Martins - One of our former stars.It’s been a turbulent 12 months for Newcastle United, but after a season in the second tier we can now once again, ahem, look forward to the regular visits of Manchester United, Chelsea and all the rest.
It took some luck, some balls of steel, a bit of skill and many more factors to click into place all at once for us to secure promotion, but in the end it was very much a case of mission accomplished as Newcastle pretty much blew the rest of the Championship away.
Newcastle are back in the big time, back where it can be argued that a club with infrastructure and fanbase we have belongs, and we also have the chance to get back at those players who left us, the ones who got asked to shape up or ship out after that 6-1 pre-season defeat to Leyton Orient last season. That is not to say that I blame them for leaving, not one bit in fact, and I believe that those players leaving was the catalyst behind this new found team spirit that we keep hearing about. Having said that, it’s still always nice to get one over on your old colleagues, even Jose Enrique admitted recently he would be itching to do just that. So with that in mind, just what have they been up to whilst Newcastle have been away? Do we have anything to worry about from our former players? (more…)
Free to go elsewhere.Jermaine Beckford looks to have blown his chances of playing Premier League football at St James’ Park next season as boss Chris Hughton pursues other targets in his quest to strengthen the squad during the summer
Beckford was the subject of quite intense interest from Newcastle back in January and was the target of a sequence of bids made by the club for his services. None of those bids were deemed acceptable by Ken Bates despite Beckford handing in a transfer request at the time, which he later retracted and moved to quash any more rumours by announcing he would be opting to sit out the rest of his contract at recently promoted Leeds United before leaving on a free transfer in the summer. That whole episode has apparently put Hughton off from re-igniting his interest in a player that would cost nothing to sign, despite a January admission that he would be interested in securing the services of the 31-goal striker for Newcastle. (more…)
'Sebastien was the player to take'Harry Redknapp has made a sensational claim that it was Iain Dowie who recommended to Harry Redknapp that Sebastien Bassong would be ripe for a move to Tottenham Hotspur if he and Shearer were to vacate the managers position at St James Park. According to Harry, he also picked Bassong for Redknapp as the best player to pick for ‘Spurs out of the Newcastle squad.
Harry said:
“When we played Newcastle last year I spoke to Iain Dowie and Alan Shearer after the game and they spoke about the team, they were in desperate trouble,” Redknapp said.
“Iain said if they didn’t stay at the club and one player did become available, Sebastien was the player to take. They couldn’t have recommended him any higher. (more…)
Jonas pleads for exitThe Daily Mail is reporting that Barry Moat must find another £10m for his offer if he wants to buy Newcastle United after Ashley is said to be ‘insulted’ by his current offer. Let’s have a whip round.
The Guardian speculates that Moat is making his bid with backing from local nightclub owner Allan Rankin, rather than the previously speculated ‘American Backers’, and that the two have set up a new company called Tandem Bars specifically for the purposes of acquiring the club.
The vacant manager’s position gets some exposure with The Shields Gazette claiming that four managers have been short-listed by Ashley, should he keep the club. They claim those managers are David O’Leary, Gordon Strachan, Alan Curbishley and some unnamed ‘overseas manager’.
The Telegraph goes one better and claims five managers have been short-listed although it doesn’t name any others beyond the three listed by The Shields Gazette. Any advance on five? Surely one of the papers could manage six. (more…)
In terms of the management situation, the club have apparently ruled out the idea that Kinnear will return – although there’s nothing on NUFC’s official site to that effect – and The Mail are claiming that David O’Leary has also turned down the opportunity to become manager. This latter claim by The Mail contains no direct quotes from O’Leary though, so it could just be nonsense.
An awful lot is printed about Newcastle these days but, besides the confirmed transfers, most of it just appears to be speculation, so there is little of substance to actually report today.
The Barry Moat situation dominated most of the speculation yesterday but The Chronicle wonders if that’s all a ruse to flush out other bidders, which wouldn’t surprise me at all. (more…)
