acrossthepond 900 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Keegan warns board about lack of depth Kevin Keegan wants "four quality signings" before the season begins and has warned Newcastle United's board that his current squad is ill equipped to withstand the rigours of Premier League combat. "Ideally I'd like about 20 new players," the manager joked after watching a renascent Damien Duff register a hat-trick during Saturday's deconstruction of Hartlepool. "Seriously, about four, about four quality players in the right positions." Should Dennis Wise and his cohorts in the club's recruitment department fail to deliver this quartet, Keegan envisages a harsh winter. "You just cannot go into the Premier League with the small squad we've got. There have definitely got to be some more signings in the pipeline; we only had 12 senior outfield players here." Absentees included Michael Owen, whose sore calf did not seem to concern his manager unduly, and Jonás Gutiérrez, the first of two signings this summer. The Argentinian winger is yet to be formally recognised as a Newcastle player because of a contract dispute with Real Mallorca but Keegan expects a resolution today. At least Newcastle fans had a chance to watch Danny Guthrie in midfield action. A second-half substitute, the £1m buy from Liverpool made one goal and scored one. Enthusing about the former Bolton loanee's passing and ball retention, Keegan hailed him as a "real Liverpool player". Even more encouragingly, the "real" Duff appeared to be strutting his stuff. Glenn Roeder, the Newcastle manager who brought him to Tyneside from Chelsea two years ago, constantly deflected questions about the poverty of the Ireland winger's performances by insisting: "Form is temporary but class is permanent." Here that class finally began to reassert itself as Duff, alternating between the right and left, dusted down his repertoire of defence-confounding tricks before bewitching spectators and bewildering Hartlepool in equal measure. "I think we've got to draw a line under what's gone before with Damien," said Keegan. "The lad's never had a pre-season in three years but he's worked so hard this summer. After 80 minutes it looked like he had a turbo-charger in him. He's back to the weight he was at 18; I think you'll see a different Damien Duff this season." The one area where Keegan's squad is reasonably well stocked is on the wings, with Duff, Gutiérrez, James Milner, Charles N'Zogbia and Geremi competing for places.... But in the full-back, centre-back and central midfield areas, skilled personnel remain alarmingly thin on the ground. "We haven't got competition everywhere; we need to address that," said Keegan. I'm liking this 1mil bit. Wasn't the price quoted earlier as 3-4mil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 That would be a steal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papa Lazaru 0 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 I'd like 4 in certainly, ideally a proven centreback with experience, creative midfielder, striker and a fullback and in an ideal wold this would all be combined with 2 or 3 squad players to bolster our ranks, but lets just hope for 4 quality players for now! I guess the other hope at the club is that by part of the way through the season 1 or 2 of the young lads might have stepped up to first team squad level at least and will provide some new options, but is always a gamble. On the plus side other teams will be playing regular european games midweek, will in theory be more tired, suffer more injuries and the like and hoefully KK can do what Bobby once did and make the very most out of a season not in europe to finish high up in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano 0 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Its good to see he's on some sort of same wavelength as us mear mortals, 4 new signings MINIMUM....id say 5 tbh, 2 fullbacks as cover, an experienced strong centre back, a creative midfielder is main priority and another striker is of massive importance too... Glen Johson Hubschman or Upson Konchesky or Warnock Rakitic or Moutinho Derdiyok Johnson...Pacey, works hard and fits age bracket.......4mil* Hubschman...Strong, great header and experienced...5mil* Upson...Experienced in premiership and solid tackler...4mil Konchesky...Extremely Solid in tackle and hard worker...2.5mil Warnock...great left foot, good crosser, good tackler...5mil* Rakitic...Better than modric imo, box2box and creative!.....8mil Moutinho...Number one target imo, silky passer, great 1st touch, good turn of pace....16mil but worth it!!* Derdiyok...Tall strong athletic lad, two good feet and scores with his head...10mil* 40mil well spent i think Do we have it though???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinofbeans 91 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 quick answer is no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 quick answer is no. My guess is we'll spend 20m net tops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoggeordie 0 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Wonder if we're in for Eider Gudjohnsen. Barca have said he can go and I reckon he'd be available for 5mill or so. Could do a job in midfield or up front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitman 2207 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 quick answer is no. My guess is we'll spend 20m net tops. Depends if Shola leaves. That might reduce our transfer budget Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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