Newcastle United - Premiership Preperation

Hi all, hope you are well and good. After winning the Championship trophy back in May I now had the task of keeping Newcastle in the Premiership and beyond. In today's blog I will go through the ins and outs of my team and I will talk about my preferred starting XI and then talk about my pre-season matches.

Transfers Out

Not a mass exodus that I thought I needed but quite some noticable selling. Kevin Nolan didn't really shine in the Championship and I preffered to play Guthrie. Barton hardly played and I felt he wanted to find a club where he was playing week in week out. Other players felt I could keep but I wanted to see if they could prove it at another club first before trying it out. Xisco stayed in England so that I could see how he played the English game.

Transfers In

I felt I did could have done better in this transfer window and I wanted to sign more players on permanent deal but they didn't want to come. So I was stuck with loans on some players

Andrea Consigli

One of the more important positions I needed to change. Even thought Steve Harper is a good keeper and one which I will use as a back-up I wanted get a better keeper in anyway and Consigli fit the bill

Nicolas Burdisso

Burdisso will be used a cover as I dont think that Willamson or Kadar are particarly able in the Premership and I needed some experience.

Dan Gosling

If I was going to play the formation that I wanted to change to then I would need a defensive midfielder so sit in the hole just infront of the defence. Gosling was one of my main targets in the first place.

Guido Davi (loan)

After selling both Nolan and Barton I needed a central midfielder to push Guthrie and Smith for a starting position and I felt Davi was the most relistic person of that job.

Federico Macheda (loan)

Needed a goalscoring striker but couldn't get anyone on a permanent basis so decided to get Federico Machedo on loan. Will be on a rotation basis with this striker until I decide who is better.

Stefano Okaka (loan)

Again couldn't get this player on a permanent basis but I will put in an offer for the end of the season if he impresses me. Now onto my pre-season.

I was generally quite pleased with my pre-season results with a 100% record with the games at home but the defeat to Charlton was probabally the worse of the lot.

I will now talk about my preffered starting 11.

Playing with the 4-5-1 system meant that I could get Jonas and Wayne Routledge into the game and effectively use them as wide forwards. Gosling will be the start of my attacks and the player who will win the ball back for my team.

The next post will should be ready by tomorrow and I will tell you about the first month of my Newcastle Premiership season.

Thanks for reading 

Warren