Can you really knock our transfer policy?

toonsy

All is well with our transfer policy
I’ve been trawling various NUFC websites and forums throughout January, just to see what people are saying more than anything.

One of the things that has struck me though is just how many people seem to not get what our transfer policy is all about.

It occurred to me when I read a whole bunch of comments regarding Alex and a proposed move to QPR – a move which has since collapsed by the way with the player and QPR unable to reach an agreement. Basically there was a fair few people saying that we should go for him, even though it would go against every rule in our transfer book.

Why? Well for a start he is 29 now and will be 30 in the summer. We generally don’t sign players over the age of 26. When the only real exception to the rule is Shefki Kuqi you can see that we generally stick to the age profile.

Then there are wage demands. High wages at the kind of level which Chelsea pay will not be tolerated and will scupper any deal before it even gets out of the starting blocks. Of course there is a chance that the player could drop their demands, but in the modern game there aren’t many professionals who would do such a thing.

Then there is the price. Now I personally feel that this is less of an issue. If the player is worth it we will pay the cash required to secure a deal, but if the fee starts to become unreasonable then you can forget it. £10m for Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace? Forget it… A bit of research goes a long way and it’s why we’ve uncovered players like Yohan Cabaye who we picked up for a fraction of his true worth thanks to a release clause in his contract.

The vast majority of deals we conclude will fit all three of these criteria. On occasion we may skip one, but in general all three of the boxes must be ticked for a deal to go ahead. To be honest, you can’t really knock it can you?

I mean you just have to look at the players we’ve brought in to see that, somewhat against the odds in a mad football world, our policy is actually working. Cheik Tiote, Hatem Ben Arfa, Davide Santon, Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux, Papiss Demba Cisse, and Demba Ba all fit the profile, and that is the majority of our first team!

My only real bone of contention regarding our policy is the keeping hold of our players part. If we can sort that then I really don’t think it can be criticised at all, but even then we seem to have a canny knack of losing a player and replacing him with a player of equal or better quality.

It’s quite mad really!

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.

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162 thoughts on “Can you really knock our transfer policy?”

  1. WTF Senegal are getting beat again! Bet Fashley slipped the Demba’s a cheeky back hander to throw the tourno…

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  8. Solano’s…..If Liverpool finished 7th and won the cup, then it would still only be the top 5 guaranteed Europe tho wouldn’t it?….unless the Fa cup winners qualify via their league position…or am I missing something?

    Get in there 😆

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  17. worst thing about Liverpool winning is that it reduces europa cup place as they’re likely to finish outside top 6

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  20. Get that full back signed up!!!

    They’re coming home Newcastle!!

    Seriously though, hope that doesn’t effect Ba and Cisse too badly

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  23. Tried looking into it Richie and this is what I think:

    Normal:
    1st
    2nd
    3rd
    4th
    5th

    All get European football guaranteed,

    1) If a team that has already in the top 5 win the League Cup than 6th place gets Uefa. (Nothing happens for the runner up.

    2) If a team already in the top 6 win the FA Cup, than the Runners Up get Uefa.
    HOWEVER if both teams are already in the top 6 than it goes to 7th place in the league.

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  29. lee_ryder Lee Ryder
    Cisse and Ba set to fly back on Monday and could even play at #blackburn next week! #nufc

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  30. army 69
    they’ve still got Libya to play 🙁 its not knock-out round yet, still in group stages, so won’t be back till next week, they may make it for the b’burn game (forth of the season 👿 )

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  34. army69
    from earlier post, made it sound like you thought they were playing in FA cup match on saturday, but you just meant they’ll be back, my bad 😉 :mrgreen:

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  36. @toonsey . yeh we have brought in some quality but we have also brought in some pap xisco kuqi gonzoles campbell , and as you have mentioned in your article retention is still a problem with the loss of nolan caroll jose milner !
    This is just the start of something after a lot of years of rubbish and it could continue to develop or if better players leave and the scouts cant repeat there good work every season then it could end up in tatters , i hope it continues to develop as im sure every one above does but like many fans i have huge reservations about our board ! 😉

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  37. Solano’s….I bet that made your head hurt 😉 I’ll settle for us qualifying by winning the FA cup :mrgreen:

    The youtube vid with me on at Boro away has been posted on RTG……not sure whether to be proud or ashamed 😆

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  38. Batty
    ya annoying ****** (jks) none of us had thought of it that way, **** you ❗ ❗ lol

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  45. i doubt we will play the 2 dembas until villa on the sunday – i reckin blackburn might be a wee bit to early if they get back monday , tuesday

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  46. Theres a report in the Daily Mirror that Newcastle are after Dutch international winger Eljero Elia on loan.

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  51. For the Elia thing, its a loan deal being reported, but suppose we may be able to buy at the end of the season, should throw in obertan as part of the deal lol. :mrgreen: To be honest though, gabby will just be back-up for a while though with benny showing his stuff. 😎

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  55. DJG
    not as bothered about tiote as I think we can cope without him more than decent strikers, I know, I know we’ve let in a bazillion goals without him but our front two felt utterly hopeless at the weekend and as the saying goes, a good offence is the best defence. :mrgreen:

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  58. sorry half what i wrote missing.

    if they can’t score at the ACON what makes anybody think they can score for us??

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  60. Premandup
    aye we may as well sell Ba, he’s **** as he couldn’t score for senegal in stupid tournament on an absolutely terrible playing surface. :mrgreen:

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  61. jesus, where is everyone? i’m having a conversation with meeself here 😆 well at least its an intelligent conversation 😆

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  62. That’s what the scum are laughing at that they must be ***** ‘cos they havn’t scored……they seem to have forgotten Ba’s 15 goals already 😆

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  63. richietoon
    hope some witty remark has been made about Gyan, oportunity lost if not. Only ever in knowledge have I ever met a mackem, it was Simon Pride (think that’s how you spell it, known one spelt pryde) from bbc newcastle and he seemed a nice intelligent bloke so don’t have a proper opinion of them.

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  66. do other people find it a little bit irritating when they say a newcastle or sunderland v middlesborough is a derby, it isn’t they’re in different counties. rrr 👿 :mrgreen:

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  67. Andy..not by me, can’t be arsed starting another email addy up cos they keep blocking them…..nae sense of humour, they can’t take a bit hate filled abuse 😆

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  69. DJG…. 😆

    The mackems are so sure they’ll win, they were on about how many Wembley tickets they’d get the other day 🙄

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  70. andymag (scot toon)

    I know what you mean, you could say Hull or Leeds is their derby but they are still actually closer to us. A derby is really two clubs that play in the same town/city or even the same stadium like Milan. So we are more of a rivalry with Sunderland, (even though some people will pull me across hot coals for saying that) 🙂

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  71. Andy when I started going to the live games, Carlisle was classed by some as a “derby” game 😕 used to get them Boxing day or New years day, which is when ya often used to play derbies then.

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  72. Years of investigation and all they have on Redknapp is a couple of hundred grand? In the grand scheme of things taking into account how much money these people earn, the above figures are a pittance and hardly worth taking the risk for. Not guilty!

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  74. 2 / which teams are you dreaming to play?
    There are several teams where I’d like to play, but there are mainly three of them that make me dream:
    – Bayern Munich
    – Chelsea
    – Arsenal

    – Questions asked of Demba Ba before he came to England. Makes you wonder if one of those sides does make a decent bid, will he still want to stay?

    All if, buts & maybe’s and a pointless post – as he was not to know he would be coming here and his opinion has probably changed, especially now Cisse is here and he can see our potential.

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  75. Craig Bellamy was awesome last night. He’s as influential for Liverpool as he was for SBR’s team.
    He’s good enough to play for Barca on that form.

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