There’s news in the Northern Echo today that Newcastle will complete the signing of Stoke City’s Spanish striker Joselu within 24 hours, so we will finally (at last!) strengthen the striker department which was a weakness last season.
It wouldn’t surprise if Rafa brings in another striker but there;s just no way now that Mitro will leave Newcastle this season and we will need the Serbian International who wants to stay at the club.
Joselu will cost just £5M, and that seems like a good deal for us, and it’s interesting some Stoke fans are disappointed he’s leaving the Potters – that’s always the sign of a good player.
Newcastle is also reported to be still confident of signing Chelsea youngster Kenedy for the season, and the Brazilian was surprisingly on the bench at Stamford Bridge against Burnley on Saturday.
Antonio Conte will not let him go until new signings are made at the Blues.
A smiling Rafa Benitez – good!
The good news is that we have the breakthrough of signing Joselu who we think will be a much better player for us than some of our fans realize – he could score a lot of goals for us this season.
We hope he will score a lot of goals for us this season.
Once Stoke agreed a loan deal with PSG for Jese Rodriguez they were willing to do the deal with Newcastle for the 27-year-old 6ft 3ins Spanish striker.
The news in the Northern Echo is that Benitez thinks he can do a job for Newcastle even though he has struggled to make an impact at Stoke and scored only 4 goals in 27 appearances for the club.
Everything seems set for the signing once Stoke manager Mark Hughes gets Jese Rodriguez signed on loan.
With Kenedy, Antonio Conte is expected to make some signings in the next week or so, and then Kenedy will be allowed to join Newcastle on loan for the season, and he could be another valuable addition to Rafa’s squad.
We are still waiting to hear how long both Paul Dummett and new boy Florian Lejeune will be out injured.
That was some of the cost of the opening game of the season last Sunday when Jonjo Shelvey managed to get himself sent off early in the second half, and that was game over against Spurs.
We hope to do better next Sunday afternoon when we travel to Huddersfield for a 1:30 pm kick off.
A win in that game would be great!
Comments welcome.
174 comments so far
jesperfuglsang - capt'n awesome of the lemon crew
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:23 AM
Comment #1Repost
Charlie…it’s alot of money – clubs should have a wage structure especially if they want to be self sustainable and cannot and won’t rely on a sugar daddy!
…but personally I don’t think the problem is the wage cap…the gab between £70k and £120k is simple to wide to even make that kind of offer happen…our problem is that we penny-pinch when a deal is close to happen!
jesperfuglsang - capt'n awesome of the lemon crew
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:25 AM
Comment #2At least I didn’t wake up to another 5 year deal…maybe tomorrow!
Charlie in the Gallowgate
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:31 AM
Comment #3Jesper
wages transfers are totally screwing up football seems like the fair play thing has gone out the window.
£70,000 thousand a week x 52 = 3.64 million a year gross
say x 15 players on that = 54 million a year I know the TOON’s players are not on that – but it mind boggling
Plus interesting article on five live talk in about foreign owners buying clubs which is becoming more like a Country (Man City) buying a club to promote their Country
Jib
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:31 AM
Comment #4Repost
Jesper make your mind up what you are going to whinge about !
Is it :-
Ridiculously big contracts , that leave players we don’t want , on the books.
or
NUFC cannot get players because we are penny pinchers and offer cheap contracts
It cannot be both
Charlie in the Gallowgate
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:31 AM
Comment #5Plus interesting article on five live talk in about foreign owners buying clubs which is becoming more like a Country (Man City) buying a club to promote their Country.
should of added ‘State owned’ football club
martoon
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:33 AM
Comment #6All these players we are supposed to be after – surely we are near the maximum squad size? I presume Kenedy is under 21 but the rest I don’t think are?
jimmysmith
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:33 AM
Comment #7It must be painful working out whether a deal is worth it for the club or not, whether the numbers add up, but I think it is fundamentally necessary. Everything has to be paid for.
stingray
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:35 AM
Comment #8I wonder whether I watched the same game on Sunday? People are suggesting Manquillo had a good game…but he was responsible for both goals. Stopped tracking first Alli then Davies on both goals…just gave up and stopped running. Not sure you can have a good game and be responsible for both goals in a 0-2 loss.
Our Toon
Aug 15, 2017 at 8:47 AM
Comment #9Stingray
I agree with you mate, manquillo became manaquin, stood and watched players run past him. He needs to concentrate for the whole game.
gorgonzola ( former Pecorino former to gorgonzola)
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:10 AM
Comment #10“Once Stoke agreed a loan deal with PSG for Jese Rodriguez they were willing to do the deal with Newcastle for the 27-year-old 6ft 3ins Spanish striker.” Sounds pathetic isn’t it. Is Stoke in the Top 20 football clubs in the world? NO we are.
You would think that sentence would read backwards. Not to p1ss on parades but this is all starting to smell like a JAN of the few years back. Desperately signing players that were not first choices to begin with.
And this time RAFA has to tolerate this.
RUNAWAY777
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:14 AM
Comment #11Panic station’s lets see who we can get in quick, and more rubbish to read no thanks off out for the day to see I can fined that car I want.
Mag52
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:17 AM
Comment #12.
Charlie,
While we are talking about fair play, it surely can’t be right that the big clubs, with massive financial clout, are allowed to hoover up any young talent they come across, farm them out on loan, with the prime purpose, it seems to me, of keeping their PL rivals off them.
Rotonda heights
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:25 AM
Comment #13Does anyone think, given his track record, Ashley would sell at what would generally be deemed to be a fair price?
It’s amazing the human capacity and I’m as guilty as the next man or woman in this to quite happily, as Jib says, accept a state run ownership set up. China has an appalling record on human and animal rights and I remember a time when talk of the Bin laden family taking over was being sanitised!
Does this not just show the desperation that has festered under Ashley whereby ”better the devil you know”
does not ring true.
Charlie in the Gallowgate
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:33 AM
Comment #14Mag52
The monies, fair play, hoovering up talent, lending the same players out – stinks – hate the lot – a long with feeder clubs would you want your team to become a feeder club – ARGHHHHHHHHH
Jib
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:33 AM
Comment #15gorgonzola ( former Pecorino former to gorgonzola)
Not to p1ss on parades
Just pissing on your own parade bonny lad
The majority of fans are pretty upbeat about what’s happening because they have the brains to see the club has to cut it’s coat acccording to it’s cloth.
Our Toon
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:36 AM
Comment #16Rotonda
I get what you are saying, Ashley won’t ever sell the club at a fair price unfortunately. China has poor human rights agreed but I think every country does in one way or another. I’ll not go into the politics of this though. As for bin Laden family, Bin Laden was apparently disowned by his family!!
I’m intrigued by the Southampton investment yesterday, it’s interesting that a club who has sustained PL status was bought out for 80% equity for around 210m which is a heck of lot less than our current asking price.
OneAlanShearer
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:40 AM
Comment #17Was bin Laden ostracized by his family….the bad egg. every family has one..
Just thought but perhaps we will see more movement accidentally as a result of Ashley interview, as clubs might realise that rafa can only offer small fees and loan with a view to purchase along with Relatively reasonable wages under his regime. It might actually benefit rafa by the end of the window…i bloody hope so.
I’m still hopeful at this point that rafa will get 5 in and end up with a competitive squad. We have the team spirit and collectively hard to break down we just need that bit more quality and cutting edge…
OneAlanShearer
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:45 AM
Comment #18Just to be clear. I’m happy with our incomings,We just need more of them. I would have loved Lucas Perez but that looks unlikely now.
Jib
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:54 AM
Comment #19Our Toon
Katharina Leibherr who inherited club ownership from her dad Markus has just sold it for what thy paid for it in 2009.
She is part of the Leibherr group in Switzerland , worth neary €9 billion , so she should worry
I bet Ashley is mad as hell , he’s a big fan of the Soton set up , and as a Suvenner would presumably have much mor eempathy witth their fans.
Mag52
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:55 AM
Comment #20Jib.
It’s just that the quality of the cloth raises doubts that it will last a whole season.
Our Toon
Aug 15, 2017 at 9:59 AM
Comment #21Jib
She sold 80% of the club for what they paid for it.
Jib
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:00 AM
Comment #22I stand corrected
Ron Knee
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:02 AM
Comment #23Expecting an update on injuries to both Paul Dummett and Florian Lejeune today, says the Chronicle.
john tudor
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:04 AM
Comment #24as ever
john tudor
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:05 AM
Comment #25dummet 4-6 le june 8-10
posada
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:13 AM
Comment #26I’m in an off the wall philosophical mood.
Perhaps set off by Rotonda there and his comments about owners from abroad.
100 years ago we were fighting the Great War.
When it was over and we had lost millions of our best young people and folks demanded change. For the first time we were given universal suffrage for men. They all got the vote.
This was to give us freedom. No more rule by an elite class.
100 years later, did we really want that. We seem to delight in being led.
We seem to delight in the idea that new money, rich benefactor, oligarch, or sheikh will come in and wave a magic wand.
Take us out of the normal restrictions we face.
Many are obsessed by wealth and the cult of the celebrity.
Oligarch means I think rule by a few.
posada
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:17 AM
Comment #27Liverpool were the best club in the 70’s and 80’s.
They had great fans and were better organised.
Not richer than everyone else.
Credit to them for that.
Sav
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:18 AM
Comment #28Football could sort this out if they limited the number of players a team can own. Ridiculous that a bit-part Chelsea player is on almost double our top earner. But the real issue is the number of players City and Chelsea have, even snapping up potential targets for us simply to loan them straight out to another league and treating them as investments. And the idea of players being loaned to other teams in the same league but unable to compete against the parent club is blatantly skewing results. Until the sport stands up to this we will never see a competitive division again. The top 6 have it sewn up and are intent on keeping it that way (Leicester excepted). Eventually, it will be little more than a 2-horse race like La Liga. Why permit Russian and Arab money to dictate the rules?
jesperfuglsang - capt'n awesome of the lemon crew
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:20 AM
Comment #29Did you get the short end of the stick again Jib?
…when you add two and two together do you ever get four? or do you always end up with five?
Reilly
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:20 AM
Comment #30ashley will have to drop his asking if he wants rid.
Our Toon
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:20 AM
Comment #31The reality is without money from super wealthy owners, countries, oligarch etc clubs are left behind scrapping for players at the bottom of the barrel. Cannon fodder for the elite, if we are happy with how things are then we should have no qualms if we do end up getting relegated in the next 12 to 24 months
Our Toon
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:23 AM
Comment #32Posada
Liverpool was 30 to 40 years ago mate, football has changed so much in just 12 months nevermind about the 70s and 80s. Them days will never come back to football and the sooner fans realise this the better. An average players these days costs upwards of 20m
john tudor
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:25 AM
Comment #33and we have an owner that steals revenue from our club by not paying up for advertising etc
john tudor
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:29 AM
Comment #34and if we were run true and proper how come we are always in the shite with him owning us
Jib
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:31 AM
Comment #35It’s a fact that the two clubs that have dominated English football for the majority of time since WWll have been led by Scotsmen from the ship-building and mining areas in and around Glasgow – superb man managers – Busby and Ferguson at Man U and Shankly at Liverpool.
jimmysmith
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:33 AM
Comment #36It’s only Man City and Chelsea that are backed without particular concern to balancing the books. With the money now on offer in the EPL Newcastle are big enough to build a decent group of players over a couple of seasons that can get into Europe, win a Europa League, or domestic cup, without the money of a wealthy sheik, or oligarch, or even Mike Ashley’s. I’d prefer it.
Ron Knee
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:34 AM
Comment #37Provided we stay up, jimmy!
hibbit
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:35 AM
Comment #38worth a read Shay Given on Talk Sport this morning
Shay Given has revealed he has been told that Rafa Benitez and Mike Ashley have not been in contact with each other for months.
The Magpies manager has recently made his frustrations clear about being unable to strengthen his squad anywhere near as much as he hoped to this summer despite owner Ashley promising him his full financial backing following promotion from the Championship.
And former Toon goalkeeper Given, 41, has said that he is hearing from the club that astonishingly the pair’s relationship is at the point where they are not communicating with one another.
“People up there have told me that Mike Ashley and Rafa Benitez haven’t spoken [to each other] for months,” said the former Republic of Ireland international on TalkSport, as shown on Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast’s official Twitter account on Tuesday morning.
“You just wonder how that’s going to end or for how that’s even possible.
“You would still think there was some sort of relationship formed with the two of them.”
jesperfuglsang - capt'n awesome of the lemon crew
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:38 AM
Comment #39Morning Ron…
Ron Knee
Aug 15, 2017 at 10:39 AM
Comment #40Lejeune & Dummett
“Assessments by the club’s medical staff are continuing in order to establish the full extent of their injuries but both players are expected to be out for weeks, rather than months.”