Cheik mates in the Newcastle dressing room

Posted on February 15th, 2011 | 30 Comments |

Cheik Tiote, Newcastle United
"We do not fear anybody"
Newcastle United’s Cheik Tiote has been talking about the team’s attitude to games and the camaraderie in the dressing room.

Cheik Tiote has undoubtedly been one of the stars of the season and, whilst fears abound that he might be sold in the summer, he speaks highly of the team spirit at the club and the relationship between the players.

Tiote believes Newcastle fear no team and can even aim for a 6th or 7th place finish:

“We do not fear anybody. Birmingham is our next game and we go there to win.

“I don’t think there is a team to be scared of in the Premier League.

“Maybe we can finish higher – sixth or seventh? We have to work together and keep playing well.”

He then goes on to praise the togetherness of the squad:

“Everybody here is close. We are all good friends and that is not the same at every club. We work together and have the same hard-working mentality within the group.

“This much was obvious when Shefki Kuqi arrived here. When you have a new player, you have to help him.”

And, going back to the belief the players have in themselves he said:

“We believe we can win every game we play now.

“You look at what happened against Arsenal and it gave us so much belief against one of the best teams in Europe. You saw that at Blackburn and they came off the field happy to draw with us. It was the same against Sunderland and Spurs – they were happy with a point.

“If we want to stay in the Premier League we need to try to win every game – and that is what we are trying to do.”

Good attitude from Tiote. Let’s hope that attitude helps us finish well this season and that Tiote is still with us beyond the summer.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

30 Responses

  2. An absolute beast of a player!!!!

    The best central midfield player i’ve seen at newcastle in years. How good can he be for us? That will depend on whether or not we can keep him. Signing his mate gervinho may help ;-) here’s to hoping!

    1-2 to the toon tonight; best and nolan

  3. The most important and the hardest part is how we come back after bad result and I think we have done very well so far. Hopefully we can show how good we are against Bermingham tonight. HWTL !

  4. As usual, if NUFC can survive the first 10 minutes without conceding, it will be in the Mags hands to win. Ain’t it about time we get one of our hosts to gift us an own goal? Time for Enrique and Jonas to uncork the hard, low shots rather than looking for the last pass.

  5. Northern_Jedi says:
    February 15, 2011 at 12:34 pm
    An absolute beast of a player!!!!

    An animal of a man, he doesnt just do the dirty work. He can play a bit too. Dare i say… He is exactly like Essien and just as good at the moment if not better. Really hope he stays and becomes captain for us some day.

  6. Soon as this lad arrived at the club i had a good feeling about him.
    & he’s proved that feeling correct.
    It’s just a shame that the refs seem to have targeted him for cards for some reason, he’s probably deserved about 5 of the dozen he’s had brandished at him.
    Tough as, great skill & determination, leaves it all on the pitch, Love him.

    Stay with the Toon Cheik, you are already becoming a Toon legend.

    BTW, essien is poo compared.
    ;)

  7. clint tbf, he does go in pretty…umm, “robust” at times, so i don’t think he’s being all that unfairly targeted. love the way he plays though. tough tackler and actually pretty good on the ball as well. everything butt and smith just quite couldn’t be at the CDM.
    just hope he calms down with his card collecting. he’s taken that over from butt a little too well!!

  8. We have to make sure we spend some of the”carroll” money on keeping him here.Not only his he a brilliant player he has a top class attitude as well.Like a few people on this blog, soon as I saw him I was raving about him.The most important player we’ve had since Shearer

  9. eastcoastmag,
    aye mate, i’m not doubting his tough tackling etc. & he’s definitely deserved some of his cards, but no where near the amount he’s been given. We’ve had tons this season & we are so far from being a dirty team.
    I know refs feel like they ‘have to’ punish Barton for crimes against humanity or whatever & Tiote is tough, but some of the cards dished out have been pathetic, Tiote’s red v stevenage is one prime eg. Barton’s yellow v the scum, most of Perch’s early in the season, the list goes on. Don’t want anything but fairness, when you consider some of the dirty crap we’ve had to put up with from the likes of wolves, stoke, mackems & various others, along with all the drama queens rolling around on the field.
    Er, rant over.
    :)

  10. Mick G,
    totally & utterly agree mate.

    Compared with what this lad has brought to the team, i can’t think of a better player we’ve got.
    Best DM in decades.
    Show’s ‘how to…’ DM.
    ;)

  11. Cheik mates in the Newcastle dressing room?

    Definitely wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that!

  12. Like Pardew said earlier in the season, the speed and power he goes into his tackles with sometimes persuades the refs to give him a booking when he doesnt deserve one. Hes paying the price for being fearless.
    Saying that, he is prone to being a bit dirty. Im sure he put Elano out of the world cup with a nasty tackle although we havent seen any of them yet.
    Quality player and hope he stays.

  13. It’s a sign of what football has become that people use the term ‘dressing room’ when referring to the ‘locker/changing room’.
    A dressing room is what i use before going on stage & actors in a theatre.
    Whilst it suits those situations, it sounds a bit soft when applied to football, don’t y’think?
    :)

    Though, it does sum up today’s football, with all it’s play actors & drama queens.

    Just a thought.
    :)

  15. Blip: not so sure, mate. I think we’ve been crying out for a player who can nip round the back, find an opening and score….

    Alas, Xisco apparently had the will, but not the ability…

    Ick.

  16. lets hope the guy tiote has told toon to sign is half as good as him i would be a happy bunny :)

  17. They could always reward Tiote with an improved contract and no one could argue as its fully deserved, he has been sensational from his first appearance, easily one of the best players we have had in years.

  18. To be honest I’m of the opinion the PL has gone too soft in terms of tackling anyway. I’m all for robust tackles of the Tiote nature.

    There’s a fine line between such tackles and genuinely dangerous ones of course, but one thing I liked about watching us play in the fizzy pop was that referees let tougher tackling go unpunished than they do in the PL and I think games flowed better because of it.

    Then again it does depend upon individual refs too.

  19. Be a shame to see Cheik go in the summer good bit of business for MA.
    Him and Enrique gotta net MA a minimum £25 million add that to the Carrol Coin and that is a good bit of business (For the Owner).

    Approx 55m in 6 months “Kerching!!” – MA would have to sell a shit load of Lonsdale jogging bottoms to even come close to that kind of cash.

    :lol:

  20. sirjasontoon says:
    February 15, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    “Be a shame to see Cheik go in the summer good bit of business for MA.
    Him and Enrique gotta net MA a minimum £25 million add that to the Carrol Coin and that is a good bit of business (For the Owner).”

    You forgot to put Ben Arfa in there, Sir Jason. If this “Kerching” theory is correct, he could be the first one out once he gets a run in the Premiership.

  21. It’s not even a theory, it’s fact until Ashley proves otherwise. Thats 3 transfer windows now that he’s pulled the old sell at the last minute with no time to replace trick. All Ashley has proven so far that he WILL spend some money, but if anyone is any good they will be sold to the highest bidder. Thats why I want to watch and enjoy Enrique and Tiote as much as possible because there’s bound to be bids coming in for those two in the summer. It’s just a question of if the bid is high enough. In doing so the top clubs not only ensure that they stay at the top, they ensure that we are kept at arms length. Thats my theory.

  22. I think we might be lucky with Ben Arfa…depends if Parglue starts jabbering about who awesome Hatem is once his bionic leg is match fit :lol:

  24. sirjasontoon says:
    February 15, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    “I think we might be lucky with Ben Arfa…depends if Parglue starts jabbering about who awesome Hatem is once his bionic leg is match fit”

    … and that he has sought assurances from Mike Ashley that he won’t be sold under any circumstances. :-)

  26. Good thing about Tiote is that he allows Nolan to play CM as Tiote can cover so much ground quickly. Without Tiote in there Nolan really struggles and our midfield gets over run. Barton, Tiote, Nolan are a very powerful trio.

  27. I just hope that Newcastel will not sell Tiote so soon.
    He is really a very value player. At such low cost! Even player with high price tag will not work out so well.

    We must try hard to keep him in the team to built. The pillar must be there to built on. Even if he is older.
    Just like Man Utd. They keep good players even if its older.

  28. Every Newcastle fans knows very well that our midfield will be more complete with Tiote around.

    I really hope Newcastle Utd can keep him.