Are Newcastle going through a midfield revolution?
Posted on November 4th, 2010 | 58 Comments |
Anyway, over the summer we added to our ranks with no less than five players, and two of them were central midfield players. As a result, when they are all fit, we have enough central midfield players in our squad to sill two teams. Great for competition, right?
Well it will be good for competition this season, but what about next season, and the season after that? You see, I have a different train of thought regarding the state of our midfield, and it appears that it is a thought that is shared with quite a few ‘bloggers on here. To illustrate my point, I’m going to take you back, way back, to when we were a club that paid silly wages.
Now a lot of this is going to contain figures that are hearsay or speculation, but they will be the most commonly speculated about figures. Like when we signed Alan Smith on a wage that was reported to be around £60,000 a week for example, and Joey Barton on an amount that is supposed to be roughly the same.
We are all aware that we used to pay high wages to players, higher than any club in a comparable league position to ourselves. This didn’t work and we managed the rather ridiculous and shameful achievement of getting relegated from the Premier League with the 3rd highest wagebill in the entire league.
Not any more, or so it seems. Right now I believe that the club are trying to sort out the finances. Relegation purged us of a lot of high-earners, but our wagebill is still estimated to stand at around £50m-a-year. I believe that the club are making an effort to bring this down further, but I also believe that they are building for the future at the same time.
To illustrate that, all you have to do is have a look at our potential midfield (as pictured). A midfield of Danny Guthrie, Dan Gosling, Cheick Tiote and Hatem Ben Arfa could potentially be our midfield for at least the next five years. All of them are 24 or under and all of them can do a job for us.
Would anyone argue with me when I say that Tiote is a better player than Alan Smith? Probably not. I’m not saying that Smith has done anything wrong, just that Tiote is simply the better midfielder. How about Hatem Ben Arfa? Would anyone play Jonas Gutierrez ahead of him? That one is more of a close call if I’m being honest.
Let’s take a look at the old and midfield line-up’s to show the difference in age between the two midfields:
‘Old’ midfield.
Alan Smith (30), Joey Barton (28), Kevin Nolan (28), Jonas Gutierrez (27) – Average age = 28.25.
‘New’ midfield.
Danny Guthrie (23), Dan Gosling (20), Cheick Tiote (24), Hatem Ben Arfa (23) – Average age = 22.5.
Despite our new midfield being considerably younger, can you honestly say that they are considerably worse? I can’t.
Now to make the financial point we need to have a look at the wages these players are on. Now a lot of these are speculated figures so they won’t be spot on, but as I said earlier I will only use the most commonly speculated figures.
‘Old’ midfield.
Alan Smith (£60,000), Joey Barton (£60,000), Kevin Nolan (£40,000), Jonas Gutierrez (£40,000).
Weekly wage combined = £200,000 per week.
Annual wage combined = £10.4 million.
‘New’ midfield.
Danny Guthrie (£10,000), Dan Gosling (£25,000), Cheick Tiote (£35,000) Hatem Ben Arfa (£50,000).
Weekly wage combined = £120,000 per week.
Annual wage combined = £6.24 million.
Now as I said, these are only rough calculations, but they do kind of illustrate my point. We already have the next midfield waiting in the wings ready to take over. Of course, we have to sign Hatem Ben Arfa first, but given what the player has said recently, and what the club have said it would appear to be just a formality, hopefully.
I also very much doubt that our entire midifeld will be switched around in one hit. What we may see is players leaving slowly, or being offered a lower wage to reflect their age and so on.
It’s certainly food for thought anyway.
toonsy,
Good article mate, the big decision’s will be in the summer of 2012. What does MA do with Barton,Collo,Jonas and Jose who are on huge wages and will be at the end of their contracts.