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Krul, Taylor and Carroll are the future, so let’s get them tied down

All good teams are built on a strong spine, from goalkeeper through to the centre of defence and midfield, with a strong centre forward at the tip of the pyramid. It’s no good having brilliant full backs if your centre backs can’t defend, is it? And for Newcastle United, the future spine of the team could well be Tim Krul, Steven Taylor and Andy Carroll.

Today’s Evening Chronicle reports that Hughton is eager to get all three tied down on long-term contracts, and the sooner this is achieved the better. They may not be anywhere approaching the quality of Gerrard and Torres at Liverpool, but Roy Hodgson has made securing the futures of his two best players the main priority. NUFC has to take a similar approach.

The problem is, we’ve been hearing this all summer. I’m no financial expert by any means, but surely it doesn’t take three months to write up a contract for a player already employed by the club. Are there not people at St. James’ who are employed to deal with this kind of stuff in particular? Someone like the role Russell Cushing used to occupy?

Newcastle fans all have different opinions on our players, and Taylor in particular seems to divide opinion like few others. But let’s face it, he bleeds black and white (as if you couldn’t tell through all the fist-pumping), he is a 100 percenter and, let’s face it, there’s nothing better out there for us. He’s a former England U-21 captain and possibly even a future NUFC captain, and when you hear reports about Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd coming in for him then he can’t be that bad. Even if it is all made up.

Steven Taylor of Newcastle United Photo via Newscom

Carroll is another to have apparently attracted interest from Chelsea as the FA tightens its grip on the Premier League (for once) with the new homegrown players rule. Personally, I see him more in the Stoke/Bolton/Everton bracket, but he’s only 21 and could be our biggest goalscoring threat this season. Hopefully himself and Taylor have put their handbags behind them and can both become the Geordie presence at St. James’ Park which would satisfy a Sir John Hall wet dream for years to come.

Andy Carroll Celebrates Scoring goal with team mates Sebastien Bassong and Ryan Taylor Newcastle United 2008/09 Stoke City V Newcastle United (1-1) 11/04/09 The Premier League Photo Robin Parker Fotosports International

Our very own flying Dutchman, Tim Krul, meanwhile, must be getting itchy fingers as he continues to warm the bench with Steve Harper in between the sticks. Harper is obviously enjoying a run of games he has never benefited from in his time at NE1, but that’s really his own fault as he should have got himself away years ago. He’s now 35, and while the Van der Sar’s and James’ of this world appear to be defying time in the Premier League, not every ‘keeper can play at the top of his game for that long. Especially one who has only played 133 league games in 17 years for us and barely had a real career.

The Hawthorns West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United Championship 08/08/2009 Tim Krul (Newcastle) Photo Roger Parker Fotosports International

With this in mind, it’s probably time we started looking to the future and giving Krul more game time. Harper could be past it in a year or two so we don’t want to be sitting here with regret at letting a top young ‘keeper slip through the net. The same goes for Fraser Forster, and the two could become our future goalkeeping pair.

So, Hughton, Ashley, Llambias, whoever. Get the chequebook out and sort out their contracts.

Another interesting report in our favourite local chip wrapper is that we’re after Dan Gosling. He’s 20 years old, can play in midfield or defence, and is supposed to be a decent little player. And, to top it all off, he could be available on a free due to some contractual loophole. In other words, exactly the sort of player we are after. Get it sorted.

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