Archive for category: Facts and stats.

Pardew: We can’t compete with financial strength of Southampton

August 7th, 2013 | 157 Comments |

Alan Pardew shouting.
Pardew: Vision of success.
Speaking in his latest interview, Alan Pardew has been getting his latest round of excuses in before the season starts, saying that Newcastle United might find it difficult to replicate 2012’s fifth placed finish in the Premier League because he hasn’t replaced Demba Ba, and the club simply can’t compete with the financial strength of behemoths such as Southampton, Swansea City and Norwich City when it comes to buying players.

Here’s what Pardew said:

“When you look at the teams now and the money that’s being spent, you have to be honest and say it’s going to be difficult replicating that fifth-place finish. But our ambition must be to try to do that,”

“Demba went to Chelsea, and that was a big blow for us last year. I think the fact that we never really replaced him got missed a little bit. (more…)

And the NUFC Blog player of the season is…

July 9th, 2013 | 95 Comments |

Fabricio Coloccini - NUFC Blog's "player of the year."
What, me again?
Well, 1732 of you voted at the time of writing, and for the second time in a row NUFC Blog’s player of the season is (drumroll):

Fabricio Coloccini!

He beat off Tim Krul into second for the second time in a row too, with Davide Santon replacing Yohan Cabaye on the bottom siep of the podium. However, a poor season for the team seemed to make it much harder for all of you who voted to pick a decisive winner. Last year Captain Colo recieved received a mighty 34% of the entire vote, or 525 votes out if 1522. This year however it was only 17%, or 287 votes out of the aforementioned 1732.

You can see the full results in the poll at the bottom of this piece.

Though not a perfect defender, many are better in the air including central defensive teammates such as Mike Williamson and Steven Taylor, his abilty with the ball on the floor and the way he can build play from the back have marked him out in Newcastle United’s heart of defence. Unfortunately though, this quality has hardly been a feature of Newcastle United’s play in general under the old fashioned “kick and rush” style of Alan Pardew. (more…)

Who have been Newcastle United’s most lethal Premiership strikers? Here’s the answer…

June 27th, 2013 | 51 Comments |

Demba Ba - Newcastle United.
Demba Ba: Newcastle United’s hottest hitman in recent times.
Below is a table comparing the main statistics of all of Newcastle United’s main strikers who have played in the Hughton / Pardew years. There are six, Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands, Andy Carroll, Leon Best, Demba Ba and most recently of course, Papiss Cisse.

Please note that this is for Premier League games only. Championship stats have been excluded as they would obviously give the players who played a full season in the lower division an unfair advantage. As well as that, cup games have also been escluded too to make as level a playing field as possible (if you’ll pardon the pun). I think you might find one or two surprises in there, which was partly the reason I did this post in the first place.

I suppose I could have included Kevin Nolan too, as his goalscoring and assist figures would also stand up with the names below after Chris Hughton moved him further forward into the “hole” as they say, however this one’s for strikers and Nolan has always been a midfielder, albeit a highly attacking one in recent seasons. (more…)

Your complete Geordie’s guide to Newcastle United’s 2013-14 season!

June 19th, 2013 | 328 Comments |

Beefy the NUFC superfan.
Beefy’s ready for the new season, are you?
Well, as you might know, though you might have missed it with all the other dramas which are unravelling at St James’ Park as I write this, the fixture list for the 2013-14 Premier League season was published at 9am this morning.

I have placed the full list of fixtures announced below, which starts with another tricky season opener away to Manchester City. However, this post is to let you know (amongst other things) that you will always be able to consult them throughout the season via our new “Newcastle United fixtures” section in the side bar on the right hand side of the site.

Match Banter / Match preview posts, highlights and full match videos.

I will be continuing with all the usual “match banter” posts / previews for each game, as well as being the first with highlights and where possible, online videos of the full match for those of you who are unable to watch them live so stay tuned throughout the season! (more…)