Newcastle United; a club that sells to make pennies
A hot topic at the minute is Newcastle United’s transfer news, clearly because there is very little of it and the transfer window is very close to slamming shut. Newcastle don’t have the greatest history when it comes to transfers, our last record signing was Michael Owen back in 05/06 season. Since then we have seen very little in terms of ambition from the club, there was the 15/16 season where we spent around 100 million Euros, although, that was more a desperate attempt to salvage the club which didn’t pay off and we inevitability found ourselves in the championship. We then immediately sold all of those players and filled our books with players that were just good enough to get us out of the championship and that was about it.
The short term plan, to get us back in the premier league, was there. However, in terms of long term ambition there wasn’t much there. This got me considering the possibilities with the players we have sold over the recent years, perhaps if we had held out and paid their wages instead of selling, where could the club have been? . It all boils down to business,clearly Mike Ashley’s plan is a short term plan and is focused around making money. This plan, to an extent, does work. However, in the long term and when you think of it in terms of the clubs success in the BPL or other tournaments it certainly does not work.
Every so often Newcastle get their transfer business correct and make a sizeable profit from some players, such as. Wijnaldum where we made around 10 million. Another example of a similar amount was from Debuchy leaving to go to Arsenal. However, there are also examples of when it wasn’t correct and the players were bought for low fees and sold for low fees, in some cases making some money and others losing some money. In those cases perhaps if Mike Ashley had played a longer game and transformed players, or at least held on slightly longer with the players, he could have brought us greater profits rather than taking any profits he can, wherever he can.
Clearly Mike Ashley just wants to balance the books with our players and absorb as much TV money profit as possible however it seems a waste when the club has so much potential.Who can blame him when we keep buying season tickets, selling out SJP and buying the attractive yet expensive strips.
Anyway, I wanted to create two 5 aside teams. One based on our current squad, with my current favourite players from the squad. The other team is made up of players we have previously sold, players that I believe we should of tried to keep a hold of, or maybe just hold on to an extra season, in order to improve their value. With Mitrovic on the way out of Newcastle United for significant profit, from a well worked deal, it asks the question who else could we have done this with?
Team one: Current Squad,
Dubvraka:
Quick impact
Good communication
Helped us reach 10th
Saved us a point or two in crutial game
Lascelles :
Netted few times last season
Proved his worth as captain
Holds team together
Atsu :
Fast Pace
Produces counter attacks
Can get past a man easily
Kenedy:
Shame we got him on loan
Quick
Mean left foot
Great first touch
Gayle:
Loves Newcastle
Can break when required
Works well within the team and gives 100%
I don't know about anybody else but when I read some of these names out, I think "Quality" its a shame we cant keep other talent or strengthen our squad significantly.
Team two: Previous Squad.
Krul:
Great on debut against Palermo
Loved Newcastle
Was the best of a bad bunch
Good communication
Janmaat:
Loved Janmaat
More of a modern right back
Pace
Not afraid to get forward
Bit slow getting back
Different gaffer and more time could have been a different story
didn’t make much yet had potential
Townsend:
Called a traitor but can you blame him for leaving
Gives 100%
Ambitious
Quick on the break
Bit greedy sometimes
Didn’t make much profit yet had potential
Wijnaldum:
Made sense selling him
Bit of persistence from Ashley could of seen much greater profit
Stood out in a poor team
Held the ball up well
good at range
Made decent profit on sale
Ben Arfa:
Well….its Ben Arfa
Good in his peak
Bit lazy
Good skill and striking foot
Currently on a free lets get him back…..
We terminated his contract, imagine if we managed that situation better
These are just my opinions, and I created the teams for a bit of fun and to open a debate, what would your now and then team be and why? Some of these selections don’t have full explanation but this was created to be fun over factual.