Newcastle United finished fifth last season, a superb achievement. But what next?
The Toon Army could have been forgiven for feeling like they had taken one step forward and two back at the time of their reluctant sale of their prodigal son, Andy Carroll.
But the club, as it so often does; the manager, Alan Pardew, and the chairman, Mike Ashley, rallied together to nullify the rot, putting the money to effective use on strengthening – most notably, with the acquisition of Senegalese pairing Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse.
With the new signings, and the return of injured players, Newcastle United morphed, almost overnight, into pretenders to the thrones of the Champion’s League proper.
Formerly just an occasional ‘bogey team’, their early spectacular form materialised from a dream into a distinct possibility as they challenged till the end, only just missing out on the top four but finishing above Chelsea.
Where they fell short was durability: for the majority of the season, their play was epitomised by hard work and endeavour; getting in the faces of teams and running over unprepared opponents like an unstoppable locomotive.
The final third of the season is when you need the coals burning brightest, unfortunately for the Magpies, they had run out of steam and never had the luxury of a go-to bench to freshen up the rotation.
Other than that, they look decisively weak in the fullback areas which could see them unstuck against tricky wingers; they lack pace on both flanks of the defence, slipping into the dangerous balancing act that is playing right-footed players on the left-hand side.
Who Have They Been Linked With?
Little was known about Lille right back, Mathieu Debuchy, prior to the European Championships in June but his sparkling performances for France have seen him as the most likely candidate to be the first major signing for the club.
Centre half, Douglas, is a beast of a man at 6’4ft and is demonstrating a monstrous appetite to impress in the Premiership.
The surprise link of the window so far has been Carroll with a return to his boyhood club.
Who Do They Need?
Any additions of eminence will be more than welcome if they are going to sustain their progress this time around.
Of the players they are linked with, Pieters would best address their left back situation. There are so many options out there for the position, the Newcastle scouts needn’t look far.
Reverting back to the days of Carroll may cause more setbacks than it solves as Pardew’s fresh lively battlers counter Carroll’s languid box man presence. Jermaine Defoe presents as an interesting plan B in this setup, offering something different to the tireless beefiness of the Dembas. He is also the scorer of important goals at important periods in matches.
Pardew genuinely has a good thing going with the growing French contingent he is adopting for his team. Marseille’s Mathieu Valbuena is a livewire with bags of experience in lengthy campaigns. At the age of 27, he is in the peak of his career at the perfect time for the black and whites.
Who would you like to see Newcastle sign?
image: © mickyb59
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