Ashley - Why has he clarified agent payments?As many of you are probably aware, the club took steps yesterday to clarify just how much it paid in fees to agents last season by releasing a brief statement on the club website.
To me it seems like a strange move, especially considering the shroud of secrecy that seems to surround our club most of the time these days.
Most of us know that agents are leeches, parasites if you will, so it’s no real surprise that they have collectively pocketed fees of £2,417,776 during our season in The Championship. That still seems like quite a lot to me, especially when you consider our relative lack of incoming transfers last season, but it’s one of those things that has to be done. Like paying for your car insurance for example – You begrudge paying for it, but you have to pay it.
So why clarify it? I’m honestly scratching my head looking for a reason why. As I said, we all know that agents fees have to be paid so why highlight it in it’s own little statement on the club website? I could understand it if it formed part of the published accounts, but it doesn’t. (more…)
Newcastle's new-look midfield?I’ve had this thought for sometime but I’ve never written about it for one reason or another, but I think that now is a good time to change that, hence the article.
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. (more…)
Ashley - Paid for signings out of his own pocket?Some fans said that last season was the most important for our club in a long long time. Other fans claim that this season is the most important we have had for a long long time.
I sit in the camp of the latter to be honest, although essentially both of those statements are correct.
If we hadn’t have got promoted last season then we wouldn’t have been able to say the second statement, so in that way they are very much linked. The importance of this season can’t be underestimated. Relegation would be dire and would set the club back a few years at least. Players that stayed around to “right the wrongs” of last time would be moved on, either by choice or neccessity, and I believe that it would be much much harder to bounce back should we end up relegated again. (more…)
Money can be made by signing players!Now you probably thought when you saw the headline that this would be yet another Ben Arfa article, correct?
Well it is, sort of, but I am more using his name to lauch into another tangent of thought, although these same thoughts can be applied to any player of a certain ilk in fairness.
As a fan, when you look at a transfer, all that we generally tend to look for is how much it cost and how much the player is getting paid in wages. That doesn’t change the fact that they are still assets though. Sulky, moody assets in the case of Ben Arfa, but an asset all the same. In many cases, money can be made by signing a player who pleases a crowd.
Go to any football game and you will see replica shirts all over the place, Newcastle fans are notorious for it in fact. Some of them have names on the back of the shirt, but there are a lot that don’t, and much like an empty advertising board, it is a space that gives the club an avenue to claw back some money on a transfer. (more…)
Cheap cheap!Newcastle are now just three days away from kicking off their Premier League campaign, but expectations on Tyneside have never been lower.
I think most Newcastle fans will be happy to survive this season, although lack of investment in the playing squad means that will be a massive gamble, and it appears that it is a gamble that the club are prepared to take.
I understand there are still just over two weeks to go in the transfer market, but as things stand currently I just can’t see many more, if any, new faces coming through the door. It pains me to say that as I am generally an opimistic person, but the lack of investment is beginning to get me down. A modest outlay on players to add to our squad for the new season would have comfortably secured safety in my opinion, but if there is no investment then we could be in for a very long season indeed. (more…)
