22 year-old Florian Thauvin hasn’t had the best of times in France over the last two years at Marseille, and last season was tough for him, and the player hasn’t scored a goal in 16 matches – the longest dry spell in his career and his form last season was up and down.
That was in the French League, and we all know how much more difficult it is in the English Premier League, because of the more physical type of play and generally higher standards.
Florian Thauvin – a Newcastle player today?
Florian is similar in style to Remy Cabella and the left footer usually plays on the wing, although he can also play in the number 10 role.
But Newcastle are essentially exchanging Cabella for Thauvin, and the Marseille loan deal is similar to the one we agreed with Roma for Davide Santon in January.
Once Remy plays a stated number of first team games for Marseille (it was 10 for Santon), the deal will automatically be triggered – termed a compulsory purchase order by La Provence.
The deal is probably close to £7M for Cabella – so Newcastle are expected to get back what we paid Montpellier for him last summer.
But with Thauvin’s form being inconsistent last season and Cabella finding life difficult in England, the chances are that Thauvin could also find things tough.
And we are basically exchanging Cabella for Thauvin plus around £6M, so it’s not like we are getting a completely new player added to the squad.
When you think how poor the defense has been at Newcastle, you have to wonder if the money would have been better spent on bringing another top defender to Newcastle.
And the press in France are saying the Thauvin deal is a (big) gamble by Newcastle.
We would have rather seen somebody like Monaco’s center-back Aymen Abdennour brought in – if we could broker a deal for the impressive Tunisian International.
On Monday La Provence reported that once Newcastle got Thauvin in, they would make a move for Abdennour.
If that turns out to be true most fans would be very happy.
The Thauvin move could be more of a luxury for Newcastle, at a time when we have other obvious weaknesses in the team that could (should) be plugged.
He’s a player Newcastle fans will like, but he’s not going to help out our sub-standard defense.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
15 comments so far
Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:26 AM
Comment #1Repost;
Slank/Mick,
Africa is a huge continent and has many different climates within. For example, in Malawi, the coolest months are from May to August – still mid 20’s. A lot of the more southern countries are the same, and the leagues in these countries run through these months. Many of the top players are in Europe, but the majority of players are based in leagues that operate from Feb/March through to November. The AFCON is therefore played during the break between seasons for many.
So, I guess CAF’s response would be why don’t you play the Euro’s at the same time as The Asian Cup or the AFCON? It has been a bigger issue recently as they played two years in a row to change dates from clashing with future World Cups.
I’d say that the main thing for the European clubs to lobby for is a tournament once every 4 years rather than every 2 years, but then this tournament is one of CAF’s main money spinners and without the income from it many of the leagues and FA’s within Africa would end up with very little income and would struggle to actually have a national league and team.
Slank
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:31 AM
Comment #2Well that’s interesting Ed as the Chronic have provided some impressive stats about him.
If he gets past their fullback and provides the crosses for Mitrovic and Gini arriving at breakneck speed should we worry about him not scoring goals ? After all, Ben Arfa wasn’t very prolific but we liked what he did, most of the time.
Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:31 AM
Comment #3hibbit,
The rainy season occurs during the AFCON for many countries – if you watched some of the games earlier this year you might have seen the torrential downpours during matches – notably the DRC against someone. Again though, these months vary from country to country and some countries have 2 rainy seasons, a main one and a lesser one.
It isn’t often realised just how vast the African continent is – China, India, The USA and large parts of Europe fit into the continent in terms of land mass, but on traditional maps of the world the size is played down for some reason.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ClfIgQoIvL0/UWLleT93YoI/AAAAAAAADto/-Xle6X_dZd8/s1600/The+true+size+of+Africa+–+it’s+bigger+than+you+think.gif
SanD
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:31 AM
Comment #4Mitrovic is the type of player that requires good balls being delivered into the box and hopefully this guy can do that.
nut meg
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:33 AM
Comment #5Another quality goal from youngArmstrong.
http://www.themag.co.uk/2015/08/adam-armstrong-makes-it-5-in-11-days-yet-another-quality-goal-video/?
Slank
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:35 AM
Comment #6Lil
Many thanks for the explanation.
I’m surprised we haven’t heard howls from Premiership owners and chairman about the disruption. It just makes sense to have both competitions played at the same time.
mickalfas
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:43 AM
Comment #7Lilo
Thanks for that ,didn’t realize Africa was THAT big
Lilongwe Geordie
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:45 AM
Comment #8No worries guys, got to shoot off now. Meeting with the FA and then have to do a workshop for them on 5 a side football.
SanD
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:49 AM
Comment #9Anyone think that thauvin will be the last one through the door in this window? I can still see them bringing another defender even though colo has signed a new contract.
cyprus
Aug 19, 2015 at 9:57 AM
Comment #10Thauvin: excellent deal, hope he works out for us. We have never quite replaced HBA, so hope he’s the real deal. Cabella, for various reasons, didn’t quite work out. In truth, we have plenty of midfielders, but none (bar maybe Sissoko) who can attack straight on and unlock organised teams.
Then again, we had HBA himself, but that’s another story (right AP)?
If we can form a team which can attack, fast, maintain pressure, steal the ball, then teams won’t camp in our half, as they often do, thus exposing any defence we might have.
ronjohno
Aug 19, 2015 at 10:00 AM
Comment #11We beg Toon to spend money and when they do we complain and nitpick (including me) because it seems to be getting spent everywhere but in defence (memba excepted)
and it just not seems to make any sense whatever.
Anyone else think that for somebody who has had no success in football that Carr is fighting way beyond his weight. I think the Cabaye and Debuchy signings created a myth.
Whumpie
Aug 19, 2015 at 10:24 AM
Comment #12That last bit about the fans being happy if we get this deal PLUS a decent defender… that just about nails it for me.
I went into this window convinced that the most we’d ever do under Ashley was just enough to get to mid-table. Up to now that’s been the case. However, if the Thauvin deal is done and Abdennour or a similar, quality defender comes in – then I’ll be very happily proved wrong.
If we do that, then the club will have shown real intent, and while I’d still only expect mid-table I think the club should be pleased with doing as much as could be hoped for in a single window. The telling bit will be whether they then continue to build in subsequent ones.
I live in hope.
andrewsneill
Aug 19, 2015 at 11:00 AM
Comment #13I feel that Thauvin is a bit better than Cabella, certainly on the wings where we need players more than central midfield at present though, ideally, i would look to keep both. Centre back is, as you say, definitely still a worry area but most worrying for me in some ways is right back as i can’t actually think who our 2nd choice right back is. So with Janmaat banned for the next game we are, presumably, having to put one of our centre backs out there. As such i’d have Sam Byram being bid for at the same time as the Thauvin deal is being finished and, hopefully, the Abdennour deal is being negotiated. Surely we are capable of doing more than one deal at a time?
TheBossMan
Aug 19, 2015 at 1:25 PM
Comment #14This is taken from an article in Frenchfootballweekly.com 18/08/15
Quote: For all of Thauvin’s downsides, there is a second part to the move and it comes in the form of Remy Cabella. Ask most Ligue 1 fans, and player for player they would take the former Montpellier No.10 over Thauvin in a heartbeat.
This kid is more light weight than Cabella, FFS.. He gonna have some bruises on his back side through hitting the turf more often than Cabella…
Waste of WONGA I think..
isleofmanman
Aug 19, 2015 at 1:49 PM
Comment #15This lad looks overpriced
Instead of kicking on after leaving his teen years behind he seems to have achieved very little at Marseille
Hope I’m completely wrong like