Wayne Routledge was a good signing for Newcastle United

• Routledge - Arrived on Tyneside for £1m in a successful transfer period

6 signings, no last minute stuff, and the majority for less than £1m. Mike Williamson, Danny Simpson, Wayne Routledge, Fitz Hall, Patrick van Aanholt and Leon Best all arrived at Newcastle in this January transfer window. 4 permanent signings, two loan deals. With Jose Enrique injured, Patrick van Aanholt has shown very promising signs in the Black and White shirt, and it seems as if he’s a very similar player to Jose, which is always a good find. Danny Simpson will fit in at RB, and will sturdy up competition with Ryan Taylor who arrived this time last year and hasn’t shown the best of form just yet.

You’ll probably ask why we didn’t get Victor Moses. Apparently, we wouldn’t match the asking price of Crystal Palace which was £2.5m. A ‘snip’ as described by Eagles boss Warnock and how right he was. If the rumours are true that £500k was the difference between us landing one of the most highly rated youngsters in England and not, then Chris Hughton might regret it for the rest of his life, although it might have been Mike Ashley’s restraints.

However, in comparison to last year that saw us add 3 players in Peter Lovenkrands, Kevin Nolan & Ryan Taylor, January 2010 has been a successful period in which we strengthened all necessary positions.

With Steven Taylor injured for a while it seems, Mike Williamson has too shown promising signs at the heart of the defence and with a height of 6’4&, he might just grab a few goals for the Toon this season as well 🙂

Adding up all the transfers, Routledge for £1m, Williamson for £1.2, Danny Simpson for 500k and Leon best for a reported fee of 650k it brings January’s total expenditure to nearly £3.5m if my quick maths are correct. And although Nolan cost £4m last January, we were a Premier League side then, and that fee was perhaps below average for a midfielder of his caliber.

All in all, we’ve spent about the same amount of money, however, we barely received any transfer fees this Winter period as Hughton managed to keep hold of his current squad, and wasn’t forced to sell the likes of Coloccini, Taylor, Nolan and Smith as some fans expected.

I must say, it’s been a  good feeling waking up in the morning and seeing us lined with players and then actually following up with bids. Throughout the transfer period we were linked with Jermaine Beckford, whom we did submit a couple of bids for. Likewise with James Perch, Matthew Kilgallon and more recently Victor Moses.

The lads now need to concentrate on the vital upcoming games, none less then our home affair against an in-form Cardiff City, and back on form Michael Chopra. I’m sure the former Toon lad would love nothing more than the dent Newcastle’s title hopes 😀

Hopefully though we’ll get our act together and see a drastic improvement on the performance at Leicester City, a pretty dire affair to say the least, although credit to Nigel Pearson’s battling 10 men.

It’s been a better year so far, but it will all go to waste if we don’t get promoted to the Premier League come May.

Comments welcome 🙂

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