Polarboy

We were linked with this lad a few weeks ago. He's 23, is predominantly a left winger but can play across a front three, although more as a second striker if he plays centrally, and has impressive numbers in both goals and assists these past two seasons, albeit in the Belgian league. At the price quoted he could more than worth a risk.

I'm glad you forgo twitter so you can spread your peace and love on here doll, and get away from all that negativity. A wise choice on your part 👍

As people have said it's odd that every winger apart from Diaby we've been linked with is predominately a left winger, although as mentioned Diaby is supposedly comfortable on either flank. Of course a lot of the players we've been linked to are likely just paper talk, but one or two are probably legitimate targets. So perhaps either Howe plans on switching ASM to the right, or the plan was always to sell ASM.

I would nearly veto Gordon purely on the fact that I don't like his face, but in fairness for his debut season he did pretty well. It could go either way but there's plenty of people who seem to think he has the potential to be a great player.

Transfer News: Anthony Gordon keen on joining Newcastle United (thehardtackle.com)

Mark Douglas inews: Newcastle and Everton are understood to be back on Armando Broja watch after West Ham dropped their interest in the Chelsea striker. Broja flew home from Chelsea’s US tour with an injury last week as Thomas Tuchel suggested that the player would stay at Stamford Bridge. But i understands Newcastle’s interest in Broja is ongoing and a loan offer may yet appeal to Chelsea, who don’t want to give up on the Albania striker but are struggling to find a role for him in their forward line. The Magpies are actively searching in the loan market now as they continue to hope to make a further transfer breakthrough before their Premier League opener against Nottingham Forest on Saturday 6 August. For his part, Broja is understood to want regular football and is fully aware that there is interest in him beyond the West Ham offer – which remained on the table until the club agreed a £30.5m deal with Sassuolo for towering Italy forward Gianluca Scamacca last week. Everton, too, are ready to progress discussions with Chelsea on Broja as they look to unlock their own frustration in the summer transfer window. Frank Lampard wants three more players after signing James Tarkowski and they also have an interest in Billy Gilmour, the Scotland and Chelsea midfielder. As i revealed last week, the mid-market for strikers is proving a difficult one for clubs attempting to lure similar players and Newcastle’s situation has been complicated by selling clubs applying a so-called ‘Newcastle premium’ to their valuations. The Magpies are attempting to structure deals to work within their budget. A document lodged at Companies House revealed the club have paid as little as £3m up front for England goalkeeper Nick Pope, with Burnley accepting three further payments of £2.33m over the next three years. Agents are also yet to realise the parameters of Newcastle’s project and some of the players offered to the hierarchy have not been aligned with the sort of characteristics that the club is actively scouting. They are looking for younger, up-and-coming players and have a budget to bring in players with an eye on boosting their under-23 set-up and creating a pathway to the first team. Newcastle believe some of the fees quoted have been unrealistic. They have been told to double their initial offer for Leeds winger Jack Harrison, who is rated at £35m by the Elland Road club. Offers for Everton’s Anthony Gordon and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have run into trouble while Brentford would want more than £40m for Ivan Toney, who is another player who has been of interest. It may force Newcastle abroad, with the club having asked about Rennes’ Ghana international Kamaldeen Sulemana and RB Salzburg striker Benjamin Sesko, who scored in their Bundesliga opener against Austria Wien on Friday. They have also scouted highly-rated forward Amine Gouiri of Nice, but he is understood to be a longer-term target for the Magpies. Newcastle’s struggles to bring in forward players mean that a clutch of Championship clubs are set to be disappointed in their attempts to sign the talented Elliot Anderson. Sources told i that ‘half the Championship’ have made approaches to the Magpies about Anderson, who has figured prominently in Newcastle’s pre-season programme. But he is currently set to stay at St James’ Park and may be in contention for the start of the Premier League season on August 6. He scored in a pre-season ‘training session’ friendly against Burnley in Portugal. The Magpies take on Benfica in their next friendly ahead of their season opener.

The only even vague logic to it would be that you might be able to negotiate one of them down to an acceptable price. It's probably nonsense based purely on the fact that we've been linked to all three.

Your original comment was lacking in logic. It more or less presumes we wouldn't want to upgrade our midfield based on how many mids we have, when as I've already pointed out Howe is open to getting whoever is available regardless of position, although it will obviously be an attacking player. He'll get whoever he thinks will improve the side depending on who's actually available. Paqueta would improve the side and as you say we have five players for three positions, not including Matty and Anderson, so one would need to go, hence my presumption you felt the same.

😂 If you say that were are already well stocked in midfield when we are talking of buying a new midfielder, then what other implication can be drawn?

And no I don't really think that you believe that our mids apart from Bruno are comparable to Paqueta, it was a rhetorical device given your mind boggling love of Shelvey when speaking of someone like Paqueta.

You're the one saying that we'd need to get rid of one of our mids to fit another one in, so who would you get rid of?, or are you seriously suggesting that a full Brazil international is inferior to any of our mids apart from Bruno?

Again it's not me who's having trouble with making the distinction between reality and fantasy. The context of the conversation is best case scenario in my eyes. In reality his wages likely would be a problem, but with his contract reupping in three games it would be best to move him on now to make room in the squad if we were to bring in another centre mid, if that were possible. It's likely only going to get more expensive to move him on the longer we wait.

Howe has also been quoted as saying that we made need to be flexible depending on who's actually available in the market. Howe - "I think you have to be adaptable. If we can't find the right player I might have to look at other positions. Certainly, we are looking at one or two players that could make the difference."

Players estimated prices are available to see on sites like transfermarkt which uses algorithms to calculate player prices . They aren't always accurate but more often than not are pretty close. And the prices for Paqueta and Diaby have been mentioned numerous times in the papers and online. The Diaby one is presumably more reliable than the Paqueta one, where it was said his asking price had been lowered from 60 odd million to 34m, given that we've been linked to Diaby for so long surely at least one decent journalist has gotten a quote from Leverkusen on his price. I could only work with the numbers that I've seen and use them even if they are only a rough guide. It should also be pointed out that clubs sometimes use the media to do their negotiations by leaking figures every now and again. So not everything is made up bullshit. In any case the main point I was making was that I'd be more than fine with sacrificing ASM if it meant we had the capital needed to get the other three. And I would also agree that nobody outside the club really knows either how much we have to spend or just how much we are willing to spend, but again I was just using the oft mentioned 50m as a rough guide.

Says who what? That we have 50m left, that ASM is supposedly worth 40m, or that the other two would cost roughly 90m.

Shelvey's contract is going to reup after his next three starts so he can be sold. By all accounts Paqueta is leagues ahead of him in talent and is also six years his junior. Apart from Willock we don't have a specialist attacking mid, although Bruno can play that position because he's just that good. And I didn't say we should play Paqueta out of position, if we were to ever buy him, I was merely pointing out that he can also play on the right wing, and as a second striker for that matter.

Because we supposedly have 50m left, ASM has been quoted at around 40m, and getting Broja on loan and buying the other two would cost roughly 90m.

You're going to need to be more specific in your top quality critique of my comment. And I literally said if I had a magic wand that is what I would do. I didn't say it was likely.

As people have said it's not a case of wanting to sell ASM, but if selling was the only way to get the other two I'd still think we'd be much stronger overall. And you may not think Fraser is premier league quality but I think he showed a fair bit of quality on the left for us when ASM was injured, and that's where the vast majority of his attacking returns have come for us. Indeed in his double figure in goals and assists season for Bournemouth he was played on the left. With a preseason under his belt from Howe he could offer much more than he's shown when being moved about position. Fraser on the left and Diaby on the right, and with all the other combinations I've mentioned wouldn't leave us stuck for people out wide. We would still need to reinforce the left at some point, but again we'd have significantly improved the midfield and attack with those players despite having to sacrifice ASM.

Assuming we did sell ASM, loan Broja and buy Paqueta and Diaby; Fraser, Joelinton, Diaby, and Almiron can play on the left. And Fraser, Diaby, Almiron, Broja and Paqueta can play on the right. We'd have plenty of options

If I could wave a magic wand I'd sell ASM, get Broja on loan, and buy Paqueta and Diaby. Paqueta and Diaby would cost around 90m so the club would likely want/need, who knows with how much we can or want to spend because of FFP, tired talking about it, to move for both Paqueta and Diaby. Diaby can play left or right pretty interchangeably, Paqueta can play on the right as well as centre and attacking mid, Broja can play wide right as well a centre forward, and we have Fraser who's decent on the left, in his favoured position, as he showed when ASM was injured last season. In my opinion he's not as effective on the right. Those three moves would leave us with a lot of flexibility in attack.

Edu, Arsenal's DOF has ruled out a move for Paqueta. He basically said he admires him but that they are already well stocked in that position, which I've said and seems obvious after then spent 30m+ on Fabio Veira. So it would appear we have a pretty clear run at him if he's actually a priority this window.

Newcastle ask about Rennes winger Kamaldeen Sulemana having rejected Leeds' £35m ask for Harrison | Daily Mail Online This one seems weird. 20 year old who's only made 26 apps for Rennes, scoring 5 and assisting 3, he can play on the left, the right, or at centre forward, but is predominantly a left winger. I know that sounds like the profile we're more or less after, but it's some real moneyball stuff trying to get players who you think are literally just about to mature, with comparatively little data to back up your analysis of the player. Although I suppose it's the same in regard to Sesko the young Slovenian kid. On top of all that Rennes supposedly value him at 30m having only bought him last summer for around 17m, transfermarkt say 13.5m and the paper say 17m. That's a lot of money for someone who's relatively unproven, but maybe the mail have got their numbers wrong. In any case surely we can find someone of equal talent to Harrison for less than the money Leeds are after in Ligue 1, La Liga, Serie A etc. And just to be clear, yes I know teams buy young promising players all the time, but they usually have a full season or two behind them. Ekitike, Sesko, and now this kid have literally just emerged in either major teams or leagues, having not even played a full season of games.