He did last year anyway but IMO it was a bit of very good scouting from him and a bit of luck that they all came off, not trying discredit him or anything but I don't think they will ever make that many good signings in one season again. All we have to do is wait and see who Newcastle are trying to sign and then simply gazump their deals then he may aswell be working for us I can only imagine the Geordie rage.
Hatem Ben Arfa has hardly proven himself to be a brilliant signing yet, he had a good run toward the end of the season but he's still got a lot to prove and must add consistency to his game in the next few seasons. Sylvain Marveaux has been injured all season, considering his wages and probable sign on fee how can anyone claim this guy as a good signing? Tiote and Cabaye were excellent signings to be fair, and he deserves full credit for getting them. Papiss Cisse? They were going to sign Modibo Maiga before he failed his medical, so it was more a stroke of luck than anything that they had to "settle" for their secondary target who turned out to be absolutely fantastic. He's got a decent transfer record, but I don't think its all that spectacular if I'm honest.
it's not luck with Cisse, Carr has been watching him for nine years, the guy has been attending several games a week for a long time, building up his dossier of players to watch The result: he has at least two players in mind at any given time for any position on the field, which allows for flexible and quality signings without relying on luck, or indeed on paying through the nose for the latest over-hyped press darling. He told us this is an interview on TalkSport. As for the others, a bit of bad luck with an injury doesn't make a bad signing, and by all accounts Marveaux has been excellent when he's played. And, as for the comment about stealing our signings before we make them, generally no-one knows, not even the local press, til the deal is done, so good luck with that one, not to mention you'd have a hard time convincing people you were a better option right now ;-)
Fair play to him, Pardew and Newcastle but other than Tiote, they didn't exactly 'find' the others through excellent scouting. Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Cisse, Marveaux, Ba and Santon were all fairly well known and had been in the news being linked to every Tom, Dick and Harriott for a good few months before they joined Newcastle. The credit lies in the gamble they took as all six had baggage that put the 'bigger' clubs off. It's not often you take at least eight gambles (including Tiote and Obertan in there) and seven pay off so luck certainly played a part too
- that simply isnt the case, most were unknown, and have only been linked with every 'Tom, Dick and Harry' AFTER they signed for toon and started to perform. They aren't gambles when they are very well scouted, i.e. watched repeatedly over a long period of time (like I say, Cisse was watched for nine years) - so it isn't a luck thing, or just looking at whose being linked to other club, it is a genuinely good scout unearthing some real gems Hands down the best two signings were Carr in the first place (thanks Chris Hughton), and Carr on an eight year contract this week. Ben Arfa had been on the radar to an extent, but was still completely unknown to the British punditry, likewise pretty much all the others, apart from Obertan and Ba.
I;m not so sure about this... If teams had took the time to look at Cisse then we would not have got him so cheap. I dont think many scouts look beyond the top names in europe and think they must be under too much pressure to find the next big thing in spain or portugal rather than unearthing gems in other leagues. Carrs network picks out a player once in a blue moon, you dont see newcastle splashing cash on crap like Henderson and Downing.
- this, Cisse had a cracking record for anyone who looked; Santon was highly regarded by Mourinho; Cabaye had several winners medals, had any of the big clubs been seriously looking we would not have got them for <£20mil like we did, but I don't believe they were
Maybe Carr had been watching them a long time, I have no idea. But they were certainly linked with clubs for a while leading up to them signing for Newcastle (and since). Maybe not so much with Cisse but I had seen a few stories. Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Ba, Santon and Marveaux certainly had, we had been linked with Ben Arfa, Marveaux and Santon for some time ourselves! Edit: I believe they were all (at least some, not sure here) full internationals prior to joining Newcastle, they were all playing for clubs in one of the top five or six leagues in Europe too! Obviously they were already established. Not trying to take anything away from Newcastle or Carr, as my original comment said, fair play to them. I think they have all done a superb job. If you want to believe no one else was looking at them then you think that, no skin of my nose
- I think that out of every one who may have been looking (a lot will have been) he obviously looked hard enough, often enough and with enough of an eye for a player to say 'aye' where others said 'no', i.e. very good scouting, not luck.
- so to clarify, my point is not that they were invisible, but that they were passed over for whatever reason by inferior scouts
