While a lot of the players have, quite rightly at times, attracted criticism there are also those who have enhanced their reputations.
And by now we are all aware of just how our “business model” works which combined with the forthcoming January transfer window and the performances of some of players could lead to an interesting and frustrating month or so as speculation starts to trickle into newsfeeds.
My heart, and our league position to be fair, says that we can’t afford to sell anyone and need to actually strengthen the side. My head however looks at previous transfer windows and wonders if we may have already had a glimpse of what may happen.
Now I’m fully aware that in the summer we spent a decent amount and I still think we added some good players. But that’s so far been a one off and was at least partly brought about because of failures to invest previously.
The thing is some of those platers have caught the eye, as have players who here already here, so who is most at risk when January comes around and given that I’ve already said we shouldn’t sell any of our first team, what figures would you think ‘fair enough’ about if someone did come calling for one our lads?
The first name is going to be Ayoze Perez who is already attracting interest and has already responded to that interest. The 22-year-old has been somewhat of a revelation since joining from Tenerife for a fee of roughly £1.5 million last summer.
This season he has four goals and has laid on a further two for his team, but it’s his willingness to work, his availability to receive the ball and what he can do with the ball when he does receive it that makes him a good player. Good enough not to sell.
So then the question comes of just how much would you hold your hands up and say that the club couldn’t refuse that amount of money? For me we’re talking Andy Carroll figures for a player who has shown he can compete in this league and still has potential to get even better.
Georginio Wijnaldum is another player who will be being looked at by other clubs. The Dutch midfielder has scored seven goals so far this term and without them we’d still be in the relegation places instead of just above it. Like Perez, Wijnaldum has also laid on two goals for his team.
He has attracted criticism from some fans which I think is harsh given that he’s played more centrally throughout his career and we are playing him on the left, but despite this he is our top scorer, has one of the highest pass completion rates in the side and has ran more miles putting in more interceptions than any other player in the side. We paid £14.5 million for him. If he was to move on so soon I’d be looking for double that.
One player who will no doubt again be linked with a move away will be Moussa Sissoko. Indeed I feel it is only a matter of time before he leaves St James’ Park which means that there is going to be speculation.
Sissoko is a frustrating one as he has so much pace and power but so often poses little threat going forward. Again I do feel slightly sorry for him as he’s being played on the right and not in the centre but I still feel he should be contributing more.
We’ve seen what he can do but getting him to do it regularly is the issue. We hear quite often that he thinks he should be playing in the Champions League but he difference between players like Sissoko and those who do play in the Champions League is consistency. Sissoko can rip teams apart but not often enough to be relied upon. I’d sell for £15 million.
Just to reiterate I don’t think we should be selling anybody, but if we did I think it’s those three who will have the most eyes watching them, and it’s those fees that I’d begrudgingly accept seeing them move on.
What do you think?
Are you sure Stuart @75. If we look at the buys in the summer they were:
Mitrovic – we needed a number 9
Wijnaldum – we needed a hard running midfielder with an eye for goal
MBemba – we needed a centre back
Thauvin – we needed a winger. That Cabella didn’t work out and that they stupidly fcked up with ben Arfa does not mean we didn’t need a winger.
Summer before that:
We also bought for need – Cabella, Riviere, Darlow and Lascelles. That they haven’t worked out does not mean we did not buy for the positions we needed.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sorry: I missed de Jong for buys last year. He has been injured for most of the time he has been at NUFC so we really don’t know what we have.
I disagree that we have not bought for the positions we needed. What we did was sell Santon without a replacement, extend Coloccini’s contract and think Steven Taylor would not break. Apart from in the defence our strategic moves have been OK. Whether the players were the right ones is a different discussion.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – We needed 2 strikers, we got 1. We needed 2 centre halves we got 1, we needed a replacement for Cabaye, we got Gini who is playing out wide or is a number 10. We didn’t need Thauvin as we had Cabella.
Previously we needed a goalscorer we got Riviere we needed a good centre half, we got a Championship centre half and keeper.
Stuart79(Quote)
And every club makes mistakes. Look at Spurs and Liverpool and who sits on their bench and is transferred after a year. They get lucky with Bale and Suarez and then think they are kings of the transfer market and blow it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stuart: if we got rid of Cisse we would have needed another striker. You value Ayoze @ 30 mil so don’t we have to play him?
Every team has holes. Man U spent 250 mil and can only make sideways and back passes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stuart: I will say it again, we have bought for need but maybe not the correct players.
Carr does seem to have a blind spot at fullback though.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Hey Stuart: I am not totally disagreeing with you. We made a big mistake in extending Coloccini’s contract and not paying a bit over the odds for Austin.
A lot of people on here see Sissoko or Wijnaldum as box to box midfielders so it could be argued that we have the centre mids already if only they were played in their correct positions?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, I think that Wijnaldum is a genuine box to box player, and will move central either latter part of this season, if we’re safe, or next season, (like a lot of central players new to the league, I am pretty sure Mc is deliberately giving him ‘wing’ time). He would still, for me, need to play with a complementary DCM – this could even be Anita or Colback. It would change our style of play, however, and would probably also be after Sissoko has got his big move to the bench of a CL team.
GTE(Quote)
GTE: “to the bench of a CL team” 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Is troy still hiding in the huffy corner since we didn’t sack SM?? 😛
Do you still think he should be sacked or given a chance? …given we’ll only sign similar *****
Gashley(Quote)
Austin looks in decent form to say he’s only half fit
Stuart79(Quote)
I see people trying to compare us to Everton again…Everton have had the kind of stability that our club could only dream of! Look at Everton from a player’s perspective, they’re a club with a good history, a good profile and will most likely compete well for the top 10 in the PL. Look at us from a player’s perspective and they have no bloody idea what to expect!
As for the Perez story…this was started a couple of months after we signed him! It’s just pure garbage. Throw enough rumours around about potential signings and some of them are bound to be true…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
STUART
I hope you’re not backtracking on Austin…you were saying we’d have been mad to have paid £15m for him last summer…what’s his market value this Jan? £3m? £4m?
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
TDS – I don’t think I said we’d be mad to pay it, I said that clubs where looking at it and saying they wouldn’t pay £15m for him because he only had one year on his contract. He now only has 7 months left on his contract so is value is coming down. That will value will only be what someone pays for him at the end of the day.
Stuart79(Quote)
That was my argument Stuart…I said if a club thought he was worth £15m then they could have paid it and he’d still be worth £15m. Better than not signing him at all.
He’ll have 5 or 6 months left in January and only a few games left to play for a PL club. Market value will be small…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Yes but as I was trying to explain to you, TDS, that’s not how clubs work. They don’t see the value in paying £15m for a player that will be worth half in 6 months and nothing in twelve months. If his value will still be £15m that will only be on the balance sheet, but the club will still have spent possibly £7m more than they needed to or in 12 months time it would be £15m more than they needed to. So to put it easily; The club pays £15m for him last summer and have a player worth £15m on the balance sheet or a club get him for £7m in January and have a player worth £15m on their balance sheet. Why would the club pay the extra £7m? That would be actual cash leaving their bank account which didn’t need to leave and isn’t compensated for by having a player that might be worth £15m. I’d rather have the £7m in the bank and have a player worth £15m than have nothing in the bank and have a player worth £15m.
Stuart79(Quote)
Makes no odds anyway, Austin has said he’s staying at QPR 😕
Not too fussed coz I don’t think it’s the position we most urgently need to strengthen IMO
Sharpy17(Quote)
Right Sharpy: if Spurs, or even us, offer to double his wages and give him the chance to showcase himself for the Euros he will not change his mind ???? Right. We need a goalscorer so it is a position we need to strengthen. You know, like when Barcelona didn’t really need anybody but replaced Pedro with Suarez. You can always trade up. Ask your girlfriend 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – the Austin post was tongue in cheek mate, I have no doubt he’ll jump ship the second a PL side come sniffing. Not sure about doubling his wages like – I think he’s on a canny wage at QPR to be honest, hence why he’s not too fussed about sitting tight.
I also agree about trading up. But my point is that other positions are more in need of trading up IMO. We get better creative midfielders or decent wingers and the CFs we already have have more chance of scoring. As for my girlfriend, I don’t really discuss her on this blog – my wife might be reading 😆 😉
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric – actually scratch that, I’ve just done a quick Google search and its reckoned he’s on £30k pw at QPR so yeah, I think a double your money deal could easily be done – especially if his arrival saw Cisse leave and his wage could be used to pay Austin.
Sharpy17(Quote)
If Austin moves in January to double his wage he will earn less than £1m extra over the next six months.
If he does not move in January he will become a free agent in six months time. He will then be able to negotiate a signing on fee and wage package from any club that wants him. The signing on fee is likely to be in the region of £6m.
I simply can not see Austin moving in this window and the arguement of showcasing his potential for the Euros has probably been scuppered by Vardy.
sidekick(Quote)
Our priority has to be a centre midfielder who can pass the ball well and score the odd goal. Someone like Cabaye.
Stuart79(Quote)
Sharpy: I am glad you took that as a joke, you can never tell on the internet. The comeback was good 🙂
Sidekick: there must be some way of putting together something that would be attractive in January for a player. That is one of the tactics NUFC use when looking for players, to get them towards the end of their contract, so it has to be doable. As for the Euro, you never know if Welbeck and Sturridge will be fit so there might be a place open.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think it is time to get rid of Cisse as long as we get someone else in. His average is now 1 goal every 3 games. He missed a few half chances against Spurs and we looked a lot better when he went off. He doesn’t seem to bring others into the game and when he is not scoring he is not worth his place.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Cisse has been a busted flush for the last 2 years to be honest. He certainly isn’t the type of player who offers much unless he scores and he doesn’t score many these days.
Stuart79(Quote)
Cisse has been a major problem for the entire team apart from that flukey start he had. Over the last 3 seasons he averages 6 goals. He can’t beat a man, stay onside, control the ball, pass well or finish outside the 6yard box. He’s absolutely hopeless and completely lacks football intelligence. Give away if we have to.
georgio(Quote)
I keep thinking that if I say we will be about where I thought we would be if we beat Villa that I will jinx it. But isn’t that a conditioned response to everything that has gone before @ NUFC? I can’t jinx it. The result will be what the result will be, whatever I say.
So 3 points it is against Villa then, and a hattrick for Mitro.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Villa is just the sort of game the likes of Sissoko won’t turn up for, our only hope is that it’s televised and he can showcase his skills again 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
So of the clubs that want Townsend he has said his pick would be the toon on loan,thing is I don’t think Jabba will pay the 14mil they want for him at end of loan,Spurs have already knocked back that amount from S/Hampton last summer,Jabba will want two players at least from abroad for that ,imo we need a ddefender or two first
icedog(Quote)
Icedog I totally agree we need a defender above all else. Why you may ask but here’s my main concern. Steven Taylor and Mike Willaimson contracts expire in the summer and if McClaren has any sense whatsoever he would let them both leave. Lascalles might come good in a season or two. So we need two CBs if both leave. Forget a striker, we need defenders more urgently.
Stem(Quote)
Colocini is still here next season, depressing.
Stem(Quote)
Those aren’t vultures, they’re condors actually. It must mean we’re going to get a South American player! 😀
GeordieTwo(Quote)
What about Willo as well STem mate? Maybe one of the condors will carry him off!
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Vey bold Eric mate @102. Very bold indeed. I say we sneak up on them and win 1-0. Mitro to score again.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
A pox on Villa and their supporters. Sand fleas in their crevices!!!
GeordieTwo(Quote)
And I don’t really understand how this cage fighting is any different to bare knucke boxing which was outlawed. They seem to have some kitchen rubber gloves on with the fingers cut off and can kick and strangle to their hearts’ content. Throw a couple of chickens, a badger and a pit-bull in there and we would be back to 1815, except with live pay-per-view TV.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I worry about people who are fans of UFC. What pleasure do you get from watching someone get kicked in the head until they are bleeding. You are very violent and disturbing if you enjoy that, in my considered opinion. 😕
DJG(Quote)
STEM my worry with Taylor is can he stay fit long enough to get him sold,a right sick note
icedog(Quote)
Picture this lads…..You’re standing in your favourite watering hole in the Toon watering your favourite hole when a parade comes past….It’s wor players hoisting the consecutive wins for the season silverware. Don’t tell me that doesn’t raise the hairs on the back of your neck!!!
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Very good point Eric mate. I especially like that reference to badgers… I would make it a honey badger with a nasty splinter in his paw. After that there would be no more UFC. It’s clearly not a sport. Only the States would think it was.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I do Muay Thai and consider Martial Arts a real skill. Any form takes years to perfect and there is a real respect for other people that are like minded. Going ‘man on man’ is the only way to put you have learnt to the test and there is no feeling like it unless you get your thrills some other way like throwing yourself out of an airplane. Not for everyone but we are all different and anybody you find in a ring or cage is there because they want to be there and would not have it any other way.
Shamrock(Quote)
If we ever got to four wins in a row I might briefly lose consciousness…..It’s that exciting…..
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Do we need Tiote? In the a st 5 years he has averaged 19 full games in all competitions for us. Not exactly somebody you can rely on.
Shamrock(Quote)
G2 that’s why it would be best to get rid of Steven Taylor because his hardly ever fit. As for Williamson his not going to get any better. Obertan’s contract is up as well. We might just get rid of the dead wood at long last.
Stem(Quote)
We require a central midfielder who can pass, move and score goals. Currently we have central defenders who aren’t great at defending or attacking and that is having an effect on us when it comes to trying to control games.
I imagine the game on Saturday will go something like this; Villa will sit back and try to hit us on the break, we will have all the possession, huff and puff without creating too much and hopefully we will sneak a 1-0 win.
Stuart79(Quote)
I brought up the cage fighting because a toon fan on Sunday said he had paid $65 for 13 seconds of it. I telt him he should be talking to Sharpy’s lass about 13 seconds, that’s double what she gets.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And if Adele is all they can do now then the x-factoring and American Idoling of music has reached a peak and I might as well listen to The Kinks and Black Sabbath for the rest of my life. Bah Humbug.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The MMA is not street fighting at all. It’s a real disciplined sport with some incredible fighters. It is no more barbaric than boxing.
Eric – from one man to another, please drop this girlfriend craic. If the wife is reading and sees the girlfriend gets 13 secs then I’m going to be expected to up my game at home as well man!!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
As for Adele, that girl has got some pipes on her. She is no product of the Xfactor or manufactured production line. She was given a help through the Princes Trust to get her music career off the ground. She has done it all herself and most of her success has came via the likes of YouTube – fans deciding for themselves, rather than having these cheesy acts forced on them.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Back to footy and I see Spuds are wanting £14m for Townsend – we won’t pay as much as that IMO. But I can see us loaning him until the summer – by which time there will be a Jonny foreigner available on a free – Andre Carrillo possibly.
With regards to Austin. I actually think he will stay with QPR until the summer.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: I will.
Now, I am not a stats boffin but when was the last time we got a penalty? How many have we scored from corners in the past 2 years? In fact, we must be about the worst at even getting corners. And have our 2 central mids whether Tiote, Colback or Anita scored or assisted this season? I don’t think they have.
I am glad that we have won a couple of games but if our lot are such great coaches shouldn’t these stats be better? I think Pardew’s lot have scored 20 odd goals from set pieces since he got there.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It is formulaic **** Sharpy. It just happens that the formula is Amy Winehouse and Detroit now. Bah Humbug 🙂 I don’t want to be one of those people who say that everything was so much better back then, but have you listened to Radio One lately?
Anyway, Southhampton and the Mackems can fight it out for Townsend at that price.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It is also quite amazing that our Captain seems to have the memory of a goldfish. He is saying that we used to lose our heads if we went a goal down but it is all better now. Has he forgotten Palace? Has he forgotten almost all of 2015? Has he forgotten the 1st half against Spurs?
I know he is saying what he is expected to say and that we are lucky that he even speaks at all.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I see Palace have fresh investment. Good for them.
Shamrock(Quote)
Eric – re a thread the other day, unfortunate what happened with those Leicester fans! It’s never struck me as a particularly nice city. I don’t have anything against them in particular, as far as midlands clubs go they’re quite low on my ***** list 😆
Newkie(Quote)
On topic, the vultures will definitely be circling. If they aren’t then they aren’t watching our players – some of them are class and have huge potential. Perez as I said even when he first arrived has something speical about him. His market value is probably something around 15 mil, but I wouldn’t sell him for anything less than 30. We’ve got him on a decent contract and he is working hard for the team, so he will constantly improve. His value is hardly going to decrease dramatically and even if we sold im with only a year left on the contract, we’d make a tidy profit for Mike.
I think it’s too soon for people to look at Mbemba and Gini, but they both have bags of ability so another year or so and they will attract some serious attention imo.
Sissoko, well, he doesn’t have ages left and seems highly unlikely to commit to us, so we should probably consider offers. It’s frustrating though because again, he has loads of ability, but we just can’t seem to tap into it on a regular enough basis. If we did then he’d be going for about 25-30 mil.
Newkie(Quote)
I know the call is to go more English, but I do think we could do another raid on Anderlecht as look at Praet, Teilemans and Najar – 3 real quality players IMO.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy – Can we afford more players who might need a year to get use to the PL?
Stuart79(Quote)
Newkie – I think Perez will be an absolutely brilliant player and seriously believe he will go on to become a £40m player at some point. His technique is just so much better than anybody else at the club and he is so clever. We should be offering him a better deal now on a long term contract.
Stuart79(Quote)
Palace have sold 38% of the club for £100m. That values them at about £265m. Surely we can get a buyer these days!
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – I’m a big fan of Shelvey and I think we should have bought him when Lpool let him go for as little as £5m. He’d be perfect for what we need for our current set up. But will Swansea sell, and if they would – at what price?.
I think Teilemans is a truly quality player – a bit like Dele Ali who we also should have bought for £5m when we had the chance. But I think Teilemans would settle straight into the PL – but would cost a lot more than £5m.
Praet may take time to settle, but I think Najar would settle pretty quickly. He’s a right winger who just loves putting crosses in the box – perfect for Mitrovic and it worked at Anderlecht. Reminds me a bit of Nathan Dyer.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stuart – I’d agree with that, I just hope the powers that be will recognise it. I don’t think any clubs will think about shelling out anything more than 15 for him right now – but that’s more because of our poorly we’ve been playing as a team so he hasn’t had much of a chance to shine.You only need to look at someone like Mahrez where playing in a successful team can catapult your value.
Newkie(Quote)
STUART@134 I would like to hope so,the Chinese have payed 265 mil to buy a piece of M/city,they could just about bought toon for that
icedog(Quote)
Stuart I just read on Eds blog today that we are the 18th richest club in europe. We are worth 222 million with **** sponsors. Just imagine where we would be if we got the going rate from Sports direct and Wonga ? Somewhere near Spurs or just below. Even a share holder would do for me. At least Ashley would have to answer to someone.
Terry(Quote)
Mike Ashley said we would be competing for the premiership in four years. He also said we would have a stadium 60,000 seater stadium. He also said he didn’t buy a football club to make a profit. He also told Kevin Keegan he would have the final say on transfer’s and the club got relegated. Then it was a top 10 finish with no investment whatsoever and the return of Joe Kinnear. Instead we had two relegation battles and we could still have one this season. The man isn’t going anywhere until we won something.
Terry(Quote)
My question is how are we going to win something ?
Terry(Quote)
Oh we would be a lot better off if Jabba got us a proper sponsor and actually paid his sponsorship money for his crass Sports Direct advertisements on our training kit, training ground, stadium, stadium boards and even the coaches seats. Not to mention the adverts on the backdrop when the manager and players gets interviewed…
Stuart79(Quote)
Looks like Jose is on the market again. Wonder if he fancies a job so he can really prove himself…
Stuart79(Quote)
Was hoping to see Chelsea goes riot against Sunderland and score tons of goals..
Now without manager, Sunderland might just win it~! 😡 😡
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
It just shows how players can stuff things up no matter how good the manager is if they don’t want to front up your gone,to much player power these days imo
icedog(Quote)
Ice, Totally agree, they have mugged the bloke them players. Watch them play out their skins when the new guy comes in.
kimtoon(Quote)
He had it coming. Everything that went wrong was somebody else’s fault. Not only that, he was deluded. How are players supposed to be motivated to do better when coming off a 3-0 loss to Man City Mourinho says Chelsea were in complete control of the game and the result was a fake?!
Shamrock(Quote)
Kimtoon I reckon you could win the league with FC Porto and Chelsea when they were spending bags of money on players.
Terry(Quote)
He has always taken over somebody else’s team and had instant success with them. He also had the money in the bank to buy a couple of luxury players to add to the team. How many managers apart from Alex Furguson and Arsene Wenger get to do that ? Good manager yes but he ain’t no special one.
Terry(Quote)
Still think the players were taking the **** tbh
kimtoon(Quote)