If Newcastle survive in the Premier league this season then we need to bring in at a minimum three top players in the summer transfer window.
One of those is a center-back and that cannot be former target Joel Matip of Schalke because he will be signing for Liverpool as a free agent in the summer.
The other two positions we need to fill are a proven Premier league striker and a top left back.
Marvin Plattenhardt – German U21 International
One candidate for the left back position is PSV’s 21 year-old Dutch International Jetro Willems who is good friends with Gini Wijnaldum.
There is news today that a player on Newcastle´s shopping list this summer is 24 year-old Hertha Berlin left-back Marvin Plattenhardt, who is a German U21 International.
In fact Marvin has played for all the German Youth sides and made 56 appearances in total at the German youth level, but he´s never been capped at the full International level.
Plattenhardt spent four seasons at Nuremberg before joining Hertha Berlin in the summer of 2014 and this season he has appeared 24 times for them with two goals.
Since joining Hertha Berlin the 6ft tall defender has appeared 39 times in total with two goals and he played 66 times at Nuremberg with two goals.
Last season he was in and out of the first team but he is now an established starter and has played very well this season and is attracting some top clubs.
His contract runs through 2020 at Hertha Berlin, so Newcastle would need to pay a fee for him, but don t be surprised if we are linked with a number of left backs in the summer.
We´d be very happy if we can get Jetro Willems in over the summer, because he is a top young player and by all accounts he wants to join his pal Gini on Tyneside.
This is all assuming we can avoid the drop in May of course.
Comments welcome.
131 comments so far
toon kk
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:22 AM
Comment #1Another player with potential sell on value.
WWSBRD
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:24 AM
Comment #2Comparable players according to transfermarkt has Dummett on the list….scary
Tsunki
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:26 AM
Comment #3Ah. Another Santon. Good. Good.
Tsunki
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:31 AM
Comment #4We haven’t got enough beards. All the good teams have got beards.
toon kk
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:32 AM
Comment #5Looking at our remaining fixtures I sadly think we’re doomed. Is there enough winable games left to save us? I’m not so sure.
ArtyH
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:36 AM
Comment #6All supposition as if we go down and its most likely, the whole gambit will change. Matip going to Liverpool was a big big mistake made by the board, how did this happen? Incompetence is now the expected norm at our once great club.
WWSBRD
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:37 AM
Comment #7toon kk
Good lord yes there are plenty of winnable games left for us Stoke, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Norwich, Southampton, Swansea, Palace and Villa are all very winnable
Leicester and Liverpool are both potentially winnable as well
Of the last 12 the only ones who I think could be very tough is Spurs but thats last day of the season so it could mean nothing to either us or them and City
Ron Knee
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:37 AM
Comment #8Tsunki
At least he hasn’t got a bald head and ginger beard like James Collins!
WWSBRD
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:37 AM
Comment #9Arty
U think Matip would trun Liverpool down to sign for us?
ToonRich
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:39 AM
Comment #10Repost:
I hope they use this training week to actually sort out a couple of tactics so that we have a plan of attack – or is that too much to ask?!
Perhaps its time for Shteve to step aside and give Cathro a chance to select a team and set them up his way…
Can we call-back Arma?…he’s 1 of the only talent we have on the books. It may have been a stroke of genius to bring him back in Jan, or now if we can?
From yesterdays thread RE: Cisse…Could be interesting to see if he and Doumbia can forge a partnership to save us. I’d be tempted to play 4-3-3 and give all our strikers a run with each other Mitro-Perez-Doumb/Cisse-dare I say Riv?!!! ha! You could even push Townsend and Gini into the left/right attacking positions either side of a main striker. We need to get more presence in the area and press the opponents.
Tsunki
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:40 AM
Comment #11Ron no, you’re right, that’s not a good look. But maybe just one extremist beard in the camp could fire things up.
toon kk
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:40 AM
Comment #12I find these speculation stories and that’s what they are Stories Of potential signings ridiculous. Our board and scouting system haven’t enough savvy to function properly.
Phatoon
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:41 AM
Comment #13@toon kk
I think we can get enough points from these games to stay up.
Home games: Bournemouth, Sunderland, Swansea, Palace
Away games:
Phatoon
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:42 AM
Comment #14meant to say “away games: Villa”
toon kk
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:46 AM
Comment #15WWSBRD
I know on paper maybe they are winable, but we’re sh.t, we have a shocking defence, struggle to score and for me our worst problem our work rate is basically shocking 90% of the time.
We’re in the bottom three for a reason we’ve had loads of winnable games but? Yep we get beat.
sparky55
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:48 AM
Comment #16Here we are..still in the deepest sh!te we’ve ever been in our illustrious history brought about by the most ridiculous transfer policy ever adopted by a premiership team and we’re still showing intent on buying young promise rather then age and experience when we have no class or experience or anything decent for that matter right across the back four.
WE NEED TO PAY 15M FOR AN EXPERIENCED MATURE CAPPED CENTRE HALF TO BRING SOME SORT LEADERSHIP TO THE BACK FOUR FFS
Bunch of fcuking idiots
WWSBRD
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:52 AM
Comment #17toon kk
Regardless of our form this season u asked are there enough winnable games for us to stay up and yes there are more than enough winnable games. As far as remaining fixtures go we have it easy
We also beat Liverpool and Spurs this season. If we get on a run of games we are safe and our fixtures offer that opportunity
banjax
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:55 AM
Comment #18This German defender must be happy to join a Championship side !
beermonkey
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:56 AM
Comment #19sparky
i tend to agree but mbemba has come in made a couple of mistakes but on the whole has done ok
think we paid 8mill ???
i dont think we will buy from the prem to be fair i cant think of any1 from the prem that we could buy
ArtyH
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:57 AM
Comment #20WWSBRD
If the right moves were made in January and we had a decent manager ” probably ” as his club would have wanted something for him, now they get nothing. Selvey and Townsend came and I know they were in a totally different place at the time, but its obvious to me the board did not try hard enough. However now, anyone with any common sense would choose Liverpool ( Klopp ) over Brolly and the toon as we have slipped so far down the league of desired clubs to play for in the last couple of years.
toon kk
Feb 16, 2016 at 10:57 AM
Comment #21Phantoon
We should be winning those games, but unfortunately Sunderland always want it more, it means more to there players. Swansea will pass us off the pitch, palace are far too quick. Bournemouth we should scrape a win.
goommy
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:00 AM
Comment #22JW pls!!
AncientC
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:01 AM
Comment #23Bringing Willems in could be a repeat of the Cabaye/Debuchy profiteering.
When Wijnaldum is worth a payrise, simply ignore his form and get the higher value out of him by playing him whilst underpaid. This equates to a year or more saved in the increase in wages Wijnaldum was due. Wijnaldum feeling shortchanged will sell himself to other clubs, saving Charnley the bother. Once Wiji is sold, hopefully Willems is already looking the part. Willems feeling disgruntled starts selling himself to other clubs, again saving Charnley any efforts in finding a buyer.
The club recoups most of its netspend, then gets back to work on finding the next bargain. New signings are then asked if they have any mates who are out of contract soon.
Quite clever when you think about it.
Ron Knee
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:01 AM
Comment #24Tsunki
I think Shelvey is our man.
Toon-Prodigy
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:01 AM
Comment #25Never heard of this lad. I agree with Sparky there needs to be experienced defenders through the door. They are just starting to correct the balance with experience and potential throughout the squad, if they signed potential again what a disaster this would be. There is enough youngings at the club who may come good.
They need to carry on in the summer buying proven players in this league and spend more big money. Then they need to forget this transfer policy all together of buying under 26 yrs with zero experience on little wages. This is why we are here to start with.
WWSBRD
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:06 AM
Comment #26Arty
The board probably didnt try very hard because there was no way he would join us, maybe last summer but not in January. Why would he? He had other better options
AncientC
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:12 AM
Comment #27Depends what kind of signing on fee and wages Liverpool offered Matip. Surely Liverpool are starting to be a bit more careful when it comes to what they are paying players. They have been Moby Dick fc for a good 10 years now.
Rotonda heights
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:13 AM
Comment #28Toon kk
They may come here for resale value but if you don’t employ the right people to bring them on and develop, ie Beardo and watson etc, the sell on fees become negligible.
Abeid and Kemen had massive potential but were let go for peanuts. Of the current squad only perez has really come through from the apparent class of ”wonderkids.”
I would say a lot of our players have very little marketability for any really sizeable fees, maybe Sissoko, Wijni, Perez, M’Bemba apart.
The list of failures /sicknotes on big wages is very disturbing. I thought Ash was king of business but when it comes to football his lack of knowledge of whose expertise and knowledge to invest in has cost him dearly.
Marv – injured
Obertan – injured
Gouffran – always played out of position
haidara – injured and not good enough
Thauvin – disaster from the get go
Cabella – ditto
Rivi – injured and can’t hit a barn door
De Jong – injured and too slow
Saylor – nearly always injured and as Chelsea showed he turns slower than milk.
Nearly a full team on the sick. I dread to think how much this lot cost in maintenance a week for little to absolutely no reward and I can’t believe there isn’t more internal investigation in this farce.
In any other walk of life if my homework on players was so negligent I would have been strung out ages ago. NUFC under Ash is a rest home for inadequates and incompetents.
Tsunki
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:14 AM
Comment #29So we are back to trying to figure out the monetary logic behind our transfer policy because the world + dog can see that we’ve bought all the wrong players for the wrong reasons. I get that we needed some mobility in midfield and push up the wings, but the situation with the defence looks very much like negligence from a footballing point of view.
beermonkey
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:18 AM
Comment #30ancient
i dont have a problem with this buy to sell policy our problem is we dont do it in the right way
look at all the players southampton flogged a couple of seasons ago but they invested some of the money but they had almost all the replacments in the squad already
this is where the club falls down on what says it wants to do
i think half the problem has been that pards was never interested in bringing players through so there was never a laid out plan for players to leave onloan and have a a shot of making it in the first team
what i will say is the first team has steadily been shrinking for years so there is no proper cover outside the first 11 so any player that has shown any talent has rotted on the bench
martoon
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:18 AM
Comment #31I haven’t been on since the debacle at Chelsea. However before this match the blog was quite upbeat and now it’s all doom and gloom. We were a disgrace at Chelsea but this match is not one I would have expected any points from. As mentioned by Phatoon earlier it is going to be the home matches against Bournemouth, Sunderland, Swansea, Palace and the away games at Villa and possibly Norwich that decide our fate!
Rotonda heights
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:21 AM
Comment #32Toon prodigy
many successful clubs on the continent have the same policies and brilliant youth scouting and coaching programmes in place, it’s just we choose not to employ properly qualified people to implement them.
If ash really wanted to be the arsenal of the north he would have got a top manager of wenger’s standing or not far off and thrown money at that, but instead lets a man in his 70’s dictate that 14M goes on Thauvin for example.
If ash was in way shape or form a half decent individual you’d kind of feel sorry for him that he’s surrounded himself with woefully under qualified and inadequate people in situ, but it’s all of his own making.
jordijohnty
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:21 AM
Comment #33Just been out looking for our escaped dog. Can’t seem to find any news on who MacTufts replacement is.
Toon-Prodigy
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:34 AM
Comment #34And these polls on McClaren out, it would be more fair to have a poll on who is to blame for bringing the club to this point. It’s not the managers why we have had to rush out and spend money and fix a broken club with a squad as a whole that just hasn’t been good enough to compete in this league once injuries occur. It’s lacked quality, experience and leadership for a long time. Throwing alot of signings at managers for past mistakes is not ideal either, it takes time.
Tsunki
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:34 AM
Comment #35Martoon I don’t think anyone expected us to get a point at Chelsea but the manner of defeat bodes ill for any other teams we face, including the mighty mackems.
martoon
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:39 AM
Comment #36Like many others on here I’m really not sure McClaren is up to the job. However I think replacing him at this stage in the season, with the window shut, would probably throw the club into more turmoil than it’s already in.
Rotonda heights
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:42 AM
Comment #37martoon
it wasn’t the losing, it was the manner of the losing and if you had seen that debacle and had 18 days before your next game to act, you would.
I don’t mean yet another boring appointment like Moyes but someone upbeat and exciting, even if only on a short term basis who the players could get motivated by.
Blackley and Brownlie
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:43 AM
Comment #38I see bloody Tigger’s bounced in this morning after bouncing around yesterday full of pent up energy after his break in Spain, only to disappear when a serious question was put to him.
AncientC
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:43 AM
Comment #39beermonkey – Ashley seems to think he can run a club like a budget Arsenal.
For Arsenal, if the quality isn’t out there in the transfer market, they have been known to just wait.
Unfortunately, as we are the budget model of Arsenal, there are no bristling young players that can fill positions whilst awaiting for the right ‘budget’ signing to come along to fill a role. No state of the art training complex etc.
In the Arsenal model, they would rather wait for the right recruit, sometimes risking the winning of the league. In the Newcastle model, we would rather wait for the correct player to become available that fits the strict transfer policy, sometimes risking relegation.
Arsenal and Newcastle, like polar opposites at the two ends of the table, one risking glory, the other risking annihilation.
hibbitt
Feb 16, 2016 at 11:46 AM
Comment #40even if McClaren was sacked who would this bunch of tossers bring in ?……. none of the names being put forward on here