This (new?) Transfer Policy

[nufc4eva]

I'm happier we are at least looking at british players as I feel we need that balance. Whether Shelvey and Townsend will be a success, who knows.

 

I can see why they have brought these 2 in as they at least have experience of this league and are good enough for mid to lower table. We need to get out of this relegation battle and they may at least offer something in that area and a different threat.

 

 

I have never minded Townsend, thought he looked quite decent few years ago but could go horrifically wrong.

 

[Minhosa]

The 'NEW' policy is all about desperation - nothing more, nothing less.

Its not new either, we saw this a few years ago when there was a desperate rush - against declared policy earlier - to sign Sissoko, Gouffran etc in order to keep the club in the PL - it only JUST succeeded, with a fortunate result against QPR on the last day.

This is just a repeat of that  and if we had been around 12th position, it wouldn't be happening - and as yet, NO proven striker which is, in my view, now the most urgent position to fill. Compared to that, Townsend is a luxury.

Ashley is DESPERATE to keep us in the PL because of the money available next season and that is the sole reason all this is happening.

 

Billy said the same thing earlier but I think the moves this window do represent an intentional change if policy.

[The College Dropout]

Firstly, I don't we can compare ourselves to Spurs. They're in a comfortable position - a position of power. Buy Son for  £12m, he fails the team finishes top 7 like they have for the last X amount of years. Son seems to be primarily a substitute anyway. We need solidity, a base to work from, lower risk transfers for a window or two. I have no problems with that.

 

The last few windows have been underwhelming. Thauvin, Cabella, Gouffran, MYM, Anita, De Jong x2, Riviere and to a much lesser extent Mitro & Chancel are all players that aren't what we needed, suitable to the division or down right good enough.

We've been looking at the wrong players in the French market. Decentish fortunes in the Dutch market. In Wijnaldum & Janmaat we paid decent money for players in their primes. Fairly experienced international players at that. Same for De Jong which just hasn't worked out so far. The last good signings from France before that Debuchy, HBA & Cabaye were players in that mid 20's bracket who had better reputations and attributes for the league than recent signings.

 

 

Something needed changing.

 

 

Only issue i have with this approach is we are signing players who are on a nascent reputation wise. Players of questionable character. That is a massive problem. I guess gone are the days we could sign players from other Premiership teams that are actually on the "up". I would've rather went fro that young lad who joined Leicester instead of Townsend but oh well.

[madras]

I guess it would be ridiculous to have a transfer policy of just signing better players than you currently have, irrespective of nationality.

isn't that what we've done with shelvey and saivet

?

[The College Dropout]

Also dislike the 5.5 year contract thing. 3.5 years is much better. Players like Obertan, Tiote, Cisse & Anita hogging up the wage bill and a squad place due to long contracts.

 

Anita has another 18 months on his contract ffs.

[Interpolic]

Also dislike it and can only assume it's yet another bargaining tool.

[TRon]

I'd be more inclined to believe the English Grit thing if we weren't trying to sign Townsend and have already signed Shelvey. Neither are Cattermole-like cloggers.

 

It does look like McClaren is trying to institute his buying philosophy on the old model though, both Townsend and Shelvey seem well suited to auld Island heed.

 

Shelvey is a proper cunt so there are close similarities with Cattermole there. If the mackems had signed him, ask yourself, what you would think of the bloke.

 

That's not to say I don't rate him per say, but he is very much in the 'get stuck in' English grit mould. In his very interview he says he'll 'never shirk a tackle' ffs .

 

Townsend is them buying someone used to the league i.e: taking less of a risk which strikes me as, to some extent, disregarding the old model. I'd rather see an unknown than an out of form/favour 'known' all day long personally.

 

 

I know what you are saying but in the premier you do need players to get stuck in. Not that being English automatically qualifies you as a tackler as we have seen with our own ginger ghost face midfielder who can't tackle to save his life. Haven't really seen that much of Townsend, but who's to say he likes tracking back better than any other winger?

 

 

[The College Dropout]

Shelvey si in that Stevie G bracket of having no defensive discipline, nous or positioning but likes a tackle - which isn't particularly useful at that point.

[BONTEMPI]

I think this new transfer policy is only in effect because of the shit we're in. Get safe and it'll be as you were.

[madras]

The positive is we now seem prepared to pay the going rate for players with premiership experience.

 

The negative is that it is probably just to try and get us out of the shit and not an on-going building process.

[Darth Crooks]

I think this new transfer policy is only in effect because of the shit we're in. Get safe and it'll be as you were.

 

Ding ding ding ding - add a few anglo-saxons to placate the mongs and 'OMG dave chainged!!'

[TRon]

While we are at least showing some desperation now in the face of relegation, we still haven't addressed two areas of real concern. Central defence and up front. Both areas of the pitch have been costing us points all season.

[madras]

While we are at least showing some desperation now in the face of relegation, we still haven't addressed two areas of real concern. Central defence and up front. Both areas of the pitch have been costing us points all season.

I know what you're getting at but middle of  the middle was the crux of it all for me. If you don't protect the defence, even a very good back 4 will concede plenty. If you don't provide chances the best forwards wont score.

[TRon]

While we are at least showing some desperation now in the face of relegation, we still haven't addressed two areas of real concern. Central defence and up front. Both areas of the pitch have been costing us points all season.

I know what you're getting at but middle of  the middle was the crux of it all for me. If you don't protect the defence, even a very good back 4 will concede plenty. If you don't provide chances the best forwards wont score.

 

Yeah the spine definitely needed sorting and the central midfield area has been an open playing field for the opposition.

[Disco]

They've absolutely shit themselves that Ashley is going to miss out on his TV deal and they've finally cottoned on that the Ligue 1 well is dry as its a shit league so they're finally listening to what the common consensus is that we need to stay up. They reckoned they knew better in the summer, they didn't, and Ashley (now his cash is at stake) is finally paying attention. The only other alternative was to sack the manager but given that they put all their eggs (and all future eggs) in the McClaren basket because they're fucking morons & they've run out of football friends that wasn't ever going to happen.

 

Given that the league is absolutely shite it'll probably keep us up. Make it quite a bit funnier if we go down IMO if it doesn't too.

[TRon]

One thing's for sure, McClaren's got nowhere to hide now. We've spent a boatload in the last six months and no one can pretend this isn't his team any more.

[Leek]

To be honest I think we need some semi decent English players to be in and around the 1st team,so I think the signings of Shelvey, Townsend and hopefully Austin or Berahino would help us in that sense. We've had Colback, Taylor, Dummet, Elliot and Williamson here the past couple of seasons for fucks sake, can you imagine joining Newcastle 1st day in training and having any of them giving you any advice about the club, city, league or even being bother to interact with them, all the foreign players wont give a shit about any of them.

[Dave]

Splashing the cash.

[Guest]

It seems to me the difference is we're not faffing about regarding fees anymore. 18 months ago I reckon we'd have made a £7m bid for Shelvey, maybe push to £10m, then not be particularly arsed when he joined Palace for £12m.

[Bimpy474]

It seems to me the difference is we're not faffing about regarding fees anymore. 18 months ago I reckon we'd have made a £7m bid for Shelvey, maybe push to £10m, then not be particularly arsed when he joined Palace for £12m.

 

Probably because we're in even deeper shit this season, last season we had points in the bag-ish in the January.

[Guest]

Ok, well up to 18 months ago I mean.

[Bimpy474]

Ok, well up to 18 months ago I mean.

 

ah right i see, that arrogance with bids back then is part of the reason we're in the shit we are now. We never learn and i don't suppose we will despite the spending we're doing now.

[Guest chopey]

TBF for the past couple of years we have tried to buy captains of clubs and if we get another couple this window and still go down the management structure needs looks at

[Bimpy474]

TBF for the past couple of years we have tried to buy captains of clubs and if we get another couple this window and still go down the management structure needs looks at

 

The management thing has me baffled. We appoint managers who clearly aren't good enough, and have proven themselves in past jobs they're not. I suppose as has been said it's Ashley wanting a manager who he can control. Still makes little sense to risk your top flight position the way we do.

[James]

The thing about Spurs is that they have a significant spine of players who are either English, or who have been in the division for some time either for Spurs or other teams so they have the luxury of selling a player like Townsend without the fear that they will lose stability or English grit or whatever.

 

However in our case we have tried to bring in too many players without PL experience in too fast, whilst selling other established players. I think we have also been considerably lacking leadership on the field, not just Nolan types, but also the likes of Cabaye and Ba whom were highly influential amongst the players.

 

The players who have been brought in are often luxury players like Sissoko whom without support from a decent spine of the team, are just playing for personal glories.

 

I think we are now trying to redress this, not just by signing English players like Shelvey and Townsend, but also players like Mbemba, Mitrovic, and now Saivet whom could all potentially prove a good spine especially if descriptions of Saivet as a leader are accurate.

 

Obviously this winter it isn't necessarily going to be easy to redress the issues with the overall balance of the team particularly with the position we are in now, but perhaps we may now see some sort of redress back towards having a decent spine of the team. Unfortunately I do think we are going to have to just survive first and then see what our dealings are like in the summer to determine the exact ins and outs of our new policy.