Nolan attacks the critics.
Posted on July 19th, 2010 | 28 Comments |
Nolan hit 18 goals and picked up the Player of the Season award last year as Newcastle waltzed the Championship, although I very much doubt that the same amount of goals will be scored by Nolan this time around.
The most scathing part of the criticism is aimed at some former Newcastle players, who have queued up and took it in turns to swipe at the team before even a ball is kicked. Former players like Malcolm Macdonald and Rob Lee have all been critical of the team and lack of investment, which is their opinion of course, but they seem to be forgetting anything positive that came from last season. The team was in a similar position this time last year with the critics rounding on them wanting failure to justify their newspaper columns and such, and look what happened!
“I’m sick of hearing ex-pros saying we’re not good enough,” Nolan told The Star. “They were a bunch of nobodies when they first went up and they made names for themselves.”
“We had to prove a lot of people wrong in the Championship and we will have to prove them wrong again in the Premier League.”
Nolan is right, to a point, but I can also understand the reason behind the rumblings of criticism. There is a long road ahead, with many twists and turns in it, but we aren’t at the end of it yet, in fact we haven’t even started the journey.
The squad we have has played over 1400 Premier League games between them, and most of them have spent their entire careers playing top flight football. They didn’t suddenly become bad overnight and there was more than just some poor performances on the pitch to ultimately blame for our relegation.
Do we need some more players in? Yes. Has Hughton said there will be more players coming in? Yes. So that angle should be covered and we should have enough players to deal with the Premier League season when the transfer window slams shut in early September.
If you think about it, who do we actually miss from the last time we were in the Premier League? Michael Owen? Damien Duff? Not likely. Some of our former players may well have moved on elsewhere and may well have played well for their new clubs, but they were awful whilst they were here and didn’t help the Newcastle cause out when we needed it most.
I know things will be tough in the Premier League, most people do, but staying up is not the unachievable objective that is being made out. I have concerns about the team, as most do, but I genuinely feel that they will either be addressed or will end up not being important.
Called it blind faith, optimism, delusion or whatever, but I honestly believe we have enough already to survive in the Premier League. That is the main objective this season, and it may not be ambitious. But what is the difference between 17th and 8th? Not a lot, a few extra quid maybe but that is it, no European football or anything as they are basically nothing positions.
Anywhere in between 17th and 8th will do for me anyway!
Same Supermac who predicted a dire season in the championship last year, I believe. I think he also bought shares in Northern Rock?