Apart from the damage to the club’s dignity and self respect, not to mention it’s “brand value” because of associations with downmarket Sports Direct and even worse, Wonga, we are now seeing another kind of damage caused by the latter. Of course, I am referring to the current situation with Papiss Cisse and his refusal to wear a Wonga branded shirt.
The way things stand currently, the club could lose one of it’s most valuable players, not to mention last season’s joint top goalscorer before the first season under wonga’s sponsorship has even started. However in this piece I will look at what the club is receiving in return.
“The best deal we’ve ever done…”
Newcastle United’s ex-managing Director, Derek Llambias, described Wonga’s sponsorship as “the best deal we’ve ever done” and when asked if it was worth around £8 million per season, he replied that figure was “not far off.” (more…)
The banality of evil.I’ve read it many, many times now; passages of media stories about Papiss Cisse alleged objection to wearing a Newcastle United shirt with a Wonga advert on it which usually go along the lines of:
“Islam forbids the lending of money for interest, and Cisse has raised concerns with the club’s hierarchy about United’s new sponsors.”
Or:
“Cisse is a practicing Muslim and his reported objections over promoting Wonga stem from Islamic Sharia law which states that Muslims must not benefit from either lending money or receiving money from another person.”
This is usually accompanied by a disingenous or obtuse (it’s hard to tell sometimes) response by an alleged Newcastle United fan which is so common it has become another fallacious, dishonest cliche. This one along the lines of:
“He’s a hypocrite if he refuses to wear Wonga because they charge interest. He wore Virgin Money last season and they charge interest too.”(more…)
Jeroen Zoet – Possibly the strongest link so far?Well, it’s been a very busy transfer window so far with all that extra TV money swelling the coffers of Premier League clubs around the country.
No fewer than 61 players have been signed to Premier League clubs at the time of writing, with almost every club signing at least one new player. Sunderland have even signed seven. However there is one rether predictable exception, and there are no prizes for guessing who it is. Of course it’s Newcastle United, who have recently lost Danny Simpson, Steve Harper and James Perch, with Dan Gosling possibly on the way too. Another important issue is that this further English exodus could cause problems with the 8 “home grown” players in the 25 man squads teams have to hand in at the start of the season.
Having written that, there are currently high hopes for the signing of a younger flying Dutchman called Jeroen Zoet to keep existing flying Dutchman, Tim Krul, on his toes more than Robbie Elliot can. If so it would be good move and not just for the mere fact that it’s a body “over the line” as our Silver Supremo is so fond of saying. (more…)
Kinnear and Carr: NUFC’s scouting “dream team.”They are two chubby old men who swear so much, they even make Bernard Manning and Chubby Brown sound like a pair of Vicars.
One is reviled and one is revered by significant sections of Newcastle United’s fanbase, yet they are almost like peas in a pod. Two chubby, foul mouthed, old school pros with two lifetimes worth of experience in football. Carr has already been an excellent scout for Newcastle United, and there is no reason why Joe Kinnear can’t add to that significantly too, as a scout himself, as well as a bridge between the football side of the club, Mike Ashley and the future Managing Director, whoever that might be.
Since Kinnear’s return to the club, the first lazy stereotype of uninformed newspaper hacks was that Kinnear was putting a stop to the foreign signings because he’d never heard of them, that he was looking to sign more Kevin Nolans and Ryan Taylors, and also that Carr was set to walk out of the club in disgust. However, if you cast your mind to his time as interim manager at Newcastle, Kinnear was actually exploring the French market long before Carr came to the club. One transfer target Kinnear bid for was potential Butt replacement, Stephane Mbia, then a Stade Rennais player who eventually moved to Marseilles for over £10 million and eventually, QPR. There were others too such as Toulouse right back Albin Ebondo, who was looked at by Kinnear before he eventually moved to St Etienne. (more…)
Joe Kinnear – A lightning rod?Last season seems like a dim and distant memory now.
Things like a sixteenth placed finish, Alan Pardew’s abysmal tactics and even more abysmal excuses have all been completely forgotten. Forthcoming delights such as the arrival of Wonga and all the opprobrium that will bring have been completely forgotten too, all because of a few interviews from Joe Kinnear as Tyneside finds itself once more in the grip of “Kinnearophobia.”
Is it pure genius?
Strangely, the “local” Mirror Group media, the Chronic and the Journal, have seemingly abandoned their usual sycophancy to the current regime, and have happily been laying into Newcastle United’s new Court Jester at every opportunity. It’s almost as if they’d been given the go ahead to be as brutal as possible by Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambaisie Llambias.
Personally, I do not share the antipathy to Kinnear held by many fans, and some of the stuff has been shameful, like the headline in another Newcastle United blog which read “Gan On Kinnear – Have Another Heart Attack!.” I’m not as horrified at his appointment as some claim to be and have alot of respect for what he has achieved in his football career in the past. (more…)
