Last minute deals at St James Park?
To say the transfer window (so far) has been uneventful is tantamount to saying the Arctic is a bit nippy, as the majority of Premier League clubs are seemingly being careful with their finances. In some cases clubs simply have to sell before they can buy, much to the frustrations, no doubt, of many managers and supporters.
The lack of spending at the top of the Premier League has surprised many, especially given the open nature of last season’s title race. You would have thought the likes of United and Chelsea would have looked at a big outlay this summer, to ensure the also-rans remain at an arm’s length in their pursuits of the title. Only City have made substantial moves this summer, although you do feel that they may well struggle to strike a balance. This means this season’s race for the title, Champions League and Europa League places are very much as they were last year, unless we witness a major change in the transfer wind in the coming fortnight.
The media is predicting that a transfer storm is set to erupt, but it begs the question as to whether Newcastle really need to partake in some last minute shopping.
Does Hughton need to bring any players in before the transfer window shuts in 16 days time and if so who would you like to see him bring in?
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Ben Arfa for some creativity, maybe some cover in defence.
A top-class striker would be good but I can’t see it happening…
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I am agree with Freddie! Ben Arfa would be excellent, and we need another striker who can score a lot of goals. I think Asamoah Gyan, Mevlut Erdinc or Craig Bellamy would get us what we need. But then we need to cash on!
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Ben Arfa is definately the player we need to add the creativity and play off of Andy. Maybe we also need another left back as cover, preferably getting Van Aanholt back off Chelsea. I’ve also heard about Anichebe which would be a good signing and would mean that we could offload Xisco. Lastly if we could bring back Craig Bellamy on loan from City, that would be another outstanding piece of business but it currently looks like a long shot.
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i agree with the lot of you. if we get ben arfa like it looks we will, then left back cover and a striker could make us mid table monsters. the only problem is that we have to invest in a good striker. whats the point in throwing 2 mil out on a striker who would be 5th or 6th in our pecking order like anichebe would be. if we are gonna buy an average striker then i would rather save the money and keep ranger instead of sending him out on loan. we can rotate lovenkrands, ranger, and best in with carrol and develop our young players and be in a better position then if we bough anichebe. i think we need to spend 5 mil which isnt a great deal of money if thats all we spend this window and get a proven goal scorer who we know will put 15 or more in his account. come on ashley i know we are balancing the books and all but if we get relegated we will be in administration. we have spent 2.5 mil if you count loan money for ben arfa. i think 7.5 for a cover lb and a good striker is reasonable. that would put our total spending at 10 mil which is good….hwtl
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Seems to me the transfer saga surounding Hatem Ben Arfa is never ending, I must admit I find myself torn between wanting him to come as he’s undoubtably a talented player and feeling apprehensive that his arival could cause Newcastle to spiral back down the way they have come with headlines such as Barton and Ben Arfa in training ground brawl.
Perhaps things won’t come to that and he’ll be a magnificent signing who does amazing things for us, however if so then I find myself wondering if he wont just decide to try and do the same in a season or two once the bigger premier league clubs come calling like the vultures that we know they are, if he’s so easilly unsettled then it could easilly happen.
The fact is there are two sides to a coin, Olympic Marseille will always feed there version of events and Hatem Ben Arfa will always have his….. it’s down to the individual to make their own mind up whats going on.
I can totally understand his point of view that OM have not been feeding him the first team football he wants and he wants to move for footballing reasons, I can also see that he feels extremely angry at the way he’s been treated by them.
In my opinion OM have handled a situation caused by finding themselves weak of cover for his role appallingly, they have been disrespectful of Ben Arfa and labled him a troublemaker and a liar which has further incenced the guy.
So I can totally understand why he would want away.
I just have to wonder if he’s a good thing for Newcastle or not, his transfer could cause instability and ructions within the side or equally it could be the best thing we’ve ever done.
I hope it’s the latter.
As for other names mentioned here, Asamoah Gyan, Mevlut Erdinc or Craig Bellamy I very much doubt the latter would come back to Newcastle, many people have forgotten the disruption he used to cause, plus given his age and likely wage demands wouldnt exactly fit in with the current plans of Ashley. As for the others mentioned cost and wages make them unlikely too, whilst a loan for Bellamy is maybe not out the question I think his wage demands will make this dificult and make it more likely that Man City will want to offload him even perhaps as a freebie given his age.
The younger striker Anichebe from Everton being looked at is more likely to come, however I find myself wondering if Everton are going to want to try and make us pay for the earlier transfer of Dan Gosling where they ended up out of pocket. At 1.5 mil I think he’d be a decent buy, however If we were to end up paying 5 mil for the guy I think the money would be better spent elsewhere.
I’d quite like to have seen William Gallas come in on a free transfer along with Sol to be honest I think that could have been a very useful pairing for us for this season and next at least, but I expect wages would be the issue with him.
I think one player we should have checked out is Arda Turan currently plying his trade in Turkey with Galatasary, I heard a rumour he can be picked up fairly cheap and he’s an amazing player perhaps even better than Ben Arfa.
As for a striker well a proven Goalscorer might be useful, however dare I say it, I have a sneaky feeling that Xisco is going to come good this season, he just needs to get a decent run in the team, he’s been given the backing by some of Spains top players to do so, many of them played with him at under 21 level and are more than aware just how capable he really is.
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