First team future?Nile Ranger scored a hat-trick for the reserves yesterday, but where does he stand in the pecking order of Newcastle United strikers?
I can’t help but think that Ranger is sliding down the list of strikers as far as Alan Pardew is concerned.
Given that Andy Carroll is our number one striker, it seems that Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands and Leon Best are all likely to be picked ahead of Ranger, with Best’s ranking undoubtedly helped by his hat-trick against West Ham.
And what about Xisco? We paid £5.7m for him and I can’t remember seeing him since he came on as a sub during the 6-0 thrashing of Villa. I suspect that Ranger is at least ahead of him in the pecking order.
But it may even be worse than that for Ranger because there’s always the option of pushing someone like Nolan or Ben Arfa up to support a striker, which could drop Ranger even further down the list.
And then of course there’s the rumours that we might be looking to sign another striker.
So where does this leave Nile Ranger in terms of his first team status? (more…)
New Toon Boss?In a move that can only be described as astonishing, Mike Ashley sent Chris Hughton on his way earlier this week and – unless it’s all one massive smokescreen – it looks like he’s about to replace him with Alan Pardew.
Pardew’s achievements include getting Reading promoted from division two to division one, getting West Ham promoted to the Premiership, losing on penalties to Liverpool in the FA Cup final, winning a Football League Trophy at Southampton and …. well, that’s about it really. Pardew’s tenure at Charlton was less successful, where he took them down from the Premiership to mid-table Championship obscurity.
I am however sure Mike Ashley will be appointing Alan Pardew for purely footballing reasons and it will have nothing at all to do with suggestions that Ashley, Llambias and Pardew are old gambling buddies and that it’s just ‘jobs for the boys’. So I won’t mention that.
I suppose some Newcastle United supporters may welcome the appointment of Alan Pardew at the expense of Chris Hughton, but I suspect it will make most madder than an albino hitching a lift in a snow storm. Ashley is certainly chancing his hand with this one and for the sake of the Toon I hope it pays off. If it doesn’t, I would anticipate a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. (more…)
Same old Shearer, always scoring.Andy Carroll looks set to start for England tomorrow where he will pick up his first senior international cap against France at Wembley.
Fair play to the lad as he deserves his chance. I just hope he doesn’t pick up an injury that will keep him out of action for his club!
Anyway, I digress. It’s been a pretty meteoric rise to the top for the Gateshead lad. Just twenty months ago he was a was a benchwarmer, a young whipper-snapper with a bad reputation. At 21-years-old, he still is a whipper-snapper, and he remains as controversial now as he was back then, but his stock on the football field has risen rapidly, to the point where he is about to become the next Newcastle player to lead the line for England.
Newcastle have been blessed with English goal-scorers, certainly in recent years anyway, and it’s those years that I am going to cover in this article. I will, of course, be looking for your input on this, which will hopefully lead to a good healthy debate about England forwards that Newcastle have had on their books in years gone by. So, where do we start? (more…)
Fancy coming home, John?I think all in all it’s fair to say that yesterday was a rather busy day with regard to activity around the club.
First there was the matter of Andy Carroll having to face court in the morning, then there was the revelation of his strange bail conditions whereby he must live with club captain, Kevin Nolan.
The final piece of action on Tyneside came yesterday when Colin Calderwood called time on his Newcastle career as assistant manager in favour of a move north of the border to manage Hibernian. Personally, I’m not so sure just what Calderwood used to do at Newcastle though. By that I mean I am unsure just how important he has been. It has been Hughton has taken the plaudits whilst Calderwood just got on with things quietly in the background. Nonetheless, Newcastle must act quickly to find a replacement, but just who is that going to be? (more…)
I love Pedro!Talking about our favourite Newcastle players is always a good way of stimulating debate, so who is your favourite player of all time?
It’s a question that encompasses the different tastes of people, different age groups and different opinions as everyone has their own reason behind why a particular player is their favourite.
For me, it has to be Peter Beardsley. The guy was a magician with a football at his feet and was a model professional at all times. Of course he is now our reserve team coach, but some of his skills will live with me forever. Paul Gascoigne is another player who could have been up there, but although he was my first Newcastle idol I don’t think he was here long enough to trump Pedro’s efforts. (more…)
