Kevin Keegan: The Entertainer.Speaking in a recent interview (here and here) on his “Entertainers” side of the 1990s, ex Newcastle United manager, Kevin Keegan, suggested that his own “Entertainers” side of the ‘nineties were the vanguard for current attacking teams such as Barcelona, Manchester City and Manchester United.
Speaking on the eve of a reunion last weekend with a Liverpool team who produced a nailbiting 4-3 classic which is still mentioned over fourteen years later, plus an “impostor” in the side who goes by the name of Alan Shearer. The Mighty Mouse started with a classic Keegan quote saying:
“Everybody said at the time we couldn’t win the league playing like that. Unfortunately they were proved right.”
Then adding:
“We should have won it, we just couldn’t get over the line. If you look at football now, Barcelona, Man City and Man United are playing like that now. The centre-backs and full-backs bomb on now and I think if we’d won the league like that, then there would be teams playing like that before now. We were ahead of our time.”(more…)
Leon Best: 9 goals in 12 games.Aston Villa 1 (Agbonlahor 13) Newcastle United 1 (Best 57)
Both teams went into this game unbeaten in the Premier League so far, but with the Magpies four places ahead in the table through an extra victory, with nearly all of Aston Villa’s games being draws. And so it proved today once again.
Despite being dominated for long spells of the game and tailing off pretty badly at the end of each half, Aston Villa held out for another draw, their fourth out of five so far. It was a fairly exciting encounter overall, though in one respects it was like Newcastle United’s previous game against QPR. This time however it was the Magpies who were in the driving seat for much of the game, and would have been almost certainly disappointed to walk away with only a point.
We got off to a much better start than we did in that game with some great pressure. Unfortunately though, it wasn’t to last. Unlike that last game, Aston Villa had Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor instead of Jay Bothroyd, and as soon as a real chance presented itself to the Villans, the latter of the two made no mistake. After around ten minutes of the game, Gabriel Obertan almost left our former goalkeeper, Shay Given with egg on his face as an attempted forced a tip-over from the Irish shot stopping supremo. Three minutes later though, it was the dominant Magpies who had egg all over as the babovementioned Abonlahor picked up a Bannen cross, holding off Captain Colo to slip in a nice low short range finish in the box. It must be said, or even written, that our defending could have been better there though. Damn and blast it all! Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle United.(more…)
It's that man again.Venue: Loftus Road, London. Date: Monday, Sept 12th, 2011. Kick-off: 8:00pm. Referee: Phil Dowd.
I don’t think it would be unfair to say that Newcastle United were very, very lucky to pick up a point here, in a match which saw Quuen’s Park Ramgers utterly dominant in the first half, and still on top in the second half too.
Before kick off, the news was that ex Toon Twittergate refugee, Joey Barton, would be the new QPR captain. In a team which was bristling with new arrivals, the West London club were remarkably fluent considering the lack of time their new players have had to ‘gel’ with the rest of the squad before being thrown into the thick of it. This was especially the case with ex Manchester City benchwarmer, Shaun Wright Phillips, who gave a ‘Man of the Match’ performance. He scared the Magpies with some great crosses from the flank, along with a few chances on goal for himself too. QPR’s much vaunted player of the season from their promtion year, Adel Taraabt, was also a signifcant threat from the other flank too, however thankfully for us, Jay Bothroyd’s finishing was not quite on the same level. If a first class finisher was in his place, we might have been done for! (more…)
Kevin Nolan: Why in public?In a Mirror ‘exclusive’, former Newcastle captain, Kevin Nolan, has urged his former partner in crime, Joey Barton, to join Sam Allardyce’s ‘sexy football’ revolution at West Ham.
Nolan said:
“Would Joey Barton come here? Well, I came here, so I can’t see why Joey Barton would not come, it is a massive club.
“The way he has been treated over the last couple of years, he is probably looking for an escape.
“He knows I’m here, he knows Sam (who brought the player to St James’ park in June 2007) is here and what we are about – I can look after him and he can look after me!
“It would definitely be good for me. Joey is a great player to play alongside and he is a winner.
“He tells it straight, as people know, but deep down he is a lovely lad and I get on really well with him.
“He would be a great acquisition to the squad if we got him here.(more…)
Welcome to the fifth part of my transcription of Alan Pardew’s long and very revealing interview for BBC Radio Newcastle’s ‘Total Sport’.
In this one, Pardew spills the beans about Newcastle United’s alleged pursuit of Mevlüt Erdinç, and whether he or any other new strikers might be joining joining the club before the end of the transfer window. He also spouts on the new signings so far and how he thinks they will adapt to the Premiership, the “huge fees” paid for them and how he needs to ‘mark the cards’ of the fans on Summer spending.
Total Sport:“Is Mevlüt Erdinç someone that you’re pursuing?”
Alan Pardew:“Well, it’s very difficult to comment on players when no agreement has been reached and he’s one of those players where we have no agreement so I don’t really want to comment too much. (more…)
