Newcastle United transfer rumours in the press

[Disco]

Just sat watching Samaris clips for half an hour. I like it, I like it a lot.

 

One of the deals that hasn't been denied anywhere, right?

 

What's he like? I'm WiFi-less atm

 

Keep in mind that these are largely just first impressions, but rather than just watching highlight reels I was looking at a selection of every involvement he's had in certain games against certain opponents (Benfica v Porto, Benfica v Sporting, Greece v Belgium, Benfica v smaller teams).

 

The things that stood out as being really positive were his positional awareness and speed at covering for full-backs (particularly his right-back as he often plays on the right side of the two in a 4-2-3-1), his ability to win the ball on the run when it seems like his opponent has gone past him and his calmness when receiving possession under pressure in his own half. He's constantly looking to provide his defenders with an out ball from what I can see, and contrary to what Jotenko said I'm not seeing a player who takes an age to make a decision. Most sequences see him finding space, receiving the ball and either playing a first time pass backwards/sideways or turning when there's less risk and looking to play forward.

 

The major negatives I can see are his aerial ability for a player of his size (around 6'2"), although he gets up well for aerial challenges he's often not getting much direction on his headers (which is a massively underrated way of retaining or gaining possession) and his speed across the ground, though you wouldn't necessarily expect a defensive midfielder of his stature to be fast. He's not slow, though, certainly looks more mobile than Shelvey and Colback if not quite as quick as Hayden. In addition to this he appears to be a yellow card fiend and can be a bit rash when committing to a challenge, but that sort of comes with the territory.

 

Just generally looks a classy operator and while £17.5m is obviously a hell of a lot of money for someone who has never been completely established as a first choice in Benfica's team, the route he's taken to the top (coming from lower leagues like many of the players Rafa has signed since coming) and the way he takes responsibility on the pitch makes it look like there's a lot to be positive about. Even at 28 now he looks like a player who could go on well into his 30's.

 

I was wondering why we thought £17M was too much to pay for a top quality midfielder given the money in the game today then I saw he's 28 yrs old. I don't care what our official line is, I reckon we will still struggle to pay that sort of fee for a player over 25.

 

Benfica paid about half that for him which for them is a pretty big fee. No surprise their holding out for a player who has definitely improved his reputation during his time there.

 

His yellow card record is hilarious, makes Colback look composed in the tackle.

[Mole_Toonfan]

A CM should be the very top of our list. Very worrying that Rafa doesn't think so.

 

Ritchie may fancy that role and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.

He's good enough to do it so maybe the emphasis will be on a new wide man ??

 

He may fancy it but putting someone who have never played a position in his career is a recipe for disaster. He might have certain skills for it but he won't understand the decisions you have to make, where to be at what times and so on.

 

You see it with Rooney for England, technically he has the skills of a midfielder but he doesn't understand the role at all and looks like a deer in headlights.

 

 

[TRon]

Just sat watching Samaris clips for half an hour. I like it, I like it a lot.

 

One of the deals that hasn't been denied anywhere, right?

 

What's he like? I'm WiFi-less atm

 

Keep in mind that these are largely just first impressions, but rather than just watching highlight reels I was looking at a selection of every involvement he's had in certain games against certain opponents (Benfica v Porto, Benfica v Sporting, Greece v Belgium, Benfica v smaller teams).

 

The things that stood out as being really positive were his positional awareness and speed at covering for full-backs (particularly his right-back as he often plays on the right side of the two in a 4-2-3-1), his ability to win the ball on the run when it seems like his opponent has gone past him and his calmness when receiving possession under pressure in his own half. He's constantly looking to provide his defenders with an out ball from what I can see, and contrary to what Jotenko said I'm not seeing a player who takes an age to make a decision. Most sequences see him finding space, receiving the ball and either playing a first time pass backwards/sideways or turning when there's less risk and looking to play forward.

 

The major negatives I can see are his aerial ability for a player of his size (around 6'2"), although he gets up well for aerial challenges he's often not getting much direction on his headers (which is a massively underrated way of retaining or gaining possession) and his speed across the ground, though you wouldn't necessarily expect a defensive midfielder of his stature to be fast. He's not slow, though, certainly looks more mobile than Shelvey and Colback if not quite as quick as Hayden. In addition to this he appears to be a yellow card fiend and can be a bit rash when committing to a challenge, but that sort of comes with the territory.

 

Just generally looks a classy operator and while £17.5m is obviously a hell of a lot of money for someone who has never been completely established as a first choice in Benfica's team, the route he's taken to the top (coming from lower leagues like many of the players Rafa has signed since coming) and the way he takes responsibility on the pitch makes it look like there's a lot to be positive about. Even at 28 now he looks like a player who could go on well into his 30's.

 

I was wondering why we thought £17M was too much to pay for a top quality midfielder given the money in the game today then I saw he's 28 yrs old. I don't care what our official line is, I reckon we will still struggle to pay that sort of fee for a player over 25.

 

Benfica paid about half that for him which for them is a pretty big fee. No surprise their holding out for a player who has definitely improved his reputation during his time there.

 

We'd be asking for that sort of fee if it was us selling no doubt. It's an unworkable policy in today's football and self defeating. If we gave him a 5 year contract we'd get our money's worth anyway because he'd be here for at least 4 years unless we decided to sell.  You can either build football teams or bank balances. Building one leads to the other anyway.

[Figures 1-0 Football]

Douglas has just written a fairly decent piece:

 

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/newcastle-first-tranche-premier-league-13302188

 

Main points for those who don't want to infect their PC with AIDS:

 

- NUFC were waiting for the first batch of PL TV money before making waves in the transfer window, this has now been paid.

- The following PL money is paid monthly, with a bigger sum provided at the start of January to coincide with the transfer window.

- The budget is around £70m, although it's not made clear if that is including any sums brought in through sales.

- Benitez looking for 6 or 7 which explains why he is trying to get loan deals and players around the £10m-£15m mark.

- NUFC willing to listen to offers for players like Darlow, to clear the wagebill, increase transfer funds and squad spaces for targets Rafa wants.

- No information to suggest that NUFC wont break the transfer record, which puts to bed the rumours of a cap on funds. It sounds like Rafa has a lot of say and is deciding to bring in a number of players with his budget rather than just one or two superstars at £25m+

- Reina noted again as the preferred GK target.

[Dave]

Thanks for posting.

[Greg]

Useful summary so I don't have to click on that god awful website.

[Ikon]

Kovacic would be an unreal signing! I know it wont happen but i still imagine him in the back of my head playing in our midfield with Shelvey and a proper strong CM who's brilliant defensively. One can dream..

[Mole_Toonfan]

I thought that anyway, you are not going to cover 6 or 7 players and spend 20m+ on a player unless your budget is above 100m. Just doesn't make sense, if we were to spend 20m on a striker, that would leave 50m left for a fullback, CM, AM, Winger, GK and what ever else.

 

Makes sense to try and fill as many weak points as possible considering how many we have, than to spend the large bulk of it one player and then be left with multiple weaknesses through out the team.

[Figures 1-0 Football]

Aye, it also makes reference to the fact that Rafa wants to consolidate us as a PL team this season and avoid any sort of relegation battle. Which explains why he is taking the approach of getting in 6 or 7 decent PL standard players to put us on a decent platform for the future.

 

The "pushing on" will happen if this is successful.

 

I feel much more positive after that, which makes a change from the Chronicle

[Figures 1-0 Football]

The full article:

 

Newcastle have received the first tranche of their Premier League TV money this summer in a move that should help shore up recruitment plans.

 

Promotion to the Premier League will have a huge impact on the club’s finances for the better – but spending a season in the Championship also means they’re having to box clever in the summer transfer window while rivals who have benefited from the first year of a mega-TV deal are spending more freely.

 

In the bid to stretch Rafa Benitez’s budget as far as possible, Newcastle have been accused of haggling unnecessarily over deals and it did feel like the Florian Lejeune deal took a long time to complete.

 

But United would point out that they only earned £35million last year – £7.1million from winning the Championship and the rest from the parachute payments – while every single top flight team they’re competing against banked three times that amount.

 

It has been suggested that United are waiting for their first Premier League dividend to drop before really getting involved in business and there may be something in that.

 

We understand that the guaranteed payments are divided across the season. The first payment has been made to clubs, then they are paid monthly for the rest of the season with an additional payment in January to coincide with the transfer window. There is also another payment at the end of the season – presumably related to finishing places and how many times clubs are on TV.

 

The exact amount Newcastle will have banked is not clear but it will be an eight-figure amount. All clubs were guaranteed £79.1million last season regardless of where they finished – with prize money and facility fees related to the number of times the club was on TV topping up that prize fund.

 

Sunderland made £93.4million for finishing bottom of the table while Chelsea made £150.8million for winning the league.

 

Newcastle CAN compete in the summer transfer market but with Rafa Benitez wanting to see six or seven more signings, the club are going to have to be smart in the window and do not have quite the free rein that others in the division have.

 

For example Benitez is more than aware that players will have to be sold this summer – but that’s difficult with the contracts and wages they’re on.

 

The deal to sell Karl Darlow has prompted surprise among many supporters who saw him excel at times in the second tier but Newcastle need to bank money and clear wages off their ledger before making additions. Benitez wants an experienced ‘keeper with Napoli’s Pepe Reina a dream capture.

 

There is no exact amount placed on it but Newcastle’s budget is probably nearer the £70million mark than the £150million that was being quoted and if Benitez is looking for six or seven, it’s no surprise that the current targets are loans or pitched at around the £10-15million mark.

 

That is not to say there isn’t scope to break the transfer record – something United will surely have to do if they’re going to land striker reinforcements that are being talked about.

 

Benitez understands and appreciates all of this. The cause of his frustration earlier in the window was that he had lined up players who fitted into United’s budget and his plans – Tammy Abraham being one – but United didn’t get the deals done and lost them.

 

Now that the first payment is with United, they are in a different financial league as well as playing one and that should encourage business. Similarly the new commercial deal boosts the coffers that were drained by relegation and the subsequent stocking of the squad

 

Although targets will be set nearer the start of the season the goal next year is to get as high as they can and establish themselves in the top flight after successive relegation battles. Benitez is shooting for the stars long-term but in the short-term his goal is to avoid any kind of flirtation with the drop – and he needs what he sees as good, solid additions to the squad to do that.

 

There is money to do that but once again, the manager is being left to clear up a few of the messes that others caused.

 

Relegation was a short-lived pain for supporters with Benitez committing himself to the club and the subsequent title win. But it’s clear that is having some longer-term consequences.

[nemtizz]

Cheers for posting. I'm boycotting that site until they get their shit together.

[SUPERTOON]

Not buying in to that tbh, we would have know that the payment was guaranteed to come at this time, so we could have already signed players if we were going to knowing that we would be getting the money back.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Not buying in to that tbh, we would have know that the payment was guaranteed to come at this time, so we could have already signed players if we were going to knowing that we would be getting the money back.

 

That part i'm not buying but the part about Rafa wanting to get multiple players in so it's unlikely he'll spend loads on one player i 100% believe it only makes sense.

 

That's no excuse for the clubs not buying more than they have so far though mind.

[triggs]

Huddersfield earned even less than us I presume and it hasn't stopped them

[Dokko]

All very sensible stuff and really as expected. Not sure why there was so much angst on here recently, if there was real issues Rafa would have walked already.

[George Bailey]

I still don't trust one word of it.

 

Actions will prove me wrong I hope, but I have an awful feeling our dear leader is once again having one of his moments

[Ikon]

Considering it's our first season back and that we have to sign so many new players I can understand that we won't spend tons of money on many players. Build a solid foundation for our 1st season back and build on from there. Even signing some players would be a start considering how f***ing lame we've been so far in this window. Having said that I still hope that we get at least one special player, a really exciting player that has a bit of extra quality even if he might cost a bit "much". We can't be cheap as fuck and not get next to no players in, time will tell, but I'm not feeling too confident right now.

[Guest]

Huddersfield earned even less than us I presume and it hasn't stopped them

 

As I've mentioned with Figures, I'm sure if the players they bought were our market then we'd have spent that too. I could imagine this place if we'd spent £40m on what they've paid for.

[SUPERTOON]

All very sensible stuff and really as expected. Not sure why there was so much angst on here recently, if there was real issues Rafa would have walked already.

 

Considering the history with Ashley, I think the angst on here is quite understandable.

[Disco]

All very sensible stuff and really as expected. Not sure why there was so much angst on here recently, if there was real issues Rafa would have walked already.

 

Agreed.

[Kasper]

What a load of shit that article is. As if getting one months payment will make a difference if our budget is 70m.

[HaydnNUFC]

Aye, it also makes reference to the fact that Rafa wants to consolidate us as a PL team this season and avoid any sort of relegation battle. Which explains why he is taking the approach of getting in 6 or 7 decent PL standard players to put us on a decent platform for the future.

 

The "pushing on" will happen if this is successful.

 

I feel much more positive after that, which makes a change from the Chronicle

Same here.

[Dokko]

We've a lot to buy with less money than others to do it with. It's going to take some work to do that. At least it looks like we've got a plan and logical structure in place, a one which the manager understands and agrees with.

 

 

[Figures 1-0 Football]

All very sensible stuff and really as expected. Not sure why there was so much angst on here recently, if there was real issues Rafa would have walked already.

 

Completely agree with what you've said, but whilst Ashley remains in control of our club there will always be a sense of angst. Any article that is published and is negative towards the running of the club will cause further angst because of the previous shit we've had to deal with.

 

We're in a strange situation that we've never been in before during the Ashley reign, because we have a manager that we absolutely love and a set of players that we don't particularly despise - any threat to that is bound to cause a few worries.

[triggs]

Huddersfield earned even less than us I presume and it hasn't stopped them

 

As I've mentioned with Figures, I'm sure if the players they bought were our market then we'd have spent that too. I could imagine this place if we'd spent £40m on what they've paid for.

I get that we're aiming for a higher level of players, I just don't buy that we needed this extra money in order to be able to buy players