Hughton – “There will be minimal spending”.

Posted on July 23rd, 2010 | 70 Comments |

Hughton - Skint!
Hughton - Skint!
The capture of Dan Gosling means that Newcastle have now increased their squad numbers by two this summer, but we can expect more new faces to come.

I wouldn’t expect any new faces to be established Premier League faces though, especially after what Chris Hughton has said today.

It’s pretty clear that there is money there, but only if the deal represents good value for the club. That is all well and good, but if it is providing good value for the club then the chances are that the fee will be minimal, if there is one at all, and that limits our options in the transfer market quite significantly as we look to try and build a squad capable of surviving in the Premier League.

“We are working very hard behind the scenes and I’m very confident that we will be able to bring in what we need to bring in,” Hughton told The Journal.

“It is a work in progress but we’re making enquiries. I said at the end of last season we don’t need very many, and yes I would anticipate it to be less than five coming in.”

I can see the point about not needing that many players in. Never before has a squad been promoted that has as much Premier League experience as ours does, but lets not forget that they got relegated in the first place, and until they secure survival, if they can secure survival, that cloud will continue to hang over them.

All in all though, what Hughton has said above is pretty much what he has said all throughout the summer. Players do become available, players that weren’t expected to be available, like Dan Gosling, and at least it looks like Newcastle are in a position to pounce if something similar should happen with another player.

“If someone becomes available that may change, but I think we already have a good squad here and anyone coming in has to add to that. I think everyone appreciates that the days of big spending are in the past at this particular time,” Hughton said.

“There will be minimal spending, which means it is about trying to find value for money out there. That is my job as manager and even though we are working within certain restrictions I’m confident that I can do that.”

I think the ‘minimal spending’ part of what Hughton said has pretty much killed off any hope of us signing a proven Premier League player over the summer, one that isn’t injured anyway.

I had hoped for a decent amount of cash to be spent over the summer, but that is increasingly looking like it isn’t going to happen, which is short-sighted in the extreme. I understand the need for fiscal responsibility, I understand that the club needs to live within it’s means, but wouldn’t it have made sense to give Hughton some proper cash to spend this summer rather than having to force him into gambling on unproven players? Speculate to accumulate and all that…

Do I know for definate that we won’t spend a decent amount of cash on a particular player? Well, no, but with every word that comes out of Hughton’s mouth now, the chances of that happening look to be decreasing. Is it ‘expectation management’ from Hughton? I don’t know, but what I will say is that my already low expectation has been kicked whilst it was on the ground with this little statement.

A decent outlay of cash would have pretty much nailed on survival in my opinion. A £20 million transfer budget would have done it, and it could still have been spent wisely. Now we are being forced into gambling with our Premier League status. I still think the lads can do it, but after the season they had least year I think they deserve some help in our goal of survival.

It’s a gamble, but then Ashley does like a gamble doesn’t he!

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

70 Responses

  1. That’s code for “No established PL players will be bought”.

    Routledge
    Williamson
    Simpson
    Perch
    Gosling
    Best

    Not one of them are proven in the PL – That’s a concern to me. They may all turn out to be brilliant PL players, but on the other hand they may not.

    If they don’t we could be in a bit of trouble. But not to worry, at least they’ll get us back up if we go down…

  2. I don’t think anyone should be too surprised by this- the club has said there is a 5-year plan to get the finances in order. To the club that means staying in the Prem as cheaply as possible and refilling the coffers, paying down the debts, keeping the current core of the club intact and taking a chance on cheap young players from the lower leagues.

    If the club sees that it can’t do it on the cheap and if we are really struggling come January, I would expect larger investment, as Ashley can’t risk relegation.

  4. Agreed Stuart.

    I just wish we had like 7-8 mill to spend on one great pacey striker and spend another 10 mill on a spread a good players…

    Especially since SportsD1ck.com has reported ridiculous profits. Who is buying from them????? Own up you idiots

  5. It’s all well and good buying the odd championship/young player and hoping they will fit into the side and become solid prem players, many other teams have done the same. However, it does become concerning when all of our acquisitions seem to be in the above bracket and slowly we become a championship standard side.
    In my opinion, not that it counts for anything, would be to get in these shrewd additions such as Gosling and Perch, but then balance it out with a couple of top level foreigners who fit into the age bracket but won’t command a high price. As already mentioned, De Guzman and Ben Arfa on a free and on loan with the option to buy respectively would be good both short and long term investments coming to no more than 6 million, and that’s if we chose to take Marseille up on the offer of buying him after the loan.
    De Guzman is said to have had a couple of injuries leading to his release or non – renewal of contract, however he is still young and a change of scenery could work well. If he needs the time to recover, we have done the same with Gosling so why not him?

  6. This seems like a significant experiment for the team. On the other hand, if we look at the second tier of the EPL, should we be that worried?

  7. get a grip brettToon

    people are not going to stop buying from him just cos we ask …his company is country wide and the biggest sports retailer in the country.

    eveybody hates us

  8. survival is the key for the next few year,let fatty get his money back,sooner he does the sooner he fks off..

  10. I think we should be looking at 5 players in at least. We have two and are in desperate need of a left back, left footed winger and pacey front man. That would be 5 but I’d also like another centre back.

  11. No money available.
    That why we bid €6 million for erding,
    Looking at Ben arfa.
    Very good Chris keep it up say nowt son!

  13. Waddles – Sorry to be a stickler, but was that Erdinc bid actually confirmed by anyone connected to the club, or in based in England in fact? Because I missed it if it was..

  14. he didnt reject the arfa story just said we had made no contact …which to me means he still could

    heres hoping

  16. Some good responses and some deluded ones. Myself, I just wish they would stop going on about having no money. We aint daft we’ve been subjected to MA penny pinching and money disapearing ways for a few years now. I DONT want to be constantly reminded of how far we have fallen since the late great days of SBR.

    MA is making huge profits at Chavs Direct but still refuses to invest good money in to good players. I understand the policey of getting young players but by having nowt but unproven players he is gambling with the future of the club AGAIN

    At the same time I have to say ultimate respect to CH for doing what he has. People can say “Aye but he’s a glove puppert of MA’s” well its his dream job and ya cant fault the man he has gone about his job in a fantastic way. He knows if he says owt he’ll be out on his backside. If we get relegated irt will be MA fault if we stay up CH is a hero and I say good luck to him.

    But for gods sake stop gannin on about being skint. We get the message. MA ya dont give two hoots about the club.

  17. Waddles mullet says:
    July 23, 2010 at 1:56 pm
    PSG said that had a bid off us and totally rejected it!

    That wouldn’t have been to smoke out interest from other clubs would it?

    Hughton said there had been no contact with Arfa, but he did like him.

  18. no surprises here, we knew there would be very little money spent – where did people think think we were getting 20 million from.
    if you look at the squad you would say we look a better team than half the prem, my only worry is who is going to score the goals on a regular basis.
    Shola isn’t going to cut it and will be injured half the time anyway
    Carroll – dont think he’s a prem 20 goal maybe 6-10 goals
    Loven – reckon he might get half a dozen
    Nolan – to fat for prem – no chance
    Smith – could do better meself man
    Bent – haddawayandshite

    Rest of team might get 5 or 6 between the lot of em

    So adding this up we might be able to score 30 goals next season if we’re lucky (at least we should score more than the scum did in 2002/03 season)

  19. Not bothered what happens or what is spent…just long for the day when MA sells up and gets out of the club.

  21. Just watched Enriques goal again – brings a big smile to my face everytime I watch it – kin class man

  22. Stevep – I would have thought our billionaire owner would have ensured we could buy enough quality to ensure survival and out in a final £20 million. It will cost him a lot more than that again. if we go down.

    1 relegation is a blip in the long term mean that could be glossed over, 2 relegations and it puts a completely different perspective on things, both in terms of being a yo-yo club and in terms of how much the business is worth.

  23. Toonsy yer problem is you are thinking like a rational educated man…….This is MA we are talking about. He cant see past the end of his belly never mind the future of the clyc

  25. appologiee, should read:

    Toonsy yer problem is you are thinking like a rational educated man…….This is MA we are talking about. He cant see past the end of his belly never mind the future of the club

  26. @toonsy – I reckon CH and MA reckon they think they have enough “quality” in the team to survive and hopefully bring through some youngsters, great if we do but like you say another relegation would be a disaster and we’d have to sell players on decent wedge big time so unlikely to get promoted so easily next time

  27. The problem is if Lovenkrands and Carroll get injured will Ameobi, Best, Xisco and Ranger score the goals we need to stay in the league? Think i’d be more confident with Nolan and Vuckic upfront than any of them bar Ranger…

  28. We were relegated with some very expensive proven premier league players.

    Shall we just wait to see who we sign and give them a chance to kick the ball before we start sticking the boot in ourselves.

  29. Guys…..

    Been really thinking, C.H. is doing the best in the situation and we shouldn’t be so pessimistic. I am dead sure we are going to play a 4-5-1 formation most of this coming season. I would like to think the 5 across mid would be Jonas–Nolan–Guthrie–Routledge
    -Smith-
    We gotta lotta options in the centre of the pitch but thin in other postions but i am sure C.H. will make use of some of the players versatility…eg. Lovankrands at LW

  30. Shawsy – I have no doubt that Ashley is a clever fecker. Anyone who can make that amount of money out of a jumble sale has to have something about them. It’s his approach to Newcastle that is bothering me as we aren’t a tack sports goods shop. I posted this on another site, but it also applies on here aswell.

    “I would have hoped fattipotimus would have dug a bit deeper to ensure we got the players that could pretty much guarantee safety and take the risk out of it rather than scrabbling around for untried, unproven and untested players.”

    “It’s a massive gamble, and would cost Ashley more than £20 mill if we do go back down. His approach is fine, long-term, and I understand the need to balance the books, long-term, but what about the short-term? What about now, this season?!

    “If we do go down then I expect to hear not one fecking word uttered from Ashley and his crew over over how relegation is having “a dire financial impact” as he has brought the fecker on himself.”

  32. Its clear the strategy is to survive in the Premiership for the next 3-5 years and no more than that.To slowly reduce the wage bill by getting the high earners off it-Smith/Coloccini if possible. To buy young players and hope they appreciate in value.To get the club in a financial position where it can repay some of Mike Loan account.
    I am sure there is a wages budget and you get the feeling we are pretty close to the limit allready. Without current players leaving i dont see any further major additions.
    The important thing is to get a balanced squad so we need a LB-priority+2 more wide players.
    Personally i think its a risky strategy that could see us sail very close to relegation again because we surely also need a proven striker and a good experienced centre-half to be sure of survival.

  33. Steve R – big assumtions there. No Barton . . . but Smith in. I don’t think so! And Lovenkrands definitely is no winger. I agree we maybe shouldn’t be so pessimitic though . . . sometimes my glass is half full remembering some of the real class goals we scored last year. Other times I remember who we were playing against and imagine the same thing against Terry, Vidic et al.

  34. Toonsy- aye I cant argue with that mate some valid points

    Steve R – lots of options in midfield! think yer looking at the wrong team sheet. I agree with giving support to CH but it’ll be a cold da in hell before I do same to MA. Its not about numbers on a team sheet its the quality and desire. What would you rather have 10 Titus Brambles or one John Terry? See what I mean?

  35. Cadbury – I’ve heard Xisco is quite a talent when it comes to filling the hole behind the striker.

  36. shawsy – would rather have ten brambles than one john terry, he’s kin rubbish and has been constantly helped out by Alex and Carvalio or whatever his name is, Terrys got the pace of a tortoise and he’s lost whatever positional sense he once had which makes him a liability

  37. We definitely need another centre half. The PL jury is still out on Simpson, Perch, Williamson, Kadar and even Colo. They might come good but equally might not. I think Smith isn’t up to it for a PL DM and we need that definitely. Could it be that Colo is the man for the job? Hughton tried it once – didn’t seem to work but for me he has all the qualities needed to be a good one.

  38. @stever – smith in midfield is a non starter, he can’t hack the prem, lets face it Hughton kept him on the bench in the championship so doubt he has that much faith in him.
    Smith goes to ground too easily and gives away needless freekicks constantly – top bloke tho and great attitude, just not good enough for prem

  39. Sorry Stevep I wouldnt have Shambles in a sunday leauge team and understand what yer saying about Terry but yer honestly saying ya wouldnt have him at the tonn but instead youd rather have Shambles? Cuckoo Cuckoo :)

  40. I would think Xisco would score more goals when he’s always popping up on the back post

  43. This season there will be an apparent difference between the haves and the have nots. Unfortunatly we are now a have not. I expect City and Spurs to be in the top 4 this season. I also think Man U and Liverpool will have poor seasons by their standards. The tyne wear derby will be war and we wont be able to rely on quality to win it will take guts but I think we can still beat them.

  46. I’m sick of hearing people say we need a 20 goal a season striker. Only 5 players scored 20 league goals last year and no one outside the top 8 had a player who scored more than 10 except bent and he must have got about 10 pens and at least one balloon goal.. If carrol get’s 10 that only needs us to find another 30 realistically to survive. I know pople will say where will they come from but you can’t look at teams like bolton,west-brom,blackpool or blackburn and say they have the players to score that amount of goals.

  47. DJG – that difference has been there for years now. A couple of clubs have changed around a bit but it’s the same old same old. What I can’t understand is where the feck Spurs get their money from. At least compared to us (actually that’s easy – we bloody wasted our money on Owen, Martins, Geremi etc)

  49. Sorry about the small advert on Tyne Time lads. Wasn’t meant to mislead you. The money from that will keep the site going, for a while :)

    As for Hughton, there is money, I’m guessing an initial bank of £10m, £1.5m on perch, leaving the £8.5m for Otamendi :D
    Ah no, but I reckon there’s £10m in the bank anyway, sure we’ve saved that from wages alone haven’t we?

  50. DJG- don’t think guts will be a problem. All our players have something to prove- the older guard for getting relegated and the newer players to prove they belong in the prem. I really can’t name anyone who I think is just here for the salary (Owen, Viduka, Geremi) or who are looking to out for their careers first (Martins, Zog, Milner)

  51. pacey frontman, pacey frontman, why not let Loverman have a go? hes on the books already and jonas can cover the wing?

  52. Just had a quick look at last year and we had carrol,nolan,ameobi and lovenkrands goals = 57 of our 90 so we did get 33 goals from somewehere else. I can’t really remember many players getting too many bar them so that shows as long as the midfield chips in with a couple each and your center halves gets a couple a piece it all adds up.

  53. Otamendi would not cost £8.5m that is typical of the Sun, As for all these supposed interested clubs, The usual names Barcelona, Juventus, Milan ETC. were linked with Modric but when any teams teams actually tried to buy him they were us who finished 12th the previous season and Spurs who finshed 11th.

  55. Rorycn says:
    July 23, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    Regardless of what anybody says about the quality of the PL, our midfielders will not have the same space or time on the ball as they did last season. They will be chasing the ball a lot more, they will be worried about leaving gaps and getting caught out up field.

    They won’t be playing with the same freedom – That means they won’t be getting as many chances. Their not that good to score every chance they get so I’d be suprised if any of our midfielders got 10 goals.

    Andy Carroll is absolutely crucial in my opinion. He will be a danger to any team in the world with his heading ability.

    Obviously though, he won’t score a single goal if nobody creates anything for him.

  56. toonsy says:
    July 23, 2010 at 3:36 pm
    Doocey – You could always use them casino slots to fund the site

    —

    Might be an idea for the future! :D
    I only put them articles up when necessary, but I think I’ll change the headline to take it down from newsnow.

    Sorry about that lads.

    I think Otamendi would be at least £8.5m, he’s supposedly the next big thing to come from Argentina.

  57. @Stuart79 – agreed, frontmen will have a much harder time against prem defenders our midfeild will have a lot less space and our defenders will be up against the likes of Rooney, Defoe, Torres rather than kickabout, larkabout and fvckabout – is gonna be tough but still reckon OI’ll enjoy it

  58. Doocey – Haddaway mane, leave it up. It’s there for a reason aint it? Balls to it man, leave it up :)

  59. Am sick of ppl goin on bout the qaulity in the prem league yes there is but take away mnu,man city,spurs,chelsea,arsenal n liverpool the rest of the teams r very average teams, n ppl keep goin on like r players ain’t ever played there b4 we hav probably over 2000 games of pl experience in our team, get rea there is bout 6 good teams n 14 average teams all we shoud b lookin todo is finish top of the average teams

  60. 1 thing i realy h8 bout fat arse, he bort newcastle to make money wen every1 knows the only people who make muney are the players,, owning a footbal club as big as newcastle is an xpensive hobby,, a wud av preferd sheppard still at least he wud av given hughton a few pennies to rub tagether unlike fkn chunk hu nli wants wat the club owes him plus a bit mre,, sum1 give hm wat he wants plus a fry up to soften him up to feck off

  61. Your right davy. I agree they will get less chances, but all i’m saying is if you look at most teams who we will be competing with – Bolton,birmingham,blackpool,stoke,fulham,west brom,sunderland,wigan and wolves maybe even west ham but i think they’ll do well this year. I would rather have our sides over all of theirs. I’d have a couple of players from each side but they are not really any better. People on here seem to forgot you don’t play man u and chelsea every week. We must realise we are playing basically in the premiership second division. The top eight are away at the moment but that’s either through investment (Chelse,man city,tottenham)Or being given time to get a team together (Everton,villa). Just relax add players over time and watch as we gradually catch and breack into the top lot of sides.

  62. Im sorry but we have to be realistic here, we have spent millions in the past and look where that got us, fair enough we had a few seasons in europe, but that was a long time ago and football as a whole has progressed from then! me personally feel the boardroom are taking every step in the wright direction, we have a good team with alot of experience and most of all players that want to pull the newcastle shirt on and give 110% week in and week out. Personally i feel if newcastle carry on the way there going sky is the limit for us, not every team will be able to compete with the huge wage demand and transfer demand, weren’t the first big club to be relegated and certainly wont be the last. Onwards and upwards “HOWAY THE LADS”

  63. dannufc2010 says:
    July 23, 2010 at 7:43 pm

    Careful mate, you talk sense without the hissy fit, some on here wont like that…

  64. i love mike,your not stardust are you?lol.
    dannufc,that must be good stuff,is it.

  68. the thing is how do we know ben arfa and de guzman are going to be good in premier league? they might not like the pysical side cold weather all this sort of stuff im all for the signings weve done so far rather have youth than old has beens toon army

  69. I keep reading the same comments about signing established epl players, then the same posters start talking about players in france, portugal etc!?

    Current flavour of the week seems to be ben afra(sp) (probably a very good player on the ps3) very talented & once linked with the mancs, supposedly available on loan or £6.5 million as his current club want to replace him with nzogbia, also supposed to be a bit difficult & has never played or lived in the uk, how many times do we have to get our fingers burned before the penny drops?

  70. With the squad we have at the moment i think there is at least 8-10 teams we can beat at home and 5 we could beat away, add in a few draws, 6-8 and you have 45-53 points.
    I might be being optomistic but no one could say that this isnt within the realms of possibility.
    56 points got us 5th in 03/04 and I cant remember any team getting relegated with 45 points

    Cheer up lads forget the doom and gloom, ashley and the board. Keep the faith in the Black and White!