Some good information in the Evening Chronicle today that in the last eleven days of the transfer window, Newcastle could be bringing in up to five new players, in a last ditch attempt to strengthen a squad that should have been strengthened last summer – but wasn’t – and we are paying the price of that huge mistake by being embroiled in a relegation battle.
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa – signing tomorrow?
And it’s very painful for the fans – to say the least. š
Newcastle are supposed to unveil Montpelier star and captain Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa tomorrow ā given that Arsenal (or even QPR) don’t make a last minute move for the player – and two other squad players should be recruited.
We think one of those is Nancy left-back Massadio Haidara and maybe Toulouse midfielder Moussa Sissoko – although his agents are meeting with QPR in London today.
And we are also being continually linked with young 19 year-old Florian Thauvin of Ā Bastia, who hasĀ beenĀ strongly linked with Arsenal over the last couple of days.
Newcastle also need to bring in a striker, with news – which we hope is true – that we are after Darren Bent of Aston Villa, although theĀ ChronicleĀ isĀ reporting two targets under consideration are young players – said to be more hungry than Bent – who doesn’t do much for the huge wages he is being paid at Aston Villa.
And a surprise to us is that we are presumably going to try to sign goalkeeper Jack Butland of Birmingham for around Ā£4M, and then loan him straight back to Lee Clark’s Birmingham City for the rest of the season, so he can get games.
So what does that mean for the future of Tim Krul – are we going to sell him in the summer – because neither player will want to warm the bench at Newcastle next season.
Alan Pardew will make another request to the Newcastle Board this morning for new recruits, when he meets with them – but it could be an interesting meeting after Newcastle lost another crucial game on Saturday – and managed to get the loss from a winning position – and at St. James’ Park tooĀ againstĀ secondĀ bottomĀ Reading.
We’ve seen how difficult it is to get new players into Newcastle this month, after famously losing out on Loic Remy – and we’ll believe it when and if it happens.
And we are supposed to announce the signing of Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa tomorrow, so we hope there’s no breaking news that another club – like Arsenal or QPR for example – are after him.
If we can get five new players in the next 11 days that will be a big boost to the squad – and we hope Newcastle can do it – because it’s crucial to our success in avoiding relegation in May.
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196 comments so far
jesperfuglsang - captain of the lemon crew
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:44 PM
Comment #161*start
Rotonda heights
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:46 PM
Comment #162check
I think the disappointment of Marv being subbed kind of overshadowed what the hell was shola doing as a right winger against the oldest and slowest left back in the league with obertan benched. Just a snapshot of pardew’s lunacy.
Ibizatoon - Back by popular demand
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:47 PM
Comment #163Jesper…Check it out man….it’s ermmm…going as well as our transfer activity š
Has our offer been rejected then guys? Hopefully just an initial offer, supposedly they wanted ā¬1m, so not that much to make up to make it happen.
Rotonda heights
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:48 PM
Comment #164Is Gouffran any better than Obertan? I don’t think so. Unnecesssary purchase.
Crucial – M’Biwa.
Would likes : Thauvin, Sissoko and Haidara
Pardews Parsnip Bonce
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:49 PM
Comment #165@ts agreed that there’s a better group on during the week than on match day. even though i often disagree with posters like catchy and cheick the toastie they do have the power on sensible discussion rather than the weekend wordsmiths’ “pardew out” and “f**k off ashley you fat c**t”
Andreas Andersson
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:49 PM
Comment #166This is my very first post on this blog, after reading it for years!
I really think that we should be buying QUALITY not Quantity.
Id rather see us spend well on a Striker, then 3 french teenagers.
We need the finished article NOW.
We should be breaking the bank for de Jong!
north_country_boy
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:49 PM
Comment #167I agree with the players people above have mentioned to a point – it would give us a lot more depth in defence but still think we’d be lacking in goals – if anything happens to Cisse between now and May it doesn’t matter how few goals we concede we still need someone to put them away at the other end and can’t see Shola and Ranger doing the business so hope they are still looking at another striker with 20 goals a season in them – every club needs to have 2 of these if you are looking towards the top half otherwise you end putting all your eggs in one basket and hoping your main striker doesn’t pick up an injury.
Krul Blow
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:52 PM
Comment #168I heard we’re looking at UAE captain Omar Abdul Rahman Al Amoodi as a striker.
Markaccus
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:52 PM
Comment #169TSage yes. I’m not one of those who likes to spend other peoples money for them, and I know 1M in reality is not exactly ‘measly’ as I have said, but like youi say if we’d pay 8 for remy, then 1M is a bargain. Hopefully your right and we’re just testing the water. I just hope they don’t take offence to the first bid and tell us to eff off.
northernirishtoon
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:53 PM
Comment #170Put all our eggs in one basket?????
Surely we wouldn’t do something as stupid as that……….
Rozzy
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:54 PM
Comment #171Seydou Doumbia would be a great signing as he like Remy can play on the wing or as the main striker. Has lots of pace and bag a lot of goals. Also Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa would be the perfect replacement/partner for Collocini. He has pace which is rare for a centre back and is tipped to become on of the best centre backs in Europe. If Collocini does leave a second centre back needs to be brought in to challenge S.Taylor for a start. Five players would be great come on !
Macas
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:54 PM
Comment #172Anybody would be better than Obertan.
Think we need a good left winger too though even if we do get Gouffran, our attacking options are non-existent.
Supported Gutierrez earlier in the season, but it’s clear he’s not the player he was anymore going forward.
Transfer Sage
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:56 PM
Comment #173rotonda
he has a decent record, and whilst not a replacement for Ba he is a decent replacement for best.
If we can get another striker in as well then it will be a good buy.
Markaccus
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:58 PM
Comment #174@Krul blow, with a name like that, he’s bound to an explosive player, deadly in the air (I know not all arabic named ppl are torrorists, its a joke š )
alf
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:58 PM
Comment #175This Goufran is alergic to Grass but doesn’t mind a bit of Charlie! Is Pardew still in town?
stuart no9
Jan 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM
Comment #1765 players or 105 does it realy matter? the problem is still going to be here!!
gfp13
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Comment #177Hopeful on de Jong. Brilliant player who offers an extra creative avenue which is what we majorly lack but it is unlikely but there has been stranger transfers
Krul Blow
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:03 PM
Comment #178@Markaccus
Bwahahaha!
Apparently Usain Bolt is looking for a contract… when we get desperate…!
RooneyToons
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:04 PM
Comment #179Rotonda
Your joking right?
Obertan has 5 goals in 118 games Gouffran has 12 this season so far( 11 more than Remy)
He’d be the perfect back up striker for me and surely leaves us enough to still by a proper Ba replacement
John Tudor
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:06 PM
Comment #180shhh last one out put the light out
toonLYF
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:07 PM
Comment #181Omar Abdul Rahman is absolutely outstanding – one of my favourite players in the world at the moment, sadly he is not open to a move at this time (apparently).
After his solid performances at the Olympics Manchester City took him on to train for 2 weeks and he was allegedly offered a full time contract however opted to head back to the UAE.
If i was to compare him to Premier League players, for people who haven’t seen him play.
I’d say he’s a deadly blend between Cabaye and Fellaini, and not just because of the big afro!
Wayayman
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:07 PM
Comment #182This ‘allergic to grass’ thing, isn’t that just lost in translation as Hayfever?
theroosta
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:08 PM
Comment #183We have 11 days, players still to come in, players coming back, looks like cabaye will be ok as well, dont really think there was owt wrong with him just our manager yet again being over cautious, his oulook concerning our playing style and team selection has to change, he is draining the life blood out of the club with his tactics and formations and team selections.
We need this squad strengthened and heavily and now, it gas veen said many times but, willy shola perch obertan simpson need moving on prob in the summer now, not good enough and a real hindrence, and id sammy agrees with ranger concerning our fans then he can go with him, headless chicken anyway.
Markaccus
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:11 PM
Comment #184Usain bolt would be excellent, if not just for his Goal celebration <_o_/ (best I could draw lmao)
Ketsbaia9
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:11 PM
Comment #185We need strikers and for Ā£1m, it’s worth going for Gouffran. We need a striker to replace Ba though. Gomis is an option. Signing Sissoko is a must.
magicbus
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:12 PM
Comment #186Anyone think Ashley and Lambarse get some sort of perverse pleasure in seeing us suffer?
Dont know much about Charnley as to whether he should be included with the above mentioned.
Rotonda heights
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:16 PM
Comment #187wayayman
yes but trouble is he’d play cisse and bent together like ba, not rotate them
Markaccus
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:16 PM
Comment #188Test < o / . Nah just looks random lol
Rotonda heights
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:18 PM
Comment #189yes but eveyone thought obertan was great when he was at bordeaux, esp fergie!!!
Markaccus
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:21 PM
Comment #190Kets we allegedly have bid for goufran, been rejected.
Its the pointing arm I can’t get right `o>
Markaccus
Jan 21, 2013 at 1:23 PM
Comment #191Could try a smiley: < š /
hugotoon
Jan 21, 2013 at 2:05 PM
Comment #192Hi everyone first time commenter here.
Been reading the blog for a while and think most people on here talk a lot of sense. The club is crying out for an owner and general management that is more ambitious than balancing the books and maintaining a mid table premier league position. This lack of ambition is the reason that we find ourselves in this pretty Goddam scary position. I still cannot understand why significant investment was not made last summer. As a businessman Mike Ashley surely knows it is necessary to speculate to accumulate, if he had invested Ā£20-Ā£30 million last summer in a new rb, cb, two cm’s, a lw and a st using Graham Carr’s expertise I honestly believe we would have qualified for the Champions League this season. The investment being made this window is simply investment that has been delayed 6 months. Add to that we are now struggling to attract talent and I am now resigned to losing Ben Arfa and Cabaye in the summer.
If we had strengthened properly in the summer, just look at Stoke when they qualified for the Europa League, they bought about ten new players in to bulk up their squad, then the team would have not been so fatigued and it is highly probable that Cabaye and certainly Ben Arfa would’nt have been injured. When September 1st arrived and we had signed one new first team player I was stunned.
Finally management should have forced Pardew into playing 433, not the rusting 442. I was lucky enough to see WestBrom vs Newcastle, in a 433 formation last season when our front three absolutely shredded their defence, it was one of the most brutal attacking displays I have seen from Newcastle. Ba the mercenary should not have been appeased, the team is always more important than one player and with him playing right wing we were a better team.
I understand that hindsight is a pretty useful thing but it cant be disputed the board screwed up last summer, now they have to redeem themselves. Lets just hope we can get some significant players i.e. Mbiwa, Sissoko a pacy striker/winger at least in to secure our survival, and don’t let them walk off to London once a medical is booked, put them in Ashley’s bloody helicopter! Oh and if we dont get 3 points at Villa Park, Pardew has got to go.
fray bentos
Jan 21, 2013 at 2:08 PM
Comment #193@andreas Anderson
Why have you named yourself after potentially Newcastles worst ever striker? Or is that your actual name?
fray bentos
Jan 21, 2013 at 2:29 PM
Comment #194Taking Marveaux off was a shocking decision
I’m going to stop defending pardew on here, I’ve never thought he was amazing, i think he’s half decent manager who seems to excel at parts of his job but is lacking others, I always thought that given time time in the top league he might mature into a better manager, but the performance on Saturday has changed my view. Before we scored we were by far the better side and then after it was just blatant negativity in my opinion, he can grow but that negative attitude will likely never change.
I don’t think our situation is just down to him, I believe that there has been some sort of dressing up disruption down to the lack of signings in the summer and he has also been unlucky with injuries, are squad is massively overhyped by many on here and I don’t think he is clueless but the negativity exists and in the long term that will never make us win anything
I don’t believe he should be sacked now and I’m not sure if we can attract anyone better, but ideally I would like to see him gone in the summer only if we can get someone who is guaranteed to be better. The problems at our club are largely down to Ashley and pardew is an easy scapegoat
burnzy
Jan 21, 2013 at 5:31 PM
Comment #195i hope we get this player as we need to be stronger in defense and to stop conceding sloppy goals
jayo
Jan 21, 2013 at 6:12 PM
Comment #196anyone tell mw when Mbiwa medical is some reports say it was the day on some say tommorrow