Ash will splash the cash, a little.
Posted on September 4th, 2010 | 258 Comments |
It is just my opinion, but I would class the last two transfer windows as a success, and that success has been achieved without the club spending a fortune.
I think that by now most fans are aware that the days of signing stupidly overpriced players, like the Mackems did with Asamoah Gyan, are behind us. That is fair enough, but the club must make make sure that they don’t go too far in the other direction and end up not spending enough to improve the squad.
Before the last two transfer windows we were doing exactly that, but credit where it is due (grudgingly), the club have allowed a modest amount of cash to be spent in the last two windows, which has ended up improving the squad. A funny concept I know.
The spending may not end there either. Chris Hughton seems to think that if players are needed in January then more funds will be made available for him. It probably won’t be a lot of cash, but as long as Hughton can keep indentifying players that are available for a modest fee but can improve the squad then we should be fine.
“In January we will re-assess what we have,” Hughton told The Chronicle. “I think I’ll get the backing of the owner again like last time if we need to strengthen the team at that stage.”
I have been impressed with Hughton and his deals in the transfer market so far. Most of the players he has brought in have improved us, and some of them, like Mike Williamson, have been excellent, even in the Premier League. Full credit must go to Graham Carr, Colin Calderwood, Chris Hughton and anyone else who had a hand in making these deals work.
Of course, nobody knows whether or not our latest signings will work out, but I am feeling pretty confident about them being able to become valuable players for us in this season and beyond. All of them, apart from Sol Campbell, are at an age where they have the best years of their careers in front of them, and none of them cost a fortune to purchase.
It is kind of frightening though isn’t it? I mean imagine where we could have been had we found a manager who could identify a player for his ability and not judge him on his price tag at a much earlier juncture? Imagine if Hughton had been given the vast amounts of cash some of our previous managers, say Graeme Souness, have lavished on below par players? What would the result be?
Hughton is winning fans over, of that there is no doubt. The way he goes about everything involving Newcastle has been spot on. The guy is quoted by some players as being a workaholic, a manager that actually bothers with tactics, a manager who actually cares about the players.
Hughton may not be up there with Kevin Keegan, Sir Bobby Robson or Joe Harvey in the league of legendary Newcastle managers, but the way he is turning this club around should not be forgotten in a hurry. The lad deserves time, he has earnt it more than most, so if we do end up going through a sticky patch of results, and we will, let’s give ‘Hoots’ the time to get through it.
We are stable at the minute, let’s keep it that way!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Toonsy you touched on something at the end there > ‘The lad deserves time, he has earnt it more than most, so if we do end up going through a sticky patch of results, and we will, let’s give ‘Hoots’ the time to get through it.’
I think if he can cope through a real bad patch he will never look back again. You are right he is winning a lot of fans over, and tbh ye cant help but like the guy and he must be good to work for. But I will not form my final judgement on him until we get through the inevitable bad run as until then I dont think you can truly judge him as a Manager