Square peg in a round hole?
I mean take talkSPORT’s Graham Courtney, who regularly pipes up with pearls of wisdom and tales of “in the know” transfer news. It’s rarely right but still…
Anyway he did manage to stumble upon a subject earlier that I happen to find quite interesting and that is the sale of players and how it might/might not affect the team. It was centred around the continual speculation linking Demba Ba with pretty much any club that comes to mind, but his conclusion was basically that Demba Ba wouldn’t be as a big a loss as his compatriot Papiss Cisse.
Which brings me on to my point really. There is little evidence to suggest that we’ll lose a key player over the summer aside from newspaper speculation, but then we also know that if the right money comes in we are likely to do a deal. Now this isn’t money that you or I say a particular player is worth. Instead it’s what the club believe they are worth to them which is much harder to quantify.
So my question is, purely hypothetical of course, of our big hitters which one do you think would have the least impact on us if they did end up leaving?
Losing any of them would be a blow to be fair, but there are certain players that are just pure irreplaceable such as Tim Krul, Fabricio Coloccini and Cheik Tiote. Yohan Cabaye is getting there and if he can replicate the kind of form he showed in the European Championships it won’t be too long before he is in that bracket also. Hatem Ben Arfa can win games on his own and will now work for the team which makes him indispensable whilst Papiss Cisse is just a 100% goalscorer and they don’t come along often at all.
Which leaves Demba Ba…
He was great for us in the first half of the season and played a huge part in us ending up back in Europe. Then he went on a lean spell and scored just one goal after his return from African Cup of Nations duty. Granted he was shunted out to the left flank to accommodate Papiss Cisse but he still had his fair share of time up front as the trio of Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa tended to rotate throughout the game.
However if his main job is going to be on the left then wouldn’t we be better off trying to acquire a player who can actually excel in that position rather than have a player there who would be much better use elsewhere? I think so even though it’s hard to imagine as Ba actually did a cracking job to be fair.
It’s a tough one isn’t it?
Can we just be greedy and keep all of them?
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I’ve got this niggling feeling that Ba convinced Cissé to join and that Cissé will be upset if Demba leaves which could change his game, another thought is that he plays well cus he knows he’s got Ba challenging him for the CF spot.
It’s hard for me to pin point one player as most important. Last season was such a team effort with each player contributing his own unique quality. And with our lack of depth it’s not as though there’s a player on the bench bang on the door to step in.
Of our regular starters last season only Ba and Simmo would I be comfortable in letting go. Anyone else would be a concern for me without someone promising already in place.
Collo without a doubt.
Keep em all I say ,but if one HAD to go then logic dictates it has to be Ba and I hate saying that as I love Ba and all he’s done for us. The thing is Cisse seems to comand the front role now with Ba becoming supplier and though he’s played there befor with previous clubs ,I do believe he prefers the front role. If Cisse was to get injured then we would really want Ba upfront or if Cisse should lose his touch in front of goal likewise. Thing is it really depends who the club bring in ,if they are a proven goalscorer then we can afford to lose Ba .If we do no business for a striker it would be a huge error to let him go imo.
Is anyone else slightly concerned that James Tavanier isn’t signing a new contract? I would be really annoyed if we let him go as he has appeared as one of the most promising players.
well i think Ba is the most likley to go as lets be honest, he has already tried to get a move to turkey but the money was not right or something fell through that stopped him from the move. He has not once came out and said he wants to stay.. thats a pretty good sign he..er…. wants to go. All our other guys have said they are wanting to stay, colo, krul, tiote, cabaye, cisse and Arfa – they have all said they love nufc and the city etc.. Ba… nothing at all, and it makes it more loud when its his name that is in the papers every day.
) and loven is gone, we are now down two strikers. Then add that we will loose both cisse and ba in january for the african nations cup, we are down to just Stroller as it stands for all of january. Now thats not good really is it.
Given that we have sold Best (for an amazing 3 million
I dont understand why we went over to Holland tbh…what was its purpose? zero, if they couldnt agree a deal on the phone before going wtf was the point in wasting yet more time going over? Dekka was probably streaking through the canals of amserdam instead of the SD Arena.
Toonsy – your closing comment was exactly what I was thinking while reading the article!
Why can’t we keep them all?!
The truth is, Ba wasn’t forced to hug the touchline out on the left. He still had plenty of opportunity to score in the 2nd half of the season, he just wasn’t as clinical in his finishing.
If it’s true that Pardew has a transfer kitty of £20m, plus whatever he manages to raise through player sales, then I think we can bring in the players we need with that without having to sell.
I just had a scary thought, what I’d Ba goes and we don’t get anyone. We may be forced to play Xisco
.
Colo, He is the glue that just about holds everything together
i have not seen a single comment from anyone real that says we have a 20 million budget – now 25 million due to forster and best going. not to mention smith off payroll, guthrie off payroll, loven off payroll and several others. so far we have shipped out a fair few but not, as of yet, added anything as such. i do not think we will spend anywhere near that.
The biggest miss? Well, had we kept Guthrie imo Cabaye wouldn’t have been huge…now he’d be big for sure…
Tiote is immense, but again he didn’t play all that much and we’ve proven we can win without him…
Colo is quality, and the fact he’s been linked with City just goes to prove what an immense season he’s had…but imo we’d miss him more because our other centre backs are poor rather than Colo being the no.1 in our squad…
Ba scored literally all our goals in the first half and was said to be the best striker since Shearer…or indeed even better than, he finished everything we served up to him, something which we’ve missed out on as far as strikers go for a long time…
But for me Cisse is just immense. If Ba scored half chances then Cisse just conjures goals out of nothing. As long as we have someone like him in our team we’ll be a danger to any side, as Chelski found out.
I see Jacob Butterfield has signed for Norwich
, hope we haven’t missed out on a good one there.
MDS says:
July 3, 2012 at 15:24
Collo without a doubt.
—————————————
Oooops. Sorry about that Toonsy- I misread the quesiton.
I meant that Collo would be the most difficult to replace in IMO. Followed by cisse.
I think Ba’s a star personally and just didn’t click with Cisse as he sort of invaded his space on the pitch a bit. I think they’ll learn to play together.
I really like Tiote, but he would be the most replacebale IMO. Quality holding mids are more easily found than CBs and strikers. even Perch did a job for us there last year
if we do have a 20 – 25 million ransfer budget it’s likley it will include wages over the contract term so imagine thats about 2 good players and one potential good player
I have to agree with MDS @13. I think Tiote would be the most replaceable, but don’t want to see that put to the test. I like watching him play in the Black and White, so I hope to see him continue to shine for NUFC for a long time.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/7862339/
I’m want to keep them all obviously…..it would be Tiote for me if forced to make a choice, but I think he’d be hard to replace
I was just reading that article, Richie…that would suck. But suddenly it looks like all of our targets are getting really expensive. Between LDJ and Anita…those two alone would have been 20M+, throw in a CB and possibly Debuchy, and Ashley would certainly be spending quite a bit of cash.
The two people playing out of position in a 4-2-3-1 are .ba and Jonas. So I guess these are the most at risk.
If Anita thinks newcastle are a beautiful club then id love to hear his views on sunlun…
Very much doubt that will happen
Good poser Toonsy. Easy to answer for me. Goalscorers win games. Cisse was outstanding. He’s our prize asset, and the one who would command the biggest fee.
Colo, next. He’s a Rolls-Royce of a player. I have never seen a better centre back in a black and white shirt, and I go back to the 70′s.
I would be very disappointed to see Saylor, Tiote, Cabaye, and Ben Arfa leave (in that order). I would like to keep Krul but think he is replaceable.
Incidentally, I would love to see Ben Arfa kick on this season and hold down a more central role. He needs to exploit to the full his outstanding ability to strike fear into opposing players, which buys him loads of time on the ball. Not sure he has the maturity or even the footballing brain to do it though.
Who would we replace Krul with?! He’s only going to improve at the age he is, definitely not going to be sold. I don’t know how many games he kept us in by himself.
I’m really not comfortable with getting rid of Ba. It just doesn’t sit well with me. That would also be another striker out of the squad, and one who can do thr business. Demba was also really unlucky in the 2nd half of the season. Using bindipper logic, he hit the woodwork plenty of times!
There’s going to be some good players coming in this summer. The window has only been officially open for 3 days, and already everyone is freaking out on not having any new bodies in. Patience friends, patience
I’m so peeved that the club haven’t came out and made an official statement regarding the pre-season friendlies. Are they coming to freaking Germany and Bavaria or not…
Munich
Well I know they’re playing in Cardiff….that suits me!
I see some other scummy c*nt has been saying racist stuff towards Simmo now, I’m sure he’ll be off now and I wouldn’t even blame him…not that the normal abuse he gets is down to his race but its pathetic enough anyway, wouldn’t begrudge him moving on.
Andrew@22 ,I’m with you on Krul ,no way would I want to lose him ,he’s been fantastic and kept us in plenty of games .My only worry is should he get an injury ,who then can fill his shoes? .
Richie – are these Dutch clubs pissed or what?
The clubs in the Dutch leagues must be far better finically better off than I ever thought!
Don’t get me wrong, I knew we’d have to spend some money on De Jong, but £10m+ for Anita is just nuts… Fuck it, Scumderland can’t have him
So annoyed we didn’t go for Westwood when the Scum did, he’d have been second choice here as well as opposed to being third at Sunderland….would have been fine with him in cup/some europa matches enough to make sure he was ready should Krul get injured….but Elliot? Letting in 3 against a Forest team who couldn’t score for Toffee all season, and just looking generally shaky…
Totally and completely off subject, but I noticed that the home shirts for last season are selling for 50% off, which tells me the new Home Kits are about out…anyone see any “legitimate” releases of it? Was thinking about doing a bit of shopping.
Newkie, The racism is inexcusable, pathetic and disgusting but whats it got to do with his reasons for leaving?
He is the one player at our club who divides opinion almost 50/50 in football terms, personally I think his head went walkabout last year after he didnt get the contract he wanted and he has played like a twat for ages.
He will move because he wants to, not because of some moronic comments on Twitter, I just dont get this blind loyalty to pro footballers who in reality couldnt give a toss about fans, club or colleagues, only their bank balances.
Deal with the racism, but dont give Simpson an excuse to walk.
Kim
I agree he’s one of our best players and was arguably the second best GK in the PL last season. Also how is a GK am easy position to fill, our back-ups are shite.
NTF aye ive seen the new one,virgin reet across the front,was leaked in Malta,son sent me a photo of it
Robert-I just meant that it’s hardly endearing, you hope nowadays that the racism is out of our game and that some people just use their support of sport to vent their anger or the like, but even when its not racism the abuse he got was pretty insane. I remember some tweets after was it the arsenal game last season? Can’t quite remember, but a fair few comments followed the general theme of “I hope you die”
Now i’m all for player criticism, and twitter or any social network opens players up to both praise and criticism, and so they should rightly take one with the other.
Now I’m not saying its a reason for him leaving, as you said its looked probable for a while now, but talk like that is hardly going to help change his mind is it?
Sharpy…aye, it’s almost getting cheaper for English players
NorCal… think they come out the start of August(possibly) but I haven’t seen any “reliable” pics of it yet.
Ice @ 32…thanks for the lesson in proper writing…
Thanks, Richie…I guess I can wait. Besides need to see who may grace the back of my shirt for a few months…
RICHIE ask pup he will send you a picture of it
May be bollox but just saw this
Fourth Official @Fourth_Official
Blackburn are also close to wrapping up a loan deal for Newcastle’s Dan Gosling, wonder if he regrets taking Everton to court to leave?
@37
Good if true imo…he needs a run of games under his belt as he’s not really had any here, if he can get fully fit and show some of the promise he had at everton he’d still be a decent partner for Cabaye I reckon…
Demba Ba @dembabafoot
“Holla back everybody. So much stuff about me lately. Rumours are rumours! Just forget about it. By the way i had the best holiday ever!!”
CC aye just read that mate
Ice…Pups never on man, do you still have it and can you put up a link or email me it? when did he get it? I know Puma came out the end of June and said all the ones that had been “leaked” were fake and don’t resemble the new design
Just fell on this on youtube, Ironic as i was just moaning to mesel about what a waste it is having barry davies commentate on extreme swingball or whatever this shite is the beeb are ramming down our throats and not on the euros…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzI1-6iBXtQ&feature=related
RICHIE i will ask him to e-mail it and forward it,if he still has it,wouldnt care only wiped all my old e-mails y/day,dam
Cheers Ice
RICHIE sent e-mail now,dont know what shift hes on but if he still has it he will send it,he only sent it to me because he wanted it (hint hint)
Decent vid CC…if it wasn’t for those pesky away goals
It just reminds me of how much I’ve missed European football, I hope to feck wi make it to the group stages or it’s gonna be the mother of all anti climaxes
Cheers mate
the new kits have been leaked from a fifa screen shot as well lads,
https://twitter.com/CheikTioteFactz/status/219369188291121152/photo/1
Aye great times, As wonderful as those years were kk must have some regrets about nights like that with a bit more tactical savvy at 3-0 we were home and hosed and into the next round with every chance of winning the whole thing, Same with the liverpool, blackburn and forest matches in 95/96…
Richie – did you see CC’s post of Dembas tweet … Told you the kid was settled and happy to be back and all this shite written is just rumours. You need to relax man!
Alex…cheers.
CC…Aye, great days but the “what if’s” will always remain.
Sharpy….I kna, I’m a tw@t
….tbf he’s tweeted a few things similar as has his brother 
SHARPY@50 do you not know your not allowed to have any cross words or go against RICHIE on mondays its his day off,hes a top lad and one thing for sure he knows his footy,theres a few that have a bit “carry on”with him but he gives more than he gets, sharp as a knife is richie
Ice – Hopefully sharper than you fella, as today is Tuesday!!
Besides he deserves it for giving Ba such a hard time earlier, he had a right good rant about the lad
AYE but he was hardly on y/day got to give him sum lee-way
AVB at Spurs and Rodgers at Liverpool should be interesting. Bit off more than they can chew?
Sharpy@53
Ice@52 it’s taken a few years, but at last you’ve made a comment that’s 100% correct
DJG….hopefully they have, personally I’ve never bitten off more than I can chew
Well have we signed anyone yet
is this jong crap dead in the water or what theres that much being said,and you never get oot of sjp
Richie you can chew a lot
well so Batty said
DJG – I think Rodgers will struggle at Liverpool coz I think there’s a certain way your expected to work and if he doesn’t get off to a winning start immediately the fans will turn on him straight away, coz most of them still want Dog leash there.
Same goes with AVB, most fans want droopy to still be there so if he doesn’t start well the fans will turn on him, especially after his stint at Chelsea. So hopefully we make his start with worst possible
RICHIE got that e-mail,forwarded it to you
Sharpy I think Rodgers will have big problems controlling the players imo.
As for AVB I think he’ll do ok but will take a while settling in and getting the players to play his way
oh Richie and Ice keeping secrets from us
Is it e or do the north east journos contradict them selves. one article on saturday said st james park took his breath away and he was very interested in coming to newcastle and then today they were saying he doesnt seem interested in coming.
Madness
DAVE its another diet sheet for richie,said one diet wasnt enough,he was still hungary
ALEX we never learn do we,these rags do your head in
Dave – Think AVB may struggle with their budget as well tho, Adebayor is no longer there so they’re really short up front and even selling Modric may not give them enough to sign the players he’ll want to come in. I’m sure they’ll have discussed what he’ll have to spend, but clubs seem to want stupid money for their players and spurs certainly don’t have Chelseas spending power.
Sharpy im sure he must be happy enough or he wouldn’t be the manager.
Ice you’s should know by now that the rags know jack shit.
DAVE,never took any notice of the comics,never even bought one for yrs.
ime off laters
Ice…Got it cheers, I’ve seen that one but thought it was fake
RICHIE ok
see what the cheeky sod wrote on it,that his 50p pocket money stopped,ill teach him 
Ice
Ice take it easy lad
http://lemmetweetthatforyou.com/t/uocy0
Rodgers says he wants to play like Spain. Fair enough but that’s not exactly carolls game.
Have we signed anyone yet lads?
@77 I think that’s a fake account
The real Army lad would have included his team for next season as well
Chris
Funky, is that legit? My wife just translated it to say, “I am off Newcastle aren’t helping my career. CYA the dogs(biches?)”
What?!!
on topic, I’d hate to see any player leave from now on in… got rid of a few now we need a few back through the door…
On a more important topic
…. My old mate Icedog has lost our bet (even with an extra 48hrs grace)…. So from this Wednesday to the next he has to be nice to Richie 
Richie, I will try and police Ices’ comments toward you as best I can to make sure he stays on track, but feel free to let me know if he gets a bit cheeky
Absolutely fucking laughable the mirror make up some bullshit about Ba and liverpool and it is regurgitated a million times over and people take it as fact, Type Demba Ba into twitter search and look at the ammount of quoteless, Substanceless bollocks.
He cant even sign for them for the £7m clause it has to be a champions league club ffs…
CC…Is that definate about the CL club, read it before but wasn’t sure if it’s genuine…would also knock Spurs out too
Aussie…..cheers, though I’m not sure about you watching my back…..like the sheep in your vicinity, I’m a tad worried
Rich
just be glad I didn’t say “I will cover your arse” 
Aussie….I am
….would take a hell of a tarpaulin like 
oh and wrang thread 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
CC-Liverpool are a CL team, but right now the whole of the Premier league, the F.A and FIFA are conspiring against them, have you not spoken to a scouser recently?
My problem with De Jong is he just doesn’t seem like the *type* of player we want. Obviously he’s not just a big man, he does look like he can run the channels, finish with both feet and from a variety of angles but he does seem a little clumsy on the ball, maybe he just *looks* like that to me and he’s actually fine, but it seems the only possible position he could play in a front three would be at the top. Just like Cisse and for the most part, Ba.
Could we really have three of them fighting over the same position
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