With Manchester United and City aiming to offload some of their players in the summer, Newcastle went sniffing for a bargain. Neighbours Sunderland might have snapped up a couple of defenders, but the Magpies brought in a Red Devil of their own in the form of Gabriel Obertan. However, would Alan Pardew have been better served to do his shopping in the blue half of Manchester? With an England international in the form of Shaun Wright-Phillips available, I would argue that he would have been.
For me, Newcastle’s game against QPR at Loftus Road on Monday showed the Toon Army what they could have had. While Obertan wasn’t particularly poor, he didn’t stamp his mark on the match in the way that SWP most certainly did. Ryan Taylor isn’t a natural left back, but Wright-Phillips ran him ragged and any Newcastle fan would have found it hard to begrudge him a goal. So why did Newcastle turn down an established Premier League player in favour of someone who can realistically only be described as a flop?
The answer comes in the form of Newcastle’s transfer policy. Obertan ticked all the boxes as far as the Newcastle hierarchy were concerned. He’s French, he’s 22 and he cost just £3 million. SWP on the other hand would have commanded much higher wages, probably cost a fair bit more in terms of a transfer fee, and at 29 has little re-sale value. However, I would argue that Newcastle have gone about their business the wrong way.
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In principal I support Newcastle’s policy of scouring Europe for the best young players and picking them up on the cheap, rather than paying a premium on English players from the Premier League. However, you do need a core of players with experience of domestic English football in your squad and with Newcastle having lost Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton in the summer, that’s a lot of theirs gone. QPR on the other hand have brought in a load of Premier League players, with more than half having a lot of top flight experience in this country under their belt and it showed on Monday when they were clearly the better team.
Newcastle were very poor going forward on Monday and will need to drastically improve against Aston Villa this weekend. Someone like SWP would have been a great attacking threat, but instead we’ve got Obertan who has plenty to prove. Newcastle might have done their shopping in the Trafford Centre in the summer, but they’d have been better off buying a little gem from the Etihad Stadium.
While SWP isn’t wearing black and white, here’s a Newcastle beauty that is!
Obertan is a headless chicken and utterly useless you can tell a player is useless very quickly and 99% of the time will be proved correct, he has potential in the same way Shola Ameobi did (has).
Shola ameobi does very little leg work and if that is our best option as striker then these first 4 games have all been pure luck. on the other hand, leon best has alot of proving to do but is still my first choice over ameobi every time. Mondays game against QPR was shocking,there was no inspiration from anyone apart from danny simpson and steve taylor. Guttierez was very good as always but he looked so disappointed in the lack of effort from the rest of his team mates. We need to be capitalising on our good start to the season, we still have some very good players but as long as mike ashley is in charge we will always be a bussiness first and a football team second. we have no ambition and if if we had some backing and vision like QPR then we could really challenge for a top 6 spot.
its only a few games in! Think about it if we can b 4th in the table and played as poorley as we have then whats gonna happen when we play well? A win at villa would give the team a massive boost! Toon toon toon!
Wow Tony, if your such a good talent scout who can spot who’s useless so quickly why don’t you apply for Carr’s job?
Please folks, it’s way too soon to get on Obertan’s back. Give the man a chance.
Yeah SWP is that good that he couldn’t even score against us, so in comparison, I’d rather have Obertan on his wages than pay SWP the amount he’s getting without the end product as he shown in various clubs all his career….
I agree with toon69 SWP did run riot but his end result was absolutely zero what do you want guys someone who covers every blade of grass but does nothing except draw his fantastic pay cheque or someone who is developing and looks handy now I believe Obertan will be the better buy in the long run give the lad a chance or are you getting so instant result minded that like Tony believe that you can write a guy off after just a handful of games.Stop moaning and whining get a life and start supporting the team.
How old is Wright-Philips now? About 30, and if he’s so good how come he missed about 4 chances. And has always been a ‘nearly man’. No thanks.
SWP tore us apart but proved he has no end product. It won’t be long before Barton starts telling him how to cross a ball. Surprised they have Dyer in the same side because he’s another ‘nearly’ man. Obertan is still very young and I have some very fond memories of so-called headless chickens in our team.
This Tony hasn’t got a clue about football. I think Obertan had really good skill, but seems to be lacking in confidence. If he gets his confidence i’d like to see him taking on players with a bit of flair as he has the foundations there to do that.
Like all our new players they’ll need time.
Time that some fans won’t give.
Let’s hope the players don’t read these comments.
It’s embarrassing.
We’ll see the best out of these players next season.
Obertan is only 22 … lots of good years ahead of him in a b&w shirt.
HWTL
btw SWP will disappear in a few games, he was on an adrenalin rush against a midfielder playing LB.
Ashley’s transfer age limit is one of the few things that he’s got right.
We have got to stop being so impatient and critical of our players. Are me the most discontented fans around? SWP has not done much in the last 5 years just gone from one club to another picking up a cheque for nothing. He wasnt even played by most of his clubs of late. He was off loaded! I think he flatters to decieve personally. Give Obertans a break hes only played 4 games ffs. ANy of you out there do any better? Yeh hes cheaper so that dosent always make his a bad player. Think of when we had Owen expensive and useless. Obertans has plenty of time to come good, just like enrique did and Barton. Stop knee jerk judging and being jealous sad to say lads QPR has more money than us so let them crack on with SWP who is 29 and who may of just had the best game of the season, and still didnt score. Lets not forget he is pretty injury prone too.
How reactionary and fickle are some of the remarks here?
1) we start by using strong adjectives like “wrong” an over the top remark to sensationalise the content.
2) We make pronouncements based on one game where newcastle were far from there best (as was barton) and understandably so. It was an emotional night for many of us – and emotions cloud our judgement
3) Someone has the gall (pun – get it?) which is their right – to castigate Obertan – who was one of our better midfielders against QPR.
4) New players need time… Ben Arfa scores a brilliant goal and is pronounced a demi-god. He was very poor in the home game after that… the jury’s still out on him IMO
5) Cabaye was one of our best players against Sunderalnd and Fulham but our least effective midfielder against QPR – jury is still out
6) Obertan has many qualities of what it takes to be a ManU player. He has a very good short game and his radar is good. He’s not playing like Nani or young Ryan Giggs yet but remember he’s been sitting on the bench or playing in the reserves – one thing I did notice….
against Fulham he was running diagonaly form left to right with ball and going nowhere or so we thought. THEN he looked up and picked out Ba with an inch perfect pass – a la wayne rooney dare I suggest….
I’ve a background in statistics. Give any new player 15 games before you start pronouncing career limiting judgements
Howay the Lads
WRONG!
SWP is a quick player and thats all! He has little/no crossing ability, his passing is poor and if he wasn’t Ian Wright’s adopted son, he’d be playing in The Conference.
Obertan has pace and the potential that SWP has never realised. His passing has looked neat and he’s got a lot to offer.
It’s early days and he’s just settling in, it makes me sick when people start slagging our players off without giving them a chance!
Oh did I mention we’re 4th in the league?!
SWP COULD NOT CROSS A ROAD , WHY BITCH OBERTAN ALLREADY, HE HAS JUST COME IN TO A TEAM AND PLAYING FULL WHACK CHASING SHADOWS , HE WILL SETTLE IN , LIKE ALL THE OTHER BARGIN BASEMENT BUYS .LETS JUST STAY UP THIS SEASON , AND BY NEXT YEAR WE SHOULD BE A SOLID MID TABLE TEAM, THAT IS ALL WE WILL GET WITH THE FAT TWAT IN CHARGE, MAKE DO AND MEND
i still rate Stephen Ireland