How Many Former Newcastle "Stars" Would You Have Back?
You wait 17 years for Newcastle United to win a trophy and I miss it. Yep, thanks to Volcanic ash clouds and gridlock on the continent's transport network a short four day break to Portugal turned into a mammoth ten day extravaganza.
My name is dirt in the office - not my fault the Civil Aviation Authority was scared of a little ash is it - but thankfully I've finally managed to get a flight and I'm back in time for United's Championship coronation against Ipswich this weekend.
In truth, few would have bet against them going up as champions as soon as they secured promotion last month, but that should not take away from the size of the achievement.
Everything must be put into context and this season looked like another disaster waiting to happen when it began, with Newcastle manager-less, directionless and apparently clueless to boot.
Yes, it's only the Coca Cola Championship, yes Newcastle have the best squad on paper and the biggest wage bill to match, but I did not believe they could return to the top flight in such style ten months ago and I'm pretty sure most of you out there agreed with me last summer.
The club looked as though it was in a mess heading for some sort of Leeds United style financial and physical meltdown. Up for sale and up the creek full of brown smelly stuff without a paddle.
Interestingly, when I described Newcastle as a mess to Alan Smith, the United skipper questioned my judgement.
He insisted the players always knew they were good enough and strong enough to go straight back up, but that confidence was not spread across Tyneside.
He did not like the fact people had written them off, but he had thoroughly enjoyed proving them wrong. Good for him, but for anyone who saw the capitulation last season after years of under-performance at St James' Park I think we had every right to fear the worst.
The Newcastle United that returns to the Premier League is far stronger than the one which crashed out of it in such humiliating fashion last May. United in the truest sense of the word and with the platform to build something exciting for the future.
That, though, will need three things in abundance. Time, patience and money. Chris Hughton has done a fantastic job, but now he has to prove himself at a higher level while also proving he can get the right players in on the money Mike Ashley is willing to give him.
It's not always just about the size of the transfer kitty - although Ashley must understand Newcastle will not prosper in the Premier League if he tries to do it on the cheap - it is what you do with it that counts.
Graeme Souness, don't forget, signed Jean Alain Boumsong for £9m, which is about £6m more than Hughton has spent in total so far and is Mike Williamson one ninth the player?
If Hughton has £20m to spend I'll be confident he will use it wisely, but I'd prefer it if he had £30m because a top quality striker will cost £10m alone.
Budgets, though, remain a closely guarded secret - and rightly so - although I've been told unofficially it will be somewhere in the region of £25-20m depending on player sales.
To describe Newcastle as stronger now than they were this time last year might sound like a strange thing to say given the players who have left the club since then. Sebastian Bassong, Obafemi Martins, Damien Duff, Habib Beye, Mark Viduka and Michael Owen have all moved on.
But how many of those would you actually want to return now that Newcastle are back in the top tier? For me, I'd have Bassong and possibly Beye, but the rest you can keep on the ex-players list in the over-paid, over-hyped underachievers category.
In fact, I probably wouldn't even bother with Beye given he is another year older and has spent the last 12 months warming the bench at Aston Villa and turning down moves to Sunderland because they wouldn't pay him enough.
For now we should enjoy the moment and toast this team's success. It should be a special day at St James' Park on Saturday, but then it will be forgotten.
It should be another fascinating summer, albeit one which starts with a lot more optimism than last time around!
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Luke Edwards - is Chief Sports Writer of The Journal and uses his blog to give a unique and entertaining insight into events at Newcastle United and Sunderland.
Don't feel bad Luke. Smith's probably just read one to many of your rehashed articles. You can't blame him.
I am agree that Bassong would be wonderful to resign, but he would not because he will maybe play in the CL already next year. But I realy missing Martins, a young, speedful and skill-rich player! Maybe we can resign him if we use some money, and realy want it. He has not played so much matches so far this season, and he could be the striker Hughton need. Think about it: Martins, Carroll and Lovenkrands... Not bad!
The rapid decline started by selling Milner, then Given & Zoggy, those three would make a massive difference to us if they had stayed and most certainly if they came back now. Those who left in the summer really have nothing about them bar Bassong, though i'd rather go with Williamson as he respects us a lot more, and seems to be loving it here.
Hughton will do alright in the market, i just hope he doesn't stay too loyal to the players that got him up as some of them are clearly not good enough to keep us in the Prem.
Fingers crossed Mr Nice Guy has a ruthless streak.
Personally I wouldn't have any of them back. They decided to jump ship, which is fair enough but we are now stronger as a result. A lot of dead wood wes cleared out and perhaps relegation was the best thing that could have happened to us - though it didn't seem like that at the time.
I agree with Mal...
Wheres the justice for Jonas, Colo, Enrique, Taylor, Nolan and Smith and all the other players used to playing at the top, if whilst they were playing in Scunny and Blackpool on a cold Tuesday night, whilst Habib Beye was sitting on the bench at villa.
Beye is alot better than Simpson, but Simpson has earned the right, Beye hasn't.
I don't really judge them for leaving but shouldn't be allowed back.
martins, saviola and recelme (from Argentina) not spell right and Huseklepp and him from Rbk in Norway and lustig from Rbk good right back. good name to a nice price.
Have them back? ha ha ha ha ha! nice one, thats funny. Why don't we see if Woodgate fancies coming back as well? I don't think the current squad will be strong enough to cope with the Prem, but we need to add more with the same character, happy to fight for the cause - whoever decided to peddle all the wasters you mentioned, good decision! And I include Given and the Zog in that lot. (If Charlie wants to come back he'll be needing a lift). If you'd asked for my list of players to get rid of thsi time last year my list would have been Owen, Viduka, Martins and Duff! Every player has worn the shirt with pride this year, and its been great to see.
Get real Luke, what is this rubbish about a fizzy pop can trophy! NUFC need a whole new team. They play exactly the same as last year, They need 11 new players plus subs. You do like a laugh!
I reckon signing a left back to cover for enrique should be the first priority. I think Fitz Hall is fine for that, and wont cost a fortune either. I doubt we could buy better strikers than the ones we've got at the moment, so id try to buy a decent midfielder or two instead. I think Carroll, Lovenkrands, Ranger, Ameobi, Best and Smith should be enough up front untill we've established ourselves again and can compete with the top teams for quality signings. We should not go announcing how much money we have because you can bet that if clubs know we have money to spend, the price of any player we want will go up by a few million
kieran said 'I think Carroll, Lovenkrands, Ranger, Ameobi, Best and Smith should be enough up front'
Not wishing to be negative, as I think with 3 or 4 additions we'll hold our own next season, but Shola and Smith are not premiership quality strikers.
Smith is not a striker - sign bullard and o'hara in the summer and maybe crouch as he's not getting much action at spurs
Luke none of them, we shouldn't go backwards now we have a team with spirit
Cheers
We do need more quality in the PL but not at the expense of the team spirit. Whoever we sign must be a team player. I agree with not resigning any former players, they did jump ship, and we don't need them, particularly Martins who was the most overrated player I have ever seen. He was desparate.
I am confident CH will use the money wisely and bring some good keen and hopefully young players in to the squad.
to be fair even milner wanted to go, duf was on to much money but i think he wanted to stay, given was a brilliant shot stopper but look at our defence now! I think some of the lads we have will come good next season, it takes a yr for a team to gel. Hope caroll and barton stay out of clink and taylor get over his broken jaw and stays. we went down i believe putting the polotics aside, because simply our best strikers were out for most of the season and any club would suffer look as spurs, liverpool and manU they have all had problems when they're strikers have been out.
Hey, i started this debate on the Chron about 3 weeks ago!
I managed to get about 70 comments.....
The general consensous is that we dont want any of them back. Maybe Milner but that would be it. Thats not everybodys opinion but it is the general opinion.