Newcastle’s a funny club.
The first half of the week saw the ownership derided for the ambition-less sale of Kevin Nolan to West Ham, but by the time the weekend has arrived there’s cause for some real optimism on Tyneside.
There have been many low-points of the Cockney Mafia reign in the North East, and the failure to adequately replace Andy Carroll is fairly prominent. The sale itself probably doesn’t rankle that much given the vastly inflated fee that they recouped, but watching Shefki Kuqi trapse into the club immediately afterwards was probably less gratifying. Overseeing an exodus of talent leaving a club, and then not obviously reinvesting the sales revenue into new players is one of the quickest and easiest ways to alienate yourself from a club’s support. The sale of Carroll was a case study of how to do this, as £35m seemingly disappearing into a blackhole.
But credit where it’s due, the last 24 hours have seen two very astute purchases – Sylvain Marveux and Demba Ba will both significantly improve the first eleven at St James’ Park, and combined with the earlier acquisition Yohan Cabaye, Newcastle suddenly look like a really interesting proposition again. If Jonas Gutierrez, Joey Barton, and Jose Enrique can be retained – which the new arrivals may allow – then Alan Pardew will be a right-back and a central defender away from a team that can do some damage inside the top half of the league.
Given his five months in the East End, most fans will be fairly familiar with Demba Ba by now and can rest assured that he’ll contribute goals – he’s the kind of player that will always score wherever he goes. Quick, powerful, good movement, and a really good finisher – a Shola Ameobi for the digital age. Yohan Cabaye is more subtle, and he brings an elegance and a creativity to the midfield that will complement Joey Barton’s combative style. Sylvain Marveaux is possibly the biggest risk of the three, but his potential upside is huge – and at twenty-five he’s still a developing player. Liverpool fans will no doubt now dismiss him after their club seemingly blinked at the negotiating table, but Newcastle could be getting a real steal on a free transfer – a versatile forward with extremely good feet and a fondness for Laurent Robert-esque left-footed fireworks.
St James’ Park will be fun place to watch football next year, so far so good this Summer, and Ashley, Llambias, and Pardew have us eating our words a little bit. Maybe, just maybe, Newcastle are taking shape as a flair team again.
