KaKa

55 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

 

This seems reasonable, feasible and is still an exciting move for a young talented player. More of these types of moves please.

5 minutes ago, elbee909 said:

 

If this goes ahead it'll be a crying shame that the Botman deal didn't happen. Botman and Robin in defence would just be too much.

Genuinely worth bidding £100 million for Botman just for that reason alone 

I think for the price we are being quoted they ought to look at someone a couple of years younger at the max, so no older than 26 really.

I really like Demiral and Milenkovic who are both major talents we have also been linked with and would be worth paying around the fee we are being quoted for Carlos because they are younger.

Is this guy really worth all of this effort and money?! My goodness. Surely there must be other centre backs out there that are comparable. This is mad.

27 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

It sounds better than the reality tbf, I mean he's 34 and he's already retired once if I'm not mistaken. So life would probably mean 6 more games here, then off to the Bahamas for a couple of months before he decided to pop up somewhere in France again. 

Bet we'd win those 6 games though! 

21 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I don't know why, but I read it as Hatem Ben Arfa signs for Life.

If only! 

Replacing Ikone right? Can't wait for their Champions League match against Chelsea.

1 minute ago, Colos Short and Curlies said:

not having ASM being a better dribbler. He’s got a more show boating style of dribbling but Ben Arfa had it stuck to his foot before deciding to give it a little nudge to power past defenders. Much more effective style.

I like ASM and not blind to Ben Arfas failings but imo there’s nothing that ASM scores more highly on

This, this, this, this this!!!

It didn't make sense how good he was at that while moving at high speed and while constantly changing directions. It was impossible for defenders to handle. Just an incredible ability.

14 minutes ago, Heron said:

That's fair. From a purely objective stance, I think he had a bit more end product than ASM but ASM is arguably a more skilful dribbler of the ball, despite not being technically as good.

 

I think if we had a similar quality team to then, now, ASM would be loved a similar way, but fankly we're well away from that level at present.

 

Ultimately though, both are FIFA street ballers with a showman attitude in a team game, playing for a club where luxuries cannot be afforded and they need to learn to do more to 'fit' the needs of the team rather than have the team 'fit' their own (personal) needs. 

 

 

 

ASM is a talent, but I don't think he touches Ben Arfa as a dribbler of the football. 

ASM is more of an explosive over dribbler that loses the ball a fair bit. Think Ben Arfa was so much more technically gifted and had an immense touch and control of the ball. He was a puppeteer that had defenders on a string. He toyed with them and it was incredibly difficult to get the ball off him.

16 minutes ago, Disco said:

 

Fire up the old thread!

Transfers: Newcastle probe French international Alassane Pléa (Mönchengladbach)

The French striker from Borussia Mönchengladbach (28 years old, 1 selection), under contract until 2023, is of interest to the English club. It could be sold this winter or next summer.

Very active on dozens of tracks since its takeover by a Saudi consortium in October , Newcastle has just probed Alassane Pléa. The French international striker (1 selection in November 2018), under contract until June 2023 with Borussia Mönchengladbach, could be sold by his club this winter or next summer, when he will probably not extend.

The current staff of the Magpies, whose team is struggling in the penultimate place in the Premier League , is interested in the profile of the player trained at OL (28 years old) and has even taken information from Allan Saint- Maximin, friend with Pléa since their joint season in Nice in 2017-2018.

Just now, TRon said:

 

I would just write off the Leeds game tbh, we have a break after that, and I suspect we'll be bringing in most of our signings at the end of the window. Just have to hope there's still enough winnable games to be able to turn it round in that time. 

Yeah, I'm thinking this is pretty much going to be the approach to things now.

We just need to get some better players in for Eddie at this point, and stop mucking him about. These higher profile players will just have to wait for now, as they are to difficult to dislodge from their clubs in January.

As Mandoon said Watford did their business nice and early and brought in some lesser known talents for reasonable fees and they already looked really effective against us.

This is getting ridiculous now. There will be players that can be signed out there without so much drama, and they will improve us, because quite honestly that's not very hard to do at the minute as we are absolutely shocking in most areas of the pitch.

Come on PIF sort it out.

8 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

You'd imagine the market in general will start to heat up later this week, it's usually the way.

Yeah, you're right. For teams that are not in as much danger that is fine, and it's typically when you would see the better players start to move. However, that was never a luxury we had, to wait till the latter days of the window, and so I think they might have already blown it.

We should have gone for players we could get in as early as possible really, even if it meant they were ultimately just going to be stop gaps.

18 minutes ago, Fantail Breeze said:

I think, based on absolutely nothing, names like Wood and Tarkowski are Howe picks and that worries me about how PFM he possibly is.

Edwards was right about Wood and the other names he was putting out were people like Solanke, who I think Howe would be interested in.

 

Said it earlier, if we’re not willing to break budgets to pay for someone like Botman, I don’t see how Tarkowski would ever be possible as Burnley are not going to be a willing seller.

Howe might well be thinking those types are more straightforward and quicker to bring in due to the current situation.

Really not sure now is the time to be overly ambitious in the market, due to how long it is taking to get players in.

I think PIF are doing way too much this window and I'm now leaning towards them having made a mess of it really.

PIF have not really tied up any deals yet. Trippier wanted to come back to England, and it is more likely Howe heard about it and used his familiarity with Trippier to facilitate things and convince him to join. Chris Wood was then signed due to the agent alerting us to his clause.

PIF seem to be not managing to get deals done so far.

4 hours ago, Hanshithispantz said:

It's Trippier's man like.

 

Lascelles's man trips over and Lascelles, unable to grow 3 feet taller, gets beat by a great ball in.

 

He's shite but the ball in and leap from J Pedro were both quality.

 

 

 

Yeah, the goal is Trippier's fault. You can see it all in the build up.

Lascelles is close to his man and engages him, which actually causes his man to fall over.

Trippier is way too far off his man and never engages him physically, and so he has a free run onto the ball from behind Lascelles.

I'm a big fan of Howe and I'm comfortable with us building with him going forward, but in an ideal world, Everton come in for Howe, and we then bring Rafa in.

Another key thing with Rafa is that he is really a Manager and DOF rolled into one, which would have been ideal.

He would have done the same kind of thing he was doing with that club in China previously. Just restructuring everything from top to bottom, and his knowledge of players globally is top notch too. None of this dilly dallying and approaching of so many targets, without knowing who could realistically be had.

Just now, Robster said:

Textbook NUFC luck

It's enough to make you weep man.

2 minutes ago, duo said:

I don't think it's this at all - I just think he joined a club that a.) didn't really want him b.) had already squandered £500Mil on players which meant Rafa had zero budget to work with.  The sad thing is he'd have ben tailor made for Newcastle as the current squad is mostly his players.

Yes, he would have known how to get results with these mugs in the interim.

And then he would have already known exactly who he wanted to bring in to upgrade the team from January onwards and he would have had free reign financially and decision making wise to do so. It would have been perfect.

But he just wouldn't leave well alone with the Everton thing. It was like that reaction from their fans was a sign from God telling him to chill out and be patient, but he just didn't take heed man.

This man's stubbornness completely ruined things for him in the end.

If he had just left the gig alone after the initial reaction from Everton fans, I imagine he would have been here at Newcastle now with us comfortably in mid table, a bunch of players he knows and likes already signed, and us dreaming of the great times we were on our way to having. 

Absolutely sickening.

4 minutes ago, Gazzaschicken said:

Figure things out? Everyone knows the issue. The shite squad of players we have, in the past 6 months it's the constant as its the only thing that hasn't changed. We need 5 players at a minimum. 2 cbs 2cms and a RW and probably a St as well to make it 6. Pif can spend money but coming in half way through a season who was ever going to be able to change it round the amount that was needed. We have no pace in cm shelvey is fucked but can at least see a pass but longstaff is a fuckin donkey and without at least 1 cm with a bit of pace we are fucked. 

Figure things out as far as getting the players signed by the middle of next week, because they've already dropped the ball.

8 minutes ago, Thomson Mouse said:

 

Bruce knew it

 

He spent two years telling us he couldn’t change the way the players played 

Yeah, except he was culpable because he was only holding training 3 days a week and pissing off on holiday every chance he got.

2 minutes ago, Away Toon said:

They do and it's on Howe that he's trying to get them to play in a way that they can't. We can only play counter attack with the players we have, Rafa knew it Bruce knew it, but Eddie I want to play nice possession football Howe doesn't. He's going to get us relegated. I personally hated watching Rafa's anti football but it worked and if he was in charge now we would stay up.

The onus was on PIF to have had a better thought out plan about the ability of the squad and what kind of manager was needed to get results with said squad.

Or in the instance they did bring in someone like Howe to change things then they needed to have a plan in place to get him the players he needed ASAP in January.

Unfortunately, PIF have made a mess of things on both fronts, and they're going to have to live with the results. I think Amanda and Mehrdad could end up in trouble, as I remember reading somewhere they were apparently on a trial period with managing the club for PIF? They might have to give up those responsibilities come the end of the season if they don't figure things out quickly. 

1 minute ago, TRon said:

 

If you haven't got the players to play the type of football you want, then you have to adapt to get results with the players you've got. How do you play a pressing game with Shelvey in your side? 

He was never going to do that though as he has always clearly stated what his philosophy has and that he will always coach his teams to play that way, and so from that point of view he perhaps wasn't the right hire.

I don't think he could have imagined the rot that has set in with these players, and how much they would struggle to adapt after years of poor training, poor coaching, a lack of accountability and motivation.

1 minute ago, neesy111 said:

Having bigger doubts he was the right person for the situation we were in tbh.

The real issue is to bring in him you had to be ready to give him the players he needs to play his football.

He's made it clear he needed at least 6 new bodies in. Unfortunately they've failed to strengthen quickly enough in the key areas we need help i.e. central defence and central midfield.

It would have even made more sense to just get him the players he needed quickly even if it meant they were at a lower level for now, as he has shown he can do well with those provided they can play his style. Instead they are chasing bigger names in January when it is so much more complicated to land them. Such a bad idea.