Midfielders

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Where do the good midfielders come from? France? Spain? Italy?

Yeh, but where do the ones come from that we can afford and will be prepared to play for a team other than some bunch of poncey southerners?

The answer, of course, is the First Division. Our most saleable asset at the club is YKD who was signed from a team in the First Division when everyone else had doubts. Our current crowd favourite, C Bellamy Esq, whilst not a midfielder I agree, learned his trade at Norwich City in the First Division. Who would have David Dunn in the side? He was in the First Division last year and we could have got him for considerably less than he'll fetch at the moment. What about Matt Holland? 18 months ago he was in the First Division having come from Bournemouth in the Second.

The point I'm trying to make is that when looking for a replacement for Lee, there are a lot of very good players in the division below us who would be desperate for a chance to play at Newcastle. Guys who wouldn't feel, like apparently Guardiola and his like did, that they would be doing us a favour.

You only have to look at Crewe to see the truth of this. How many of you wanted us to go for Seth Johnson? We could have had him from Crewe a couple of years ago for about a third of what he is going to cost Leeds. The same with Neil Lennon - a bloke who came through the ranks at Crewe before Leicester got a hold of him and he became another multi-million pound man. Look what Leicester have turned into without him. Danny Murphy is another graduate of the Crewe school of science. And of course there was David Platt a few years ago - how much money did he change hands for during his career? There are also "lesser lights" in the Prem from Crewe like Jermaine Wright (who played just about every match for Ipswich last year) and the awful Robbie Savage, who have done good jobs for their clubs even though I wouldn't want them at Newcastle.

We seem to concentrate on trying to get a "finished article" from abroad which will cost a packet and be a huge risk (I give you Farcelino, JDT, Maric, et al) when there a gold nuggets under our noses just waiting to be picked up.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Answers

A Possibility?

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Forest have two great Midfieders, Prutton & the other lad, teh other lad being IMHO better.

Stoke have a useful fella as do Crewe

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001


You have a good point about the lower leagues, there are a lot of players there that could go onto greater things. However, there are also an equally high number of risks that could be a waste of a few million pounds, when a few million is a lot to us at the moment. Careful scouting and maybe trialing players will help.

Remember that Vieira came from France for about £500k. His value has since appreciated probably 50 fold in his time at Arsenal, perhaps even more. Obviously for every Vieira there are ten Des Hamiltons, but there are some good buys there in the first division.

I still like the sound of Gravesen coming here, he's only 23 or 24 and is quite a complete player already.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001


DaveLF the other lad Jermaine Jenas, the best 18yo in England..

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Dave - the Stoke fella is James O'Connor who is not up to Premier League standard and has a bloody dreadful disciplinary record - he has had, believe it or not, 33 yellow cards in the last 2 and a bit seasons! The Crewe lad you're probably thinking of is Kenny Lunt - only 21 but likely to be very good.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001


You're right but I was happy to leave it as "the other lad" & "lad at Crewe" so in two years time when "lad" from crewe/Forest/Stoke has a £15m transfer I can bore you with I told you so.

Did I mention the French right winger I thought was good in 1997 that would have been Henry.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001


Kenny Lunt?? Jaco are you paking the tiss?

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001

Kenny Lunt is a real player, albeit with an unfortunate name.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001

But not half as unfortunate as that Fargelino Uchs who "upped and went" (or was it came?) to Benfica ;-)

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001

Apparently, Feyenoord have told Arsenal they want £15 million for Brett Emerton - so we can forget that one.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001


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