We are paying the price for buying young players and constantly buying and planning for the future rather than focusing on the present and solidifying a position. Relying on two 21 year olds to score our goals was always going to be a huge risk, and it hasn't paid off. Perez is a good player but is a number 10 and will not score 15-20 goals a season. Mitrovic has proven himself at other clubs, but he's young and needs time to get used to the pace of the premier league. I don't understand why our owner and board think that a player is not worth buying if they might not have great re-sale value. Plenty of clubs buy players in the late 20's/early 30's and they are rewarded with an instant impact and solidify their position. The older player might not be a part of their future, but you need to solidify a strong position, then think about building a dynasty, not just risk it all on young potential. Summary - I'd personally look for a proven premier league striker and purchase them. Our best bet, IMO, is Charlie Austin. A proven goal scorer in a team without much quality, and can score a mix of goals. He even has captain credentials ffs. BUY HIM! Don't let another relegation candidate steal this one FFS!!!
Completely agree with all that Tash says. Every half decent team needs the correct blend. The price of failure is high.
Alan Hansen famously said you can't win anything with kids. These days it's, 'you can't compete with kids.' We need experience. Discounting players aged 27/28 is sheer incompetence.
If we go down then i would love to see the smile wiped off his face. It's not just NUFC that would suffer. Sports Direct will not get the advertising exposure that they currently enjoy.
Getting relegated is not in Ashley's interests. I personally hope we go out of the cup. If we're not in the cup we have no excuse to not care about the league in which we are in a deep relegation scrap. If we don't make a change now we'll be in deep trouble come february.
A dynamite window would be Jetro Willems, Andy Carroll and Granit Xhaka. Carroll over Austin for me, allow Dummett to be the backup cb he should be, and someone big and capable n the middle to work with Gini and Tiote.
As much as id love to see him here, Charlie Austin will not be coming. Why? Well why would he want too? He will sign for a PL club this summer for free, so a big fat signing on fee and wages to match. What can we offer him? Mediocre wages, zero ambition and potentially Championship football again next season. He just wont come lads. We really are not a great prospect for anybody other than unproven foreigners looking to get into the honey pot that is the PL or third rate players that cant believe their ****ing luck that one of the biggest clubs in Europe wants to sign them even though they are bang average and drifting along in a lower league somewhere. Proven quality players will go to clubs with ambition. Which is just about every other team in the PL, apart from us. Welcome to 'The Structure'
This sadly is absolutely spot on. The so called management at our club has allowed the situation to become so dire, that the only remedy now is to hit rock bottom and start all over again. Preferably without the millstone that is Mike Ashley.
Honestly the best solution is to wait it out. With the changing landscape on sponsorship and other European markets appealing he won't be around in 6 months to 2 years time. We need to remain in the top flight as well, going down isn't as "good" as it seems!
Rolando, l agree that at some point for one reason or another the odious blob will cut and run. Sadly l really fear that before then he will happily preside over the total demise of our beloved club. Some have argued that he loves money too much to actually let that happen. Well l hope so, but personally I also suspect that he is so stubborn and vengeful that he may just do it because he can. At the end of the day, 200 million is chicken **** to him. Remember this is allegedly the same bloke that has turned over the running of his property empire to his daughters boyfriend! Previous experience, running student disco nights! The man is beyond a joke and the laugh is on us.
We have lodged bids for players before. Usually derisory and rejected Would love to be proved wrong though
The only thing about Soccer Sauce - They were spot on with all five of our summer signings. We'll prolly bid 3 mill for Austin
Well I think you have talked some utter ****e of late but this is bang on the money - we won't though we will go buy a load of French c internationals
Fully expect another tonne of cash spent on Marseille's Batshitooee (sp).... Does Mike like Marseille?
Problem is. Now... If you where Austin would you join us. Or someone like Stoke or Everton et al. We can't attract the player and that's the problem. Now we are in a situation where we don't look desirable any more. Austin knows he can hold out for. Better club. The only fix in my mind is to go down and lose the people who have broken the club. For the record Austin would score goals yes so he's a good option to buy. But I actually don't think he will get the service he needs. The club know we Are in a dangerous position. And yet here we are 3rd January. With no noise coming from the club at all. Not even another dodgy email from our captain or wally. They know now that the situation is actually worse than it was last season. And that's after spunking 50 million. I do not understand that interview from Ashley at the end of last season. It totally baffles me. He's made himself look a complete fool not in front of the Geordie nation but all over the world. The time for good performances is gone. The time for points is now. And **** me if we lose against the mackams then pardew needs hung drawn and quartered.
