Pardew praises 12 goal Nolan

Posted on May 13th, 2011 | 23 Comments |

Kevin Nolan, Newastle United, gets praise from the manager.
Cluck cluck.
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew praises Nolan and expects him to be fit for pre-season. The manager also gives more detail about Harper’s injury.

Now that Kevin Nolan is definitely finished playing for the season, Alan Pardew has taken the opportunity to praise the 12 goal midfielder:

“He brings leadership, technical ability and goals, very importantly, so we’re going to miss him.

“He’s played with this ankle for a while now and not really moaned, he’s just got on with it. But we needed to sort it out to give him a chance for a full pre-season, which will be important for him next year because there’ll be competition here for him and he’ll need to come back as near as dammit.

“It gives him more of a chance, and that’s why we’ve done it. Everyone’s got a little eye on next year, including myself now. We need to know exactly what we’ve got here and we need to increase the competition here.

“People need to step up and I think everybody’s realising that. There will be new players coming in here and competition will be greater.“

It does seem that Kevin Nolan is highly rated by both his team mates and his manager. He does sometimes ‘disappear’ for long periods in games but if a midfielder can grab 12 goals a season I guess you could say he’s proved himself.

I suspect even Nolan will have to fight for his place when the likes of Ben Arfa, Gosling and Guthrie – and maybe Ireland and any new midfielders we buy – are available for selection, which is no bad thing.

Whilst on the subject of injuries, Pardew clarified what’s going on with Steve Harper’s knee:

“When you come back to training and have a slight swelling or a reaction, you know it’s not right.

“It’s nothing major – just that age-old issue where you’ve got to just have a little clear-out there of floating debris from the impact of playing for 15 years, 20 years, through your school days etcetera. But that’ll be no problem. He’ll definitely be ready for pre-season.”

Thankfully we have fairly decent backup by way of Krull, who will no doubt be using the last two games of the season to mount a challenge to become the number one choice between the posts.

Competition for places is generally a healthy thing.

I’m away this weekend so I’ll catch you all at the other side of it. Have a good one!

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

23 Responses

  4. I think It’s good to hear we start to plan for next season now. Let’s hope we can sign some good player soon. As fast as possible it will be better for us. Benefit to them, they can spend pre-season training to know each other and prepare to play as the team.

  5. ginkoh says:
    May 13, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    “Let’s hope we can sign some good player soon. As fast as possible it will be better for us. Benefit to them, they can spend pre-season training to know each other and prepare to play as the team.”

    That’s a good point Ginkoh, though sometimes you have to wait for the right players.

  6. I have a feeling all our transfer activity will happen in the last couple of weeks of the transfer window , i hope i am wrong but i think the players that we need to sign new contracts Enrique , Barton , nolan will wait too see what offers other clubs will make . That will restrict Pardew’s buying because he needs to know which players need replaced its going to be a long time before we know our squad for the new season .

  7. “i hope i am wrong but i think the players that we need to sign new contracts Enrique , Barton , nolan will wait too see what offers other clubs will make . That will restrict Pardew’s buying because he needs to know which players need replaced its going to be a long time before we know our squad for the new season”

    Yeah that makes perfect sense.

    We wait as long as we can before they (Jose, Joey etc) make a move then when they’ve gone we buy up half of the Championship on Aug 31st. FFS :(

  8. We should wait ’til september the first, then loan a few players from Darlo or somewhere like that. They’ve just won a trophy, they’ll do.
    Maybe we should tie their legs together, for a laugh first?

    Then we’ll sabotage the club & try & get relegated?

  9. Axel, if the players dont sign the new contracts being offered to them, then I think it is fairly safe to assume Pardew will have all summer to replace them.
    Also I think the club will put them all on the transfer list and let the bidding begin.
    I am confident that Barton, Nolan Colo, Jonas and Tiote are going nowhere. The only doubt is on Enrique. Although my gut feeling is that he is on his way, by HIS choice.
    I just hope we get a good deal for him.

  10. Michael Heseltine X Sheena Easton (to the power of 4) = Yahtzee.

    I win. ha-ha

  15. Indeed. 1-1 and we had a few nice counter attacks near the end of the 1st half. Raylor is pissing me off with his shite freekicks and corners.

  16. Phisix says:
    May 15, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    “Raylor is pissing me off with his shite freekicks and corners.”

    Well one of ’em certainly worked, with a little help from Guti’s arse!

  20. would have took a point before the game started,good result.chelsea didn’t look anything near their best,and the whole atmosphere was flat.you could expect that,after man u pipped them to the title.to be fair it had all the air of an end of season game,with both sides having little to play for.give newcastle their due,they hung in there,and the draw was a fair result.
    sami amoebi looks like an improvement on his brother,as he has more pace for a start.

  21. TROJAN 69 says:
    May 15, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    “to be fair it had all the air of an end of season game,with both sides having little to play for”

    Aye Trojan, There was a long dull middle bit between the goals in the opening ten / fifteen mnutes with the two goals and the other two goals right at the end. It’s hard to write a report about it without just concentrating on those bits. Guti’s arse came in handy though!

  22. Great performance and good to see the young kids getting on and looking good to boot!

  23. Just wanna say, this was one of the most enjoyable Newcastle games i have watched all season.
    Team of guys with spelks in their asses from sitting on the bench all year , plus a few kids vs. the mighty Chewsee, whose bench is better than our first team.
    Hey we had the away fans ole`ing while we were in possession, musta pissed off both the Chelsea fans and team.
    Gonna make a prediction, Wigan will survive, it`s gonna be Brum, B`Pool & W/Ham.