Dimitri Payet

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...wcastle-united-could-swoop-marseille-7134931?

Newcastle United were last night alerted to the surprise availability of Marseille star Dimitri Payet.

The winger, also linked with Arsenal, has been put up for sale by the French club, and they want him off their books now.

Reports in France yesterday revealed offers of around just £5million would secure the services of the talented 27-year-old, who has failed to make as explosive an impression than was expected since his £12m move from Lille.

Newcastle scouted Payet a year ago and are sure to be interested again, especially if his fee has been more than halved in the space of 12 months.

Well respected sports newspaper L’Equipe reported that Marseille’s new coach Marcelo Bielsa has been told to raise money before the end of the financial year, £4.8million to be exact, which is on June 30.

The club have some financial problems, which would become more serious if a player isn’t sold, and Payet, who can also play through the middle, is the most likely source of income.

Despite being seen as less than crucial to Marseille’s future, Payet actually had a decent season without being brilliant.

He scored eight goals from the wing in 35 matches. But he was substituted 21 times in the league alone, which meant he didn’t come close to the French World Cup squad.

Payet has played seven full caps and previously played at Nantes and Saint Etienne, before moving to Lille in 2011.

Newcastle are keen to do business soon, with some club sources revealing that something could be done even this week.

Payet ticks many boxes, and with Hatem Ben Arfa almost certain to leave, this transfer would be seen by Alan Pardew as a way of appeasing the supporters.

The club will spend money, but they can’t afford to be left trying to do deals towards the end of the transfer window, like the previous two windows.

Luuk De Jong will not been offered a new deal, despite Borussia Moenchengladbach willing to sell the Dutchman for a fraction of the £13m they paid for him two years ago.

Loic Remy has set his sights on a Champions League club, although he has been heavily linked with Everton in the last week.

Wherever last season’s top scorer turns up, it is highly unlikely to be at St James’ Park.

Apart from anything else, many inside the club were hugely unimpressed with the Frenchman’s attitude over the closing months of the season.

 

No chance he would get a better offer st that price

 

Isn't he a bit too old for Ashley's 'development strategy'?

 

He's 27 and can play as a Midfielder or an attacker.

I haven't seen him play before so I can't comment on whether he's good enough or not, but we need to start getting some bodies in soon so that they can train together and form some kind of understanding with each other. Something that wasn't very evident last season.

 

6 or 7 weeks until the lads are back training but, sure, get them in before then if possible. Transfers are often very drawn out affairs these days as games of brinkmanship and bartering are played out so some of our transfers will be well after training starts. It's unavoidable if the player or club is holding out for the best deal.

 

Erm, players training & playing together week in, week out would often look like they'd just met in a pub the night before the game. I believe the term is 'Pardewed'.

The problem I find is that I have no idea how NUFC are supposed to play. I hear guff about "front foot", then watch aghast as we play a defensive 5-4-1. If someone, ANYONE, could enlighten me as to our STYLE of play, I'd be eternally grateful.

 

Our style of play, like any other is dictated by the resources we have at our disposal. As we have very limited resources and are even more limited since January in the characteristics of the type of player we have, we are very limited in terms of our style. Our style in our best periods over the last 3 seasons has been characterised by fast counter attacking football. This stands to reason given te make of the squad which has possessed a lot of pace and good ball carriers, coupled with a creative force in central midfield to release them. It has proved very effective.

Since we sold that creative force who dictated the pace of our game from the middle of the park we have lost our way. We now have no central midfielder with the ability to pick a pass or control the tempo of the game, and a load of quick ball carriers with no ball to carry.

Players and characteristics of players, play a important role in the development of any style. Take Liverpool for instance. If you reduced their squad akin to the size of our own, and then removed key components like a Gerrard or Suarez, they'd struggle to maintain the identity and style they do now. You can apply this across every team in the league. Every manager/club builds their squad in a way to fit their style of play. If you don't buy the right types of players, or in our case don't bother to have cover or in Cabaye's case, anything at all, you will look like a very disjointed uneffective outfit.

Maybe if we stopped thinking in terms of casino chip colours and concentrated on building a football squad, we might see a more defined style of play over a longer period. Maybe if when we sold a key component, we replaced them or at least had some form of back up, it would have less impact on the functionality of our team. It seems obvious to me, but what do I know, I'm just a middle aged pervert who happens to enjoy watching football.

 

So what I don't then follow is how Uwe Rosler, for example, has Wigan playing, or how Eddie Howe has Bournemouth playing. Brendan Rodgers at Swansea is another decent example. Or if it's not him and it's Martinez, then I'll cite Martinez at Swansea and Everton as an example of more or less the same squad who were 'alright' then going on to look a lot more sparkly. The stats would say that Martinez is no more successful than Moyes, but would any Evertonian swap back? Nope.

All of these squads are limited, they do not have the luxury of buying who they want, they are who they are but a philosophy, a way of playing, seems to be drilled into the players. It's not all sunshine and roses, they don't win every game, but they don't lose 7 on the bounce, they don't rely on solitary players to make it all happen - or at least I dont think they do? Everton as a high level example have had as many plaudits for Barry, Mirallas and Naismith as they have for their headline acts Lukaku, Deulofeu and Baines.

When we really did have a decent season - although 5th was a misnomer, we were top 8 and played quite well at times - there was no 'star player'. Some players hit good form, but it seemed - as you say - to be a collective team effort of stay solid, break and score. Sometimes we'd even be able to hit this mythical front foot and stay there. Something has happened between then and now, constantly, to make us a run of the mill, always second best side. I don't even mean for this to be an anti-Pardew rallying cry - but I want the club to address the situation and goddam fix it. We could have a summer with Townsend, Cabella, Ince, Rodwell, and others joining, with Armstrong, Kemen and Aarons knocking on the door. I'd hate for us to start the season playing more nullifying football in a desperate bid to get 10th. Even Pardew must realise that doing so would be fatal?

 

Everton is actuallly a very good example of what I'm talking about. They have clear leadership throughout the team. It has not been ripped out halfway through (none of those you mention suffered this issue). Howard, Jagielka, Distin, McCarthy, Barry provide a very good base to work from. If you had ripped Barry out halfway through the season and we pretended Osman didn't exist, do you really think they wouldn't have lost their way a little? I find that hard to believe personally. Until the club operates in a proper manner for running a football club in terms of resources, it will never have a clear style or identity. I don't mean having a world class player in every position, but if you have a Cabaye and sell him, you must either replace him or at least have a player with similar characteristics to step up. We had Gosling.