Malcolm Macdonald seems to question whether any money is available on Tyneside for summer transfers.
Mike Ashley – is statement purely a smoke-screen – probably
This is what Malcolm told the Evening Chronicle today:
“Now people are saying they can’t buy new players because of this statement about not spending money.”
“In the past people have seen Newcastle as a car crash, they’ve been stupid enough to pay anything.”
“In the past, when selling clubs heard Newcastle were interested, the price suddenly doubled because they knew they’d pay the money.”
“But now I wonder whether this statement is all a smokescreen to avoid that happening again, to say we haven’t got money to spend so that they can actually do a bit of shrewd business without paying over the odds.”
We have to think the Newcastle statement on no new capital being made available for players in the summer is a little bit of a smokescreen, and therefore we agree with Malcolm.
Sunderland Chairman Niall Quinn has already suggested it was a wily move by Ashley to keep transfer prices down, so Newcastle could get some good deals – unlike in past transfer windows – as Macdonald has so rightly pointed out.
That would also explain why the Newcastle Board are unwilling to clarify the statement to the Newcastle Journal, after being asked to do just that several times.
It could simply mean that Newcastle will pay cash up front for any players this summer, and will not stretch the payments beyond this year – so it’s not a capital outlay.
And the fact that Newcastle are due some money coming in from transfers of last summer would seem to suggest some money could be made available to Chris to strengthen the side.
And surely Ashley has learned from his previous big mistakes on Tyneside.
We cannot believe the Newcastle owner would now jeopardize Newcastle’s standing in the Premiership by not giving Chris what he needs to sufficiently strengthen the squad, after he produced the goods for Chris in January.
But we’ll not get our hopes up too high – because we could also be wrong on that.
Comments welcome.
8 comments so far
Xenarious
May 29, 2010 at 2:52 PM
Comment #1Personally I think it was a smart move Ashley made when he declared we don’t have much money to spend in that rather cryptic statement on the website not too long ago.
We lost A LOT of money last season by getting relegated and were running at a loss throughout the whole of last season due to having the highest wage bill. Fans and the press seem to forget this quickly after you get promoted back to the Premiership.
We need to spend small for a while to get back onto a sound financial standing. We are no longer the club that will pay the kind of money we used to, and a lot of fans need to understand and get used to it.
Once we stabilise ourselves in the Premiership, we can build up slowly and our transfer budget will increase over time.
With the new transfer and financial rules coming into fruition in the next few years, it would be unwise to spend big now.
Does Malcolm Macdonald have access to our financial data? No. He seems quite ignorant of the situation.
GeordieGerman
May 29, 2010 at 3:00 PM
Comment #2Said it a week or so ago. Screens and smoke.
Tom4Nufc
May 29, 2010 at 3:02 PM
Comment #3Sorry if this has already been said BUT when I read the statement I am sure it said ‘no NEW capital outlay for players’ or something to that extent… Well as far as I was concerned that just means we are not getting any more than the £20 mill a season which has always been the plan?
Thoughts?
Toon1978
May 29, 2010 at 3:08 PM
Comment #4Tom4Nufc
Well said and i do remember seeing that mentioned a while back regarding the 20 million.
Doha Mag
May 29, 2010 at 3:45 PM
Comment #5We need 3 to 4 players for next season and possibly a replacement for Steven Taylor if he doesn’t extend his current deal with Newcastle.
Central defender, cover at LB, creative mid field, cover for either wing and a goal scorer……..
coxonfamily
May 29, 2010 at 4:16 PM
Comment #6The problem i have with it all is if it is a smokescreen then the only people being kept in the shade are the fans anyway. The press will continue to write anything they want and will now stir it more than ever, while we wonder what the hell is going on. How can it be a smokescreen from other clubs? We still have to go to them if we want a player and start negotiations again, and they will do the same old thing of… “oh its newcastle and guess what they obviously have money cause they are asking for our players… lets double it again”.
So as Ive already said its only keeping us; the fans “smoke-screened”
Colombus
May 29, 2010 at 10:21 PM
Comment #7coxonfamily , I really don’t follow you. It all comes down to what we pay for the incoming players from now on. Lets say that we pay overprice for a new player now, then it will all be in vain… we have to keep this new market-strategy na dont pay silly money. Only this way we can be taken seriously in the future. Boooyah!
John
May 31, 2010 at 1:02 PM
Comment #8Why do we have to let everyone know our business it holds us back, you never hear Asenal are after someone until they have signed them, they never talk about money, but it always seems theirs someone conected to the club (our club inside source) more than willing to talk about NUFC business, always leaks about this or that, it must be a nightmare for a manager.