Tuesday, September 03, 2013

No news isn't good news

And so, once again, while everyone else leaves everything to the very last minute but still manages to secure beneficial deals, we're left with the "dog ate my homework" excuses - excuses that it'll be left to the Silver Fox to deliver, even though the failure is through no fault of his own.

With West Brom picking up Victor Anichebe and the Mackems' Stephane Sessegnon to bolster their goalshy attack and Arsenal spunking £42.5m on the admittedly brilliant Mesut Ozil, we were confirmed as the only Premier League club not to spend a single penny in the transfer window, the loan deal for Loic Remy our sole bit of business.

It wasn't even as though there seemed to be even the pretence of any effort. We reportedly put in a bid for Watford 'keeper Jonathan Bond, but that appears to have come to nothing. Demba Ba was linked with a move, though only to Arsenal or West Ham, and in the end stayed put as Chelsea rather surprisingly allowed Romelu Lukaku to leave on loan instead, joining Everton to fill the hole left by Anichebe. The Belgian would have been perfect for us - as would Ba, in truth.

Meanwhile, Andre Ayew and Bafetimbi Gomis also remained with their clubs, the latter responding to speculation by apologetically confirming as much on Twitter, and Villa - a club of similar stature and predicament to ourselves - were able to go out and sign an Czech international striker from Lazio, top scorer in last season's Europa League, for a very reasonable £7m.

I suppose that if there's any consolation, it's that Arsenal's preoccupation with the Ozil deal resulted in Dreamboat remaining on Tyneside, no follow-up bid having been received. The Frenchman has serious bridges to build, and there will be question marks over his commitment to the club (after all, he was clearly agitating for the move), but we do need someone who can pull strings in central midfield. It was also a relief when Arsene Wenger brought in Palermo 'keeper Emiliano Viviano, eradicating fears that the Gunners could still steal Tim Krul away too, while Gabby Logan declared: "Phew so relieved that NUFC haven't made a bad signing." Tongue firmly lodged in cheek there, I think...

Let's allow JFK the final word, though. "Judge me on my signings", he confidently declared. Well, OK - we will. You're a first-rate clueless cretin. Get out of our club.

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