All I Want For Christmas Is…

Posted on December 16th, 2011 | 31 Comments |

Santas on the metro.
On their way to SJP? Probably not.
I was thinking about this recently – if I was sitting down writing my letter to Santa Ashley c/o the Sports Direct North Pole, what would I want as a Newcastle United fan this Christmas?

I suppose the first thing I’d ask is for Santa not to take any of our best players away and deliver them as presents to the boys and girls who’ve been good at other clubs. But knowing the track record of Ashley in dealing with transfer business I don’t suppose that’s very realistic. If the money is right, the presents will be delivered. So I’m left with the line from the current Fosters TV advert ringing in my ears “that thing you’re thinking? It won’t be that!”.

So let’s concentrate on what we could get – the positives. We believe that Santa Ashley has already got Modibo Maiga wrapped up in Christmas paper and hanging in our Christmas stocking. That pressie sounds like a really good one, with the mouth-watering prospect of Maiga lining up alongside Demba Ba as a perfect foil for our top scorer.

It would also appear that Santa has finally got the message that he needs to try really really hard to get a left-back to replace Jose Enrique, and that a left-footed left back would be a really good idea.  It would seem however from stories circulating at the moment, that it will not be Erik Pieters who will be in the parcel under the tree, but possibly Taye Taiwo on loan from AC Milan.

But what about a nice pressie to ease the shortage of quality central defenders at the club, recently brought firmly into focus by the injury to Steven Taylor? The worrying thing is that this is one gift that might not materialise. Santa’s Chief Elf, Alan Pardew, was recently quoted as saying:

“In terms of players coming in, there is certainly one player who will come in (Maiga?) and we are hoping maybe two – if we don’t lose anybody. 

Still, we’re talking about sending Santa a “wish list” here – so lets ask him for a central defender too.

But of course, the best present Santa could give to the long-suffering United fans, would be to stand up at his staff’s Christmas Party and say very loudly “None of our stars will be leaving in January or in the summer. We don’t need the money, so we will keep the players. This is one of the biggest clubs in the country and we intend to strengthen the side and push for a top four place”.

Now that is wishful thinking indeed!

NUFCBlog Author: UTD111 UTD111 has written 59 articles on this blog.

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31 Responses

  2. I expect this window will be the same as all the rest and clubs know that if they have the cash upfront then they can poach whoever they like.
    After such a good start it was inevitable the wheels would fall off Pardew’s wagon,I blame this on lack of depth and when you play chelsea with Perch,Lovvenkrands and two Ameobi’s on the field at the same time it aint going to amount to anything other than defeat.
    I think this window may see Ashley smash his transfer fee record with a £6.5M signing to sweeten the masses but I am certain he will be making more four times that on players he sells first.

  4. Personally I think we have been unlucky with injuries in key areas all at the same time, no witch hunt or none sense against Pards and Ashley from me, we are sitting pretty in the league and there’s no need to panic. Carry on the Toon.

  5. I like the arseblog.com report on bentner the car bender’s arrest “close to St James’ Park The Sports Direct Arena Newcastle Stadium Thing” !

  6. I’d ask santa for no random crappy gifts – the kind where u resent him for spending money in the wrong direction:

    i.e. This chap Taiwo – now if we were buying, maybe a diff story, but i struggle to see the logic. It’s not as if him coming in means Raylor can move into CB.

    Simpson has been rewarded a contract that appears to have him as RB for the next few years….so then why not Santon at LB?? He was our best player against Norwich, really tidy on the ball, although prone to drift up field perhaps a little too often.

    If Taiwo is just cover (assuming u’d rather build players like Santon into the long term future of the club) – great, but then what about Ferg?

    Personally, I’d have:
    RB – Simmo/Raylor
    LB – Santon/Ferg

    Forget about Taiwo, and bring in 2x CB’s (cos lets not forget, the long awaited return of Willo is perhaps slightly clouding the fact that he’s not a “Top 7” Prem standard defender).

    Dear Santa,
    2x CB’s, one bought and one on loan please, feel free to pay for these in chocolate money*

    *If u havent eaten them already u fat bast*rd.

  7. Our xmas n new year will be ruined by the sale of tiote. All nufc fans no tht a half decent bid n ashley will cash in. Think we need to start lookin for cover in tht position aswell.
    Like the idea’s branded about for players we after bt honestly who belives tht we will get any.
    Only way i see it is if we sell hence bye tiote n whoever else takes (clubs with money) fancy.

    All profit made will b either handed out to SD staff for xmas treats or blown in a casino somewhere

  8. Supermac says:
    December 16, 2011 at 11:19 am

    ““close to St James’ Park The Sports Direct Arena Newcastle Stadium Thing” !”

    The fans have gone very quiet about that now Supermac. I wonder when this new stadium sponsor is going to come in and bring all of these new funds into the club?

  9. Milner says:
    December 16, 2011 at 11:53 am

    “Simpson has been rewarded a contract that appears to have him as RB for the next few years….so then why not Santon at LB?? He was our best player against Norwich, really tidy on the ball, although prone to drift up field perhaps a little too often.”

    I thought that they were still wrangling over that, and had decided to put it forward to the summer Milner?

    Santon may have looked ok on the ball, but I thought that some of the fundamentals of his defensive performance against Norwich weren’t quite up to speed, and he should have given away a penalty amongst other things. I thought that Ba and Ameobi were our best players on that day.

  10. The injuries are not bad luck-getting right down to it, we’re hobbled by two missing CBs and two missing CMs. It’s not really a crisis in terms of numbers down but given our lack of depth…

    Two players will not fix this. We’re one short as it is since Saylor’s done this season.

    This front office is going to do it again-not sure how, but they’re going to leave us woefully short of numbers for the second half of the season. I can feel it. I just hope they don’t sell Tiote, Ba, Colo or Krul. I’m pretty much resigned to Simpson being sold.

  12. who says Tiote is only worth £8m ? Is some sort of underhand con-trick going on ?
    do I detect a dubious fergie fiddle here, with a low bid with huge wage offer leaked to tempt the player
    – followed by a real (ie legal) higher “generous” offer to the club once the ball is rolling ?
    It would put a stop to all this cr@p if we just said he could go for the first offer of (say) £18m and that all lower bids would be rejected – cos nobody would believe us if we just said he’s not for sale, they know the policy as well as we do.

  13. Ha tiote only worth 8mill best joke if heard all year. As supermac says this has to be 1 of fergies tricks to unsettle players. Tiote has said he loves it at nufc but i wouldmt bet on him not runnim to manchester of je his offered mega bucks because 1 thing for sure ashley wont match what they’l pay.

  15. Where did the rumors begin in regard to Tiote ?
    And where did the evaluation of twenty big ones come from ?
    My guess is one of two places, the media or NUFC.
    Would’nt surprise me if the club was trying for another windfall transfer by instigating the whole thing.
    Could it be he has a serious injury, he’s certainly being coddled.
    Perhaps i’m just being paranoid ?

    Actually more concerned about Cabaye, we finally got the midfield general we have lacked, which has’nt gone un-noticed i might add, hmmm !

    Actually i would really like to see our young future star Abeid get a start and with the recent poor finishing from Obertan, put him on the bench.
    So that would be a midfield of,
    -____________Tiote____________
    Abeid_______Cabaye_______Jonas
    with
    __________Ben Arfa____________
    _____________Ba_______________
    up front

    At least see some nice football, the Swans being a young side that play a pleasing style.

  16. he didn’t worky – but the figure is quoted. I just put 2 & 2 together and smelt something typical of him – I read in several sources that he wants him then I see the ridiculous figure of £8m being mentioned – so I speculated. Journalists get paid a fortune for doing the same. Would we be amazed if he now bids an amount way under our (the fans) valuation? Then ups it to £10ish ? At that point all we are doing is haggling over the price.

  17. chuck says:
    December 16, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    “Perhaps i’m just being paranoid ?”

    I was never sure about that supposed big money “bid” from ‘Spurs before Carroll was eventually sold to Liverpool Chuck, especially after Llambias said that he and Ashley “drew” the deal. I knpw that the media make up guff all the time, but I still suspect that particular guff was made up elsewhere.

    I also figured out some time ago that quite a few of the “source from the club” quotes weren’t just hacks making stuff up as they usually do, but were actually llambias. People just don’t understand how f***king horrible he can be.

  19. Supermac says:

    December 16, 2011 at 5:55 pm

    “he didn’t worky – but the figure is quoted. I just put 2 & 2 together and smelt something typical of him”

    Supermac, Laurel and Hardy are the ones to watch.

  20. chuck says:
    December 16, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    “Actually i would really like to see our young future star Abeid get a start”

    What about Vuckic Chuck?

  22. UTD111 says:
    December 16, 2011 at 7:01 pm

    “Maiga has failed his medical?”

    Karim Aklil, Maiga’s agent:

    “I am disappointed at this turn of events,”

    “Modibo is in perfect physical condition, which was confirmed by one of the leading experts in the field and I am quite surprised of the medical diagnosis by the doctors appointed by the club.

    “I am convinced that the future will prove us right and that Modibo will prove his worth and will remain one of the best strikers in the Championship of France.”

    So what’s the difference between Maiga’s knee and Ba’s knee?

    Was it because Ba’s knee was a free knee?

  24. You hit the nail on the head about the difference between those knees, worky.

    The quote from Maiga’s agent is interesting. Is this a set-up by our front office to justify a lower bid?

    Hmmmm…

  25. a lower bid? like, we only pay for the good knee now, and later if the other one gets better we make an offer on it as well?
    or tell him to hop it

  26. They’ve obviously seen him ‘up close & personal’ & not been fully happy with what they’ve witnessed.

  29. either way another target to go for in January, dont know if maiga might soon be at st james park yet as a deal might still be put together but the fact that he is off to africa for 6 weeks Newcastle must of had cold feet and pulled the plug.

  30. I’d prefer a smaller, quicker foil for one of the bigger lads we already have.

    We’d need something a bit different up front.

  31. Hopefully this isn’t another way of them fooling us into thinking that they’re going to buy a player when they have different intentions althogether.

    On a more positive note, Mike Ashley has given Pardew the green light to buy a new CB in january according to Sky Sports News.