“I’m sure we won’t go down” – Danny Simpson speaks.
Posted on June 26th, 2010 | 117 Comments |
We are beginning to hear from players about how they think we will do next season and both Ryan Taylor and now Danny Simpson have kicked off the pre pre-season tubthumping already.
The critics, much like last season, are out to get at Newcastle, but I guess that nothing ever changes on that score, and that should be used as a motivational tool to spur the lads on next season. It has been said before that whilst this current Newcastle team may not perhaps have the players with the individual quality that the relegation side had, it is still a better team. Put it this way, would you say that this current team would surrender as tamely as our multi-million pound no marks did on that fateful day at Villa Park? I wouldn’t, and I know they would fight and scrap until the last whistle. It’s that determination that fills me with the hope that we can avoid relegation next season.
“I’m sure we won’t go down – the only thing we can be is confident after what happened last season,” Simpson told The Journal. “There’s no point in being in the game if you’re not confident. We have a good side as it is and we have already proved people wrong.
“Everyone was saying we wouldn’t go up but we loved proving people wrong, and when we hear people saying that we are going to be one of the favourites to go down it really motivates us. I think throughout the squad there are points to be proven and the more we hear that we’re certainties to go down, the more that will fire us up and get us up for the challenge.”
That is good news, and it’s something that will need to remain prevailant next season as things will no doubt be tougher. That determination will need to shine through at times as we look to bounce back from defeat rather getting stuck in the same kind of rut we got stuck in last time round.
We are fortunate to have a lot of leaders at Newcastle, and we have a lot of players that have played the vast majority of their careers in the Premier League. That experience can only be a good thing as it means that the style of the Premier League will not come as a culture shock to our squad, and we should be prepared for it.
“You look through our squad and there are big players throughout it,” Simpson said. “Kevin Nolan has hundreds of Premier League games and so does Steven Taylor, Alan Smith and Joey Barton. It’s a good squad and that’s why we should be confident.”
“As long as the team is together and pulling in the right direction we can do it. We have international experience and big players like Jonas Gutierrez and Fabricio Coloccini, which not many teams that come up from the Championship will have.”
I agree with Simpson, although I also think we need the squad adding to in case of injury, and in some cases to bulk up our starting eleven. It’s a shame that Simpson will miss the start of the season with his injury as I genuinely feel that it was this nasty niggling injury that was causing his drop in form towards the end of the season, and surely the length of injury lay-off incurred points towards that?
At the end of the day, and much like my team, I am not resigning to defeat yet. Not whilst there is everything to play for!
i have been saying for last 2 years the standard of world football is going down hill. we should and will have different winners of the prem league in the next 3 years.which will make are task easier to stay in the league.it doesnt hold any fears for me if we put the same effert in like we did last season any team is can get beat.world cup has proved my point the standard of players the money they get paid.city this season will find out big time the players they will buy just going their for the wages and sitting back and do nothing.