Oldies are goldies in the new Ashley era
YOUNG AND PRICEY OFF THE MENU AS UNITED OWNER WAITS FOR THE SALE OF HIS CLUB
MY how attitudes change through the significant acceleration of time.
Take Newcastle United’s fearless leader Mike Ashley.
When he first came amongst us all bristling with ideas on how to make a buck in football he laid down a definite club policy.
Signings had to consist almost exclusively of players in their early twenties who therefore could, with a fair wind, be sold on at a significant profit.
No one within sight of their 30th birthday was worth a bent penny to United’s owner. No sell-on value you see.
This was when the Chatty Man’s dad (Graham Carr) was spearheading a French revolution and anything up to six-year contracts were available as golden handcuffs while the turkeys were being fattened up for Christmas.
It happened all the way up to Ashley’s two biggest outlays – £20m for Miggy Almiron and £40m for Joelinton. Right age, attackers, ready to sell at a significant profit once early development kicked in. That was the theory.
As for ‘oldies’ they were far from golden. Salomon Rondon could only be signed on loan for a season and a permanent deal was scuppered despite the pleas of Rafa Benitez because one glimpse at his birth certificate showed that, heaven forbid, our centre-forward was all of 29 years of age and therefore nowhere near worth a £16m outlay. Even though he had just been voted Newcastle’s Player of the Year.
However, then came the Big Change. Ashley rapidly lost interest on a massive scale, seriously looked to sell, and within a short space of time was cosying up to a consortium of Saudis, brothers Reuben, and chief negotiator Amanda. From then on Steve Bruce could do what he liked. Age was of no consequence.
The only no-no now was spending decent money. No more Almirons or Joelintons. Not until Ashley had officially left the building. No splashing his cash when he wasn’t going to be around.
Being stuck with an ageing squad was no longer Ashley’s problem. He couldn’t care less. Someone else had to eventually sort things out.
Suddenly Oldies were goldies again. New contracts have been handed out recently to
John Gibson a player with a horrendous injury record Andy Carroll who turns 32 this coming season, Matt Ritchie who is 31 next month, and Jonjo Shelvey who will hit 29 before the new season is out. No need to spend hard cash on buying what would be more expensive replacements.
Signings? Sure, off you go. First up was goalkeeper Mark Gillespie who will celebrate his 29th birthday in the not too distant future but is a free transfer from Motherwell which qualifies him followed in the not too distant future perhaps by another guy for free Jeff Hendrick who is well within sight of his 29th too.
Excuse me, MA, what happened to the old rule book?
We’ve gone from ‘young with sell-on profit’ to ‘any age as long as cheap or free.’
It was too harsh to exclude all experience before but equally nonsense to bus in loads of cheapy older guys right now.
A pathetic transfer budget of between £30m and £35m, just to keep a Premier League club ticking over, allows Bruce little wriggle room for decent signings.
He dare not splash it all on just one player but instead has to make do and mend which is a guarantee of another long fight against relegation. Bring on new owners I say.
Age was of no consequence. The only no-no now was spending decent money.