Mid bids imminent?
An interesting revelation on Tuesday: we're sniffing around Youssouf Mulumbu of also-promoted West Brom. The Congolese central midfielder is young, enjoyed a good season anchoring a very attack-minded five-man midfield and would probably fit the bill as a replacement for Nicky Butt - but the questions remain as to whether we could afford him and why the Baggies would be prepared to let their lynchpin leave.
More speculatively, the Mirror has reported that Chris Hughton is keen to lure Kieran Richardson up the road from the Dark Place with the promise of regular first-team football. The former Man Utd and one-time England prospect was deployed in a variety of positions (including left back) by Ol' Cauliflower Face in the campaign just gone, but has often caught my eye as a forward-thinking midfielder and so personally it's a bit of a mystery why he hasn't featured more often in the Mackems' first XI. Again, if we could get him at the right price it would strike me as a decent bit of business.
Meanwhile, Hughton has confirmed that, as anticipated, we'll be at least partially reliant on loans to strengthen the squad before the new season kicks off - but also that these deals aren't as easy to strike as it might seem: "One of the problems now we have stepped up is that if we loan from Premier League sides we also have to guarantee that loan player games. If they cannot play in a good percentage of the games we might have trouble persuading them to come here".
And that's not to mention the strings that rival Premier League managers might choose to attach - the Sky article alludes to Taggart's disgruntlement at the lack of pitch time afforded to Giuseppe Rossi when we borrowed him from Man Utd in 2006. Now at Villareal and a full Italian international, Rossi would be a more likely starter for us these days...
More speculatively, the Mirror has reported that Chris Hughton is keen to lure Kieran Richardson up the road from the Dark Place with the promise of regular first-team football. The former Man Utd and one-time England prospect was deployed in a variety of positions (including left back) by Ol' Cauliflower Face in the campaign just gone, but has often caught my eye as a forward-thinking midfielder and so personally it's a bit of a mystery why he hasn't featured more often in the Mackems' first XI. Again, if we could get him at the right price it would strike me as a decent bit of business.
Meanwhile, Hughton has confirmed that, as anticipated, we'll be at least partially reliant on loans to strengthen the squad before the new season kicks off - but also that these deals aren't as easy to strike as it might seem: "One of the problems now we have stepped up is that if we loan from Premier League sides we also have to guarantee that loan player games. If they cannot play in a good percentage of the games we might have trouble persuading them to come here".
And that's not to mention the strings that rival Premier League managers might choose to attach - the Sky article alludes to Taggart's disgruntlement at the lack of pitch time afforded to Giuseppe Rossi when we borrowed him from Man Utd in 2006. Now at Villareal and a full Italian international, Rossi would be a more likely starter for us these days...
posted by Ben at 12:40 am
5 Comments:
LOL, get over yourselves. You cannot afford Keiran Richardson, and he would'nt sign for you anyway. The boy wants success, not handcuffed to a bunch of down and out losers like Newcastle Utd. Just get sniffing round the non-league clubs, you might pick up a bargain or two, lol. Just you leave the big signings to your more illustrious neighbours. Remember to spend your pennies wisely chumps, lol.
Thanks for that - very insightful. LOL. If you're going to hang around like the proverbial bad smell, how's about making yourself useful and enlightening us as to why he's not in your first team?
I rate Kieran as an attacking midfielder, but Brucey prefers to steel up the midfield with Cattermole and Cana, using Malbranque as the creative outlet. KR does'nt seem to fit into the equation hence his deployment at right back or right back on the bench. He would be a good signing for NUFC, but, as I said before, Sunderland would want around £5m which you aint got. Not being funny, but its a fact of life for you lot now. Then again, there's a lot of premier clubs worse off than Newcastle and they seem to do ok.
An outbreak of civility! Cheers.
If we got Richardson, I'd see him as useful cover (or a potential first teamer) across the middle - unlikely to get into the side ahead of Gutierrez, Nolan and Routledge, at least at first, but someone who could come in and do a decent job. The defensive central midfield didn't seem to do you many favours away from home last year, so I wonder why Bruce didn't take a bit more of a gamble? Can understand Richardson losing out to Malbranque, though - a player we should have been angling for when he left Spurs.
Ben, on his day KR can be a world beater. Unfortunately, those days are few and far between. In fact, he has'nt exactly pulled up any trees since he scored that screamer against you lot at the SOL. I can never understand how a player can be brilliant one game then dross in the next. It's that little devil 'consistency'. Rooney has it, Ronaldo has it, but I guess players like them are rare. How do you think Newcastle will fare in the premier this season ? is the glass half full or ?????
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