10 Stages Of Newcastle United's 2015 Summer Transfer Window
3. The Derisory Bid
In each of the summer transfer windows Newcastle have endured under Mike Ashleys rule there exists an abiding precedent that every supporter is familiar with - the derisory bid. It is common knowledge that Ashley prefers Newcastle to seek a competitive advantage through prudent spending, confirming during his one and only TV interview that his role is to ensure the club has the "maximum amount of financial resources" to improve the squad and its the responsibility of Lee Charnley and the "football board" to squeeze the "best pound-for-pound value" from those resources while remaining faithful to his strict financial blueprint. There is a genuine belief that Newcastle want to obtain their principle targets from the list compiled by Charnley and chief scout Graham Carr, yet the likelihood was that neither had the nerve to break down the economical barriers in front of them. Every supporter is aware the club has an acute aversion to paying the market rate for certain players making Charnleys job a thankless one. Charlie Austin is the perfect example. Charnley is aware that it would take an offer of £15 million or more to convince QPR to part with their leading marksman, but given his age and profile as a player yet to earn an international cap with a solitary seasons worth of Premier League experience under his belt and his obvious talents as an unerringly prolific goal-getter, Ashley is unlikely to sanction such an outlay. In turn, this will compel Charnley to make a futile attempt to deceive supporters towards the end of the window by tendering an undisclosed offer beneath Austins valuation that he knows will be flatly rejected, making out that it is the player and selling club at fault, not him. To put it into context, Newcastle even tried to nick James Perch on the cheap. It's a trick Charnley must have picked up from his predecessor, Derek Llambias.
