Another Deadline Day To Forget

Hatem Ben Arfa is a Hull City Tiger, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa is off to Roma and Newcastle United still doesn't have a bona fide goalscoring striker.

Mike Ashley's minions unsurprisingly stumbled through another barren transfer deadline day. NUFC didn't buy a striker to spearhead its attack. Nor did it add another center back to fortify its backline. The club's only moves were outgoing loans for Ben Arfa and Yanga-Mbiwa, two Frenchmen who Alan Pardew wanted off the roster.

It was a bitter end to what was, all in all, a decent summer transfer window. New front office czar Lee Charnley, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Muppet scientist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, oversaw a widespread refresh of Pardew's squad — something that was several years overdue. NUFC stopped shopping exclusively in France and added players such as Jack Colback, Remy Cabella and Siem de Jong who should upgrade the team's overall passing ability.

Of course, this is Mike Ashley's Newcastle, so a no-doubt-about-it, clearly positive window was never going to happen. Sure, NUFC signed three strikers in Emmanuel Riviere, Ayoze Perez and Facundo Ferreyra, but it never landed a player worthy of replacing Loic Remy. Perez has flashed some potential early on, but he still needs time to develop. Ferreyra is a total unknown at this point. Riviere is physically intriguing, but doesn't look like a No. 1 striker for a Premier League club.

Newcastle sniffed around Pierre-Michel Lasogga early in the summer, stalked Alexandre Lacazette when it was clear the interest wasn't mutual, and hoped that Loic Remy might get desperate at QPR. Apparently those were the only three strikers the NUFC decision-makers believed were affordable and worth signing.

If Newcastle had piled up goals in the season's first four games, that assessment might make a little more sense. And sacrificing Ben Arfa will hardly quell concerns about the lack of offensive firepower on the roster.

The cult following of Ben Arfa is, quite frankly, out of control, considering his track record of defecating all over himself at previous clubs and his spotty production, effort and decision-making during his up-and-down career at Newcastle. Still, banishing him and then loaning him out to a fellow mid-table Premier League club looks downright stupid. Pardew had better hope Cabella and de Jong start scoring goals soon.

Yanga-Mbiwa's departure isn't as controversial, though shipping him out without a replacement lined up is an unnecessary gamble. Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor aren't exactly ironmen, Mike Williamson could very well regress, new arrival Jamaal Lascelles is on loan at Nottingham Forest for the season, and Remie Streete appears to have fallen completely off the first-team radar.

Newcastle clearly bought Yanga-Mbiwa with the intention of replacing Coloccini once he left for Argentina — which, obviously, never happened — but Pardew never appeared sold on MYM as a core part of his backline. The conundrum with Yanga-Mbiwa was that he never truly got an extended run of games at center back to settle in, yet he performed so schitzophrenically when he did play that he never merited said extended run of games.

And yet the #NUFC domain of Twitter likely wouldn't be in full-on meltdown had the club landed a legit striker. Instead, we're all left in a familiar state: wondering whether the club genuinely tried.

Comments

[Geordie Pat]

Never really understood the Ben Arfa denigration from you boys. Inconsistent, ball greedy and surly but he carries a genuine match-winning threat on the pitch and is/was perhaps our only player capable of playing in a top 4 side - on his day. Course that hasn't happened and Hull were his best concrete offer, but a lot of that is down to Pardew's misuse of him on the pitch and scapegoating off it. M'biwa and Ben Arfa are highly talented and technical players about to enter the prime age of their football careers.. and we didn't even get a transfer fee for them. Pards failure to integrate players is costing the club financially and of all his flaws this is the one that will anger Ashley the most. We have Cisse to come back but if Riviere's isolation up front is anything to go by, he won't be benefitting from improved service - contrary to Pardew's claims. What began as a decent start to the window considering we're relying on 18 year old academy prospects to salvage points.. 3 games in. After today you can add the likes of Hull and southampton to the teams that have overtaken us on personnel.

[Rob]

I understand why the veneration of Ben Arfa might seem (and is) a little over the top to you lads. There seems to be a collective myopia from a certain section of fans regarding some of his displays over the last two years. In particular, games like the last derby howking, where he did the square root of the square root of nothing.
But as I think you've mentioned before, it's what he represents. Having sat through the worst 3-3 draw you'll ever see, in which we simply passed the ball around in front of the opposition, it couldn't be more obvious that we lack someone direct. Watching Haidara as the only wide player on the left, and watching Cabella tuck in time and time again suggests we have no width. Some of the brief moments of skill, and some of the goals he has scored make attending SJP worthwhile. Moreover, there is an awareness that the Ben Arfa situation, regardless of his own culpability in the affair, reflects everything about Pardew you could hope to know on a man-management front.

It might be true that Ben Arfa has let every club he's been at under something of a cloud. It is also true that Pardew has left every club he's been at, if not reviled, then severely criticised by supporters. Charlton and West Ham fans in particular loathe him.

[Rob]

Oh and as you've mentioned, it's within the context of the whole window.
Yes, we've recruited some good players. But in July, we needed a centre-half upgrade on goal-machine Mike Williamson and a proven striker, neither of which have arrived. They're taking a big gamble on one of the strikers we have suddenly hitting the goals trail, and just on Pardew finding a way to set up the team to allow that to happen. As one of you (I think Tom?) said on the last podcast - is it really inconceivable that we might do very badly?
Then add in the deadline day departures: the response to an anaemic draw with a Neil Warnock team is to get rid of two players? Mental.

[Dave in Newcastle]

HBA was a high wage player who was never going to get off the bench with Pardew as manager, and if he did it would be to take time away from Aarons. So I really don't have an issue with the move. Plus, now that we are saving on wages that must free up some money to sign a striker before the window closes- right? right? Maybe in January when we are sitting in 14th, I guess.