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Opinion

Change to Newcastle transfer policy starting in January – Reports

8 years ago
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The Newcastle transfer policy of only buying young inexperienced players from abroad could be set to change.

Reports in the north east media on Thursday morning say that they understand that the club intend to broaden their horizons starting with the January window.

With the current policy leading to far more misses than hits and Newcastle rock bottom of the Premier League, it is claimed the decision makers at Newcastle have accepted that change is necessary.

Charlie Austin is one of the names still said to be in the frame, turning 27 next July the striker will still not come cheap despite only having months of his contract still to run – with wages the major factor to overcome.

If Newcastle haven’t pulled away from relegation trouble by January then surely any signing must be a consideration if it improves the situation, including potential high profile players on loan.

There are also claims that a number of players will also leave, with the likes of Cisse and Tiote seemingly top of that list.

However, past experience tells us that getting rid of players is a lot more difficult than talking about it.

United have seen major shifts in the Newcastle transfer policy under Mike Ashley.

Starting off with the idiotic Sam Allardyce paying massive wages to over the hill players such as Viduka, Cacapa and Geremi.

We then had a shift to focus on players with contract clauses such as Cabaye and Ba, meaning they were landed on the cheap.

Whilst there has also been an ongoing tactic of gambling on ‘bargain’ players with injury problems that has largely backfired, with Hatem Ben Arfa, Siem de Jong and Sylvain Marveaux just some of those falling into that category.

This summer saw yet another extreme with over £50m gambled on for young foreign players – two of them only 20, one 22 year old and a 24 year old, once again none of the four having played on England before.

Newcastle need to simply have a policy of looking for the best players to fill the positions that are most in need of filling, with age and nationality immaterial, just whether they are the right player for the team.

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