2011 Summer Transfer Window Thread

[Summers]

Did you say Palacios isn't good enough? He's great. :\

[Lineker]

Palacious has been dreadful this season. Ever since the FA Cup semi vs. Portsmouth tbh.

[Sick N Twisted]

Let me be the first to say that I have no interest in C. Ronaldo coming to City. We'll be made to look like muggs paying that much for him, meanwhile United will get Sneijder and De Gea for less than a third of the price. I'd much rather battle for Sneijder and Alexis Sanchez. Maybe a cheeky bid for Baines or Michel Bastos as well.

Hands off!

[stokeriño]

Chelsea really need to buy a few new players as well. The squad is getting old and stale. Perhaps Lukaku as a (future) replacement of Drogba? Aguero finally moving to a bigger club would be great too.

He has wage demands so ridiculous that he basically seems happy to remain where he is forever.

Besides, he's had his turn as Chelsea-target-who-is-rumoured-every-window-but-never-moves (as has Dani Alves, for that matter). We have Neymar for this now.

[Lineker]

Galatasaray say they have an "understanding in principle" with Johan Elmander. To lose both him and Sturridge would be devastating or them.

[Jimmy]

It's a shame Kranjar hasn't played more at Spurs, but there's no way he's getting Modric's place and the other centre midfield spot generally goes to a defensive midfield player and VDV has Kranjar completely beaten. Even Jenas gets in ahead of him, but I rate Kranjar highly. Would love to see him go to another Prem club.

[britneyspearsisgod]

Brighton have signed Will Hoskins from Bristol Rovers for an undisclosed fee, rumoured to be around the £500k mark.

For a player we signed for nothing, that's not a bad return. Shame we won't have his ability, but he's clearly a talented player and deserves to play a higher level of football. Good luck to the man

[Lineker]

Hoskins has flopped in the Championship before and probably will again.

[britneyspearsisgod]

In fairness to him, he had suffered with injuries and illness whilst at Watford. Mind you, he has had them everywhere.

Also, you had Dominic Blizzard at Watford. Has he ever actually been good, or are we just stupid?

[Lineker]

Bwahaha, Blizzard. Isn't he at Stockport or something?

[britneyspearsisgod]

Nope, he's still with Rovers and he's still weak and shit. Hasn't hardly played all season. Went on loan to Port Vale and then Jim Gannon got sacked or something, so he came back.

Seriously, what happened with him?

[Lineker]

He just never happened.

[stokeriño]

(Yes, this counts as transfer rumours now...)

Latest rumours are that Guus Hiddink will remain manager of Turkey until just after the June 3rd qualifier against Belgium, when he will be announced as Chelsea's new Director of Football...with Marco van Basten revealed as the new manager soon after.

[Summers]

Out of interest, Stoke. Who would be your first choice?

[The Quasi Juice]

(Yes, this counts as transfer rumours now...)

Latest rumours are that Guus Hiddink will remain manager of Turkey until just after the June 3rd qualifier against Belgium, when he will be announced as Chelsea's new Director of Football...with Marco van Basten revealed as the new manager soon after.

That would be hilarious But here in Holland Hiddink is rumored to either become Director of Football at Ajax or PSV so I guess 'where the fuck is Hiddink going now?' is in full force again.

Wonder if Eden Hazard is going anywhere. I guess he could stay another year at Lille now that they won the title AND the cup.

[stokeriño]

Out of interest, Stoke. Who would be your first choice?

I have no idea. The list of those obviously available is short and pointless. Luring a top manager away from another club is unlikely because everybody knows how they will be treated, and I don't blame them. Really it's just the idea of replacing Double-winning Carlo Ancelotti with...nothing-winning Marco van Basten boggles my mind. On the other hand it hardly matters anyway, because we'll just see another summer of upheaval and they'll be out again in a year too.

It's a feeling I've known a number of times in recent years, but I despair for the club I support sometimes.

[Ben E.]

I hope Newcastle can keep hold of Enrique. He's been far more important to our season than you'd expect a left back to be. Tiote too, obviously.

I think that we should try and keep as many players as possible, but the players I expect to leave/ wouldn't be sad to see the back of: Campbell, Guthrie, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Smith, Best, Ryan Taylor and Kuqi.

Letting any of those players leave would mean we have to bring in a replacement (with the exception of Taylor if you trust Simpson/ Perch at right back), such is the state of our squad, so Pardew needs to be wise with whatever of the Carroll money he sees. This means not blowing silly money on Charles N'Zogbia.

In terms of who to bring in, I have no idea. I expect us to go back in for N'Zogbia, but with Wigan surviving they'll be able to hold out for better money and we'd need to have all of the Carroll money and then some to be able to pay 12 million plus on one player.

We tried for Seb Larsson in January, so I think we'll try again with him too, we have a better chance because Birmingham have gone down, but I'd expect a lot of competition with him being free.

Also I've yet to find a Newcastle fan that agrees with me but I really think we should try and get a goalkeeper. The injuries have taken their toll on Harper and Krul makes me nervous constantly.

So, if we can keep hold of Enrique and Tiote I think our priority is one or two new strikers since that's the area of our first team that seriously needs addressing. After that, a goalkeeper.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Ben E.

[Colly]

I think that we should try and keep as many players as possible, but the players I expect to leave/ wouldn't be sad to see the back of: Campbell, Guthrie, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Smith, Best, Ryan Taylor and Kuqi.

Letting any of those players leave would mean we have to bring in a replacement (with the exception of Taylor if you trust Simpson/ Perch at right back), such is the state of our squad, so Pardew needs to be wise with whatever of the Carroll money he sees. This means not blowing silly money on Charles N'Zogbia.

In terms of who to bring in, I have no idea. I expect us to go back in for N'Zogbia, but with Wigan surviving they'll be able to hold out for better money and we'd need to have all of the Carroll money and then some to be able to pay 12 million plus on one player.

We tried for Seb Larsson in January, so I think we'll try again with him too, we have a better chance because Birmingham have gone down, but I'd expect a lot of competition with him being free.

Also I've yet to find a Newcastle fan that agrees with me but I really think we should try and get a goalkeeper. The injuries have taken their toll on Harper and Krul makes me nervous constantly.

I don't think I agree with that at all. Besides the fact that Best has been outstanding this season when fit (6 in 10, and looks very up for it) so will be second choice should we sign a quality striker, the majority of the others are surplus to requirements (though I do have a soft spot for Ryan Taylor as backup to about 5 positions...). Granted if they all go we've got some signings to do, but we'd be unlikely to miss Smith and Kuqi. Priorities are a new striker plus a proper right winger to allow Barton to battle it out with Nolan to partner Tiote in the middle. It sounds like we're likely to be playing Ben Arfa off a lone frontman so even without a signing I'm happy with Jonas moving right and Ferguson on the left (looks like Pards doesn't rate Routledge so he's on his way out). I definitely wouldn't object to N'zogbia though, him, Arfa and Jonas even behind Best is pretty formidable with Tiote and Barton behind.

Besides that we'll need a left back if Jose goes (or some backup if not, we've not had a sub left back in my lifetime...), some cover at centre half (happy with Colo and Taylor, but unless Kadars ready for the step up we need more cover than just Williamson) and in my opinion, and quite a lot of the crowd around me, a new right back. Danny Simpson frankly isn't good enough if we're to push on and is noticably the weak link of the team. Fine going forward but defensively woeful unless someone can coach into him actually getting tight on his man occasionally.

As far as goalkeepers go you've found yet another person to disagree with you. Granted we've been spoiled by having Shay Given for years, and I'd agree that Harper isn't quite at that standard, but Kruls a 23 year old who's made about 2 errors in his short Premier League career and Fraser Forsters just set an SPL clean sheet record at Rangers. Our back up is better than most teams first choice, we don't need a goalkeeper.

[Baddar]

The save Krul made to deny Chicharito at St James' this season was beyond fucking ridiculous.

[MJB]

I think that we should try and keep as many players as possible, but the players I expect to leave/ wouldn't be sad to see the back of: Campbell, Guthrie, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Smith, Best, Ryan Taylor and Kuqi.

Letting any of those players leave would mean we have to bring in a replacement (with the exception of Taylor if you trust Simpson/ Perch at right back), such is the state of our squad, so Pardew needs to be wise with whatever of the Carroll money he sees. This means not blowing silly money on Charles N'Zogbia.

In terms of who to bring in, I have no idea. I expect us to go back in for N'Zogbia, but with Wigan surviving they'll be able to hold out for better money and we'd need to have all of the Carroll money and then some to be able to pay 12 million plus on one player.

We tried for Seb Larsson in January, so I think we'll try again with him too, we have a better chance because Birmingham have gone down, but I'd expect a lot of competition with him being free.

Also I've yet to find a Newcastle fan that agrees with me but I really think we should try and get a goalkeeper. The injuries have taken their toll on Harper and Krul makes me nervous constantly.

I don't think I agree with that at all. Besides the fact that Best has been outstanding this season when fit (6 in 10, and looks very up for it) so will be second choice should we sign a quality striker, the majority of the others are surplus to requirements (though I do have a soft spot for Ryan Taylor as backup to about 5 positions...). Granted if they all go we've got some signings to do, but we'd be unlikely to miss Smith and Kuqi. Priorities are a new striker plus a proper right winger to allow Barton to battle it out with Nolan to partner Tiote in the middle. It sounds like we're likely to be playing Ben Arfa off a lone frontman so even without a signing I'm happy with Jonas moving right and Ferguson on the left (looks like Pards doesn't rate Routledge so he's on his way out). I definitely wouldn't object to N'zogbia though, him, Arfa and Jonas even behind Best is pretty formidable with Tiote and Barton behind.

Besides that we'll need a left back if Jose goes (or some backup if not, we've not had a sub left back in my lifetime...), some cover at centre half (happy with Colo and Taylor, but unless Kadars ready for the step up we need more cover than just Williamson) and in my opinion, and quite a lot of the crowd around me, a new right back. Danny Simpson frankly isn't good enough if we're to push on and is noticably the weak link of the team. Fine going forward but defensively woeful unless someone can coach into him actually getting tight on his man occasionally.

As far as goalkeepers go you've found yet another person to disagree with you. Granted we've been spoiled by having Shay Given for years, and I'd agree that Harper isn't quite at that standard, but Kruls a 23 year old who's made about 2 errors in his short Premier League career and Fraser Forsters just set an SPL clean sheet record at Rangers. Our back up is better than most teams first choice, we don't need a goalkeeper.

Celtic surely? I thought Rangers' keeper was McGregor?