If you scan your eyes around the top end of the current Premier League standings you will see the familiar old names steeped in elite divisional tradition, but sandwiched in between Chelsea and Liverpool in sixth position is the refreshing addition of Alan Pardew’s Newcastle United. In an outstanding season for the Magpies, they have surprised everyone with their on-field consistency, team spirit and relative calm in the boardroom. But more impressive than any of these factors has been the settling in of the clubs less fashionable summer signings who have gone on to receive critical acclaim for their wondrous contributions to the Toon Army’s contention for a European berth this season.
In particularly, Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye have been the finds of the season and £4.3 million for the pair, considering Demba Ba was a free transfer, makes it even sweeter for the Magpies faithful that their recent success has been founded upon a shrewdness in the transfer market and a togetherness and unity in the ranks as opposed to the recruitment of overpriced bigger names who once had their place at St James Park. Davide Santon and Gabriel Obertain have also enjoyed a respectable debut campaign at the Sports Direct Arena.
It’s fair to say that football could learn a lot from Newcastle United’s approach in the transfer market. Many a football fan raised an eyebrow when the Magpies sold Jose Enrique, Andy Carroll and Joey Barton to pastures new after their standout contributions in the 2010/11 campaign. Many fans including sections of the Toon Army themselves were resigned to the fate that this season might be more of a struggle with a lack of stellar names arriving at the club to replace the departed talent.
Fortunately for the club, the signings have hit the ground running and have bought into the team spirit as maintained by Alan Pardew but pre-instilled by Chris Hughton in players such as Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez who stuck the Championship campaign out and now represent genuine on-field leaders who are better professionals for the experience.
Now Newcastle United’s future looks much brighter with Mike Ashley’s rebranding of St James Park making it more lucrative in terms of sponsorship revenue despite understandable criticism and a responsible transfer policy leaving money to spare for the sourcing of more ‘gems’.
Alan Pardew understands the club can’t rest on its laurels and must track more lesser-known talent if the bigger clubs put up appealing big money offers for Demba Ba and Cheik Tiote this summer. Pardew told The Independent
‘Is the rebuilding complete? It is never complete, we have to try and move forward’
What’s certain is that the Newcastle United scouts will be working overtime once more to search for the more left field talent on the continent, but it remains whether they will adopt a ‘selling club’ mentality by accepting fees for their high achievers at the end of the season.
If we step away from Newcastle United and look at the transfer policies of other Premier League clubs, you will recognise that the Magpies are fairly isolated in their approach in respect of the company they are sitting next to. Liverpool in particularly have spent big money on trying to parachute themselves back into the Champions League positions. The signings of Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll were costly, yet the club sits eight points behind the Tynesiders. In this particular battle, it seems the ethos surrounding a lack of stellar names and perhaps less of a burden of pressure associated with them, has reaped the rewards in terms of amalgamating Premier League points this term.
Similarly placed Chelsea have too spent big in their Premier League pursuit, with the arrivals of more celebrated names such as Fernando Torres, David Luiz and Gary Cahill setting the tone over recent times. Nevertheless, the less fashionable Newcastle United roster is competing admirably with these names on a league front and emphasises that big names aren’t always the better option when drawing up a list of potential transfer candidates.
It must be comprehended that Newcastle’s budget is far less than that of Chelsea and Liverpool and thus, their hand has been forced somewhat in their pursuit of lesser known targets. However, following the success of Newcastle’s new boys, it may be the tact of other Premier League clubs to go the extra mile and assess more unfashionable targets in the coming transfer window. Wherever the Magpies finish up this term, the players and management deserve the utmost credit for their contributions which have retrospectively gone above and beyond the call of duty.
Fan of Newcastle United? Let us know who your club should target this summer. Will your top players stay? Follow me @ http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989
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