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The Whole Newcastle Squad Ranked and 3 Quality Signings Could Make NUFC Formidable But…

11 years ago
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I thought it was maybe time to take stock of exactly who Newcastle United have got on their books at this moment in time, instead of endlessly discussing what will happen with Papiss Cisse and if United ever will get one ‘over the line’ this summer, or indeed any summer.

As ever, football and Newcastle United are a game of opinions. What I have done is rank the Newcastle players as I see them and maybe open up the debate.

We all have our favourites who we will stick up for, as well as those who we give praise very grudgingly to.

However, I have ranked all of our players in terms of the level I believe they are playing at, the level of club they would sign for if they left Newcastle and also taken into account what I have seen with my own eyes and not on reputation. Plus of course consistency plays a big part, not just the high or low points.

So for example, some of you may say that Ryan Taylor is definitely a Premier League level player, but when you look at which clubs similar ability players like Danny Simpson and James Perch have gone to then that is a reality check.

Naturally players are capable of moving from one category to another, hopefully mostly up!

I’ve got no doubt we haven’t seen the best of players such as Debuchy and Mapou yet, so I would be gutted if this time next year they weren’t in the ‘Top 8 Premier League’ level. Likewise, we all know what Hatem Ben Arfa is capable of and is more than capable of being good enough to play for any club in the Premier League but needs consistency and be injury free.

Players such as Tiote and Cabaye have dipped in form but are more than capable of moving up a category, or two in Cheick’s case IF he finds himself again.

As for the kids, I’m not writing anybody off but not one of them has shown yet they can play at Premier League level so they have it all to prove and I really hope they do.

 

Top 4 Premier League
Tim Krul
Fabricio Coloccini

Top 8 Premier League
Davide Santon
Yohan Cabaye
Moussa Sissoko
Papiss Cisse
Hatem Ben Arfa

Premier League
Vurnon Anita
Yoan Gouffran
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa
Jonas Gutierrez
Massadio Haidara
Sylvain Marveaux
Cheick Tiote
Mathieu Debuchy
Steven Taylor

Premier League/Championship
Ryan Taylor
Gael Bigirimana
Rob Elliot

Championship and Below
Mike Williamson
Dan Gosling
Romain Amalfitano
Shola Ameobi
Gabriel Obertan
Sammy Ameobi
Haris Vuckic
Shane Ferguson
Curtis Good
James Tavernier
Paul Dummett
Medhi Abeid
Adam Campbell
Jak Alnwick
Remie Streete

I think that what is definitely shown by the above (to me) is that Newcastle aren’t a spent force and I make it 16 players who are definitely Premier League standard.

However, I believe there are two main problems.

Firstly, if injuries strike then we drop down a long way in quality when replacing them, though I do think the January signings have improved that aspect.

Secondly, we are desperately in need of extra fire power and extra quality overall. At the very least I think we need three new signings and they have to include a striker with a decent goal pedigree and a midfielder/winger/striker who will give us goals as well.

If Mike Ashley can only acknowledge that the January signings were the ones he should have made last summer. Then if he adds the £20m minimum extra windfall that is coming from broadcasting this coming season, to the money raised saved by letting Simpson, Harper, Perch, Gosling, whoever go, then Newcastle could be really back in business.

However, we are on a knife edge and if Ashley gets it wrong then things could fall apart big style.

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