Quieter than expected but just in case you weren’t aware, the January transfer window is open which means clubs can do business once more.
Now generally the mention of transfer windows sends me to sleep. As a United fan I’ve kind of starting wondering who we’ll see leave rather than who we’ll see arrive with last January proving to be an exception in terms of activity rather than the norm.
However sources at Sky Sports News “understand” that Mike Ashley has sanctioned the arrival of up to four players in this window with no pressure to sell any current players to finance these deals.
Details are sketchy but one rumoured deal is supposed to regard the arrival of Luuk de Jong on an initial loan deal with a view to making the switch permanent in the summer.
It was well documented that we were in for the Holland striker previously but the former FC Twente front man opted to join Borussia Monchengladbach instead where he has since struggled to settle.
Another name mentioned has been that of Remy Cabella of Montpellier. The versatile attacker can play on either wing or as an attacking midfielder although a price tag in the region of €14 million would seem to me to be too steep for us.
If we do strengthen then great. It’s what we all want but at the moment there is nothing concrete in any of this and actions ultimately speak louder than words.
There are still obstacles however if this does turn out to be true. One of those obstacles is Joe Kinnear who might actually have to do some of the work he is paid to do and get players “over the line” to coin a popular phrase in these parts.
Of course its just as likely all rubbish and we’ll end up with nobody. Putting my tinfoil hat for a moment, how about the club leaking a bit of positive news like this following on from some defeats and a cup exit?
Cynical? Me? I never used to be…
I do sympathise with them but better them than us
stem(Quote)
KK or fight club. Good film
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3hours, god I hope that’s true.
KIMTOON(Quote)
All this talk of up to 4 in is rubbish, last window they said 3 a couple of weeks later Pards said 2 then a week after that it was hopefully one 🙄 We ended up with Remy on loan. Don’t forget it’s season ticket time isn’t it? on the direct debit renewals . Must think we are mugs.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Stem-I agree mate he was terrible for us and just wants to blame everything but himself, and he was so snide about us after getting that jammy win last year. He even said they should have had 3 points this year when Goof missed an open goal from 2 yards ffs! Can’t wait til he’s gone. Don’t mind WHam going down though-they are a pretty big london club and would be stiff competition for us. Better to have Burnley, Ipswitch or QPR assuming they don’t outspend us as well 🙄
Newkie(Quote)
Kim at least were not in West Ham shoes at the moment. There’s always someone worse off. Ashley doesn’t like spending money. He tries being to careful for his own good imo. It wouldn’t surprise me if two of them go into the under 21 side because that’s peanut money to him and one loan signing but will have to wait and see ?
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mick quinn @mickquinn1089 3h
Congrats to Ashley,Kinnear and Pardew season over
#lookingforwardtonextseasonsPLmoney
Retweeted by Lee Ryder
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KIMTOON(Quote)
Stem ,I don’t expect anything then I’m not disappointed 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
make of this what you will
Lee Ryder @lee_ryder 22m
Laurent Nicollin on #nufc Cabella bid: “As for Newcastle it would seem on the point of making one, but I expect confirmation” #Montpellier
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KIMTOON(Quote)
Aussie do some not realise that Jabba already has his own financial advisers 😆 they needn’t worry about him paying over the odds ffs its hard enough to get him to pay market value.
Big Dave(Quote)
Kimtoon I do but I’m normally left feeling disappointed and angry. I like seeing a good signing from time to time. Doesn’t have to be mega bucks but just an improvement. I know we all do but when you look at fat Sam and the money his wasted I feel relieved imo. They can have Shola in the championship next year as a gift.
Newkie I thought him and Nolan were a bit smug after that win last season. Sam just bitter we sacked him and the fan’s hated his style of football. Still there paying the price now.
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Kimtoon can we buy players abroad and be classed as homegrown ?
Hate to ask but don’t understand the rules.
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Stem I’m not sure how it works, I know Timmy came to us young and is now classed as home grown ,probably Newks or Prem might be better answering you on that.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Stem ,this explains it mate
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8858634.stm
KIMTOON(Quote)
Krul homegrown but not from england. Cheers anyway kim. Just thought Ashley was building a french team of the future or something.
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Cheers Kin
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Cheers for the link Kimtoon, spelling error.
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Kim-I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or a suggestion that i’m some nerd like Prem for knowing those rules 😆
Stem-too right they are paying for it, they are in for Roger Johnston as their first signing apparently 😳 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Newks, I would never insult you mate, humour but never insult 😆
KIMTOON(Quote)
Stem , That Oliver Kemen we signed last year was 17 so by 2016 if he’s still with us will be home grown as he’ll be under 21.
KIMTOON(Quote)
😥
That’s ok then, glad you have my back Kim 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Your welcome Newkie 😀
KIMTOON(Quote)
Newkie who would you prefer Gomis or Finbogasson (spelling?) ?
KIMTOON(Quote)
this reply to Ryder made me laugh
Lee Ryder @lee_ryder 36m
Newcastle United on the brink of bidding for Remy Cabella – say Montpellier http://bit.ly/1bKOqva #NUFC
Moggy @moggy45 30m
@lee_ryder on the brink? are they heavy breathing down the phone? #nufc
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KIMTOON(Quote)
Newkie. You can go off people you know.
Premandup(Quote)
Kim – If it was for January I would probably go for Gomis because I think we will let Shola go and Remy will also go end of season, that means keeping Cisse and getting a good partnership with him going. Hopefully Gomis is the man to do that. That should keep them both ticking til their early 30s and maybe the club will still be able to make their money back by flogging them to Russia or China…It also means if interest in Remy cools down because those two come into form we have a chance of keeping him long term.
Problem is though then we still have an aging strike force and if it doesn’t work out as a partnership Gomis isn’t prolific enough to fulfil the loan role without a good goal scoring midfielder behind him.
Newkie(Quote)
Prem-I’m only messing of course fella, I actually quite enjoy your long winded statistical breakdowns, particularly used against those obsessed with Marv-I don’t always agree with them but it is quite funny to see people react so angrily. 😀
Newkie(Quote)
****. Sussed at last. 👿
Premandup(Quote)
Newkie, I just worry he isn’t that prolific and knowing how our coaching set up seems to turn all goal machines to ***** I worry even more, still he’s gotta score more than Shola surely .
KIMTOON(Quote)
http://espnfc.com/player/_/id/136688/r%C3%A9my-cabella?cc=4716
The “Remy” we bidding for…. his stats for this season.
18 games, 6 goals… 3 assist… 43 shots…
Worth? 😉
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
I don’t know enough about Gomis or Cabella to comment. It’s a different league and they might struggle with the pace of premiership at first. It all depends what attitude they come here with. I put my trust in Joe Kinnear as I don’t have no choice. Get the peanut butter out Ashley you tight wad!
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i’d say its pretty obvious we’re being used as a means of generating interest in Cabella. Its happened loads of times in the past. There’s a couple of french club owners that know exactly what Ashleys about now, don’t suppose it bothers him other clubs using our name to generate interest, it provides our media with the column inches needed to appease the fans. I’d say Gomis for a couple of mil or De Jong on loan, nothing more.
Evans(Quote)
It seems a strange window this time. Very quiet and Moyes saying the players he wants might not be available. Rare to hear that out of ManU. Sounds more like what Pardew would say along with “we tried” on Jan. 31. I have join the cynical crowd about the injuries to Cabaye and Krul. It would be madness to sell either but our owner is a strange bird indeed. We need a striker first and a good CB second without selling anyone if we are to stay in the top 8. Below 8th there seems to be a fair amount of dross so Ashley must be laughing.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 There just might not be enough peanut butter left in the jar after Ashley’s eaten it all.
Evan’s I think your spot on about Cabella being used by us to generate a big offer by Manu, Arsenal, Chelsea or even City. If his anywhere near as good as people say then cheap skate Ashley wouldn’t stand a chance. He would pick top 4 over us any day.
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It’s very annoying that a bid hasn’t been made yet before City stuff us again. That one reinforcement could make all the difference ? They’ve had months to work this out.
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Kim – re the Gomis v Finnbogason.
I’d rather have Finnbogason personally but I don’t think his club want him to leave until the summer and he’s under contract. Whereas Gomis is out of contract in the summer so Lyon will want to cash in. So I think we’ll get Gomis now coz of availability rather than preferring him over other targets – if that’s how it works out of coz
Sharpy17(Quote)
Each of our transfer windows follows roughly the same pattern, the only difference is the player in question. I mean they even use the same terminology each window – ‘Readying a bid,’ ‘NUFC are preparing a bid, ‘NUFC have supposedly sent a delegation over to France’, the list goes on and on. All this culminates in a bid of roughly half the market value and we’re back to square one. I’ll be the first to admit, on occasion we’ve done really well in the transfer market and I can’t complain about the quality in our squad but this constant cycle of bullshit each window is becoming so tiring.
Evans(Quote)
I would have to say we don’t have enough quality in the squad EVANS mate. We see it every season with our losses in either domestic cup in the early rounds. We have considerable dross in the squad including of course the by now often mentioned Obertan, Gosling (damaged by injuries), Vuckic (damaged by injuries), Marveaux (what really happened to him?), and others. Any reasonably competent DoF would have addressed this by now. Joe hasn’t even learned the names yet. I wonder what he tells Ashley. An example “Mike I’m looking into the whole Kebab business again now. He should definitely bring in 25M for us. Krul is probably worth 50M Mike so don’t worry we’ll be jumping into a pile of cash soon.”
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Another comment from Joe to Mike:
“Mike we have a fantastic squad. The competition at all positions is fabulous. Look at the tremendous wingers we have. Why we have that Oobertoon fella, then there’s the amazing Furgoodsun on loan (or have I bid for him?). Then we have the brilliant Marvello (where has he got to again?). It’s just incredible Mike. Other clubs are just drooling at our depth.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Which option is more likely to improve the club in the short, medium & long term:
1) 3 or 4 transfers totalling £15m – £20m. Cabella, Gomis, De Jong, Finnbogason.
2) Pardew & his coaches being replaced. Somebody like Rudi Garcia, Phillipe Montanier, Fatih Terim, Brendan Rodgers, Roberto Martinez etc.
Everybody knows i want a new manager more than i want a new player but what would everyone else pick?
KK(Quote)
What’s the appeal with Gomis anyway?
I don’t know much about him but to me he seems like a marginally better Shola. I’d expect him to be a fringe player most of the time. I
I’m not excited about him coming here whether its on a free or for £10m. He just seems average.
@Stem – thanks for reminding me about fight club! I forgot edward norton had the same problem twice!
KK(Quote)
G2 if that’s the case and I know it is then Ashley and Kinnear our fools. Personally I would rate Cabaye at 15 million and Krul at around 20 because he has more years in him. It is tiring getting nowhere in the transfer window and hearing the same old excuses for failure. 60 million in tv money and 32 million by wonga makes me wonder where the moneys gone. If the clubs only 110 million in debt we would only have to pay 18 million to be debt free! I hope the fan’s meeting goes well tonight.
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KK that’s alright mate.
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@g2
Moyes will find it difficult because man utd aren’t the richest club in the league anymore.
A lot of people think ferguson worked miracles at man utd but to me it seems like he deteriorated to a slightly better than average manager whilst at the club.
His success came after man utd were flush with money when they floated on the stock exchange.
I’m of the opinion that he just spent most of his time buying the league.
Even last season he couldn’t have won it withput van persie & van persie almost ended up at man city. If he had, i doubt ferguson would have won the league.
Now you have man city, chelsea & even arsenal that can break man utd transfer records. Man utd have droped to liverpools level
KK(Quote)
Why would a worldclass player choose man utd over man city, chelsea or arsenal?
Playing time is the only thing i can think of otherwise man utd just doesn’t have the same appeal.
KK(Quote)
KK If Cabella is the next Zidane then he’ll have no trouble keeping his place at any team. City or even Barcelona. I would like him to join Newcastle don’t get me wrong but I can’t see it happening.
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I have supported Newcastle for many years and have become used to disappointment. I still dream of the days Sir Bobby had us playing attractive football and being in the champions league and wish for a return. If only our owner had the same dream as us. Maybe in time he might.
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Enjoying the posts again today. I don’t think Cabella will be joining us if he’s as good as some people claim. The price tag is already too high for Ashley. He looks in the bargain bin from whence he came. That hasn’t changed much. An occasional higher bid will be made but always with the idea in mind that it has to be balanced with the sale of one of our current players.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I totally agree with your post @122 STEM mate, except for your last sentence. Ashley is a man with no football ambition His pockets are lined with many peoples’ money. He is determined to get more of the same. Attractive Champs League football is definitely not in our future with Mike as our owner sadly.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
@Stem
Cabella doesn’t remind me of zidane. He doesn’t seem to be strong & his shots look like they lack power.
He also looks like he has average pace but good acceleration. Same as Ben Arfa.
He seems to have decent technique (better than the likes of tiote & sissoko etc anyway).
Overall he might be a decent long term replacement for cabaye but i haven’t seen enough of him to see if he’s able to control games & make his team more attacking.
He seems to be two footed so that’s a plus but otherwise i don’t really know what’s so great about him. I would say ben arfa & cabaye are both better but maube one day cabella will be better than cabaye.
KK(Quote)
@g2
I think mike ashley would love champions league football (& money) if he could get it on our budget. Who wouldn’t?
Is it possible for anybody outside the top 6 big teams to finish 4th on a budget?
Southampton & Everton think so. Arsenal have been doing it for a couple of decades.
Real sociedad, atletico madrid, roma, lille, montpellier, dortmund, malaga, all of these teams have punched above their weight despite financial constraints & limited transfers.
They’ve all punched above their weight because of their manager. We punched above our weight regularly with sbr.
We won’t punch above our weight with pardew & pardew will not suddenly become the next klopp. Whats the point of spending money on players when the manager & coaches are the bottle neck.
KK(Quote)
The money is the key KK mate. ManU have huge debt and their American owners lack knowledge of the game I would think. They will continue to rely on Fergie to advise them. He may be able to help Moyes improve the squad but this season is lost to them. I can’t see them catching Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal or even Liverpool. To get fifth Moyes will have to dig deep but a healthy van Persie may allow them to do it. Just a guess but that’s how it looks to me mate.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Yes the last part of the sentence was very wishful thinking but Ashley has never had a taste of champions league football. I wonder if he did would he not at least try to be in it again. He should be proud to own such a club that makes a regular profit. Not many can say that
stem(Quote)
Off for a while now mates. The household duties never end it seems. 😆
GeordieTwo(Quote)
see you later g2
stem(Quote)
I see Walcott out for 6 months 😯 Perhaps Arsenal will go for Cabella now then .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim – I think Arsenal have plenty of cover in that position really. AOC is on his way back and that young Gnabry is there. That’s on top of the likes of Ramsey, Wilshire, Ozil, Carzola and Rosiky.
I think the gunners are more in need of CFs than midfielders really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim-sorry lass,went offline after finishing work. Honestly I don’t buy any of this “coaching the goals out of insert name” bullshit. We gave Ba one of and arguably his best run of form for his entire career-really, if you discount his and Cisse’s little stints in amateur leagues or what I would class as very poor leagues, they both really are much closer to 1 in 3 strikers, and while Ba was well above that with us Cisse is still there or there abouts as people are keen to point out. Remy has never been massively prolific either and he could still get a seasonal best in a tougher league than France, so really I don’t see the issue. Shola has never been a consistent goal scorer, Leon Best and Andy Carroll had great statistics, so this coaching leading to poor scoring doesn’t wash with me.
Cisse’s sublime start glossed over what he is – people thought he was some sort of god but in reality he’s just a good finisher albeit with poor composure.
I’ve said plenty of times, Newcastle fans have been spoilt for strikers as a club, particularly in the last 20 odd years. The days when we had two strikers who could bang in 20+ a season are gone i’m afraid, we need more options and different goal threats imo.
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie, That’s ok was away seeing to Lewis until 8. You may be right but when you consider both Cisse and Remy had blinding starts only to oddly go off the boil, it’s strange. Sissoko came in and looked better than he does now too and Benny is a total enigma really ,Pards seems to find it almost impossible to compliment him. Even when he has a blinder there seems to be a sly remark tucked into any praise he hands out, or maybe it’s my imagination doing overtime.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Newkie, Got to agree though we have been spoilt for strikers ,we’ve had some wonderful lads up front and I’m sad for the younger fans who never got to witness them as I don’t think we’ll ever get lads up front like them again as the best will always gravitate to the likes of City,Chelsea, et al now . 🙁 The only way we will get that again is if a local lad comes through the academy and shines.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Newkie – totally agree mate, you could add Goof to your list as well I reckon mate who’s on 7 goals already this season and was hardly prolific at Bordeaux.
Ben Arfa has also scored more goals for us than he did for Lyon or Marseille, having played pretty much exactly the same number of games.
Sharpy17(Quote)
@newkie & sharpy17
I doubt it’s possible to coachskills out of a player. It’s like trying to make people forget skills & memories – it’s an odd concept.
However, when people say that they think a player has been coached out of goals or creativity etc, i usually understand it as them saying that our coaches are not getting the best out of the players.
I’d also have to agree especially when you see the impact on playing styles that managers like brendan rodgers, martinez wenget etc have on their players.
KK(Quote)
Kim-it’s not really a surprise, the league, football as a whole in fact is full of stories of strikers who hit the ground like a steam train and then fail to replicate it. Look at Odemwingie, Michu, Saha at Fulham. Blimey even Torres could be used as an example. There are plenty of instances. Strikers come in likely full of confidence because of the buzz they have created, they are unknown entities to those marking them. Then it fizzes out. Nothing strange about it.
Sharpy- bang on.
KK-Agree with your first point. But people do precisely mean what they say, literally coaching footballing skills out of players in a few months when they have been playing the game for usually a good 20 years. It’s absolute ***** and gripping at straws in the highest manner IMO.
Newkie(Quote)
I remember one time I was at Salisbury College wearing a Newcastle shirt and I got the **** taken out of me because Greame Souness was our new manager. One old man gave me a look of disgust because they sacked Sir Bobby Robson that was probably the worst day to support Newcastle.
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Serously people where absolutely disguised that Souness replaced Robson. I didn’t even know he was our manager until that day. I was studying painting and decorating at the time but i’ll never forget that day.
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Newkie , I still think SBR or even KK would have our players playing better and scoring more .
KIMTOON(Quote)
KK – Pardew sets his team up in a very disciplined (some say too defensive, others negative) but ill go with disciplined, which may mean that players can’t be as expressive as they might be in other teams.
I think Shola is gash and Cisse needs to work out how to stay onside. I think it was around 7 goals ruled out last season. Stats show that we create chances, we just don’t struggle to convert them.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I have to agree with KIMTOON.
I don’t think Keegan is tactically better than Pardew (Pardew is probably alot better TBH) but Keegan certainly had the players buzzing & wanting to play for him.
Pardew on the hand can set as up to get a result if he has enough time to prepare & events go his way. Anything that happens unexpectedly & he isn’t able to cope.
I also don’t believe there is one Newcastle player that would put themselves on the line for Pardew which is a big deal. The teams that overachieve manage to do it because their players believe in their manager.
SBR was on a different level to every manager in my living memory. Tactically & in terms of motivation, playing styles etc the best manager we’ve had a lifetime.
I’m of the opinion that he was a better manager than Ferguson but no doubt some people will disagree.
KK(Quote)
@NEWKIE
Coaching skills out of players is a reference to the manager & coaches not coaching them ‘correctly’.
It’s understandable, if a manager wants to play a certain style of football (Brendan Rodgers) but one of the players he works with has a different style (Andy Carroll), one of them is going to look worse than they actually are.
Either the manager bends to the will of the player or the player underperforms. The only way to resolve this is for one of them to go (Andy Carroll).
Remember the article by Stardust: ‘Carr or Pardew to go, Mike Ashley’s big decision.’ – https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2013/05/21/carr-or-pardew-to-go-mike-ashleys-big-decision/
KK(Quote)
@STEM Yeah, it was an odd day when SBR was sacked. It’s one of the reasons why i’m happy Mike Ashley took over instead of having Freddy involved at the club.
KK(Quote)
Kim – I know this doesn’t provide a comparison with either other clubs or KK & SBR era, but these stats show we’ve created 217 chances and converted 29 of them – don’t know if that’s good, bad or indifferent
http://www.squawka.com/teams/newcastle-united/stats
I know it’s a few games back now, but at the time of the Chelsea game, we were 3rd in the table for chances created, but 3rd bottom for converting them. I bet things haven’t changed too much since either.
Remy has 10 this season and Goof 7, so I think it may just be a case of Shola and Cisse having a **** poor season more than anything else to be fair.
Sharpy17(Quote)
@SHARPY17
I’d agree, Pardew goes for a disciplined & negative approach (they’re not mutually exclusive & there is a bit of synergy there too).
I don’t think Shola is gash though. I honestly think he needs a run of games at a club where the fans would get behind him. That’s obviously not with us anymore so he needs to be moved on.
It’s the same with Obertan.
I also think there are a few reasons why Cisse is offside. We move up the pitch to slowly which, passes are released when they shouldn’t be, he starts running before he should etc.
However, i don’t think he is excessively offside. I’m sure there are plenty of other strikers in the league who are offside just as much as Cisse.
Cisse, Demba Ba, Remy, Gouffran – these are all players that can finish a move.
KK(Quote)
Most defiantly KK. I have never liked Furguson and the man’s no gentleman. He stayed at Manu because it was easy for him to win titles. SBR was better than him imho. If Bobby had one weakness I would say he was to nice but there’s nothing wrong with that but fergies got more of a temper which is why I don’t respect him.
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Throwing a boot a Beckham. encouraging players to dive and getting rid of Stam for telling the truth. Unfair extra time and more money than any other club had to spend in the 90s and early 2000s. He calls Wenger a bad loser but his a abysmal winner.
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I’d like to see Ben Arfa played in the same position as Riquelme when he played for Villareal under Pellegrini.
Pellegrini is a manager we could have opted for instead of Pardew. Both were available at the time & both had been sacked from their previous jobs.
Pellegrini was sacked after winning 96 points (the highest pts ever for Real Madrid) because they wanted to bring in Mourinho otherwise they would have kept him on.
Pardew was sacked by League One Southampton after low staff morale and conflicts with Cortese.
KK(Quote)