Topic: The Squad, Fringe Players and Transfers

[Pilko]

Would be genuinely surprised if we see more than 3 'senior' signings this summer.

I can foresee a couple of moderately priced ones coming in, another season's loan of someone, a few in the Bigi/Good mould and that'll be our lot IMO.

[Dave]

Seriously though, I do wonder what difference it'll make not having an MD (or conversely a laughable 'Director of Football') above the manager this time. If any.

[Pilko]

Seriously though, I do wonder what difference it'll make not having an MD (or conversely a laughable 'Director of Football') above the manager this time. If any.

You'd like to think that not having Kinnear in there would improve things. It gives Charnley a bigger workload, and even though I don't know the fellow whatsoever, I'd wager big money on him being far more capable than that p*ssed up old f***.

[Yorkie]

I'd be more than happy with a Remy replacement and the rest of any investment put into the coaching department, from manager and below. If our policy is so driven towards the development squad/saving/increasing player values, it seems so counter-productive having our w*** coaching staff. Especially seeing as we're revamping the facilities, which is a good start, but almost seems like they're missing the big picture.

Think how many young players we've signed since Ashley arrived; have we got anything out of any of them? Be it profit or actual pitch contributions, save for some token cup appearances?

If we built a great side out of our youngsters - with minimal, sensible investment in key areas - I would be ecstatic. We'd have a real connection to the squad as supporters, and it would be a brilliant middle-finger to the rest of the sport, where clubs spend hundreds of millions cherry-picking title-winners. But we're miles away from that scenario. The scouting system is one bloke in one country, and the coaching staff are rubbish when young lads actually arrive.

Like I've said before, I would be a supporter of our basic ethos surrounding investment if it weren't for two or three glaring and ridiculously counter-productive problems.

[Disco]

Be an interesting summer you'd imagine. Given us, Spurs, Everton (if they lose loanees), Man United, mackems will likely need/want significant numbers of players.

[jdckelly]

Be an interesting summer you'd imagine. Given us, Spurs, Everton (if they lose loanees), Man United, mackems will likely need/want significant numbers of players.

post world cup summers can be a bit daft too. In an ideal world you'd hope they get most of the business done before it but thats not likely.

[jdckelly]

Seriously though, I do wonder what difference it'll make not having an MD (or conversely a laughable 'Director of Football') above the manager this time. If any.

I'd wonder who in gods name is making the final decision on signing or selling players since its not Ashley as his day to day involvement is limited at best.

[TRon]

I'd be more than happy with a Remy replacement and the rest of any investment put into the coaching department, from manager and below.

Replacing Remy will be next to impossible unless we want to seriously change our buying policy. £8m wouldn't normally buy you a striker of that quality and the difficulty in doing those sort of deals is clear enough by the fact we haven't managed to secure this one and are unlikely to do so. On the other hand Ashley will be taking a massive risk of flirting with relegation if he can't bring in a genuine goal scorer. For £8m you get Luuk De Jong calibre players and we got turned over by the worst team in the league with one of them up front.

[neesy111]

I'm sure QPR will be hoping he doesn't join us so they can bag more $$$ from him.

[alexthegreat]

the squad looks absolutely dreadful at the moment. Aside from a few youth team players with squad numbers there's the following 29 players:

Krul Elliott
Santon Debuchy Haidera Dummett Williamson Coloccini Mbwia Taylor Taylor Tavernier Good
Jonas Vuckic Abeid Tiote Anita Marveaux Bigirimana Sammy Ferguson Sissoko BenArfa Obertan
Armstrong Campbell Cisse Gouffran

Around half of that lot would not look out of place in the Championship or lower, there's barely any goals or creativity from anywhere, and if Debuchy and Ben Arfa go then there's almost no quality players anywhere either.

If Ashley is serious about pursuing his dream of a side that finishes in the top 10 every year then he will have to match the likes of Swansea and Southampton and buy a couple of forwards for £10m+, otherwise I cannot see any way that we will manage a top half finish.

[leffe186]

Be an interesting summer you'd imagine. Given us, Spurs, Everton (if they lose loanees), Man United, mackems will likely need/want significant numbers of players.

We don't need/want many really, we just need a proper coach. Of course, a new coach will probably want to make an impact by bringing one or two in, but the only position we really have an issue with is left back.

Actually, that puts us in direct conflict with (Pard)you. Scratch what I said.

[ben-nufc]

the squad looks absolutely dreadful at the moment. Aside from a few youth team players with squad numbers there's the following 29 players:

Krul Elliott
Santon Debuchy Haidera Dummett Williamson Coloccini Mbwia Raylor Saylor Tavernier Good
Jonas Vuckic Abeid Tiote Anita Marveaux Bigirimana Sammy Ferguson Sissoko BenArfa Obertan
Armstrong Campbell Cisse Gouffran

Around half of that lot would not look out of place in the Championship or lower, there's barely any goals or creativity from anywhere, and if Debuchy and Ben Arfa go then there's almost no quality players anywhere either.

If Ashley is serious about pursuing his dream of a side that finishes in the top 10 every year then he will have to match the likes of Swansea and Southampton and buy a couple of forwards for £10m+, otherwise I cannot see any way that we will manage a top half finish.

Need shifting/nowhere near good enough. We need 4/5 good players 1/2 wingers, 2 strikers and a creative influence in midfield. I think our defence is ok, midfield as a base isn't bad, just more numbers/creativity needed and clearly we're desperate up front.

[chopey]

Take out krul, Colo, debuchy, tiote and barfa ( all if who we could lose thus summer ) and that squad has relegation wriiten all over it .

[loki679]

So Pardew's done a pretty good job to get that squad top half.

[LoveItIfWeBeatU]

Here we are again then. January and out the cups. We've got players in and around the first team who are coming to the end of their contracts this Summer and more than likely won't be getting a new contract.

The contracts of Ryan Taylor, Jonas Gutierrez, Sammy Ameobi, Jak Alnwick, Remie Streete, Adam Campbell and Lubomir Satka all expire in June 2015. Will any of them get offered a new contract? Sammy is the most likely but it's far from certain.

Now as we know, where possible, Mike Ashley prefers to sell players before they enter the last year of their contracts. The contracts of Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Mike Williamson, Rob Elliot, Haris Vučkić, Gabriel Obertan, Steven Taylor, Mehdi Abeid, Shane Ferguson, Sylvain Marveaux, Kevin Mbabu and Alex Gilliead all expire in June 2016. Out of all those players I could only see the club wanting to offer Abeid a new contract (depending on how he plays for the rest of the season). Santon and S.Taylor could get new contracts but their injury records aren't good.

Contract end dates taken from: -
http://www.nufc.com/2014-15html/squad.html

There's also the players there have been stories about in the media saying they want to leave - Tiote, Sissoko and Cissé.

If we manage to stay in the Premiership it should be a busy Summer of player recruitment.

[Anderson]

Isn't Aarons' contract up soon?

[Heron]

How f***ing depressing. 

[LoveItIfWeBeatU]

Isn't Aarons' contract up soon?

Nufc.com don't have details. I think it has been said his contract runs until June 2016.

[GeordieT]

Isn't Aarons' contract up soon?

Next year I think.

Of the ones expiring this summer, I would probably offer short, one year extensions to Sammy and Satka.

[Yorkie]

Know nowt about Satka but I'd give Sammy an extension. Couldn't blame him for wanting to move on, though.

[Heron]

Know nowt about Satka but I'd give Sammy an extension. Couldn't blame him for wanting to move on, though.

A short one at that? Don't care about your sex life though...

[Yorkie]

[Kanji]

what's truly frightening is with all of these expiring contracts in the next 6-12 months, we've got even bigger s*** storm of even more p*ss poor players under contract or in the youth who are just not good enough.

We've got an awful makeup of our squad which hasn't been addressed what-so-ever. Those we sign for "development" squad are seemingly stagnated by the awful coaching or have already been moved on ffs.

[Disco]

Says a lot that out of those listed (2015 and 2016) I'd probably only be really irked if Abeid left, and even he has barely done owt. What a shower of s***.

[La Parka]

Sad reading!  Hopefully we get someone with skills in youth development or there will be massive holes to plug.