All five Frenchmen who arrived in January showed us they can all play a bit, but their form was up and down, as they tried to come to terms quickly with the much quicker and more physical Premier League – and maybe that was to be expected.
Massadio Haidara – this lad has an excellent attitude
It all started so well with two successive wins at Aston Villa and at home to Chelsea, but then reality set in and we struggled mightily in the final six games of the season, when we picked up a meager 5 points.
And as we had said earlier if we could have accumulated 11 points in those final six games, we’d have finished 9th top instead of 5th bottom.
But we didn’t and ended up just above the relegation zone. đ
Massadio Haidara made a good start to his Newcastle career, although he suffered a couple of injuries in the four months he’s been on Tyneside.
This is what the 20 year-old had to say in the Newcastle Journal today:
âI hope it will help to have a summer behind us,â âI hope it will be a bit easier for us than it was in January, when we had to get used to English football very quickly.”
âObviously it was up to me and the team to get used to it as quickly as we could, which was tough because there was already a squad and a team in place.”
âIt was always going to be difficult to come straight into that, especially in the Premier League.” âNow we have started to get used to it and how things work in England, so it is up to us.”
âWe must continue to work and graft and move on from there.â
All five Frenchmen have great attitudes, and seem to love it at the Tyneside club, but their form next season will largely determine how well we do in the league.
The very last thing we want is to be struggling against relegation again, and if that does happen, it could be goodbye to Alan Pardew and the coaching staff.
But we are fairly confident the lads will do very well next season, when our squad should be a lot stronger than last season.
What do you think?
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119 comments so far
geordie157
May 27, 2013 at 10:13 AM
Comment #1A summer of Ince, Sakho, McCarthy, Sinclair and Siem De Jong would do very nicely. But weâll probably end up with Heskey and Delap.
Oh and add Balde to that as a young replacement for Shola. I hope he goes more than the likes of Gosling and Obertan.
Indian Magpie
May 27, 2013 at 10:14 AM
Comment #2How much would Siem De jong be worth? Considering he is a better player than luke? more than 16 million? Some suggested may be even 9-10 million
Indian Magpie
May 27, 2013 at 10:15 AM
Comment #3and carlton cole
Black and White with an army lol
May 27, 2013 at 10:17 AM
Comment #4wow a lot of optimism today for transfers target, just one question though what makes you think PEA and De Jong would want to come to Newcastle?
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 10:19 AM
Comment #5Personal experience with Aubameyang and as for De Jong – he expressed interest last window but wanted to see out the season.
Indian Magpie
May 27, 2013 at 10:20 AM
Comment #6Black and White with an army lol
My optimism about NUFC died a painful death a long time ago.
Indian Magpie
May 27, 2013 at 10:21 AM
Comment #7Torq
How much would siem cost
Black and White with an army lol
May 27, 2013 at 10:22 AM
Comment #8Indian Magpie
same here mate, i’m just waiting for Cole to come through the doors, him and shola our top strikers way aye champions league this season lol
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 10:26 AM
Comment #9Indian – I would say around âŹ15mil.
If we can get him for that, or any less, I’d bite their hand off!
cestriasteve
May 27, 2013 at 10:28 AM
Comment #10Torq, dont we have enough in attacking midfield already? I would rather have Jeremain Lens out wide and he scores more domestic goals than De Jong. HBA should play behind Cisse/ Another CF and we invest in some width.
Lets get back to some simple football, Tiote wins the ball then distribution Cabaye/ Marveaux passes it either out wide or links with HBA/ Marveaux to link with CF.
What do you think?
geordie157
May 27, 2013 at 10:28 AM
Comment #11you have to have optimism supporting our club, otherwise we’d all be needing shrinks to deal with our depression.
Black and White with an army lol
May 27, 2013 at 10:29 AM
Comment #12i can’t honestly see PEA and Jong coming to Newcastle it’ll be a waste of talent, having these two fantastic players would and could take our club forward but it’s not in MA 5 year plan though unless he buys them both for about 25 million ( very unlikely ) and sells them for double there value the season after.
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Comment #13Not NUFC related, but Lewandowski has agreed to sign for Bayern. Cracking player but would’ve been nice to see him in the prem.
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Comment #14Centria – I dont think tiote is good enough mate.
I’m all for using width, but we need that central target man to aim for and we simply don’t have that yet. If we got a more reliable and composed DMC then yes, our priorities would change.
Black and White with an army lol
May 27, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Comment #15any reports on how much MA is giving AP for transfers funds?
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 10:37 AM
Comment #16Black and white – Not a clue mate.
And I hope we never find out. Best off not letting our targets clubs and agents knowing our budget.
cestriasteve
May 27, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Comment #17Torq, why do you think Sissoko’s form suffered towards the end of the season, was it because he played too many games out of position. How should we have played him and alongside who?
Black and White with an army lol
May 27, 2013 at 10:40 AM
Comment #18i’m a bit gutted that Monaco’s billionaire chairmen didn’t buy Newcastle he would of been great at our club and i guess he would of loved challenging Chelsea chairmen
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 10:45 AM
Comment #19Cestria – I’m not so much on that his form suffered particularly badly. But he made such an incredible start (assist for cisse against villa, and 2 goals + mom in the Chelsea game) and then set our expectancies too high.
To join a club in Jan is hard, and even more so coming from ligue 1. We would’ve liked to drip feed our players into the side I’m sure, but our league position forced our hand.
Personally I like seeing moussa start deep and progress from there. But as I said previously, our defensive midfielder in tiote has been more, thus stifling our ability to get forward. We need a top quality holding midfielder to enable us to be comfortable at the back, and allow the freedom to release our attacking players.
Jonas – as much as people dislike him, can do an excellent job in that role. And free up the wide
Position for marv. That’s what should’ve happened this season.
corkypants85
May 27, 2013 at 10:45 AM
Comment #20———————–krul———————-
deb–m’biwa/sakho——colo—haidara/san
—————moussa/tiote——————-
——–cabs/anita——–de jong————-
ben arfa—————————ince/marv
——————-cisse/pea——————
Black and White with an army lol
May 27, 2013 at 10:46 AM
Comment #21i think Sissoko should keep the AMC role, he’s a power house in this style, i don’t think he’s lost his form in this role, face it he had no support from the other players when he was charging up top the opposition where panicking when he ran at them, but then who was there for his support Cisse who was offside all the time others players sat back and didn’t even push forward, so he had no choice but to do it himself
corkypants85
May 27, 2013 at 10:46 AM
Comment #22we can all dream
Jamseyd24
May 27, 2013 at 10:48 AM
Comment #23Guys why does everyone ask Torq what he thinks. Not being rude Torq, im just new to the blog and wondering have you abit of inside info etc??? be interested in hearing.
Also guys why cant Ashley just put a 6mil price on Colo’s head and if the san lorenso (spelling) cant match it tell the to do one?????
geordie157
May 27, 2013 at 10:49 AM
Comment #24If we don’t buy a Siem De Jong type, then maybe its time we played Ben Arfa in that role off the striker and have two wingers/forwards maybe in the form of Sinclair and Ince.
Something like this, assuming Colo stays.
Krul
Debuchy, Mbiwa, Colo, Santon
Cabaye, Sissoko
Ince, Ben Arfa, Sinclair
Cisse
Ok that’s far too attack minded for Pardew!!!
Subs
Elliot
Haidara
S.Taylor
McCarthy
Anita
Gouffran
Campbell
Tiote sold for 10mill, Sinclair, Ince and McCarthy in for 18mill, 8mill net spend. Now i’m being too optimistic again.
jayphoto
May 27, 2013 at 10:50 AM
Comment #25Torq – work in France alot myself, theres massive talk of Clement Grenier moving to the premier league this summer! Not seen the toon mentioned with regards to him ever but surely we must be at least enquiring about him if he is available>? Apparantly he wants a move to england and Lyon have agreed to let him go, hes a tremendous talent
corkypants85
May 27, 2013 at 10:51 AM
Comment #26jamsey:- torq is a reliable source he normally gets it 100% spot on
Toon1978
May 27, 2013 at 10:53 AM
Comment #27IMO Colo is the most important player we have at this club. Keeping him is a must and i would be trying to keep him at the club before making moves for any other players. We conceded 9 goals in 2 games without Colo. When he came back we conceded very little in comparison. IMO oe of the best CB in the EPL and certainly up there with V.Kompany.
cestriasteve
May 27, 2013 at 10:54 AM
Comment #28Torq/ BWA we bought Vurnon Anita for 6M as the DM position but I feel Pardew has probably shattered his confidence. Wasnt he voted Players player of the year before he joined us !! surely he has the technique to command the defensive midfield position.
toonarmydownsouth
May 27, 2013 at 10:55 AM
Comment #29Jay photo
He’s going to arsenal mate, wringer confirmed interest, clement confirmed contact
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 11:01 AM
Comment #30Jay – I would like to think so mate! A class act and if rumours are to be believed, available at around âŹ10mil?? Gotta be worth enquiring at least!?!
Jamesyd – no offence taken mate. In my job I work close hand with all ligue 1, 2 and eredivisie professional clubs and their players. I hear things that not everybody does, and regularly speak with the players who all know my affiliation to NUFC as a fan.
I always try to put myself out there for our targets and report anything which I deem accurate (not paper talk) where I can.
Guess I’ve been lucky so far where yanga, moussa, gouffran and haidara were concerned. But as we know, nothing in football is set in stone.
jayphoto
May 27, 2013 at 11:01 AM
Comment #31ahh damn, that lad is a talent! Watch ligue 1 a lot and to be honest theres less and less affordable talent there, Nice have a great squad of talent but now they’ve qualified for the champions league they’ll be untouchable! Players like Yohan Mollo and Wissam Ben Yedder are now worth 10x what they would have been 2-3 years ago (even if they were as good then as they are now) and IMO the best young french talent was Thauvin who we just missed out on and Grenier! He’ll be a top signing for arsenal
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 11:03 AM
Comment #32Cestria I agree. Anita is quality. He is technically superb and is more than capable. The physical side of his game needs improving, but that will come.
Not sure why we persisted with tiote this season as he has been erratic to say the least.
jayphoto
May 27, 2013 at 11:03 AM
Comment #33@Torq, agree nothing is set in stone! Last summer I was photographing at Bodymoor Heath (Aston Villa) and saw both Doumbia (went to wolves, not CSKA) and Yacine Brahimi being shown around! Neither signed for them in the end
Le Belfast 007
May 27, 2013 at 11:04 AM
Comment #34He’s going to Arsenal.
Seriously we need to forget about signing the likes of Pea/De Jong/Bony etc this summer. No chance on all three.
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 11:06 AM
Comment #35Belfast – so who ARE our targets then in your opinion?
Le Belfast 007
May 27, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Comment #36We’re competing with West Ham, West Brom and the likes this summer.
Should of been in for these players last summer when our stock was high.
jayphoto
May 27, 2013 at 11:08 AM
Comment #37never ever rated Tiote to be honest, even in that first season where he was better! Had a feeling teams would realise if you pressurize him when he has the ball he turns into trouble alot and gives away the ball alot! Really don’t feel he plays well with yohan cabaye either! Im not sure we need a defensive mid next to cabaye, he plays fairly deep for france and looks great with like minded passing players around him! He made the most tackles for us in the premier league last season too, surely a midfield of Anita, Cabaye and Sissoko shows enough defensive strength to not need tiote?
corkypants85
May 27, 2013 at 11:08 AM
Comment #38torq is there any truth in n’koulou and sakho
TorqToon
May 27, 2013 at 11:10 AM
Comment #39Corky – Sakho yes but Nkoulou is only a pipe dream I feel.
Would take sakho in a heartbeat. He is so versatile he even went in goal last night!!!
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
May 27, 2013 at 11:11 AM
Comment #40Belfast
Our stock wasn’t exactly through the roof when we signed Sissoko and M’biwa and these guys are French internationals.
While it may seem unlikely, and I’m not getting my hopes up, I do think we’ll be at the very least trying.
Succeeding is another matter though…