Ashley flies in to discuss transfer targets
Posted on January 13th, 2011 | 46 Comments |
Pardew’s main targets were allegedly Seb Larsson and David Bentley but both of these players seem destined to play their football elsewhere.
The humiliating defeat at the hands of Stevenage might have emphasised the club’s need for a bit more quality in depth, so hopefully the pow-wow will have been fruitful and some new transfer targets will have been identified.
Apparently Ashley and Llambias also took in yesterday’s reserve game against Hibs in which Dan Gosling made a return from injury while they were at the club.
Kevin Nolan reiterated the need for new blood, saying:
“If you are fresh, it always makes that bit of difference and it just shows we do need probably a couple more players and hopefully we will get them in January to help us out and get us over that finishing line at the end of the season.
“I think the genuine thing was that we had had a lot of games over the Christmas period and Stevenage hadn’t and the rest was history, but fair play to them.
“Hopefully, talks between them are going to be good and hopefully we will be seeing a couple of new faces soon. In the next couple of days would be nice but even if it’s in the next couple of weeks that would be perfect.”
I must admit I’m a bit confused by some of the alleged transfer targets that have been mentioned this January. Names such as Robbie Keane and Shaun Wright-Phillips have been bandied about, yet I thought the Toon philosophy these days was to pick up relatively unknown gems, such as Benny and Tiote.
In fact I’m sure Mike Ashley said as much himself. I seem to remember something about ‘skilled scouting networks’ and ‘scouring the lesser leagues at home and abroad’.
Maybe the change has been brought about due to some sort of sense of urgency that experienced backup is needed for our first XI or maybe it’s something to do with Pardew’s own preferences. Either way, it seems like our transfer policy has changed during this window.
Just as a little tangent (oh no!). I read a true story about the effects of football just yesterday in a book about psychology.
Apparently a man who had suffered greatly from the ravages of war was institutionalised after refusing to speak ever again. That is all except for one time when, after 10 years of silence, he was listening to a match involving his football team on the radio. Apparently he suddenly stood up and blurted out “That bastard referree, is he trying to win the game for them?“, whereupon he sank back into silence for the rest of his life. The power of football eh?
It’s not clear whether it was the horrors of war or the horrors of poor referreeing that caused the second period of silence.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
The january transfer window rarely offers rich pickings. No doubt Carr is scouting more Bennys and Tiotes but we probably will have to wait till the summer window for those sorts of players. I wouldn’t be too bothered if we didn’t get many in during this window. I would prefer that to signing Tom, Dick and Harry just for the sake of it. We have to be patient.