Pardew thinks Toon fans are worth 1 or 2 league places
Posted on May 8th, 2012 | 53 Comments |
So, just the one game to go then. And then what are we going to have in terms of football until next season? Well I suppose there’ll be the Euro’s to keep to keep us amused, although I’m finding it hard to raise any enthusiasm for England at the moment. One thing we will have though is a fair few extra fixtures next season thanks to European qualification and, assuming we don’t manage a miracle next weekend, that’s looking like it’ll be the Europa League.
If we finish 5th, we’d start in the Play-Offs, which take place on the 23rd and 30th of August but if we get bumped down to the 3rd qualifier – maybe due to Chelsea winning the Champions League or us only managing to finish 6th – then we’d have two ties ahead of that on the 2nd and 9th of August.
There will of course be plenty of rumours about players leaving and joining during the summer and it will be interesting to see how our squad looks at the end of the summer transfer window, which opens in July. We’ve already had press reports about teams who might ‘swoop’ for our players and on the weekend the press was suggesting Arsenal would be in for taking both Yohan Cabaye and Demba Ba. As is often the case with such reports, no evidence by way of direct quotes from any official at the club has been offered, so it’s probably all tosh.
Occasionally a newspaper seems to get a spree of rumours that turn out to be accurate and maybe they have an inside man somewhere, at least for a spell, but I get the impression that a lot of them are pure invention with maybe a bit of educated guessing.
Anyway, our manager has been reflecting on the weekend’s result and the role he believes the fans have played in Newcastle’s season. Pardew speaketh thusly:
“Our fans are realistic, they know we have come a long, long way this year. The task now is to stay there.
“The fabric of this club, the history, the tradition it has, it should be at the top of the Premier League every year.
“That’s the job in hand for me now, to make sure these players come back and put in the same dedication they have this year because they have earned big reputations now and now they need to fulfil them.
“Our fans have been absolutely brilliant, make no mistake. There’s no way we would be in this position if it wasn’t for them. We would be seventh, eighth, maybe. They make a big, big difference.
“We need them back next year and we need to give them something to come back for.”
I thought we worked hard on Sunday against Manchester City, although we weren’t at our best. Things didn’t quite flow for us as they sometimes do and no doubt that’s partly due to the fact that we were up against the best team in the Premier League, but I still think we were a touch off our game ourselves. Everyone in black and white put in a decent shift though and I think on a different day we could have beat them. With good results against teams like Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea this season we’re not that far off the mark.
Next season will be a tester though. A lot of teams can have a brief foray into the top places but coming back and doing it again and again is a much harder task. I like the way things are going on the pitch though. Some judicious purchases combined with hanging onto the crux of our current squad should hopefully see us in the mix again next season.
But there’s one more game to go this season yet and I hope we finish the season on a flourish at Goodison Park.
Too right. It was loud the other day my ears still ringing my throat still sore. Looks like the trialists are coming in now all looks good for next season already.
What’s this I hear about us and mackems being in for Hoilett? Any substance? Why the mackems – surely it’s tosh he would even think of jumping ship onto a leaky boat?