- Why Newcastle fans will not be moved
- England scrape win as race for 2010 begins in earnest
- West Ham select the chosen few
- Has Liverpool star fallen victim to his own versatility?
- Manchester United chief laughs off bid claims
- Robinho aims to show Chelsea what they are missing
- Chelsea star praised by Capello
- Newcastle hit back at claims
- West Ham accused of dirty tricks over Bilic
- Liverpool boost, Arsenal boss on block, West Ham talks, Spurs ace to cause havoc & Man United send striker to the gym to get fit
FanCasts
Sit back, relax and listen to our FREE Football Podcasts. Subscribe 4 FREE to get your teams show each week.
Blogs
Intelligent, articulate, opinion. Read, rate and comment!
Banter
Create your own discussion and debate - Sign up and get involved!
Latest FanCasts
Top Articles
From the Terraces
Tagged:
Premiership, Newcastle United
Football
FanCast guest columnist David
Rees is concerned at the lack
of transfer activity at St James Park.
I'm sure that I am not the only Newcastle United fan who is
slightly bemused with events at St James Park.
Every given day something new seems to occur, whether it is Chairman resigning,
Taylor's contract talks or Ashley insisting players buy their suits, all
important club matters no doubt but is it not about time we started buying
players?
I have to admit that I for one have been sceptical about the
appointment of Dennis Wise and what actual purpose he serves. Surely Kevin
Keegan's passion and enthusiasm is the USP for prospective players so what does
Wise offer differently? I wonder if Luka Modric would have turned down the
opportunity; if Keegan had a chance to meet the player.
It is how it always used to be and Kev would meet players all round the country and sell the dream and vision. That is what it is all about at the moment, especially given our current position as we don't have European football. Keegan needs to be in and amongst all negotiations, selling the club with the type of passion that made Rob Lee drop down a division; Alan Shearer to turn down Manchester United and convince David Ginola that St James was the place to display his Gaelic flair.
In the past few weeks we have been linked with various players and I have to say I have been less than impressed. Surely if we have designs to get our football club back among the elite then our sights should extend higher than an Aaron Lennon, Michael Dawson or Michael Bradley - good players they may be, but hardly ones who are going to catapult us back into the big time. It makes you wonder as to whether these players are the targets of Kevin Keegan or our director of football.
No doubt time will tell and whether I have been a little premature to express my concerns. I just fear that it is vital that we as a football club start to show necessary ambition if we want to keep the likes of Taylor, Martins and Owen at St James Park.
Agreed we need to be raising
Agreed we need to be raising the bar and getting a move on. A big rebuild is needed.
Agree that it should be
Agree that it should be Keegan who conducts the transfer. It is ridiculous this director of football, it doesnt work and worth noting that there is no club in the top 4 that uses one.
Agreed however you must keep
Agreed however you must keep in mind the fact that this new set up hasn't had a summer transfer window to work in yet and also that we have been linked with more quality players such as Arda, Arshavin and Gomis all young talents who would completely change your mind about this set up if they were to sign for us.
It seems to me you dont
It seems to me you dont understand the is and outs of running Newcastle United, under the old regime it was shepard and his mates that did the jobs that the new managing director, Wise, Vetere and Jimenez did. Now Ashley has the good sense to leave the footballing matters to the experts, and as much as you dont like Wise, who else should do it?
As for Lennon, he is a step up from what we have. I would also say that Modric, Arda, Gomis, Gomez, Dunne and many other players we have been linked to much more than the obscure two of Dawson and Bradley you have plucked from somehwere.
Also except for Spurs and Chelsea which other clubs are spending just now? Exactly so whats the panic?
Keegan may well be invloved int he transfers and maybe thats why nothing has happened so far as he has been away.
More negativity, leave that to the London media. Dear me.
Agreed. Especially the
Agreed. Especially the Dennis Wise bit. What does a Director of Football do? How many teams had DW been involved with in the last few seasons? Keep an eye on him.
Always makes me laugh when I
Always makes me laugh when I hear Newcastle fans moaning about not going for big name players when 18 months ago they were ready to hang Freddie Shepherd for doing just that!
As for Dennis Wise he's in charge of youth development at the club and the only part he plays in potential signings for the first team is to sound out their agents about a move, Tony Jimenez conducts all transfer negotiations between clubs but neither of them met Modric, they met his agent though as did Keegan.
Another thing people don't seem to realise is when the likes of Rob Lee were growing up Keegan was not only England captain but the European player of the year so he had a big influence over players of that age, flash forward to 2008 and you hear about the likes of Obafemi Martins having to look him up on youtube because he doesn't have a clue who he is and it's obvious Keegan isn't as well known to the younger generation, unless they spent a week trying to nutmeg a cardboard clown in his soccer circus in Scotland.
Finally for who wants what players, I think the best rule for you to use is if they turn out to be good players then they we're obviously Keegan's signings but if they turn out to be poor then blame them on Dennis Wise.
David-I know where you're
David-I know where you're coming from on this and I would like to see some activity too.However, as our profile has sunk quite a bit since Bobby Robson was sacked and with no European football on offer it's going to be a lot harder to attract top players.What we need is Keegan's nous in the transfer market similar to when he came in the first time.Some of the top names that have been mentioned to date are simply unrealistic and others are just garbage.A point that Keegan mentioned at the end of the season was about Ashley ambition measured against our transfer kitty,which might indeed, give us a real indication of how far he wants to take us.Value for money signings, yes!.We've wasted a lot of money in recent seasons on some woeful transfers and that has to stop.Time will tell,but hopefully with the right players through the door this summer we can think about getting back into the top half of the table.KTF!!
I also agree, I think Keegan
I also agree, I think Keegan should be responsible for the first team signings, and I think Wise and co should be only responsible for signing youth players for nominal fees without affecting the economics of Keegans business. I also think Wise should be involved with main transfers but only on a level where he puts forward players to Keegan not chooses. Most of all though is Mike Ashley needs to realise running a football club is not like running a sports wear business. He needs to realise timing is everything. For example we identified both Arshavin and Turan especially long before the tournement began, with initial prices for each at the £9m mark, now not only have there prices nearly doubled but every top club have shown an interest. Its not good enough. I see our main target teams to compete with are the Tottenham, Portsmouths, and Evertons. Tottenham have made some great signings already Modric, Dos Santos and possibly both Bentley and Villa soon too. Portsmouth and Everton are also progressing and they were better than us before, and all we have done is sell half our small squad. Then instead of the expected overhaul Ashley says we are looking to spend little on wages and transfers. He is a tit. Youth yes, but at the moment our best summer signing will proabably be Aaron Spear.
Keegan is responsible for
Keegan is responsible for who gets signed and Wise just does the negotiating. KK gave a list of three players to Wise (Spear, Arda Turan, ?????) when he was on holiday to sign. The only one we're close to tying up is Aaron Spear and Keegan is reportadly angry with the progress Wise has made.
I think the new set up was
I think the new set up was put in place to avoid the upheaval of managers leaving. Just look at what happened at Bolton after fat Sam left, he took half the back room staff (scouts included) with him. Our new set up with means if a Keegan or the next manager leaves then the rest of the infrastructure remains in place and provides stability.
It may take some getting used to but if you think about the above then it does kind of make sense.
