The end of the line for our transfer policy?
We all know the drill by now. We scout players thoroughly and look for value and potential in any player we sign, whether that be potential for a player to improve or for his value to increase, or both. We value them and won’t go above what we think a player is worth. If the club wants more than that then we move on to the next carefully scouted potential acquisition.
We’ve acquired quite a fearsome reputation in this respect and it earned us many plaudits last season. We basically reinvented a squad with the cash from the sale of one player and spread it across the whole team improving it beyond recognition and beyond expectation. Basically we rewrote the book of how to improve a team and showed that it doesn’t always take Arab oil money to achieve an upturn in league positioning.
Could our reputation be hindering us this time around though? Graham Carr is now a well know scout thanks to all of the publicity he has received, arguably more publicity than any other scout at any other club has been adorned with. He has become symptomatic of our approach in the transfer market and, generally speaking, his judgement hasn’t been far wrong in terms of incoming players.
My worry is that other teams will have twigged this, not only teams we are looking to compete with who will will try and steal in on the back of our hard work, but also teams that we are trying to cut a deal with may suddenly look at their own valuation of a player and question it. Could it be a case of Newcastle being interested so there must be a reason to inflate the price?
At the end of the day it’s still very much early days in the transfer window and I’m nowhere near panicking yet, but the way that FC Twente have acted over Luuk de Jong, with his ever inflating transfer fee, has made me wonder about it all. Granted de Jong is not exactly in the “relatively unknown” bracket we seem to have been operating in, and neither is Mathieu Debuchy after impressing at EURO 2012, but even so the fees being mentioned are higher than what they were.
Time will tell of course, but I worry that the transfer policy that has served us so well could have come to the end of the line as other teams start to wise up to it.
P.S: A bit of an oddity has appeared. ESPN are listing two of our friendlies for live TV coverage, those being the clash with Monaco on Monday July 16th (6pm) and a clash with Fenerbahce on Saturday 21st July (again 6pm). The oddity occurs as these fixtures have yet to be confirmed by Newcastle United. So anyway, we might have some football to watch next week!
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sure we got Deal for 1m and amfalintino on a free just think the bigger name like De Jong an Debuchy we will be force to pay based on our track record because clubs can demand a fee they both went to the euro championships, give it time we will unearth another gem this transfer window… a target none of the papers have identified …. so nobody striker for 2.2m anf he get 20goals next season haha i can hope cant i
geal for 1m ***
Toonsy ,Good read and I raised this point yesterday .I’m sure we will find it much harder to sign players with our existing remit. We have been found out ,no doubt about it and frankly we were never going to be able to operate in that way for too long given our success with recent signings. If a club knows we are interested in one of their players ,they know we will try top get them on the cheap and make a later profit on them ,so it stands to reason they would want a bit /lot more now. Quite where that leaves us is anyones guess ,do we start looking further afield as in south America as some have suggested ?. Well o.k but then you have permit problems unless they are regular internationals and then they don’t come cheap
. At some point we will have to start paying a higher price for players ,even if they only show promise .The real answer to this conumdrum is to invest heavily in a top youth set up and bring on our youngsters ,which maybe the club are now trying top do .The immediate problem is that we have to try and maintain parity with the top clubs ,not easy given they are all strengthening with big signings whilst we have to seemingly go bargain hunting again.
@3 ,For some reason I put TOP not TO twice
Toon friendlies live on ESPN:
16th July v Monaco and 21st July v Fenerbache 6pm start
Possibly, but as soon as we start giving in to other teams ridiculous valuations (e.g. De Jong) it’ll send out the signal for all teams to try it on with us. Far better to stick to our guns imo.
Hopefully in the long run the strategy is to get in lots of promising kids and have them come through the system. We could be seeing the seeds being set now, but it’s a bit early to tell.
I dont think it makes the policy redundant, its just got a little harder. I think the fact that we still pay transfers fees up front is a big appeal to selling clubs and in the market we are mainly focussing on (France / Holland / Germany etc) there are still a lot of teams that will find it hard to turn down a decent up front offer from us.
Doesnt look like De Jong will happen but you never know if nobody meets their valuation – transfers these days are long drawn out affairs with a lot of brinkmanship involved because of the transfer windows.
If it doesnt happen then I am sure we will move onto another target.
Toonsy I think we have been sussed out a few of us said months ago that we won’t be able to keep living of freebies and bargains because it won’t last forever.
Jon@6 That’s the point though , given the fact that the club won’t give way in the price war as it were and I tend to agree with that stance, where does that leave us right now. The future could be bright with our youth policy strategy in place ,but that will take time to come good. In the meantime we need to keep pace with those around us last season and we are still short on numbers and quality and that is most evident at the back . Quite what the answer is I’m not sure ,hopefully Carr has a couple of aces up his sleeve this season.
I often come on here to read posts-through “newsnow” and I have to say Toonsy is one of my favs! This is the very point I’ve been at pains to make on my forum “Teamtalk” yoursay! I think I’m finally breaking through. I think Mike will adjust his transfer strategy accordingly-but we can’t take anything for granted!! Great post mate! Unfortunately I’m not a regular reader-as the turnaround is so fast-but I like the way you lot respond to each other’s posts!
Problem is I don’t have ESPN so will prob rely on someone with a decent link, the only time I did that previously was Chelsea (a) and we know how that turned out
You win some you lose some, we lost a few in previous windows before all this “being sussed” talk started.
Generally you have to pay for quality, that’s true in all walks off life, picking up a bargain feels great to but there has to be a balance. Yep look for the bargains but also be prepared to pay quality money at times for a quality player……it works, just look at Cisse.
As long as the club gets the balance right, we’ll hopefully do ok this window.
Ref De Jong, I think the clubs offer was good enough and glad they didn’t go any higher, hopefully that indicates that the club will spend “decent” money…..time will tell, still early days yet…as usual I won’t be holding my breath though
Nothing wrong with our policy at all…. there are shed loads of clubs in finacial strife… so that would tell me that it is still a buyers market.. clubs in this position will ask for big coin for their best players up front but at the end of the day, they will take the best offer. We pay up front which will excite the poorer clubs.. keep up the good work Dekka an Carr
I think it is way way too early to even suggest that, I think with the likes of De Jong and Debouchy we are now looking at players in the higher bracket of prices but I dont think that will have any impact on us bringing in players. I think I remember Pardew saying he wanted to bring in 5 new players and a few players for the development squad. No reason why that has or will change in my mind.
Good article Toonsy, great point to raise.
I understand we have to be careful in the transfer market, we don’t have the kind of money that the likes of City, Chelsea and other clubs can pay for fees and wages – I get that.
But here’s my problem/concern … and I’m sure people will pick the bones out of this and point out our financial restraints but here it is anyway:
We have set up a brilliant scouting system, which rates players not just on footballing ability but also things like how the player would fit into the team personality wise and other aspects which work well and have ensured we have brought in some really good players. Players that young Geordies can look up to and respect (which I know doesn’t win trophies, but is important to me as a fan & dad).
Having scouted these players so thoroughly and identifying players who are young and fit our wage structure. We should then be then signing these players!!!
We ask Graham Carr to find these players and tick all the boxes – one of the boxes being players that could be acquired within a certain price bracket. Lets be right, we are not asking him to scout Messi or Ronaldo here.
So having a list of players that we have spent time and money on identifying these players, we should then be hell bent on getting them in. I know we have to negotiate with the selling club, who generally value these players higher. But more often than not we are talking the difference of a couple of million or less.
We need to get the deal done, otherwise, really what the point in such restrict scouting or refusing to sign players under a certain age?!
@Kim – yeah it’s difficult to know what to do. I guess we have to play it smart and look for people on frees or one year left on their contract, people with clauses, and people who’ve made it clear they want to leave their current club. We only need about 3 signings I reckon, and we seem to have a budget of about £20m, so there should still be plenty out there for us!
I hope no one panics yet because the transfermarket only JUST opened and you haven’t seen clubs getting more than 2-3 players in yet.
I think we should focuse the cash on youth players and only bring 1-2 top signings.
Let the youngsters get some PRL experience and take some chances that may benefit us next season.
our goal this season is not trying to challenge for a 4th place it is building stabilty hopefully get into europe again and maybe even get a good solid cup run.
I am not excited about De Jong or Debuchy, i am excited by youngsters and the possibility of seeing Vuckic, Sameobi, and Ferguson this year taking the step up and prove their talent.
Our transfer policy shouldnt change just because some clubs wants more.. we should just stick to it and wait for the rough diamond again (Tiote, Cisse, Cabaye, Barfa)
we got the right players because we were patient..
You can hold your breath if you want Richie
Sharpy – in fairness though we have got the deals done in the past haven’t we? You’re criticizing them for things which they haven’t even done. Seems a bit unfair mate
Sharpy I agree mate and wouls add that all agents etc talk so before we go in for a player I would be 99% sure that Carr and Co would know how much the players value is, as that would be one of the boxes that needs to be ticked.
So don’t mess about and pay the going rate for players that play in positions that we are weak in.
As for we only need 1or2 quality players, we needed that last season before we lost 4-5 players with prem experience, so I don’t know how that would work.
I as a fan want us to get quality players to improve our team, I don’t need to look after Jabba’s money he already has people that do that for him.
Big Dave:
I see where you are going but i would be excited if we could focuse on youth rather than splash the cash.
Arsenal has done this for years and i would be satisfied challenging for top 6 every season without bringing in top dollar names.
I would love to see Newcastle in the top but it is not realistic with the amount of money we have and i would prefer a healthy structure for the the club.
Big Dave – who are we messing about with? De Jong himself has said of the 20m euro valuation:
“I was amazed to hear this. FC Twente, my agent Louis Laros and Borussia Monchengladbach indicated that a transfer fee of €12m (£9.6m) plus €2m (£1.6m) in bonuses, would do, if I agreed with FC Twente to drop my contracted right to 20 per cent of the transfer fee.”
That was roughly what we offered, and clearly it was the going-rate until Twente decided to start playing silly beggars. It’s them who’s messing about, not us.
Jon – I’m not criticizing mate, just raising concerns and potential pitfalls to the way we work. It has came off in the past but with a huge element of luck. Think about it, we walked away from Cisse that time last year! … it was only thanks to Freiburg signing a new striker in Jan that we managed to get him in Jan, and yes we got him at a reduced price – but IMO that’s was huge good fortune rather than good judgement, hence why the deal was hurried through.
I just think that with all of the work that goes into identifying the players, we need to then sign them. Other clubs seem to manage it!, having players signed up before the window even opens.
According to De Jong himself, before Twente upped his price to £16m, they had agreed a fee of £9.5m with £1.5m bonuses – that’s from the player himself, whos agent is his dad, so I’d think that would be fairly accurate. If reports are correct, we offered £10m – so we are £1m out?!
I keep reading this money up front being favorable but I’m not sure how often that has been a deal breaker like?!
Dave do you know if they have let dog out of the nick yet
Danish I don’t want top dollar names
I just want quality players that are capable of helping us progress in the top 6-7 of the prem,
Yeah I would like to see the younguns step up but every season we have been saying that this season is the season for Vuckic Sammi etc to step up but they havn’t and I don’t think they will until they get regular footie which means loaning them out.
Toonsy this happened to arsenal. henry, viera, bergkamp, pires, overmars, petit, rvp, fabregas, clichy the list goes on; all cost less than 11 million. even if you take inflation into account he still got these players on the cheap
as time goes on and (like u said) other clubs see this policy working they wise up and say, no, we want more money for these players if you want them
wenger and arsenal say no we will not pay more , “we have a policy and stick to it”
now look at the arsenal fans; in uproar as there players are now leaving year in year out because of this policy
that being said, we are not arsenal and i think we should stick to guns as long as possible, but we also MUST realise we cant take the piss with these clubs
de jong and debuchy are first class internationals, and their clubs will only accept over the top offers.
the same as we will for likes of cabaye, ba, tiote etc
do to others as you would like done to yourselves and all that!
Big Dave-
it would be nice with some quality signings but i love the way we brought Tiote in and the way he has turned out to be a top PRL player and i would like us to do that more.
take a chance with De Jong and pay 15 mill for him or take a chance with two lesser known names for the same price.. it is the same for me.
Jon – that’s the point tho, it’s an amount agree with BM – not us!, yes Twente have allegedly changed the valuation, but I still see De Jong leaving Twente this summer … but to BM not us, which means all our scouting has been a waste of time. It also means we are not signing players Pardew has identified as a main target and we end up with 2nd or 3rd choice target because we weren’t prepared to cough up that extra £1-2m to secure the player.
Batts Ice gets out tonight or tomorrow I think it was only 5 days he got but might have been 7
Arsenal fans are ungrateful…
Look at the clubs above them.
Man United is in debt up to their eyeballs, Man City is a joke club based on Arabs playing fantasy football. Chelsea is the Russian version of Man City.
So only really Spurs and Arsenal have been run well…
Man U will buckle when Fergie leaves…
Liverpool is a joke at the moment too…
We were in the same mould as them not long ago. Now our policy is finally earning us some respect.
Sharpy – I’m afraid I don’t see the point you’re making. You think if we had offered £11m they would have sold him to us? But BMG offer £11m and they won’t sell him to them? I think it’s much more likely that if we’d have offered £11m like BMG we’d have gotten the same response that they did: “actually we’ve changed our minds we want £16m”. And that is my point: people are making out as if WE’RE going in with crazy low offers and pissing about, but in actual fact it is Twente who are changing the goal-posts.
Dave – get in!! think that’s the first time you’ve agreed with me
Danish – bagging Tiote and even Cabaye the way we did was excellent business and very shrewd. But let’s be right, we aren’t going to sign every player in such a way, think about it Tiote = £3.5m – Best = £3m. We aren’t gonna get that kinda luck every time. Plus, Twente look at Tiote and think, Newcastle aren’t gonna get a bargain like that again.
The truth is that £15m probably could have secured De Jong and Douglas – that would be fair money but we’ve tried to save £1-2m on the deal which delays players coming in or looses players to rival bidders, and when you have a Billionaire owner – that stinks a bit like!
We are also buying high risk players. Hence the discount. Our policy is not to pay the price for established players. It is not simply a case of let’s pay over the odds for the first choice on list. Coz the extra would buy an established player. It’s not only the cash price it’s the overall package.
I am suprised because we have let two strikers go now and dont see why either of them couldnt have been squad players?
I think pardew must have a striker lined up but I think he is flooding the midfield and will play a lot of 4-5-1 next year with technical pacey players like marveaux, HBA supplying one target man ie ba or cisse.
I would really start to worry if we dont get a striker, CB, and FB.
We have signed two mids so it would appear unlikely that we will buy another winger.
Could see rosales, douglas and still convinced de jong could join
Jon – yeah, I think if we had of went over and offered £11m cash up front he’d be a Newcastle player by now – I know there is no way to prove that, but BMG didn’t offer £11m, they offered £9.5m with 1.5m add ons. Twente then say £16m, which I think is just delay tactics til they line up De Jongs replacement, then they will sell him to BMG.
Sharpy….who knows who offered what, depending on what link you read we’ve offered between £8m and £12m for De Jong and £5-£7m for Douglas. FC Twente are supposedly asking for €20m
they ain’t going to get it, they’ll come down like you say but even if we offer the same as BM it’s doubtful we’ll get him, he seems to want to go to Deutschland unfortunately 
Richie – you may be right. But then look at Debuchy, who apparently wants to come to us and were pissing about there aswell. We did it with Mariappa aswell – and regardless how us fans rate him, he was wanted by Pardew, Tomkins was also another one.
We’re pissing about how?……doing the same as every other club, by going in with a lowish offer, come to a mutual agreement and buy, or can’t agree a fee and move on. Every club does it, why should we be different?
Richie has hit the nail on the head.. everyones assumptions on here are based on what they have read in the papers.. no one knows the truth other than those directly involved.. I base my evaluation on our transfer policy on what we have achieved not what the papers say we are doing….
Jon@31 ,I think you are spot on about the De Jong situation ,Twente are just being plain greedy now and moving the goal post .But I wouldn’t waste a second more on De Jong as he obviously wants away to Germany and he’s too expensive now ,£10m was about right imo , that’s just my valuation ,nowt to do with saving MA cash. If Spuds can land Adebayor for £8m then why can’t we go in for Guidetti for £6 or 7 or even 8m ,after all he did as well as De Jong last season pretty much.
Sharpy, Lille will not sell Debuchy until they have a replacement.. So the deal is more than likely agreed but can’t happen until they get a new defender on board..
Sharpy@35 – I think we’ll have to agree to disagree mate
Aussie@41 ,that’s the worry though as if there is a better player than him ,then everyones gonna want him too ,which means they have to pay top wack which means they have to ask more for Debuchy ,which means we will most likely walk away , and so we lose out again
.
I got a headache now
time for lunch .
Kim, there’s that glass is half empty thing again
love the thought process but I think you should have a little faith and Debuchy will be through our doors soon
Kim…a “replacement” doesn’t necessarily mean better though
…I’d guess they’ll look for a cheaper player who can do a decent job for them or a young, cheap player with potential.
“I got a headache now”……the phrase Aussie hears more than any other from lasses
Kim, it is a little like asking a good friend out for lunch and a drink… if they can’t make I you go for the lesser option and invite Richie instead
We are on the right track and we should hold firm in our faith
Aussie….buying me lunch certainly isn’t the “lesser” option
‘Was that it’ is another phrase I hear a lot
On the plus side, if ya still hearing it you’re still getting it
Yeah mate
my wife only said the other night that I was ‘incredibly adequate’ 
big improvement on the time before then…..you always have to lower the tone
Sorry mate, I forgot all about your sensitive disposition
back to the football 
I would gladly castrate lee ryder with a spoon
I would gladly supply you with the aforementioned spoon
Why is that CC? Lee is only reporting what he has read in other papers and twitter…
Hmmm ! why does this subject seem familiar, oh yes ! now i remember I wrote similar articles on another blog, on a couple of occasions.
Well not as comprehensive but basically discussing wheather we could sell of our stars for big profits, yet continue to find hidden gems at ridiculess prices.
An assembly line like system, or the perfect retailers dream, buy for nowt , sell for as much as the market will bear.
Seems we have already run into the buffers, worked well in France, but the Dutch appear much more cany, raising their demands everytime we increase our offers.
Ah well nowt lasts forever !
Well done Chuck… your the man… nice to hear you write articles in between being an obnoxious know it all..
He is worse than oliver, Tiote to spurs is one of the laziest stories ive seen in ages.
His exclusive of nufc not signing a centre half written a day before the douglas bid, The chronicle “understanding” that the club werent signing a striker in january a few days before Cisse was paraded at SJP with a ball under his arm…
Richie@47
Aussie@48
you two ,really need to form a double act
All the UK journalists are terrible.
“Read tomorrow’s (name your paper) for the same regurgitated invented bollocks with am added twist.”
Then they all copy each other on the off chance something happens that actually does come true…
CC ,I will be glad when the window shuts ,so the written press can get back to writing us off at every given opportunity instead of rehashing old lies every bloody day.
Kim, one upside from these lazy, shambolic press releases is that fans have become less gullible and in turn more cynical toward the crap being delivered up as stories..
Aussie@61…I don’t believe you,ve read “How to make friends and influence people” yet have you?
Other clubs will assign scouts to follow our scouts!
Aussie ,those that know me have always called me a cynical old bat any way
Rich, sounds like it could be a little wordy, does it have pictures in it? ?
Come on Kim, your not old
Aussie…How the feck would I know, I havn’t read it ya drongo….jeez some people
Rich
silly me…
Aussie ,I wish
Feel very old at the mo ,not much sleep for 6 days ,lew not so good at mo. 
Bad chest ,hacking away ,may take him back to GP tommorow change his anti b’s I think. Lot’s of colds and coughs at day centre and he picked one up 
Thing is he can’t blow his nose so everything goes to his chest and what lays us low for 3 or 4 days puts him out of action for 2 bloody weeks or more 
Need a good signing to cheer us all up . 
Richie/AMF – sorry had to go collect the boy from nursery.
Aussie – youre right that I can’t back my argument up with cold hard facts. My argument is based completely on the fact that we still haven’t signed anyone. Spurs haven’t pissed about with Sigurdsson or Vertonghen, Arsenal haven’t with Podolski and Giroud. Teams we want to compete with aren’t fannying about with tester offers and things like that.
Do that with squad players we want, but first choice players who have been scouted and chosen to strengthen positions we are clearly weak in, then we should be getting those deals done, not taking stupid risks to save a couple of million quid. That’s just my opinion.
Jon – alreet then
Kim, I feel for you, it can’t be easy
Sharpy, Debuchy will come in as soon as Lille have a replacement for him.. I reckon it is a done deal..
Richie,
I do believe Aussie has been picking on you on your day off?… Surely a fine is in order
I think Debuchy was a done deal long ago…
I see two coming in, a defender and a fullback…
We 100% won’t sign a striker until January until one leaves.
JJ, they were terms of endearment, no fine nessesary
What’s the difference between a defender and a fullback, JJ ?
Sharpy….The Vertonghen thing has been going on for ages
….sometimes transfers are quick, like Cisse in Jan and sometimes they drag on for longer, it’s not always NUFC’s fault when it does. The top clubs can generally get transfers done quicker as players want to sign for them and don’t wait to see if better offers come along, often not the case with us I’m afraid. I bet most fans at most clubs think transfers drag on for ages, most will be pretty much of a muchness though.
JJ..it’s just a sign of his low self esteem so out of pity I leave him to it
Aussie – not according to Liile, they know Debuchy wants to leave and they are looking for a replacement, but I don’t think a deal is done yet mate, otherwise they would just sell!
We pay transfer upfront so that would make life easier to find his replacement, I’d have thought.
Think Lille will find the replacement then open the auction as I believe Inter have also made enqs but not bid yet.
Don’t want to be a negger, it’s not normal for me but I’d be lying if I say it doesn’t concern me a bit, seeing other clubs making signings and improving their squads. I know there’s still plenty of time yet but if we want new players ready for the start of the season we need them in early.
Sharpy, its early days mate.. don’t go stressing just yet…
I agree with Aussie, stop being a negger Sharpy
Richie – Cisse took 6mths!! we bid for him in the summer, then signed him in Jan!
As for Jan, I think part of the problem was Spurs didnt have a manager, then a dispute between Jan and Ajax about the cut Jan was getting – nowt to do with Spurs.
Like I say, I don’t think we are completely wrong in our approach, we just need to be more urgent and flexible when it comes to our top targets
Think its way too early to panic about this window , think the club should be given time to bring in players. Good luck to Mclovin at Birminghamd next season. Hope him Clarke and co do well
Sharpy…Howay man, we walked away from any deal for Cisse last summer, in Jan it was done quick and out of the blue. If Chelsea signed Tiote today I imagine you’d say it was done quickly yet they’ve been linked with him for over a year. So what if it wasn’t Spurs fault with Vertonghen? is it NUFC’s fault or BM’s fault that FC Twente keep moving the goal posts? You seem to be applying one set of rules to NUFC transfers and another to other clubs. Most tranfers done so far have been freebies, as I said the big clubs can sometimes get things done quicker as players want to go there and don’t have to wait and see if better offers come in, we don’t have that luxury.
We’ve signed 2 players who I imagine will be in the first squad, yes we need quality players and yes we need thenm as quickly as possible, transfers usually take time for a variety of reasons, that’s at all clubs not just ours.
As far as I can see nowts changed from all the transfer windows.
We get linked to loads of players and generally only buy 2 to 3 players and sell the same amount.
It’s bang on track for the same this window.
I don’t understand how anyone thinks differently at this stage.
Would like your views;
I’ve just found some of grandad Kellets incontinence trunks in the cupboard and I’ve tested them oot.
I tell you what like, I must save at least 10 trips per day going to the toilet.
My concern is that I’m finding it a bit of a turn on knowing I’ve lagged my pants whilst talking to people. Is this normal?
Has anyone else tried this and if so, did they find it a turn on?
Just gone onto wiki and checked out the French and Dutch squads…
It’s hilarious how lazy the UK journalists are tbh.
Do yourselves a favour and check it out.
Look at the players aged 26 and below who arnt already established superstars and you will find every player we have been linked to over the past 18 months.
These supposed “bids” are probably bullshit too.
Remember we had a chopper warmed up to negotiate with Ruiz on deadline day that the player himself knew nothing about. Yet the press reporter he had “chosen” Fulham.
The bids for NZogbia, Michael Johnson, Gervinho, Gameiro, De Jong. How many of these did actually take place and how many were just used to deflect attention away from our genuine targets?
Richie – I have agreed to disagree with JonR and it looks like we are going to have to call it a stalemate too buddy.
We shall see how things pan out and what squad we start the season with.
Fucking gutted about Tiote going to Chelsea today though
I’ve heard this point been mentioned a few times on here about suspicion that our buying policy has been found out.
Drivel in my opinion.
Nothing has changed at all. We price a player and won’t haggle over a price we don’t agree with. It’s take it or leave it and the selling club has a choice.
It’s happened in every transfer window since Ashley changed his transfer policy about 3 seasons ago.
Strange why people are suggesting differently.
I like the current policy and it has served us very well. What’s the alternative? Simply identifying a player and paying the selling club at whatever rate they value their player at? Seems crazy to me. Just cuz Liverpool is dumb enough to do it doesn’t mean we should.
Im waiting for one of you to respond with a decent argument that our policy has been sussed out.
Sharpy
Looks like we’ve all agreed to disagree with you
Wow! Not a taker?
That was easy.
Sharpy…I don’t deny we need players, my issue is with the fact that every window people say our transfers take ages and other clubs do it quickly, it’s utter rubbish. Some are long drawn out affairs like Fabregas, Ronaldo etc, some are out the blue like Cisse
and others are in between like Vertonghen, who incidentally Spurs were chasing prior to the January window 
. These deals are worth millions and are complex contracts, Newcastle ones seem to us like they take forever as we read every word written about them, we don’t do that with other clubs buys which maybe makes them seem to be done quicker.
Anyhoo…as you say, we’ll both just agree to agree with me and leave it at that
@Richie
It’s your lucky day cos I agree with you.
We kna the craic like.
@98. I have to agree. Fact is we have no idea how long most transfers take at other clubs. They could be talking with a club about a player for months or even years before a transfer goes through. I would guess that very few transfers are “quick” except for instances of relase clauses or in panic buys at the end of windows when clubs pay well above the odds for a player.
We simply don’t have the revenues of the Mancs, Chelsea, Arsenal, LPool or even Spurs. If we want to compete with those clubs, we need to find good deals. We can’t just pay a club at whatever price they demand.
Troy…I’m honoured and will walk around with a smile like a Cheshire cat for at least 1 week
Sharpy,
You also say the Tiote deal was quick. However, Carr admitted to tracking him for years prior to is making am offer.
Had the press noticed that that would have had us linked to him for ever.
This notion of us being “found out” is pretty stupid in my view. You think that another club has a player on there books for 2-3 years, then we come along and suddenly they think ‘oh hang on a minute this guy must be really good!’…?! If they have coached him, managed him, chatted with him, watched him play every week, THEY ALREADY KNOW IF HE’S GOOD OR NOT. They will value him according to there own opinion, just like they always have!!!!!!!!!!!! If our two valuations intersect then we will get him, otherwise we won’t!
Well it looks like you’ve got yasel a right little fan club going on today Richie haven’t ya lad?!
Sharpy…It’s my 15 minutes mate, let me enjoy it
…new thread 
JJ – I’m talking about the transfer negotiating process, not how long we have been scouting them for. That said, I haven’t mentioned anything about the length of time it took to sort the Tiote deal out
@Gav
I couldn’t agree more! The toon aren’t doing anything at all that other clubs like Arsenal and Everton have done for years.
Very strange why some think we are doing something no other club hasn’t done before.
@Gav you took the words out of my mouth. I was just about to say;
This notion of us being “found out” is pretty stupid in my view. You think that another club has a player on there books for 2-3 years, then we come along and suddenly they think ‘oh hang on a minute this guy must be really good!’…?! If they have coached him, managed him, chatted with him, watched him play every week, THEY ALREADY KNOW IF HE’S GOOD OR NOT. They will value him according to there own opinion, just like they always have!!!!!!!!!!!! If our two valuations intersect then we will get him, otherwise we won’t!
I think its just a trend with teams now to play hardball over a transfer fee. The PL has seen what the Carroll has done for us and equally what it’s done for liverpool, and the rest of Europe have taken note.
The only clubs that will probably sell for the sake of it without too much hassle are Man city, Barca and Real
Gav@103 ,it’s not a case of clubs not knowing if a player on their books is any good ,obviously it goes without saying they know and to say that’s what people are saying is wrong. What is being said is that because they have seen us make big profit or potential profit is they are reavaluating their players to a higher market value . Being good or crap doesn’t come into the equation really . look at the value of Cabaye and Tiote and Ben Arfa now .Presumably the clubs all knew how good they were but we got all 3 relatively cheaply .Twente are a classic example of seeing what we have been doing ,hence the silly price of £16m quoted /reported , when previously they agreed £11m with BMG ,even the player himself has spoken out on the fee being inflated. Lille have seen us profit on the deal for Cabaye and are now playing hardball over Debuchy ,not helped by his showing at the Euros I’ll agree ,yet they were playing hardball prior to the Euros. I don’t think we can be daft enough to think clubs arn’t wise to us ,bloody hell it’s been cited enough in the press about our astute transfer policy. I’m not advocating we pay any old fee ,I’m just saying that things are a lot harder for us now.
Troy@95 I refer you to the above
Kim – you make it sound like this is some sort of new phenomenon. “Good player goes to the Premier League, plays well, is worth 3-4 times what they were sold for”. It’s been happening for quite a while
The question is always “how good is the player”. If the selling club thinks they are good enough for the PL, then they inflate their fee. THIS IS NOT NEW!!! Now, with that in mind, the question is whether us coming in for the player is going to make them re-evaluate how good their player is. I think I expressed my views on that in my previous post 
Gav ,but that is the point , they are now asking more wether the player is gonna cut it in the PL or not . Idon’t quite see the point you are making really . Yes players have always come in and played well and increased in value ,that’s a given ,I’m not disputing that .What I’m saying is we now have a reputation of excellent scouting and having a good idea who we can bring on as it were to become good PL players.Now it’s possible that some previous aqusitions were not perceived as possible high PL standard and so were let go at a reasonable price by their clubs. Those same clubs will have noted what these players have acheived and will now want a higher fee for any other players we enquire after. Do we honestly think we can go back to the same clubs and pick up a bargain ? .
@kimtoon
Utter rubbish IMO.
This same comment seems to be coming up a lot. Most of the essentials have been covered above, but to summarise:
1. The transfer window has just opened. It is far too soon to judge.
2. The signing of Cisse wasn’t that cheap, and took two transfer windows to accomplish, but it happened at a good price.
3. The club’s treatment of Ben Arfa was very well-received among French players, and I suspect had an influence on professionals at large. See also the patient approach with Joey Barton and, to a lesser extent, Nile Ranger. NUFC is somewhere footballers want to work, and their current employers can only do so much to hinder a move.
Troy@113 That’s fine , but I beg to differ and i’m not the only one,take a gander if you get the chance.
http://wwwfootball365.com/newcastle-united/7884676/Targ
@115 TROY ,It’s not coming up as same article for some reason
will try and get it up .
Troy it keeps coming up as Sportsbook
Defo put it up right..Anyway it’s on todays newsnow list titled ,Targets giving Toon headache ,pretty much says our transfer policy has made us a victim of our own success. 
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