Newcastle United thread 2012/13

[Blue Smarties]

Newcastle are quietly going about there business again. Bought Gaël Bigirimana for a fee between £500,000 and £1,000,000 which is a steal for such a fantastic prospect. The kid has a good story behind him as well. Tiote would be a fantastic tutor for him.

They've also signed some lad on a free however I'll be brutally honest, I've not heard of him. Anyone know what he's about? Romain Amalfitano.

So they've bought in two players for about £1,000,00, one a top prospect and one an unknown so he could be anything. You can argue that was paid for by Bests £3,000,000 move to Blackburn which was a sound deal. Apparently they're still in the market for more players so it's going to be interesting to watch.

Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Ba, Cisse, Tiote, Krul... all staying. Exciting season ahead then?

 

[Danube]

Sounds like good business but don't forget they may be paying out a lot in wages or signing on fees. I remember everyone saying how Van Der Vaart was the steal of last season (he turned out not to be) at £7M but nobody had factored in his huge wages.

 

[richardtheref]

Amalfitano was released by a French 2nd div side so cannot be that good. Think he is good mates of Ben Arfa though and there were a lot of rumours up this way that Ben Arfa was homesick?

 

[ChrisNUFC]

We have released a lot of academy/ reserve level players at the end of last year and are looking to recruit youngish players (Amalfitano, Bigirimana) to fill the void. It’s very much the Ashley business model buy young and cheap then develop players and hopefully sell a few years down the line at a profit (repeat ad nausem)

As with most teams the next couple of months will very much make or break our season. With the additional challenge/burden of Europe this year our squad as it stands is not strong enough and with the teams in and around us expected to improve (Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs etc) I think we will struggle to achieve anywhere near 5th place this year. I’m hoping we can keep hold of the majority of players and hopefully make 3 or 4 additions in the coming weeks which should see us with a relatively healthy squad. If this happens I would expect us to finish top half again and hopefully have a decent cup run (preferably to some of Europe’s warmer climates)

 

[M18CTID]

We have released a lot of academy/ reserve level players at the end of last year and are looking to recruit youngish players (Amalfitano, Bigirimana) to fill the void. It’s very much the Ashley business model buy young and cheap then develop players and hopefully sell a few years down the line at a profit (repeat ad nausem)

As with most teams the next couple of months will very much make or break our season. With the additional challenge/burden of Europe this year our squad as it stands is not strong enough and with the teams in and around us expected to improve (Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs etc) I think we will struggle to achieve anywhere near 5th place this year. I’m hoping we can keep hold of the majority of players and hopefully make 3 or 4 additions in the coming weeks which should see us with a relatively healthy squad. If this happens I would expect us to finish top half again and hopefully have a decent cup run (preferably to some of Europe’s warmer climates)

It'll be interesting to see how you fare this season. Keeping hold of all the big name players will be a huge plus but as you say Europe could be a hindrance - Stoke have got good quality in their squad but suffered bad results after some Europa League games last season, though they did have some horrendous trips to Israel, Ukraine, and Turkey.

Last summer someone on this forum (can't remember who) stuck their neck out and correctly called that you'd have a great season. I don't know who is scouting your players up there but it could be legitimately argued that they're getting better results than Wenger at the moment.

Incidentally, what's the general feeling about Ashley these days? He's come in for a lot of (justified) stick over the past 5 years but looking at it from an outsider's point of view I think he's now showing what an astute businessman he is. It took some bottle playing hardball over the Carroll transfer and turning down the initial £30 million bid.

 

[ChrisNUFC]

We have released a lot of academy/ reserve level players at the end of last year and are looking to recruit youngish players (Amalfitano, Bigirimana) to fill the void. It’s very much the Ashley business model buy young and cheap then develop players and hopefully sell a few years down the line at a profit (repeat ad nausem)

As with most teams the next couple of months will very much make or break our season. With the additional challenge/burden of Europe this year our squad as it stands is not strong enough and with the teams in and around us expected to improve (Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs etc) I think we will struggle to achieve anywhere near 5th place this year. I’m hoping we can keep hold of the majority of players and hopefully make 3 or 4 additions in the coming weeks which should see us with a relatively healthy squad. If this happens I would expect us to finish top half again and hopefully have a decent cup run (preferably to some of Europe’s warmer climates)

It'll be interesting to see how you fare this season. Keeping hold of all the big name players will be a huge plus but as you say Europe could be a hindrance - Stoke have got good quality in their squad but suffered bad results after some Europa League games last season, though they did have some horrendous trips to Israel, Ukraine, and Turkey.

Last summer someone on this forum (can't remember who) stuck their neck out and correctly called that you'd have a great season. I don't know who is scouting your players up there but it could be legitimately argued that they're getting better results than Wenger at the moment.

Incidentally, what's the general feeling about Ashley these days? He's come in for a lot of (justified) stick over the past 5 years but looking at it from an outsider's point of view I think he's now showing what an astute businessman he is. It took some bottle playing hardball over the Carroll transfer and turning down the initial £30 million bid.

To be honest think most people accept what Ashley is doing is the right way to run the club, and tbf when we were up for sale no one wanted to buy us so were stuck with each other.

Personally i never had a massive problem with him anyway and i think with him at the helm we should stay relatively ok (top half prem) n if we have another year like last who knows. Think a lot of the stuff with him has been blown out of proportion due to the less thoughtfull fans who just seem to hang around the ground waiting for a scandal so they can get on sky sports news and have a moan: Ashley Out bring back Keegan/Shearer etc Fucking cringeworthy!!

Oh n our scott is Graham Carr father of TV (Not So) Funny man Alan Carr

 

[Ray78]

We have released a lot of academy/ reserve level players at the end of last year and are looking to recruit youngish players (Amalfitano, Bigirimana) to fill the void. It’s very much the Ashley business model buy young and cheap then develop players and hopefully sell a few years down the line at a profit (repeat ad nausem)

As with most teams the next couple of months will very much make or break our season. With the additional challenge/burden of Europe this year our squad as it stands is not strong enough and with the teams in and around us expected to improve (Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs etc) I think we will struggle to achieve anywhere near 5th place this year. I’m hoping we can keep hold of the majority of players and hopefully make 3 or 4 additions in the coming weeks which should see us with a relatively healthy squad. If this happens I would expect us to finish top half again and hopefully have a decent cup run (preferably to some of Europe’s warmer climates)

It'll be interesting to see how you fare this season. Keeping hold of all the big name players will be a huge plus but as you say Europe could be a hindrance - Stoke have got good quality in their squad but suffered bad results after some Europa League games last season, though they did have some horrendous trips to Israel, Ukraine, and Turkey.

Last summer someone on this forum (can't remember who) stuck their neck out and correctly called that you'd have a great season. I don't know who is scouting your players up there but it could be legitimately argued that they're getting better results than Wenger at the moment.

Incidentally, what's the general feeling about Ashley these days? He's come in for a lot of (justified) stick over the past 5 years but looking at it from an outsider's point of view I think he's now showing what an astute businessman he is. It took some bottle playing hardball over the Carroll transfer and turning down the initial £30 million bid.

To be honest think most people accept what Ashley is doing is the right way to run the club, and tbf when we were up for sale no one wanted to buy us so were stuck with each other.

Personally i never had a massive problem with him anyway and i think with him at the helm we should stay relatively ok (top half prem) n if we have another year like last who knows. Think a lot of the stuff with him has been blown out of proportion due to the less thoughtfull fans who just seem to hang around the ground waiting for a scandal so they can get on sky sports news and have a moan: Ashley Out bring back Keegan/Shearer etc Fucking cringeworthy!!

Oh n our scott is Graham Carr father of TV (Not So) Funny man Alan Carr

Used be our scout as well until Mark Hughes sacked him for one of his mates. A boring bit of trivia, when Graham Carr was still our scout, his son was interviewed in our now defunct magazine.

 

[davymcfc]

I like Newcastle. Always have and the fella I sit next to a work is a big Newcastle fan. Hope they do well next season. Did us a huge favour last season with the 4 points they took off the rags.

 

[MCC]

Good luck Geordies this year! Hope you have an even better season than last year!

 

[blue b4 the moon]

My best mate is a Newcastle fan (thanks for the tickets for the big one last season), hope they do well again this season. I can't see why they can't hit a top 6 spot again unless they pick up the fuckwit baton from the dippers.