Newcastle United’s plight this season would be difficult to stomach if it weren’t so darned predictable. From the moment Alan Pardew put pen to paper on an 8 year deal (8 years!) the pessimistic amongst us felt that disaster was beckoning.
Credit where it’s due: Alan Pardew led Newcastle extremely well last season. He showed tactical nous he hadn’t demonstrated before in his career, said all the right things and made smart additions in the transfer market.
Signing Papiss Cisse, despite Demba Ba’s fine form was something of a masterstroke. It allowed the Magpies to maintain a high level of performance throughout the season.
But missing out on Champions League football seems to have damaged the morale and confidence of this team.
Indeed, if it could go wrong, it has for Newcastle. Demba Ba’s ridiculously small release clause was activated by Chelsea, Papiss Cisse has lost his goal scoring form and Hatem Ben Arfa has spent a lot of time injured. Alan Pardew himself has begun to look like the gaffer we saw at other posts throughout his not so prestigious career.
All this means that it’s up to him to earn his money this January and make the right additions. The Newcastle board showed great confidence in him to offer him an 8 year deal and now’s the time to repay the faith.
He’s started well, signing Mathieu Debuchy, the French right back, but now he needs to sign a forward to fill the big gap that will be left by Demba Ba.
This brings me to the Daily Star’s claim that Newcastle will push through a £9m move for Marseilles top striker, Loic Remy.
The French striker, who has 17 caps for his International side, has been a star in French club football for some time now. Last season he demonstrated fine form, slotting home 20 goals in 42 games. This season he’s only scored twice in 12 appearances, but still looks like he has what it takes to take the step up to the Premier League.
This may be a marriage of convenience for Newcastle, born out of their desperation for a striker, but it still strikes me as a good move. Loic Remy is a top talent, entering the best years of his career (he’s currently 26-years-old) and for £9m, he’s something of a bargain.
Indeed, he may be just what Newcastle need to turn their season around.
What’s your take? Should Newcastle snap up Loic Remy?
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What difference does the length of contract the manager has make. I get sick of hearing how since he signed it we have not done this or done that. Do people really think that all the players have spat out the dummy because of the length of contract. Or that Pardew now feels so secure he has taken his foot off the pedal.
Everyone knew in the summer that we needed to improve the squad and not with young untried players but the board did nothing about it. We are now seeing the results of that stupid decission a loss of form (especially from the likes of Tiote and Colloccini), a number of injuries and suspensions players who want to jump ship for many different reasons, some that look valid and others because they want more money.
We need to also question why we are chasing a player who obviously does not want to come to us in Remy, we only want players who don’t need to think twice or who want to hold out incase something better comes along.
We sang the praises of Graham Carr for what he did last season in spotting players and I am sure he has given the manager and the board a host of others that he has been watching it is time now for Ashley and Lambias to stop playing roulette with our club and spend some real money bringing in players like Debuchy who waht to play for us.
Well.said wallsendmag – the problem with this club is that the decisions are being taken by people who know absooutely nothing about football – as demonstrated by the failure to sign good players in the summer, when given our league position, they would have been falling over themselves to come – instead we have a bunch of idiots who think because we have done it once with limited resources we can do it again, which the vast majority of supporters knew was never going to happen !
I think Remy does want to play for us. He has refused to talk to QPR.
We have not offered enough cash to get him.
Other than that, I agree.
Remy will slot in as a wide player on the left, which should suit him well as he is a very good dribbler and crosser as well as his height being very useful at set-pieces. Cisse can move to his preferred CF and long with Ben Arfa on the right side providing further chances and link up play with the likes of Cabaye anchoring it all in the center.
This also leaves Tiote and Anita to do what they do best: Box to box providing good distribution from the back 4 to the 4 high quality attacking players we have and shoring up the defence.
Our best back 4 is probably Santon, Coloccini, S Taylor and Debauchy with Krul in goal. This leaves us with good cover in most positions. I’d like to see another CB, another Box to Box midfielder and perhaps another strike option if there is money.
My pick is that if Distin signs for Hammer’s we’ll get Tomkins and maybe Simpson/Williamson will go.