Owen: A bit of backtracking.“Newcastle fans, following my Football Focus interview, plenty of you tweeting me saying you don’t blame me for getting injured but for leaving when we got relegated.”
“Despite the club saying they did, they didn’t ever offer me a new contract despite them putting it in the press that they did. How could they when they had just been relegated? It would have been financial suicide. I’ve seen it a million times, a club will blatantly lie to their fans to take the moral high ground leaving the player with no leg to stand on. I’ve taken the stick for years which is fine but you really don’t know half of it. All will be revealed one day.”
Tweeted Michael Owen on his final season at Newcastle United. Then however, he backtracked somewhat, updating his Twitter with the following:
“Just to clarify. My tweet yesterday referred to no contract offer after Newcastle relegation. Which I said was understandable. Newcastle did make me an offer to extend in 2008 when Joe Kinnear was manager. Apologies to the club if there has been any confusion. I just didn’t want the fans to think I had deserted the club after relegation. I didn’t.” (more…)
McManaman – No further action from the FA.The FA have finally made their statement on Callum McManaman’s vicious attack on Massadio Haïdara’s knee on Sunday, with news that they will be taking no further action.
In their statement on the assault, they claimed that “at least one” of the match officials saw the incident and chose not to take any further action at the time, hence they are powerless to take any further action. It read as follows:
“The FA can confirm that no action can be taken against Wigan Athletic’s Callum McManaman retrospectively following his side’s game against Newcastle United on Sunday 17 March 2013.
“Following consultation with the game’s stakeholders (the Premier League, the Football League, the Professional Footballers’ Association, the League Managers’ Association, Professional Game Match Officials Limited and the National Game) in the summer, it was agreed that retrospective action should only be taken in respect of incidents which have not been seen by the match officials.(more…)
Wigan: Can be tricky customers late in the season.Venue: DW Stadium, Wigan. Date: Sun 17th March, 2013. Kick off: 4.00pm. Referee: Mark Halsey (Bolton). UK TV: Sky Sports.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s game, which sees Newcastle United taking on Wigan Athletic at their place, the DW Stadium.
Of course in recent seasons, Wigan usually spend much of their time toward the bottom of the Premiership, then suddenly come into form at just the right time to save themselves from the dreaded drop around this time. Although they took a bit of a pounding against Liverpool in their last game but one, the signs have been there this season too, as the game before that Liverpool defeat was a convincing 3-0 victory over fellow relegation strugglers Reading, and in the one after they knocked Everton out of the FA Cup by the same scoreline. (more…)
Only 90 minutes from the quarter finals?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Thurs 14th March, 2013. Kick off: 8.05pm. Referee: Deniz Aytekin (Germany). UK TV: ESPN.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this evening’s Europa League (home) second leg against Dagestan’s finest, the Guus Hiddink managed Anzhi Makhachkala.
With the first leg in Russia ending as a 0-0 bore draw, even a draw would see us through to the quarter finals, as long as it is a score draw. However it shouldn’t be forgotten that the last time we were in Europe, we fell at this very hurdle to another Dutch old master, Louis van Gaal. His AZ Alkmaar side knocked us out on penalties after the the two legs ended 4-4 on aggregate. He hoping we don’t see a repeat of that!
Speaking in the run up to the game, Hiddink was full of the usual pre match compliments, giving his thumbs up for the new style Newcastle. He said of the team:(more…)
NUFC Blog’s latest blog on metro.co.uk is out now! Just a quick note to let you know that my latest piece for metro.co.uk” has now been published.
Entitled “Alan Pardew says the funniest things sometimes,” it is a brief (they’re only supposed to be around 500 words in there) reflection on some of Pardew’s words after Newcastle’s victory against Stoke, where he marked the cards of foolish romantics who prattle on about how teams need a “fantastic spirit” to win a game once they’ve gone behind. Instead, he insisted that only teams with “world class players” like Yohan Cabaye can change a game once they are a goal behind.
Just to refresh your memory, his exact words were:
“People get them mixed up sometimes, they talk about the spirit of the side and ‘You must have a fantastic spirit to come back from a goal down’. (more…)
