So the transfer window is over. Thoughts on our squad?

[Disco]

Its a lot better than I expected a month ago. Still a bit thin for my liking and if we get a couple of key injuries (Carroll & Jose) we could be struggling but so would many other teams looking to stay if they lost two of their key players.

[BottledDog]

Hughton on the striker issue -

"We did look at bringing in another striker on loan, but I was always mindful of the fact that, if we were going to do that, it had to be someone considerably better than what we have already got here."

 

"There wasn’t anyone available who was going to do that so we left it. There was no point signing someone just for the sake of it."

 

 

Sensible aproach, and looks like we may be back in for a striker in Jan.

For now though,  that's looks like £13 million cleverly invested in the squad.

[Guest Pedro_de_geordieo]

One of the most positive things to come out of the window is the fact that CH seems to be thinking along the same terms as the majority of the fans, he's strengthened in the places we all knew needed a bit of strength and has really brought in some quality in Ben Arfa for pennies.

 

With some of our previous managers purchases you kinda think hmmm let's wait and see, but with CH i'm honestly confident he has grown as a manager.

 

Just wish it was the Blackpool game on Saturday!!

[Guest Pedro_de_geordieo]

Hughton on the striker issue -

"We did look at bringing in another striker on loan, but I was always mindful of the fact that, if we were going to do that, it had to be someone considerably better than what we have already got here."

 

"There wasn’t anyone available who was going to do that so we left it. There was no point signing someone just for the sake of it."

 

 

Sensible aproach, and looks like we may be back in for a striker in Jan.

For now though,  that's looks like £13 million cleverly invested in the squad.

 

£13m?

[BottledDog]

Hughton on the striker issue -

"We did look at bringing in another striker on loan, but I was always mindful of the fact that, if we were going to do that, it had to be someone considerably better than what we have already got here."

 

"There wasn’t anyone available who was going to do that so we left it. There was no point signing someone just for the sake of it."

 

 

Sensible aproach, and looks like we may be back in for a striker in Jan.

For now though,  that's looks like £13 million cleverly invested in the squad.

 

£13m?

 

According to the Journal, and including signing on fees and wages.

Any number you put on our spending is a bit of a shot in the dark mind.

[Guest Pedro_de_geordieo]

Hughton on the striker issue -

"We did look at bringing in another striker on loan, but I was always mindful of the fact that, if we were going to do that, it had to be someone considerably better than what we have already got here."

 

"There wasn’t anyone available who was going to do that so we left it. There was no point signing someone just for the sake of it."

 

 

Sensible aproach, and looks like we may be back in for a striker in Jan.

For now though,  that's looks like £13 million cleverly invested in the squad.

 

£13m?

 

According to the Journal, and including signing on fees and wages.

Any number you put on our spending is a bit of a shot in the dark mind.

 

Hmmm £13m why does that ring a bell?

[colinmk]

Gosling signing seems weird now looking back, I'm not sure how he'll fit into everything.

 

Agreed. Perhaps the intention is to move someone on in the January transfer window, which is roughly when Gosling is expected to be fully fit? How to fit Tiote-Barton-Smith-Guthrie-Gosling into two positions I have no idea. Maybe we will line up 4-5-1 a lot more this season with Carroll the lone front man and Ben Arfa and Gutierrez in the wide positions? That would facilitate 3 centre mids, which is where Hughton has stocked up on players.

 

More confusing for me is why Nolan was handed the captain's armband. If anything, surely Ben Arfa's signing puts his position under real threat? We have a glut of centre mids and quite a few strikers. Carroll could do with some pace and running alongside him and Nolan's one of our slowest and least energetic players, while I don't see a place for him in midfield with 5 centre mids fighting for 2 spots already. Unless Ben Arfa is expected to take Routledge's place on the right wing?

 

Hughton has said he sees Gosling as one for the future so he won't be starting straight away anyway.

[summerof69]

Well, i'm not sure about our total spend including wages but it seems as though we have brought in round about 15 mil worth of talent (not including wages ) we got Perch for 1.5 mil Tiote for 3.5 mil Campbell and Gosling for free (estimated value of 4 mil) and Barfa on loan (800k, though to buy would cost between 5-6 mil).

[Cronky]

Gosling signing seems weird now looking back, I'm not sure how he'll fit into everything.

 

Agreed. Perhaps the intention is to move someone on in the January transfer window, which is roughly when Gosling is expected to be fully fit? How to fit Tiote-Barton-Smith-Guthrie-Gosling into two positions I have no idea. Maybe we will line up 4-5-1 a lot more this season with Carroll the lone front man and Ben Arfa and Gutierrez in the wide positions? That would facilitate 3 centre mids, which is where Hughton has stocked up on players.

 

More confusing for me is why Nolan was handed the captain's armband. If anything, surely Ben Arfa's signing puts his position under real threat? We have a glut of centre mids and quite a few strikers. Carroll could do with some pace and running alongside him and Nolan's one of our slowest and least energetic players, while I don't see a place for him in midfield with 5 centre mids fighting for 2 spots already. Unless Ben Arfa is expected to take Routledge's place on the right wing?

 

Hughton has said he sees Gosling as one for the future so he won't be starting straight away anyway.

 

Yeah. For me, the subtext of 'one for the future' is always 'not good enough yet'.

 

But overall, I think it's now a good squad and I'm very confident we won't go down.

 

How good depends on how well Tiote and Ben Arfa contribute. They're the unknown factors.

 

The last two games have been very significant, in that the team has already proved to themselves that they can beat one of the better sides at home, and get points from the more moderate sides away.

[Stu]

I think the squad is coming together quite nicely, we still lack enough players with quality in the final third to really scare teams but we look like we're developing quite a solid team, and we're quite young as well which is encouraging.

 

The situation at Goalkeeper isn't ideal, but it's not too bad though either. We have a below average PL keeper in Harper, and a raw but talented understudy in Krul. The way I see it, Harper will be passable until we figure out if Krul is going to be a long term solution or not. He's 22 now, we should know soon enough.

 

Enrique is looking like a quality LB more with every game he plays. His ongoing weakness is that he gives the ball away in clumsy spots, generally through lack of concentration. He's quality though when players are running at him, I never expect anyone to go by him and they very rarely do. At RB we'll have to get by this year with a mixture of the various players we have who can play RB, I reckon between the two Taylors, Simpson and Perch we'll find someone who can do a job.

 

CB we have good depth. Colo, Williamson, Taylor and Campbell is good competition for two places.

 

Central midfield I really like what Hughton has done. I expect it'll be a case of one of Smith or Tiote to partner one of Barton or Guthrie. (Probably) Barton will be expected to get on the ball, make things happen going forward and get into goalscoring positions, while (hopefully) Tiote will be more inclined to sit back and anchor the midfield. Gosling signing seems weird now looking back, I'm not sure how he'll fit into everything.

 

Jonas and Routledge are good starting wingers, but those two avoiding long-term injuries could be quite important as I don't think we've much depth after them. Disappointing that Lua Lua is gone on loan again, the coaches obviously don't seem to think he's able to play with the first team yet.

 

Ben Arfa should be class signing, obviously. Hopefully he'll give us that bit of flair in the final third we've been missing for so long. Sounds like he's expecting to play in the role Nolan has played so far, excited to see that. As for Nolan, I'll never like him because I hate the type of player he is. The epitome of Sam Allardyce football. That said, he seems a great presence in the dressing room and you can't deny his knack for getting on the end of and taking chances more than most of the players in our squad. As long as he is deployed in the role he's played so far, and never again as a genuine central midfielder, I'm happy to suffer him for another year. Could actually be a quality weapon to throw on late in games when you're chasing a goal. Lovenkrands will be another option to play just off the striker, and he can play on the wing too (albeit quite porrly, generally).

 

Andy Carroll is probably the most exciting thing we have at the club right now. A big, strong bastard of a center-forward who is a born and bred Geordie. He looks like he's developed massively in the last couple of years, and the first three games this year he's looked a real handful. Immense in the air, and quick enough as well as decent enough with the ball at his feet to be more than just a big battering ram. Typically enough though, he seems a bit of a lunatic. We need him to stay out of trouble and also hope that the expectation that will be heaped upon him now doesn't get in his head. After him we have passable depth at the center-forward spot with Shola and eventually Best being back-up options.

 

Next summer will be interesting if things go well this year.

 

Great analysis of the squad

[Guest sicko2ndbest]

Is there anyone in danger of being left out?

[steve_69]

Given what I was expecting when 'no new capital outlay' was announced and 'loans and free transfers' were seen as the only options, i'm absolutely over the moon with our transfer window.

 

A pacy striker would have been the icing on the cake but I now think we have enough quality in midfield to make up for the collective lack of talent up front (Carroll obviously excluded)

[Shak]

Hughton on the striker issue -

"We did look at bringing in another striker on loan, but I was always mindful of the fact that, if we were going to do that, it had to be someone considerably better than what we have already got here."

 

"There wasn’t anyone available who was going to do that so we left it. There was no point signing someone just for the sake of it."

 

Encouraging to hear, looks like he's learned his lesson from the signing of Best.

 

Trying to find buyers for the likes of Best, Shola and Xisco is going to be a bit of a task for us I'm afraid. Shola has two years left and the other two have three, I hope we don't get stuck with their wages on our books for that long, could really hinder our attempts to improve the squad in future.

[Guest teepee]

i agree with most of you - better than what i expected, but the striking position is a worry.

 

however, we should not forget that løvenkrans is a decent enough player in that position, to play alongside andy/shola against weaker sides, and to throw on late as well when chasing...

[Guest sicko2ndbest]

The fact we have 3 midfielders who can occupy the second striker role in Nolan, Barton and Ben Arfa means the need for another striker is not as great as it could have been

[TRon]

Hughton on the striker issue -

"We did look at bringing in another striker on loan, but I was always mindful of the fact that, if we were going to do that, it had to be someone considerably better than what we have already got here."

 

"There wasn’t anyone available who was going to do that so we left it. There was no point signing someone just for the sake of it."

 

Encouraging to hear, looks like he's learned his lesson from the signing of Best.

 

 

Can't argue with that. My only concern is that we don't have any proven goal scorers at this level, although Carroll might put that right. But I would agree with Hughton that unless we can bring in someone of the calibre of Keane it's pointless wasting more money on the likes of Best.

[David28]

Hughton on the striker issue -

"We did look at bringing in another striker on loan, but I was always mindful of the fact that, if we were going to do that, it had to be someone considerably better than what we have already got here."

 

"There wasn’t anyone available who was going to do that so we left it. There was no point signing someone just for the sake of it."

 

Encouraging to hear, looks like he's learned his lesson from the signing of Best.

 

Trying to find buyers for the likes of Best, Shola and Xisco is going to be a bit of a task for us I'm afraid. Shola has two years left and the other two have three, I hope we don't get stuck with their wages on our books for that long, could really hinder our attempts to improve the squad in future.

 

Aye, Hughton is learning faster than a baby tbh. 

[Cristov]

submitted squad

 

Sol Campbell

Steven Taylor

Shola Ameobi

Joey Barton

Danny Guthrie

Peter Lovenkrands

Jose Enrique

Alan Smith

Leon Best

Fabricio Coloccini

Jonas Gutierrez

Steve Harper

Kevin Nolan

Wayne Routledge

Danny Simpson

Ryan Taylor

Mike Williamson

Xisco

Fraser Forster

Tim Krul

James Perch

Cheik Tiote

Hatem Ben Arfa

 

 

[Guest malandro]

Where's Andy Carroll?

[Cristov]

under 21 so doesn't have to be submitted

[Guest malandro]

under 21 so doesn't have to be submitted

phew

[Cristov]

Fraser Forster submitted even though he's at celtic. must be a recall clause there then.

[Colocho]

Was about to say ... Xisco instead of Vuckic!?

[CaliMag]

Interesting to see that of all the premiership clubs that have their sqauds posted on soccernet (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=819764&sec=england&cc=5901) we have the most "homegrown" players.

 

Newcastle have somehow become the most British and English team in the league.

[JH]

Hargreaves? Surely there's no chance we'll see him before January?