ohmelads

Overhauling the squad (if it happens) will be a financial decision not a tactical one. I understand the 12 month argument regarding Enrique and Barton but Nolan has 2 years to run on his contract - it's not the case that we have to extend the contract or sell. If we lose Nolan, Barton and Enrique, on top of the Carroll sale, it'll take a lot of money to fill their boots. Replacing half a team in one transfer window is a hell of a task, as is building a team spirit and style of play with the new charges. It'll be exciting to see new faces come through the door, but personally I'm already worried for next season. It should have been about adding flair to the steel and togetherness we already have in the side. This sale has been done to keep the wage bill trim and bring in lower earners from continental leagues, however you look at the successful sides and barring Arsenal a while back you generally need some proven English players in there to compete regularly. You can't have a team of Nolans but you also can't have a team of Ben Arfas. It's about balance.

Since when did he play "every game" for any team? Incidentally, he's also never managed 20 league goals in his career. I'm quite stunned he's been given a new contract, I think that's an error of judgement from Ferguson. Perhaps he feels a new signing will not be so happy to warm the bench, but given his injuries, Owen is way too unreliable, not to mention he's not much of a scoring machine these days. Next time we play Man Utd the teamtalk should be reminding the players of Owen's comments before they run on the pitch.

Of course it is. s*** which people usually ignore. But when it's a negative story involving NUFC, it's 100% definitely true and the owner is the worst man alive and those poor players are being hard done by. I genuinely believe Barton wants to be at this club after all that's gone on and I'll be surprised if he leaves. Enrique on the other hand, who knows. I think people are always wary of what's going on, espescially when we have players in high demand whose contracts are running out, and an owner who likes surprises and taking risks.

Whatever way you look at it it's not a good sign that Barton and Enrique still haven't signed new deals with the transfer window about to swing wide open and only 12 months on their contracts. It most probably is a game of brinkmanship, Ashley has often negotiated this way in the past and agents will be happy to do the same with the summer transfer season strengthening their hand. It's a risky strategy because when it works you get a good deal but when it doesn't, you're screwed. Newcastle can't afford to be losing these players, we have a handful of class players backed up by a load of dross. It's a lopsided squad. Lose those quality players and we're up sh*t creek, they are the reason we're 12th and not in the Championship.

Says more about our subs bench and squad size than anything else. Teams we've played have had quality players on the bench who can come on, fresh, and influence the last 20 minutes. You look at our squad and the injuries we've had and it's mostly been the likes of Ranger or Lovenkrands coming on. I think that explains the lack of goals scored. Also, as someone else pointed out, a lot of goals are scored near the end of games as players tire, concentrations lapses and space opens up, other teams have had players to exploit this but we just haven't had the squad. As far as Pardew goes, he's done OK. He came into a difficult situation, Hughton was turfed out for no good reason and players and fans were upset. Pardew was never gonna come in with a weakened squad on a run of iffy form and massive scepticism against him and take us to a glorious finish, espescially when his star striker f*cked off a month later. He had nowt to work with in the transfer market and a limited squad, and largely went about it in a fairly dignified manner and the team continued as Hughton left it with passionate displays offset by injuries, inconsistency and ultimately a lack of forward threat. I'm satisfied with the job he's done so far if I'm honest, but the real test will come in persuading our star players to stay, and/or building his own team this summer. Let's just hope it's a job of building a squad that has options on the bench and competition for places, and not rebuilding the first team because stars have been sold. We have a lopsided squad that contains both top 6 and relegation standard players. Take out the better players and gamble on unknowns and you know how it'll end.

Everything hinges on whether or not this will be a summer of building, or rebuilding. If we lose Enrique, Barton, or even both then we will go backwards. Keep them and add players who improve the first team and we're going places. We have the core of a strong team, the question is will they stay with us? If they do, it's about buying quality first team players, relegating the weaker first teamers to the bench/competition for places, and building our squad size that way, while moving on the dead wood players like Smith and Ryan Taylor if we can. It's better to build the squad this way than to sign intended backup players such as James Perch or promoting kids who aren't ready which is the cheap way to go about it. We have the money to build the squad properly now but the key questions are will that money be spent and can we hang onto our stars.

It may be a game of brinkmanship to get a better deal for himself at Newcastle. He knows he will be in demand and can keep the club sweating. Mike Ashley has shown himself to be a brinkmanship negotiator in the past but as ever it's a risky way to do business. I think aside from the obvious fact he wants to be somewhere successful, he also knows that if he moves to a more famous club he has a much higher chance of getting into the Spain squad. If we must lose him, we should ensure it is to a foreign club, I'm sure there'd be interest from Spain and Italy. If we must sell to a Premier League team then his price should rise accordingly because it's bad business to be strengthening other teams and leaving ourselves further behind. Either way the fee should be big because he's been one of the top left backs in the league this season, still plenty years ahead of him and sooner or later I think he'll be in the Spain squad.

Some of the criticism of him is over the top. He's not a bad defender, he just never reached the heights many expected of him after a bright start to his career. Since then, injuries have disrupted him every season. He's also been around during some awful Newcastle sides under countless managers when we were on the end of some hammerings. Many assosciate him with those periods I feel. His good performances tend to get quickly forgotten once he picks up another injury.

We have to put the days of signing crocks, just because they're cheap, behind us. I realise it's a gamble on him finding his old form and fitness but I think we'd be better off giving that valuable squad place (and wages!) to a young signing who may or may not make it. How many times have we been stung going down this road? Viduka, Geremi, Smith, Butt, Duff, Kluivert, Carr, Babayaro, the list goes on. All had played very well at some point in their careers but we took a punt on them because their clubs had given up on them due to fitness, form or both. All turned out a failure and we wound up with an expensively assembled squad but struggled to fill our subs bench at times due to unprecedented injury lists. This season we were told Dan Gosling would be ready in the new year and look what's happened. We could sign a James Perch or a Cheik Tiote but I'd rather take the punt on another player than someone who has failed to start a game in 4 months. You look at our key players now and they are never injured. The likes of Barton, Tiote, Enrique, Coloccini.

The bulk of whatever transfer money we have will go on a striker to replace Carroll. Pardew has also said Ben Arfa will play a number 10 role. The new man and Ben Arfa would probably constitute our first choice front line, with Best and Ameobi as backups. Ranger badly needs a long run in a team to develop his game and he'll get that by going on loan as Carroll did. Lovenkrands time should be up but given the lack of squad depth we may end up keeping him.

Just when we have a core group of talented players to build a squad around and a good team spirit, we look to cash in and build a team with cheaper players. I can see some logic in the Carroll deal but the selling of key players absolutely has to stop there, we got enough money off that deal without the need to sell more. We've got the core of a good squad and money to spend, we should be looking forward and not dismantling the team further. We are where we are in the table because we have four or five good players who aren't injury prone - take them out and look at the rest of the squad, it's kids, has-beens and never-has-beens. Relegation fodder in other words. If we lose Enrique on the back of the Carroll deal, it'll cause other ambitious and talented players to look for the exit door. Players like Barton, Ben Arfa, Tiote, Coloccini. Enrique is the best left back we've had in a long, long time. There may be better left backs going forward, but defensively there are almost none better in this league, and certainly none we can attract. I don't see how any fan would be up for losing a player of his quality. His contract situation is forcing our hand but the club have to do everything possible to keep players like him because they are the reason we are 9th and not 19th.

Depends where we finish, and what we do in the transfer market. I reckon we can keep him if we really want to, but it's up to Mike Ashley and how he plans to run the club. Do we kick on, invest in the squad, show ambition and convince the stars they're at a club that can quickly rise towards the Europa league. Or do we cash in on our star players, replace them with cheaper ones and gamble on survival all over again. Enrique is probably our best player, he's been top class this season and there will definitely be interest in him from clubs as big or bigger than us in the summer. To keep him we'll have to show ambition, bring in some quality with the Andy Carroll money and resist bids that come in. I'm not convinced this is the model Ashley has in mind but all we can do is hope.

I think you are probably right. Ashley is about recouping his money and getting out of town, and he'll gamble on the survival of the club with the minimal outlay to do that. Cashing in on players and scraping survival would make him a happy man, and even if we do survive he will do it all over again next season. Remember Given and N'Zogbia were sold months before relegation, with Ryan Taylor and Nolan coming in. An exercise which netted a few quid and probably trimmed the wage bill. The gamble failed as we went down. But he's doing it again. Enrique, Tiote, Ben Arfa, any decent bids come in they'll be off, and the cycle begins again with us gambling survival on some substandard replacements who may or may not keep our heads above water. His aim is to bring in cheap players and develop them. What he didn't say is that he will sell them on at a profit. But it's obvious that's the only way he'll quickly recoup at least some of his wasted money. It's not an Arsenal model, because they develop players for keeps. It is more like the West Ham model of a few years ago, when they had players like Carrick, Lampard, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand. All have won major honours since, but not in a West Ham shirt. I hope we won't lose the likes of Enrique, Tiote and Ben Arfa but sadly we probably will, once a decent bid comes in.

We should have been making enquiries about forwards the second Liverpool showed interest in Carroll. Which was a full day before deadline day. We cashed in on James Milner in similar circumstances, no replacement and it ended in relegation. Lessons have not been learned. People call it panic buying but there are times when you have to panic, such as when you have no forwards of any pedigree at all. Doing nothing and letting a bad situation develop is far worse.

I'm not angry at the sale of Carroll, it was an insane price offered and the player seemed content to leave. F*ck him. But I'm very angry the club had 31 days to bring in much-needed personnel and all they could do was loan out one of only two fit wingers on our books and loan in a crocked has-been on big wages in a position where we have ample players. It defies logic, it defies common sense, it was just utterly stupid. I don't even rate Routledge but what on earth are they doing loaning out fringe players and putting never-tried reserves on the bench? Pardew admitted he knew about the Carroll bid more than 24 hours before the deadline. That's ample time to get on the phone and thrash out a deal. It's really not hard, other clubs were doing it left right and centre. We clearly needed a lift with the sale of Carroll, not to mention we need a goal threat. What were they thinking? As we've said all along, there is no such thing as stability with Ashley in power. In what should have been a season of progress and consolidation he has conspired to sack a popular manager and leave his replacement an even weaker squad to work with. We will stutter towards the end of the season with little goal threat. All we can hope for is that we keep our heads above water come May and all that Carroll money goes on new players. But even if that pans out, with Ashley about we'll always be nervous about his next fuck-up. It's a case of when not if as he seems to thrive on controversy.

Why on earth was he even loaned out? I don't rate him but for a club with only two fit wingers it was completely insane.

We're in for a big struggle on today's evidence. Our better players like Enrique put in an unusually bad performance. We had nothing up front and nothing on the bench. Ameobi injured, Arsenal up next. Worrying stuff.

We're better off looking at emerging talents in Europe as Liverpool have done with Suarez, obviously being realistic as to who we can attract. Forget about English strikers, we just sold the best one available to us. Young strikers scoring well in leagues such as France, Holland, Germany, we should be keeping an eye on. We should have the kind of money to prise these players away without giving massive fees to other Premier League clubs. If we do go for any England-based players I'd like to see us put a tempting offer in for Adam Johnson. He's just not getting many games at Man City and if they sign someone in the summer we may be able to move in. They would rather sell to us than a title rival. I know he is on the fringes of their team and still young, but they're active every summer in the market so anything is possible. They are greedy for world class players and he just may become surplus.

IF all of the money is reinvested, then I think it'll be good business. For argument's sake, even if he goes on to be one of the best players in the world, we will never look back at having cashed in too early or for too little. We got 35M, hardly anybody goes for higher than that anywhere in the world. Keeping him would have been a statement of ambition, that we can stand up to the big clubs and plan on keeping our best players. It would have been a stubborn act of defiance in the face of a very, very tempting offer. Losing him is a depressing sign that these clubs can bully us. However, I think few clubs would have rejected an offer that big for a player who at 22 has a handful of top flight goals to his name. Really, how many clubs would have said no? I think we've played well enough without him to convince me that we can come out a winner in all this. But it all depends on Ashley reinvesting it in the team. It may be that we had to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. It's up to Ashley now to make that happen, because as things stand it's a backwards step. There is the worry that the team will be down because of this and some may question our ambition. But I reckon the players will be looking forward to an interesting summer too and hoping some quality will come in. We will see soon enough how the players react, but they've got the ability to perform without him as they have shown.

Makes it easier for them to hike up the asking price though once he's playing well as other clubs will show interest then too. It's not really comparable to the Ben Arfa deal at all because he wasn't being farmed out on loan due to poor form, at least not to my knowledge. The Ben Arfa deal is more comparable to us loaning out Bellamy years back because he fell out with Souness. We profited from a bust-up at another club and landed a very gifted player. The Ireland deal is another club loaning a player they don't see any use for this season.

Off Carroll is the only place I could see him fitting in. Tiote, Nolan and Barton have all been good and won't be displaced easily from midfield, and he's not going left wing. If you put him in a midfield three then you've got Carroll up front on his own which doesn't get the best out of him really. Might work away from home I guess. We really have enough centre mids so this shows a lack of faith in either the ability and/or fitness of Guthrie and Gosling. You could argue that Ireland at his best is a better player than both and we've taken a punt on him finding his form from a few years back. So perhaps he will be ahead of them in the pecking order should a space arise in midfield. I'm sceptical he's a player we really need but obviously I hope he proves me wrong. Certainly not a like for like replacement for Routledge, which is what we did need. For that reason, I'd have been happier with Larsson who can play right wing and put a ball in. But who knows, he may help up front if he can tuck in just behind and chip in with goals.

Always has and always will be my worry with Ashley. We all know his stated goal on how he wants to run the club ie developing young players and being financially sustainable. But it's ambiguous. Do we develop players to sell and help him recoup the money he has lost? Or do we develop to keep, and therefore save paying big fees as well as developing the team and club. Let's hope it's the latter, but I fear the former. It's not ridiculous to suggest Andy Carroll will lead the line for England for the next decade. Bear in mind there is a lack of quality forwards in England and proven Premier League strikers aren't cheap. Look how much Villa paid for Darren Bent. 23M is not an unfair offer but I'd be gutted if we sell because it shows how the club is being run and will be run. I also doubt the top players want to come to Newcastle in its current state. So we'll be back scouring the market for a young forward who will grow with us. And it goes round in circles. West Ham's youth policy failed when they sold them all for profit. Arsenal develop them for keeps and it works. There is a chance Carroll is a one season wonder and we will regret turning the deal down. But I'm willing to take that chance. I think he'll only get better and if he keeps it up, we may have Man City or Chelsea knocking on the door with silly money further down the line. He's signed a long contract and seems happy, if we cash in to bloody Spurs it's a sign of Ashley's intentions.

I don't think it represents shrewd business to be honest, seems more like we're taking a punt on him because he's available and we need bodies and bench options who can change a game. Even with our long list of injuries, as things stand he'd only be a bench player. He may strengthen our bench on paper, but to be honest we need a winger after losing Routledge and this signing makes little sense to me. Smith, Guthrie, Gosling, Tiote, Barton, Nolan can all play centre mid. Ameobi, Best, Lovenkrands, Carroll, Ranger can all play up front. I don't think we need Ireland, we need wide players and a quality goalscorer and he isn't either.

Enrique is easily one of our key players and the best full back this club has had in many years. I'd be gutted if we lost him, 8M would be an insult. You can virtually guarantee a club of our stature would not find a better left back.

Well, he does look like the kind of signing we have made down the years following Bobby's reign which saw us slide down the table. The likes of Lee Bowyer, Alan Smith, Geremi, Nicky Butt or Steven Carr for example, who had one wonder season (or were good a while ago), but their stock had fallen so low they were going for pittance and we picked these players up on the cheap hoping that we could bring back their former glory days. We have generally not had much success going down that route. They arrived on big wages and carried on their poor form with us. I can understand why people are wary of buying more of these players, espescially in a position where we already have plenty of players.