Hoping NUFC get hammered to force Newcastle United signings – Quite bizarre thinking

The transfer window closes at 11pm on Thursday night, so for those of us hoping for some Newcastle United signings, the clock is rapidly heading down to the window slamming shut.

It is frustrating because you can only sympathise with Eddie Howe, who for what at times feels like forever, has had close to half his first team squad unavailable for any particular match.

There does appear to be some hope of a trickle of players exiting the treatment room at last, however, for sure a couple of Newcastle United signings in the next 48 hours would be a massive boost on top of that.

How likely is it to happen? Not very likely it would appear, we are on day 30 of the 32 days the January window is open for, with no public signs of any potential action.

Anyway, on the subject of Newcastle United signings, I saw something quite bizarre earlier today.

It was a fan on social media (Twitter) who declared that the best possible thing was for NUFC to get hammered by Aston Villa tonight, as that would force some Newcastle United signings to happen.

How strange.

I looked back on his previous tweets and he does appear to be a genuine Newcastle fan (I won’t name the Twitter account / person to prevent embarrassment), not a case of a troll / mackem impersonating an NUFC supporter.

Reading the replies to this ‘Hope Villa batter NUFC so we get loads of signings’ Tweet was more encouraging, pretty much all of them putting this person right, some replies more polite than others…

Basically, they all said the same thing(s).

Pointing out that we weren’t still in the Mike Ashley era, spending the bare minimum to try and survive another season in the Premier League.

Pointing out that since the change of ownership there has been no reluctance whatsoever when it comes to signing players and that the current / new Newcastle United owners are fenced in by FFP restrictions, as are indeed many other clubs.

The vast majority of fans believing that if not for FFP dictating what you can do in terms of spending, that these new NUFC owners would be spending money on signings this window. Most fans understanding / accepting that only if one or more players is sold, could then potentially new players come in (FFP elbow room added etc etc).

The supporter who wanted Eddie Howe’s side to get battered tonight to ‘force’ the club to buy players, then replied to those challenging him, saying that if not possible to buy players this window, they should still at the very least be bringing in on loan a  defensive midfielder.

This is where I think the real world collides head on with wishful thinking.

If we are talking about a straight loan deal, then I suppose yes, there are no doubt plenty of defensive midfielders Newcastle United could sign this window.

However, one small problem, would they be good enough to go straight into this Newcastle United side and be able to excel in the Premier League (and FA Cup…)?

Who exactly are these defensive midfielders (or indeed players in other positions) that are good enough to play week in week out at a high level in the Premier League AND their clubs happy to let them go out on loan?

Eddie Howe said early on in this transfer window that nobody will be doing Newcastle United any favours with loan deals and indeed, why would they do any rival club a loan favour?

IMAGO/Every Second Media

Kalvin Phillips was much talked about and when he went to West Ham on a straight loan for the rest of this season, Eddie Howe was asked about it, he replied that any potential straight loan to Newcastle United had been deemed too expensive.

The Hammers are reported to have paid a £6m loan fee and covering his full wages on top of that, with no option of a permanent deal and agreed buying figure just for them, as part of that deal. So you are talking a deal that will cost West Ham more than half a million per game and left with no asset at the end of it, as Phillips goes back to Man City. This is without also factoring in just how long it will take Phillips to get up to speed, having played next to no football since last playing for Leeds 20+ months ago.

None of the established self-appointed elite clubs are going to do Newcastle any favours whatoever, these are the only clubs feasibly who have players who might be good enough to come and do a good job at NUFC the rest of this season on loan.

Any other Premier League clubs, they will be playing any players themselves that Newcastle might fancy doing a loan deal for.

This fan who thinks it would be easy to bring in a top quality defensive midfielder on loan this window, it makes me think of a classic Rowan Atkinson comedy sketch I once say, where he talked of ‘The blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat, that isn’t there!’