Pardew’s happy campers
Posted on July 26th, 2011 | 22 Comments |
We had of course, just dispensed of the Championship at a canter, and were looking forward to a return to the Premier League. At the start of that particular summer, we had a statement from the Newcastle board, citing mainly that:
“The first team squad that won the Championship this year will form the basis of the team for next season in the Premier League.
“There is no plan for new capital outlay on players.”
Well, that particular line certainly had a few people up in arms at the time. In the end though, Newcastle did do some business recruitment wise, bringing in Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sol Campbell, Cheick Tiote and the majestic James Perch.
More importantly last summer, I remember the current crop of players being reasonably happy with life at St James Park. There was no moaning or bitching about the ‘politics’ of the club. This could be due to the explosion of ‘Twitter’ this past year (certainly in Newcastle United’s case anyway), with a fair few of our squad now signed up to the social networking site.
What has become clear, in these last few months, is a few of our first team players, are not too happy with current events up in the North East. It started with our player of the season, Joey Barton, and the refusal of the board to give him a new contract. Joey went on to criticise Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias, highlighting their ‘transfer policy’ of bringing in “younger, better, cheaper players”, and that the Newcastle board didn’t want to spend any money.
Then, our captain Kevin Nolan decided to take the security of a 5 year contract with West Ham, and leave Newcastle. Now, I have no problem with Nolan wanting to go, but it does strike a nerve within me, that we lost our club captain. Add this to the Barton situation, and come September 1st, we may have lost the two figures, that not only showed the most passion in our team, but probably the whole of the Premier League. If we didn’t have both Nolan and Barton in the dressing room when Hughton was sacked for instance, I think the repercussions would have been much worse. I think the pair of them really held the camp together, even during our Championship season.
I think Joey Barton is a very important player. He was our best player last season, and if I was Mike Ashley, I would be sorting out a new contract right now. The truth is though, Ashley doesn’t like Barton’s face, and if a bid comes in between now and September 1st (around £4 million maybe), he will be gone, regardless of how much Barton says he wants to stay at Newcastle, it will be out of his hands. Subtract Nolan’s leadership, coupled with Barton’s artistry and passion from the team, and you have a big hole that needs to be adequately filled.
We now, more recently, have Jose Enrique whining like a big bairn about the ‘politics’ of the club. The difference between Barton and Enrique, is that Barton has always stated his desire to stay at St James’ Park. What Jose has ‘tweeted’ about the clubs overseers is probably true, and a fair few of us (myself included), know this. I think Enrique is just upset he hasn’t got himself a big move yet. Frankly, I don’t care about him anymore, his attitude stank towards the end of last year, and if he wants to go, then let him go.
But it doesn’t matter what I think of him does it?
What matters is what the players think about him. He is a popular figure in the dressing room, especially to Jonas Gutierrez and newly appointed captain, Fabricio Coloccini. I’m starting to slightly worry about all this unrest with certain individuals in our team. Even if it is a select few, it will have repercussions on the teams morale, and that is not a good thing.
Do you think the players ask themselves the same questions that we do? About investment in the team and contract situations for example? To me, it seems some at the club, have gone from happy campers, to being unhappy, in the space of a year. It may only be a select few, but one of them (Barton), has a massive effect in the dressing room. I hope the players can show the determination, enthusiasm and passion they showed last season, and replicate it this season. Players become unhappy at clubs all the time, usually for wanting to play more regularly, or move to a bigger club for example. It seems in our case, some are unhappy with the ‘politics’ at St James’ Park.
Are they really upset by that? Or is it just an excuse to deter from what they really want? Is it only a select few who are upset? Or can you see more of the team becoming disillusioned?
What do you think?
NUFCBlog Author: Jimbob
Backpacker extraordinaire and current resident of sunny Sheffield. Loves Marmite, hates peanut butter. Sleeps twice a day, wrestles Polar Bears because he can and regards himself as cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce.
Jimbob has written 40 articles on this blog.
When are players happy?Enrique on £50k a week and wants more Barton 2 seasons lost thru jail and injury.What do they owe the club?A LOT!!!