Vilhena will be Cork replacement; Clasie the Morgan replacement. Morgan is still first choice CDM until the summer, so no need for Clasie now. Great if he came, but not the need now. If Cork goes we replace him. I see the club's logic.
When you have really, really good players who really like the manager and who the manager uses to their best ability, then yes it's always a risk that the manager will leave and the team falls apart. The upside is... you will have a really good team. When you are Newcastle, the downside is.. you're Newcastle. That club just has a ton of problems and needs a lot of fixing. It wasn't just the manager. If we didn't have Koeman, we might not have gotten Tadic or Pelle and the team really would have been in hot water. Seeing as how Koeman was just taking over the job I can see why he'd go with players he knew. We are not going after Clasie and Vilhena because the are Dutch, we are going after them because they are awesome. The Koeman connection is why they might come here over other clubs. Why would we not work that to our advantage? The alternative is getting someone not Dutch, but not as good. Which really just leaves Elia. Which I'm okay with as a loan. If he plays well he's a bargain signing. If not, we send him back. The idea of players from Saints Academy populating 75% of the first team was always a bit of a pipe dream. And while it was nice when Saints had a bunch of English players-- you saw what happened. They left anyway, for bigger English sides. I actually feel like a foreign player, if Saints are at the level they want, will be happier to stay here. They aren't carrying around the cultural baggage of having grown up thinking of Saints as a small club. They know what they see. And anyway, you have to have foreign players to be good because England is just a small part of the overall population pool, and not even really that great a footballing nation.
I feel like Reed is Cork's replacement. The starting two mids probably are Wanyama and Schneiderlin, so Cork is a backup anyway, albeit an extremely useful one who would see a decent amount of playing time. Clasie is a small guy, but he puts in his fair share of tackles. To me Cork was kind of like Schneiderlin without the passing and ball skills. Clasie is exactly like Schneiderlin. So I don't see why Clasie wouldn't fit us. Neither one can really replace Wanyama role, but we've shown we can do okay with Schneiderlin/Cork so why not Schneiderlin/Clasie? But it's not really a big deal. If the club really thinks they can get both then I don't care what order they arrive!
You have me confused. I was just saying that one out, one in. Cork goes we bring someone new in (yes, Reed is his next gen player coming through, but in the context of everyone agreeing we don't want numbers down, I assumed we would bring someone in!). I never said Clasie won't fit us - he is perfect for us, but today we have Schneidlerlin - let's get Clasie when he goes . If you mean next season, then don't kid yourself: Morgan is off in the summer (most likely). Confused? I am. You should be
Really disappointed to see Jack go, but Swansea City are by far the best club for his talents. He'll play practically every game and strengthen their midfield too. He goes with my best wishes. One of the honoured team who got us through the divisions. There's only one Jack Cork.
But Clasie is better than Vilhena, so would be more useful this season. And probably next season as well. Is it really THAT hard to think more than one step ahead? We are going to lose a less good player (Cork) and a good player (Schneiderlin). We need to replace them with a good player and less good player. What kind of silly logic says we HAVE to replace like-for-like on exact timeframe? Oh crap, we screwed up and replaced the less good player with a good player. Now we have too many good players. What a disaster. I can see the potential sticking point being that Clasie costs too much right now and/or he doesn't want to come here now without a guaranteed spot. OTOH, we could maybe sign Clasi now easier than in the summer with a sneaky move when all the clubs are throwing huge dollar figures at him and his agent.
BBC Wales reporter Dafydd Pritchard: Swansea City have agreed a fee with Southampton for midfielder Jack Cork, who has held talks with the Swans.
Newcastle's recruitment was lauded a few years ago too. Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Sissoko to name but a few. Don't fool yourself into thinking we're perfect in the recruitment department and other clubs have no idea what they're doing. Anyway, at the moment, we're superb and I'm loving life. Just annoys me when people think we're above any sort of problem...this is football remember.
Bugger me! You really are taking everything literally today. We are just saying we see what Ron is thinking and tying that in with availability of players. Stop going so deep! No-one will mind if we sign a better player than Cork and no-one is saying that Vilhena is not better than Cork anyway - he may be the next best thing.
Now Joey if you read my posts regularly, you will know that I definitely don't think that. In fact I have been one of the few preaching the 50:50 belief of recruitment and that this year we were lucky/good I hope you weren't suggesting I think we're above any sort of problem
All the best Corky.......Can understand his recent frustration. Two managers on the trot used him more or less as a back up. Is it any wonder he thought his career at Saints was not going anywhere? Surprised it is Swansea, thought it might be Palace. Prior to our purchasing Cork he was here on loan from Chelsea for while wasn't he? As a promising youngster in his late teens early twenties. Isn't that the time he got called up to the under twenty ones? It must be frustrating not Progressing to the full England squad after such a successful time in the under twenty ones. To do that he needed constant game time I guess. Hopefully now he will get it............As for the full squad.......for me doubtful, but who knows .......good Luck to him.
Good move for Cork, though I feel he will be used in a similar role there as he was at Saints, not a first team definite, but hopefully further up the pecking order than here for his sake.
I don't think we ever said 75% of the team would be from the academy. My recollection was 50% which we actually achieved several times last season. Cork has been a good loyal servant to the club and I find it hard to believe anyone will begrudge him a move to get more playing time. It would be nice to think that Reed would be his replacement but somehow I think he will go for big money like shaw did in a year or so. So RK is right to look at vilhena and classie for cork and Morgan respectively. Still a good proportion of English players at the club with long, Bertrand and Forster evidence that we do buy English when they are not overpriced
