No January signings at Newcastle?
Posted on October 7th, 2010 | 105 Comments |
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….
i think we need a decent stiker