Newcastle must get the balance right this summer.

Cabaye to add a bit of French flair.
If you listen to the rumour mill you will probably have cottoned on to the fact that most of the names being linked are from overseas.

Being perfectly honest this was something I expected as the club set about trying to strengthen the squad. It’s pretty well known that the European market offers better value for money compared to the UK market and is probably the main reason why most of our scouting has been conducted over there.

However, as with all transfers of course, there is an element of risk involved, especially if you sign too many overseas players in such a short space of time. It’s great that Newcastle are seemingly trying to strengthen and look to be active in the transfer market, but I don’t want us to become reliant on the European market for our transfer dealings.

It’s worth remembering that not every overseas player will settle in straight away. Of course by ensuring that we have them in as early as possible and with careful scouting and evaluation of each player at least some of the risk can be negated, but you can never be certain that a foreign import will take to life in a new country with a new way of life and a new style of football immediately.

We’ve seen it happen before, recently in fact. Jose Enrique took time to settle before blossoming into the full-back that we all know and love whilst Fabricio Coloccini had people comparing him to a clown before his hairstyle turned into a cult symbol amongst the Toon Army thanks to his performances this season.

Signing a lot of overseas players will also shift the balance away from the English side of things, not that I really care as long results improve of course. This last season we had a decidedly domestic look about our setup, but with more continental signings that balance could shift away from the English players who generally know what life and football is like in England. Obviously.

Now as it stands we can afford a few foreign imports into our squad as we currently have a rather large pool of “home grown” players. It’s about getting the balance right though and maintaining the link between keeping the ethos of the club intact and adding the technical quality that continental players generally bring to the party. The guts and glory of seasoned Premier League players with the glitz and glamour of the continent combined if you like.

If the club can do that then we’ll have a good squad next season!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

39 thoughts on “Newcastle must get the balance right this summer.

  1. Well written Toonsy, should be interesting to see how the squad takes shape over the summer that is for sure.

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  2. TOONSY thats always been my worry,we could point to tiote who settled straight in,but collo,jose well you know how long they took 😕

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  3. Ice you are a true gent.
    Your right mate I have read different stuff about how Joey, etc will only be a squad players, and thats before we have the new players signed up and before we see if the settle in 😉

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  4. Question of sport just asked how many points we won the champo with and I straight away went 102!!!

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  5. Dave – I’m off tonight mate. Back in tomorrow night and Wednesday night. Off Thurs/Fri then back on days.

    Later mate

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  6. I think the new players will settle in fine. How long did it take Tiote and Ben Arfa? Okay Jose took longer but this is just scare mongering.

    Going by this arguement how long did it take Joey? 4 years. 😉

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  7. Isn’t Lilly Savage a knight of the round table or something? ❓

    For services to Bullshit, and blonde highlights. 😆

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  8. DJG-To be fair we don’t know if Ben Arfa has settled properly, or would have done had he not been crunched. He wasn’t going to score goals like he did at Everton every week, and hopefully people won’t get on his back if he’s rusty next season..

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  9. What’s this **** about the club moving quickly in the transfer Market?

    Ok, we might have Cabaye but we dont know.

    I desperately want the same as everyone but all I see is pure speculation and yous think the club are doing well.
    Cabaye for Barton. – worse off by the sounds of it.

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  10. Bobby

    Have you watched Cabaye play before? For all we know he could be better than Barton.

    Stop being so pessimistic 🙂

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  11. Bobby, it’s a little more than ‘pure speculation’ as the player’s own coach said that he’s coming here and he hugged all his teammates coming off his last game

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  12. @Andrew

    He may be better than Barton but it’s just as likely that he’s not .

    Barton is a proven premiership player and has just been voted player of the season by us lot.

    I just find it typical that every single transfer window we go through the same hype and get linked with every player from glasgow to Africa and fans fall for it.

    Everyone starts off excited and witin a month or so the excitement turns to anger.

    At this moment in time we are no better off. Fact.

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  13. ANUFC

    you say;
    Have you watched Cabaye play before? For all we know he could be better than Barton.

    No I haven’t but Barton was voted player of the season!

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  14. Plus I would rather watch good English players representing the Toon. They are hard to come by and we have or had a good one in Joey.

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  15. Id rather have barton stay than Cabaye like, the club are taking a risk if they are intending on replacing Joey with the lad. But as Andrew says he could turn out to be better than Joey, you just never know.

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  16. Therefore Bobby if you havn’t watched him, you can’t make comments saying we are worse off.

    I havn’t watched him either but if Carr has been watching him for so many years and thinks he is good enough I’ll presume he is good enough for us.

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  17. Essentially we aren’t worse off right now because nobody has gone and nobody has officially come in. We are all waiting on the contracts of Joey, Nolan, and Jose, but right now we know that we will at least very likely be acquiring abeid and cabaye.

    As with everything, time will tell for sure. But have a little faith and optimism. Christ man, how have u been able to be a toon fan for all these years with your negativism?

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  18. Couldn’t agree more with this article Toonsy!

    I love the fact that we have such a home grown team and it really shows how much we the people all live and breathe football in this part of the country!

    So let’s keep the balance! We don’t wanna start looking like Chelsea! 😉

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  19. British grit for defence and Gallic flair in attack.

    The opposite of that makes for two oxymorons: Gallic grit and British flair. 😆

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  20. I think maybe a swap deal Ireland for Barton could be on the cards . Ireland has made it clear he wants out of Villa and Fatman has made it clear he wants rid of Joey . Trouble is Joey may just hang around to **** fatman off but he will in turn instruct Pardew not too pick Joey to play . I can see problems in the dressing room appearing at the beginning of the pre season . I think also i would prefer Nzogbia to come in place of Gervinho purely because Nzogbia knows the club and the premiership and then move for a striker and play Jonas down the right flank next season . Playing Jonas on that side could help Simo just like the understanding he built up with Jose on the left .

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  21. This N’Zogbia twitter rumour won’t go away – both this bloke and warris saying the deal is done:
    Fur10ng PMF
    Too bloody early to be woke up. My mate just rang at 4:30am. Seems to be mixed messages on Gamiero. NUFC to wrap up N`Zogbia this week!

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  22. I am just counting down the days until we are linked with Per Skeljbred again. I mean for the last three years he has been gonna sign for us so surely this summer cannot be any different

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  23. 4411 – We can only announce them I think. All the official paperwork stuff can’t be done until the window is open.

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  24. @toonsy – prob right but doubt we’ll announce owt before paperwork is done, things have a habit of last minute hitches in footy especially where players are concerned

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  25. @Andrew

    Not negative . Realistic based on seasons past. 🙄

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  26. I wouldn’t risk anything on Ireland until he is proven fit. Loan deal yes, purchase no.

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