Pardew's plan?Alan Pardew has set out his vision for the future of Newcastle United, and is already attracting criticism from some quarters for it.
Pardew’s plan will see us toying with European football with a team of home-grown talent by 2016. It’s a challenge, but why not eh?
I’ve been reading a few comments from a few different sites and I’m rather shocked that people are deeming this ‘plan’ as unambitious.
Why? I mean we are just a newly promoted team with a large following after all. We may well be sitting in 8th place in the league now, but will we end the season there? I’m not so sure on that one as there is still a long way to go, and only last week a lot of the talk was around being involved in a relegation scrap. Has one win against Liverpool now got people hyped up again? (more…)
Taylor: No to new deal?Apparently Steven Taylor has turned down the latest improved offer of a new contract from Newcastle United prompting speculation that he could be off in January.
I say apparently as the source is the rather questionable Sunday Sun and they will generally print anything to get a reaction out of the fans.
There are no quotes, no inside sources or anything to back this rumour up, yet it appears that some ‘blogs and forums are starting to run with it and print it as fact without knowing the full story. Now I’m not Steven Taylor’s biggest fan, and I’m even less of a fan of his agent, Paul Stretford, who is also the agent of Wayne Rooney, but I’m questioning this report and the legitimacy of it. (more…)
Captain Shola? Gerraway!It’s an interesting question, and I probably know the answer that most people will give as I will probably give the same answer myself.
Now this isn’t an exercise as to whether Shola Ameobi should be in the team or not, as that is not really our decision. We all have views on it as, like the saying goes, opinions are like arseholes – everyone has one, well unless you are some form of freaky creature that… never mind.
Anyway, basically does anyone else feel that Shola Ameobi deserves the armband? Does he deserve to be leading the players in the absence of Kevin Nolan and any number of other players who would be ahead of him in the pecking order? Probably not to be fair, but does he deserve to be captain of this rag-tag group of players that have been thrust together due to injury and suspension? Again, probably not.
I suppose it depends on what your own personal view is of a captain. If it is some kind of long service award then fair enough, Shola should have it in the bag. The problem is that I just don’t think it suits him. (more…)
Keep the faith!As the dust begins to settle after Newcastle United’s humiliating 5-1 defeat to an in-form Bolton Wanderers, many fans will be wondering what happens next.
The answer is that none of us know really, which is a crap answer to be honest, but what we do know is that we have Chelsea next week in what is set to be another tough encounter.
But which Newcastle side will turn up next week? Will it be the side that is motivated and determined to right some wrongs, much like they did against Sunderland and Aston Villa? Or will it be the Newcastle side that turned up, or failed to, yesterday, where they capitulated and never looked really up for it from the get go?
That has arguably been the main feature of our season so far, and not knowing which consistently inconsistent Newcastle side will turn up is making me nervous already.
I guess the bottom line is that we mustn’t get carried away after suffering such a heavy defeat, even though it is hard not to. On the flipside though, we mustn’ get carried away when we dish out the thumpings like we have done at times this season. (more…)
Same old Shearer, always scoring.Andy Carroll looks set to start for England tomorrow where he will pick up his first senior international cap against France at Wembley.
Fair play to the lad as he deserves his chance. I just hope he doesn’t pick up an injury that will keep him out of action for his club!
Anyway, I digress. It’s been a pretty meteoric rise to the top for the Gateshead lad. Just twenty months ago he was a was a benchwarmer, a young whipper-snapper with a bad reputation. At 21-years-old, he still is a whipper-snapper, and he remains as controversial now as he was back then, but his stock on the football field has risen rapidly, to the point where he is about to become the next Newcastle player to lead the line for England.
Newcastle have been blessed with English goal-scorers, certainly in recent years anyway, and it’s those years that I am going to cover in this article. I will, of course, be looking for your input on this, which will hopefully lead to a good healthy debate about England forwards that Newcastle have had on their books in years gone by. So, where do we start? (more…)
