Ramsay was on 400k a week at Juve apparently! If ever there was an indictment of what’s wrong in modern football
This is the problem with free transfers. The Bosman ruling has created a horrible beast of **** players with absurd wages.
Or… As the window goes on Newcastle get more and more and desperate to strengthen and end up panicking and paying over inflated prices or buying last minute players that haven’t been scouted properly just to get bodies in to appease the fans
Sounding just a bit concerned there, Biscuit. Not used to chasing Citeh whilst looking over your shoulder at the same time, eh?
Doesn't matter whether it's 31st July or 31st Aug, selling clubs have the power due to an inflated market (thanks to PSG ****ing literally everything up). Our owners have to work that out and either "over-pay" (but for more or less guaranteed quality), which is a relative term, or do far better at scouting and hope some gems appear for less money. The bad news for them, and what I hope they realise, is that our scouting has been poor for years. Underfunded, under-resourced and suddenly hoping we have a long list of exciting prospects is most likely to be fanciful at best. So for me, it's prioritise and spend the ****ing money, somehow. We have bags of room under FFP, backed up by the utter lack of sanctions on Everton. We need to go and buy a statement CF and probably keep an eye on RW, CM and RCB. If you offered me bodies in those positions, or a top class CF like Jonathan David or Isak and told me I'd have to stick with Almiron, Shelvey and Schar, I'd (a little reluctantly) take the latter, because we've got next to nowt up top. However, one position I think we actually need almost as much as CF is CDM. I think Bruno/Joelinton would be better either side of a destroyer like Kante or Rodri. I think that would be a better idea than trying to fill RCM. Bruno is not really a CDM and we're getting exposed because he's not the most defensive. When you play 4-3-3 you need a Rodri, Fabinho, Dier, who can fill in as another CB else you're going to get pumped 5-0 by teams like Spurs. Shelvey doesn't do this job either and we, worryingly, have NO CDM. Howe can't seem to work that out. Think it's fine against lesser teams to be more front foot, but without the back four protection bigger teams will hammer us.
Less than 2 weeks until the new season and still no addition to our forward line.... That's kind of worrying. I don't really believe in excuses like "We're just not allowing ourselves to be held to ransom" etc. We should have a list of targets, and if one isn't acquire, then others need to be there. If we cannot sign a better striker, than other attacking options on the wing need to be coming in. I don't want another season of bricking it over Wilsons fitness and then relying on Shola v2 scoring every 100 chances, and being "5/10, decent knockdowns" every week.
On the back of those performances, I'd be in for David of Lille at about £30m, Bremer of Roma at about £20m and Grillitsch for free. I'd sell Lascelles, Ritchie, Mongstaff and Wood.
The idea the ambitious new owners cannot find and sign a better striker than an Ashley signing (Wilson) and the worst striker I've more or less ever seen in black and white is ****ing laughable and really frustrating. Wilson looks like he's struggling already. He shouldn't be our primary striker, he's 32 this season so isn't going to get fitter. I just don't get it. We had £30m+ earmarked and signed off for some French teenager, but inexplicably can't pay the same or slightly more for real talent like David, around the same for Sesko, and I'd bet £40m gets you Isak. And I'm not a scout.
We don't even need to acquire anyone that big. I have been lambasted by people I've spoken to IRL recently about this, saying the club know what they're doing, and "are you saying we should paid £60m for this overpriced player" NO! But even just finding someone around the same level as Wilson will do! It's better than nowt. For christ sake Arsenal have just signed Jesus for 34m. What's wrong with that? I'd have paid a good 40m for Jesus. He's probably around the same level if not better than Wilson, and is not injury prone.
Sell assumes someone will buy. No offers as far as I'm aware so far on the 4 mentioned. You cant keep buying without at some stage selling. We may be rich but we also need to be financially clever.
The problem with Jesus will be his wages. Not in us paying him but with the rest of the squad then wanting parity.
It does make you wonder. Actually when you look at the the outlay PIF have undertook with LIV Golf in recent months, £40m is **** all for a striker.
What an absolute clusterfuck of a signing that’s turning out to be. The players we could’ve got who’d have done the same job last season and would be useful in the coming season boggles the mind. Christ, even Brucey didn’t want him. How Nickson got away with this one is beyond me.
He was literally the only option at the time... He's served his purpose.. 25m to stay up and help relegate burnley.
They paid £40m for one share in January, helped fund the move for Bruno. What, that’s all dried up all of a sudden? Or is Howe reluctant to spend because he’s afraid of matching the ambition? Or is Nickson having another striker nightmare and not finding someone we need? Wish I knew what the **** was going on. (hoping I’m going to write one of these mega-neg posts and minutes later we announce some blockbuster signing just to keep alive my wrong record)
