Is our transfer policy in danger of hitting the buffers?

The end of the line for our transfer policy?
Is our transfer policy in danger of becoming redundant, and have we been found out when it comes to our transfer market dealings?

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!

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.

117 thoughts on “Is our transfer policy in danger of hitting the buffers?

  1. 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.. 🙂

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  2. Richie,
    I do believe Aussie has been picking on you on your day off?… Surely a fine is in order 😉

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  3. 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.

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  4. What’s the difference between a defender and a fullback, JJ ? 🙂

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  5. 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.

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  6. JJ..it’s just a sign of his low self esteem so out of pity I leave him to it 😉

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  7. 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.

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  8. Sharpy, its early days mate.. don’t go stressing just yet… 🙂

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  9. 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

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  10. 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

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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. 😯

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  13. 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? 😯

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  14. 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?

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  15. 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

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  16. 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.

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  17. 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.

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  18. Im waiting for one of you to respond with a decent argument that our policy has been sussed out. 😯

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  19. 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 😉 :mrgreen:

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  20. @Richie

    It’s your lucky day cos I agree with you. 😉
    We kna the craic like. 😉

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  21. @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.

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  22. Troy…I’m honoured and will walk around with a smile like a Cheshire cat for at least 1 week :mrgreen:

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  23. 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.

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  24. 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!

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  25. Well it looks like you’ve got yasel a right little fan club going on today Richie haven’t ya lad?! 🙄

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  26. Sharpy…It’s my 15 minutes mate, let me enjoy it 😉 …new thread ➡ ➡ ➡

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  27. 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 😕

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  28. @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. 🙄

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  29. @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!

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  30. 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

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  31. 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 **** 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 😉

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  32. 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 😉

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  33. 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 ? . 😉

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  34. 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.

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  35. @115 TROY ,It’s not coming up as same article for some reason 😕 will try and get it up .

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  36. 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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