Alan Pardew has been very public in stating that any player brought in during the January window will not exceed 26 years of age... which seems a little arbitrary, yet fits in with what we all could figure out as Newcastle's new transfer strategy (for a longer post on exactly what this transfer policy is, check this out). It seems that, by and large, the AP and the board are looking much more at the buy low (very young) end of the spectrum, and today's target is more of the same. Much like James Tomkins, Harry Maguire is very young but has inserted himself into first team consideration at their club (Tomkins at Championship West Ham; Maguire at League 1 Sheffield United).
Name: Harry Maguire
Position: Center Back
Age: 18
Foot: Right
Height: 6' 2"
Nationality: English
Professional debut: April, 2011 v. Cardiff (He marked Craig Bellamy!!1one!one1!)
- The Sheffield United site describes Harry as a physical presence who can play the ball out from the back. This is a descriptor, however, that you would expect to see placed on any 18 year-old center back... so it's hard to read much into it.
- Harry has scored 1 goal this year in League 1... in The Blades' first match of the year. This means (as Harry has played in 29 matches total this year, he's not scored in 28 matches or so. Pessimist.
- transfermarkt.com has Harry rated at £50,000... I doubt that he'd be on the move for quite that cheap, but it seems to be in the right price range regardless what the ultimate price tag is. I'm seeing rumors of a £8m transfer budget (which is ridiculous... WHERE'S THE MONEY, LEBOWSKI?!) but if it is true, you can connect the dots. With Pardew having -12370412 points confidence in Tamas Kadar, it would not be surprising to see them dump Kadar and bring in a Harry Maguire.
- Ultimately, without knowing just a ton about the kid, I can say that he fits into the mission statement/transfer philosophy of the club and also addresses a need in the squad (however tenuously). Recent history is not exactly chock full of players who jumped from League 1 to the Prem and contributed well immediately (said while I'm hoping Jason Prior makes an even larger leap...), so his immediate value to the Toon is pretty low.
- I can see them pursuing this one pretty hard, especially as a replacement for Kadar (as I mentioned above).
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Probability of Transfer: 80/20