Continental shopping.
It seems fairly certain that Newcastle United will be eyeing up talent from on the continent over the summer.
The impression is that you generally get more for your money whilst shopping overseas.
This isn't a new phenomenon of course and is perhaps in some ways responsible for the large amount of foreign imports we have knocking around in the Premier League. For some unknown reason, despite being technically inferior for the most part, English players seem to attract a premium on their price when it comes to talking about transfers.
You could argue that the signings of Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheik Tiote prove this theory in a very practical way as we have seen the quality of these two players at first hand. Signed for a combined fee of around 25% of Andy Carroll's 'value', you can clearly see that you can get more bang for your buck on the continent.
Of course buying from abroad is not going to guarantee that every transfer will work out, and heaven knows that we have had enough overseas dross in the black and white to prove that theory, but the benefit is that you can get more players through the door due to their lower cost. If one doesn't work out then it's no great shakes and we can get rid without the club losing too much cash.
The best way to make sure you get the right player is to do the correct research in the first place. With the noises coming out of the club about scouting missions and trips abroad I'd like to hope that the club, and Graham Carr inparticular, are doing their job correctly.
So where is the best place to have a look when scouting abroad? Is there any particular area, region or country that offers us more chance of striking success in the transfer market? Obviously, as said earlier, there is no guarantee of success, in any transfer, but I'd like to think that players from certain countries would be better suited to life in the Premier League.
Holland is one of my favourite countries for football outside of England. I think they have a lot of good technical players in their league and feel that it is vastly undervalued in terms of strength when compared to the so-called bigger leagues around Europe.
Clubs like PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord have some cracking players, but becuase of the financial state of the clubs they may be forced to sell some of their players, and obviously there are the likes of FC Twente and AZ Alkmaar who also have some high quality players that would surely jump at the chance of playing in the Premier League.
France is probably my favourite football league outside of England. The pace and strength, in my opinion, is comparable to that of the Premier League and it seems to be played at a much higher tempo than La Liga or Seria A for example.
Apparently we have quite a good reputation in France due to the coverage that our treatment of Hatem Ben Arfa has been getting which has shed some positive light on the club. Perhaps this could help us should we decide to venture into the French market? Another plus point is that the wages in France are reasonably low due to the stringent financial tests that each team have to go through in order to compete each season.
Germany is another country that has a lot of physical and technical players within it's league. Being honest it's not a league I bother with much with as it all seems very insular - you don't hear of many German players moving abroad from the Bundesliga. Mind you we did sign Didi Hamann from Bayern Munich so it can't be completely ruled out.
Honourable mentions for Spain and Belgium, who again have some cracking players in their league, aswell as some of the Eatser European leagues who seem to create good, strong, technical players with pace in abundance. However, I personally get the feeling that it will be France and Holland that we see most of our new recruits coming from.
what do you think?
