who are our purples now?

[waalsendmick]

Pardew used to have his purples....


sir Bobby had his blue chip players.....


who are ours now?

[NorthernRock]

Pardew used to have his purples....


sir Bobby had his blue chip players.....


who are ours now?

Shelvey, Lascelles, Clarke, Merino, Ritchie, Gayle in my opinion.

[Jammy89]

Pardew used to have his purples....


sir Bobby had his blue chip players.....


who are ours now?

Ritchie
Lejeune (i think he was bought for first team starter)
Clark
Lascelles (For attitude rather than first team spot)
Shelvey
Gayle (although 50/50 on this one since were prepared to sell)

[Zippity]

Good thread. :)

Mind, when you sit down and think about it...there's a glaring gap up front given that Rafa doesn't rate Mitro but was worried enough about Gayle to put Mitro on the bench ahead of him. Begs the question 'do we really have a blue chip striker'?

Lejeune
Clark
Merino
Ritchie
Shelvey

[ex_pat_magpie]

Good thread. :)

Mind, when you sit down and think about it...there's a glaring gap up front given that Rafa doesn't rate Mitro but was worried enough about Gayle to put Mitro on the bench ahead of him. Begs the question 'do we really have a blue chip striker'?

Lejeune
Clark
Merino
Ritchie
Shelvey

And that is one thing we do need. An automatic Blue Chip Striker.

[waalsendmick]

Good thread. :)

Mind, when you sit down and think about it...there's a glaring gap up front given that Rafa doesn't rate Mitro but was worried enough about Gayle to put Mitro on the bench ahead of him. Begs the question 'do we really have a blue chip striker'?

Lejeune
Clark
Merino
Ritchie
Shelvey

that list says it all.... you NEED a good spine to your team. full backs and wingers can be rotated.

we have no definite 1st choice goalkeeper and no 1st choice striker!

[Nephy]

Several of you list Merino. He does look good, but we've only seen him play a few games! Hardly a 'purple' in the way our established star players were in the past. However, one thing I'll say is that Rafa has always known the importance of a strong squad over individual stars, and that's definitely what we've been building towards. He put together a really strong squad for the fizzy, and whilst this window hasn't been perfect, it's clear that we're continuing down the road of building for depth rather than splurging on a couple of marquee signings.

[Zippity]

Yeah, I did pause before including Merino. I know you could point to Sissoko's Chelsea debut and compare what we all thought then with how it turned out but Merino's performance was more 'quietly' impressive, if you see what I mean.

Plus, I thought the list looked a little short. XD

[waalsendmick]

we list Lejeune too..... and we've seen even less of him!

[Zippity]

Aah, but the little we saw looked good... XD

[waalsendmick]

as with merino

[NorthernRock]

Aye, but I'm pretty certain Lejuene and Merino are 2 quality players tbh.

Fair point Mick but if you include our number 9 and maybe Woodman considering how highly he's rated then we do have a solid core of "purple" players.

It's a solid core of British players too.

Whilst we're talking about purples, Ritchie is our best player, I can't believe he get's so little credit tbh, such a good team player, I honestly think he could play for any team and slot in. Not on technique alone, but you add both feet and hardwork with a bit of guile and you realise how good he is.

I have the same opinion with Gayle too. How can a man hit more than 20 goals and still not considered by many as a "purple" or important player? Give him a few games to settle (we were pretty **** first 2 games for various reasons) and I guarantee he'll score goals, he's a natural finisher.

We'd be stupid to sell him unless we had someone lined up ready.

I think Llorente would have been a good signing for us, surprised Benitez wasn't sniffing round him tbh.

[Jammy89]

I think it's Ritchie's attitude as well as his skill, brilliant attitude.

In regards Llorente, it's spuds and chelski who are sniffing round (well he's having a medical at spuds but still) so don't think we can compete with them really.

[Nephy]

Fair point Mick but if you include our number 9 and maybe Woodman considering how highly he's rated then we do have a solid core of "purple" players.

Eh. To me, the concept of 'purples' meant a core of top quality, experienced, PL-proven players whose names wouldn't leave the team sheet, bar injury or suspension. In the past this would've been the likes of Shearer, Ginola, Given in their prime. Woodman, whilst a prospect for the future, definitely doesn't fit this profile yet. Personally I'd love to see some faith placed in him, though - if we don't give him a chance we risk losing him, just like Fraser Foster. I think we're basically still in the process of rebuilding for the PL and at this stage nobody's place in the team is assured. We have a good core of promising young players, but we're really light on late 20s guys at their peak.

[NorthernRock]

Eh. To me, the concept of 'purples' meant a core of top quality, experienced, PL-proven players whose names wouldn't leave the team sheet, bar injury or suspension. In the past this would've been the likes of Shearer, Ginola, Given in their prime. Woodman, whilst a prospect for the future, definitely doesn't fit this profile yet. Personally I'd love to see some faith placed in him, though - if we don't give him a chance we risk losing him, just like Fraser Foster. I think we're basically still in the process of rebuilding for the PL and at this stage nobody's place in the team is assured. We have a good core of promising young players, but we're really light on late 20s guys at their peak.

Yeah my point was kind of pointing to his potential Nephy. In reality he could and probably should be given a 1st team opportunity in my opinion, definitely before we bring in another keeper because he could possibly be a future England number 1.

Jammy- Aye, but at 12m for a lad of his calibre and the offer of 1st team opportunities he'd be worth a punt, no chance now those 2 are in for him.

Added onto that point, it's refreshing to see Oxlade-Chamberlain pick 1st team football over money, hopefully other players follow suit because regardless of being a toon supporter, playing in front of 54k every week with a good wedge should be a decent proposition to most players tbh.