Club captain sold, pitch invasions, visa complications galore and twitter outbursts, it's been another typically controversial pre-season at Newcastle United.
Indeed, the club heads into Saturday's season opener against Arsenal having enjoyed, at best, a mixed pre-season campaign that is quite difficult to dissect, but that is what I will attempt to do throughout this piece as I look towards what is sure to be another eventful Premier League season at St. James Park.
I'm not going to get through it all in one go, so we'll start by looking at transfers, and despite what you may think of Mike Ashley's buy low, sell high policy, it's difficult to argue that Newcastle been decidedly active in the transfer market this summer. Five players have joined the ranks at Newcastle, while two have departed.
The first thing to note about the signings Newcastle have made in Alan Pardew's first summer in charge, is that all 5 players brought in were born in France. Yes, Mehdi Abeid, Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba (officially registered as Senegalese), Sylvain Marveaux and today Gabriel Obertan all hail from just across the channel. Looking at these additions, and taking into account that in Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheick Tiote Newcastle have 2 other French speakers in the squad, fans could be forgiven for expecting La Marseillaise to played along with Blaydon Races on matchdays.
All bad jokes aside, what can the mass of loyal supporters expect to see from the new charges as the season progresses? Well they probably won't see much of Abeid for a while yet, the RC Lens youth product who is primarily a Defensive Midfielder has impressed in pre-season, however at the tender age of 18, Abeid may spend most of his time in the reserves given Newcastle's strength in depth in midfield.
Moving on then to Yohan Cabaye, Ligue 1 title winner with Lille and perhaps the best looking footballer I've ever seen, google him you'll see. Cabaye is someone who likes to control the game and dictate the play. Pardew said of Cabaye after the recent pre-season friendly against Fiorentina:
“When you have somebody like Yohan you can change the tempo of the game.
“He is going to be very important for us. His range of passing will be invaluable to us this season.”
Cabaye proved himself to be adept at set-pieces and from the penalty spot during his time at Lille, and with the undisclosed fee paid rumoured to be around £4.3m, the capture of the French international may be considered something of a coup if he can continue the good form he showed in Northern France.
The signing of Cabaye could go a long way to helping solidify Newcastle's central midfield and Pardew has bolstered his midfield options further by adding some much needed depth on the wings with the signings of Sylvain Marveaux from Stade Rennais and Gabriel Obertan from Manchester United.
Both players come with significant question marks for different reasons, Marveaux although fast, powerful and creative has struggled with injury and hasn't played a competitive game for 10 months. Signed from under the noses of Liverpool, there were rumours that Marveaux had failed a medical at Anfield before agreeing to join Newcastle, though these claims were later denied by both clubs and the player.
The doubts surrounding Obertan are entirely different, highly rated during the early stages of his career, the former Bordeaux man joined Manchester United with much promise, but failed to gain sufficient first-team opportunities to deliver on this promise. Pardew has taken a flyer on the 22 year old Obertan to try and inject the pace that he believes the side lacked during the previous campaign.
Commenting on Obertan Pardew said:
"He has great pace and excellent technique and he has improved his power in the last 12 months and is ready now make a real impact in the Premier League."
Marveaux and Obertan will likely compete for first team places with Jonas Gutierrez and possibly Joey Barton (we'll get to him at a later date). Hatem Ben Arfa, when fit, can also play on the flanks but may find himself deployed in behind a main striker.
Ah yes, strikers, I'd almost forgotten about them, Newcastle have signed one so far this transfer window, and quite a good one too in West Ham's Demba Ba. The Senegal international is another player who has injury issues with a longstanding knee problem, but his record of 7 goals in 12 games for West Ham last season remains impressive and if he can stay free of injury then Ba will undoubtedly be a dangerous presence for Newcastle in the box.
All this sounds very nice indeed, but the issue of the strikeforce, or lack of one, remains a major source of debate in Newcastle. Aside from Ba Newcastle's options up front are limited, Leon Best surprised many last season by notching a very respectable 6 goals in 11 games before suffering a season ending injury. Shola Ameobi and Peter Lovenkrands are useful but aging lower level Premier League strikers, Nile Ranger has impressed at times but there are serious questions over his character and Shola's brother Sammy Ameobi has much potential but is nowhere near ready to be relied upon to lead the line.
Newcastle easily have enough quality and goals in them to stay in the division, but if they are to really progress as the fans wish, then the consensus is that another quality striker is most definitely required.
The need for another new striker has been made infinitely greater because of the departure of captain and top scorer Kevin Nolan to recently relegated West Ham United. Nolan's decision to drop down a level to re-unite with former boss Sam Allardyce raised many questions about the player's desire and the club's willingness to let him leave. Nolan netted 12 times for Newcastle last season and his leadership, particularly in games such as the unbelievable 4-4 comeback against Arsenal was vital in the Championship promotion season and in the club's return to the Premier League last season.
Nolan appeared to be a vital cog in the Newcastle machine, however the much criticised hierachy of the club decided otherwise. Why? No one knows, many believe that the club's board want anyone who may speak out against the policy of the club (Nolan, Barton, Enrique) out of the exit door.
The more likely explanation however, is that the club were reluctant to give a 5 year £50,000 pw (Nolan's reported contract at West Ham) deal to a player nearly in his 30s. Youth is the way at St James Park these days and there is little to no chance that Nolan was ever going to land a contract of that length. More to the point, despite his goals, he really didn't deserve to, Nolan's positioning in and around the box is fantastic but too often he was a passenger in the middle of the park which too often left Cheick Tiote having to do the work of 2 men in the centre of the park.
Despite this the departure of Nolan will surely be felt, and it will be interesting to see how the team deals with adversity during the campaign without Nolan's influence. The departure of the other player through the exit door, Wayne Routledge is almost completely insignificant. Routledge has already been replaced with the arrival of Obertan and although Routledge has landed on his feet in the Premier League with Swansea, his exit lends more credence to the opinion that Routledge is, at best, a Championship level footballer.
There are still three weeks left of the transfer window, so of course Newcastle can not be judged on their business until after midnight on August 31st, but with more depth added to the midfield as well as a target man, it is a case of so far, so good. If another striker can be added and the left back situation resolved then it will have been an excellent window for the club, but that would be all too simple for a club that is the king of the unexpected.
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