A sign of how thorough the "new" Newcastle are?

I was reading something earlier, which wasn't really very interesting by the way, about Dan Gosling and his impending return from his long term injury.

I say it wasn't really interesting as it was the same kind of fluff that we tend to get when it comes to players returning and how they want to make their mark on the first team and so on. In the case of Dan Gosling it may be a valid point given that we've only seen him play for five minutes since he joined last summer, but it did set me off thinking about something completely unrelated.

Transfers!

Can anyone remember just how Gosling ended up at Newcastle? If you think back you will remember that it was something to do with some unheard of loophole that the player and Newcastle both exploited to their advantage. Everton were unhappy as they knew nothing of it until it dawned on them that they had unwittingly dropped a clanger.

As a result we ended up with an England U21 international for a fee of nothing. Good bit of business eh? Unethical? Possibly. Cheeky? Definitely, especially considering that Everton had offered the lad a contract, albeit they failed to offer him the contract in the right way which triggered this random piece of legislation that allowed Gosling to walk away from Goodison Park free of charge.

Canny business, aye?

Fast forward twelve months and it would appear that Newcastle have been at it again with Yohan Cabaye. Now I realise that the deal isn't officially done yet, although I expect it to be concluded after this group of international fixtures, but with both Cabaye and his current manager stating that the player is coming to Newcastle I would tend to believe that there is some truth in it.

Cabaye is highly rated in France, to the point where many French journalists simply don't understand why he would be willing to drop down to a club such as Newcastle. Money will play a part of course as the wages that we offer, even with our alleged wage cap 😆 far exceed what the vast majority of French clubs pay.

Look at his transfer fee though. Cabaye has been touted at £10 million plus before, yet we've got him for half the price due to a release clause in his contract which automatically means that any bid matching that valuation would have to be accepted. The rest, as they say, is history. Well hopefully it will be history anyway.

Look at Hatem Ben Arfa aswell. He cost about £7.5 million when you take into account his loan fee aswell. For a player that two years previously was being touted around at £30 million plus, that is good business.

In a way a lot of this is down to good scouting and in-depth research. Newcastle are clearly taking great care in the transfer market and are being thorough with the players that they are targeting. I like that. In fact I like that a lot.

It means that we end up getting the better players for a tiny percentage of what they would be worth on the free market which I'm happy with. I've never been one to care if a player costs 20 pence or £20 million as long as they are adding to our first team, so if we can get more for our money it's all good.

Of course there will come a time when we have to spend that bit bigger, but in the meantime if shopping in the bargain bin means picking up players like Cheik Tiote, Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye for a combined fee of £15 million then let the cheapness continue.

Thorough scouting, at Newcastle? How preposterous!