Rate our summer transfer window

[ChrisMcQuillan]

Annoyed we didn't get a better striker in, but overall, 6.5.

 

How can you rate the transfer window a 6,5 when our squad is arguably weaker than it was a year ago and we have made a huge profit on transfers in that period?

 

Because I think we've replaced Enrique with quality, replaced Nolan & Barton with quality, signed a striker but could have done with another, and signed people like Obertan to beafen up the numbers. Nowhere near the doom and gloom you'd think people would make out.

 

Ah honestly f*** this s***. Don't enjoy this forum anymore. Bunch of depressing bastards. f*** off.

 

Fair enough on all that.

 

But we've not beafened up the numbers at all.  We're exactly the same as where we started.

[Interpolic]

Failure to spend ANY of the £35m and failure to buy a good striker = bad window.

 

We've acquired a good striker, we just needed another.

 

Exactly, and the second striker only became our biggest priority after we secured a good fullback as well.

 

Don't get me wrong, I wanted another striker, but it had to be one whose quality was way above the ones we've got. That always made it harder to achieve, especially under the frugal spending limits we've set ourselves.

 

Completely disagree with that mind.  The only reason Santon was the biggest priority was that we'd left it until the last few days without a single left back in the entire squad.  Unless you count right-sided utility player Ryan Taylor or youngster coming back from an injury (who's arguably a winger) Shane Ferguson.

 

A forward besides Ba has been a huge priority for months and months, to suggest that our negligence of the left back position (when we knew for months what would have happened with Enrique) is a crazy piece of logic, I find it incredible that you're actually saying that.

 

Also what you're saying about Europe is depressing tbh Ian.  Birmingham and Stoke are in the Europa League this season, as a result of the cups.  We'll most likely find ourselves having to play shite teams in the cups and will get knocked out fairly early again as usual, which wouldn't necessarily be the case if we'd make 1 or 2 more additions, and/or indeed kept the likes of Nolan and Barton as members of the squad.  Will be a case of staying in the league and fucking off the cups yet again.  In other words, simply existing.

 

Simply existing is the reality for most clubs in the league, it now takes insane investment to compete at the top. I don't think what I said about Europe is depressing, I'm saying we can reach it but just not yet.

 

You're right that we kind of got ourselves into the situation with the LB position by not sorting out Enrique earlier, but who knows what was going on. I can't really blame the club for trying to sign him if they thought there was a chance he might stay, or maybe no decent bids came in until Liverpool's. However it came about, there was a problem and we addressed it with Santon (hopefully).

 

If your argument is that Birmingham can win the cup but we can't, I don't agree with that. We were much better than Birmingham last season, if they can win it then so can we. Not sure I'd want to trade it for another relegation, but that's impossible to measure anyway.

 

The point is that it would not have taken insane investment to move up a few places and have a decent cup run.

 

There's also an argument to be had for Birmingham's cup run negatively affecting their league campaign - it's happened to other clubs in the past such as Blackburn, Middlesbrough, even Fulham when they reached the UEFA cup final ended up finishing a lot of places further down than they did the year previous, without getting into relegation trouble.  We can't afford to do that - we're in a position where if Colo and Best (FFS!) got injured we'd have real problems at either end, especially if Ben Arfa, Gosling and Marveaux's injury problems continue to drag on / they're not the same players as they were.

 

 

[Guest WashyGeordie]

Annoyed we didn't get a better striker in, but overall, 6.5.

 

How can you rate the transfer window a 6,5 when our squad is arguably weaker than it was a year ago and we have made a huge profit on transfers in that period?

 

Because I think we've replaced Enrique with quality, replaced Nolan & Barton with quality, signed a striker but could have done with another, and signed people like Obertan to beafen up the numbers. Nowhere near the doom and gloom you'd think people would make out.

 

Ah honestly f*** this s***. Don't enjoy this forum anymore. Bunch of depressing bastards. f*** off.

 

[timeEd32]

Ian - I've enjoyed your optimistic views all summer and I've shared most with you, but it's over man. The fact that our top 4 strikers still include Lovenkrands and Shola is just inexcusable.

 

We might have a good season if we get lucky with injuries/suspensions and don't sell anyone in January. In fact, I still think we have a legitimate chance to finish 7th. However, the bottom line is we did not buy the goalscorer that we desperately need. I'm not sure what was real out of all the supposed targets - Gameiro, Gervinho, Erdinc, Maiga, Roux, Cisse, Bendtner, Ruiz, etc. - but the fact is that as of today none of them play for Newcastle United. I'm sure there are a million and one reasons why each didn't work out, but it's indefensible and can only categorized as failure.

[Revolution Number 9]

I dread to think how bad things would actually need to get before the permanent optimist brigade would start getting worried about the way this club is going.

 

Wish people would actually just make points instead of stereotyping whole groups of posters under one non-existent category.

Alright then, a question. What would be the cut off point for you to start thinking 'hang on, things are actually getting pretty fucking bad here'?

 

[dinotheprehistoricgeordie]

Wonder what people would have said if Simpson had left tonight 

[Wullie]

Optimism ffs. Being happy to finish in mid table mediocrity is not fucking optimism.

[Guest sydneycove]

In terms of what we needed mostly we have done poorly. Our squad is really lacking another striker, cover at CB, LB and RB and a proper right winger.

 

In terms of talent brought in though we have done well. Haven't ended up with players like Peter Crouch, Wes Brown or Macheda thank fuck.

 

 

[Guest WashyGeordie]

Wonder what people would have said if Simpson had left tonight 

 

"Santon can play RB, and R. Taylor can stay at LB. Yay!"

[JH]

Annoyed we didn't get a better striker in, but overall, 6.5.

 

How can you rate the transfer window a 6,5 when our squad is arguably weaker than it was a year ago and we have made a huge profit on transfers in that period?

 

Because I think we've replaced Enrique with quality, replaced Nolan & Barton with quality, signed a striker but could have done with another, and signed people like Obertan to beafen up the numbers. Nowhere near the doom and gloom you'd think people would make out.

 

Ah honestly f*** this s***. Don't enjoy this forum anymore. Bunch of depressing bastards. f*** off.

 

 

We've just been led up the garden path for two months and despite several assurances that we'd spend the Carroll money and he'd be adequately replaced, it hasn't happened.

 

So sorry if we're not dancing on the streets with you NUT

[Guest BooBoo]

I admire Nut's optimistic approach but fact is, we lost a young striker who was the talisman of the team, a local hero and could have been the focal point of our side for years. We replaced him with a fucking free transfer from a relegated club.

 

It's chronically not good enough man, it's an insult to everyone who pays for season tickets or just puts a single ounce of care into the club whether it be in person or just listening on the radio. It stinks and people have every right to be annoyed. They're not depressing, they just give a shit and are fed up with lies, false promises and bullshit from the club they invest in.

[Guest Roy the Irish Magpie]

why rate it 1/10?? We signed cabaye, obertan, santon and ba 4 very good players. Get over nolan and enrique they were gr8 too bu theyre only human at the end of the day.

[madras]

Optimism ffs. Being happy to finish in mid table mediocrity is not f***ing optimism.

it is if you see it as building.

[JH]

"We didn't do everything but we still made some good business"

 

To all those saying that, I don't think anyone is disputing it. But if it was that good by spending fuck all, imagine how much better it would have been if we'd stopped fucking around and got the cheque book out.

[johnnypd]

we've a net spend in the hundreds of thousands. we could've kept Carroll and still done the same business, which is what is so grating. Rating this summer was always about looking at it in the context of the Carroll deal. this was the ultimate test of what we were going to do with the money.

 

zero out of ten on that basis.

[dinotheprehistoricgeordie]

Wonder what people would have said if Simpson had left tonight 

 

"Santon can play RB, and R. Taylor can stay at LB. Yay!"

 

But we would have lost our twitter king 

[Foluwashola]

Annoyed we didn't get a better striker in, but overall, 6.5.

 

How can you rate the transfer window a 6,5 when our squad is arguably weaker than it was a year ago and we have made a huge profit on transfers in that period?

 

Because I think we've replaced Enrique with quality, replaced Nolan & Barton with quality, signed a striker but could have done with another, and signed people like Obertan to beafen up the numbers. Nowhere near the doom and gloom you'd think people would make out.

 

Ah honestly f*** this s***. Don't enjoy this forum anymore. Bunch of depressing bastards. f*** off.

 

 

The aim of this transfer window wasn't to replace outgoings though, was it?

 

Surely we should have looked to hold onto our best players and improve rather than desperately trying, and failing, to replace those who've left.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Ian - I've enjoyed your optimistic views all summer and I've shared most with you, but it's over man. The fact that our top 4 strikers still include Lovenkrands and Shola is just inexcusable.

 

We might have a good season if we get lucky with injuries/suspensions and don't sell anyone in January. In fact, I still think we have a legitimate chance to finish 7th. However, the bottom line is we did not buy the goalscorer that we desperately need. I'm not sure what was real out of all the supposed targets - Gameiro, Gervinho, Erdinc, Maiga, Roux, Cisse, Bendtner, Ruiz, etc. - but the fact is that as of today none of them play for Newcastle United. I'm sure there are a million and one reasons why each didn't work out, but it's indefensible and can only categorized as failure.

 

Hard to say, I've never argued that things are all rosy or that we haven't made any mistakes. I just don't think it's the apocalypse either.

 

I said it would be inexcusable not to sign a LB, but we ended up getting a pretty good one. Maybe not as good as Enrique, but there aren't many of them around anyway.

 

We are short of one quality striker, totally agree with that. The problem was always that we needed to get one that was far above our current ones, and that is hard to get if you can't/won't loosen the purse strings enough.

 

Ashley has done a lot of things wrong during his tenure, but also some right. I agree with his general plan to make us more financially sustainable, the only question is how much he should be cutting from the spending. I don't really know what the answer to that is, I just don't see the point in raging against it because I think it's at least partly correct.

[Sifu]

To think that for me, we were a striker and a backup CB away from a decent transfer window.

 

[chicago_shearer]

If all of the Frenchmen turn out to be good enough, we'll have broken even. This window has resulted in a weaker, untested squad with no obvious goalscorer. Fail.

 

[Guest sydneycove]

If all of the Frenchmen turn out to be good enough, we'll have broken even. This window has resulted in a weaker, untested squad with no obvious goalscorer. Fail.

 

 

Demba Ba much

[Guest WashyGeordie]

If all of the Frenchmen turn out to be good enough, we'll have broken even. This window has resulted in a weaker, untested squad with no obvious goalscorer. Fail.

 

 

Best - 2 goals in 3 games. 

[Jayson]

Some will accept any old bollocks, honestly.

 

Theyll find a way to justify the situation based on pure hope that its for the best. Regardless of the fact that the man making the decisions has a pretty solid history of making errors of judgement.

 

No point arguing.

[madras]

Some will accept any old bollocks, honestly.

 

Theyll find a way to justify the situation based on pure hope that its for the best. Regardless of the fact that the man making the decisions has a pretty solid history of making errors of judgement.

 

No point arguing.

nobody is justifying anything, some are saying it isn't the disaster being painted by others.

[timeEd32]

Ian - I've enjoyed your optimistic views all summer and I've shared most with you, but it's over man. The fact that our top 4 strikers still include Lovenkrands and Shola is just inexcusable.

 

We might have a good season if we get lucky with injuries/suspensions and don't sell anyone in January. In fact, I still think we have a legitimate chance to finish 7th. However, the bottom line is we did not buy the goalscorer that we desperately need. I'm not sure what was real out of all the supposed targets - Gameiro, Gervinho, Erdinc, Maiga, Roux, Cisse, Bendtner, Ruiz, etc. - but the fact is that as of today none of them play for Newcastle United. I'm sure there are a million and one reasons why each didn't work out, but it's indefensible and can only categorized as failure.

 

Hard to say, I've never argued that things are all rosy or that we haven't made any mistakes. I just don't think it's the apocalypse either.

 

I said it would be inexcusable not to sign a LB, but we ended up getting a pretty good one. Maybe not as good as Enrique, but there aren't many of them around anyway.

 

We are short of one quality striker, totally agree with that. The problem was always that we needed to get one that was far above our current ones, and that is hard to get if you can't/won't loosen the purse strings enough.

 

Ashley has done a lot of things wrong during his tenure, but also some right. I agree with his general plan to make us more financially sustainable, the only question is how much he should be cutting from the spending. I don't really know what the answer to that is, I just don't see the point in raging against it because I think it's at least partly correct.

 

I do think we're heading in the right direction. I don't know all the ins and outs of the finances, but I think it's pretty obvious our situation is a hell of a lot better today than it was 3-4 years ago. We've also shifted a lot of aging, overpaid players and replaced them with a fairly young team that I find much more exciting to watch. It just seems like we could have really made a big push this season and as of four hours ago I thought it was going to happen. A proper goalscorer in Ruiz, plus some much needed cover for the backline. That hope definitely made this even worse. I think we did a lot of good things this summer, but we don't have a #9.

 

I think I need to log off before I see another person refer to Nolan as some great loss. The best thing we did this summer was replace him with Cabaye.