Speed: Preparation, attitude, professionalism.This will be the first in a series of threads I am going to write, profiling some of my favourite ex Newcastle players from the last decade, starting with current Wales manager and MBE, Gary Speed.
Born in Mancot, Wales on the 8th of September 1969, Speed joined the Magpie’s in 1998 when Kenny Dalglish was at the helm. It was in a deal for a reported £5.5m from Everton.
The former Wales captain held the Premier League all time most appearances record with 535, until art and yoga enthusiast, David James, surpassed his record on 14th February 2009. He now sits in 3rd position overall after Ryan Giggs took the number one spot. During his career, he also held a record for having scored in every Premier League season (at the time), until Giggs again surpassed him on the 8th of February 2009 after Speed had been transferred from Bolton to Sheffield United on the 24th of December 2007. During his career he played for Leeds, Everton, Bolton and Sheffield United, collecting 85 caps, and scoring 7 goals for his country.
Although not extremely tall, Speed, standing at 5ft 8ins (1.73m) was excellent in the air at both sides of the pitch. He possessed an astute left foot and was known for his excellent set-pieces and effectiveness at winning back possession. In his early career he started as more of an attacking midfielder often operating on either flank at Leeds and Everton and his early days at Newcastle. Eventually he was used as a holding midfielder, sitting back and helping dictate the play, allowing his fellow midfield partners to focus on the attacking side of the game. He had extremely good vision and could pick a pass with ease, and was never afraid to get stuck in. (more…)
Andy Cole: Sold by Keegan two weeks after this tattoo was done!January. Possibly the most disappointing month of the year.
Christmas is over, you are back to work and still wondering what happened on New Years Eve and where you are going to find the money to pay for all the presents, booze and food you went through during the festive period.
January 2011 turned started out as usual, nothing much was happening, nothing much was going to happen. The media tried it’s best to drum up stories to make us watch their television channel or buy their papers, but it just wasn’t working; NUFC were having a very uneventful January. This was a cause of much frustration for some, as it was well believed at the time that we needed strengthening. So, in time honoured NUFC tradition we waited until the last minute until we did something that took everyone by surprise. Not just us NUFC fans, but the footballing world as we sold Andy Carroll to Liverpool. (more…)
As a prelude to the morra’s clash with Tottenham, here’s one of the highlights of the Keegan “Entertainers” era involving both teams.
This magificent drubbing actually came after something of a barren spell for Kevin Keegan’s squad, and also after the disappointment of “that” season when we almost cracked it, and Keegan cracked up under the pressure of Alex Ferguson’s psycho-war. (more…)
As we all know it’s derby awayday on Sunday, and the lucky few of you that have tickets for the game will be able to take in the sights of the beautiful city of Sunderland before making your way through the discarded prams and Ford Capri’s on bricks, being careful not to tread on anything that looks even remotely suspicious, before arriving at The Stadium Of Light, and before that Joker Park.
Anyway, I digress. No matter what the stadium has been called it has been host to some cracking victories to the Geordies, and some jammy ref helped victories to the home side. Fairness would dictate that both are discussed here. Sorry, not going to happen. This blog is intended to celebrate the dominance we have had over the Mackems in this fixture. (more…)
The next stop in our look at some of Newcastle greatest matches of recent history takes us to Anfield for a game that will be remembered not only by both sets of fans, but by neutral fans all over the place.
It is still to this day widely regarded as one of the best matches in Premier League history, despite fact we came away from Anfield with no points and having suffered a severe dent to our title ambitions. (more…)
