ESPN Soccernet - Correspondents - Newcastle United

Posted by Marc Duffy on 01/16/2012

I hate the January transfer window. Ridiculous rumours, mental transfers, Redknapp describing other teams players as 'triffic, massively inflated fees and clubs like QPR madly scrambling for any over-rated player who might fancy a move down to London for a final healthy pay day. Not to mention the fact that new arrivals can disrupt - not because of personality but just because their new team mates have gone a whole pre-season and 22 games or so without having played alongside them!

The January transfer window in its present format was first introduced in January 2003 - we have been involved in some pretty amazing transfer dealings since then, not least last year when Andy Carroll left us to become the most expensive British footballer in history.....

We have endured a few up's and a lot of downs over the past nine January windows with surprisingly few players coming in and out - I expect this year to be much the same despite the ludicrous number of players we have been linked with. I would be happy of we brought one or two in. I would be even happier if we let no one go.

Let's take a look back at the January's in question (excluding players on loan who made their deals permanent, in or out):

2003 (Sir Bobby)

IN:

Jonny Woodgate £9m One of the best central defenders I have seen play for us. He slotted in straight away and was a class act. Shame he didn't stay too long!

OUT: None

2004 (Sir Bobby)

IN:

None Looking at his overall record, it is quite obvious that Sir Bob preferred doing his business in the summer months

OUT:

Nobby Solano £1.5m

Carl Cort £2m

2005 (Graeme Souness)

IN:

Jean Alain Boumsong £8m Read what I wrote above for Woodgate and go to the polar opposite. Absolutely terrible. Graeme's old club Rangers needed the money though.

Celestine Babayaro £1m Even at only a million pounds he was a rip off

Amady Faye £2m To complete a disastrous window of incomings, Amady was shocking.

OUT:

Olivier Bernard £400K

Craig Bellamy Loan

2006 (Graeme Souness)

IN:

None Hardly surprising after the managers signings the previous January

OUT:

None

2007 (Glenn Roeder)

IN:

Oguchi Onyewu Loan An absolute giant of a fella, 'Gooch' only made 11 appearances. He looked OK, but nothing special

OUT:

None

2008 (Kevin Keegan)

IN:

None

OUT:

Matty Pattinson £500K

2009 (Joe Kinnear)

IN:

Peter Lovenkrands Free Well he is still here and does a reasonable job when he is called upon. Brought in to make up the numbers.

Kevin Nolan £4m Nolan went on to be a vital cog in our return to the Premier League - but he also came in to the side just before we were relegated and made little impact. Overall he made 85 appearances for us scoring 29 goals and we recouped our fee when he left last summer.

Ryan Taylor Part exchange Ryan was a make-weight in the deal that took Charles N'Zogbia to Wigan. Another decent squad addition.

OUT:

Shay Given £8m Love or hate Shay, he was the best goalkeeper we have seen in the modern era

Charles N'Zogbia £6m A player who could have gone on to achieve some big things at NUFC though he was poorly handled throughout his spell on Tyneside. I'm not sure he was mature enough either.

2010 (Chris Hughton)

IN:

Patrick van Aanholt Loan Brought in after Enrique suffered an injury and did a good job. I would have brought him back again this season.

Wayne Routledge £1m We were his 8th club despite him being only 25 when we signed him. Always put in a bit of effort, but not good enough at the top level.

Mike Williamson £2m Big Mike has done a good job. He is a fairly limited, old fashioned sort of centre half, but he is more than adequate as a third choice option and £2m was a decent deal for us.

Fit Hall Loan Mainly served as cover during our promotion season. Only made 7 appearances.

Leon Best £1.5m Another player initially brought in to make up the numbers, Leon has proven to be a capable forward when called upon. His match winner vs QPR yesterday was something special! I hope he gets a squad place for Ireland in the up and coming Euro's. Oh, and that YouTube vid of the Japanese girl turning herself into Leon is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen.

OUT:

Geremi £2m Good riddance.

2011 (Alan Pardew)

IN:

Stephen Ireland Loan Seen more on the lash than on the pitch. Pointless

OUT:

Andy Carroll £35m Yes. £35,000,000. The most expensive British player ever. 12 months on I have a totally different perspective on this sale!

IN SUMMARY

9 windows

6 managers

10 permanent signings

3 loans in

£28.5m spent

8 players sold

£55.4m recouped

There isn't much to suggest that we will buy anyone this month. In fact past evidence would suggest that sales are more likely, but with 15 days remaining we are going to find out soon enough.

Add your comments to the box below - if you were at the helm who would you bring in or ship out?

Or send me your thought on Twitter: Follow @MarcSDuffy

The Gaffa © Getty Images

Comments

Posted by max on 01/17/2012

Love the rumors going on about Cissokho and Erdinc but I don't think either one of those is going to happen. Cissokho in particular would be a massive signing as I can imagine watching Santon moved to the right and having two attacking wing backs on their natural sides bombing up and down the field. It would change the way we play, open up the game and give the team width we haven't seen in years. We would have the best (and most electric) full back combination in the league outside of Spurs, 'Pool (Enrique....) and maybe City. Probably both of those guys are too expensive though.

Yanga-M'biwa (sic?) also looks to be a great prospect at Montpelier and could even get some good time in now if he signed up for a relatively low fee. At 22 he is big and strong and seems to have a very nice touch and a good head on his shoulders.

I love the link with Junior Hoilett. With him on the right and Benny in that supporting #10 role he wants, Ba would be scoring goals for fun.

Bye Smith!!!

MD: can't disagree with any of that!

Posted by Mike G on 01/17/2012

Didnt glenn roeder bring in oba martins as well? Other then that, great article

MD: Roeder did indeed sign Oba, but in an August not January. Thanks for reading

Posted by Tooner on 01/17/2012

In this transfer window i would ship out:
Alan Smith

and bring in some fresh young faces for the future, maybe the likes of Kevin Volland from 1860 Munich, or Ben Sahar from Auxerre..

And maybe some young defenders like Kadar to learn from Colo to build for the future, like Marvin Esor from Clermont and Christian Dorda from Greuther Furth.

MD: I'll look out to see how those players develop. Sahar in particular was once touted to go on to do great things. We need Smith off the wage bill ASAP.

Posted by PeterASchubert on 01/17/2012

Xisco & Smith - pay them out and be done - no point just keeping them on the books.
Rather than buy to cover for injuries, show some faith in the Academy lads and develop them with real game time. To be honest, NUFC doesn't get that many injuries, so there's very limited opportunities for the next wave of player to test themselves and learn from experience. You'll always have mistakes and inconsistency with young developing players. Give em a go, let them get in the groove and get nerves & errors out the way.

MD: it's great to see the kids coming through. I have especially high hopes for Vuckic and Abeid - I was surprised Mehdi didn't get a run out on Sunday.

Posted by Toon on 01/17/2012

As Marc has said, we need depth so probably only Smith should be sold. QPR has been nice to take Barton from us, how about taking Smith from us too. You get this feeling that Smith heart has always been with MUFC even after all these years at Newcastle.

Marc, maybe you like to write about likely players joining Newcastle in your next article. Toons bid 500,000 for Morrison. I saw him on TV play for MUFC against Crystal Palace and he looked ordinary. If Fergie is so keen to sell him, we need to be careful. Fergie is one cunning fella. There may be some things that we don't know about. Its always risky to buy such a player, what if he turns out to be another Titus Bramble (he is not from MUFC though)? Newcastle shouldn't be a dumping ground for MUFC unwanted players.

Any comments from Marc?

MD: Fergie regards Morrison as a huge prospect, but Morrison seems to want more playing time and a bigger contract. If we could pick him up I'd do it in a heartbeat

Posted by Michael on 01/17/2012

Why not bring in a player like Billy Sharp. 10 goals in 19 games for a Championship team not going anywhere but down. Low risk, could likely get him pretty cheap. There are good players down in the Championship.

Posted by USA Tyne Sider on 01/17/2012

Ship Smith out now, whether to a BPL club or a lower division club. We don't need his complaining in the mix (like Joey used to provide)! Also agree with moving Xisco - he has been worthless. We better not let Ba, or Chiote get away, though, regardless of fees offered.
As for additions, let's get a midfielder and another quality striker (and one who isn't off to African Nations duty). Morrison may be a risk worth taking (especially at the transfer fees being discussed), I also like Junior Hoilett.

Posted by San Diego Tooner on 01/17/2012

I like the long term signing of Papiss although he is away on national duty for a few weeks. Hopefully he will help to keep Ba around for a while. Depth in the middle of the park and on the backline would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by joseph on 01/18/2012

We just sign another Demba!
This winter, Newcastle just need to hold their players and offload the deadwood. New signings will come at Summer if needed.

Posted by Dileep Kannan on 01/18/2012

We got Papiss Demba Cisse!!!

Demba Ba & Demba Cisse - Our 2 Senegalese Lions.

Its going to be great if we can hold on to Demba Ba for the remainder of this season and beyond. Just hope Cisse has been brought in a s a partner to Ba and not a 'replacement'.

With a bit more defensive cover, we would look realllllyyy good for a Top 6 finish.

Fingers crossed.

Posted by greg on 01/18/2012

Hey Mark, I've been reading your blog for a long time now, and I absolutely love it!

I really like the look of Cisse, but i'm a bit concerned bringing in another striker cup-tied at the ANC. However, I think it's really interesting reading the links that we've had with some players - it just shows the increase in the club's rep over the months.

I'd really like to see Cissokho and Hoilett. M'bia is an excellent player, but I'd kill for another center-back. One name springs to mind - CHRIS SAMBA. Morrison is an interesting link, but i'm worried if he's too much of a disruptive influence and we have to pay over the top for him. Another we're linked with is Olivier Giroud - he's a beast, would love to see him in black&white. Tomkins would be good cover too. Your thoughts?

Also, Smith and Xisco has to go. They've both had too many chances, but haven't looked up to scratch. We might even need an extra midfielder to cover in the center.

MD: thanks Greg. All of the players you named would be huge additions for us (though I'm not convinced by Tomkins yet). We definitely need CB cover

Posted by BlacknWhite on 01/19/2012

Marc mentioned Rednapp. Even The Fifth Official from soccernet highlighted Rednapp's big mouth. Like to share 2 paras from the article with all readers.

Quote from soccernet
"A Hotspur backtrack

"I never said to anybody that we are going to win the league," warbled 'Arry, as he hastily edged away from the television cameras in the wake of Tottenham's 1-1 home draw with Wolves. But it's difficult to perform a noiseless backtrack when you've been thumping the title winning tub for the past three months.

'Arry's loose gob has been in overdrive in recent weeks, trotting out his "it's not impossible" line unprompted whenever anyone mentioned the Premier League, telling all and sundry that Demba Ba had a release clause in his Newcastle contract and lavishing praise on Chris Samba and Gary Cahill, all the while insisting he won't talk about other clubs' players. Thank God 'Arry's mouth is not in North Korean hands, or we could have a serious international incident on our hands. "

MD: Ha! That made me lol.

Posted by Tony on 01/19/2012

Love the Cisse signing, should be interesting when he and Ba return from the African Cup. Marc, please tell me there haven't been rumblings of Ba being moved, I'm worried that this might clear the way for them to sell him

Posted by Ruth on 01/23/2012

I truly find this a interesting subject. Never looked at this subject in this manner. If you are planning to create more articles relating to this subject, I definitely will be back in the near future!

Posted by Toon on 01/24/2012

7 more days before the transfer window closes. Fingers crossed, will there be a last minute thing on Ba?

Posted by Erik on 02/25/2012

Smithy only had a year left on his ctronact but I really couldnt justify keeping him on the books all season. Taking a hit on the transfer fee was definitely worth losing his wage off the books as it gives me a little more wiggle room to bring in more personnel if needed.

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