Newcastle United now the only Premiership club to have signed no players

Posted on July 12th, 2013 | |

Well, it’s been a very busy transfer window so far with all that extra TV money swelling the coffers of Premier League clubs around the country.

No fewer than 61 players have been signed to Premier League clubs at the time of writing, with almost every club signing at least one new player. Sunderland have even signed seven. However there is one rether predictable exception, and there are no prizes for guessing who it is. Of course it’s Newcastle United, who have recently lost Danny Simpson, Steve Harper and James Perch, with Dan Gosling possibly on the way too. Another important issue is that this further English exodus could cause problems with the 8 “home grown” players in the 25 man squads teams have to hand in at the start of the season.

Having written that, there are currently high hopes for the signing of a younger flying Dutchman called Jeroen Zoet to keep existing flying Dutchman, Tim Krul, on his toes more than Robbie Elliot can. If so it would be good move and not just for the mere fact that it’s a body “over the line” as our Silver Supremo is so fond of saying.

Although we have signed no players yet, the back from holiday Alan Pardew has already taken the baton from new Director of Football, Joe Kinnear. Now it’s Kinnear’s for a holiday in transfer window, it is now Pardew’s turn to open his big mouth in front of a microphone, then proceed to ram his foot down it with some force. This time it was the obvious double standard of publically giving Darren Bent and Loic Remy the glad eye, whilst simultanoeously picking a fight with one of the nost important men in French football, Paris St.Germain manager Laurent Blanc, for suggesting that Yohan Cabaye looks rather fetching this time of year. Aren’t we supposed to be rather fond of French football at the moment? Surely, it ill behoves Pardew to go parking his tanks on the lawn of Laurent Blanc and moneybags PSG unecessarily, especially not whilst making yourself look like a bit of a hypocrite at the same time? As you may know, Pardew’s a bit of a serial offender at this already.

To refresh your memories, Pardew said of Aston Villa’s Darren Bent and QPR’s Loic Remy:

“Both of those players are on our list. I make no bones about that.”

Then, as if it would excuse his obvious public faux pas he hastily added:

“But they are under contract at other clubs. It’s difficult, you have to be careful.”

Though some have argued that both Villa and QPR have been flaunting their strikers in the marketplace, all the speculation has been media driven. Whilst Bent has been decidedly out of favour since the rise of Christian Benteke at Villa Park, he hasn’t been transfer listed and he hasn’t put in a request either. Meanwhile, Benteke has. Ditto with Loic Remy on the transfer front and since Pardew’s above quoted words, QPR manager Harry Redknapp has stated that he wants to hold on Remy, saying:

“I wouldn’t want to get rid of Remy. He is a top player. He would be fantastic for us next season. If I can keep hold of him, I will do.”

I have already mentioned Laurent Blanc and his importance in French football. Though Redknapp may be something of a “Marmite” figure amongst fans, whatever they / we think about him, he is a very popular and influential character in the coaching fraternity, more than Pardew will ever be and once again, it ill behoves the Silver Supremo to keep losing friends and alienating people with his big mouth like this. It is also something he has even been doing with with his boss too in his recent interview to Radio Newcastle. After telling the public that he hadn’t said anything face to face, he then tryed to play to the gallery with fans by issuing a thinly veiled warning to Kinnear that he wasn’t going to let him step on his toes, saying:

“Joe has come to do Derek’s job – the most important thing for me is that I have a seven year contract to manage this football team. I’ve not said anything but trust me, anyone who knows me will tell you will tell you that in my career I’ve not let anyone step on my toes. I will be my own man because ultimately I carry the responsibility of the team.”

He also repeated the point almost verbatim later, before accusing his boss of being disrespectful by adding:

“Well I think some of things that Joe said he’s apologised for, especially getting the names wrong of our players. I think that needs to be corrected because there’s a certain respect needed there. I spoke to one or two players this morning and made them very aware (and my staff here) of where the position lies. But it’s very, very simple for me: If Joe can persuade Mike to invest in the football club in the right manner then that will be the best outcome for us.”

It seems like it’s all one big happy family behind the scenes then.

Seriously though, saying things like that in an interview about one of his Newcastle United colleagues, when he admitted that he hadn’t even mentioned it to Kinnear face to face is cowardly and deplorable, not to mention potentially damaging to the club.

Oh well, onwards and downwards as usual!

Below is a summary of the signings of the Summer transfer window business so far.

Arsenal: Yaya Sanogo (Auxerre, free).

Aston Villa: Antonio Luna (Sevilla, undisclosed), Jores Okore (Nordsjaelland, undisclosed), Leandro Bacuna (FC Groningen, undisclosed), Nicklas Helenius (Aalborg, £2m), Jed Steer (Norwich, compensation).

Cardiff City: Andreas Cornelius (FC Copenhagen, £7.5m).

Chelsea: Andre Schurrle (Bayer Leverkusen, £17m), Marco van Ginkel (Vitesse Arnhem, £8m), Mark Schwarzer (Fulham, free).

Crystal Palace: Dwight Gayle (Peterborough, £8.5m), Stephen Dobbie (Brighton, undisclosed).

Everton: Arouna Kone (Wigan, £6m), Antolin Alcaraz (Wigan, free), Gerard Deulofeu (Barcelona, loan).

Fulham: Fernando Amorebieta (Athletic Bilbao, free), Derek Boateng (Dnipro, free), Maarten Stekelenburg (Roma, undisclosed).

Hull City: George Boyd (Peterborough, free), Maynor Figueroa (Wigan, free), Curtis Davies (Birmingham, undisclosed), Ahmed Elmohamady (Hull, £2m), Allan McGregor (Besiktas, £1.5m)

Liverpool: Kolo Toure (Man City, free), Luis Alberto (Sevilla, £6.8m), Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo, £7m), Simon Mignolet (Sunderland, £10m), Danny Wilson (Hearts, free)

Manchester City: Fernandinho (Shakhtar Donetsk, £30m), Jesus Navas (Sevilla, £15m)

Manchester United: Guillermo Varela (Penarol, undisclosed)

Newcastle United: None

Norwich City: Javier Garrido (Lazio, undisclosed), Ricky van Wolfswinkel (Sporting, undisclosed), Nathan Redmond (Birmingham, £3.2m), Martin Olsson (Blackburn, undisclosed), Carlo Nash (Stoke, free)

Southampton: Dejan Lovren (Lyon, £8.5m), Victor Wanyama (Celtic, $12.5m)

Stoke City: Jermaine Pennant (free), Erik Pieters (PSV Eindhoven, £3m), Marc Muniesa (Barcelona, free)

Sunderland: Cabral (Basel, free), Modibo Diakite (Lazio, free), Valentin Roberge (Maritimo, free), David Moberg Karlsson (IFK Gothenburg, undisclosed), Vito Mannone (Arsenal, £2m), Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar, undisclosed), El Hadji Ba (Le Havre, free)

Swansea City: Jose Canas (Real Betis, free), Jonathan de Guzman (Villarreal, loan), Jordi Amat (Espanyol, £2.5m), Jonjo Shelvey (Liverpool, £6m), Alejandro Pozuelo (Real Betis, undisclosed), Wilfried Bony (Vitesse Arnhem, £12m)

Tottenham Hotspur: Paulinho (Corinthians, £17m)

West Bromwich Albion: Nicolas Anelka (Shanghai Shenhua, free), Goran Popov (Dynamo Kiev, loan)

West Ham United: Razvan Rat (Shakhtar Donetsk, free), Adrian (Real Betis, free), Andy Carroll (Liverpool, £16m), Danny Whitehead (Stockport, undisclosed)

Thanks to site user “Pete Toon” for providing the original inspiration for this piece.

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1078 articles on this blog.

Related Posts: