Hughton again hints at new signings.
Posted on June 7th, 2010 | 215 Comments |
It seems that although Hughton has been away from his office, work has still been ongoing to make sure we have a squad capable of competing in the Premier League next time around, with the gaffer sounding decidedly optimistic regarding bringing in new faces. Rumours have been rife regarding the signing of some veteran players in the shape of Sol Campbell, Andy O’Brien and Jimmy Bullard, the latter of which is apparently joining Celtic, although Hughton has revealed that we were never really interested in any of them anyway, with the focus thought to be remaining on signing players who still have their best years in front of them rather than behind them.
“There’s been talk about Sol Campbell and Andy O’Brien in the past and there are always names that keep coming up – but we have not looked into signing those players,” Hughton told The Chronicle. “And Jimmy Bullard is another player that has not been mentioned.”
So the next time anyone hears anything regarding these three players, we can safely disregard it as we have now heard direct from the horses mouth that they are of no interest to us. Hughton then spoke about what he is up to, and most importantly for fans, how transfer business is shaping up.
“It’s business as usual, but I can’t say that while I’ve been away that anything has really stopped. You always continue to take calls and our business has been on-going. There are some players we are interested in and we’re open-minded about those options.”
No doubt there will be some form of backlash, as desperate fans demand to know just who we are interested in, and why they weren’t signed yesterday. Unfortunately though, it again looks like we wont get to find out if we have signed a new player until a deal is done, much like what happened in January.
I still don’t expect any player movement anytime soon, although with only 85 days of the transfer window remaining, time is ticking. Yes, that was sarcasm, mainly born out of frustration I may add, as Hughton has already said, several times, that business wont be conducted until later on this month at the earliest, yet we still get the same old lines trotted out, admittedly mainly through frustration.
Of course that is understandable, but to conclud that our season will be an uphill struggle from day one, isn’t. We can only pass a full and frank assesment of what this window holds when it actually slams shut, although it will be much harder to say that if we roll around to the first game of the season with the same team as what we have now, for some that is not acceptable, regardless of whether or not the current team can survive.
At the end of the day, Hughton has dropped enough hints now to suggest that players will be arriving on Tyneside, and does it really matter if we buy them, or if they are loan players, or free-transfers? I certainly don’t care what they are or how much they cost, as long as they can help us to survive.
It’s sad, but that is unfortunately our aim for next season, anything else would be a bonus.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
3 or 4 players in reqd urgerntly – by hook or by crook!! no pun at Ashley there mind!!
2 defensive, i creative midfielder, 1 striker – that should do to start with and build from there.