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?
Not quite sure why you’ve written off Sissoko, Tiote, Cisse and Taylor…but I can see where you’re coming from…kinda. But surely if you add them, then we’re not far off?
The idea of 2 good players per position is pure Nirvana though. Especially when fans seem to expect that to continue even if one is injured. Every club in the league has weaknesses and especially clubs outside of the CL. Players like Obertan, Dummett and Willo may have crucial roles to play this season and that’s normal. Players have had a few games for CL clubs and then been farmed out to a Championship club the following season and never got back.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Interesting choices there Prem. Have you watched Zirkovic playing in Serbia (Partizan?) ? Very exciting young winger with a superb passing range and good vision. I’d go for him and he’d still be cheap.
Still want another CB for, as Eric puts it, when Saylor falls off the mantlepiece again. I have little faith in SDJ making it over here so another playmaking/striker needed. Not much eh? £40m might cover it.
georgio(Quote)
By the way…why do people keep writing articles about getting in a free transfer?? Surely if we signed one of them, then we couldn’t register him until January? And as one of them is Vlaar, why would we sign him when he won’t be fit until Jan at the earliest! Very weird…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
What articles abut free transfers?
georgio(Quote)
TDS not writing them off but can see them leaving.
Premandup(Quote)
Sharpy17- Ive seen more from Guthrie than Anita, Ive seen more from 5 games with Abeid than 3 seasons with Anita. And Ive seen more from Colback than 3 seasons of Anita. Abeid was a difference maker when we had a winning run last season. Anita never been a difference maker, and if he was “immense” agaisnt WH last game of last season, it shows the little he brought to the team since he’s here
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
In my opinion the club should rebuild the defense. Over the next 3 transferts window, I want:
Anita out,
Haidara out,
Tioté out
Sissoko out
And then I want us to sign:
-Marcos Alonso, spanish LB playing at Fiorentina.
– Lewis Dunk to form a solid CB partnership with Mbemba.
– James Tavernier, from Ranger as RB to eventually replace Janmaat.
– A new DM, similar to Carrick, who can dictate tempo and play defense.
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
I also want us to build with Armstrong Ameobi, Vuckic back from loan
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
If we can pick up a player coming to the end of his contract in January then we should absolutely do it. I would like to see some outgoings too of course with the likes of Gouffran, Williamson and Bigi ect…
We spent £50m this season and that’s before the new TV money comes in which is likely to be an additional £40m? The only issue is we won’t spend it until we get it and I assume we won’t get that money until the end of next season? So will we have any money left in the kitty for January or next summer?
Stuart79(Quote)
Nice read Prem, thanks. I too, do not see us spending in January as I think Mike will think he’s done more than enough to make us competitive. We have bought in what seems to be good players, even Mitro can be good I think, he just needs to calm down a bit. As for future signings, I know little of a lot of the guys you mentioned prem with the exception of Byram, I have heard of some of them but not seen them play regularly to comment on their ability. Would liked us to of signed Austin as I think he’ll score anywhere and I do worry Mitro will spend lots of time serving bans.
kimtoon(Quote)
If we get de Jong, Aarons and Dummett fit we should be OK. It is a big if though as de Jong might take a while with his lung, Dummett seems to have re-injured his hamstring more than once and Aarons’ injury seemed a mystery to our Doctors last year. Hopefully, they sacked the whole sorry lot of our medical staff because we had the most time out through injury last year of any PL club, I and don’t remember it being much better in previous years.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Oh, and keeping Cisse and Mitrovic away from suspensions would help. So that is like having the proverbial 5 new players 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric link for you @143 previous thread
Premandup(Quote)
Prem: I try not to correct people too much because I know as soon as I do I will make a similar error.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Thought you might like though
Premandup(Quote)
Prem – good article mate & I like the names you have offered forward. I’m not sure how much of a cost saving it will be going after the likes of Byram on a pre-contract though as done you have to pay a compo on players under a certain age – not sure if that applies only to English clubs or foreign clubs too mind.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Nice one Prem..
I believe that the thinking needs to go away from ‘how much we spend’ to ‘how well we spend’. Take a look at Spurs, they have spent a fortune and they have made some really poor player purchases. The Bale money was not utilised very well at all. I don’t really care about so called “war chests” or 100m bank kitties.. It means nothing to me. All I care about is securing good players that can make up for shortfalls in our current team. Securing good players has been made much harder now that the PL is flush with cash. Anyone half decent generally comes with a hugely inflated dollar value attached. Being savvy in the transfer market is probably more important now than it ever has been. There are not going to be many 1m dollar gems being found but there will be lots of 20m dollar flops! 😕
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie – you’re right there mate. I’m pleased they spent the money this summer as it showed that Ashley was good to his word with his horse & cart craic. But I agree, I’m not bothered how much is spent providing the players are improving the side.
At least this summer showed they are willing to spend big – something I think most of us doubt.
Sharpy17(Quote)
If they got Byrom & Matip in January I would be delighted.
Premandup(Quote)
With Dummett injured do we have cover for Haidara or do we need
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/09/10/should-newcastle-target-another-dutch-international-by-pursuing/
Premandup(Quote)
Aussie
Surely you would prefer us to spend a huge amount of cash every window, providing the right players are bought. You can still buy cracking £20m players. I want every penny spent on good players. If they can get 10 good ones for £50m or only 5 for £50m. The art is buying top players and spending all the kitty.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
So you want good players bought. … if they are good, who cares how much they cost? Hence my original comment… good players are more important than how much we spend… I don’t expect you to grasp this simple concept, so ill cut you some slack! 😛
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
*The amount you pay for a player doesn’t determine how good they will be.. a 30m player can flop as easily as a 1m player.
* explanation for Troy*
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Haven’t we SUPPOSEDLY missed out on some players because we wouldn’t budge on valuation? I have seen Lacazette, Bony and Ayew mentioned in this regard. The most important thing is to buy players who are Premier League ready and fit the system.
Liverpool and Spurs have bought a ton of middle priced players and so far only a few have worked out. Liverpool even bought some who had done well at Southampton or Swansea and they seem to have regressed. Also, with the TV windfall aren’t we all chasing the same players now? Leicester can afford an 8 figure player now FFS.
One final note is that Chelsea have something like 50 players loaned out this season. I am not kidding. I think that is being a bit greedy 🙂 And Van Gaal came out yesterday and said Man U overpaid for Martial. It is sometimes hard to compete with stupidity.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric was it valuation or policy behind us missing out on those players?
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
AMF: not sure. I have seen it said that we wouldn’t budge on valuation or wouldn’t pay Agent fees. However, this is on blogs and in The Chronicle so I don’t know what to believe.
I do think that all this money has meant some average players are being valued very highly. I could name some but you just have to look at the Sunderland, Spurs and Liverpool squads and you will get the idea.
Obviously, I agree with Troy’s point that getting the correct players is very important (Troysta is a master of stating the obvious). However, if most of the PL teams are now fishing in the same pond isn’t there a danger of it being overfished and a greater likelihood that we will catch our share of minnows at premium prices?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Troys point about getting the correct players is actually my point but I will let you off this time! 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
By the way, I haven’t seen any of the players that Prem mentions. He must have his own network of scouts working night and day.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
AMF: it is pretty hard to do though and there will always be mistakes. You would have thought Soldado would be perfect for the PL and it turned out he couldn’t hit a barn door with a Banjo.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric my scouts dont seem to share info with mr Carr
Premandup(Quote)
Wow! 😯
Aussie you make such a simple point, a point that is pointless.
You actually miss my point, which is entirely different to yours. You say you don’t worry about war chests and how much we spend as long as we get good players for the cash.
The war chest being spent is very important. The bigger the better. The more spent the better. That is as important as how we spend it.
The bigger the war chest, the more money spent on good players go hand in hand surely.
Your point is so wrong 🙄
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Deary me… you need to give up the drink Troy! 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Poor reply Aussie
Explain why you don’t care how much money we spend?
So for example, we have a kitty of £50m and we bought the 4 players, Mitrovic mbemba wij toney.
Surely if they cost half that amount and we had another £25m which we spent because we have a £50m war chest, that would be even better, wouldn’t it?
Your complaint about people talking of war chests and how much we spend is nonsensical.
Instead of making a sarcastic remark, try and explain your point by countering mine. No wonder Stuart gets frustrated with you and highlights you don’t answer but make sarcastic remarks and run off. 😉
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troysta: you missed Thauvin. I don’t get why people worry about a multi-billionaire spending his money at a football club. Ashley couldn’t spend his current wealth in 50 lifetimes so why not kick a bit more into NUFC. It would surely benefit his main brand – Sports Direct – as well.
I get why he would want NUFC to be self sustaining but there are a couple of examples at City and Chelsea where buying top players and winning trophies has caused massive increases in fans, revenue and status. They have moved into the elite by making the player investment and City went from a club making the same as us to earning about 3 times.
There is more than one way to skin a PL cat and there is a blueprint for Ashley to follow if he wants to. I have also read a couple of times that Ashley is actually a NUFC fan and has been for a long time so you would think he would want us to be a success. At least he has finally stopped hiring his cronies and casino buddies.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Oh, and City, please do me a favour today because Troysta will have a full on gloat if you don’t 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Psychs
The money abromovich and Man City owners have spent on building up their squads is immense. Sure they play within the rules now but to get there has cost them a fortune. Ashley could not compete if he wanted to. He doesn’t have that floating cash.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I can see both sides of that argument @34 and @36. The fact remains he is a very wealthy man who if he chose to, could of found a way of maximizing the clubs income so that we could afford even higher quality players than we currently buy. How much profit do SD make on merchandising? I can’t believe he hasn’t made back his loan yet either one way or another, a loan that came about from his own stupidity as well.
kimtoon(Quote)
Rival fans will always look at City and Chelsea as teams that bought the title which must take the gloss off it somewhat. I often wonder where we’d be now if we’d won it rather than chuck that 12 point lead away.
kimtoon(Quote)
I don’t think we’ve actually got that bad a squad now, Steve just needs to get us playing to our strengths. Of course we are not on the same planet as Man City for example, but we don’t have champions league games and don’t need two squads. I think for every position, with the exception of one or two players (Mitrovic), we have replacements and certainly someone who can do a job.
DJG(Quote)
I think the fact that Perez is now on the bench and not automatically in the team shows that we have added over the summer. I think we miss his hold up play and intelligence on the ball though.
DJG(Quote)
Troy if we bought all the players we needed and we had 25m left in the bank, would you really care? .. you are missing the point.. if we bought 8 players and they proved to be good additions, I would give two ***** if they cost 500k ea. Once again you can’t see past the silly little point you are trying to make, no wonder B&B kicked you to the kurb! 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
🙄 *wouldn’t give two….*
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie
You still miss the point. Wow! 😯
You ask, Troy if we bought all the players we needed and we had 25m left in the bank, would you really care?
Seriously? Of course I would. I would want it spent on more players to strengthen the squad. Would you not?
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy – sorry but your last post reminded me of this –
https://youtu.be/20KgmOQLdxM
😆
Sharpy17(Quote)
My main issue in the summer wasn’t how much we spent, it was this suggestion that we opted out of Andre Ayew coz the wasn’t a sell on value to him.
If you look at Swansea now, their best attacking players are Ayew & Gomis – we were linked with both when they were on a free!!. But wouldn’t spend the money on them, likely because of lack of future gain. That for me is a bigger restriction, and is also probably the reason why they won’t shell out big money (20m plus) on an individual player.
Sharpy17(Quote)
All that said, Everton who (other than Lukaku) are a team of averagely priced players are wiping the floor with mega rich Chelsea today.
Everton playing a 3 man midfield and are comfortably in control – a system I think we should adopt with Sissoko, Gini and any one of Tiote, Colback or Anita.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy, totally agree mate.
Well done Everton by the way
kimtoon(Quote)
that’s 3 losses out of 5 PL games for Chelsea now 😯
kimtoon(Quote)
Sharpy – I said on here a couple of weeks ago that 433 may be the answer for us. So yes I agree with you but I’m not sure as MacClaren seems to be wedded to 4231. We’ll see as the season progresses.
georgio(Quote)
Everton were excellent today like. Really solid defence with a lethal attack. Can’t believe some of their fans are still playing for a plane to fly in protest 😯 🙄
Sharpy17(Quote)
Georgio – 4-2-3-1 has been the favoured formation of a lot of clubs in recent season. But I think we played best under Pardew with Cabaye/Tiote/Jonas as that 3 man midfield and when you look at the players we have now, I reckon it would suit again to be honest.
Like I say, Everton look to have a real balance about them this season – them & Swansea could be the teams to mix it with Lpool & Spurs for the 5th & 6th spots
Sharpy17(Quote)
I agree Sharpy mate. We still don’t have a ball player like Cabaye though so the style would have to be different. What we do have is two midfielders in Sissoko and Wini who are really fast getting up field. I’d like to see it although it’d mean dropping one of Colback/Anita.
georgio(Quote)
Pards is certainly getting more luck with Palace than with us, they face a city with no Silva or Sterling today. Should be an interesting game.
kimtoon(Quote)
good piece
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-third-worst-away-10040217
kimtoon(Quote)
Palace game getting tasty, managers falling out again 😆
kimtoon(Quote)
Hell, Watford score against Swans, they’ll be finding their feet in time for us.
kimtoon(Quote)
I think this is where we really need to see the lads step it up and put in some performances with the cutting edge. The next four games are;
West Ham (A) They have a lot of new players and have slipped up already at home.
Watford (H) Can be no excuses here, we simply must get a result.
Sheff Wed (H) Another home round in the cup, more difficult than last round but still should win this.
Chelsea (H) Third home game in a row, Chelski have had a nightmare start, bogey ground for them.
So although no games are easy, we simply have to take points and progress in the cup in the next four games. Two objectives, if we can’t win then don’t lose and keep eleven players on the pitch.
Although they said judge after 12 games, I think we should start to after 8.
DJG(Quote)
Well, DJG< I was expecting 5 points frokm the first 8 games (but then a canny total from the next 8) – agree we need to take points, but three points vs Watford and a point away at Hammers and home to Chelsea would be a good return, and would out us a couple of points above 'par' IMO
GTE(Quote)
How did that C/Palace defender not get sent off he was nowhere near the ball when he took the forward out at knee height,I cannot understand refs they are so not together
icedog(Quote)
Match report of Watford v Swansea, I know Swans were without the impressive Montero until the 60th min but even so, this is proof there are no easy teams anymore. If we think we’ll walk all over Watford it’s a big mistake .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34160753
kimtoon(Quote)
Oh and Watford were down to 10 men from the 63rd min
kimtoon(Quote)
Watching Man Utd and Liverpool today I think the PL is going to be very open this season. Both the sides looked bang average. Just wonder if there’ll be a surprise team in the top 4 this season.
Stuart79(Quote)
Waiting for Aussie to answer @43.
I expect he feels cornered now so will go missing or ignore it. 😉
Troy Stavers(Quote)
@troy. IF we had all the players we needed… Why would you want to spend the remaining 25mil? Its not necessary, we’ve got what we need. 25 mil wasted imo
Gashley(Quote)
I’m going for a 1-0 defeat tomorrow. Good solid show from the toon lads with not much to boast about on the attacking front
Gashley(Quote)
Gashley
We haven’t got all the players we need though?
Troy Stavers(Quote)
You predict a 1-0 defeat to an average side but you say we have all the players we need? Fathom. 😯
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I never said we did have all the players we need 😯
I predicted 1-0 defeat due to the fact we aren’t that good and too defensive, something I’ve always said about SM
Gashley(Quote)
I said IF…. 😳
I feel your pain Aussie 😛
Gashley(Quote)
We are talking NUFC here not some hypothetical super club that has the perfect team. What’s the point in talking hypothetically?
Aussie complains that people bang on about war chests and how much we spend and questions whether I care.
Of course I do. I want the kitty spent and if it’s £10m, 50m or £100m I want it spent on the best possible players we can get. Don’t you?
Troy Stavers(Quote)
You really aren’t going to stick with that Gashley are you?
IF? When will we ever have all the players we ever need?
Aussie has never meant that.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
hypothetical 😀 if get a few defenders in and a new striker we’ll be a better team.
We can achieve a better team without blowing all of our money, if we had to spend all we have, so be it… but I wouldn’t spend for the sake of it.
So hypothetically, if we only needed 1 more player and there were two players to choose from, same standard of quality. One on his last 6mths of contract, total outlay. 6mil, the other costing 19mil total, you’d blow the lot on the latter?
We also need to be realistic, not many quality players will join us ATM unless we offer them stupid wages
Gashley(Quote)
Uh oh. Gashley was talking hypothetically as if we had the perfect team and didn’t require anymore players or money spent. 😳 wow. 😯
The cyber arena is strange. You never know who you are actually talking to. 😆
Troy Stavers(Quote)
If… Might be in a few years of getting the right quality at the right time. I don’t think we’re an attractive proposition atm
Gashley(Quote)
Troy if we bought all the players we needed and we had 25m left in the bank, would you really care? ..
I never saw Aussie say .WE have all the players we need. He said IF…
I would of spent more this season but could we of spent the 100mil we are rumoured to have? We real quality join us?
Gashley(Quote)