A new look midfield for Newcastle?

Given the things that have gone on in the last few weeks you could be forgiven for thinking that maybe NUFC are up to something.

I mean all of a sudden, from the relative harmony of last season, we’re seeing two of our perhaps most influential midfielders locking horns with the club which has caused speculation to be raised about their future. Then there is Alan Smith, I best not forget about him….

So what if the worst does happen? What if the players or the club have enough and one or the other decides it’s time to look for pastures new? Of course it will be a blow, but how much of a blow will it really be? What options would we have left to fill the void left by one, two, or even all three of them? It’s a purely hypothetical question, but lets have a look anyway.

First off, and this is my disclaimer bit, but first off I actually think only one of them will leave, and that man will be Alan Smith. The other two, I think, are in the middle of a game of chess with the club regarding their contracts so I think they’ll still be around come the start of the season and beyond.

Without them though we still have a very good midfield, especially in the centre of midfield. At the moment it’s Kevin Nolan and Cheik Tiote who generally do the work in the middle of the park. If Nolan was to go then who would fill his space? With the imminent arrival of Yohan Cabaye from Lille it kind of answers the question so it looks as though our central midfield could very easily be a partnership of Tiote and Cabaye.

Barton is a different story though. He has been played out on the right for god knows how long now because we actually don’t have a right-winger, well not one that is good enough to oust a central-midfielder who is playing out of position on the right anyway….. Or do we?

What about Dan Gosling? He has played on the right before. Could he be a potential answer? Obviously the preference would be to sign someone, whether that be a left-winger that will push Jonas to the right, or whether it be a dedicated right-winger will remain to be seen. Perhaps this is where talk of N’Zogbia comes into the equation?

So based on losing Nolan and Barton but signing no other players aside from Cabaye, we could have a midfield next season that mines up like: Gosling, Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas.

Add N’Zogbia into that aswell and we’d have a line up of: Jonas, Tiote, Cabaye, N’Zogbia.

That second one looks interesting doesn’t it?

A new look midfield for Newcastle? Maybe not, but it does at least show that despite all of the stories surrounding Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton we still have a very competitive midfield. Hopefully it doesn’t come to it and both of the players stay on next season, but at least we have a backup plan.