Pardew on Enrique – “We had nowhere to go.”

Jose's smile. Last seen months ago!
Alan Pardew has insisted that nothing could have been done to prevent Jose Enrique leaving Newcastle.

On a day where Jose Enrique has revealed that Liverpool were always his first choice destination ahead of completing his move to Anfield it’s the Newcastle fans who must once again pick up the pieces of the departure of yet another player.

Not that I’m overly fussed in truth. Jose was great in the second tier and for the first six months of our return to the Premier League, but in the second half of the season he was pretty woeful at times as it became more and more evident that the Spaniard wanted away from the club.

A new contract offer was not enough to persuade him to stay and led to an outburst by Jose on Twitter where he claimed that the club lacked ambition by not keeping their better players. All of that combined means that I’m not shocked or annoyed about Jose going. I’ve already dealt with it in my mind, although that itself leaves one burning question.

Why sell him without a replacement lined up?

This is my big question as we head into the Arsenal game without a recognised left-back. Utter madness. I mean many fans kind of guessed that Jose would be away, so why didn’t the club forecast it or actually get someone in before allowing Jose to go? Well, Alan Pardew has tried to add some reasoning to it.

“I would be asking why we hadn’t got a left-back in earlier if I was a fan,” Pardew told the Northern Echo. “The difference was, if Jose had signed, we would have ended up with two very, very expensive left-backs and that’s something we couldn’t afford when we’re trying to get the best possible side.”

“We also need that money in other areas and of course we haven’t got the striker over the line yet. It all has to be within a structure. It’s difficult for fans – you try telling a 14-year-old who’s passionate about the game why Enrique has gone, he can’t understand that.”

“I understand a big bulk of our fans just wanting our best players wanting to stay here – it doesn’t always work like that unfortunately. We have a back up plan in place. You don’t want your best players to leave, but we were vulnerable. We offered him a deal and he didn’t want to sign it so we had nowhere to go.”

So we didn’t get someone in before Jose left because of the expense? I do see the logic behind it, but the logic becomes flawed when it’s so blatantly obvious that the player wants away. Surely you’d get some prep work done for the eventuality? Apparently not.

Who will play at left-back against Arsenal now? Shane Ferguson is back in full training but he effectively needs a full pre-season again. James Tavernier is away on loan which means that he can’t fill in at right-back, and I’d rather be raped than see Ryan Taylor pull on a black and white shirt and play in defence. So that leaves us with an option of playing Steven Taylor at right-back, Simpson at left-back, with Mike Williamson coming into the middle? Or how about play Jonas Gutierrez at left-back with Sylvain Marveaux ahed of him on the wing? To be honest neither option fills me with confidence.

Ultimately a replacement is needed, and soon. It won’t be in time for Arsenal of course as the match squad needs to be named today and formalities won’t be completed in time, but the left-back position has now become a priority ahead of a striker in my opinion.

That’s if it wasn’t already of course…

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.

81 thoughts on “Pardew on Enrique – “We had nowhere to go.”

  1. “It’s very much a case of “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”
    I don’t see why we should keep having to try and invent a bright side every time they make a bad decision.
    I dont see why we should have to try to find a positive spin when they are deceitful.
    Pardew does because they employ him. They don’t bloody well employ us, however. We owe them nothing.
    In fact, they should start treating us with respect because without the fans paying their hard earned money they would have nothing.

    Yep, that’s about it.

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  2. All I’m saying is: the Jose deal isn’t even signed yet, but you think the club should go commit to another £12-20m and just hope it doesn’t fall through.

    Judge when the window’s shut, not now. It’s not as if anyone on here actually knows the first thing about how player deals get done. Ranting because he didn’t have some synchronised signing arranged just sounds like a load of toddlers spitting dummes because they “want it now, now, now!”

    It’s not like they’ve done a bad job in the window so far, is it? Given the constraints imposed by Ashley’s business model I think it’s been brilliant. We said they needed to get out of the blocks quickly, and they did. AP said things would then go quiet until the last month and they did. He said things would then pick up, and they did. And there are two weeks left, so sit tight and shurrup about the end of the world being nigh until the 1st of September.

    Besides: anyone want to give me an example of a club managing to pull off the miraculous stunt of signing a replacement before completing the sale of the incumbent? Do you see anyone arriving at Arsenal since their two best players fekked off? Do you think Wenger is a bit of a ***** manager too?

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  3. Nice rant whumpie…. feel better now? 😯

    As far as lining up a potential replacement before a player’s gone’s quite simple… just have him in place and when one leaves then ………

    😉

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  4. Whumps – you’re far from daft, as I’ve found out both online and off. But I struggle to appreciate the lengths you must be going to, to remain optimistic, in the face of damning historical evidence. Every window, for years now, we say “wait until the window closes” and how have we felt in the last 6 or 7? What is different this time round?

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