Looking and feeling a little rusty in the middle?Yesterday’s review of the current squad, took a look at the Newcastle defence, an area that this season we’ve been surprisingly strong in, given our poor reputation in recent years.
Tonight looks at arguably the fulcrum of a successful team, the midfield, the place that could and should control a game and dictate the style of play. That doesn’t bode well for our side at the moment because arguably, we have a midfield full of players who are very similar and lack pace. Therefore, the pace is often pedestrian and the game often goes stale.
Looking at the current crop, it really makes you pine for some of our former midfielders who have graced the hallowed St James’ turf in the last couple of decades. Reminisce about the grace of French wingers David Ginola and Laurent Robert. Recall the guts, determination and drive of Robert Lee and Gary Speed. Consider the guile we had in Emre, albeit fleetingly, and the sheer brilliance of Nobby Solano. Even having pure pace ala James Milner, Keith Gillespie to worry the opposition. You can even look at some of the less popular characters. We would kill for the pace of Kieron Dyer and dare I say, I could forgive Jermaine Jenas. Possibly even Damien Duff is a big miss? Maybe that’s stretching it…..
Anyway, that was the past, what about the present? – (more…)
Nacho: The intrigue continues.]In the wake of the Newcastle United / Mike Ashley / Keegan tribunal fiasco, the Daily Mail published a story asking if a Nacho Gonzalez video on ‘YouTube’ was the one Kevin Keegan was supposedly asked to watch by Dennis Wise? A video which was, supposedly, the only thing he had to go on in deciding whether he should be signed on loan for Newcastle United. However, the video linked to was only uploaded to YouTube 7 months ago, so that would be impossible.
After researching more closely, it is highly likely that it was actually this video, uploaded by Brazilian sporting agency, ADM Esporte well over a year ago.
Are they, perchance, the mystery Brazilian agents Dennis Wise and the NUFC recruitment squad sought to curry favour with in the one year loan signing of Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Gonzalez? The ones of which Keegan said:
“I was being asked to sanction the signing of a player in order to ‘do a favour’ for two South American agents. No-one at the club had seen this player play and I was asked to sign him on the basis of some clips on You Tube…” (more…)
