One signing can't undo two years of transfer mismanagement.
But I find myself cautiously optimistic about Newcastle United's short-term direction in the wake of this week's deal for Ajax attacker Siem de Jong.
After the last two seasons, it's simply refreshing to see Newcastle sign a human being on July 1, let alone making its third signing of the summer. But there's more to my giddiness over the de Jong deal than pure desperation.
This move doesn't feel like a mere asset accumulation. Newcastle routinely targets players who are nearing the end of their contracts — de Jong was entering his final year with Ajax — because it slashes the price tag. And yet the cost being reported by The Journal's Mark Douglas is £7.5 million. That's not crazy money, but it's a significant investment for a player who could have joined for free in a year. That tells me Newcastle specifically wanted de Jong; he wasn't just "attacking player X" in a discount-bin search.
De Jong also doesn't look like the typical Newcastle signing of the past couple of years. Ever since the club began dispatching chief scout Graham Carr to travel the French countryside, Newcastle's transfer movement has been heavy on dribblers and runners. (Those aren't particularly technical terms, but c'mon, you know what I mean. The roster is full of guys who want to dribble through traffic and players who will run all day but aren't so great on the ball.)
De Jong doesn't fall into either of those categories. I won't claim to be an Eredivisie expert; the only Ajax game I've seen over the past couple of seasons was an early-season 2012 match in which a certain pint-sized Newcastle target was anchoring the base of the midfield. But I've spent the last 24 hours ODing on de Jong highlights on YouTube (Dennis Wise approves of my methods), and I'm not seeing 40-yard runs down the flanks or stepovers and feints to beat defenders one-on-one. De Jong looks like a Dutch Kevin Nolan, gobbling up goals in the box with crafty finishes. That Nolan comparison, by the way, is absolutely intended as a compliment. De Jong doesn't share the sorely-missed former captain's physique. (Facially, de Jong looks like the lovechild of musician/Newcastle fan Sting and comedian Joel McHale to me; Bob sees more of "Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak). He also appears to have the sort of long-range shot that was missing from Nolan's repertoire.
Suggestions that de Jong will add intelligence to Newcastle's play seem spot on. It takes a certain vision to see, then make the late run into the box that leads to a goal. So-called "garbage goals" aren't plain luck — they're the result of being in the right positions time after time. You'd also figure de Jong, Ajax's captain the past two seasons and a player with seven years of professional experience on his resume, might add some leadership to a locker room that has clearly lacked it over the past two seasons.
So there you have it. I like me some Siem de Jong. But, as Phil noted on an intra-blog email chain, "it's nice to have a No. 10, but there still isn't a No. 9." Newcastle still has work to do this summer. De Jong looks more like a support striker than a classic No. 10 — as BeNeFoot, an English-language website that covers Belgian and Dutch soccer, writes, de Jong is "most comfortable next to a creative midfielder" ala Christian Eriksen. If that sort of player is on Newcastle's roster, I haven't seem him. (And please, for the love of all that is good in this world, don't claim Hatem Ben Arfa is the one to fill that role.) Papiss Cisse, working his way back from a broken kneecap, is the only legitimate striker at Alan Pardew's disposal. Newcastle needs a full-on goal-scoring, center-back-occupying No. 9. Or two.
But I'm more hopeful Newcastle might take decisive action to fill those needs than I was a week ago.
"After the last two seasons, it's simply refreshing to see Newcastle sign a human being on July 1"
Haha, brilliant!
Jokes aside, an excellent signing and hopefully the first of 4/5 more first team recruits. I expect Cabella will arrive once France return from the World Cup, hopefully a goalscorer will sign on too.
Keep up the work fellas!
Posted by: KevinDoocey | 07/03/2014 at 01:30 PM
Spot on Tom. An exciting signing for sure.
Posted by: ToonArmyAmerica | 07/04/2014 at 05:49 AM
So glad to have you guys smiling again. Soccer is ups and downs. Newcastle is ups and downs. Ya'll nearly threw out the baby with the bath water this summer. Hard to call out our team for short sightedness when it's fans are such too.
Posted by: ocorious | 07/04/2014 at 01:42 PM
I'll be a lot more optimistic if we don't liquidate the guy the instant he raises his game.
Posted by: Bob | 07/06/2014 at 09:19 AM
Siem de Jong played nearly 250 games with Ajax
Posted by: Football | 07/15/2014 at 08:22 AM