After a slow and sluggish start to our summer rebuild, Rafa Benitez has now assigned five new recruits to his Premier League project, and whilst more will undoubtedly arrive, I have one niggling concern with those we have brought in so far – their age/experience.
Mikel Merino, Jacob Murphy and Javier Manquillo – three promising young players with potential to improve, but at 21, 22 and 23, they lack experience and the Premier League know-how our squad severely lacks.
Then there’s Florian Lejeune and Christian Atsu. At 26 and 25 respectively, the pair are at good ages, but it must be said that they too lack any real top flight experience, despite forgettable ‘stints’ at Manchester City and Chelsea.
For the record, I have been mightily impressed by Lejeune over pre-season, and am becoming increasingly confident that he will be a hit, but as we’ve learnt with the likes of Mapou Yanga Mbiwa and Jean Alain Boumsong, foreign imports do bring that element of risk.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for signing players for the future and scouring the European market for bargain buys – there’s every chance the likes of Murphy, Lejeune and Merino turn out to be future stars at the club – but we need players for now, and it’s fair to say that not one of our five summer signings have any proven track record in the English top flight.
Premier League experience is undoubtedly lacking in our squad, with just five players with over 100 Premier League appearances (Diame, Krul, Colback, Clark and Shelvey), and it will be argued that only two of those are players you’d want starting against Spurs in the season opener.
To summarise, i’m quite content with some of our signings thus far, however I am hoping to see Benitez bring in some senior figures and players with some Premier League experience in the weeks to come – we can not afford to take a leap of faith next season in such a defining period for the club.
The addition of some experienced heads, Premier League know-how and proven quality would go down a treat – but given our limited resources and reliance on player sales, signing the above is easier said than done – especially in this day and age.
Young #NUFC
Woodman 20
Yedlin 24
Lascelles 23
Mbemba 22
Manquillo 23Murphy 22
Hayden 22
Mireno 21
Aarons 21Perez 24
Mitrovic 22 pic.twitter.com/Vd80CjP0kf— NUFC Gallowgate (@NUFCgallowgate) July 27, 2017
We sort of have to break the transfer record, we have been so close – Mitro, Gayle, Ritchie. Leicester just spent 25 million on Ihaneacho (sp) and he has scored like 19 goals in 2 years. He is young but a lot of that was in garbage time when City would be a few goals to the good anyway. And if you have De Bruyne and Silva feeding you, you bloody well should score a few goals.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And I predict Everton will finish outside of the top 7. They are losing 22-25 goals from Lukaku and will not know what to do with Rooney. I don’t care how many talented midfielders they buy, somebody has to score.
Same with us with wingers by the way. I don’t know why Rafa wants another one when striker and attacking midfielder/Number 10 are the biggest holes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sham I have cCleaner installed and use it often especially after coming on here if it’s slowed my pc down. A good clean restores the speed lost . Anti virus is Avast as recommended by the daughters web designer mates .
kimtoon(Quote)
I totally agree with that take
Icedog(Quote)
So Waugh on our local rag has said today that there have been clubs ask about wearside jack,I could have told him two days about that,so imo they have no inside knowlage of what’s going on in the toon,now one of our writers has done a thread on it,good on yer
Icedog(Quote)
Icedog that’s a very big if getting rid of some of these players. Any sensible manager would stay clear of Riveire, Saviet etc.
Stem(Quote)
Problem is though Aussie is it’s become clear that certain players have no intention of giving up on their lucrative contracts and are not fussed if they don’t play.
kimtoon(Quote)
So Hoots signs “another ” player a defender for over 6 mil,think that’s about seven signed to date,we are really lagging behind
Icedog(Quote)
I agree mate
Icedog(Quote)
Just watching the seagulls owner chatting on SSN, clearly loves the club and says they are still looking for 2 more players.
kimtoon(Quote)
Must be nice to have an ambitious owner instead of an avaricious one 🙄
kimtoon(Quote)
Aye and I bet he hasn’t the money jabba has ffs
Icedog(Quote)
very true I suspect mate, but he is a true fan and not seeing the club as a vehicle for other business concerns like someone we know.
kimtoon(Quote)
I think I’d rather not hear what Ashley has to say about NUFC!
Aussie – nice positive post again. Not like you mate. You could well be right as it now seems we really are short of cash after the early predictions of £70m -£100m spend. I don’t even pretend to know how this works but if presumably other clubs pay in installments like Spurs for Sissoko, then why can’t we? £30m player for £6m up front? I’d take 3 of those right now.
georgio(Quote)
I agree with you and also loved reading your article. Well explained.
Hamza Ghazi(Quote)
NUFC Index Retweeted
Steve McKenna @SteveMcKenna_ · Aug 6
More
@NUFC_Index Some quality strikers available cheap
Remy
Bony
Perez
Each of them less than £15m
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim I would take any 3 of those strikers mate.
Stem(Quote)
I would take any of those strikers out atm
Stem(Quote)
Stem , we really need a quality proven forward, I will bet now that Gayle hardly features this season, the guy seems to have a mental block over his hammy’s. From what Rafa said he feels uncomfortable, yet the docs are saying he’s fine !
kimtoon(Quote)
I personally think there is something going to happen with Lucas Perez.
Rafa is a smart man and I don’t think he would have spoke about Perez or said he had spoke to friends back in Spain about him if there wasn’t a good chance the lad was on his way.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Brighton’s current transfer record is 5 million, so they are not exactly going wild in the transfer market either. What they are doing is getting some numbers in, but if we were just doing the same thing with the fees they have paid you would have NUFC fans complaining that is was quantity over quality.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
They have just spent over 6mil today on a defender mate
Icedog(Quote)
I said earlier in the thread that the players we will probably find hard to shift are Riviere and Lazaar and possibly Saivet because some club might take him on loan with us paying part of his wages. Combined, their wages are probably one Jack Wilshere or one Jesse Livermore so I think there is a bit of a political/propaganda game going on here about us shifting all of this dead wood.
The rest we will be able to shift either by sale or loan.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Spurs have made some great signings but they have had plenty of misses as well. Soldado cost them 29 million, of course there is Sissoko and Lamela was 26 million and has been OK at best but was also out all last season. In comparison, our mistakes have not cost a lot of money and are not raking in massive wages by PL standards.
I am sure we pay better wages than the likes of Burnley but we were meant to be competing with the likes of West Ham and Everton under Pards and then McClaren. They didn’t get relegated though so they don’t have that financial hole to fill.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ice: that happened today and is their new record.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
* Jesse Lingard. Jesse Livermore was a famous stock market manipulator in the 1920’s.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Olly is saying the Stoke Sentinel is saying The Mirror report that NUFC offered 12 million for Joselu is utter nonsense. By the same token, can we assume their report that Rafa is “furious” is also tabloid clickbait rubbish?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
probs offered £1.2m more like 😆
kimtoon(Quote)
Said.y/day from Stoke end toon bid was 3mil,that is a joke imo
Icedog(Quote)
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/joselu/profil/spieler/81999
kimtoon(Quote)
Thanks for that KIM,look like the toon bid of 3mil was about the market value going by that then
Icedog(Quote)
Ice, makes sense I suppose, he isn’t exactly pulling up trees like, but maybe Rafa sees something we don’t realise.
kimtoon(Quote)
Ice Stoke paid £5.75m for him apparently in 2015
kimtoon(Quote)
That falls into line with what I was told about the 3 mil,they wanted back what they payed for him
Icedog(Quote)
understandable really. Stoke fans don’t want him to leave, they mostly rate him
kimtoon(Quote)
Would be nice if he turned out like the last signing we got that nobody knew anything about
Icedog(Quote)
A player is only worth what another club is willing to pay for him. I don’t see many clubs bidding for this Joselu bloke. Is he any good? 😕 By that I mean is he actually better than Mitrovic? Don’t laugh because Mitro scored 9 goals in 34 PL appearances at the age of 20/21. Joselu scored 4 goals in 22 PL appearances at age 25/26 in the same season. (15/16) See what I mean? I think it is almost universally accepted that the next striker contract has to go to someone who is an improvement on Mitro and Riviere. I think we need to sign another creative central midfielder ahead of this guy.
DJG(Quote)
he’s not my first choice mate, was hoping for better tbh and Gayle and Mitro would seem better than him .
starting to feel like bottom feeders with this striker search.
kimtoon(Quote)
Persz has a half decent record when you consider that he has often played as an advanced winger and not just a striker. I would take him.
Not fussed about Joselu at all.
shamrock(Quote)
Perez seems to be in our price bracket as well. Arsenal are asking 13-14 million which is what we paid for Gayle and Ritchie. Maybe he could be a number 10 as we have a need there – De Jong has injury problems, Ayoze is erratic and Diame is just not suited for that role.
I also think he put in a transfer request which should grease the wheels. That negates any loyalty bonus that would be owed him and I think there are other financial rewards for the selling club.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Olly: Just read your article on Lucas Perez. You are saying that Galicia TV are saying we are now favourites. There may be some substance to this because Perez was born in Caruna which in Galicia. He played for Deportivo la Coruna and they were supposed to be the other club interested. If the local TV channel is saying we are favourites it might actually be true.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The wheels seem be turning again. According to Olly’s article, we are ready to meet Arsenal’s asking price on Lucas Perez.
funrafa(Quote)
Was thinking about Mitro. He had an article in The Mail where he basically said he was a juvenile delinquent who was saved by football (we had one of them, Nile Ranger, and that didn’t work out so well). What sort of nutter drops rocks off a bridge onto a moving train? Says he has matured now. But I think that is a big part of why Rafa didn’t play him, his temperament. Also, quite often he didn’t fit the system of pass and move and press when we give up the ball.
However, he could be a plan B because he has certain attributes that may work against more physical teams. At the moment we do not have much choice because we are so short handed up front even if we get Lucas Perez.
I keep going back and forth on Mitro. He seemed to do OK in his first season in the PL and most of that was under Schteve McClown. He also wanted to play a high press but he had a 5 second rule (like when you drop food on your kitchen floor? 🙂 ) No, his was that if you give the ball away you have 5 seconds to press and get it back and then you drop back to defend. I always pictured the players running around with stop-watches or iPhones going 5-4-3-2-1 now defend. It is pretty obvious now that Ferguson’s Man U did so well despite McClaren and not because of him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/aug/08/premier-league-2017-18-preview-newcastle-united
an interesting read if you haven’t seen it
Premandup(Quote)
thanks Prem, yes good read and pretty spot on imo.
kimtoon(Quote)
It would be great if we can get a deal done for Perez, and Vazquez still looks like he’s wanting a move – would be great to get both but I fear that could be wishful thinking without moving Mitro on first.
I think Rafas chat with Ashley was to convince him to sign a chq to sign Perez while he’s available. The money can be put back as and when these fringe players get sold but that’s taking far longer than Rafa hoped I reckon.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: saw in one of the papers that Vasquez is indeed looking for a move and that Liverpool, Arsenal and Roma are interested. He is 26 and I doubt he would move to a club that is not in Europe. I would have said CL but for the first time in 22 years Arsenal didn’t qualify but they still have the reputation and the money.
Real Madrid don’t really seem to be bothered about selling their fringe players to supposed CL rivals so I doubt they would loan him to us. Off the top of my head recently there has been Ozil, Di Maria, Alonso, Morata.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Jese, James… there’s probably more.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – on top of that it is a big drop in expectations (same with Correa) for Vasquez to come to NUFC from Madrid. Would love it but can’t see it happening. I see Rafa’s in London today for Managers conference. Could be a chance to bend Wenger’s ear and/or meet Perez.
As it stands he seems the most likely available striker and £13m hardly seems startling.
I can’t remember now but who played up top when Mitro went off in the 5-1 against Spurs?
Can Ritchie be the surprise success as a No 10? Once he’s found out at RW he’s easily nullified and he looked much better last season moved inside.
georgio(Quote)
Georgio: he played a sort of 4-2-3-1
Tiote and Colback as holding mids
Sissoko, Gini and Townsend ahead of them. Probably Gini was the number 10 but Sissoko had his best game in years and burst through the middle sometimes/
And Mitro up front.
This Sunday the only likely survivor from that team is Dummett unless Mitro plays.
The defense was Darlow, Janmaat, Taylor, MBemba, Dummett.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We will probably face a very similar Spurs team to that day as they were pretty much at full strength and wanting to finish second ahead of Arsenal. I think Dele Alli was suspended. We did the double over Spurs that year. Its a funny old game Saint.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I saw an interesting stat in The Sun of all places. In the Premier League, only 2.3% of all goals come from direct free kicks. So, if we score 50 goals in a season only one would be from a direct free kick. It made me think that unless you have Lionel Messi in your team you may as well look at some more inventive options.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Perez on plane to Newcastle airport !!
Icedog(Quote)
Great news Ice.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
There is now pictures all over Facebook of him sitting in the plane so it looks like it’s right,I hate *** imfo but this one seems right
Icedog(Quote)
My only worry over this storey is my mate has said nothing over a medical being booked,unless he’s going elsewhere but that’s not normal
Icedog(Quote)
Things going well it seems.
Stuart79(Quote)
Very positive sounding stuff Ice. Hope this one comes off – though he won’t be ready for Spurs, I think he’s a 15 goals a season forward personally.
Ice – on route to Malta mate, can’t wait now. Your info & advice has been spot on, so thank you.
Hoping to get the Spurs game like a proper fan on tour ?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Just thought, I might pass Perez at the airport ??
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY lots of bars in Malta show toon games mate plus you can take children in with no probs
Icedog(Quote)
SHARPY Enjoy mate you must be on 4pm flight,it’s cooled down there it’s only 33 c today 😎 😎
Icedog(Quote)
Ice – there’s a cracking Sports bar at the hotel with loads for the boy to do – arcades, pool, air hockey if he gets bored of the game.
Should have been 4pm mate but they’ve knocked it back an hour ?
Sharpy17(Quote)
33c ? I should have packed the long trousers ?
Sharpy17(Quote)
After checking with all my friends it looks like the Perez storey is not right and fake ( dam you Colin) thought it funny when there was no medical booked that’s why I double checked,sorry lads not my fault
Icedog(Quote)
Even pics on f/b are fake
Icedog(Quote)
Pardew is now a pundit for Sky Sports. Thank f*** I switched to BT Sports a few years ago. Him, Allardyce and Merson is enough to drive anybody crazy.
shamrock(Quote)
Hopefully, I should be able to comment more this season. I’m just reviewing the final drafts of my website, and with luck, it should go live within the next ten days.
Premandup(Quote)
What is it you do Prem, if you don’t mind me asking.
kimtoon(Quote)
I’m a writer. I write personal development materials. Don’t know if that makes anything clearer. The site is a way of getting my material out there.
Premandup(Quote)
It is not looking good …
funrafa(Quote)
Ah right, interesting.
kimtoon(Quote)
Thanks for the interest Kim. been a long time preparing it
Premandup(Quote)
Best of luck with the website launch Prem mate, sounds cool 😎
kimtoon(Quote)
How much would Shola cost from Notts County?
This window will end like January under McClaren. We’ll end up loaning a striker who’s *****.
Stuart79(Quote)
Watford spend over 11 mil on striker, S/Hampton spend over 18 mil on a player today,but don’t worry we are looking at a couple of loan deals ffs
Icedog(Quote)