Joe Kinnear’s big challenge when he sits down with owner Mike Ashley this week is to go through the side, and persuade Mike, that what he wants to do makes sense for Newcastle, and then have Mike fully support him in the January transfer window.
Dennis Wise – job is to get players into Newcastle Kinnear wants
It seems that Joe has already identified four players he wants, and presumably bids have been lodged for the players, and Dennis Wise is now looking at what it will take to get those players to Newcastle next month.
Kinnear talked first about his options for yesterday, which were limited at best:
“If you look at our options today – we didn’t have any options other than the ones I took. “
“I played Shola (Ameobi) but he wasn’t fit, we had no Oba Martins, Joey Barton is out. Habib Beye is our best right-back by miles and he’s out. Sébastien Bassong would have helped us aerially but he was suspended.”
“Beye is on crutches so it’s serious and Viduka will be out for at least a month. We’ve just got to get on with it though.”
“It was a disappointing result but without Shay it would have been worse. If it proved anything it proved he is the best goalkeeper in the league by a mile.”
It appears that Kinnear is keen on West Ham’s Matthew Upson, but not with his club quoting an asking price of around £15M, which is utterly ridiculous., especially with the current global financial climate.
It’s not only that Newcastle are unlikely to be able to afford that price, but more importantly he’s just not worth that kind of money, since there are lots of other players who are just as good and a lot less expensive than the England International.
Joe continued:
“Of course the injury situation determines my conversations with Mike. These are long-term injuries that we’re talking about and they are crippling us at the moment,”
“In the last eight or nine games our settled back four has been excellent but now we’ve lost three of them we’ve got to start again.”
“Before I would have said we had a steady back four but with the injuries I don’t know. The defense is an area that we will have to look at in January. I wouldn’t have said that before the injuries that we’ve got.”
Kinnear now feels that Liverpool will win the Premier League this season, but who wouldn’t, after witnessing their demolition job on Newcastle yesterday?
It’s clear that Liverpool were more than ruthless in exploiting Newcastle’s weaknesses, and apart from the magnificent Shay Given, who provided Herculean resistance especially in the first half, Newcastle yesterday were just not up to the job.
Joe continued:
“You have to take your hat off to Liverpool. Even with all the injuries we’ve got – and we’re missing three of them just after we’d sorted our defense into some sort of shape.”
“They took full advantage of it. They were head and shoulders above us,” “We were always second best.”
“It was one-sided because they are a world class side. Having said that I wasn’t too happy at the manner in which we conceded some goals, especially from set plays but overall they were better than us.”
“We had deficiencies in lots of areas.’’
Joe now has 5 days to work with whoever is fit for next Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Hull City. He will no doubt be working with the defense to shore up the team.
David Edgar looked like he could be made into a decent Premier league full-back with some good guidance, and Joe can surely give David some good pointers, since Joe played at right back in his playing days at Tottenham.
And we suppose if Enrique is again not fit for Saturday we’ll need to play Charles N’Zogbia at left-back, so the ending back four yesterday may be what we have to face Hull City with next Saturday.
But Hull City are now not the team they were, and in their last 10 league games they have won only one, drawn 4 and lost five.
That’s just 7 points from their last 10 league games, after starting so well, and getting 20 points from their first 8 games, including a win at St. James’ Park of course.
Our next step is to get into the 4th round of the FA Cup on Saturday, and we’re good enough to do that.
Comments welcome.
12 comments so far
wigaz
Dec 29, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Comment #1Totally agree Joe we do have them in the following areas:
RB CB CB LB
RW CM CM LW
CF CF
Only position we dont is in goal! but would not be suprised if given is gone in Jan. We would survive as Harper is a Great Keeper & Krul is quality as is Forrester in reserve.
Bosamuelson
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:04 PM
Comment #2I know its not nice to exploit people when there down, but in this case NUFC are down due to a certain Gerrard and its also nice that it is not a NUFC player that is mentioned under these headlines.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/7802932.stm
beyethegreat
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Comment #3bosamuelson
true
he wont get near the amount of stick barton has though to be fair this is his 1st time
Bosamuelson
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Comment #4Beyethegreat
true too
I’m not really saying he should as you pointed out it is his first time and Barton was particularly bad.
But as I said it is refreshing it is not us and maybe will deflect the hammering we got yesterday away from the press today.
(Sigh)
Toon Graeme
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Comment #5Oh Stephen you naughty boy!
beyethegreat
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Comment #6sayin that though bosamuelson the scousers arent exactley bezzy mates with the presss either
Jackie
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Comment #7The report does not actually say if Gerrard was directly involved. Wait and see.
LATINAMERICATOON
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Comment #8we need another center back and 2 other up and coming fullbacks to compete with beye and enrique. we need one holding midfielder and one attacking midfielder and we need one up and coming winger who can keep jonas and nzog on their toes. Finally we need 2 strikers, as its a miracle owen hasnt got injuried yet and he will probably be off in the summer. so that amount to 8 new players. i doubt we will gety that much so i would realistically be happy with one full back, one center back and 2 center mids…
Ericles
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Comment #9Hull are not the team they were, agreed. But NUFC are not the team KK intended them to be.
All these fantasy transfer window wishings are just so much hogwash. We need quality cover for RB, LB and CB. We need a midfield dynamo, we need a replacement for Owen for next season, and possibly replacements for some others in the first team whose resistance to other big club temptations is questionable. Get my drift? Suggesting names is pointless. How can we make assessments when we do not know who Wise is going to see out the door soon?
Bosamuelson
Dec 29, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Comment #10What you mean Beyethegreat
chuck
Dec 29, 2008 at 9:10 PM
Comment #11Need help?
O`kay, how about Johnny Evans from Man U.
a CD with a big future.
Need an up and coming young RB to eventually take over from Beye.
What about Sahko ?
Certainly need midfielders, how about putting in a bid for Appiah and for the future Sissoko.
Veloso could be a real good buy but cant expect MA to splash the cash.
That leaves a playmaking midfielder and a striker, Bent could be available and its your choice as to the playmaker, so whadda you think ?
Auschas
Dec 30, 2008 at 2:01 AM
Comment #12chuck fergie has come out and said evens will play Cb for Man U so I would be suprised to see him moved here. Some of the prices being touted around are ridiculous this window. 12 mill for bellamy rejected??? 24 mill for Defoe???? For gods sake buy abroad cause there aint no value at home.