Now there has been some speculation that we have as much as £100m available to spend over the next couple of windows. A quick read of the quote from our manager that prompted this speculation clearly shows that there is no such commitment. Our MD has said that the club will continue to invest, but that’s not exactly the same promise. So why even bother with this article? Good Question and one that I will therefore totally ignore. That being the standard response on this blog.
So to the point. At last. If we did have a £100m, which we don’t, and we were going to spend it, which we aren’t. Then when and where should we spend it? Let’s start with the when. I don’t think we plan to spend any money in January. If we look at last season at the end of December we had 26 points from 19 matches and sat 10th. If that is true this season then there is no need to spend. Mid table here we come. However, with say under 20pts we may need to strengthen as we did a couple of seasons ago. If say we had over 30pts, yes fantasy, then we may want to strengthen for a push to Europe.
So a quick look at where we are losing players due to contracts expiring. And Obviously Cisse & Taylor will be gone sooner or later. I’m assuming Tiote & Sissoko are off as well. Oh and I’m expecting 4-2-3-1.
Wanting 2 good players in each position Lets go through our potential squad.
GK Krul & Darlow. OK. RB Janmaat & ?? Well Sam Byram 21 currently at Leeds Utd and in the last year of his contract has been linked with us before. At LB We have Haidara and have been linked with Jetro Williams 21 at Rotterdam. CB we have Mbemba,Colo, Lescalles & Dummett and have been linked with Joel Matip 24 currently in the last year of his contract at Shalke.
Defensive mids we have Gini. Anita & Colback. Apparently we have been linked with Ganit Xhaka 22 who started for Switzerland last night. But he is on a long term contract with Borussia Monchengladbach and valued at around £15m so I might presume that his club collegue Havard Nordtveit 25 who is in the last year of his contract may be considered instead. Wide players we have Thauvin & Aarons. Two more needed. Andre Carrillo 24 Peruvian international in the last year of his contract at Sporting Lisbon, and of course my favorite Dominic Berardi 21 who although has just signed for Sassuolo having spent last year on loan there from Juventus I think still has the potential to play in the EPL.
In the second striker attacking midfield playmaker position we have SDJ & Perez so that’s OK. Up front we have Mitrovich. I’ve suggested Robert Beric 24 currently at St Etienne having moved there for just under £4m this summer from Rapid Vienna. Lets see how he gets on.
So whilst I don’t necessarily see the need for any business happening in January there are several players there whose contracts are coming up next summer that may either come in January or sign pre-contract agreements. Sam Byram, Joel Matip, Havard Nordtveit, Andre Carrillo. The others, Jetro Williams, Dominic Berardi & Robert Beric will wait. And that lot would cost a lot less than £100m. Of course there are many other players out there, and I’m sure you all have your preferences.
Who would you spend the clubs money on?
CC – I could live with that line up mate. But I’d prefer to move Sissoko back to make a 3 man midfield and swap SDJ with Perez or Aarons on that right side – so it was more of a 4-3-3 type formation.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Troy, it’s been reported Austin did indeed want to come here but we simply wouldn’t pay £15m for a proven PL goalscorer. instead we lay out £13m was it ?on Mitro as he has good sale on value. 🙄 This shows nowt has changed, only the coaching set up has changed not our buying strategy .
Austin turned down Leicester not us, I think.
kimtoon(Quote)
Troysta: since your source was the hot dog man, can you tell me exactly what was in those hot dogs and especially the sauce. Any brand you bought at Tescos tasted nothing like it, it was their own toxic nuclear blend I think. I couldn’t even find any trace of tomato flavour in it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Kimtoon: with Leicester’s good start, I wonder if Austin will change his mind. However, there are always a couple of teams that punch above their weight in the early season and then come back down to earth. Remember Blackpool even did it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, yeah the table looks very odd at the moment with the exception of City Manure and Arsenal and the latter two have been bang average imo, can’t believe they are that high up the table.
kimtoon(Quote)
Eric, The Austin thing will depend on if he signs a new contract with QPR. I can’t believe they will let him run down his contract, that’s madness. He could go for a price in jan I suppose, but would we get him if he’s cheaper? unlikely .
kimtoon(Quote)
There is no-way Austin will sign a new contract. He already thought 15mil was too much. He owes QPR no favours. He’ll go for 8-10 mill in Jan or free in the summer
Gashley(Quote)
QPR might ask him to sign but he won’t risk getting a big signing on fee and better wages.
Either QPR have been very silly thinking someone will eventually buy him @15mill or Sharpy is right with the insurance line. Either way, qpr didn’t handle it very well
Gashley(Quote)
Catching up with what’s what on the thread, and what strikes me most about comments is that people still believe what they read in the papers is true.
I despair for the world, I really do.
I watched the first half hour of the Sunderland game last night. When I woke up the game had been finished for an hour. Awful. Simply awful. Two of the worst sides I’ve see so far this season. Spurs for relegation – wouldn’t that be wonderful?
brisvgas(Quote)
BrisV: The Austin talk is not paper talk it is direct quotes from McClaren:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/13/newcastle-united-charlie-austin-qpr?
I watched the Sunderland – Spurs game as well and it was terrible, and Liverpool have been terrible as well. It must have something to do with trying to integrate all of the new players and will be a problem that I am sure we will face. Actually, Liverpool’s style is about the opposite to what Brendan says he wants to play so I think it is his BS that is hurting them at the minute. I mean, he tells Carroll he has no place in the team and then buys Benteke and says the same to Henderson and makes him captain 2 years later.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That Guardian article also says QPR reduced the price at the 11th Hour to 12 mil. Isn’t that supposed to have been our top end valuation? If so why didn’t we pay it? We could definitely do with him now and we all knew we had a very tough start to the season. Just goes to show we are still on a Bargain Hunt and maybe should get that guy with the too tight suits (David Dickenson) as our MD?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
WOW 😆 😆 Gashley really tore Troy a new one!! 😆 😆
Just like the little dog that pisses all over the place when it gets excited, Troy is so keen to press his one and only point, that he totally ignores all the points of others…. The fact remains that a 20m dollar player can flop as easily as a 5m dollar player, so spending money just because you have it, is folly. And it is even more moronic to sit there and suggest that someone should spend 25m dollars, when there is absolutely no finacial risk to the person calling for the spending. Tell me Troy, do you have any savings in your bank account, or do you just spend it all, if it is there to spend? I think you would save some cash for a rainy day! 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Eric: I wasn’t actually thinking of the Austin talk in particular, but since you mention it and even give a source – where’s the quote? All I can see is a quote about him being on the radar.
I’m not going to go back through and find the comments that I was actually responding to. Something about not buying players because they had no resale profit. Thought bubbles portrayed as truth. Much like supposition portrayed as fact, as in the Guardian example.
brisvgas(Quote)
BrisV: it is not worth having a big argument about it but I think that McClaren is pretty clear that we were interested in Austin and still are. This is one of the few times when there is an admission that we are tracking a player. Usually it is supposition and paper talk, in this case it has been verified by McClaren and is all over the papers and even the American Sports Channels (NBC, ESPN) are carrying this story.
The Guardian added their own bit that QPR had reduced their asking price and give nothing to back this up so I know exactly where you are coming from about paper talk.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We have a great record recently at Upton Park while West Ham have been terrible at home – need to go out and grab three points and start the season properly!
Newkie(Quote)
As long as AC don’t come back to haunt us, that really would be a pisser.
kimtoon(Quote)
Aussie, I think the point is that for £15m or less if reports are true we could of had a proven PL scorer in Austin but for £13m we have Mitrovic who although looks like he could be good, equally is unproven and right now a red card waiting to happen. Of course, should he shine no doubt we’ll make a tidy profit on him at some point. It still remains a gamble though as our lack of goals is still a big worry. I don’t understand why we never go for British players unless they are out of contract .
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim – But Austin must have been see as a bigger gamble again though as nobody saw fit to snap up a proven PL goal scorer for £15m or less.
A lot of PL teams strengthened in the CF position in the summer, and all avoided Austin. That suggests to me it was more than just us trying to run the price down.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim, sorry but Austin has nothing to do with what I was saying or what Troy was saying (originally). He is saying if you have 100m, just spend it all… the Austin asking price was a joke! I said this when the amount was first mentioned and was shouted down with “we should just pay what they ask”. Nobody got Austin because he is a player in his last year of contract and the 15m amount was laughable. Still some will call for us to spend all our money, no matter how stupid the deal is!! 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
If Austin keeps a team in the league with his goals it’s £15m well spent compared to the losses incurred with relegation. Our we confident we’ll score enough goals to avoid a relegation battle?
kimtoon(Quote)
Are
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim, his goals didn’t keep QPR in the PL 😉 … I think SM, is making sure we are defensively tighter first and foremost, so hopefully the attacking intent will follow suit.. We leaked way too many goals to not concentrate on this area of the park as a matter of priority!!
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie, we are better than QPR so he’d have better players around him. I agree about the defence, I wanted that sorted before a forward came in, I am still unconvinced we have addressed it well enough though.
kimtoon(Quote)
Would love a win tonight but can’t see it. I worry about the new young players, it’s a lot to take in and then perform well. I’d be happy with 1-1.
georgio(Quote)
Aussie – How’s the Fantasy football team doing this week boyo ❓
Newkie(Quote)
Wow! 😯
Aussie misses the point for a hatrick 😆
Give him the match ball.
I take it you never read my posts then Aussie, where I repeat that there’s no guarantee that spending money guarantees success. ?
My only point with you, is you constantly complain about others who mention war chests and how much we should spend.
I will ask you again, because you asked me this:
Troy if we bought all the players we needed and we had 25m left in the bank, would you really care?
Why wouldn’t I care?
Surely you don’t think we have all the players we need?
Would you not want the club to spend the money wisely and strengthen the squad?
Don’t change the subject and just clarify why you wouldn’t care?
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Kim
If sooner play Cisse, Perez or Mitrovic than Austin. we haven’t had a lot of threat in the last three matches for different reasons but with Wijnaldum, Thauvin, Sissoko, De Jong, Aarons, Marveaux Colback (Who creates a lot more chances than people give him credit for) & attacking full backs we will start scoring soon enough.
I reckon by January we’ll be more interested in tying up deals for Byram, Matip & Willems than Austin
CC(Quote)
SM has confirmed we’ll be after Austin again. Nowt to do with us being tight, more 15mil was too much
Gashley(Quote)
Funny, Lee Ryder was asked about Austin and us by a West Ham blog and he felt £15m would be ok if his goals helped us reach 10th or higher.
See his Q&A on the Blog here. http://www.ironviews.com/eye-on-the-enemy-newcastle-2/
kimtoon(Quote)
CC, Mitrovic worries me mate, reckon he could be a good player but he has to calm down to be of real benefit to us.
kimtoon(Quote)
he’s enthusiastic and has made some rash decisions but I thought he showed at old Trafford a glimpse of why we bought him
I personally think we will improve in the coming weeks & he will come back into a more confident relaxed side which hopefully rubs off on him
CC(Quote)
I’m hoping anyway
CC(Quote)