Kevin Keegan says that he needs probably just four new players to round out his squad.
Andrei Arshavin – Russian captain would be great acquisition
Although we’re not yet safe from relegation we’ll allow ourselves today to look forward to who those players may be that are added to our squad in the summer.
If there are going to be four new players we think they will be a center-back, left back, midfield player and striker.
So let’s have a look at who’s available in each position and who would be the best one to bring in. We of course need your input on this and maybe Kevin can get a few tips from you. 😀
For left back there seem to be a number of very good and experienced PL players available that will fight it out with Jose Enrique next season.
Wayne Bridge, Nicky Shorey and John Arne Riise are three we have already been linked with.
Wayne Bridge of Chelsea
We would plump for Wayne Bridge. We’ve wanted Bridge at Newcastle for some time now and Bobby Robson had an £8M bid for him turned down when he was still at Southampton. We could probably get him for around £5M. So that’s one down and three to go.
For center-back there are a number of players who seem available.
Bayern Munich’s 6′ 5″ Daniel Van Buyton and Richard Dunne both played for Kevin while he was manager at Manchester City and there seems big support for Vincent Kompany, the 6’3â€Belgian center-back currently playing for Hamburg. Vincent turns 22 next week. Also Wes Brown of Manchester United is available as a free agent, and has lots of good experience.
Wes Brown of Manchester United
Of these we’d have to bring in Wes Brown, just because he’s a free agent and a proven Premier league player, but we also like Kompany a lot.
As far as midfield is concerned there are some good players, but we’re not at all sure who we could actually get. We’ve been linked with Wallsend local boy Michael Carrick of Manchester United and the former Arsenal star Jose Reye has also been mentioned as a possible capture.
We’ve also been linked with Deco of Barcelona and a popular choice would be Russian captain Andrei Arshavin. We’d love it if we can get Carrick but failing that we’d be very happy with Andrei Arshavin, who looks an excellent player. We think around £8M will get him.
We’ve been linked with many strikers. Dean Ashton, Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Dirk Kuyt, Australian Scott MacDonald, Mauro Zarate, currently on loan at Birmingham. Javier Saviola of Real Madrid and Eidur Gudjohnsen of Barcelona are another two we have been linked with. There’s a lot of very good strikers available there.
Mauro Zarate on loan at Birmingham City from Al-Sadd
Of those we’d be happy with Darren Bent or 21 year-old Mauro Zarate, who seems to be proving he can score goals in the Premier league for Birmingham City. We’ll go for Maur0 Zarate, and it looks like we may have a chance with the player since Birmingham might find it hard to pay £10M for him.
So that’s our fairly quick pick and yes we know, we’ve missed out a few others who we could bring in.
We think Carr, Rozehnal, Ameobi and probably Ramage are on their way out and we’d replace them with Bridge, Brown, Arshavin and Zarate.
They would cost around £22M but we’d probably be able to get £5M for Ramage and Ameobi, so that’s a net outlay of around £18M, which doesn’t seem too bad. We can certainly afford that and the squad will be vastly improved.
Let’s know what you would do in the summer.
Comments very welcome.
144 comments so far
Jameso
Apr 4, 2008 at 6:40 PM
Comment #121Andrei Arshavin was awesome last nite ,, a must buy
Andreas
Apr 4, 2008 at 6:51 PM
Comment #122Michael, I belive you’re wrong when you say “there is no way Newcastle can afford £50Mill wihout Borrowing or selling”. MA got nearly 1 billion pounds (in cash) when he floated Sports Direct. The interest alone on such a sum would mean a cracking transfer kitty (as an example). Sure, MA has most likely a big part of that money is locked in all sorts of investments, but I find it hard to say he can’t affoard funding KK. Moreover, since we’re debt free the upcoming TV-money etc could easily be used for transfers (and that would be around 30ish mill).
However, it’s a completly different story if he/we will spend. I think so, you do not – and that’s cool, we’ll just have to wait and hope.
Tom
Apr 4, 2008 at 7:19 PM
Comment #123anthony vanden borre anyone? solid young defender can play right back or centre back.
Jamie G
Apr 4, 2008 at 7:48 PM
Comment #124People need to stop basing their wish list on a) whos played well the last 3 games e.g zarate. and
b) who has good stats on championship manager.
We are going to find it very difficult to recruit this summer in my opinion…we are going to be after the same players tottenham, portsmouth, everton, villa will be after, almost all of whom will be able to offer european football. Call me pessimistic but i just think the fans are being naive…hopefully im wrong.
Walter Tibbs
Apr 4, 2008 at 7:49 PM
Comment #125Re: Kieran Hatten (#100)
Now Shay is finally getting sent for proper surgery to resolve the groin problem once and for all he’ll be fine. The way we’ve keep patching him up and sending him back out after just a few weeks’ rest, has been ridiculous.
Same thing happened when Taylor dislocated his shoulder a few seasons back, an injury that can only be properly fixed with surgery – yet we tried to fix it with rest.
And Ameobi. Running around on a dodgy hip for how long before we finally sent him away? Duff, Carr, Babayaro, Emre always seem to be permanently crocked with the same injuries too.
Our record with injury management has been atrocious – hopefully that changes under Keegan.
Whitt
Apr 4, 2008 at 8:19 PM
Comment #126i’ve just watched the Leverkusen/Zenit St. Petersburg game…Arshavin had an absolute blinder. Loads of pace on him. I would take him into the side in a heartbeat.
Gooderz
Apr 4, 2008 at 9:57 PM
Comment #127Just been watching a few clips on youtube of BÅ‚aszczykowski. He looks a solid player, and if his defending is at a decent standard then he’d fit right in.
Maybe we should get another mentioned target, Torosidis, in too. With those two and Milner on the books we’d be well stocked on the right hand side for years to come.
But that might be overdoing it a tad.
Leo
Apr 4, 2008 at 10:05 PM
Comment #128mounitnho would be good tall ask but not un certain
Leo
Apr 4, 2008 at 10:06 PM
Comment #129edgar rejected man united in favour of us earlier in his career
Toooooooooooooooooon
Apr 5, 2008 at 12:51 AM
Comment #130i play football manager and every time i bought kompany, nigel de jong and heitinga…we should look at this 3 players. kompany would be a good buy and also dunne….
buy another winger also, which can play both left and right (maybe a youngster)
SZCZRZŹŻĄĆÓ
Apr 5, 2008 at 7:49 AM
Comment #131we should get artur boruc from celtic. harper and given are old and have injuries a lot. tim krul? i watched him many times but i dont think so is a goalie for top 4 team. boruc is in 5 top world goalkeepers in opinion of many people. what ya think?
Simon Tate
Apr 5, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Comment #132Kev and McDermott were possibly scouting Miguel Veloso, according to commentators. He’s a 21 year old Portuguese defensive midfielder. Looked good in the Rangers v Sporting game. He played in the Sporting first team for most of the season in 2006/07. He was especially impressive in the famous Champions League win against Inter where he stopped Patrick Vieira and LuÃs Figo from playing effectively. Before the match, much was made of Figo’s homecoming, but by the end of the ninety minutes all the talk was about Veloso, who turned in a man-of-the-match display in a memorable 1-0 win.
Simon Tate
Apr 5, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Comment #133We would be mad not to bid for Arshavin (yes he is mentioned a lot). He is a great player and his performance against Lever was immense the other night, scored a great goal, created another with an excellent whipped in pass and created another opportunity with his running of the ball away from goal to open up the defense. He would be great as second striker, and would solve our right wing cover for milner as he plays as a right winger too. Great in a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2. He can also play in central midfield behind 2 strikers if necessary so very flexible. Imagine him just behind martins and owen or martins/owen and viduka – ouch!
mark
Apr 5, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Comment #134Wayne Bridge/Shorey
Arshavin
Diego
Zarate
Van Buyten
Another CB. Not Wesley of Brown as he is sheet.
mark
Apr 5, 2008 at 10:10 AM
Comment #135Jonathan Of Woodgate is crap.
Carlos Cuellar is the other Id go for, not another Booooooumsong I hope
scott9
Apr 5, 2008 at 12:27 PM
Comment #136i would be happy with bridge arshevin zarate n van buyten not brown i think he would be a good signing but i think van buyten is better.
robertsa
Apr 5, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Comment #137Arshavin- yes good young talent. 6m
Bridge- yes good and reliable. 3m
brown-no not reliable enough for us.
zarate-no too risky.
but what about…
Mcgeady-yes the best player in the spl.11m
Carrick-yes good passer and he is a geordie.14m
and if Bolton go down…
Davies-yes he always tries his best. 6m
Nolan-yes brilliant leader. 7m
Diuf-no he is crap.
Campo-yes experienced and mint hair. free
Stelios-yes experienced. free
Jaskelinan-yes safe hands. 4m
many rumours link…
lennon-yes very talented. 11m
Crouch-yes good in the air. 4m
Bullard-yes good at free kicks. 3m
barnes-yes great young talent. 7m
that is 13 player for 76m
leaving our club will be…
barton-6m
rozenhal-3m
n’zogbia-6m
harper-free
ameobi-3m
martins-8m
duff-4m
butt-free
cacapa-free
viduka-free
babayaro-free
emre-5m
carr-free
ramage-1m
thats 15 players for 36m
so overall we will spend 40m from the 50m we are getting and with a team with barnes carrick lennon and nolan in the midfield keegan will definetly entertain us.
Chris
Apr 5, 2008 at 2:20 PM
Comment #138I’d like to see Klauss Jan Huntelaar,Joe Cole,and Phillipe Mexes and either Bridge or shorey brought in
toon4lyf
Apr 5, 2008 at 3:43 PM
Comment #139we do only need four or 5 players id recoomend
wayne bridge
aiden mgeady
zarate
arca
lucho gonzales
mexes
we avta get rid off nzogbia butt ameobi ramage carr geremi rozenal barton and cacapa
play this team
…………………..harper……………..
arca……..mexes..beye………bridge
……………….gonzalez………………
…….emre………………..mgeady….
…martins……owen ……zarate..
im convinced that team wud challenge for fourh spot
Oga
Apr 5, 2008 at 6:54 PM
Comment #140All of them (except for Zarate) plus Gudjohnsen, Gomis o Cisse, Van Buyten or Alex, Matt Taylor and Stephen Appiah. Reyes if we sell Nzogbia.
blane
Apr 5, 2008 at 7:51 PM
Comment #141y is every1 against smith i know he hasnt scored but lets face it he is a great squad player and a do a job if (as wat always seems to happen) we get injuries and suspensions i belive maybes emre should leave as he never seems to be off the treatment table since he has came defiently think dunne would a great buy and if we can get brown for free then i think tht again will bolst our squad
Punk Skunk
Apr 5, 2008 at 8:03 PM
Comment #142Arshavin, Pandev, Tymoschuk…Possibly Bridge!..Van der Vaart( if he’d come), Ribery (if he’d come)
bennufc
May 4, 2008 at 6:06 PM
Comment #143we need 2 centre bks per mertersacker (9mil) and ben haim(3mil) a left bk bridge (4mill)we need 3midfielders aiden mcgeady in a swap deal with duff worth (8 mill take away duffs value thn its abt 3mill) van der vaart (10mill) and giles barnes (3.5 mill) a new striker possibly lukas podolski (7 mil) arshavin is gd bu th language barrir is 2 bigger risk 2 take i wud have lykd modric very much but he moved 2 spurs i wud sell ramage (1.5 mil) ameobi (3mil) carr and cacapa (1 mill) smith (4 mil) rozenhal (2 mil) emre (4.5 mil)
bennufc
May 4, 2008 at 6:14 PM
Comment #144…………………..given……………..
beye……..taylor..mertersacker………bridge
…….milner……van der vaart…..mgeady….
…martins……owen ……podolski
bench: harper ben haim barton nzogbia viduka
with th above signings we cud chalenge for 4th