With Kevin Nolan West Ham-bound, we're starting to get a glimpse of Newcastle United's vision of a new-look midfield.
It's been widely reported Thursday that United is lining up Bayer Leverkusen's Tranquillo Barnetta and Saint-Etienne's Blaise Matuidi (and, as a result, they've both moved up the midfield rankings on our transfer guide). Those players bring qualities that Alan Pardew and Graham Carr appear to be seeking out in the center of the park: athleticism, speed and versatility.
Barnetta is primarily a wide player, but can play all over the midfield. Matuidi is more of a holding midfielder, but featured in a three-man midfield for France in a friendly against Ukraine last week. Yohan Cabaye was part of that French team as well, and United's first summer signing can also drift around the midfield. Add those players to Hatem Ben Arfa, Cheik Tiote and Dan Gosling, and you can picture plenty of interchanging, regardless of which players are on the field.
So, while it hurts to lose Kevin Nolan (apparently at a price of £4.5 million) and all of his intangibles, it's hard not to get excited about the potential of a new, more athletic group. As for Nolan's goalscoring, United's strike force - with Demba Ba said to be imminently arriving - will have to pick up some of the slack.
Great news on Ba, hope he can stay healthy. On to the next signing.
And, I don't like the idea of moving Best. Considering our striker situation last year with injuries, I think we should keep him no matter who we bring in. He is young and I think will only get better. Hopefully talks of him being allowed to leave are just rumors.
Posted by: Ryan | 06/17/2011 at 11:44 AM
I agree about Best. I like the Ba signing, but with his injury concerns, depth is that much more important. I'm not looking for Best to be our first (or even second) option, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable with him leading the line than I would with Shola or Lovenkrands. He could turn out to be quite good with the likes of Ben Arfa and Cabaye feeding him, and his value can really only go up. If we want to sell him next summer or in January, we'd probably get more for him than we would right now.
Posted by: Charlie Prince | 06/17/2011 at 01:24 PM
Hey guys, thanks for the comments. I just tossed up a short post on Ba and Best (was limited to writing on my lunch break).
If they can get £4M for Best, it's kind of hard to argue with it. I think he's got some ability, but I don't know that he's ever going to be a big-time goalscorer, despite what he showed last season. I actually think Shola is better, but I'm a bit of a Shola apologist, I suppose.
That said, if they sell him, I hope they indeed bring in Erding and another striker as well.
Posted by: Tom | 06/17/2011 at 02:27 PM