No January signings at Newcastle?

Posted on October 7th, 2010 | 105 Comments |

No need for new signings says Hughton.
No need for new signings says Hughton.
It looks like the players that Newcastle have now will have to make do until the end of the season, if you go by what Chris Hughton has said today.

Hughton insists that he will not be tempted into making any new signings when the transfer window re-opens in January.

The news will come as a blow to fans who had hoped that January could see some reinforcements drafted in, especially given the fact that we have now lost one of our summer acquisitions for quite some time in the shape of Ben Arfa.

Speaking to the official club website, Hughton had this to say:

“I’m disappointed to have lost a player of Hatem’s quality – but we’ll not overreact to one injury in what is a very strong squad. We won’t be adding to the squad in January; I feel we have a lot of strength in depth with the players we have already and there’s no need to add to it.”

“We completed our squad before the last transfer window and I’m extremely pleased with the players we brought in. Mike Ashley and the board were financially very supportive and, together, we did some very good business in the summer.”

Is this just another exercise to manage expectations though? We were told to not expect much, if anything depending on how an individual interpretated that statement, over the summer, yet we managed to do some good business.

Hatem Ben Arfa has shown brief glimpses of the quality he can produce, Cheick Tiote has been a revelation and has shown just what a defensive midfielder can do, Sol Campbell has shown that he can still cut it, albeit only in brief glimpses whilst the jury is still our regarding James Perch and Dan Gosling.

We also have a fair few players to come back from injury to bolster the squad. Danny Simpson and Danny Guthrie are not too far away from a first-team return whilst Steven Taylor and Leon Best won’t be too far behind them. Then we have the longer-term injuries to Steve Harper, Dan Goslong and Hatem Ben Arfa to take into consideration.

Actually, now that I have written it down, perhaps Hughton has a point? We do have a fairly big squad with a fair bit of competiton in certain areas, but there is still room to strengthen. There should always be room to strengthen.

Hughton may be happy with his lot, but to me it is a rather foolish move to discount entering the market at this early juncture. Still, I’m pretty certain that if a player pops up or is desperately needed I believe we would end up signing them, at the right price.

As ever, time will tell….

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

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105 Responses

  3. No need to worry, we will be fine.

    If an emergency arises I am sure that we will dip into the market, but as said above there are a few players now coming back from injuries who should be nice and fresh for the rest of the season.

    Knee jerk reactions by some, when we are either going to be in a european spot one week and going down the next need to be reined in a little ;)

  4. batty i agree – can we have loans now ? if so why dont we go for that playmaker at hull – carn’t remember his name like

  6. Believe it or not we probably couldn’t afford JBs wages in the current wage structure.

    Hull went overboard to sign him on top dollar gambling that he would help keep them up. Then he goes and gets injured again … :( and they go down :)

    Good player but I think he will see out his contract on sky high wages at Hull. Pity cos he is good

  7. The only thing i would not mind is a good striker! Other than that we do have great depth in the remaining areas of the squad. I agree with Shrews on 3… The Europe/Relegation squad need to calm down!

  8. batty – I know what you mean about a striker. We have lots of them but goals are few and far between

    Who would you loan/buy to play up front … given the current wage structure/policy ??

  10. Yeah i think a striker is needed , feel its unfair to expect carol to get the lion share of goals , i do think ameobi lclovin could and will chip in with goals but maybe not enough.

    But becasue we do have a lot of strikers at the club already i think we ‘d have to unload one of two before we bring in anyone

  12. Bullard is finished, 32 at end of the month and always injured. Like buying an old car thats a pig in a poke, forget it.

    I think if Carroll had kept up his scoring and was on 7 or 8 goals it would have been very very hard for Pearce to snub him and maybe even Capello. I don’t think he’s ready though. Davis is a good experienced target man and deserves a cap more than Carroll does.

  13. toonsy – are you suggesting that there is no wage structure/policy.

    I was referring to the trend for loans and cheap deals, not any particular written down policy that we would ever get to know about.

    However there is wage structure/policy … otherwise we would have tevez, rooney, ronaldo etc etc ;)

  15. I agree with the striker argument…we could’ve done with someone like Bellamy as a foil for Carrol…someone with a lot of pace, who RUNS AT PEOPLE with the ball, and who can create a certain amount of their own chances.

  17. Shrews – Loans – We stll pay their wages (as in the £55,000 a week for HBA)

    I don’t think there is a policy as such, more a recognition that exorbitant wages won’t be paid generally, but the flexibility to pay them is there in certain cases.

  18. i don’t think we would get a striker in,cause we have like 6/7 strikers on board now? 80

    though i heard Best is gonna be ship out soon..either loan or sold…..

    Xisco…Oh well..not sure.

    But somehow,i feel we need wingers who can cross. =.=”

  19. don’t see us signing a striker. been playing pretty much a 4-5-1 and with andy, shola, lovenkrands, ranger, xisco, and best all on the books, unless a couple of them head out, highly doubt we’ll see anyone come in.

    really not at all bothered by this kind of comment. in reality we do have a pretty big squad, even with the injuries we have at the moment.

    and why not say something like this. keep any intentions we may have under wraps. don’t need CH blabberin that “we’ll be lookin to strengthen in jan.” as then the selling clubs can try to hold out for more since they know we need the player.

  21. jimmy bullard finished is he ? – we couldn’t get the rest of this season out of him could we ? – i could just see the little wizard setting up the goal chances we’d need now benny boy is oot.

    never mind i’ll send him a birthday card anyways at the end of the month – that should cheer him up.

  22. toonsy – We stll pay their wages (as in the £55,000 a week for HBA)… is that the number that has only ever been mentioned in the press? ;)

  23. shrews – you dont wanna be worrying owa much aboot the wages m8 – unless of course it’s coming oot your sky rocket like.

  26. richie – he dont want to be here does he ? – but if he can stick it oot m8 it’ll be like winning the lottery.

    which reminds me i got a tip for the neets draa…

    7 18 22 23 42 49

  30. Can we get loans or out of contract players? If we can I’d bring Bobby Pires in to do Benny’s job. Great playmaker – old, slow but very talented. He’s training to keep fit at Arsenal.

  31. agree Roy…he wants to be elsewhere…especially when he has to play in the reserves.

    Georgio…we can still sign free agents like Pires

  34. Richie – if that’s right then I think that’s exactly what CH should do. Pires has great vision for a pass, crosses well, can dribble and has a canon shot. Like I say he’s a bit old but he can’t be slower than Nolan in the No 10 slot!

  35. georgio….I always thought Pires was a cheating diving tw@t……….but when he plays for ya own team that’s different ;-)
    maybe worth a punt on a pay as you play deal :-)

  36. Richie – Pay as you play or a 6 month deal. We desperately need some kind of playmaker, somebody with vision. Guthrie might help but Pires is streets ahead of him.

  37. AOD-shawcross is just another bruiser. He left the field in tears when he did Ramsey in, clearly showing remorse but comments like that make him an idiot. It’s that pathetic “old school bruiser” mentality that the premier league needs to get rid of. What happened in the past is exactly that. The past. To claim braking legs is part and parcel of our game is embarrassing.

  38. Whey I’m off to the bar for an hour or so to celebrate it being Friday tomorrow…later lads

  39. An exercise to reduce expectation.

    I’d be very very surprised if we don’t sign anyone.

  40. You’d have thought Shawcross would have learnt that reckless tackling and excessive force is not something to be tolerated and condoned.

  41. AOD

    It’s not madness. It’s just one moronic leg breaker defending another. We lack quality, intelligent defenders in this country, which is why players like Shawcross can earn themselves a call up. Sadly, quality is measured by commitment in this country as there are far too many ex players forcing their opinions down the throats of the fans, which consequently distorts general football ideologies. These guys are washed up and 90% of these “legends” weren’t even good enough to play at the current Premiership level.

    What other country would give the likes of Andy Townsend a platform to express his views? He is a nobody in world football. Yet it’s exactly this type of idiot that encourages and defends thuggish antics. It’s simple. The media need to re-evaluate who they give exposure to. Listen to the likes of Marcotti, Balague, and Reng(Notice how all are foreign) and you can instantly recognize the difference in quality. One set offering detailed, unbiased analysis. The other, short, blunt sentences referring back to the old days or simply stating the obvious.

    Even if they are going to get ex-players, why not go for better, more cultured ones? The likes of Maldini, Zidane and Cruyff giving their views surely represents a jump in class from the current crop.

    This article sums up the sad state of punditry in this country. Just look at the people giving opinions on here. Aside from Harry they hardly have a braincell between them and only ever seem to look at football from their own basic, cock eyed perspective.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8766476.stm

  42. Also, I hope top management at NUFC gave Colin Calderwood a stern telling off. This guy was on radio DEFENDING De Jong! What planet is he from!?

  43. Lets be honest we arn’t gonna be spending striker money and in Jan I don’t think we could get a decent one anyway. That Taabart from QPR looks a good play but what would be the point in signing another ex-Spurs flop. We have Guthrie and Gosling eventually coming back and they will be desperate for games and the option to recalled LuaLua in Jan if another winger gets injured. He looks on good form atm but unless we were desperate I would leave him at Brighton because he is now scoring down there at first team level and learning the ropes v well apparently.

  44. DJG

    Taarabt is pure quality and should not be in the Championship. I have been championing this guy for around 3 years and I am pretty sure he would make a fantastic acquisition for anything under 5 or 6million. His potential is immense. To think we could have had him for less than £1million :(

  45. El Toro

    Is it true that he can play off Carroll as an out and out forward or is he just a winger. If he could do a job for us where Best couldn’t I would say sign him. If there was only £5m to spend though I would prefer we sign Benny on a perminant after he plays the final 3 games. ;)

    How do you rate Maynard? I would prefer him to that other lad tbh. Would be a good striker in the prem nevermind the championship imo.

  46. DJG

    Taarabt is a useful winger, but his best position is the one currently occupied by Nolan. He is a player that should be used similar to how VDV is at Spurs. Don’t put much pressure on him to defend, but instead just let him roam and express himself. He is quality and my Spurs friends were very unhappy to see him leave.

    Of course if it were between Taarabt and Ben Arfa there is no contest, but whilst Ben Arfa’s injured it would be a great bit of business. I’m a fan of Guthrie, but I would sell both he and R.Taylor to fund a move for Taarabt to be honest.

    Not a big fan of Maynard. I don’t think he is a big step up from Best, who I still feel has something to offer.

  47. I would sell Nolan and R.Taylor, not Guthrie. No-one would buy them though or match their wages so thats a non-runner.

  48. Did he really say that it’s a very good squad? Give me a break!

    I agree with batty, if we don’t get a striker we could be in trouble.

    Although if we’re in the bottom three come January Ashley would be stupid to be a tight fcker – he tried that the last time and look what happened!

  50. Stuart79 @48

    don’t talk bollox you filthy Brixton slag, we will stay up with the squad we have.

  51. I think Lovenkrands or Ranger could score if we dropped Nolan and played two strikers instead of this stupid negative formation where Nolan does nowt but get in the way of decent players.

  52. Djg not sure about Gosling as I haven’t watched much of him but I do think the real reason we got him was because he was free, As for Guthrie I like him and think he is a good player and can do a real good job for us if he gets playing in his prefered CM position, but I dont think he will get that place :( .
    As for the CH statment I really cant believe why he comes out with stuff like this, I thought after we got a PR person in we would see the end of total rubbish statments but it seems she hasn’t really made much difference.
    As someone above said after the stoke game CH came out and said that he expected to lose more games than win, I for the life of me cant work out why he would come out and say that, its ok to think it but to say it to the papers is just like saying to our players dont worry lads if you’s get beat as we dont expect to win to many games lads.
    I only wish they could come out when they have something decent to say, Like after the Wolves match He could have came out and blasted the ref for not protecting our players, or he could have blasted the ref for doing fuk all about De Jong but no that wouldn’t be sensible :(

  54. did C.H. not say there would no capital outlay and would be going with what we had that got us up,and didnt, we had a few signings since,tac nee notice imo

  55. Ice – Agreed. What sort of message does it send out to players we already have if they know that they will be facing more competition in Jan? ;)

    Off topic, I see Arsenal away sold out and didn’t even make it to the members sale. The club asked for more tickets and Arsenal refused. Our box office need to sort this shit out.

  57. what i didnt like was the the quote from shola; hope C.H. can pick us up after m/c game,christ lad pick yer-sel up,dick heed

  58. Ice hows you mate ;) no mate it wasnt CH that mentioned the no capital outlay, he did say that if the right players came along that he basically had faith in MA to get them.
    I cant sort of understand if we dont buy ant new players but I cant understand why he comes out and says we wont be getting any in, when he didn’t need to say it, because at the moment we are 1 player down for the rest of the year near, what happens if we lose anymore players through injury, and have to get some new players in in Jan it just makes CH look stupid

  59. Toonsy @ 55 it would have been even easier not talking about the Jan window.
    Apart from that would the thought of competition not have kept the players on their toes rather than making them feel their place is safe

  60. toonsy says:
    October 7, 2010 at 7:03 pm
    Ice – Agreed. What sort of message does it send out to players we already have if they know that they will be facing more competition in Jan?

    I would say a bit of competition hasn’t done Jonas any harm whatsoever.

  62. *releasing*……I’ve had a few pints….that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it :-)

  63. BIG DAVE na dave what you say and what you do isnt the same,1 saying your not looking to sign anyone can go two ways it can help the players to fight for there place or a couldnt care less attitude,thats down to c.h.2 i do think they will be looking to sign someone but why make the selling club aware we are in that much need ;)

    hope you got last e-mail m8

  64. richietoon says:
    October 7, 2010 at 7:20 pm
    *releasing*……I’ve had a few pints….that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it

    whats new aboot that like m8

  65. Big Dave says:
    October 7, 2010 at 6:58 pm

    “As someone above said after the stoke game CH came out and said that he expected to lose more games than win, I for the life of me cant work out why he would come out and say that,”

    Who did he say that to, Dave? I can’t remember him saying that on the Sky post match interview.

  66. Ice…divnt often have a midweeker,last week was my cousins 40th so had a couple then and I’m away to the lakes tomorrow so would be rude not to have a pint with the lads before I go……..problem is they’re still out and I ad to go home cos need to drive to do my job :-(

  67. Ice I just didn’t see the need to say owt about the Jan window. I do think any decent club with a bit of ambition should always be looking to add quality and not ruling it out as I said it just makes us look real silly one min we’re saying one thing then next min we’re doing the opposite :(
    Yeah mate got it it was my server that was delayed in sending the emails from my end ;)

  68. toonsy says:
    October 7, 2010 at 7:03 pm

    The club probably would only commit to buying 250 tickets in case they lost money on them.

  70. RICHIETOON na cannot be rude m8,another first eh :) enjoy the lakes but divnt drink the water like

  71. Worky…this is Hughton in an interview afer the Stoke game I posted on the other thread, will try and find the link again.

    “That comes with where we are at the moment, we are a team that’s got promotion from the Championship, we knew it would be a tough season. We’re probably going to lose more games than we win, that’s the unpredictably that comes with it”

  73. WORKY i saw that quote too, think it was one of the rags i was shocked,then got my heed back on “its a rag”

  75. Arsenal usually allocate around 3000 tickets for away fans, how do we know that’s not the amount we have taken and sold?…we won’t get any extra ‘cos Arsenal usually sell out so why would they allocate us more?………we have taken and sold out around 3000 for the West Ham game who are crap so I’d guess we asked and got our full allocation for Arsenal!

  77. Dave..who’d have tought to look on the official site :lol:

    Stuart….yep,most if not all teams in the bottom half will win less than 50% of their games……maybe should have been phrased differently,but I’m sure all the players have already worked that out for themselves anyway!

  78. BIG DAVE how many games do you think we need to win to stay up like m8.
    aye saw the quote now on site,think i saw it in a rag took nee notice

  84. I’d settle for 11 wins and 8 draws.

    Ice…this is unofficially the offcial site ;-)

  85. icedog says:
    October 7, 2010 at 7:01 pm

    “did C.H. not say there would no capital outlay and would be going with what we had that got us up,and didnt, we had a few signings since”

    Now I did see those, and that isn’t exactly right, Icedog. It was Llambias and the club gannin’ on about “no capital outlay”, which didn’t mean that we weren’t going to buy any new players, just that the club wasn’t going to spend beyond what was on the books this year. The amount the club has actually spent has been quite modest when you look at it. Hughton did say (roughly) that he squad that got us up would form the basis for this years squad, but I’m sure he didn’t say that we definitely wouldn’t buy any more players at all.

  88. richietoon says:
    October 7, 2010 at 8:14 pm

    “Ice…this is unofficially the offcial site”

    You’d be surprised how many people think this IS the official site from the e.mails I’m receiving, Richie.

  89. WORKY its like owt else the people who write these facts/fig,and the people who read them,take them the way you wish to belive them,funny old game this bugger :)

  91. as soon as king Benny went doon, we got linked with a boat load of players. Every interview St. Hoots has done since has probably been rife with replacement questions. So he ends the speculation. What he says to the media and what he says to the squad is probably much different.
    Right now we only have 1 spot open in the 1st team 25, so we’d have to get rid of some to pick up any more than 1 player. I thought Hoots would be looking to reload for the final push but maybe he thinks this squad can stay up, then in the summer he’ll look to push up the table. I’m sure if someone becomes available hoots will be more tha willing to let him sneak through the door ;)

  92. RICHIETOON blame the drink m8,dave telt me he only drinks milk,thought he was a big boy now should be off the breast by now :)

  93. rich – we’ve taken 2000 for arsenal apparently. Why we didnt just take the full 3000 after selling out another London game with a similar figure just last week is beyond me. More poor planning from the box office

  94. Toonsy….it is if we’ve just taken the 2k is that confirmed?….of course West Ham probably offered sale or return for all 3k……..Surely we always sell the London games out anyway, no risk there imo

  95. Jersey….I thought we had 2 places left in the 25 man squad?..plus I think 1 or 2 will go i.e saylor if he doesnt sign the contract.

  98. Ross

    That is absolutely fantastic. Now a member of the FA’s sugar daddies have spoken out it should add further pressure on them to act. We want this OUT of the game.

  99. Ross..good article, for all that we’ve been slagging of the FA it’s actually the FIFA rules that don’t allow retrospective punishment if the ref has seen the incident, it’s them that need to change first.

    Never been a Danny Murphy fan but good on the lad coming out about the “brainless and ridiculous tackling” going on on football and blaming managers like Pulis, Allardyce and McCarthy for their tactics.Well done Scouse lad.

  100. Just seen the Danny Murphy interview on SSN, at last someone has had the guts to speak out against the bully boys clique, very brave thing to do and i will be watching with interest as to the reaction from both sides of the fence.

  101. We are in desperate need of another winger now Ben Arfa is injured and given that Routeldge’s crossing has been poor so far. If one, or both, of our wingers get injured we will have no creativity or pace whatsoever

  102. Macas – true, but we could change styles and play Guthrie in the middle with Barton and tiote and then have 2 of xisco/mclovin/strolla/ranger/best supporting Carroll

  104. well, according to alan brazil it’s all because players are ‘too soft’ these days….

    pr1ck..