Newcastle United’s series of pre season fixtures starts this evening in Chemnitz, as the Magpies kick off their European tour, playing six games (if you count one against the Dutch Den Haag which is yet to be officially confirmed). Two of the games will be played in Germany, one in Hungary and two in Portugal, though not necessarily against local sides.
The teams will be Chemitzer at their place in Saxony, AS Monaco in Bavaria, Fenerbahçe in Hungary, Olympiacos and SC Braga at Braga’s unusual Estádio Municipal de Braga, which has a huge rockface at one side of the stadium instead of the usual terracing. Finally the as yet unconfirmed one against ADO Den Haag will be played at Den Haag’s Kyocera Stadium in the the Hague. Although not officially confirmed by NUFC, the game has been definitely been confirmed by Den Haag.
Finally (for the moment), back in the UK, there will be another “Battle of the Birds” as the Magpies take on the Bluebirds of Cardiff City at their place, and the reserves / bairns will also take on Gatesheed at the Intenational Stadium. (more…)
Debuchy and Simpson: Horses for courses.With Newcastle United being strongly linked with Lille’s and France’s right back, Mathieu Debuchy, I thought it might be a good idea to make a comparison between the player and our existing first choice right back, Danny Simpson, who had a very good season overall with the Magpies, indeed, he was statistically the best right back in the Premiership of 2011-12 according to the “Premiership Index”.
I will be drawing on their relative statistics from last year, as well as my own experiences from what I have seen of Debuchy. Though it may seem somewhat unfair to compare the statistics of a player who played in France’s Ligue 1 to someone who played in the Premiership, nonetheless, on inspection it gives us a fair indication of the different discernable characteristics the two players, and what Debuchy might bring to the club on the right hand side of defence. (more…)
Not good enough to join the elite?When I first saw this story in the Northern Echo last Saturday, I didn’t discount it entirely, but I had the usual doubts I have about virtually every Newcastle United story at the moment. But then it resurfaced again in this story yesterday, and I’m not quite so doubtful anymore.
The “story” is that whilst our much loved cousins at Sunderland Association Football Club, and also from Championship Middlesbrough, seem to be nailed on to acheive the highest “Category One” status in the Premier League’s new “Elite Player Performance Plan” (EPPP) for football academies, Newcastle United have allegedly been told they haven’t have made the grade after an audit of the club in March, and will probably only be awarded “Category Two” status. The independent auditors who carried out the inspections, “Foot Pass England” judged clubs on ten factors, these factors being:
Plenty of space for this in the NUFC trophy cabinet!Well, Newcastle United have finally made it into European competition for the first time since Glenn Roeder’s Intertoto dream team made it into the 2006/7 edition of the competition.
So, to mark this momentous occaision, this is NUFC Blog’s cut out and keep guide for Geordies with many interesting and informative facts about the competition, and of course, Newcastle United.
So here goes!
By the time the competitiom reaches it’s climax at Ajax’s “Amsterdam ArenA” (the last “A” has to be capitalised for some bizarre reason), a total of 193 teams from 53 countries will have taken part at some stage. Of these, only three will be English, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Liverpool (in that order), unless, that is, one or more of the four English sides in the Champions League are dumped out at an earlier stage than would usually be expected, as the two Manchester teams were last season. There will be no places for English teams through the fair play league, and there is no more Intertoto Cup as there was in Roeder’s time, as that ceased in 2008. (more…)
Following on from part one of Newcastle United’s 2011 / 2012 season review, we begin at the start of the new year with a home tie against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.
January – Man Utd humbled / A Nightmare at the Cottage / The new number nine…
A stunning display from Pardew’s team saw champions, Manchester United, comfortably beaten 3-0 at St James’ Park. Two brilliant goals from both Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye put United on course to victory, with Phil Jones putting through his own net to complete the rout. It was a tremendous start to January, and helped eradicate the previous month’s below par performances. Pardew got the tactics spot on, knowing that Man Utd’s centre backs Rio Ferdinand and Phil Jones couldn’t handle the physicality of Magpies front men, Demba Ba and Shola Ameobi. (more…)
