So, that’s it then, the transfer window closed yesterday with Newcastle United as expected conducting little business save to send Vuckic to Wigan on loan, extend Ferguson’s loan deal at Millwall and complete Oliver Kemen’s curious move to Lyon having never kicked a ball for United.
Contrary to speculation we didn’t sell Perez to Spurs and nor did anyone come in with serious offers for Cisse, Sissoko, Willamson, Tiote, Obertan , Krul , Elliot or Goufrann as had been widely rumoured over the last few weeks.
Charlie Austin remains at QPR despite rumours to the contrary all summer and some heavy duty action on betting 
exchanges as well as house hunting missions in Darras Hall. The West London club have likely priced Austin out of a move as well as themselves out of between £8-10m despite relegation and the scrutiny of Financial Fair Play (remember that?).
The spin from the club and its partners in the media is that United may invest £100m over the next three windows though no-one from the club is substantiating any of that. There is a lot of talk about having made investments in quality rather than quantity and so on and so forth.
We now definitely know what we have been left with. This is our lot until January at the earliest but United seldom spend serious money in January as a rule so its likely it for the season.
Mike Ashley has said the target this season for McClaren and his players is the top six and a run in the Cups.
Is that feasible with the resources at the club’s disposal?
Is McClaren capable of achieving that target this season?
Is there enough quality and quantity at Newcastle United to make a significant improvement on last season’s dire showing?
We want to know your views and the comments boxes as below are an ideal way for you to express your opinion and exchange views with your fellow supporters.
Off you go lads and lasses …
Top 6?! We are bottom 3, our new star-striker is out for 3 games, we are collecting yellows at a rate of knots and we haven’t even had any injuries yet. Meanwhile, everyone (apart from Sunderland) are stronger than last year and the newly promoted teams can play a bit of football and get results.
I am as grateful as anyone that Carver is not the manager, but we are getting carried away: our feel good factor comes from a sense of relief, not because we have been transformed into an above average team. We’d be lucky to finish just above relegation which might just give us enough time to build a proper team next year. This is going to be a very difficult winter.
Bang on mate !
Although it was going to be tough start it hasn’t been great has it ?
All the other sides in the league play decent football apart from us and Sunderland.
McClaren is basically being given the benefit of the doubt at the moment but i still think The so called “Football Board” are still subverting people’s thinking into buying into a situation which is being talked up to more than it actually is !
Well I think we could win the league
I’m mildly encouraged, and didn’t expect anything like the ‘capital outlay’ that’s been made (even though, as others have commented, it’s money from reserves, and as such not really an investment).
I also expected to lose a lot more than Cabella, so some crdit to the club there too.
I think we’re much further forward than I expected us to be, and the new signings (especially Thourvin) look like good investments that will improve us over time.
I still think we’ll finish miles outside the top six (I’ll optimistically predict top ten, but I’m notoriously gash at this kind of thing), but I feel quietly confident of a reasonable run in one of the cups.
I’m feeling much happier going up the hill to SJP than I have in a while, and communication seems to be better from Penfold and the board, but their shoddy treatment of the Magpie Shirt lads is a major step backwards if they are serious about engaging the fans. Seems like lot of fuss to make over a few thousand charity shirts. They could so easily have turned that into a major PR coup by making a sizeable donaion to the SBR foundation. An opportunity missed.
Overall, a decent window, but much more needs to be done over the next 2 to 3 to put us back on a proper competitive footing, and I fear how we’ll get on when the inevitable injuries to first team players crop up.
7/10. Shows promise, but could do better.
Not convinced…
I still think we buy what we think can be turned into a profit rather than what we actually need…
6/10 – Heading in the right direction but there is more to do. The club cannot rest on its laurels and if SMC is serious about pushing towards the top end of the Prem then there needs to be more investment, ideally coupled with one or two younger players from the reserves knocking on the manager’s door. I appreciate that this is out of the head coach’s control but good coaching will help. Was the summer spend an indicator of a new strategy or a one-time response to last season’s woes?
As others have noted, we’re still a bit light up top and at LB. And that’s before we get injuries.
We appear to have signed some good players on what we’ve seen so far, though probably not quite enough. The jury is still out on Mitro but he put ina good performance against manu which suggests he can be, temperament permitting. Another defender and striker would have made it a lot better. Also getting rid of the fringe players would have been a plus. It seems we are trying to get good money for players we should really be (almost) giving away.
either way it was always going to be a difficult start bearing in mind the new setup and players. However, the view so far is more positive than either Pardew and Carver. As for the future, who knows but i believe a bit more in what McClaren says re the next few windows than the previous management regime. Time will tell but Ashley is still a can of worms. He hasn’t invested, just spent the money in the bank.
The transfer widow was decent and I’m giving the club the benefit of the doubt for the time being.
It’s good they’ve added seemingly decent players to the squad with nobody going who we really wanted to stay (although I’ve already almost forgotten about Cabella – might have been nice to see if he could crack it given more time). They could do with more but the situation after last season was so fucked they’d need a magic wand to put it right in one summer. On that note, the club still has a bunch of blokes on the books that it appears either want to leave or aren’t wanted – including for whatever reason big earners Tiote and Cisse – it’s something that clearly needs sorted.
Decent window but sadly let down by the inability to get rid of the deadwood (i.e Obertan, Williamson and Gouffran)
nee defenders! same old rubbish at the back.
Top 6? Nah. Top half at a push.
Cups? We can beat Sheff Wed but I am not convinced of the depth of the squad should injuries occur.
We’ll be significantly improved though that can’t be hard to do.
What I’d like to know is what the plan is for January – are we sure of targets to go for or will we be happy to just risk none if we’re sitting midtable?