Toon's Messi?Hatem Ben Arfa has scored some excellent goals since joining Newcastle United – which is your favorite?
Hatem Ben Arfa has certainly brought some flair to Newcastle United and scored some cracking goals in the process. He also seems to do a job defensively when necessary now too. Earlier in the season Alan Pardew was a little critical of Benny’s defensive work and that might be the reason why a lot of his 25 appearances for The Toon were as a substitute, but he now seems to command a regular staring place so his defensive duties must at least be up to Alan Pardew’s satisfaction.
Ben Arfa started his senior career at Lyon where he’d previously been a youth player. He played for Lyon from 2004-2008 and scored 11 goals in 87 appearances before moving to Marseille for €11m. In his time at Marseille he notched up 15 goals in 91 appearances before first being loaned to Newcastle in 2010 and then being transferred in 2011 for approximately £5m.
He’s played for us 21 times now and scored 7 goals – 6 league and 1 cup – and of course he had to contend with a major leg break injury after a crunching tackle from Manchester City’s Nigel de Jong. Of those 7 goals, I narrowed it down to 4 contenders for ‘Ben Arfa’s Best Goal So Far’, so take a look at these and vote for your favourite. (more…)
Rumours gaining strength?The Dutch press appears to offer further suggestions that FC Twente’s Douglas is bound for Newcastle United this summer, although perhaps the most pertinent question is whether or not we lose any of our current stars this summer too.
Further to an article I posted last week about Newcastle’s interest in FC Twente’s Douglas Franco Teixeira, the Dutch football magazine ‘Voetbal International’ has said that the 24 year-old central defender is indeed likely to switch to Newcastle this summer.
They suggest that a fee of €5m (£4.12m) has been ‘prepared’, which is about half the figure I mentioned in the previous article (which I got from the ‘Transfermarkt’ site). This makes sense I suppose as he will in fact be out of contract this summer.
According to Voetbal International, Douglas wants to wait until late August to make the switch though. This is because he will then have spent 5 years playing his football in The Netherlands and can become a naturalised Dutchman, thus allowing him to play for The Netherlands’ national team, which is apparently his aim. (more…)
Modern digger spotted in WalesNewcastle United look to make it four wins a row as they visit the Liberty Stadium to take on Swansea City in a late afternoon fixture on Friday evening.
Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Date: Fri 6th Apr 2012. Kick-Off: 16:30. Referee: Howard Webb.
It’s off to Wales this weekend and it’s to play a team that has been praised for their footballing style and one which looks easily assured of their place in the Premier League at the end of this season. I think we’ll have to play well to beat Swansea at the Liberty and I reckon this will be a hard-fought game from which we might be pleased with a point in the end.
We are however in ascendancy and have a certain amount of momentum with us. I can see no good reason why Alan Pardew would change the 4-3-3 formation we’ve played with success in recent weeks and I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts out a similar team to the one we played on Sunday. If Perch and Williamson can again put in the sort of performance they did last Sunday we should be pretty solid at the back despite being without both our first choice centre-backs. There are however doubts over the fitness of both Perch and Guthrie, so a certain amount of reshuffling may be necessary.
If we play the flowing football we’ve managed in recent weeks this could be a great game to watch and I reckon it could easily see 4 or 5 goals. (more…)
Europe beckonsAlan Pardew says Newcastle United are a year ahead of plan in being in contention for a European place this season. Pardew also talks about some of the ‘problems’ that need to be overcome to compete in the Europa League.
Much has been said in the past about 5-year plans for our club, although I’ve never been entirely sure what those plans are. If we look back to when the first 5-year plan was mentioned we must be on about year 4 of it by now, although I rather suspect we’re now on a different 5-year plan than that one. But wherever we are on whichever plan we’re on, we’re a year ahead of it.
Pardew said:
“We’re a year ahead of schedule. I didn’t expect us to be as close as we are to those European spots but we’re going to take the chance in front of us if we can.
“That’s football – it doesn’t often put an opportunity in front of you and you’ve got to grasp it. I keep saying to the players that you’ve got an opportunity so grasp it with both hands and that’s what we’re going to do hopefully in the remaining games.(more…)
Collymore - pundit, of sortsStan Collymore claims Newcastle United defender James Perch should be given a 3-match ban for ‘diving’.
Alleged pundit Stan Collymore has had plenty to say about the game against Liverpool on Sunday. First of all he said that Andy Carroll should be banned for his dive in the box and then says Perch should be banned for being headbutted by Pepe Reina. Collymore chose Twitty to express his views and said:
“Not many suggesting punishments for diving, so is it now with us for good? I say give Carroll/Perch three game bans. They won’t do it again.”
Whilst I tend to agree that diving should be punished and would therefore support the idea of Carroll being banned for 3 games, I can’t support the idea that Perch should be banned for 3 games too. Clearly I’m writing on a Newcastle United ‘blog and would expect cries of unfair bias, so I ought to try and justify myself before the tar and featherers dust of their tar and feathering kit and make their way to Somerset to try and find me.
In Carroll’s case the various replays showed that there was definitely no contact on him from Krul. I can’t say for definite that he didn’t merely ‘stumble’, as Kenny Dalgish claimed, but it looked very much like a dive. Make what you will of that but in Perch’s case there was contact between Reina’s head and Perch’s. He was nutted, basically. (more…)
