No fat-heads thanks, says Lovenkrands

Posted on May 17th, 2011 | 11 Comments |

Peter Lovenkrands wants no big egos at Newcastle United.
Fat-heads need not apply
Newcastle United’s Peter Lovenkrands praises the team spirit shown this season.

When I first saw Lovenkrands’ quote saying: “Leave your ego at the entrance door“, I misread it and thought it said ‘egg’ instead of ‘ego’. This led to a certain amount of confusion on my part as I wondered what particular eggs they were talking about. Was it a message to the WAGs or was it some sort of discrimination against that culinary perfection that is the hen’s egg?

A swift Google revealed that I could be the proud owner of a Newcastle United egg-cup for a mere £3.99 but little else connecting eggs to our club. Thankfully after a re-read of Lovenkrands’ comment I twigged that it said ‘ego’ and all was clear.

What the Danish (or possibly Scottish) striker is getting at is that any new arrivals will be expected to buy into the team spirit initially fostered by Hughton and then maintained by Pardew, and new arrivals with big egos will not be welcomed with open arms.

Lovenkrands said:

“Hopefully there’ll be a couple of new arrivals in the summer, but whoever comes into the club will have to buy in to the spirit that’s already here.

“I think whoever comes into the club will learn pretty quickly that we’re a team and one of our biggest strengths is the way we stick together.

“The whole of the squad works for each other. You only have to look at the Chelsea game to see that – some key players were missing, but the rest of the lads were determined to come in and do well for the good of the group.

“That won’t disappear in the summer. We’ll come back at the start of pre-season and the spirit will still be there.

“We’ve shown great resilience and team spirit through the whole of the season. We’ve shown we can go to some of the toughest grounds in the country and get a result, and you don’t do that unless you have a real togetherness and belief in the dressing room.

“We’ve had a lot of good results away from home, and that just shows the character we have at the club. You need that if you’re going to achieve anything.

“We’ve shown good character all season, but we have to make sure we take it into next year. We’ll have a good break, and hopefully there’ll be a couple of new faces to greet us when we come back.

“Then we can look to do the same things that we’ve done this year, because we can be pleased with the progress we’ve made.”

I tend to agree with Lovenkrands there actually. There have been a few games where we seemed to lack for effort but overall the team has tried hard and there does indeed seem to be an air of togetherness about them.

Lovenkrands has been quite pleased with his individual performance this season too, saying:

“It’s been a fantastic season for me personally. A lot of things have happened with the club, and a few injuries here and there have given me a chance to play. But I think I’ve taken that chance and justified my place in the team.

“I think I’ve shown great commitment, and I’m really proud of the way my season has gone. I just hope I can be involved as much next season and prove to people again that they can rely on me. My job is to help as much as I can.”

So there you have it. And not an egg in sight.

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

11 Responses

  1. I like lovenkrands, he has critics, but i dont know what some people expect from a player that cost nowt, no club wanted him last summer and he came back played his part last season and has done this season.

    Id have him upfront over cole everytime!

  2. Like a lot of small, quick strikers (as opposed to the Best/Shola/Carroll types) I think Loven needs a lot of games to get honed in. His workrate has been pretty good, but he’s only just starting to run into the right places and get on the end of real chances.

    As Jimbob says – he’s free, he’s a decent bloke and has done what was expected of him – stepped in and kept the points coming (albeit without a lot of goals) when needed.

  3. I think we’d like to see more than just “one or two players” in, but Lovenkrands is probably just talking very loosely there.

    Because of the spirit of the squad, I honestly hope we don’t see many players out either! Ideally – for me personally – just Smith, Campbell and Kuqi out (if we can keep hold of Enrique) with about 4 quality players in. If we DO get Carlton Cole, probably best to just put grievance aside and hope he does okay but we need 2 new strikers if Cole is one of them. A couple currently in the Prem that come to mind…Sturridge would be a great buy, and realistic. Bendter pretty good, but he probably wouldn’t want to join us?

  4. p.s – mind you, if Man City pay 25M for Leighton Baines then at 7M Cole seems like almost a sensible buy!!! Almost!

  5. Adam, I think chelsea will keep hold of sturride, well if I were them I would, he would cost easily 10mill or over too, (young and english) Wouldnt go for bendter either, he is really not that great and I think his wages would be hard to match.

    We need a target man, because pardew has stated he see’s ben arfa as the man behind the striker, tho i think nolan should be behind with ben arfa left or right. The way we play, using the wings would not suit a small man upfront, unless he had a big man alongside him, hence why we get linked to the likes of cole.

  6. Fat Na to ole & bentner, they just piss everyone off in minutes… Waste of good money.

  8. Errmm ! Lovenkrands ?
    His better days are behind him and i seem to recall he was brought in as a temporary fill in.

    Whumpie, Lovenkrands a “small quick striker”, sure you dont have him confused with someone else ?

    First the good news
    We may go in for N`zogbia and seems Chris. Hughton is being heavily favored to take over @ West Ham.

    Bad news is we are about to put in a bid for Carleton Cole.
    Now dont get me wrong, the guys not a bad player and who knows, but look we need a striker/strikers badly and to go for Cole, shows a lack of ambition, after all this is NUFC where the no. 9# is something special.
    Especially after receiving that big wedge for AC.
    Of course were he to be the second choice striker then ok.
    But if this deal goes ahead, you can expect a negative reaction from most fans in my less than humble opinion.

  9. What’s not the same on the phone CLiNT? Your readers demand to know about your proclivities!

  10. Have to agree with what Lovenkrands has said. Without that team spirit and work ethic we would have struggled. With it we have competed admirably with some of the so called “Big Boys”, and swept aside some of the clubs we were supposed to be on the same level.
    As for signing Cole, my West Ham supporting mates rate Shola as twice the player as Cole, who they say has a heart the size of a pea!
    Don’t know whether Zog would be a good addition bearing in mind his previous outbursts and the fact he always thought he was better than everyone else.

    Having said that, I suppose you could say he was mucked around when he was here before. Left Midfield, then left back, and left out of the side. He also seemed to have settled down a little, and there was never any doubt that he was a great talent. Love to see Zog and HBA in the same side. But, would you pay more than double to re-sign a player you sold. I would like to see it but personally doubt it will happen.

  11. Lesh.
    blogging ain’t quite the same from ya’ phone mate.

    Hope that clears it up!

    :)

    I gave up ‘proclivities’ years ago mate.

    :)