Could signing this player on a free pay dividends?

Shearer’s Right Foot explains why ex-Everton defender Sylvain Distin could be a shrewd signing this summer.

With the transfer window now open and Rafa Benitez declaring ‘good progress’ on the transfer front as he looks to assemble a team worthy of both securing promotion and building for a premier league future, Newcastle may not have to spend millions to achieve their goals.

Rafa seems to have seen enough in a number of Newcastle’s current squad in the final few weeks of the season to keep the bulk of the squad together. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see eight or nine of the players who were in the squad that thrashed Spurs on the final day of the season, to line up on the opening day in the Championship. Rafa remains defiant that he is under no pressure to sell any players, although some of the international footballers may express I desire to develop their careers elsewhere.

The positive news for Newcastle though is that they seem to be in quite a strong position considering they have just been relegated. Usually recently relegated clubs are forced to sell their best players, often at a reduced transfer fee, as the club is forced to balance the books and reshape their squad with players more accustomed to playing in a lower division. You get the feeling that Newcastle, under Benitez, are not so vulnerable.

Benitez appears to be in a position where he can move on the players he thinks he should for the overall growth of the club. There can be many variables for allowing certain players to leave. It may be that a bid may come in that really can’t be turned down, like the one for Andy Carroll for instance. Newcastle could well receive one of those for Gini or Sissoko, not many others could demand a mouth-watering fee. It might be that the player declares an intent to leave and Rafa won’t want players who don’t want to pull on the black & white stripes…it’s supposed to be a privilege. Then there are the players who he deems not to be in the long term plan, and that’s what Benitez has don’t forget.

But for all the players who may and may not leave this summer, most fans are interested and excited by the ones who may come in. And where Benitez has a huge network to call upon in terms of contacts all over Europe, he may not actually need to spend that much money.

Silvan Distin is out of contract this summer and could be just the kind of shrewd signing Benitez makes.

This may surprise some but consider this; With Taylor gone and Colo expected to follow, most fans would be delighted to see United start with a centre back pairing of Mbemba and Lascelles. That is a partnership which could flourish beautifully in the Championship and continue for years in the Premier League.

Signing Distin would give the two young Magpies a wonderful mentor and provide not only back up to the squad but experience, influence and advice to the young defenders. He’s played for the club before and, despite his years, he would easily cope physically in the second tier for a limited number of games.

For too long Newcastle’s recruitment has been inefficient. Hopefully under Rafa’s control, it will be far more effective.

39 thoughts on “Could signing this player on a free pay dividends?

  1. Sorry. Not sure why an injury ravaged 38 year old is a good move. He’s also only spent 1 season in the Championship as far as I know? We’d have been better off keeping Tayls than signing Distin in my opinion.

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  2. Sorry SRF, but I’m a mind to agree with TDS on this one. Whilst we need experience I do think 38 is a bit too old tbh. He was only with us a year but was a good player, he didn’t want to stay after the loan spell though. I get the impression he gets bored after a while as he’s had a few clubs now.

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  3. re- Our previous Ronaldo chat on last thread

    FourFourTweet
    ‏@FourFourTweet
    Arnason: “Hes not a gracious human being. His comments are the reason why Messi will always be one step ahead.” #ISL

    meow 😆

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  4. Are UEFA just completely nuts? Having Albanians flood into Marseille who each have notorious gangs is just asking for trouble. I hope it goes smoothly but there were so many other options.

    Maybe they planned it this way as they didn’t want the Russians or Albanians in any of their more picturesque and calm cities?

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  5. Ahhhhh! Sylvain Distain? The man’s about 75 years old! No! The answer is no!!!!

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  6. I think Newcastle are in a fantastic position as if we keep the players mentioned – Gini, Sissoko, Janmaat, Krul – we will walk the division and if they force their way out we will get a lot of money to reinvest. Haven’t they said Rafa can have the cash from player sales and for those 4 it would come close to 50 million. What other club in The Championship has anywhere near that budget?

    The other thing to understand is that with the PL awash with cash we will get very good prices. Rafa can then replace them with a few experienced pros and some imports. He is supposed to have a vast network of contacts. We should be able to sell expensively and buy relatively cheaply. And, we are not going to need the same quality of player in the Championship, just enough to guarantee promotion.

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  7. Have you lot tried the Ukrainian sausage kolbassa? Just roast it for 30 minutes in the oven, then slice it up and eat it with cold beer and cheese…. Mmmmmm.

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  8. Kimtoon:
    TDS, I’d rather have Distin than Taylor mate.

    Id rather have Willo over both of them?

    Does anyone think we could beat Slovakia ?

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  9. Gashley, Well, Wales beat Slovakia who beat Russia who we couldn’t beat so probably not mate.

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  10. England were unlucky against Russia and Mr. Roy made the wrong subs. He was trying to defend a lead against a team that were offering no attacking threat. He invited them back into it and might have got what he (not we) deserved. It was always like a Pards gameplan.

    See, I can bring everything back to Pards 🙂

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  11. According to Sky Sports News there has been a group of England fans working themselves in Lille most of the day. The police have had to use pepper spray & tear gas to control them & move them on from where they aren’t wanted – the train station where they went looking for Russian fans.

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  12. No thank you Distan

    KIM what’s that Flint like at B/City he’s 6′ 6″ and knows the lge??

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  13. Ice – I’d like us to look at 2 of Chelsea CBs – Tomas Kalas & Michael Hector.

    Kalas spent last season on loan with Boro & had a very solid season for them, playing about 30 games. He’s 23 now and had loan spells in Holland & Germany before that so has a lot of experience for a young lad. Next year will be his last of his current contract.

    Hector was a player Chelsea bought from Reading then loaned him back to them. He went on to play 30 plus games for them as well. He’s more of a footballer than Kalas, who is a physical presence. Hector is contracted til 2020 so I’d probably consider a loan of him as I think there would be better options for the money Chelsea would likely want for him.

    Chelsea already have Cahill, Zouma, Ivanovic and Terry at CB – and I reckon Conte will want to buy his own players to go in there.
    So I reckon both could be realistic option. Maybe £3-5m for Kalas I reckon would get him or a loan deal for Hector. But either would be good options with experience of that league.

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  14. Kim

    The article talks about Distin being able to offer experience and advice to the younger players as well as providing backup in the squad. Both Distin and Tayls had lots of injury issues last season. So on the basis that Tayls has plenty of experience of Newcastle and our club, that’s why I’d rather have him than Distin. I’d rather we had better options on the pitch than both though.

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  15. Icedog:
    No thank you Distan

    KIM what’s that Flint like at B/City he’s 6′ 6″ and knows the lge??

    He’s a good player mate, Scum were after him, wanted to do a player plus cash deal. City fans went mental at prospect of him leaving.

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  16. I think James Collins would be a great option as that experienced CB. The only problem is that he’s still got a year left on his WH contract & is now 32. The hammers will likely keep him as a back up squad player next year – but if the hammers would take 500k for him then I’d buy him.

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  17. Cheers KIM well Sam knows defenders like so must be ok

    SHARPY aye some canny players at Chelsea not getting game time but Ime not a lover of loan deals

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  18. Icedog:
    Cheers KIM well Sam knows defenders like so must be ok

    SHARPY aye some canny players at Chelsea not getting game time but Ime not a lover of loan deals

    Ice – likewise mate, but if it was the right player & the right circumstances then I wouldn’t mind. We haven’t often got the right player on loan – with that Argie kid last year & Dombia this year. But I do think we loaned a good player in Luuk De Jong (we just didn’t play to his strengths) and we all saw what Remy did for us.
    I would prefer to buy though & develop the players under Rafa to build a strong squad to take back to the PL.

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  19. Ha, thought I might be on my own with this one. Thank you all for disagreeing so politely as apposed to; ‘has relegation melted your once quite rational seeming mind SRF?’ I know that Rafa won’t be signing Distin, he will have other targets in mind. My main point really was that there are players that could offer a number of roles at Newcastle next season and Rafa will look at creating a far more balanced squad than we have had before, and it doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

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  20. SRF, I would take him straight away. Ok, not going to play every game, but he is there as backup, somebody who has been decent in the past and great backup for us. As has been said, could provide training and guidance for our younger players. We should be looking to bring some in at end of their careers who could maybe have a season or bits of it, but get their coaching badges and help the team out behind the scenes. When he is free and only going to cost wages, not a lot to loose

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  21. SRF – like I say mate, I think you make a good point with a poor example in Distin. Maybe Toure or Enrique for defence or Nick Powell and Robson-Kanu in midfield.
    Nick Powell in particular I’m amazed hasn’t done better but I think he got lost in the Man Utd machine & never got a real chance. That lad is talented & could flourish under Rafa I reckon.

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  22. What I do want to see is us spend good money on replacing Saylor and Colo (hopefully). If we get rid of Cisse, Riviere and Gouffran – I want to see us spend good money on 1 decent forward. I say 1 because I still want to see Mitrovic, Perez, Armstrong & Toney being developed.

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  23. A more experienced striker who likes working with younger players would be ideal for us Sharpy. Somebody around 30 with lots of nous.

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  24. If we go for somebody at the end of their prime years we may be able to do the business for a reasonable fee. It seems McCormack’s fee is around 15M? Too much I would think.

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  25. G2 – I was thinking more 26/27 so we can get a good few years out of them. By which time our younger strikers will be mid 20’s and hitting their prime.

    I was looking at Leigh Griffiths record for Celtic the other day – 52 goals in 72 games & he’s only 25.
    I know the Scottish league is tin pot like, but that’s a hell of a record and he did ok when he was at Wolves as well – 12 in 26 for them. The lad is a goal scorer & that’s what we are missing at the moment.
    I’m just not 100% sure he’s the right one for us.

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  26. Dwight Gayle is another who I think could do a good job for us – also 25 so we’d get a good few seasons from him to. I don’t think he’s the natural finisher Griffiths is though.

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  27. France looking good this time around. Deschamps has called it eight dropping a few big names in krser to get the right characters and build a togetherness in the squad.

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  28. Looks like our hooligans had another busy night last night. 36 arrested in Lille with riot police spending the day trying to control the England ‘fans’.

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  29. I see the Chinese want to buy Liverpool for £700m as well!!.

    The toon would cost less than half that man!!.

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  30. Didn’t we try this before when we signed his former team mate Sol Campbell at the end of his career? He had a fat belly and was slower than Coloccini. 😛 I would go for someone like Lewis Dunk, or Daniel Ayala if Boro hadn’t been promoted.

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