You're the newly hired Newcastle United.....what's your strategy?

[tmh1968]

What would you do if you were Dan Ashworth?

Spend like a drunken sailor? Stay the course and use last years strategy? They have the richest owner in European Football but have to be cognizant of the fair play rules. Who do you target in the summer window? They earned their CL spot (not a fluke), but obviously don't currently have the squad depth for both the grueling EPL schedule and the CL.

So, play armchair GM? What do you do and who do you target?

I adopted Newcastle as my EPL team around 20 years ago because of the similarities to Boston - Northeast team, big market, great fanbase, absolutely cursed team (I grew up in the 70's when the Sox couldn't get past the Yankees and Bruins couldn't conquer the Canadiens. I am, in a word, elated.

The days of Titus Bramble and teammates fighting on the pitch are in the past!

 

[benhogan]

What would you do if you were Dan Ashworth?

Spend like a drunken sailor? Stay the course and use last years strategy? They have the richest owner in European Football but have to be cognizant of the fair play rules. Who do you target in the summer window? They earned their CL spot (not a fluke), but obviously don't currently have the squad depth for both the grueling EPL schedule and the CL.

So, play armchair GM? What do you do and who do you target?

I adopted Newcastle as my EPL team around 20 years ago because of the similarities to Boston - Northeast team, big market, great fanbase, absolutely cursed team (I grew up in the 70's when the Sox couldn't get past the Yankees and Bruins couldn't conquer the Canadiens. I am, in a word, elated.

The days of Titus Bramble and teammates fighting on the pitch are in the past!

Spend like a drunken sailor.

Ha, I moved to London in 1997, and immediately asked who had the biggest payroll & the richest history (the Sox had scarred me in the 70's & 80s also). Manchester United was the answer & I adopted them. They promptly won the treble and I got a taste of what it was like being a Yankees fan for a year. Then I met this British Airways stewardess from Newcastle who convinced me to switch to the Toon Army. I also immediately saw the Red Sox parallels and had a little fun watching Shearer & Bellamy ruin the Spurs at White Hart Lane.

Anyways, I split with Geordie Lass (she partied way too hard for me) but kept the club.

 

[Cellar-Door]

Probably worth noting they finally closed the loopholes in FFP, so Newcastle really can't spend like a drunken sailor this year, think they're capped at like 80-90M net spend.

 

[Joe D Reid]

What would you do if you were Dan Ashworth?

Spend like a drunken sailor? Stay the course and use last years strategy? They have the richest owner in European Football but have to be cognizant of the fair play rules. Who do you target in the summer window? They earned their CL spot (not a fluke), but obviously don't currently have the squad depth for both the grueling EPL schedule and the CL.

Thanks for starting this thread--I've been borderline concern trolling about this issue in a few of the weekly threads over the course of the season. I do think there is a chance that some of the guys on this year's team essentially played themselves out of jobs by doing as well as they did. Almiron is 29 and last year was almost certainly the best of him. Dan Burn is 31; same for him. Trippier and Schar seem less likely to regress sharply, but they are also older guys. Longstaff was miles better than I had thought he ever could be, but I just can't envision him starting a CL game. Put all that together with more games and probably improved Liverpool and Chelsea teams next year, and next season could be a grind.

I think that also mostly points the way forward--they need to keep focused on younger guys with upside who have a chance to grow together with Bruno, Botman, etc., because they need to turn over the team in the next few years. Signing whoever the 2023 equivalent of Coutinho (possibly still Coutinho?) is won't get them there. Because of the money, they've been linked with nearly every player in existence. But they haven't really gone for anybody with a terribly high profile so far and I hope they keep it that way and don't get buck fever.

Then I met this British Airways stewardess from Newcastle who convinced me to switch to the Toon Army. I also immediately saw the Red Sox parallels and had a little fun watching Shearer & Bellamy ruin the Spurs at White Hart Lane.

The combination of 90's flight attendant and Geordie lass feels like it would have yielded a disproportionate number of anecdotes.

 

[Joe D Reid]

OK, so far they've more or less kept to the script. They addressed the midfield issue by bringing in Sandro Tonali (23) from Milan for 64M pounds. God bless Longstaff, but the upgrade from him to Tonali has a chance to be huge. They also are bringing in Harvey Barnes (25) from Leicester for 38M. I wasn't really expecting a winger to come in given the Gordon buy last year; it will be interesting to see how they fit Barnes, Joelinton, and Willock into the same side if everyone is healthy. It feels like at least one of those guys has to sit every match, with Joelinton rotating between the bench, LW or LMF. I suppose injuries will end up taking care of it a fair bit of the time.

Chris Wood is out the door for 15M(!), which puts them right in that 80-90M net spend region as of now. With Barnes in, speculation is that Saint-Maximin will head out as well. He was a fucking trouper on some godawful teams and never tried to get out of town, so while the move makes sense (he is probably best suited to be the main guy on an iffy team), it sucks. Depending on what they get for him, they might have room for one more guy without breaching FFP. I still think they need one more young defender, preferably a fullback, if they are going to hang next year.

 

[InstaFace]

...Then I met this British Airways stewardess from Newcastle who convinced me to switch to the Toon Army. I also immediately saw the Red Sox parallels and had a little fun watching Shearer & Bellamy ruin the Spurs at White Hart Lane.

Anyways, I split with Geordie Lass (she partied way too hard for me) but kept the club.

I feel like I need to read more about this than I do about permutations of Newcastle's "spend a lot" strategy. All anecdotes welcome, even if it goes in another thread.

 

[benhogan]

I feel like I need to read more about this than I do about permutations of Newcastle's "spend a lot" strategy. All anecdotes welcome, even if it goes in another thread.

Ha...No one held on to that "Geordie culture" harder than Susan. She lived with a bunch BA stewardesses in Croydon, but mostly stayed at my flat in Warwick Square.

Her & her girlfriends visited every Wine Garden in Pimlico, Chelsea & South Ken. An afternoon roast was a must DO on Sundays. Cartwheels & backflips after a drink were her party tricks, always UP for it & chuffed. The best thing she did was make me her British Airways preferred partner which means I flew on BA for next to nothing. We did about a dozen long weekends in Bermuda, numerous trips to Milan, Gottenberg, etc and for 500 quid a flight on the Concord. She was fabulous & fun, but 10yrs my junior (she was 25). After a couple of years, I had to raise the white flag.

Cheap & Cheerful. Great times and memories were had Not one bad thing to say about her or the Brits I worked with.

FWIW, she was always mad at Kevin Keegan for selling Andy Cole "why'd ya sell Andy..."

 

[InstaFace]

wow, flights on the Concorde. With some "Business Time" involved. We should all be so lucky to have that as our youthful fling.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Saint-Maximin officially leaves the club. Bad: he was a genuinely great guy for the community, having given time and money to the local food bank and NHS workers, and now he's gone. Good: he has said he'll keep supporting at least the food bank even now he's gone. Bad: he's been sold to a SA club also partially owned by the Saudi sovereign investment fund, so who the hell knows what shenanigans are afoot.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Tino Livramento in from Southampton as cover and future-proofing at RB behind Trippier, which may well wrap things up for the summer. They also played a little bit of a 4-2-3-1 in their recent vanity cup tournament, which may be how they plan to get all these wide attacking players minutes. Squad now looks something like this (new players bolded):

FB: Trippier, Targett, Livramento, Burn (swing FB/CB)
CB: Botman, Schar, Burn (swing CB/FB)
MF: Bruno, Tonali, Willock, Joelinton (swing MF/Wing), Longstaff
Wing: Barnes, Almiron, Gordon, Joelinton (swing Wing/MF), Murphy
F: Wilson, Isak

I'm guessing a bit on how they'll use Burn and Joelinton. I think they value their ability to play multiple positions and so they'll end up moving around. But Burn could also be the first-choice CB ahead of Schar or stay as a first-choice FB. What's most important is that they now have actual backups at every position

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

That defense feels a bit thin for a team that will be in Europe, especially since three of the six are on the wrong side of 30.

 

[Joe D Reid]

The defense is absolutely thin--Schar in particular is a likely weak point given he also played basically every minute for the Swiss in the WC last year.

In more heartwarming news, Tonali celebrated scoring on his debut by going for dinner at a local Weatherspoon's location. So he's either insane, a good sport about being pranked by teammates, or a proper gadgie. No matter which, he and Bruno are on pace to be the most popular midfield duo since the war.

 

[Royal Reader]

The defense is absolutely thin--Schar in particular is a likely weak point given he also played basically every minute for the Swiss in the WC last year.

In more heartwarming news, Tonali celebrated scoring on his debut by going for dinner at a local Weatherspoon's location. So he's either insane, a good sport about being pranked by teammates, or a proper gadgie. No matter which, he and Bruno are on pace to be the most popular midfield duo since the war.

The way it was reported over here was the "Pranked by team mates" option. He asked the squad where the fanciest place to eat in Newcastle was, and they told him Spoons.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Quadruple threat eliminated; NUFC Carabao Watch extends to third year.

 

[fletcherpost]

Just caught the last 15 min of the match. Newcastle held on fairly comfortably i thought. Haaland stayed on the bench, which surprised me a wee bit but who cares if you're a Newcastle fan.

Newcastle did evey other team left in the tournie a huge favour.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Away to Man U in the sweet 16. If they win they won't have taken the easy road like the last two years.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Welp, first sign of a potential Newcastling has arrived. Sandro Tonali is caught up in an investigation into betting by Italian players and has reportedly admitted to having a gambling addiction and having bet on Milan matches while he was at the club. Nicolo Fagioli* of Juve has already been suspended seven months for similar actions, so Newcastle are likely to lose Tonali for the rest of the season.

*Whose name I believe anglicizes to "Nicky Beans", which you have to say does sound like a guy who might get caught up in a bookmaking scandal.

 

[Jimy Hendrix]

Worth noting also that Tonali looks likely to see a worse penalty. I forget where I saw this but from what I have seen the standard is 5 years for betting on your own team (which Fagioli ostensibly did not do), 3 years for betting generally, half off for cooperating (which Fagioli has done). I am not sure where Beans got the 7 months from, perhaps he was an extremely good snitch, perhaps my info above is wrong, or perhaps the judges have discretionary room to be even more lenient than those guidelines.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Worth noting also that Tonali looks likely to see a worse penalty. I forget where I saw this but from what I have seen the standard is 5 years for betting on your own team (which Fagioli ostensibly did not do), 3 years for betting generally, half off for cooperating (which Fagioli has done). I am not sure where Beans got the 7 months from, perhaps he was an extremely good snitch, perhaps my info above is wrong, or perhaps the judges have discretionary room to be even more lenient than those guidelines.

I read that it is technically a one-year ban with five months of the "sentence" suspended. I shorthanded that to seven on the theory that he would have to be pretty thick to do something that would trigger the remaining five months. But you are right that seven months feels like the floor here, not necessarily the most likely outcome.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Sandro caught 10 months, meaning he's out the rest of the club season plus the Euros. In better news, Joe Willock got healthy just in time and helped Newcastle B to an 0-3 win against The Other United in the League Cup. Next up...Chelsea, because the NUFC mean draw in this competition is reverting like you read about.

 

[Joe D Reid]

Newcastle draw Sunderland in the FA Cup. With all the injuries, I'm sure the plan had been to punt the FA Cup and focus on the League Cup instead. But now we'll have to put the hot dog sausage in the proverbial burger bun instead.