Are Newcastle United a ‘dirty’ team?

Posted on November 25th, 2010 | 29 Comments |

Hughton: Defending his little angels.
Hughton: Defending his little angels.
Newcastle United manager, Chris Hughton has recently come out and defended his team’s disciplinary record in the wake of three suspensions of major players, namely, Joey Barton for a crafty dig at Blackburn’s Morten Gamst Pedersen, Fabricio Coloccini for an elbow in in the face of Bolton’s Johan Elmander, and finally, Mike Williamson for a debatable ‘headbutt’, once again on Elmander.

Former Magpie, Alan Shearer, has accused the team of deliberately roughing players up in his role as a pundit on ‘Match of the Day’. However, Hughton responded to the accusations in an interview where he referred to a “freak fortnight” of disciplinary lapses from his little angels. He said:

“I don’t think that anyone who has seen us play would call us a dirty team.”

“It’s not a concern that we’ll pick up a reputation at all because we’re not that kind of side at all. But of course the players need to be aware of their actions and what it might mean.

“But what we have had really is a freak fortnight. To have one ban like this is quite unusual, but to have three in two weeks is really quite rare.

“But we have to accept it and get on with it. It is something that we’ll remind the players about – we remind them about it all the time.

“But if you look at the facts, neither of those players have a bad disciplinary record on the whole.

“Mike was on two bookings for the whole season before the ban – Colo was on three bookings before he got sent off.

“Those are not bad disciplinary records or something to be concerned about.”

But what do YOU think? Would you say that Newcastle are one of the rougher sides in the Premiership? Or would you agree with Hughton in saying that the events of the last few games have been a temporary lapse in an otherwise well disciplined team who rely on style instead of roughing players up to get what they want? Would you say that we are more sinned against than sinning? With new signing, Hatem Ben Arfa, cynically targeted by Manchester City thug, Nigel De Jong, resulting in a challenge which broke the player’s leg in two places after only 4 appearences for the club. The cynical targeting of Joey Barton by Wolves’ captain, Carl Henry and others could be cited as another example.

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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1093 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by workyticket in category: Chris Hughton and Fabricio Coloccini and Interviews and Joey Barton and Mike Williamson and Player indiscipline and Thoughts and reflections and Workyticket , with tags: ,
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29 Responses

  1. Think a few of our players do go in slightly hard and play a bit dirty (Barton, Nolan, Smith) however majority do not.
    Nolan plays like an Allardyce Bolton player to me, Barton is Barton leopard and spots comes to mind and Smith is not very good so does dirty to make up for it!
    Just my thoughts. However 3 out of the squad means we arent a dirty team!

  2. Can I ask why everyone seems to have conveniently forgotton about a huge issue at the club? What the fck has happened to Hughton’s assistant? He has the smallest staff in the PL, smaller than Blackpools ffs!

    Anyone on here got an answer as to why we still haven’t replaced Calderwood?

    Complete joke! Can this club be cheapened anymore?

  3. Agree Mikey. And if you look at where smiffy came from it tells a tale cos Manure arn,t shy in the tackle are they or is that just my slightly cynical view.
    I honestly don,t think we are any worse than any other team in the league. Will be interesting to see how this weekend,s referee handles the game given our recent tagging.I would imagine he,s going to be fairly strict all things considered.
    Looking forward, how good it would be if the Sailor n sol combo turns out to be our best defensive pairing. Stranger things happen…….!HWTL

  4. Fellainis elbow on Williamson = No ban
    Williams “barge” on Elmander = 3 matches

    Where is the consistency ??

    I personally think we are guilty of lashing out when teams are basing their whole game around stopping us playing and provoking the lads, Like Wolves and Blackburn who were cheating from the first whistle to the last and got off scot free…

  6. To be honest, I really don’t care if we get a reputation of being ‘hard’ or ‘dirty’ or ‘cynical’ if A: it keeps us up, and B: we create a little bit of doubt in the opposition’s mind

    For far too long (and I’ve not missed a home match since 1985) we have been too soft; other teams try on the off the ball obstructions, other teams have their keepers blatantly waste time, other teams will have a player who will ‘take one for the team’ – so now it’s time we started to add some necessary steel

    Too many seasons we watched Man U & Arsenal play ‘dirty’ only to end up winning trophies and where were we ? Bemoaning a bad decision, a cynical tackle or a dubious handball

    As far as I care, the ends justifies the means so it’s about time we started to push against the boundaries and see what we can get

    (obviously I am not suggesting we resort to nasty ‘Da Jong’ style thuggery)

  7. It just seems like come summer its going to be “Come one come all…..NUFC for sale to the highest bidder……we have no staff to pay off so come in and do as you please”

    Only real reason I can see as to why we have no staff other than reserve, youth and manager! Scary!

  8. Andy (6)
    You got a valid point mate, maybe it,s time to fight fire with fire and sod em all or just get rolled over every week.

  9. No assistant will want to come until Hughton gets a longer contract. I think it hasn’t helped the fact other managers stuck their oar in as soon as he won a few games. Whats it got to do with them? Why don’t they sod off and mind their own business? The fact is Hughton still has to prove he can keep us in the prem and I think Ashley is still very cautious to see where we are 2/3 rds of the way through the season and if we are gonna stay up or not. It will be harder and more expensive to do anything if he offers Hughton a longer contract already. Remember Ashleys no.1 concern and priority is to keep us up and he will bring someone else in if we look like we are gonna go down, and if you don’t think Ashley will do that you are an idiot. I don’t think Hughton will be offered a longer contract or therefor get an assistant until we look safe.

  10. STUART@2 how can we expect to get someone in with hoots haveing no contract come end of season,even if one was offered to anyone,which has been said many times on here

  11. dont think we are dirty,maybe one or two players letting the poor results get into there heeds,it can happen

  12. I think C.H will keep us up though and be here for at least the next 3 seasons when we can start to build. What he nees to do atm is just focus on consistancy and stop having these ups and downs, I think Taylor and Campbell won’t mess around with the ball in the penalty area aswell which is good. I just hope we arn’t the team that Chelsea have their backlash against. We need to just use our experience to put them off and control the game right from the start, because the longer it goes on the more their fans and players will become frustrated and I think their heads will drop. If we gift them a stupid early goal or let them have loads of possesion I think they will think they have got out of their bad spell and might even give us a bit of a thrashing. In other words we need to upset them and start well like Blackburn or Bolton would.

  13. I personally think CH’s appointment of a good number 2 is a big call for us this season. He is doing a great job on his jack, but needs some help for sure. Hopefully it will be resolved soon… There again, if his own contract hasn’t been sorted how can he tempt a good number 2. Shinnanigens going on behind the scenes ?

  15. What I can’t believe is how well we played in some games, Like away at Everton and Arsenal! We totally gave them a lesson it wasn’t just luck. Then we have played so poorly in other games like Wigan and Bolton, how can it be possible to play so well in some games and then not others.

  16. DJG… I think every fan of every team are asking themselves the same thing of their own teams, its been a funny old season so far with some funny old results.

  17. think about it ice… MA is easy to suss out really…if you look at the majority of his decisions, good or bad, the likes of me or you may have made the same decisions (apart from hiring Dennis Lamarse and Tiny Tim)… CH isn’t a fool…

  18. DJG…I reckon it’s down to skill in the team, form on the day, luck, and tactics from the manager. I think what infuriates a lot of us, is when the team turns up and thinks they can just stroll through a game…arrogant really. The MINIMUM expectation from a team is 100% effort…I’m not sure about the size of CH’s hairdryer…AF has succeeded so long at Manure cos he scared the cack out of the majority of the players…

  19. Lesscotts stamp on perch, ignored during and after the match, tossers, thought we’d be ok after rob styles retired the knobhead.

  20. MM

    My concern’s of C.H are,

    His hairdryer and the fact that in a poor game there doesn’t seem to be much improvement in the 2nd half. His tactics and lack of sustitutions, His reluctance to try someone like Fergie.

    I like about C.H

    The way he deals with the press. When he gets a great player they seem to perform really well under him like Tiote and seem happy. The way the players support him. He is considered cool by the media and has ‘dignity’. His seemingly endless commitment to the club and how humble he is to praise/ not too upset at critism.

    He will ge there he’s still learning being a no.1 in command but I think he enjoys it and seems like he has something to prove to people unlike the likes of Strachen ect who don’t seem to have any respect/dignity.

  21. M.M.thing is m8 cally leaveing punched a hole in that side of things his only saveing grace was the team was sitting ok,but things can change now we have lost a few games,interesting times ahead i think

  22. DJG…I think we ALL respect the gentleman CH and the way he handles the media. He also has an eye for talent, look at how he picked up Tiote and Ben Arfa, and Williamson… but he really needs to get himself a no2 soon.

    How about this one as a shocker….that CH moves on to another club before MA gets his new contract sorted oot !!?

  23. xmas/n/year are the times clubs start sacking guys and looking for new managers,”owners beware”

  24. I don’t think Hughton would do a bunk to a smaller club for slightly more money. He’s got too much dignity and I think he wants to keep us up and have a longer contract here first.

    These next 5 games or so will be a good test of c.h tho. To see how he copes with the suspentions/ injuries. I think Sol and Taylor coming in could be a good decision that has been made by the FA rather than Hughton himself.

  25. DJG dont rule kadar oot m8 he can hold his own,full cap under his belt now and a canny player just needs games,now is his chance imo

  26. Ice

    I would play him but Hoots won’t. Not unless Sol breaks down. I would rather play Kadar than Perch. Kadar will get on at some point in the next three games I think.

  27. love players that have something to prove,dont like players saying i have nothing to prove something players like owen who were always saying along with others,they have something to prove every game imo