On the positive side we didn’t lose any of our key players thus keeping hold of Yohan Cabaye who will no doubt be “like a new signing” in the coming days.
All we have to show for our endless scouting missions, our protracted negotiations and all the waffle that goes along with it is a loan signing from a relegated club who we don’t even have an option to buy at the end of the deal according to reports. It’s not great is it?
There is a new TV deal in place, a deal so lucrative it ensures that even the bottom club in the Premier League will pocket more than Manchester United did for winning the league last season. We have a sponsorship deal in place which, despite the controversial nature of it’s business, apparently “allow us to buy a new player each year” according to Derek Llambias.
So where has all the money gone?
Now don’t get me wrong. I know that the TV money is awarded in stages so it’s not like we have a £60 million pot of cash just sitting there, but it’s the same for other clubs aswell. Some of them have front-loaded the cash and put the bulk of it up themselves so they can improve now, others have spent what they wanted to with what hey have available and then there is us who have spent just £2 million.
Regardless of however people want to paint us I do think we are quite a realistic bunch. Many of us know that we won’t be spending £20 million on this or that player and to be honest that doesn’t bother me personally. However we do want to see strengthening of some description and maybe a willingness to back a Chief Scout who is noted for his eye for talent.
Here’s a difficult thought…. How about spending a bit on Carr’s recommendation and perhaps making more money back in the long run rather than outlaying the bare minimum? Speculate to accumulate if you like, only without leaving us short when the eventual injuries hit.
I’m not surprised by our transfer window at all which has probably been shown in my articles, or lack of them, about transfer links here and there. I’m not surprised we’ve signed nobody and I believe that was our plan all along.
Obviously I feel sorry for the fans as we pay our money into this club in many ways and we deserve more than having to wish for a perfect season when it comes to injuries or suspension. It was bad last season but at least we don’t have the inconvenience of the Europa League this years eh?
I feel sorry for the players who have basically been told that they are going to get no help even though they struggled last season. Can anyone blame Cabaye for wanting to be away? I bet he’s not the last one to be casting envious glances elsewhere.
I also feel sorry for Alan Pardew. Now he brings a lot of things on himself as he can’t control his mouth and no matter how hard he hops for “one or two” to be brought “over the line” the reality is that he has no say in how things like that work and just has to get on with the players he has at his disposal. I’m sure Pardew is no different to other managers who will always like to see their squad added to, unfortunately he just doesn’t get a choice about it.
So where do we go from here? I don’t know. People won’t walk with their feet, not enough to make a difference anyway and if they do it will just be reflected in the balance sheet which will then be used as a stick to beat us with and as an excuse to not spend again.
These are dark days and I only hope Ashley has failed to spend because there is something bigger going on behind the scenes, such as a sale. He’s done some great things for Newcastle like sort out the finances, but that needs to be balanced with improving the first team and on that latter score we’ve been woeful.
The end.
Whumpie ,it wouldn’t surprise me if Jabbas PR guy wrote that statement and made Pards sign it off ,or else 🙄
KIMTOON(Quote)
CC – yeah mate, at £5m I’d take Shane Long as well mate. He’s a right little grafter and his scoring record isn’t terrible either.
I’d also take Mohammad Sissoko for free as well. I know we look plentiful in centre midfield, but I think he’s better than Tiote and Jonas and Bigi has disappointed me so far.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Grim if you believe that sort of thing, Personally I have as much faith in ladbrokes predictions as I do in kevin websters ability to babysit my children.
Love how they ignore goufrans existance to push their snidey point about the ameobis…
CC(Quote)
Sharpy “Surely the 2m for Remy is dead money as he isn’t our player.”
When you buy a player you depreciate his worth over the lifetime of a contract – a 2mn loan fee is equivalent of a 10mn transfer over a 5 year deal.
If it has an option to buy is a good deal. Additional loan options may not have been considered because of wage demands etc.
Stardust(Quote)
I think what Stardust is saying is basically until Ashley has his money back we haven’t got a pot to **** in. The players market is where it is unfortunately and the value of players will keep increasing as long as PL TV money keeps increasing. The only problem NUFC have is that even though their income continues to rise they think players values stay the same. Completely false economics. In fact its unbelievable economics.
Funny thing is (and I genuinely lol at this) that Ashley accepts players values have risen when he is selling, but not when buying. Fair enough I hear some say but its not worked this time, like it didn’t work last summer and we have to spend a fortune in January when fatty realised his asset was heading for the Fizzy.
Anyway I will leave you with this: Isn’t it funny that for the past two years all we have heard from the club is how good financially it was doing, but when push came to shove the club totally contradicted itself by saying they couldn’t afford the players they’re wanted while the other financially secure clubs like Norwich, Southampton, WBA, Stoke, Villa, Swansea and West Ham (All woth debt amd a lesser turnover than us) went spending the extra TV money that came into every club in order to improve the team.
What price a little bit of ambition eh?
Stuart79(Quote)
When are you all gonna realise that the FOOL is part of the regime!
How anyone can feel sorry for this inept excuse for a manager is beyond me. GET RID………
TonyGreenSupreme(Quote)
Stuart
“The players market is where it is unfortunately and the value of players will keep increasing as long as PL TV money keeps increasing.”
Thats a big “as long as” NUFCs present model is enduring, if another clubs chairman has chuckied up the club to the max assuming that’s always going to be the case, in a time of a drop in TV revenue – there will be universal blood on the carpet.
Stardust(Quote)
TGS – therein lies the problem – I wouldnt give Parpoo another penny until he had proven he had the ability to get the players we have to play.
One more, two more 10mn players means diddley in the land of hoofball.
We have the most potential in the squad for many a year – so far has failed miserably.
Stardust(Quote)
I am disappointed we didnt bring in another striker but I dont think its the end of the world. We have a good side here. A back 5 as good as any outside the top sides, same with our midfield. We are a little light upfront but on their day the likes of Cisse can produce. I am all for our transfer policy. No point wasting money on players who arent good enough or well above our valuation. However I do think Kinnear will come out of this looking bad, there are players out there who fit our transfer policy and he failed to bring in a single one of them. But its not end of the day. I think we have a team good enough to get into top 8. Is that good enough for us? I personally dont think so. I want us to compete at the very highest level. I like Ashley but I dont think we will compete at the highest end under his tenure. I do think he is getting the club into shape for someone to buy us. Not that he will give a **** if they take us forward but he needs someone to buy us at a price where he re-coups what he put into us and a small profit. I dont think his ego will let it be any other way.
Johno Toon(Quote)
Sort of with you Johno. The fact that our club only buys the right player for the right price isn’t a bad policy to be fair. If you don’t like the options before you it is better IMO to wait until such options present themselves than to spend for the sake of it. I can’t think of any expensive “mistake” signings this regime has made which is to their credit and isn’t something you can say about many clubs. And I agree that barring signficant injuries I actually rather like the makeup of the squad at the moment.
All that being said, I do find it hard to believe that there were no “right player, right price” options out there that could have moved the club forward. A versatile attacker would have made the injury fears much less worrisome for me. For me, the scouting is lacking. We really seem to be a one trick prony with Carr in France
MDS(Quote)
JOHNO TOON,
We appear to have the nucleus of a decent starting 11, however, the FOOL consistently sets us up wrong and plays his favourites who are also out of form. We are 1 or 2 injuries away from a virtual crisis owing to lack of depth within the squad.
We can’t go into the season relying on the likes of either of the Ameobi’s, Gosling or Vukic.
Wait until the injuries/suspensions set in!!!
We are in for a long hard season.
“To mediocracy and beyond”………..
TonyGreenSupreme(Quote)
TGS. To be fair, Gosling and Vuckic are probably our 6th and 7th CM options. Any club would sruggle if they had to dig that deep. We could probably survice a couple of injuries on defense too.
The problem is in attack. Again, you might be able to lose one player (so long as that player isn’t Ben Arfa) but any more and I wouldn’t know where the goals would come from.
But as you say, none of that matters if Pards doesn’t deploy them properly.
MDS(Quote)
Ah Johno, ever the optimist. It must be that irish blood of yours. 😉 Or more likely the alcohol percentage in it..
Newkie(Quote)
http://mobile.newsnow.co.uk/A/665672280?-11058
Pardew the fucking puppet speaks!. 😆 how did I know he’d defend them. What a twonk!.
I hope Ashley saves this and uses it to sack him if we have a season like last season then.
Sharpy17(Quote)
“To mediocracy and beyond”……….. 😆
I think we have to allow some time to see what Pards’s game plan is for this season. We saw 10 minutes of it so far against Fulham and it looked pretty good.
I only saw it online, but we appear to have broadened our attacking mix considerably; still the odd long ball, but much more ‘carpet football’ and attacks coming from all angles and players. Our lack of ability to find the net (or the player to put it there) right at the end of each move let us down.
The problem is (and this is a classic case of “be careful what you wish for”) that carpet football only works if you have a very, very expensive team on the pitch, a-la-Citeh. (And even then, not always.) It’s pretty, but unless you’ve got players with 80% pass completion rates right across the field, you tend to lose a lot.
Overall, though, we need to see whether Pards can get it to work. Jury’s out, but if he does…. 😯
Whumpie(Quote)
imo our team has improved since the end of last season. So has to go down as a good window. I would have liked some more signings but what football fan in the world doesn’t.
Santii(Quote)
Ah so now I understand. The club actually has no money to spend. We are the poorest of the poor. No revenues coming in. It’s so sad. I didn’t realize things were so bad for Ashley. So was all the talk of bids for Gomis just bollocks then? We are so deep that we can’t afford any of the fantastic players that could actually improve us! That’s hilarious. So no modestly priced wingers better than Obertan are available anywhere in the world then? It just confirms what we already knew. Everything coming out of Pardew’s mouth is bollocks, not worth listening to.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
So exactly why do we need Joe? We can’t afford to buy any decent players so what is Joe going to do exactly? Or is he just with us as insurance in case we sink down the standings and Ashley panics and sacks Pardew? Then presto we have a new manager without having to pay for one (or look outside Ashley’s miniscule circle of drinking mates).
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Sidekick @96
Shola will be the impact player off the bench, he will get more game time than I thought he would at the start of the window. Well at least until January.
Andymag(Quote)
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a bigger pile of bollocks come out of Pardew’s mouth. Every other club in the Prem can afford to bid for decent players but we can’t? Pardew should hide in shame. Let Ashley say that or that other pinhead Kinnear but why you Pardew? Because you have no spine that’s why.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 if money was the sole issue why did we agree a fee for Gomis and make a large bid for PEA? And they did spend money in January which shows that they aren’t skint
I think the problem is they have a very short list of players they like and when those deals don’t come off (which happens at every club) for whatever reason they really don’t have a Plan B, C, D, etc. The scouting (outside of France) is really lacking IMO
MDS(Quote)
G2 ,I just hope he doesn’t expect any sympathy from the fans when we lose Remy or Cisse to injury and we can’t buy a goal .He’s on record now saying we are fine to go forward . This was his chance to say he was disappointed as we really could of done with an additional striker in case of injury . Actually ****** injury we need one anyway as we aren’t scoring unless it’s a Benny wonder goal 🙄 He could easily of said his piece ,what’s the worst that would happen the sack 😕 they would have to pay him up as it’s hardly grounds for dismissal is it . That statement was never written by him ,it was drafted by some face who works for Jabba with Pards made to put his name to it ,feckin puppet.
KIMTOON(Quote)
STARDUST
September 3, 2013 at 16:44
Stuart
“The players market is where it is unfortunately and the value of players will keep increasing as long as PL TV money keeps increasing.”
Thats a big “as long as” NUFCs present model is enduring, if another clubs chairman has chuckied up the club to the max assuming that’s always going to be the case, in a time of a drop in TV revenue – there will be universal blood on the carpet.
Come on Stardust, man! This TV deal is for the next 4 years and rising. Clubs have received a minimum of £20m extra income per year from it alone, starting this year. They are very well entitled to spend that and it hasn’t put their clubs future in the balance spending it either. That’s what happens in football these days. Clubs are no longer spending money they do not have. NUFC don’t even spend money we do have!
Stuart79(Quote)
talk about looking out for yourselve,imo the whole crowd are just backside lickers for jabba theres not a “man” between them 👿
icedog(Quote)
So with our club it’s all about lies and the lying liars who tell them. Why bother coming out with a statement like that Alan? It was a complete waste of time and makes you look like even more of a buffoon than you did previously. I can’t wait to hear what Joe has to say and of course Mike won’t say anything at all because he’s totally gutless. It’s beyond sad. It’s even beyond pathetic.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Mds, Did we actually bid for PEA ,I never actually saw proof of that like ,as far as I understood we expressed interest in him along with others but the guy wanted German footie.
As for Gomis ,they wasted far too much time on him ,why were we not in for RVW ages back before Norwich got their mitts on him, we constantly let other clubs steel a march on us in terms of player acquisition .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Spot on Kimtoon, MDS and ice. We don’t buy any of this bollocks and why should we? It’s pathetic. So we couldn’t afford to replace players like Obertan and Willo and move them on? We couldn’t even manage to complete the deal for Gosling to bring in a bit of dosh. What is Joe doing exactly? Shear stupidity having him around the club.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Pardew a few days ago pre Morecambe press message… compare to todays statement…
Pardew’s immediate focus will be on Morecambe and then Saturday’s showdown with Martin Jol’s men, but he will hope Cabaye’s situation is resolved one way or the other, and that director of football Joe Kinnear can finally deliver the signings he craves.
He said: “I think our issues are very much open this year. We have not hidden from them, they are there. We need to get one or two players in, we know that.
“We need to resolve the Cabaye situation and we need to win a game and hopefully in the next eight days, most of those will be resolved.”
so a week ago we needed one or two players now he’s saying I’m happy with none….. bullsh!t…. that statement has been written from above. dont blame pardew.
but as for the tactics.. v west ham and first half v fulham, he can take full blame, we were ****.
well he cant have it both ways… if he’s happy with his squad then no excuses for **** performances. and if he’s not then have the balls to come out and say so.
kev(Quote)
Spot on Stuart79 @173. Ashley won’t spend beyond his self-imposed 20M pound limit per year no matter how much money rolls in. Clearly he is recovering his loan to the club now. Got on with it and get out Assley.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
as for our DOF, he claimed he wanted to move the **** players out, well Joe…. they are all still here, and not a replacement in sight, you are a disgrace, or in words he will probably understand &%$£ off you £&^$.
kev(Quote)
Should read get on with it and get out Assley. 😳
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Grow a set and resign Pardew you muppet.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
see carlton cole is out of contract, so any bets where he might end up ?
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake anybody ?
Jay Bothroyd ?
can still sign these sorts… bottom of the barrel..
kev(Quote)
http://t.co/R4DZvr4iJ7
This is going round the blogs mates. Check it out. It’s how I’ll picture Joe from now on. 😆
GeordieTwo(Quote)
typical Pardew statement. Full of **** and defending his master.
It wasnt like that two weeks ago when he was begging for offensive players.
the players available weren’t any better than what we’ve already got.?
then why go for them?? go for better players… ah yeah.. silly me, better players cost more money.
We had no real list and a half-hearted attempt at buying.
Epic Fail..
mark(Quote)
Stardust –
“When you buy a player you depreciate his worth over the lifetime of a contract – a 2mn loan fee is equivalent of a 10mn transfer over a 5 year deal.”
What on earth are you talking about?!, I think you’ve confused a footballer with a car mate.
Sharpy17(Quote)
The one thing Pardew should have done was keep his mouth shut. Let Joe defend the club’s inactivity. He was responsible for it. I notice Joe isn’t mouthing off anymore. I wonder why? Because now everyone knows everything he said was bollocks. He said judge him at the end of the window. Well here we are Joe. You are nothing but a useless sack of manure.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
@184 any chance of getting 52,000 of those masks for the next home game 🙂
kev(Quote)
lol that twitter pic is class.. 😆
mark(Quote)
KIMTOON says:
September 3, 2013 at 17:46
Mds, Did we actually bid for PEA ,I never actually saw proof of that like ,as far as I understood we expressed interest in him along with others but the guy wanted German footie.
As for Gomis ,they wasted far too much time on him ,why were we not in for RVW ages back before Norwich got their mitts on him, we constantly let other clubs steel a march on us in terms of player acquisition .
—————————
Kim, I thought that the PEA bid was confirmed but maybe I’m mis-remembering that.
You are right about Gomis and RVW. But for the first time I think this window has really shown what the club’s transfer policy is.
They don’t go into a window and say: “our goal this window is to buy a striker and a central defender” (like us supporters do). They instead have a list of players that they like, generally identified by Carr and meeting the age and fee requirements they have set. In other words, rather than say they need to get a striker, they say they want Gomis at 8M, and if they can’t get him, they don’t buy a striker. That explains why we are linked with the players we buy for several windows (i.e. they wait for the price to come down to their valuation for the player they like rather than move on to a Plan B player at that same positon). Or when were fisrt in for Mbiwa awhile back- we didn’t get him, didn’t buy another CB, but just waited until his price came down. Same with Cisse. It’s also why we often buy players when we already have someone entrenched at that position (Hadeira, Debuchy, Sissoko, Anita for example).
Now there are exceptions when there is a glaring hole in the squad hence the Remy move, though I suppose he could be identified as a player they like due to our previous interest.
I’m not advocating this approach mind, but I do think it’s interesting.
MDS(Quote)
Spot on Mark @185 and Kev @183. The smell coming off our management is disgusting.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
That’s a very interesting post MDS @190. Your theory might be correct. But that means our club doesn’t take into account the fact that other clubs don’t do the same thing. That’s why we’re falling behind and nearly got relegated last season mate. It’s a disastrous policy that will end in tears. You can’t compete that way in the Prem but we have a fool for an owner don’t we? And a fool for a DoF. A quiet fool right now apparently.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
looks like we are safe on the carlton cole front, having a medical at west ham..
on second thoughts, can he pass a medical ? cant pass anything else..
kev(Quote)
The truth is exposed again. We won’t even spend enough to keep pace with mediocre, mid table teams. Teams like Norwich, Swansea, Southampton will all pass us by. Forget top 8. Start thinking about bottom 6 again this season.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
MDS/Kim – PEAs representatives and St Ettiene confirmed that we actually bid more for PEA than Dortmund but they bid enough for Ettiene to accept and that’s where he wanted to go as would play CL and had chance to compete for the league with them.
PEA said some very kind words about our interest in him and whilst he chose Dortmund had respect for NUFC and the fans – probably empty but sounded nice 😆
Sharpy17(Quote)
Back soon mates.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Sharpy mate that’s very interesting @195. It indicates we do have worthwhile targets but they want to go to teams with ambition and ability in management. So who will we ever bring in? Only players with legal problems or extreme fallings out with clubs and desperate to leave? I can think of a few of those type that we’ve had already.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2- that approach has positives and negatives as I see it. On one hand you are right- you could end up with a glaring hole in your squad for a half a season or a whole season. But on the other hand you are mostley ending up with good players at good values rather than overpaying to fill a certain position.
As I think about it, the rumored disagreements between Carr and Pards were probably along those lines. If you are Carr, you are judged by that transfer policy. If you’re Pards you are judged by week to week results on the pitch. Whereas Carr is just doing his job, Pards is just doing his when he says “yes Haderia looks a cracking player, Graham, but what I really need is another striker.” I wouldn’t doubt MA felt a DOF was necessary to settle those disagreements, and being that MA like to hire friends that he trusts, would explain JK’s appointment
MDS(Quote)
Sharpy @195 ,Cheers .
G2@184 :lol:at that pic
KIMTOON(Quote)
G2 at 197. I think it means we’ll continue to try and sign young players from abroad who the club fees have their best years ahead of them (Cisse, Cabaye, Santon, Anita, etc.- non of which had legal troubles or were depserate to leave). But, and this is where I disagree wth the club, those signings shouldn’t be the ONLY signings the club makes. They should be signed in tandem a few tried and true players even if we have to pay a bit extra
MDS(Quote)
MDS @200 , Agree
KIMTOON(Quote)
G2 – I said at the time it was wasted energy mate – like it was the summer before going for Luuk De Jong. I’m not sure whether its for the benefit of the fans but chasing players you’re either highly unlikely to sign or won’t sign doesn’t make much sense to me like.
Man City had an asking price of around £5m for Scott Sinclair, Tom Ince 8m, Nathan Redmond 2.5m, Jordan Rhodes would have been a good buy or Shane Long for 5 or 6m would all improve our squad and are more realistic and achievable signings that are young and would more us on.
But we don’t sign any players, so none of that matters anyway.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy, I agree on DeJong but how do youknow tthe club even rated the others? Other than Ince (who I beleive wanted to stay where he was due to the birth of a child) it didn’t seem to me that any of the big clubs were beating the doors down for the likes of those players.
MDS(Quote)
MDS – when you say the others, I take it you’re referring to the ones I listed?!. I don’t know that the club even rated them. As for the big clubs banging down the door – no they were. But we’re not a big club and the top 6 teams are chasing the likes of De Jong and PEA to get them into or play for them in the CL.
The players I’ve listed are players for mid table clubs, players who could get us 7th or 8th spot season after season – consistency. Similar to how Everton did it. Which top clubs competed with them for Jagielka, Lescott, Baines or Fellani.
Had we went for Ince I think he would have came. He turned down Cardiff coz he wasn’t convinced they will be in the PL next season. I know he said about his newborn child, but it took him about a week to turn Cardiff down and I think he was actually waiting for a bigger club to come in.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Some very good points MDS and Sharpy. I think last season proved this policy can’t work. You can’t have such a limited number of expensive targets who don’t really want to come to us, then bring in nobody and claim it’s all for the best in my view. Is being relegated for the best? We almost managed it last season and we may head that way again this time depending on injuries, suspensions etc. It’s just ludicrous. It might be more effective if we want to stay at mid table in the Championship but the Prem has changed drastically now with the huge amount of TV money. If we don’t change our policies as well we will eventually get relegated. Then Ashley won’t get his money back and we’ll be stuck with an endlessly mediocre team (or worse). Teams like Swansea are heading in the right direction. A great manager, support from ownership, the right attitude about playing in Europe …. It goes on and on. We are the direct opposite of than. No ambition, a manager who thinks it’s bad news to play in Europe, an owner who won’t acknowledge that revenues have increased dramatically, a fool for a DoF …. It goes on and on. Sorry for the long post.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
For me our owner has failed utterly. Failed to be a responsible owner. Failed to hire competent people to run the club. A failed transfer policy that is dragging us downward in the table. A failed DoF who couldn’t get a job anywhere else in football. A manager who constantly leans to excuse making after endless dross performances. A ground that should be full of excitement for every home game is often almost silent as we watch boring, defensive football more often than not. The supporters deserve far better. Get out Ashley.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
😆 Good old Stardy still got his head well lodged up Jabba, and jumping at the chance to defend him no matter what he does.
He is that brilliant of owner and doing such a fine job of running the Club that he has 2 people you don’t want running the club 😀 you really need to take your head out of his *** more often for some air
Big Dave(Quote)
Part of what we’ve run up against is that we’ve overbought in France. There are no more 4.5M pound Cabayes to be found there. Now that prices have increased we can’t pull the same stunt anymore. Find a quality player for 5-6M pounds. So instead of looking elsewhere (which requires more scouting staff) we make a few derisory bids knowing we’re not a very attractive prospect for players after a 16th place finish and end up with nobody (as was intended all along). We completely lack good judgment and ambition at the top. You can’t make up for that. We’ll never get back in the top 6 with Ashley and he could care less.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2- so I see you take a positive view of things 😉
Look, I know I’m in the minority here but last season was more of a one off IMO due to europa, insanely bad injury luck, and Cabaye’s lack of fitness. They were utterly unprepared for the schedule demands more or less (IMO) because they overrated some of their youth players and therefore didn’t think they needed new players. That was clearly a huge, and nearly catostrophic, mistake. With no Europa this year and a stronger squad than we started last season with, I don’t see relegation as much of a possibility. Could it happen? Sure, if things go completely wrong, but you could say that about 14 other clubs.
I don’t know if the club has ambition, or what that ambition is. They don’t have the excess TV money yet so whether they intend to invest it is an unanswered question. IMO we are 3-4 players away from being a very good club, perhaps the best outside the Big(ger) 6 (which, conicidently or not, is about where we stack up on the revenues list). Will they use the money to buy those players once it arrives? That will answer ambition question for me.
MDS(Quote)
1 or 2 here need to see though the smoke screen and blame the right dude,to many blameing pards for this, dos pards have the cash, simple answer is no, the real blame lies at fatboys door he holds the cash,in fact i would not be at all surprised if fatboy also picked the team thinking hes a football manager,and all those that are blameing pards, i bet fatboy haveing a right laugh at all you mugs, cant see though the smoke
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Sorry he couldn’t care less. 😳
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I hope you’re right MDS @209 mate. But when you say 3-4 players away from being a very good club you might as well be asking for the moon with Ashley as owner. We just went through a whole summer window of that with all of us (including Pardew) saying we needed players. And we didn’t get them. The injuries will come mate because they always do. It’s just accepting reality as every other club does when they strengthen their squads. I will watch with interest how this season goes. Pardew is in for a terrible time of it in my opinion as the injury list grows and he throws in mediocre squad players and we lose more and more often. I genuinely hope I’m wrong but the depth just isn’t there.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I’ll be very interested to see if Ashley panic buys again in January if we are struggling. Or is the plan this time to sack Pardew and stick Joe in there? That would be my guess. Panic buying is very expensive and Ashley hates to do it. That’s why he hired the stick (Joe) to beat Pardew with.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I am not sure if it’s asking for the moon (though I’m not saying you are wrong), but hear me out.
They did bring in 5 good players in January so they are not above doing it. Of course they did that after brining in only one player last summer, but that is the situation this year as well so there is precedent. Plus, we will be getting the 30-40M extra this year depending on league finish so we know for a fact there will be funds. If, say they want to spend 25M of that, here is what they could do (I am not wedded to the players, just providing example):
1- Make the Remy deal permanent (assuming he plays well this season). Let’s say 8M
2- Sign an attack-minded pacy winger. Let’s say Ince at 8M
3- Sign a versatile defender. Let’s say Anderwereld at 6M
4- Sign a striker to back-up and challenge Cisse. Gomis, 8M
(OK, I just spent 30M, but maybe you offload Shola, Gosling, Willo and Obertan to recoup some wages, maybe even Tiote). All that seems fairly reasonable to me and would still be within budget. It leaves you with a cracking team IMO:
Cisse
Ince-Remy-Ben Arfa
Sissoko-Cabaye
Santon-Collo-Mbiwa-Debuchy
Krul
Gouffron, Gomis, Anita, Anderwereld, Hadeira, Tiote, Staylor, Elliot, Jonas, Dummett, Bigi, etc.
MDS(Quote)
@ GEORDIETWO 212
i agree with ya about the depth i think you hit the nail on the head there,god help us if remy gets convicted
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
It will be interesting to see if Ashley develops a new strategy if we finish poorly again this season, say 14th or 15th. He must see now that Cabaye isn’t worth nearly what he thought. No pot of gold similar to Carroll there. And who else has really increased in value while with us? Possibly Ben Arfa will if he stays healthy and Mbiwa is another possibility down the road. There is also Krul of course but that’s about it. Nobody else in the squad is good enough or young enough. So with no huge amount of swag coming in from player sales how do you finance good incoming players, especially when the big TV money is destined for your pocket? It’s an interesting question and I don’t have an answer or even a good theory.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
That would be fantastic if it happened MDS @214 even if we disagree on who the incoming should be a little. But I can’t see it happening. The TV money will come in so Ashley could have done that this summer and ensured we don’t struggle for yet another season. But he chose not to. The TV money is for his pocket to pay back the loan mate. Count on it. He will spend the minimum he needs to in order to save us from relegation but that is all. No ambition in football terms. He’s never had any, he just thought it was going to be easy after the 5th place finish and of course it isn’t mate as we all know.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Thanks TAE @215 mate, I think it’s obvious after it already happened last season. You can’t stand still in the Prem. If you do you sink downwards. There isn’t far to sink from 16th. We may finish slightly above that this season but it’s certainly not because of good planning by Ashley (or concern for the club and supporters). It would be due to luck with injuries and few games.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2. More likey scenario is that they sell cabaye, add some combination of those player, and half the TV money goes toward the loan, but I just thought I’d share my plans for when I buy the club:)
MDS(Quote)
I wonder what the plans are for Ben Arfa? His contract runs out June 2015 when he’ll be 28. Surely a good age for him to make a move and get himself a huge final contract? Will we extend his current contract until he’s 30 say and give him a raise? Or will we sell him off, say in January or next summer so that Ashley has a little dosh to actually spend on transfers? Hmmmm. I think I know which way I’m leaning in guessing Ashley’s intentions.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Please do buy MDS mate @220. I trust you far more than Ashley and you have a football brain to boot.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I don’t know G2, you English seem a bit weary of Yank owners:). Plus I’m too much of a fan….I could have bill gates’ money and still bankrupt myself by the third year
MDS(Quote)
MDS – you haven’t spent £30m mate coz Alderwiereld wouldn’t sign for us. He’s another example of the players I’m on about – similar to De Jong or PEA. Alderwiereld would only come to the PL for one of the top 6 teams. He wants top level football having won leagues and played CL footy with Ajax. He’s not going to leave there for a team who would class a successful season as finishing 7th.
Also come Jan, if he hasn’t renewed his deal with Lyon, he will only have 6mths left on his current one – so he won’t be 8m mate – probably 3-4m tops as would be nowt next summer.
But I understand what you’re saying mate. I just don’t believe any of those player will wear black n white unfortunately. If QPR are promoted, Remy will go back there. If Ince has another good season his value will double (Zaha was £15m). Alderwiereld as already mentioned and if Gomis is only 3-4m he’ll either stay in France or go to a CL team.
I could be wrong, but that’s my prediction.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Good points Sharpy- yea I was just proving examples. Next window there will be other players who will be available. We actually do a pretty good job buying….once we’ve decided to spend money of course
MDS(Quote)
To be fair I’m not fussed they we diddnt sign anyone. I don’t think we need a striker and to spend any money on Gomis would have been stupid as he is dog ****. We pulled the plug on the Douglas deal because he isn’t any better than what we have. I happy for Curtis Good and Street to get the odd opportunities. We obviously wanted Thauvin but he only wanted a move to marseille so that’s fair enough. A left winger would have been brilliant. But all I want is to keep Jonas and tote out of the team. A midfield 3 of Anita, Sissoko, Cabaye and a front 3 of Remy, Cisse and HBA is class. Then a bench of marv, Gouff and Tiote isn’t to bad. The reality is no player worth spending money on is going to sit on our bench. We tried to get aubemeyang and were willing to spend big to do it but he chose Dortmund there is nothing you can do about that. I’d rather we waited till jan and get someone we really want. Lest we forget we have Obertan. 😀
Alex(Quote)