Chris Hughton will be trolling through the more than 150 names whose contracts expire on June 30th, as he tries to see which free agents would be suitable for Newcastle United.
Chris Hughton – looking at the lists of free agents
Among the free agents available who may fit the bill at Newcastle is Cardiff City’s highly-rated 23 year-old midfielder Joe Ledley who has played over 30 times for Wales, and was a Newcastle target a year or two ago.
Joe has already played an amazing 246 times for Cardiff with 28 goals, and of course has been out since January with a hip injury, and only recently returned to the Cardiff side.
Chris spoke to the Newcastle Journal this morning about the many good players in the Championship :
“They are players in this division who have had very good seasons,” “There are players in the Championship that I am sure can do a job at a higher level.”
“They are definitely capable of stepping up given the opportunity.”
David Moyes was Preston’s manager from 1998 for four years, and he has made a habit of signing Championship players and then grooming them into Premier League players.
Sometimes David will even sell them for enormous profits to fund other buys – especially when he gets ridiculously high offers from the likes of Manchester City, who don’t seem to understand the value of money.
Moyes did that with Joleon Lescott, whom he sold a year ago for some ridiculous transfer fee of around £22M to – who else – Manchester City.
Moyes signed Julian from Wolves in 2006, for an initial £2M, which went up to £5M based on his appearances for the Goodison club, since he played 143 times for Everton in the three seasons he was at the club.
That’s still a £17M profit in just three years and Moyes also signed Phil Jagielka from Sheffield United, and he has become a very good player in the Premiership too.
The key is knowing which ones will be good enough, and that’s never easy.
Chris talked about what David Moyes has achieved by bringing in Championship players at Everton:
“David Moyes has done it in the past, signing players from this level and taking them successfully into the Premier League,”
“It shows that the players are there, it’s just a case of identifying them and giving them an opportunity.”
“You look at what David Moyes has done at Everton and for any manager he’s a great example of how to build a team and be successful by improving the players he has.”
Certainly both Mike Williamson and Wayne Routledge appear to have the talent to hack it in the Premiership, and we wouldn’t mind seeing some other young Championship players join the Newcastle ranks this summer.
Comments welcome.
5 comments so far
Toonsurfer
May 15, 2010 at 10:57 AM
Comment #1Hughton would do well to follow Moyes’s way of building a team on a budget, he proven that you don’t need silly money to do well.
If we can do half as good as he has then we will be on the right track to staying up.
WLtoon
May 15, 2010 at 11:32 AM
Comment #2I admire what Moyes has done at Everton,if CH can emulate his achievement then ile be happy.
We dont need a huge transfer kitty(just as well) to be a decent side in the prem,just plenty of thought and shrewdness.
I hav,nt seen the free transfer list but it would be my guess that there will be some very good players available.
My concern tho,and ive mentouned it before,is the wage cap at the club. Does anyone expect MA to be flexible with it even tho a player cost nothing.?
Take Ledley for example,30k a wk would be a big pay rise for him,so we could be confident of signing him,however,if 2 or 3 other clubs start sniffing around it could end up with who offers the highest wages. IF Cashley is flexible then we should be ok.
toonpigeon
May 15, 2010 at 11:51 AM
Comment #3I have the utmost respect for what Moyes has done Everton. If we follow the model were he first got potential players on loan and then a year later if they proved they were good enough, he signed them.
I think Joe Ledley would be a good sigining for us and I would love to see him at Newcastle. If we really want him, then we need to make an offer sooner rather than later.
noir9
May 15, 2010 at 12:07 PM
Comment #4Moyes has built a very capable prem team so if chris can follow his example I don’t think you will hear many complaints. Typical of the Journals recent reporting that they have to put a negative spin on the story. The signings Moyes made from the championship were all bought, they were not picked out the bargain bucket.
fongct
May 15, 2010 at 1:51 PM
Comment #5I agree that Championship has a lot of good players over the years….and yes, this can be the way forward
Ashley Young, SWP, Cahill, Bent all used to play in the lower division
no matter how Everton paid Wolves, Lescott cost 5M, Curtis Davies will also cost 4M now, according to the rumours…he also has an injury record like Lescott….Darren Bent cost Charlton 3M, we can also go for Fletcher who I like and I think the price isnt expensive either…
but they arnt bargains, Baines cost 6M, Jagielka cost 4M, they cost millions
There must be very few bosmans worth a gamble, like Ledley, I think we should go for him, but so will a lot of teams
I hate the idea of finding bargains in championship…If we dont even have millions to spend, frankly, why bother mention the future lescott or Bent or the Everton model