Purples, Greens and Future Recruitment

There is an interesting article in the Journal Today courtesy of Mark Douglas which goes into some detail on the next stage of Mike Ashleys plans to progress our club/his wallet (perception - your choice!).

Definitely worth a read:

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2013/02/05/61634-32749627/


Certainly, if they can crack this then the future is looking very bright.

 

Also the mention of our purple players got me to thinking, how many do we have now who fit into that category, and who do we have on the next step down (and what colour are the next step down categorised as?!)

I'd say, current purples:

Krul
Colo, Taylor, Mbiwa, Debuchy, Santon
Cabaye, Sissoko, Tiote, Anita, Gutierrez, Marv
Ben Arfa, Cisse, Gouffran

That's more than I would have hoped for after Llambias' ramblings. Add a striker and it looks rosy.


A step down we have senior players such as Perch, Raylor, Simpson, Williamson, Obertan, Shola etc. Youngsters such as Bigirimana and hopefully Haidara are also around this level.


If we were to sign one (hopefully exciting) senior striker in the summer, keep our purples and add to the next tier with a larger quantity of cheap, well scouted prospects I would be very happy!

 

An interesting article and as you said if we can crack it the the future looks good.

This does mean though that with the number of players that we seem to need to fill our up and coming squads is going to divert funds away from first team purchases for the next few years. Now luckily we've bought well in Jan so this shouldn't be a major concern, we just can't be too disappointed if we see younger players being brought in over the summer rather than purples to go straight into the squad.

On top of this, it makes it even more imperative that we start pulling ourselves up the table. Taking a young player away from their home country is a big deal at 16 - 17. It's going to be easier the higher profile the club is and on that basis would also not expect many non-French speaking players coming in from abroad. I think our current crop will be a big selling point to the French youngsters but other nationalities may take pause until we're a regular European competitor...

 

It's very much a percentage game. If 50% of your prospects come good, it's brilliant. If 10% do, it's much more expensive than buying established stars. Trouble is, you don't know whether you've hit the jsckpot or pissed your money away for about 3 years

 

Think we need one good striker addition, and if Colo leaves a good defender to keep Williamson as 4th choice. Douglas is free in summer so 'purple' acquisitions can continue to be good value, at least in the initial outlay. Other than those if we keep the rest of our purples I'd be happy with going into next season with what we'd have and would welcome the investment in reserve/youth underbelly for the first team.

Other than Colo possibly leaving I think we have a good chance at keeping all the other 'purples'. Cabaye and Ben Arfa are the two that we might have a fight on for, but with Debuchy & co coming in I'd hope they feel the clubs been ambitious and have a good shot at a high finishing position next season.

 

Yeah, we haven't had a good success rate thus far with players like Spear, Tozer, Zamblera, Kadar etc. Have high hopes for Bigi and Campbell though... And Haidara and Curtis Good.

 

Can Arsenal-lite be successful without soaring ticket costs and the allure of London, though? That's my worry.

Obviously they have massive ST prices to payback the new stadium costs... However, they aren't exactly going to drop the prices now they're almost back in the profits, are they?

I think it's a perfectly sensible and intelligent model for a football club, so hopefully they don't push prices beyond all reasonable measure to sustain it/simply keep it ticking over for investors with no hope of quantifiable success for the fans.

 

Ambition ambition ambition in the summer please Mike

 

The goal is to acquire quality players cheaper than buying them ready made - - there's no reason why that should drive up ticket prices.

 

How have you gleaned from what I've said that I've not understood the principle?

The practicalities of following Arsenal's model entail more than stealing youngsters from the various academies on the continent.

 

Sorry, you seemed to be expressing that there was a link between the Arsenal model (signing youngsters for development) and the Arsenal experience (rising ticket prices). Having just re-read it, in fact, it still looks like that.

You're right though that the model is easy to say and tricky to do. It needs another Carr devoted solely to youngsters. Unfortunately, finding another Graham Carr is even harder than finding another Moussan Sissoko

 

There can be only one!

 

Maybe it's because the two are perhaps linked? They charge premium dollar for mediocre results from the investment, bring through players from an academy on the cheap and sell off their better players for massive profits. As a business, that's an exceptional model, but I bet as a football fan paying thousands of pounds to watch that might get a little grating after a while.

I think I'm allowed to express my concern that Mike might take the Arsenal-lite plan to such an extreme, and point out that I hope that it doesn't end up so

 

I don't mind them cherry picking players from abroad but the ultimate goal has to be to pluck talent from the local area and ensure coaching levels are of the highest standard to maximise their potential. I think we all could note someone from our youth who looked destined to be top level footballer but never made it for a number of different reasons. Hopefully we can create an environment for Barca esque on a smaller scale of course

 

My thoughts as well, great idea but we still need local talent in that mix so we dont lose our identity and the passion that comes from our region.
You might ask why thats important but look at arsenal without wiltshire they have no spirit and no real leaders

Great young stars from abroad & local talent = a bright future

 

We still aren't getting the academy and reserve side of things right in my opinion. We have bought loads of players for development but none of these players have really broken through in a big way since Andy Carroll and Tim Krul really, both of whom made their debut in 2006. We have played players like Sammy Ameobi a lot but god how I wish we hadn't. He might get good after a loan period, touch wood.

 

Who knows but he definitely needs loan time to get some game knowledge. He picks the wrong option all too regular at present and struggles to make best use of his natural talent.

 

Oh man...Reading what you said I suddenly remembered his horrible play.


Demba Ba was the lone striker, and had made a run to the left, Sammy sprints past him to the left flank and then sends in a cross..............................................and obviously there was nobody in the box

 

Bad news. No more 1st team 'purples' signing this summer unless we sell one first according to an interview with Llambias in The Journal:



While United aren’t easy sellers, they are also considered buyers and Llambias says they are unlikely to buy any more “purples” this summer unless they do decide to sell.

United’s colour coding system categorises “purples” as first-team players, “reds” as developing players or those underneath the first team challenging and “blues” as up-and-coming youngsters.

Llambias told The Journal the club’s focus this summer is on “reds” – although they will replace any frontline talent with a player of similar calibre.

“We will trade. If we lose a player, we will bring one in of that standard. That’s just normal trading for us.

“The remit for us is that Alan needs a number of players into the team that he can draw on for the various competitions.

“That’s our gameplan.

“You can’t have too many players that are first-team players sitting on the bench, there’s a balance, you need to have players just behind them pushing the first team.”

Read more: Journal Live http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/n...-sell-players-61634-32769492/2/#ixzz2KIZjZKfo

 

This assumes you beleive a word he says. MA and DL have always felt free to sell a few porkies: market place tactics, expectation management, inherent deviousness or a combination of all three.

My guess is that we sell someone for a whacking profit and recycle the money into 3 new purple/reds