In January Newcastle sold Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa to Roma and let Davide Santon leave initially on loan to Inter-Milan, and we did not bring in one single player in the January transfer window, even though up until then we had a lot of injuries and the club knew that Steven Taylor was out for the season on January 1st with an Achilles injury.
Charnley and Ashley
Fans were dismayed at that – especially when Santon left on the last day of the window, and now with injuries to Cheick Tiote, Paul Dummett and Siem de Jong, which will keep them out for the full season Newcastle are down to 15 fit senior players.
Massadio Haidara is also injured so Davide Santon would be playing if he was still here.
And it hasn’t helped that indiscipline by Papiss Cisse and Fabricio Coloccini has gotten them suspended for a number of games and they are also not available.
Even Remie Streete, a promising young center-back was allowed to leave for a loan deal to Rangers – so Lee Charnley and Mike Ashley did a lot of stuff wrong in January.
And that included “selling” Alan Pardew to Crystal Palace for £4M, and now we also have inexperienced John Carver in charge – and he’s an unknown quantity and hasn’t done well in his first 11 games in charge, losing six of them and winning only two.
In the seven games he was in charge of a year ago, when Pardew was suspended, we lost six of them.
John Carver was asked if Newcastle were now paying the price of a lack of investment in January and allowing players to leave the club:
“The fact that Lee and Mike have acknowledged that doesn’t make me feel better.” “But at least the people understand out there that that’s what happened.” (big deal)
“Now whether it was me or Pards, if he was still here, or whoever was here, that would be the same situation.” “I have always said, from day one, that I have got to deal with the situation, and I will.”
“Now, who knows what they are thinking? They might take this into consideration. I don’t know.”
“But what I won’t do is I won’t give up on it, I won’t think ‘well, I’ve got all those people out, that’s it. That’s me done, I’m not going to get this job’. I’m not going to think that way.”
“I had Paul Dummett,” “We had Willo and Colo. We had three center-backs.” “I’m sure there was a conversation about a centre-half, but it was about getting the right one and not just taking one.
“You know what it’s like in that window – you just panic and take somebody for the sake of it. “Sometimes it works out for you, but who was to know this was going to happen?”
“What I have to say is, take all those injuries away and we have got 26 professionals.” “Now that is a decent-sized squad and under normal circumstances. That’s not a problem with three or four injuries.”
“Five or six is pushing it, but not as many as that.” “Long-term, that’s what has killed us, so even if we had brought in two or three players, we would have had to get rid of two or three players to keep the size of our squad together.”
Those words from John Carver are disturbing – is he backing the upper management for the mess they have made?
Yes – we know John has to get one with it – but that’s not the point – the point is why did Newcastle do in January what they did that has left Newcastle with a threadbare squad?
Their actions significantly helped to weaken the squad.
We just hope we can get a couple of wins to make us safe in the league – but it’s with no help from the upper management at Newcastle – they have helped create this problem.
Much like they caused it a year ago when we sold Yohan Cabaye to PSG for £20M and didn’t replace him.
And John Carver towards the end of January agreed with Lee Charnley that we didn’t need any new players brought in – so John cannot complain – he agreed with that they were doing.
It was obvious to fans we needed new players in January – how come it wasn’t obvious to Charnley and Ashley?
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16 comments so far
hibbit
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:39 AM
Comment #1lilongwe…… the club know they have to get though this next home game then they have 4 weeks till next home game the pr is in overdrive….. oil on troubled waters springs to mind…. they have also brought in extra stewards for this game the one’s they used for the sackpardue .com very heavy hand over 250 of them so i think there expecting bother looks like there taking no chances
cyprus
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:41 AM
Comment #2Ed,
you mentioned Cabaye again mate! Come on, forget him AND AP. They’re gone, it’s ok!
From previous posts:
B,
your formation only includes 10 players 😉
Ron Knee
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:42 AM
Comment #3“It was obvious to fans we needed new players in January – how come it wasn’t obvious to Charnley and Ashley?” Don’t forget Graham Carr. What was he doing?
hibbit
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:44 AM
Comment #4ron it was they just won’t to spend they want to gamble this time they lost
Ron Knee
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:47 AM
Comment #5hibbit
I suppose they’d call it a ‘calculated risk’?
firebug666
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:50 AM
Comment #6We had room in January after they got rid of Mbiwa and Santon for a start, or did John forget about them.
Other clubs manage to do business in the winter, including new managers. Our club just don’t want to spend any money and it’s as simple as that.
nut meg
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:53 AM
Comment #7repost
All this talk from JC about being involved in discussions with the heavy investment in the summer etc means absolutely jack sh*t. That kind of information should come out from the hierarchy to give it any kind of credibility & not from a temporary head coach. I’d believe it a lot more if it did come from the mouth of Ashley himself or Lee Charnley but as it’s come from Mikey & Lee’s very best new friend it’ll take it as a season ticket sales pitch & nothing more than that.
Lilongwe Geordie
Mar 20, 2015 at 7:56 AM
Comment #8Firebug,
Mbiwa didn’t create room. He was never listed in the squad. Santon did though, and there was time to replace him.
Ron Knee,
I agree, Carver has bought some real duds. It is difficult to judge him fully though as we have very little idea how far down the list some of them were. He will undoubtedly have recommended other players that we haven’t signed, and some could have been huge successes.
It is difficult to make the right buys with all the money in the world. It is even harder when you are meant to be picking up gems for peanuts every times. I do agree that Carr is probably over rated by many, although that is slowly changing.
sing in the corner
Mar 20, 2015 at 8:00 AM
Comment #9So then chaps, ready for the almost total eclipse at 09.30 ish this morning. To be honest I thought Ashley didn’t drag his fat ass out of his pit til later than that.
Average_Contents
Mar 20, 2015 at 8:02 AM
Comment #10Fcuking shambles.
Ron Knee
Mar 20, 2015 at 8:04 AM
Comment #11Lilongwe
I meant more Carr as ‘football guru’ to Charnley and Fatso, and specifically his role in Carver’s disastrous appointment. As a scout, he’ll be severely limited by Ashley’s budget.
Lilongwe Geordie
Mar 20, 2015 at 8:05 AM
Comment #12SITC,
No eclipse for me sadly. No rest from the bright sunshine and blue skies… sad times! 😉
nut meg
Mar 20, 2015 at 8:09 AM
Comment #13Lilo @ 12
Ditto……ha ha
Lilongwe Geordie
Mar 20, 2015 at 8:10 AM
Comment #14Ron Knee,
Carr failed as a manager, and a coach. He shouldn’t be involved in the overseeing of football operations at all. He is less qualified then Kinnear was in this aspect. We should have appointed an actual DoF after/before Kinnear for the system in place to function well, but as we all know the cheapest option is always the best.
If we have someone on the payroll who is able to do a botch job at two roles, rather than employing an external candidate then we go for it. Examples over the last 2 years include Charnley, Beardsley, Carver, Carr and Dave Watson/Joe Joyce to a lesser extent.
He should stick to his scouting.
toonicle
Mar 20, 2015 at 1:11 PM
Comment #15I would have been more than happy with panic buying a CB in january. I don’t much care if they were good or not we need someone with a pulse at this point.
Owldman
Mar 20, 2015 at 11:39 PM
Comment #16Every Toon supporter knew what would happen with our threadbare squad even in January they kept their eyes closed now Ashley & co are sorry for the situation we find our selves in.8 players out on loan , Santon almost being given away to Inter , however I must admit that watching him last night he doesn’t look the player he was at Toon.I wont wait for a massive spending spree, not in fat boys nature as Carver has said in the local press we ars looking at players but that doesn’t mean we will buy.