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Ronald Koeman Points Out Newcastle’s Biggest Weakness

10 years ago
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Newcastle United go in against Southampton on Saturday and Ronald Koeman has said that you need ‘At least 20 good Premier League players’, plus a handful of younger players who can develop alongside them. The Saints boss inadvertently pointing out Newcastle’s biggest weakness.

I think that Newcastle United’s ongoing problem under Mike Ashley has been not so much that he is willing to sell any player if the price is right, but the fact that he has constantly failed to show willing to invest in a squad and not just a first eleven.

You can even go back as far as the nonsense Derek Llambias came out with, when he talked of Newcastle having ‘eleven purples’, meaning we had eleven ‘top’ first team players (and no more),  then the rest being squad players of a lesser standard.

Ronald Koeman

“You need at least 20 good Premier League players and now we have 20 good ones.

“In my opinion you always need totally 25 players and of the 25 there can be three or four young players to develop themselves in the training sessions and to play in the under-21s.

“You need those kind of players with all the international breaks, with all the matches that we have to play.”

To illustrate his point, Koeman went on to talk about two of the players he has brought in this summer; striker/winger Sadio Mane who has been regularly linked with Newcastle, and of course transfer deadline signing on-loan Toby Alderweireld who United were allegedly in for as well, as they allowed Mapou to leave.

Southampton may have lost a lot of high profile players for big fees but they have made a massive reinvestment far in excess of Newcastle, bringing in six big transfer fee signings as well as two on loan. This on the back of far higher spending than Newcastle in previous transfer windows.

Koeman on Toby Alderweireld;

“We knew that some other teams were interested in Toby and I’m very happy that he finally chose Southampton.

“First of all he’s a quality player and we are happy with all the quality players we signed this season.

“He showed his qualities at the highest level possible and he will bring a lot of quality to the team and will bring a lot of competition to the rest of the defenders. We are in a tough long season and every player – we need them.”

Koeman on Sadio Mane;

“Sadio brings a different quality to the team. He’s a player who is very fast, has a good record of goals and in the Champions League he showed on that level he brings a little bit more.”

Koeman on Newcastle United;

“They did not have a good start to the season. They have good players, good quality players and I know a lot about the Dutch players who play for Newcastle.

“Maybe there’s a little bit more pressure on them to win finally but I like to see more what my team has to do to win against them. That is in my opinion more important.”

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