todays transfer round up

Real Madrid have made a shock move to hijack Aston Villa attempts to sign Le Havre’s Gueida Fofana. Newcastle are also in for the 20-year-old midfielder, and it seemed likely he would be moving to the Premier League. But Real have moved in after a recommendation from club legend and new sporting director Zinedine Zidane. (Daily Mirror)

Newcastle are back in the hunt for Paris St Germain's Mevlut Erdinc. Toon lodged a £7m bid two weeks ago, only for talks with the striker's representatives to hit a last-minute snag.

thats all iv got! what u guys think?

p.s waking up this morning to see the ben arfa injury ! fml! hope hes okay

 

Hopefully he's be fine.

Still wouldn't mind Erdnic, was unaware of the existence of the other bloke but he's got a funny name.

 

Hope it doesnt mean a list of fofanaities

 

Read yesterday that PSG were linked heavily with Mauro Zarate from Lazio .. would push Erdinc further down the pecking order if that happened so could be positive.
Good to see Pardew sticking at this (if it's true) .. never good to end up signing someone else and then having to say 'he was our first choice all along .." ..

Also see that Nolan Roux is sulking at Brest ..not taking part in training etc because they won't let him move .. rated at €8Million .. know nothing about him but he's been mentioned a few times along with the usual striker favourites everyone has (really no need to put them up, we all know them )

 

Same lack of movement to support our thread bare squad and lack of decent fire power up front.
Fingers crossed ref hba regardless wot mikes yes mans has said i don't believe a word he says

 

Squad is hardly threadbare. We have more players than we had last year already. As for lack of fire power, we've signed one striker and we're after another. It aint going to happen overnight but fortunately we've still got 6-7 weeks til the transfer window closes. What's with the negativity?

 

Mike ashleys past since he took over the club that what

 

I have no idea what that means.

 

Its not rocket science you asked a question and I answered it. Since when has Ashley done the right thing ??
Unless you are one of his followers that is

 

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Plus you are right about us trying to get in a decent forward but the words coming out of Pardews mouth is it might not happen and hba will play just behind the forward

 

Don't think it's negativity. Not threadbare but we still lack quality beneath our first team. We just have to hope some of these youngsters step up. Supposedly Abeidi was very impressive against Sporting. I'd feel more comfortable if we didn't have so many injury prone players. Ben Arfa, Gosling, Ba, Marveaux, S Taylor, Guthrie, Shola - it is defo a concern. The depth of squad in terms players capable of playing at this level is not much different to last year. And we all know we lacked depth of quality last year. No coincidence how much our level fell when we had injuries or suspensions. (Pardew noted this on arrival himself) You have to remember we are letting players go (Campbell, Kuqi, soon Routledge/Smith/Ranger/Xisco/Perch) and they'll cancel out the signings. There is absolutely no doubt we desperately need a first choice striker. If Jose goes we'll need a left back.

All in all while we should just get behind whatever team is on the pitch, we shouldn't kid ourselves. We have a thin squad in terms of senior players. However I'm hopeful we have some more than useful young players who now need to step up (Vuckic, Kadar, Abeidi, Ferguson etc)

 

Spot on my friend

 

And...........sign Barton up asap.

 

At present we've brought in more players than have left. Don't think Pardew etc are stupid enough not to replace anyone who leaves especially as he said himself the squad was a bit thin following injuries/suspensions. Yes I know he didn't replace Carroll but he didn't have time to in the window.

Everything I've read Pardew has said we're targeting another striker. Pardew has also said several times that he wants HBA to play as 2nd striker behind a target man.

 

Don't think Erdinc is any better than what we already have. Just more of the same.

 

yeh im not too fussed on Erding myself, would prefer someone with a bit more potency. How are you supposed to progress with what could soon be PSGs fourth choice striker?

 

It seems though that PSG's fourth choice striker may be better than our current 2nd choice, so that's progress in my mind .. if we had better quality already then I'd agree, but we just don't .. better small steps than no steps at all? (don't actually know a lot about Erdinc, so all of that could be complete crap but the principle being you should rate on quality as opposed to pecking order)

 

When Bellamy joined us he was Coventry's third choice striker and Stachan choose to play him on the wing. Pecking order means nothing if you're not in the managers plans or tactics.

 

Alfie - You have more faith than me. I don't think any of those guys I mentioned will be replaced. To be honest I'm not fussed. I am keen to see the youngsters be given a chance. We've invested heavily in this area and it is pointless if we are then going to not provide the platform to showcase their talents. They'll have enthusiasm in abundance. I hope we retain Ranger but it does seem unlikely.

The only thing that will completely piss me off is if they do their usual and sell with no time time left in the window. Like selling Jose and Barton, then saying "sorry there was no time left, but it's ok Ferguson and Kadar can fill in at left back" That would be unacceptable and poor management of the club. I disagree on one subject though, Carroll. they had plenty time, there is no way that deal was cooked up in 1 day. They will have known about it a while. Afterall we know there Torres to Chelsea deal was on the cards from the beginning of January, possibly before. Liverpool will have begun the digging on Carroll around that time. Of course a fee was not agreed until late on, but we will have been aware of the deal for sometime and an ambitious well run club plans on the worst case scenario. Our planning? Shefki Kuqi. There is no defence for the Ashley regime here for me, we've seen it now with Milner, Given and Carroll. They have a habit of selling top players (albeit for good fees) when there is no time left to get a replacement.