Pardews Transfers

Boys and girls,

Just read somewhere that part of your board are over in France looking to tie up a couple of deals and it got me thinking. After last season's success after the influx of the French is Pardew being blinded by that and in turn could he be missing opportunities of other stars in other countries, by solely focusing on the French league?

Forgive me if I'm miles out, obviously yous are a lot more aware of the happenings at your club and it was just a thought

 

I really wish our scouts would spend more time in this country searching for gems.

We have done well out of France, but it is approaching overkill imho.

 

Our last signing was Anita who's Dutch.

 

And then Bigirimana (English/African) and Goode (Australian)...I can understand the OP's point though. Whilst Ligue 1 currently represents a rich market with a wide talent pool at good value, its a fine line between getting the best deal and simply taking the 'easiest' option!

 

Bearing in mind we got both Debuchey and Cabaye in for pretty much the same price as Sunderland paid for Wickham, the same amount as we have paid in the past for Boumsong, less than for what Crouch has gone for, similar costs to what Southampton paid for Rodrigous (sp), we may be better off not looking at all in this country. Though we did spot Michael Richardson and JJ Hooper lower down the leagues!

 

I think we have a superb scouting system.

 

I think our scouting has been fantastic - even the players who take time to adjust (Anita (from Holland) and Santon (From italy) spring to mind) once they settle they look brilliant.

The one place I would like to see us scout a bit more is Spain - wonder if there are any more Michus hiding somewhere.

 

No problems with our scouting system for me, I think we are pretty versatile. Cisse/Ba/Bigi,Anita/Obertan/Santon/Good all came from elsewhere. The ones we have picked up from the French league haven been hit and miss, but the big ones have turned out well.

 

love the new username fella...

 

Until we start making bad signings I'm happy with the way things are going.

 

Well, nobody should be too hopeful over signing Loic Remy as Ole 'Arry & his pooch where watching him in Marseille today and we all know Tony Fernandez will make up for his sides current grim prospects with pure cold hard cash.

 

Did we sign any French players last summer?

And our other targets were Douglas who's from the Dutch league.

 

Amafaltino (sp0)

 

Whenever you commit to buying any target of any nationality from any market, you are by definition ALWAYS missing out on other talent.

Luckily there's a lot out there to be found and I doubt any market, providing the country/league structure big enough, has more or less than another.

We've focused on that market because of the comparative prices over UK, whilst acknowledging that the football quality is high enough to suggest players are capable.

It hasn't done us badly overall so don't fix if it ain't broke.

Remember too that making the squad too multinational and cosmopolitan could be counter-productive to settling imports in. The thinking is sound, just need the scouting to stay good...

 

I think you might found some crouching Xiscos hidden Jonases around as well....

 

Jonas is far from the most skillfull player we've had but he was 'free' (maybe had to pay compensation and certainly even true 'free' signings end up getting more in wages) and has put in many good shifts over the years.

Despite our poor showings in the league its still hard to point to a player in recent years and say "he was a bad signing", even when we spent around 4-5m on Simpson, Williamson, Best and Perch we got more than our moneys worth for that (and they all looked dodgy for a while) with only Williamson looking a poor player. Even then we spent something like £1-2m on him and have had more than that value from him I'd say.

We seem to focus on France and Holland which seems fair enough. There are good players in those leagues for good money, we may be missing out on players in Belgium/Greece/etc but I find it hard to believe there are lots of hidden gems in Spain and Italy which we would poach from clubs over there. Most players from those leagues cost a fair bit, Michu is the exception - its hardly like he was unknown in Spain so I'm not sure how he was so cheap (hindsight is a beautiful thing).

 

Jonas was on a pretty substantial fee I believe. A Keegan signing, was about a little over 6 million I believe.

 

Agreed we might miss out on players elsewhere but that is the nature of the beast, Carr obviously knows the French/Dutch/ possibly Belgian/german? leagues very well.
france and holland have superb 'national' youth development systems unlike spain, which rely heavily on the top clubs youth devt system which is first class)
Its not just the price of players, its their wage expectations and demands (which will often amount to more than the transfer fee over the terms of their contract).. If Cabs and Daboosh are on 40k a week-ish..Iam guessing they may have been on 25k? at lille (no real idea). It will be hard to find an equivlelent player interms of ability and quality in the 5 million transfer fee bracket on 25k a week in the uk at least.
So for Bang for buck.... price+ wages vs quality and ability etc..France it is

Persoanlly I would like to see Carr's team move out to the Scanderwegian footballing areas a little more

 

Romain Amalfitano.

 

Amalfitatata as he is known in my household