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…)
A right proper selection headache!I think we are all in agreement when I say that we have strengthened the squad over the course of the summer transfer window.
Brilliant, fantastic, just what we needed. But where are all of these new faces going to fit in?
That is a problem that Chris Hughton must now face, but given the fact that we won’t be seeing our beloved Newcastle in action again for a week I thought we could try and work it out ourselves.
I think the main problem is going to be in the midfield, particularly in the centre of midfield. We have an abundance of players who can play varying roles in the middle of the park nowadays, which adds depth and will hopefully instigate competiton for places. In truth, the fact that we have started off pretty well so far this season probably hinders the selection process a little and makes the decision to leave any of our current players out of the team very hard indeed. (more…)
Dan's in Toon?The situation regarding Dan Gosling has rolled on for some time now and parts of it have resembled a soap opera, but it looks like Newcastle are finally closing in on the signing of the 20-year old midfielder.
Reports suggest that Gosling is in line to sign a four year deal on Tyneside, with Friday being the most likely day for an announcement going by some rough calculation and guesswork.
Basically, Everton had 14 days to appeal Dan Gosling’s decision to leave Goodison Park after that now infamous contract cock-up. And using my memory and some mental arithmetic, I calculated that the 14 day appeal period will be up on Friday, although please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, which would indicate that we should have a new midfield player by the weekend, if it all comes off of course! (more…)
