time to bed new recruits in. If they are replacing sold ones, they will have to hit the ground running for a 2nd consecutive year. That's a hard ask even for Carr imo. I guess in short, what I am saying is your entire fiscal and footballing philosophy seems to rest on Carr unearthing gems for Ashley to recover his investment with each transfer window. It's worked for 2 years but I think it's a hugely risky strategy for long term planning. One wrong year and its goodnight giveover. Anyway, I was actually praising Carr not criticising but as usual, touchy ****ing barcodes pick the fight not the praise.
This was aimed at Cheik pal? You still don't accept that its a high risk strategy to put all your football eggs in one basket and expect it to work every time. I liked the sound of Carr and I think we need better scouting networks but exclusively bringing foreign lads in carries huge risks and relying totally on them to work out even more so. Do you accept that?
Cest, you talk a load of nonesense. i agreed with every point you made barring one, so I felt no need to comment on them as I believed they were right. The point that I picked out, which you have made again in this post is about luck. It's all opinions, but I entirely disagree that "it is in the lap of the gods". If you've done your research properly, I believe you can be extremely confident of whether or not someone will be a success. No luck involved, we are just more thorough with our scouting than other clubs. Other clubs see potential, take a gamble, sometimes it pays off sometimes it doesn't. We on the other hand bide our time until we are sure. I may be wrong, but I sense you are clutching at straws hoping that your misplaced believe is true. This is backed up by you getting so ****ing touchy when someone dares to question a statement you make.
I think it can be LESS risky if you're buying players with experience of winning titles abroad, rather than buying mid table players and hoping that they can make the step up to a top 7 team. All about opinions though. They're also a hell of a lot cheaper. Edit: Also, we are strongly interested in Mulumbu from West Brom at the moment, and we bought Obertan from man U last summer, so we will get players from within the prem if they are a good fit for us.
All I've got I say is your luques and xciscos weren't scouted properly. Granted, not every signing will be a super star, however, having a top notch scout narrows the odds of you picking up a dud. We've got that in Carr. Not every signing hit the ground runnin though. Santon took his time bedding in and Ben arfa was only properly unleashed when he was moulded in to what pardew wanted.
No, but the likes of Cabaye, Tiote, Cisse are all in their prime. HBA broke his leg and Santon is no more than a bairn.
Santon was signed for the first team though. It's a known fact that foreign players normally need a bedding in period. I remember when we played you lot and cisse didn't do much there were comments like we've dodged a bullet on here and that he was ****. They were serious comments as well. The likes of cabaye and HBA were making names for themselves in France when we signed them. They were well scouted and we got them in. It no surprise to me how well cabaye has done. He was brought in to replace Nolan to ensure we played a certain type of way. Careful and clever planning by everyone involved.
If he wasnt a geordie i think he wouldnt have signed this deal. Thankfully he is and seems happy to stay. He recommended Cisse to Man City and Spurs at his times there and i heard City would have bought him if he had got a work permit when Sven was still there.
He does seem pretty decent at his job mind, give him a raise, he's worth more than any single player.
Without a doubt there's risk involved, I more than accept that, but aren't all transfers risky? Your best player this year in my opinion was a Frenchman, you're two best deals were a free in Larrson and a cheap (I have no idea how much he cost) youngster in McClean. Whilst it was lucky that Larrson was free, there was no doubt he is a talented footballer and a dead ball specialist, it was simply good management by Bruce in getting him! (first and last time I'll say that I think...) I'm not sure we're putting all our footballing eggs in the one basket, just sticking to a system that has proven to work well both financially and on the pitch. Buy them young and cheap, they either come off, or they get sold on for a similar fee without draining our club of wages! If all goes well, I expect to see far more of Carr's influence beginning to affect the U18s and reserves rather than first team in the next few years. We should (fingers crossed) be established as a top 10 premier league side with reasonable European aspirations and a solid spine. That way, we buy the odd replacement and then cherry pick lads like Amalfitano, Vuckic and Abeid - 17-22 year olds with little reputation but a bit of potential and a lot to prove!
