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Opinion

Journalist uses transfer deals to have cheap digs at Newcastle United

7 years ago
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Newcastle United were almost totally ignored by the national press last season.

It was one bonus of going down, not having our club under a negative media spotlight for the best part of a year.

Only during the short periods when the promotion bandwagon wobbled a little did the press take much notice.

The fact that Newcastle were getting astonishing fifty one thousand+ average crowds wasn’t deemed newsworthy, or that Rafa’s team were winning most weeks BUT if the Manager and squad had struggled, then the media would have been all over Newcastle United like a rash.

Promotion achieved and back to the big time, with the media attention also returning, a negative slant never very far away.

The club’s own official media partner has been one of the first to have a go at Newcastle.

Writing in The Mirror, Andy Dunn has declared ‘if Newcastle United is such a big, grand institution, what is it doing trying to borrow players from clubs they should be regarding as equals?’

Dunn is referring in particular to the Tammy Abraham attempted loan but then doesn’t say the same about Swansea, a club who after a constant stream of PL money shouldn’t need any loan signings, certainly not compared to an unstable one like Newcastle who are just recovering from their second relegation in seven years.

It is a classic – because there is no doubt for me that if Newcastle fans were asking why on earth are our club going after loan players, the media would be straight away talking about deluded Newcastle fans who think they should be buying Pogba, Messi, Sanchez etc and winning the Premier League.

When it was confirmed that Rafa Benitez was staying at Newcastle United, the club statement released on 10 May 2017 included this:

‘Plans for next season were discussed, including the purchase and loan of players to add to the squad in readiness for the Premier League season.’

I don’t recall any/many Newcastle fans up in arms about the fact that loan deals would be part of the transfer strategy.

Most clubs, especially those just promoted, look to loan deals as a way of bringing in some quality players who otherwise you couldn’t attract in current circumstances.

It has been shown anyway that loan deals aren’t always short-term, after scoring goals on loan at West Brom, Romelu Lukaku then went to Everton and did the same.

Obviously the striker liked what he saw when he was on loan at Goodison Park and signed for £28m, going on to score loads of goals, with Chelsea reportedly set to hand them now a profit of £50m or so on the striker that they sold them only three years ago.

Newcastle are where they are and I’d rather have the odd decent loan player brought in than more rubbish like Emmanuel Riviere.

Andy Dunn writing in The Mirror:

‘…if Newcastle United is such a big, grand institution, what is it doing trying to borrow players from clubs they should be regarding as equals?

What is it doing trying to borrow players who are not deemed good enough to play for a rival?

They are not alone, of course. Far from it. Taking players on a temporary basis from clubs who have an embarrassment of squad riches has become standard practice for ones who know their place in the Premier League pecking order.

Everyone at Swansea knows their battle next season will, in all probability, be different from Chelsea’s.

If Abraham scores the goals that maintain Premier League status – although he will not be allowed to score goals against Chelsea – the supporters probably won’t care.

In Premier League payments alone, Swansea received £103,179,163 last season, enough to buy their own players, but if Chelsea and Abraham see them as some sort of useful learning centre, they are not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.’

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