I think with Newcastle, people jump to conclusions that their (terrible) owner will force players out of the door if he gets an offer which satisfies his pocket. I see it as more of a catch 22 situation up there. They want to keep their top players such as Coloccini but he will only stay if others aren't sold and there's progression year-on-year at the club. Mike Ashley accepts an offer from X for Tiote Coloccini doesn't sign a contract because Tiote has been sold Mike Ashley accepts an offer from X for Coloccini Yohan Cabaye becomes disillusioned with the clubs idea of progression Mike Ashley accepts an offer from X for Yohan Cabaye Chief Scout Graham Carr finds unsettled player on the continent and wraps up a deal for £4m Mike Ashley accepts an offer from X for unsettled player from the continent 6 months or 1 year later. Newcastle United have a healthy bank balance, due to the fact they have a significant amount of fans who will still come and watch them achieve nothing, week on week, as well as the fact that they are turning over ridiculous amounts of cash from player trading. Ashley sees that club as a business, and that is all. He has obviously got no interest in winning silverware with him. His only trophies are his assets, the ones he can sell for 5 times what he paid for them. Good business model, steady structure, amazing preparation for the FFP Ruling, but ultimately - absolutely zero direction.
The time to really worry about selling players is when your scouting network is not good enough to then replace them or your owner chooses not to. One minute you have Gyan, Bent, Richardson, Welbeck, the next you have Dong, Wickham, Bendtner. That is when we need to worry, when we are replacing our players with worse ones. We seem to have a knack at present of replacing our good ones who leave with better ones, which in turn has seen us perform better. Long may that trend continue.
Do you think your team is stronger now, than with Enrique, Barton and Nolan? I'll admit Cabaye looks special at times...but overall.
It's a bit narking that clubs like NUFC can't hold onto decent players. I've said it before and I'll say it again; if they can't I don't see why we should expect to be able to. Fans of SAFC and NUFC would agree that both clubs are "big" by English standards, but if neither can hold on to the better players we have, we're ****ed in the long term. We took a punt on Bent and it worked out big time. 24 Prem goals in a mediocre season?? Yet where is he now?
I would not lie, when we got shot I was unimpressed. It was a gamble but I have to say the gamble has paid off. We look a much better team this year. Cabaye is just a much better more rounded player than Nolan. When you bear in mind he'll improve a cart load by next season as all foreign players do, we have some player on our hands. (one we'll be lucky to keep) Santon who came in for Enrique is not as good a left back as Enrique but he is a right back really and once we sign a left back, we have one of the best young right backs around on our books. Clearly he has a nagging knee problem which is why we paid only 5m, but my god he is some ****ing player. He is top 4 class no doubt. Barton is the only one where I think we downgraded. Obertan is ****e and for me that big head is full of brie. No footballing brain. Barton may have been trouble but he was a fine footballer. Overall I don't think its even in question. We keep the ball better and have a stronger midfield. We're better up top with a 20 goal a season striker. We're better defensively even if we are a bit light. We have better subs to bring on than last year. Add a left back and centre half in January and we're laughing. I think we'll get them but I expect one player to go (Tiote) simply because of the number of suitors and the money they can pay. 25m-30m is impossible to knock back for any club outside the top 4 and even then they think about it.
Fair one mate, always a pleasure to hear from ya at least it's pretty un-biased.....Now what about one goal Ben Arfa? what's the crack with him...over-hyped or can still make it.
Still make it but I have a feeling Pardew has taken steps to protect him for Ba's impending departure to the ACON. He won't like it but I think Pardew will think its no bad thing to ensure he is keen to prove a point when Ba goes. He is a fine player but our fans need to calm down about him not getting game time. I would have started him against Norwich and Swansea, I think Pardew got it wrong. I think they were two promoted sides who aren't particularly physical. Certainly against Swansea who everyone knew would be parking the bus, I think he was made for it. But at the end of the day Pardew has to think ahead. The lad has had a career threatening injury also and we probably won't see him anything like back to his best until next year. He is trying too hard to impress the fan at the moment from his side. I think he'll come good but we need to give him time. His patience rather than his ability concerns me to be honest. I think our defensive problems now mean left back and centre half are the priorities for January. I'd imagine the striker money we've been sitting on for a while has been rerouted. Some will whine and say "where is the rest of the money, we should be able to buy defenders and a striker" but I think from the hierarchys point of view, our need for a striker is not a pressing one. I'd fancy us to get goals from a Ben Arfa/Best combo. Best's scoring ratio only went down when Demba came and started nicking all his chances!!
