Shearer impressed with Newcastle’s 2010/2011 season
Posted on May 11th, 2011 | 7 Comments |
Alan Shearer has been passing judgement on Newcastle’s 2010/2011 season and the former number 9 seems fairly content with the way things have gone. Shearer said:
“If I’m honest they have done better than I thought.
“I think I was like everyone else, probably a little bit apprehensive.
“You’’e got to give them credit they’ve done really well – they’ve stayed away from the bottom six for the majority of the season.
“I think that was their target when they first set out and they’ve achieved that, really, with ease.
“It’s never really been panic stations, as it has been in other seasons.”
Yes indeed. At the beginning of the season I would have settled for merely staying up. As the season went on and we looked a bit better, my ambitions increased a bit and a top 10 finish is still within our grasp (albeit a bit unlikely).
But, all in all, I’m just happy we’ve avoided a relegation fight this season.
Shearer continues:
“We hope that’s the same next season – but that really depends on what the manager’s going to be given to spend.
“You spend £10million to stand still. That’s the harsh fact of it. It all depends on what’s going to happen, there’s only one guy that can answer that.
“Hopefully he’ll give him a few quid and they can start climbing.
“You have to say the manager has done very well and the players have done very well. Now we’ll have to see who comes and goes in the summer.
“There’s obviously the money there from Andy Carroll – they’ll have to bring in one or two strikers in. I’m sure everyone will be looking at the transfer activity.”
Well, I think most people agree that we’re lacking on the striking front but I would hope we’d see Ashley fork out a bit more than £10million for players.
I think it’s fair to aim for a higher finish next season than this one. We’ll probably end up somewhere within the 10th to 14th range this season, so we should probably be aiming for at least a top 10 finish next year and top 8 would be nice.
Second seasons in the Premier League are said to be notoriously tough for promoted sides but we were only away for a single season and I’m hoping we’ll thusly avoid the ‘second season blues’.
Onwards and upwards!
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.
“We hope that’s the same next season – but that really depends on what the manager’s going to be given to spend.”
It also depends on what players the manager buys.
Just spending money guarantees nothing. We need quality right now, NOT potential. That wont come on the cheap.