Graham Carr: A harder road ahead?You may have noticed that Newcastle United’s chief scout, Graham Carr, was very much in the news recently, and much of this was centered around him being given an eight year contract by the club’s managing director, Derek Llambias.
Usually, when a club renews an agreement with it’s chief scout, it hardly gets a great mention. However at the new Newcastle United rounds of interviews were arranged by the club’s press department, it “trended” on Twitter and was even covered in the national press. It was as if the club had renewed the contract of it’s manager. So what was behind this?
Graham Carr is now 67, with a long career in both coaching and scouting behind him, including scouting at other large, high profile clubs such as Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. So why now, in the autumn of his career, is he attracting so much attention? what is it that has made him emerge like a Butterfly from a Chrysalis on Tyneside? (more…)
Vernon Anita: Pocket battleship.It has been reported by various organs that the agent of pint sized Ajax defender / midfielder, Vurnon Anita has “confirmed” that Ajax have received an offer from Newcastle United.
The agent, Harry Lulofs, allegedly told Newcastle United website, “NUFC Fans”
“Newcastle have made an offer between £5-10 million. I cannot give you the accurate figure, but Ajax have received a written offer.”
“They are very satisfied with the guy [Anita] and want to keep him. Newcastle have been watching him for a long time and really want to sign him.”
“This is the first offer Ajax have received for Vurnon and we’ll soon see how they react.”
“After next week, he [Anita] will be back from holiday and I will meet people at Ajax with him and his dad.”
When quizzed on whether there had been interest from other clubs, Lulofs supposedly confirmed that there were no other offers as yet, but that ex Norwich manager, Paul Lambert expressed an interest before he packed his bags for the Midlands, adding: (more…)
Of course, there are lots of NUFC videos on YouTube and the like, but if you seen any by the dynamic duo of Ross and Affy, collectively known as “Gallowgatetoon,” I think you’ll agree that theirs are amongst the very best.
Here’s what they have to say about their work:
“Back in January we set up a joint channel on YouTube (Gallowgatetooners) with the idea that we would work together to produce Newcastle videos. Beyond the obvious season review videos, we didn’t really know what to produce, so we bounced ideas about, and ‘The Goals’ video was conceived, as was the ‘Ben Arfa Wondergoal’ video. We were very surprised by how well the season review videos went down, and all of the feedback gave us a massive boost to continue with what we were doing. (more…)
"I Want To Stay"First the good news – Papiss Demba Cisse wants to stay at Newcastle United for “many years”. And what’s more, that news is actually backed up with direct quotes from the player speaking to Sky Sports. So this isn’t “a source close to the player” or “a source close to the club”, this is Cisse himself, on the record, saying he wants to stay.
He told Sky Sports:
“I am very happy in Newcastle and I want to stay there for many years.”
“We were close to a Champions League position so next season hopefully we will qualify for that and everyone will taste the Champions League.”
“I am looking forward to next season.”
This news is particularly heartening given the recent press speculation that clubs like moneybags Manchester City are apparently keen on stealing our star forward. A bid might still come in of course, and it might be of sufficient size to tempt the United “Board” to cash in. But it’s always a good start if the player himself wants to stay and is happy here. (more…)
Another award for el Capitán - This time it's the big one!Well, 1485 of you have voted, and we can finally declare that the NUFC Blog readers’ “Player of the Season” is (drumroll):
Fabricio Coloccini!
Second in our 2010 vote, and third in 2011, it’s a case of third time lucky for the curly locked Capitán Colo after beating second placed Tim Krul and third placed Yohan Cabaye convincingly to finally clinch the greatest honour a Newcastle United player can receive. His excellent defensive performances apart, perhaps it was his leadership role this season, a season which saw Newcastle United make it into the Europa League for the first time since 2006/7, which has finally clinched it for him this time?
Though undoubtedly small beer now he has scooped this, the ultimate award, our captain was also the only Newcastle United’s only player to make the Professional Footballers’ Association Premiership “Team of the Year” for his key role in what has been a very good season for the Magpies overall. (more…)
