Graham Carr, Newcastle Chief Scout

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Debuchy was hands down the best right back in the league.

Azpi says hello.........

[YouNameIt 1,511]

And we have signed Cahill, Luiz, Azpi, Thibaout, Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Ba etc.

[SinineUltra 1,164]

And we have signed Cahill, Luiz, Azpi, Thibaout, Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Ba etc.

Unless scouts scout our managers, they are not doing a bad job shown by the example of quality signings YouNameIt mentioned.

[teignman 441]

Sissoko and Matuidi have been the best B2B players in Ligue 1 for a few seasons now. It's not like he found some rough diamond no one heard of.

Cabaye was hands down the best central playmaker in the league before his move.

Debuchy was hands down the best right back in the league.

etc. He really hasn't done anything special. It's more the fact that since they're not a 'top club' with the shittest board in football history they don't and can't buy the very biggest names.

I disagree on some of the ratings you give for some of the players you mention (Debuchy mainly), but overall I agree with your main point that Carr isn't doing anything special. It's not rocket science. He's recognizing market inefficiencies and making player purchases accordingly. Anyone, in any sport in charge of player acquisitions for their club, that is worth their salt should be availing themselves of this tactic. One may then ask, "Why aren't Chelsea doing this, or at least something similar?" That's an excellent question, as we've started to, but seem to show a great deal of hesitancy to make this the rule and not the exception.

[Steve 10,227]

Sissoko - £2.2m

Carr is a wet dream for every club under pressure from the FFP regulations..

The thing is he was out of contract in the summer. Anyone who was willing to put a bid in would of been able to snap him up. A few clubs tried for him also so it was not only Newcastle. Our board is too stubborn to look at players like this anyway. Not because they are not good enough but simply because we are run by idiots.

[Igi26 346]

And I talked about him not long ago. When Newcastle wasn't even interested. Well we will buy him for 20MIL from Newcastle.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Sissoko is great and i could have seen he'll be a big succses in England, but he's not the player we need in midfield, and we have a player with abilities that reminds his (Ramires). We dont need to go after every good player.

[chelsea_4_eva 1,144]

i'm pretty sure they would've given a different price tag for us, the usual +3mil because we're chelsea.

[Term-X 7,891]

And we have signed Cahill, Luiz, Azpi, Thibaout, Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Ba etc.

Granted, things have improved since the Torres fiasco.

Luiz however was far from 'value for money' at £21m, same for Ramires at £17m, the club overpaid.

[Badboy 1,526]

Newcastle have a great transfer policy and it's something that is going to develop them as a club in the next 5 years. They clearly have a very good European scouting network and it's clearly not as easy as what some people on this thread have suggested otherwise clubs like Everton and co would of done the same.

[teignman 441]

Sissoko is great and i could have seen he'll be a big succses in England, but he's not the player we need in midfield, and we have a player with abilities that reminds his (Ramires). We dont need to go after every good player.

I agree to an extent, especially the Ramires comp, but at this point we have an appalling dearth of CM's. This and the fact Sissoko just turned 23 last August and could still improve by some measure.

On the financial side, his fee was £2.2m, and he was reportedly on less than 20k a week at Toulouse. Even if we matched the duration of his contract with the Geordies (6.5 years) and doubled his wages his total cost over the life of his contract (fee included), his cost would've have been a little over £14m. And that my friends, is a hell of deal for a player of his age, abilities, and potential. He would have plenty of resale value as well.

[Spike 12,049]

Sissoko never impressed me in the Ligue 1 and one great match against Chelsea isn't going to change my mind.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

What we got to remember is, even if he did find such players for us. We're still Chelsea.

What I mean by this is, clubs see us coming for their players and we automatically pay x2, x3 or even x4 of what they would charge a club like Newcastle. They know we have a reputation for paying over the odds for players and they hold us to ransom.

Like Newcastle paid £5m for Cabaye. We'd have been looking at something like £15-20million. You can argue that Cabaye is worth that, but then if all the other signings Newcastle made (like Cissé, Tiote, Debuchy, HBA, etc) were inflated for us. We'd be f*cked.

I don't think it's about the scout, I think it's coming down to the people who are leading the negotiations for these players that's the issue.

[Styles 9,790]

Sissoko never impressed me in the Ligue 1 and one great match against Chelsea isn't going to change my mind.

He just looked like a great athlete and nothing more. There's nothing impressive about outplaying our current midfield because it's rubbish. Maybe if he put in this kind of performance against top quality midfielders it would have been impressive but against Lampard and Ramires? Ehh, good game but nothing more. We'll see how he does for the next year or two.