A stepping stone to “greater” things?

Are we being used as a stepping stone?
Are we a selling club? To me, no we’re not. We are a club that only sells on our terms, which happens to have worked out although whether it be by luck or judgement is something that will carry on being argued about for a while yet I’d imagine.

Generally speaking players only go if they are causing a nuisance, want a deal the club thinks is beyond benefit, want to move on for better wages, or if the money on offer is at a level which allows the club to improve the squad.

A lot of our players have been linked with moves away over the last week or so. We’ve had Tim Krul, Davide Santon, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Danny Simpson, Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse all linked with one club or another in recent times. They aren’t all going to move on though are they? Not in one hit anyway…

However some of the replies from the players regarding the speculation has led me to thinking about whether they are in it for the long haul or whether our club is being used as a stepping stone for a move to a club higher up the league or perhaps with more financial muscle than we have.

I’ll take Yohan Cabaye as an example of this. By his own admission he is aware of rumours about him and Manchester United but he insists it is up to his agent to deal with. Now granted he also said he is just focussing on Newcastle at the moment, but what if the speculation came to fruition and Manchester United firmed up any supposed interest? Does anyone think we’d stand a chance of keeping him? I don’t…

Realistically it’s no different for players at most clubs in the league. Time and again we’ve seen players poached from clubs who don’t fight for the title each year only to end up at one of the so-called big hitters. Joleon Lescott, James Milner, Ashley Young, Gary Cahill. The list goes on and on.

Now I’m fully aware that players move on and never really stay at one club for more than a few years. Those that do are either not good enough to ***** any interest or are a special case like an Alan Shearer The rest though will change their colours numerous times and will be looking to get the best for themselves at the end of it. I can’t say I blame them either.

On the face of it being a stepping stone is a bad thing. How can you build a team if your best performers are interesting clubs that, realistically, they are unlikely to turn down?

Scratch a bit deeper though and you may well end up thinking that it’s not a bad thing after all. Players come to the club keen to showcase themselves, we get one or two good seasons from them and a huge gratuity payment at the end, which will then be used to do the same thing again until we get to a point where we no longer need to do such a thing and can resist bids entirely.

It’s how Tottenham got to where they are today…

So a stepping stone to greater things? Time will tell on that one. If we are to be though, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing!

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.

101 thoughts on “A stepping stone to “greater” things?

  1. MM, it might take Carr out to 2020 then retirement age from there perhaps??

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  2. Really I have no idea 🙂 .. good on Ashley and co…. I wonder what negative spin. Org can put on it 🙂

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  3. aussie magpie fan…you could be right mate…

    Kin ‘el 8 year contract at the toon…not three bad…

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  4. aussie magpie fan@77…get over there and get mucked into them mate….

    I’m banned over there cos I insinuated that 2 or 3 blokes over there continuously spouted anti Pardew / anti Toon gash… 😆 😆

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  5. Shocking decision, I heard he’s got dodgy knees that could go at any time 😯

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  6. That’ll take him ’til he’s 75…..you must be so proud of ya boy Ice 😉 😆

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  7. Has Carr signed anybody yet ? Whats he waiting for ….? Sack him I say…… oops…wrong Blog…

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  8. Ice, don’t let Richie drag you down to his level mate, your better than that 🙂 🙂

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  9. Richie

    I see everyone is picking on you mate. Don’t let it bug you. They are just immature…
    I stopped teasing fat ugly kids like you when I was in high school. 😆

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  10. Still havn’t signed anyone yet… 🙁

    I now have to decide who I’m going to support in Euro. I still have Germany and Spain shirts from the WC in 2010, but with all the Frenchies we have I feel they might be my team this year….

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  11. Great bit of business by the board to sign up Carr untill he’s 75 ,that should stop the Dippers sniffing round him now. 😀

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  12. KIMTOON it went through my mind some clubs were sniffing around him hence the new contract

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  13. Ice,I have seen on countless forums of other clubs ,their fans saying that their club should sign him up cause he’s getting us so many good players ,especially Dippers sites.That said the various boards of those clubs must of talked about his expertise and wether they could tempt him away, but he loves Toon and I always knew he would stay with us. 😀

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  14. I see Mulumbu has comfirmed his agent is in talks with Toon and Spuds then, guess that means he won’t come to us as we like to keep stuff low key.He may of blown it there by opening his trap 😉

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  15. Does a club have to give its permission for another club to talk to their player’s agent? I was just wondering if this meant that a fee had been agreed?

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  16. Jon ,I think it’s o.k as long as all parties agree, they have probably agreed a fee with both clubs and now it’s up to the agent to thrash out the best deal for the player. Nice to know he’ll go where ever his agent gets the best deal for him,what ever happened to wanting to join a club because you really want to be there. Mulumbu has said “I will leave it in my agents hands and when I return from my holiday hope to have a nice surprise ” Very weird but that’s how these African lads seem to approach where they go,we saw it with Cisse, Tiote and now Ba.

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  17. Kim – yup I agree, it seems a very strange way to do things.

    I’m just surprised we even managed to agree a fee with West Brom though, as I thought they’d be asking more than we’d be prepared to give. Fully expect him to go to Spurs though.

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