When NUFC sold Fraser Forster for a fee of around £2 million in June of this year, I wasn't happy. Not one bit. For Newcastle United to develop a young local goalkeeper through our youth system, reserve team and by loaning him out to other clubs for first team experience, to then just sell him for a measly fee was ridiculous and needless. The reason it was a poor piece of judgement is because Forster, in my mind, had future England goalkeeper written all over him. So you don't sell future England goalkeepers for £2 million.
We all know Fraser Forster wanted to play first team football and he wasn't Newcastle's number one because of the even more impressive Tim Krul. But to sell him was needless considering he still had 2 years left on his contract. All we had to do was to continue the loaning him out strategy which benefited the club in 2 ways. A) he remains on the football club's books. B) He improves even more as a player because of first team experience.
Watching local lad Fraser Forster's performances against Barcelona home and away is a little sickening for NUFC fans. He was outstanding. He showed the whole of Europe what he is about. Yet he does it as officially a Celtic player with no ties to us except a former club on his CV. As I have already mentioned, he had 2 years left on his contract and for the fee that was agreed between the two clubs, it just wasn't worth it. How much is Fraser Forster worth now? How much would Celtic have to pay now to make Forster a permanent member of their squad in the summer? Even though he would only have one year left, more than £2 million. If they couldn't afford it then I have no doubts a Premier League team would be able to. I am fully expecting Celtic to be making a nice profit of Forster some time in the future. Like I say, sickening.
Another reason I didn't like this sale is what if a big, rich club fancies Tim Krul and writes Mike Ashley a large cheque to take him off our hands? Then where would we be? Who would we replace Krul with? There aren't many keeper's out there that are a) as good as Krul, b) would be available to sign, c) would be affordable and d) would be remotely interested in signing for NUFC. If we had kept Forster at the club for another year and merely loaned him out like the previous few seasons, then the replacement would be straight forward. We'd thank Tim for all he has done, cash the cheque and then be safe in the knowledge that a keeper who has with stood the might of Barcelona home and away would take over our goalkeeper position.
Roy Hodgson has announced his England squad and it involves Forster once again. I always knew Forster would make the England squad, but I didn't think it would be quite this soon. This one is a real kick in balls for our football club. Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias love a good deal so they should be asking themselves, 'we sold an England goalkeeper who shut out Barcelona for £2 million?', and be drinking a large brandy as they are doing so. Well done boys. Cracking deal that one.
Forster has been trained through our system. He has gone onto play in the Champions League and beat Barcelona. He has gone onto become a member of the England squad. And what do Newcastle United get out of all this? £2 million. Ridiculous, laughable, pointless mistake. I didn't like the sale at the time, it made no sense to me. I just plain hate it now. The fact we replaced Forster with Rob Elliott for £500k is just embarrassing.
All the best Fraser I hope you go on to accumulate countless caps for England and who knows, maybe even come back to us one day. Geordie boy did good.......for somebody else. Where have we heard that before?
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what you fail to mention is that during those 3 years of loaning out he has been trained by the other clubs coaching staff. Newcastle have had virtually nothing to do with him during this spell. He was a raw up and comming lad when he was loaned out and has been polished by other clubs into the player you see now. Newcastle's loss (and stupidity to let him go, and to also say Scottish football is below standard)is another clubs gain. He'll be back in the Prem before much longer and Celtic will pocket the cash from his sale.
ReplyDeleteThis is also true. We were benefiting from other clubs training him up as a first team keeper. Makes it even more stupid.
DeleteIf we'd got a generous fee for him, say around £5 million, then I could have understood it. What have we done with the £2 mil Celtic gave us?
Well done Fraser Foster. I can remember a Shay Given Left Celtic on a Free in 1994 and ended up being a Newcastle Legend Via Blackburn of course.
ReplyDeletePaybacks a bitch. ; D
DeleteHindsight is a wonderful thing when he was loaned out the consensus was he was rubbish and not good enough for scottish football let alone Newcastle, agree we shouldn't have let him go but that decision has only been made to look poor on 2 good displays in 2 games against Barca.
ReplyDeleteI think he has done a heck of a lot more than just have "2 good displays". At Celtic he has broken GK records, for cleans sheets etc... He has recently established himself within the England set up as a genuine candidate for a cap.
DeleteThe list goes on with what he has achieved since he went to Celtic.
So still think it was just the 2 displays within the last 2 weeks?
Yep, he was very good for Celtic last season. Clean sheet record and some very good displays. Then we agree to sell him for £2 million.
DeleteIt was ridiculous. This time we had 3 strong keepers. We're going to be down to just one very soon, when Harper eventually retires. Maybe even none if Krul is sold...
On the flip side though the club could have held onto him, loaned him out again but at the end of the remaining 2 years of his contract when he still maybe wasn't getting 1st team football and Krul is still here he could have left for free.
ReplyDeleteI think the club took the decision to get some cash for him whilst they good. Obviously after a high profile performance last night and an England call up then hindsight maybe says we should have got more for him.
I just hope when we did sell him we inserted some decent sell on clauses, England appearances clauses etc in there.
Well losing him for free wouldn't have happened as we would make a decision to keep him with a new contract or sell him next summer. We wouldn't have got less than the £2 million so it was unnecessary to sell him when we did.
DeleteGiven the fact he is worth more than £2 million now, that decision is just embarrassing. I'm mortified we sold him so cheap.
He has 2 good games & everyone thinks he is a superstar! He might've refused to sign a new contract given that he wanted first team football & wasn't going to get it in front of the better keeper in Krul. Yes he broke the clean sheets record last season in the SPL but that was in a season when Celtic had no-one to touch him, he done nothing for most of that season. Also, from what I have seen, for 6ft 7inches he can be suspect at coming out for crosses. Jak Alnwick is a much better long term prospect IMO. You can never keep 2 top keepers happy at the same club, we were lucky with Harper & Given.
DeleteKeeping 2 keepers happy is always a problem. But if you want to be a top club you have to figure a way out. What if Krul gets a serious injury? Harper or Elliot have had there moments but just aren't good enough. FF could have been recalled if needed.
DeleteFinding a top keeper is very difficult. To let one go who we brought through was foolish. The decision should have been made next summer with on year left on his deal. Not this one. Jal Alnwick has a lot of potential. One for the distant future
To be fair only a year ago us celtic Fans wanted rid of Big fraser as we couldnt understand why he was signed again on loan as he kept making errors the previous season, so Yep i'll eat humble pie and Our Boss Lenny has been proved right again, however as painful as it is i think Newcastle thought the Same way we did for so much of last year. Good on the Big man for proving the majority wrong.
ReplyDeleteRo.
Your the only Newcastle fan that wanted him to stay. The disrespect all Newcastle fans have shown to forster, Celtic and Scotland has been shocking! Pardew has been the same. Open your eyes to the world of football and not just to your over inflated premiership you might notice good players and hard working teams in so called lesser leagues. Celtic do that and paid 900,000 for Wanyama.
ReplyDeleteWell a) Plenty of fans felt similar to me b) Not many fans or Pardew has disrespected Forster or Celtic. The league probably, but it is poor. c) NUFC are the best team in the Premier League to get in top players for small fees. Do you know anything about this club?
DeleteI think you'll find NUFC do not pay overinflated prices. We have one of the best scouting networks in the UK, Tiote, Ba, Ben Arfa, Cabaye & Santon all bought for less than Sunderland paid for Fletcher!!!!!
DeleteI actually thought he was really poor as a keeper in his first season at Celtic & as a Celtic fan i wanted the Polish keeper we were linked with (Sandomierski) but Lennons judgement was spot on, he kept banging on about Forsters class & saying he was a top, top keeper. Forster is as good as Krul, easily.
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