Janmaat strike has us wondering what might have been for lost Toon talent

UNITED STILL FEELING EFFECTS OF SELL-OFF

NUFC Editor WATCHING Daryl Janmaat slalom through Chelsea’s defence as Watford hammered another nail in Antonio Conte’s coffin conjured up a conversation with Kevin Nolan about Newcastle United’s class of 2011 and what might have been for the club.

Janmaat’s superb run and finish on Monday night emphasised a talent first spotted by Graham Carr when he was sourcing a replacement for Mathieu Debuchy, who was being sold at a swift and sizeable profit by Newcastle.

It is also not the memory that most United fans – scarred by the second relegation of the Mike Ashley era – have of a player whose frustration at Newcastle’s plight did not manifest itself in the sort of performances that would get the club out of trouble.

Nolan told me of his intense frustration at the club’s decision to break up a strong dressing room that had the sort of spirit that Newcastle’s subsequent managers have tried to recreate with limited success. His contention was that by building on it, the club could have avoided the boom-and-bust cycle that followed the French revolution of 2011. There have been a few of these sliding-doors moments in Ashley’s decade in charge – where the club has felt close to making progress only for bad luck or poor judgement to send them into a downward spiral. And the Janmaat goal sent us back to 2015, and wonder ing what might have been with such a talented squad that lacked direction. In the subsequent summer, two of their best players were sold to clubs in the top six, where they regularly feature. Moussa Sissoko was £35m, Georginio Wijnaldum £25m, and they were joined by Janmaat through the exit door. Unsettled Florian Thauvin, now Ligue 1’s star man, was sold back to Marseille but suitors were quoted upwards of £30m when enquiries were lodged in the January window. You wonder what Rafa Benitez might have done with that talent had Newcastle stayed up or he’d been employed sooner. Currently tracking one point better off than McClaren did with a squad that’s probably worth less, Benitez would likely have reshaped the team in a different way