Newcastle have done well so far this season in getting two top players through the door – Georginio Wijnaldum and Aleksandar Mitrovic – and they cost £27M for the two, and we should be able to get Chancel Mbemba signed by the end of the week once the FA gives approval for his visa.
That’s three good players through the door for around £35.5M – but we still need three more good players for it to be the summer transfer window we were all hoping for.
Wijnaldum and Mitrovic already signed
It’s hard to criticize Mike Ashley so far for not paying out the money, with our two signings being the third and fourth most expensive in Newcastle’s history, and we are supposed to be zoning on on Charlie Austin, and according to various reports are trying to do the deal this week – maybe offering Haris Vuckic in part exchange.
So with 10 days to go before the Premier League season starts, fans will be happy enough if we get Chancel through the door to make it three good players signed this season – all starters for the team – since they are better than what we already have.
The next target has to be Charlie Austin, so we get two strikers in this summer, and then we need a top class center-back as the next highest priority.
We’ve been linked with some excellent center-backs including Valencia’s Nicolas Otamendi, Schalke’s Joel Matip, Monaco’s Aymen Abdennour, Ajax’s Joel Veltman and Dynamo Moscow’s Douglas – a former target of ours.
Either one of those center-backs would improve the Newcastle back four, with center-back being our Achilles heel for a few seasons now .
It’s not just last season that we leaked too many goals, but over the last three seasons we conceded 190 goals – which is simply terrible – and a pointer to Steve McClaren as to the big weakness with the Newcastle team.
A top center-back will make it four players through the door, and then maybe a couple of midfielders – or even a versatile right back who can play across the back four would be good.
Steve McClaren has said more than once that if the right players are not available, Newcastle will not bring in players just for the sake of it – and that seems OK.
But it does look like this January window will offer an opportunity for Newcastle to get some players into the club, although it’s more difficult to do half way through the season.
Three more good players in addition to the three we already have could make this the best transfer window seen at Newcastle for many years.
We’d also like to see a couple of our center-backs who have experience in the Premier League stay at the club – as well as Papiss Cisse.
With Papiss, that’s even if we get two strikers in because we need a strong squad this season, and we should keep some our players who can still do a job for us – assuming we can afford the wage bill.
The hard stuff then starts when we meet Southampton a week on Sunday and hopefully challenge for the top eight – and try to win a cup.
If we have Mbemba and Charlie though the door by then, it should be a sell-out at St. James’ Park, and hopefully we can start the season with all 3 points.
Comments welcome.
83 comments so far
ToonFromLeeds
Jul 29, 2015 at 4:14 PM
Comment #81Afternoon guys, hope we are all well, after catching some morphine induced sleep I woke and caught up with the blog. I see more biting and arguing going on, as Vicky Michelle used to say “I shall say this only once”
It is blatantly obvious the Jib is Jeff and even more blatantly obvious that Ian is Pushy Pardew, the evidence is there in black and white.
On football, Nicolas Otamendi is a non starter for me, mashers won’t spend the money
catchy in norway
Jul 29, 2015 at 4:15 PM
Comment #82check
I think Arma could be a decent player, along with Vuckic, Harris has just been unlucky on 2 fronts , injuries and p45 not know how to develop players, Adam also falls into the P45 category.
from what I have seen in Adam is a busy type of player who likes to shoot, he works hard for the team.
Harris for me is quality all round, but people are judging him on poor performances in a team that was not playing well and playing out of position,
Harris’s big game for us was vs Liverpool, and he fluffed it, P45 expected him to do it all by himself :(,
give them a quality coach and time , they will both do well
JamesToon
Jul 29, 2015 at 5:36 PM
Comment #83The last of pardew’s clan is set to leave:
@CraigHope_DM: I’m also hearing that goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman is now set to leave NUFC & will be replaced by Eric Steele.