Weird Transfer XI - Some shockers in here!

There have been some weird transfers over the years. Some that just didn't make sense at the time and seem even worse when you look back. Here are some that stick in my mind: 

GK: Edwin Van Der Sar - Juve to Fulham.

The whole thing was just weird. Clearly too good for them. Eventually made his move to Man U and won it all. What's unreal is he was at Fulham for FOUR years. What a total waste of time.

RB: Mat Debuchy - Newcastle to Arsenal.

May not seem that weird but as a Newcastle fan, we couldn't believe Arsene Wenger paid us twice as much as we did for him, to take him off our hands. He's done nothing at Arsenal and none of us are surprised. Weird.

(I also have to mention Julian Faubert from West Ham to Real Madrid on loan. Very strange one)

CB: Laurent Blanc - Inter to Man Utd.

Seriously this one was weird for the entire time he was there. He was clearly too old and contributed to Fergie's worst ever season in the Premier League. So ridiculous. 

CB: David Luiz - PSG to Chelsea.

This one was weird right? No-one could understand it. He then helped them win the league. So weird. He's now not in the team. Not so weird.

LB: Mikael Silvestre - Man Utd to Arsenal.

I found this one just very strange. I couldn't get my head around it. Fergie never sells to a rival, so he must have been past it, but he wasn't that bad, which made it all just weird.

CM: Thomas Gravesen - Everton to Real Madrid.

Has there ever been a weirder permanent transfer? He actually played as well. Twilight zone.

CM: Edgar Davids - rocks up at Barnet.

This wasn't a transfer and he was player-manager (kind of) but come on. Edgar Davids playing for Barnet? Weirdo.

CM: Ivan Campo - Real Madrid to Bolton.

I could have put Fernando Hierro in this team or even Djorkaeff but Campo was still in his prime and had only recently stopped polishing his Champions League medal. He would spend six years at Bolton. Six.

FW: Nicolas Anelka - Fenerbahce to Bolton.

PSG, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Man City, Fenerbahce, Bolton, Chelsea, wait what? If Anelka were to go for a job interview, he would need to explain the gap in his CV for that 2-year spell at Bolton Wanderers. How? Why?

FW: George Weah - Milan to Chelsea.

This was just weird. It's like it never happened but it did and I for one can't forget it. George Weah was a mirage, a mysterious idol to be watched only on Football Italia, winning World player of the year. Not struggling to play up front with Chris Sutton. No. No. No.

FW: Ian Rush & John Barnes - Leeds & Liverpool to Newcastle.

First off, these are two players so technically makes my XI a 12 man team. However, they came at the same time and given their ability at their respective ages, they just about make up one players worth.

As a Toon fan, I watched Kevin Keegan sign Ferdinand & Ginola in 1995 and almost won us the league. I then saw Kenny Dalglish sell them both in 1997 & replace them with over the hill Ian Rush & John Barnes. What? I know they say 'sign what you know' but this destroyed our team and put the club back for years. Perhaps forever. Why Kenny? Why? Utter nonsense.

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Mike Ashley: Lies, Damned Lies And Spending Statistics

Now that the January window has slammed shut. Let's take a look at how much clubs spent on their squad and also net spend, for the season as a whole.

Newcastle Utd are the second lowest spenders with only £36 million being spent on permanent transfers. Only Bournemouth have spent less with £30 million.

Now, you could put the Cherries spend into context, in that they sold nobody and gave Defoe a massive contract & signing on fees for his 'free' transfer, so could be seen as more than £30m, but there we are.

If you look at Net spend (everyone's fave) then there are 6 clubs below Newcastle in the "table" who themselves had a net spend of a putrid £11m.

They are Liverpool, West Ham, Burnley, Arsenal, Swansea and Southampton. Now, let's look into that for all of two seconds.

Coutinho £146m, Ayew £18m, Michael Keane £30m, Oxlade-Chamberlain £35m, Sigurdsson £45m and Van Dijk £75m.


Each of those clubs had at least one major sale which drove down their net spend massively. Some had more than one.

Whereas Newcastle didn't. They sold their prized assets last season after relegation. The only option they had this year was to spend.

To put this into some context, if you look at fellow promoted teams in Brighton & Huddersfield who also have no prizes assets to sell.

They spent £57m & £49m respectively, with total net spends of £57m & £43.5m. This places them 5th and 8th in the net spend table.

This is where you would expect them to be given their lack of selling power. Brighton sold nobody for eg.



All of this means one thing. Mike Ashley has drastically under-funded his business that he is supposedly looking to sell.

To the point that if NUFC were to go down, it will be worth half as much and he will have cost himself millions.

He will also be unable to receive the total amount he has invested in his time at the club. Around £250m. So he will have lost money if and when he sells.

In the last two occasions that NUFC have gone down, he has been obliged to pump in his own money into the club to keep it running. The only time he has ever spent something himself.

"Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has loaned the club £33m to help it cope with the effects of relegation. ... The £33m loan has been made available through St James Holdings Ltd" - The Chronicle, 6th Jan 2017 

So even if he doesn't sell, he will cost himself millions by needing to spend to keep it running and there is no guarantee the club will bounce back up.

So to conclude, not only will relegation mean the business he is trying to sell will be worth half as much than if it were in the Premier League, but it will cost him a fortune to keep it running...again.

People say Mike Ashley is a sound businessman. They base this totally on his supposed wealth and Sports Direct.

When it comes to running a football club, he is arguably the dumbest owner in football history.

At least when other idiots make mistakes, they sell up and leave. The bloke has been here for 11 years!!!



He has learned nothing over that time. Nothing. What kind of a moron would act the way he acts over and over again? How dumb can you be?

He said if he couldn't find a buyer before Christmas he would invest in January, he lied. He spent nothing.

He said he turned PCP's £250m offer for the club down because he has other people willing to pay the £350m. He lied, he doesn't.

The man is a compulsive liar and has been proved to be so in court when Keegan took him to trial.

Yet, amongst all of this, his chosen mouthpiece in Sky still hire people like Craig Bellamy, Simon Jordan and Dennis Wise, plus others, to tell the viewing nation he has done a great job and that they really like him.

It's a disgrace that this man isn't known throughout the world of football for exactly what he is. A liar and a terrible football club owner. One of the worst, if not THE worst in history.

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