Moncur’s words for Hughton’s knockers.
Posted on October 21st, 2010 | 108 Comments |
He gave fulsome praise to the Cockney Colossus, expressing his regret at the injury of Hatem Ben Arfa, and hoped that the rumours of Hughton’s immenent sacking were just “malicious gossip”. Hughton who has seen his team booed by supporters in last weekend’s draw against Wigan, screamed at to “sort it oot!” by the same supporters, has been told he’s on the verge of losing his job if they had lost that game by the Daily Hate Mail and lost his assistant, Colin Calderwood to Hibs all in the same week, has had something of a torrid time of it recently from the more ingrated section of the Magpies’ fanbase. To cap it all, there have been the recent Andy Carroll problems too.
In the interview, Moncur started by looking at Newcastle’s points total, suggesting that we have been somewhat unlucky in at least a couple of games:
“WITH eight games gone and eight points in the bag for Newcastle United, the time has come to start giving Chris Hughton the praise he richly deserves as manager at St James’ Park.
“There cannot be a Newcastle fan who fails to see what a great job he has done in the last 12 months since being appointed as permanent gaffer.
“Yes, we could have more points in the bag at this stage and we have been unlucky in two games when we should have gained more than a narrow defeat.
“Yes, we are hovering just above the relegation places as we head into what could be a long and hard winter.
“However, it is my humble opinion that what Hughton has achieved thus far is respectable enough as we head to West Ham.”
Moncur then moved on to the loss of Newcastle’s midfield creative panacea, Hatem Ben Arfa, who was hacked down in a leg breaking scissor tackle by Manchester City hatchet man, Nigel de Jong, and will be out for most of the season. Moncur, revealing that he thought the loss would be a major setback, but that all was not lost, continued:
“Believe it or not, I am still feeling down about the injury suffered by Hatem Ben Arfa, which came as a sickening blow to Hughton and every genuine Newcastle supporter.
“If we were going into West Ham with Ben Arfa in the ranks, I would be really confident.
“However, I still firmly think we have enough in the tank to get something and go into the Carling Cup game with Arsenal on a high.”
Moving on to the long anticipated encounter with the Vagrants of Wearside, all the recent carping and the recent fabricated story in the Daily Mail, Moncur added:
“If Hughton can lead his troops, and I know IF is the biggest word in football, against Sunderland and get through the derby unscathed it surely must be a case of “crisis, what crisis?”
“It has not been lost on me the fact there has been talk of Hughton going – but hopefully that is nothing more but malicious gossip.
“I fully support him in what he has done at this football club in recent times.
“After all, we were heading for oblivion after relegation and a mass walkout of so-called stars at the club in the aftermath of our Premier League disaster.”
As always, time will tell, but I certainly share his optimism. As I have already stated several times, I think that we are an erratic team who show the signs of a very good team breaking through as Hughton patiently builds his squad on a limited budget. I also think that we are on our way to better things as more consistency comes. Also, a bit of luck wouldn’t go amiss either for a change!
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.
When I read the article headline I was thinking Moncur was going to be commenting on what a nice pair they were :lol: