Did we have a good transfer window?

Come in number nine!
So there goes the transfer window for a good few months, and now the analysing can start.

So did we have a good window? Was it bad? Was it indifferent? I’d like to know what you made of it. You can even give it a mark out of ten if you wish!

My main concern at the start of the window was losing one of our top players. In fairness I think that was a fear shared by a fair few fans, especially with Alan Pardew admitting that a big money bid would have to be considered. Fortunately, or so it would appear anyway, no big money bids came in for any players, or at least any bids weren’t quite big enough to tempt a sale.

As a result we’ve kept all of our star players, with the only players leaving the club heading out on loan deals. James Tavernier headed to MK Dons yesterday where he will spend the rest of the season keeping Alan Smith company. Smith headed south a couple of days ago and will play out the last six months of his NUFC contract at Stadium MK.

In terms of outgoings I have no issue. I think we’ve played it perfectly on that front by keeping hold of key players and only releasing players who, for varying reasons, aren’t near the first team at the moment. In terms of incomings though, it’s a slightly different matter.

Obviously we failed to get a defender over the line which is the one let down of the window for me. Adrian Mariappa was the name that was strongly linked with us but for whatever reason nothing came of it in the end. I can’t say I’m overly disappointed by that as I could never see the reasoning in buying a backup up defender who is no better than your other backup defenders. We’d be in the same pickle should Mike Williamson or Fabricio Coloccini get injured so what would have been the point?

It’s a risky move, but some time to reflect has left me wondering if not bringing in that defender was so bad. Cast your minds back to Saturday and you would have seen a rather familiar and once highly-rated Hungarian name on the bench in the shape of Tamas Kadar. He’s fallen down the pecking order recently but at one time he looked like one of the brightest prospects to emerge from our academy. He’s been told to shape up or ship out, so maybe his inclusion is hinting that he is shaping up and proving that he doesn’t want to be shipped out?

It’s not all doom and gloom though. We actually spent money in this transfer window. In fact we spent over 10% of the total amount in the whole of the window in the biggest transaction of January when we signed Papiss Demba Cisse from Freiburg, significantly boosting our firepower up front.

With a fearsome reputation for goalscoring in the Bundesliga, Cisse arrived at Newcastle for a fee believed to be in the region of £9m. He will line up with his international team-mate and close friend Demba Ba meaning that we have two out and out strikers who can terrorise defences between them.

All in all bringing in a defender would have been the icing on the cake on what has been a pretty decent window for us. We’ve kept Cheik Tiote, we’ve kept Demba Ba, Tim Krul, Yohan Cabaye and everyone else at the club for the second half of the season at least. We’ve added a striker with a goalscoring pedigree and who is keen to transfer that form to a new league so I can’t complain too much.

A defender would have been nice, and arguably much needed, but only if it was a defender who could come straight into the first team. I’m talking a real top class centre-back, and not just some backup like Mariappa.

Still, that’s my view, how about yours?

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.

146 thoughts on “Did we have a good transfer window?

  1. SIRHC

    I like the look of that Taiwo that QPR have just signed (i think on loan) we should have got someone in on loan this window and signed someone in the summer.

    In fact whilst i’m wishing for stuff – we shouldn’t have got someone in on loan and Kadar should have been given a chance. That bugs me most out of this whole debacle, Kadar is/was a hot prospect and Pardew seems to be keeping him out because of his attitude, our **** is up against the wall though and we need him so his attitude issue should be sidelined until we’re not in a state of defensive emergency. 😕

      (Quote)

  2. Maybe the reason that no-one came in for Krul, Tiote, Colo etc was because they knew they’s get ****-raped like Liverpool were when Judas went 😀

    Ayway the ITKs said that Krul to Spuds for £14 million and Tiote to Chelski were “done deals” so presumably the offers were already in and accepted. Maybe they can enlighten us as to why those deals suddenly unwound 😆

      (Quote)

  3. Johno @ 75

    Marveux is supposed to be due back at the end of this month… it’s a short month so… WA-HEY!! 😆

      (Quote)

  4. @Sirhc

    let the opposition worry about Ba and Cisse, its their defence thats ready to be exposed. The keegan attack days could be back 😯 We might only need two defenders 😆

    If that Colo story is true about a five and a half year deal then that would be sweeeet.

      (Quote)

  5. Troys worst wind up was saying he had saw Supermac in the MetroCentre and he had told him Tiote and Krul were to be sold. I can’t believe some people believed that one – he kept it going for a month or so (just to spoil threads!)

      (Quote)

  6. Taiwo I have never seen mate. I have always been impressed with Samba but he is someone who doesn’t really have a sell on value so we probably wouldn’t look at him. Someone in on loan would have been a good move so it would give us time to have a look at bringing in a centre half for the next few years.

      (Quote)

  7. 3HW – I can enlighten you… It will probably be something along the lines of; “Me,me,me – bullshit – bullshit – love me!! I am funny, aren’t I? Bullshit!!! Woohoohoo!!!”

      (Quote)

  8. TC @ 43 – Yes it assumes that we will have injuries…it is highly likely, Colo has been missing for games this season already. That’s the whole point of quality in depth, if we all assumed the opposite and we thought none of our players would ever get injured then we would have a squad of 11 players and be able to slash our wage bill in half. No body expected any marque signings but Bassong would have been a good option on loan and better than Perch! If we wanted to spend then at a push Samba was also there…both players with PL experience.

    Has Perch even been substantially involved in 10 games this season? How can he have been good 9 times out of 10? He is a bloody liability.

    Perch for me has done a job when Pardew has chucked him on to bolster our defence to see out games, he is not the answer for when Colo is injured.

      (Quote)

  9. Nobby – I use it the apostrophe as blog is shortened from weblog. The apostrophe denotes there us something missing and its shortened, like it’s is it is etc etc

    I don’t really care if it’s wrong. Im happy enough in life not yo be annoyed by such trivial issues 🙂

      (Quote)

  10. Not sure if 51/2 year deal for colo is the best way forward really……..struggling to believe that story. 😕

      (Quote)

  11. @Toonsy

    Its took a few months to identify a player who Wigan compete and outbid us for.

    Is that the best we can do? 🙄

      (Quote)

  12. I’m not really too bothered by the lack of CB cover, either Saylor or Williamson have been injured for at least a year or more anyway and we’ve still been fine. We are still top 6 and only had perch as cover while Williamson was out for the start of the season, and Saylor was out for a long spell last year.

    We now have a top class strike force and there are some quality young defenders whose contracts are up in 6 months. Bring in Douglas, Pieters and mbiwa and I could handle colo being sold if he doesn’t sign a new contract…. Younger, cheaper and potential for better.

    When you see that no clubs had money to spend this window then you have to think we did well.

      (Quote)

  13. Stardy to be fair humouring troy is fun and makes thread interesting as doesnt help but cause controversy 😆

      (Quote)

  14. Yeah but even a non rapeworthy bid that was unsuccessful might have been enough to unsettled one of our key players. In much the dame way Enrique went off the boil once all the speculation began.
    So I’m glad that we didn’t even have a bid put in.

      (Quote)

  15. Mark I wish that was the case. But down Brighton on Saturday I thought we were more worried with what they had than putting them on the back foot. Let’s hope he plays Shola and Leon closer to each other tonight because his tactics were so wrong at weekend.
    I am looking forward to seeing what the Dembas will bring to us.

      (Quote)

  16. @3hourswasted

    apparently Troyores sources source was also told a porkie by his source..or ppl believe everything they read in the papers then claim its a credible source..

    @Stardust I knew it was when he met the legends, 🙄 but Troy denied that this was his source.. very predictable is Troy 😉

      (Quote)

  17. I think we are all forgetting that in january there isnt an abundance of choice in the quality dept as clubs are reluctant to sell etc.

    Pards said he wouldnt go back in mariappa in the summer which says it all he was merely the best of a bad bunch.

      (Quote)

  18. Thanks for clearing that up Toonsy… Worr lass is going spare as I keep nicking her ‘kalms’.

    I’m going to write BLOG instead of ‘BLOG if it’s ok with you though. It’s just an extra key I have to press and so my blogs (see what i did there) can be more productive. 😉

      (Quote)

  19. I like the clubs stance on Marriapa, would he have been an improvement on Perch, not from what i have seen and was there a quality centre half for sale, i dont think so, of all the names that were mentioned i hoped we would have gone in for Boros Rhys Williams, tough tackling player who can also play in the midfield holding role.
    Only 17 games to go before the next transfer window.

      (Quote)

  20. DOES EVERYONE GET WHAT I MEAN WHEN I WRITE ‘BLOG’?

    IT MEANS ‘WEBLOG’ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓ ❓

      (Quote)

  21. EF – Colo has missed 6 league games in the last season and a half – he’s hardly a sicknote.

    Perch has made 14 appearances this season and the only time he had a real shocker was against Norwich when he had to partner Simmo.

    You failed to mention my questioning of the assumption that whoever we signed would hit the ground running, thus single-handedly stopping our season from imploding.

      (Quote)

  22. decent window yes but i reckon we brought cisse to replace ba as i think he will leave in summer ,need another decent stiker in in summer none african ,and a half decent CH .

      (Quote)

  23. The Cisse signing warrants a 10/10.

    As far as a CB is concerned we could have done with one, but the right players weren’t available and we done well not to panic and pay over the odds for Mariappa. We may have had a while to identify targets, but getting them over the line is a different matter.

    Big bonus points for not losing anyone this window from me. That was always my main concern.

    Over all I’d give our performance in the transfer window an 8.5 out of 10.

      (Quote)

  24. TC – You can’t guarantee ANY signing will hit the ground running, it’s a moot point. But I did give examples of PL CB’s that we could have gone in for that would have had a greater chance of ‘hitting the ground running’ than most.

    Are you expecting Cisse to be the complete centre forward for us as soon he steps out against Villa? Nope you can’t say with any degree of certainty that he will hit the ground running…

      (Quote)

  25. toonchicken. Perch from what I can remember had made 4 starts and came on after 22 mins against Chelsea. The other 9 appearances have been as sub. Forgive me if i’m wrong. Of them 5 games I have mentioned we have lost 4 and drew one. There’s a pattern developing there don’t you think.

      (Quote)

  26. @Troyore 😆

    aye, good wind-up m8 regarding your ‘source story’, I didnt bite tho, I knew from the off who it was 😆

      (Quote)

  27. Perch can’t head the ball.

    A centre half needs to head the ball.

    Perch is our centre half cover.

    Doh!
    😯

      (Quote)

  28. MARK@99

    It’s just for clarification. I’d hate to think i was blogging (weblogging) and people didn’t know what i meant by ‘blogging’

    Look at it this way Mark – ‘Blog’ is a quick and easy way to type ‘Weblog’, cutting down your page space and speeding up your ‘blogging’ ( 😆 ) so you can become more productive and therefore an expert blogger (weblogger).

      (Quote)

  29. EF – no, not at all. The way Pardew operates I’d be very surprised to see Cisse start against Villa.

      (Quote)

  30. TC i reckon he will start ba and cisse if both fit as they come back tomoz and should have plenty of rest 🙂

      (Quote)

  31. Mark@110

    Does that mean you get it then? I wouldn’t want to teach anybody to suck eggs and if you already know my blogging point then please share with others.

    This could stop any embarrassing ‘blogging’ ( 😆 ) moments in the future.

      (Quote)

  32. Troy, come on man – you know **** well that the size of the bid is just one component of a deal. That’s why Mariappa didn’t move; they couldn’t come up with a deal that the player and the club were happy with. Stop searching for reasons to hate the recruitment guys, man – it’s undeserved.

    Likewise with loans – there are plenty of good reasons why a move for Bassong didn’t happen. For a start, would the club want a player that ‘deserted’ back? He was part of the relegation team, remember; lots of bad blood there. Oh, and he can be an utter **** and demand stupid wages.

    I think our management have thoroughly earned the right to be trusted to bring in the right deals and stay out of the wrong ones. We can be confident that the right deal for a CB simply wasn’t out there. So we’re left with a big risk, but that’s all; not the end of the world,.

      (Quote)

  33. @BB

    thats the ‘bullshit bus’ to his right, not very clear in the small avatar. had fun doing it..using microsoft paint is very testing 👿

      (Quote)

  34. nobby@81 – 3hourswasted was the name of the band my lad was in (nearly got signed by Sony after being showcased in Manchester). They came up with the name when they’s just finished a 3 hour practice before their first gig and it got cancelled 😆 .
    Check this out it’s his new band- my lad is the keybord player and guitarist – they are based in Newcastle and doing very well – they supported Mr Big at the o2 Academy last year – Phonebox is their latest single
    http://www.mikegatto.co.uk/index.htm

      (Quote)

  35. @the bouncing butterfly

    Jabba paid for Cisse out of his own pocket was the cry! 😆

    The Tiggers look a tad silly now that he didn’t. 😆

    Boing boing boing 😆

      (Quote)

  36. Nobby – I’m no expert but I don’t believe that what yoiu are doing is “blogging”. It’s my understanding that you’re commenting on an article that someone has posted on a blog. 😀 😉

      (Quote)

  37. Decent window, unexpected class striker, shame about no CB but clubs have to want to sell for reasonable amounts and Jan is very difficult to negotiate with them
    Marippa was only ever meant as a backup wit h our top targets apparantly not available in the summer, Kadar will have to pull his socks up and get his act together, shame as he’s quite talented but obviously his attitude stinks

      (Quote)

  38. Its been a good transfer window just because we didn’t actually sell anyone good, which shows what Ashley has done to constantly lower expectation over the years… 😆

    We now have a frontline hopefully capable of scoring a fair few goals, but are we going to suffer from a lack of supply from the wings? And even when cabaye’s back, maybe through the centre as well….Our good defence came from how defensively minded our entire midfield were early on in the season. Jonas and Obertan-massively defensive and reasonably effectively minded wingers, with Tiote being Tiote and Cabaye producing even more tackles than the man himself!

    Now that we have two good outlets, lets hope we see more chances, and more goals! :mrgreen:

      (Quote)

  39. 3HW – I’ll have to watch it when i get home as i can’t get youtube at work. The site looks good though!

    Just as a thought (sorry to become all salesy) but my brother has his own film business and can shoot Music videos, here’s his website to get more info.

    http://www.roundhousekickmedia.co.uk/

    (Not trying to advertise fellas it’s just it’s relevant to 3HW)

      (Quote)

  40. @Troyore 😯

    “Jabba paid for Cisse out of his own pocket was the cry!”

    I have no recollection of ever saying that or even discussing it.. I wasnt bothered where the money came from 😆 I think youre a tad confused m8..clutching at straws time coz your source…lol the 3legends told you a porkie at the metro centre..lol how gullible u were to believe them! 😆

    wooo hooo hooo

      (Quote)

  41. @whumpie

    Read my earlier posts about the woeful effort to get a CB .

    I like the way Jabba got credit for buying Cisse out of his own pocket.
    He didn’t , he spent the CB money. 😯

    I find it hard to understand why you are satisfied with a woeful effort to identify a second rate defender and get outbid by lowly Wigan.

    Was he good enough? Did they really want him? 4 months of hype. ?

    If you analyse the previous quotes from Pardew since Taylor was injured and then you see the outcome, it’s nothing short of embarrassing.
    😯 😯

      (Quote)

  42. sirhc105 , dont mention facts and figures mate they dont like to discuss what has actually happened in real life , from now on Perch MIGHT do well and IF he does we COULD finish well in the league !
    Toon chicken@ , to answer your question from yesterday i said 9th at the begining of the season and will stick to that 😉 mid table mediocrity when so much more could have been achieved 😉
    Lads just use fact and history and you wont be made to look daft over and over again 😛

      (Quote)

  43. @Troy

    😆
    I knew you were just going off paper speculation and didnt have anyone credible with info 😆

    wooo hoo hooo

      (Quote)

  44. @toonsey , To answer the blog “has it been a good transfer window”
    If we are realistic under the reality of what MA will give us then yes its great no one was sold and we got a striker .
    But we could have had so much more after such a good start to the season with just a little bit of investment , this proves to me that the “right deal ” for the club is about age price and sell on value and not what the squad needs in the here and now which is obviously defensive cover ! Pardew has been undermined yet again for the sake of the MA money making machine 😉
    4 out of 10 😡 feeding on scraps.

      (Quote)

  45. I’m very happy with this transfer window and I’m pleased we don;t just dive in and sign just anyone for the sake of numbers.
    We missed out on a back up centre back by standing fast over his transfer fee and I’m pleased we did because it sends out a message to clubs that we deal in the worth of a player and not what we can be fleeced out of.

    In the summer, I think we will maybe lose 1 or 2 but we will strengthen as part of that loss with better quality and a few extra bodies plus the emergence of the odd youngster like Vuckic and Abheid who will become part of the first team furniture.

    It’s all geared for success in terms of forward thinking in my opinion and I just sit back and smile at the way this club is being run because I’ve never known this club run so efficiently. 😀

      (Quote)

  46. @wolfie

    And buttercups and honey bees fill the air with a comforting feeling of buzzing nectar.

    Fuzzy wuzzy feelings. 😯

    Honestly 😳

      (Quote)

  47. Taking today’s news in the chronicle together with the window, it is obvious that we are prepared to spend on young, established internationals to strengthen the starting 11, and prepared to buy outstanding youth, but not much else. If this is so I have to say happy not to buy versatile but back-up quality CB. Pity about Kadar, he did look the biz.

      (Quote)

  48. I don’t think we should be getting back-up type players at all.
    For example, defensively we should be looking at players like Vertonghen, Pieters or Samba, by that i mean players who are considered good enough to challenge for first team places and put pressure on established players.
    That way we improve the strength of the squad as a whole rather than just the first eleven.

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *