Newcastle Thread

Seems unlikely anyone will be coming in today, although the club has flat-out said Ayoze Perez isn't for sale after a paper linked him with Spurs. Kemen has gone to Lyon, while it looks to me as though Cisse's best hope of a departure came and went with Turkey's window closing.

Still think we could use another full-back but our window's not been too bad. Hopefully we'll soon get league wins on the board... assuming we can stop accumulating reds.

Disappointed not to have replaced Sissoko.

Good window, nothing exceptional but we needed it.

Defence still looks poor on paper but it's looked much better on the pitch than under Pardew/Carver so far.

Would have liked another CM too, but never mind. Fingers crossed we continue this and strengthen in January and then again next summer instead of ruining our good work like we normally do.

McClaren has been talking about 'the next windows' - I suspect he means just summer windows. But implying the money is there to be spent.

Hopefully we change our stance on the January transfer window and continue to strengthen, we still need it.

I still think we need a new full-back, maybe 2 and a centre if we're willing to splash, and I did see some claim we have a big warchest lying in wait for the upcoming few windows. But we'll wait and see I guess.

In the meantime, I think the most important things to resolve until then are stopping the absurd collection of yellows and reds we're getting, and the fact we're not shooting as much as we should. Given the fact West Ham have already got 6 red cards, and we've picked up more red cards than anyone since the start of the 2013/14 season, that game could be quite a challenging one for the ref.

I think in terms of our starting XI left back could definitely be improved, while we still don't have a replacement for Janmaat if he's injured/suspended.

Colback I don't think is good enough to be starting if we're to seriously challenge the top 8, and Coloccini is obviously in decline given his age.

A top class DM, LB and CB in January would be excellent and then we can go about improving our defensive depth and attacking quality further next summer.

Charnley's email was refreshing - but we're still miles away from the top 8.

Hopefully we do indeed push on, and hopefully our opinion on the January transfer window does indeed change if it's clear we need improvement in some areas.

Newcastle's opinion is that the January transfer window is quite hard?

Opinion you have to spend a bit more which is probably true.

But if we're clearly lacking like we were last year we should put football first.

Maybe Charnley put 'football first' by delaying 6 months and buying better players then what were available in January?

He nearly relegated us by doing that.

He could have spent in January then bought the same players he did in the summer too.

Newcastle were 9th going into January, 10 clear of the relegation zone.

Well Newcastle could have done, yeah. But it's a reasonable assumption that if Newcastle spent £20m in January, they would have £20m less to spend now.

And if they have money to spend in January, why not spend it now? (Or a week ago)

We had 34m in our bank account in January, before any of the mega TV money came in that presumably we'd spent now.

And yeah, but anyone in the world could have seen our team was in dire need of improvement, and if we weren't going to improve it we needed a better coach.

This window is the first in history where I've seen us actually improve the team without selling people to fund it. Long may it continue.

It was a pretty poor decision not to get in a manager in January, or at least a more capable stand-in than that numpty we did have. I also think we were short defensively, and in attack. So at least steps have been made to improve all three in this window, without weakening the other squad areas.

I'm not so sure we'll be active in January due to the value for money issue. We could still bring in a defender I guess, as one would be useful with the lack of options at RB and potential for upgrades at LB. I think also long-term we need to improve our homegrown player quota, although the fact English players are a fucking rip-off doesn't help that line of thought.

Clubs don't actually get that until next summer.

I think this might be the £77million or so received in prize money last season.

Newcastle didn't have £34m in the bank. They had £34m before the summer window opened. They probably had about £20m in January.

In Hindsight it is very easy to say Newcastle made mistakes - they did. After Dummett and Taylor were injured, Santon never should have been allowed to leave, and they should have definitely made more contingency moves - Robert Huth on loan for example. I think the influence of a proper manager will hopefully mitigate Charnley's stupidity.

John Carver was an obvious disaster. But I still think it was quite inconceivable someone with so much experience could be so fucking useless.

Now were Newcastle in enough of a crisis that they HAD to spend all of the available money, and buy players / manager deemed not good enough but immediately available? Or did they have enough to wait out the season, and have another go in the Summer.

Sunderland are a good example of how firefighting can lead to more firefighting - They committed to buying Alvarez and Vergini last summer - players they don't want. Committed to buying Defoe in the summer on very favourable terms to Defoe. And have relied on lots of short term fixes. And bought Coates and resigned Brown because they were that short at the back.

Leading to a Summer of moaning as they can't improve, as their fixing the holes in the squad, and can only afford short term fixes.

It wasn't inconceivable - a lot of people called it at the time and were called idiots and unreasonable as he was a 'safe pair of hands'

10 points clear of the drop by the end of January. Carver would need to get about 6 points to be totally sure of safety.

If you're nervous then you're either a football God with 20/20 foresight, Or are an extremely nervous person. Who quite frankly would be inconsolable after the start Newcastle have made this year. Newcastle were closer to Spurs in fifth than Hull in 18th.

Newcastle were level on points with a Swansea side who had just sold their best player. They must have been dead certs then.

No because they replaced their best player before they sold him.

Difference between the two clubs.

Replacing £30m Wilfried Bony with loanee Nelson Oliviera.

Bafetimbi Gomis, you mean.

But then who replace Michu? Gomis is still considerably inferior to Bony anyway, and left Swansea with one senior forward on the books + loanee Nelson Oliviera.

And that presumably means Newcastle replaced Cabaye with Sissoko, and Ba with Cisse?

If you want.

Rumour flying around that we were offered Charlie Austin on deadline day and said no.

Tbf, I think we would've taken it if Papiss Cisse had left.
EDIT: Apparently the deal was 10mill plus Aarons going the other way on permanent... don't think that would've been good.

Someone was saying an unaffiliated agent was trying to set up the deal - Which was rejected by both QPR and Newcastle.

Meanwhile, Moussa Sissoko said in a French mag interview that he thinks Yohan Cabaye gets picked for the French team as he plays for a bigger club.

I really wish he'd just shut up sometimes.

There's an increasing number disappointed we didn't sell him. Dunno if I'm one but he's not playing very well. Then again, he's not the only one - Cisse is really getting it in the neck from everybody and it increasingly seems like he doesn't want to be here, while Coloccini has continued to be terrible.

Interesting to see a panelist on Sky's Sunday Supplement publicly name Tiote as "poisonous" in the dressing room, and say he's not the only one. Bit of a bold step that, but wouldn't surprise me there are players who don't want to be at the club and couldn't be shifted causing shit. Anyone else willing to bet who the other unshiftable "bad eggs" are?

For me, Sissoko hasn't played well for over a year. Never steps up in the big games, never steps up in the games he should dominate. I'd have got rid but again ONLY if we signed a replacement prior to doing so. For whatever reason, we don't do business that way around.

Need a striker in Jan and probably another CB. If the atmosphere stays at the levels it was for Chelsea we'll be fine, by that I mean the atmosphere amongst the team as much as anything else. Mitrovic seemed to have a buzz about him and used every niggle and attempt to get him biting to spur on the crowd. If he keeps that up he'll be a cult hero in no time, regardless of goals