Steve Harper – “We’re going to lose half a dozen players.”
Posted on June 26th, 2012 | 94 Comments |
As to whether this should include any younger, more sprightly goalkeepers to rival him him in the goalkeeper’s pecking order, he didn’t say, though he did have a good old moan about how pre-pre season training is getting ever harder as he gets older. In other goalkeeping news, it seems that Frankenstein’s monster Fraser Forster may well be coming back to Newcastle after all to report for pre season, with a much mooted deal for Celtic still unsigned. But I digress…
Getting back to the Easington shot stopper though, he was speaking to North East news website, “News Guardian” in a video interview on launching a charity “swimathon” called “Reason to Swim” for the Percy Hedley Foundation at Northern Counties School in Jesmond.
Firstly, on his preparations for the season so far, the old codger grumbled:
“It’s probably the hardest I’ve worked. In the summer, as you get older, you need to do that to keep topping up. It’ll be good to see everybody. We’re back in on the fifth of July, and obviously a few of the international lads (Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa and Tim Krul) will get an extra couple of weeks. But it will be good to see everybody and to find out what they’ve been up to over the summer.
On the teams preparations he then added:
“Well the goalkeepers do their own thing. We probably couldn’t do what the outfield players do, and they couldn’t do what we do. It is tailored specifically for us, and hopefully, they’ll take my ageing years into account.
Perhaps you should keep quiet about that, Steve, and keep your Zimmer frame and Motabilty scooter at home. As we all know, Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United is no country for old men!
After a bit of waffle about the Euros, Harper got back on to the subject of Newcastle United, and looking forward to the season to come, including the Europa League campaign and the extra fixtures it will bring.
On this he remarked:
Yes, it’s going to be a big season. But with Newcastle United, every season’s a massive season, the expectation, especially after a fantastic year. Next year, that will be something that’s hard to deal with. We had a small squad last year, we’re going to lose half a dozen players through contracts running out, or running down, so I think it’s important we add to the squad from the numbers we had last year, because Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, which hopefully, it will be, will be very testing on a small squad. So hopefully, the people upstairs will take advantage of the momentum the club’s now got, look to build on it and stay at the top end of the league.
Correct, Steve. Though after being left out in the cold over “Bonusgate” back in the days of Hughton, reminding the people upstairs of his age, and nagging Mike Ashley to stick his hand in his pocket (of all things!) makes it seem as if if he’s on a mission to get himself transfer listed, pronto!
On the “we’re going to lose half a dozen players” bit, well, Danny Guthrie, Peter Lovenkrands and Alan Smith are the only ones who have definitely left the club, and that’s three for the mathematically challenged out there, so who will the other three be?
Perhaps he knows something about the likes of Danny Simpson and several other players that we don’t?
The full interview.
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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.
Er!
Didn’t/don’t we have one of the larger squads in the prem?
I’m sure there’s a site out there homing in on such stats that i’ve seen.
So with ‘contracts running out or down’
Smith, Simpson, Lovenkrands, Xisco, Best(?)
There’s five!