Advice for away fans: Divven't argue with this gadgie!On the back off a scrappy yet ultimately effective 2-0 win against crisis club, Crystal Palace, The Toon turn their attention to the Walker’s Stadium and a Saturday evening clash with Leicester City. It’s another local one for me as I live about 25 miles from Leicester, and work even closer!
The game is shown live on Sky TV so fans should get the treat of a live stream of the game. Generally, Leicester is not a happy hunting ground for us, with only 1 win in our past 7 games away at The Foxes. I will be among 3,250 Toon fans in attendance however, watching to see if we are going to be more successful this time around.
We’ll head south down the A1, join the M1 at Leeds and keep going south until you reach Leicester Forest East services. Once you hit these services you’ll need to get into the left hand lane and get ready to leave at J21 (M69, A5460). (more…)
The bull wants reinforcements!On another slow Newcastle United news day, Jose Enrique has urged the club to capitalise on the fantastic start to the season by adding the extra players needed to give us the best shot at finishing the promotion job off.
It appears Jose is fearful of the fact that losing too many players could jeopardize the Toon’s lead at the top of the table. The former Spain Under-21 international added:
“We need new players, some have already gone.”
“We’ve got a good squad, but when people go then we need to get replacements.”
I’m sure Enrique would be alluding to the likes of Marlon Harewood and Zhurab Khizanishvilli who have both returned to their original clubs. It does seem though that Jose is remaining generally upbeat about the manager’s chances of bringing in the required players. He added:
“I am sure that Chris has this situation already in hand – if he wants my recommendations I hear that Lionel Messi and Ronaldo would be great signings!”
“It’s a big club with a lot of fans and we’re a good bet for promotion.”(more…)
Back for good?Interesting article from the News Of The World, which reports today that Aston Villa have offered striker Marlon Harewood to Newcastle in a permanent deal. In all honesty, we probably would have signed him by now had Aston Villa not wanted a £250,000 loan fee plus player wages of £28,000 per week paid by us!
The Midlanders have pitched their price at £1.5 million, presumably to try and tempt us away from their target, Leeds striker Jeramine Beckford and get us to plump for the experience of our former loanee instead. Marlon Harewood scored 5 goals in his loan spell earlier in the season but has yet to win all the fans over yet, his seemingly lazy and lethargic attitude being a contributor to that.
I’m not sure what to make of Harewood? Can he score goals at this level? Yes! But is also 31 years old now, so we would be signing a player with a limited amount of fuel in the tank. (more…)
Unknown agenda?News today from a number of sources seems to indicate that the Toon’s move for Sheffield United’s coveted defender, Matt Kilgallon, has collapsed. Newcastle had reportedly made a bid of around £1 million for the player, who is out of contract in the summer, and could be snapped up on a free transfer in 6 months.
The player is seemingly committed to helping Sheffield United obtain promotion to the Premier League. In a statement from the player’s agent, Paul Masterton said:
“We have spoken to Kevin Blackwell to say Matthew is fully committed to Sheffield United until the end of the season. We have also informed Newcastle United about the situation.”
“Matthew is keen to win promotion with Sheffield United. If that happens, we will re-assess the options in the summer.”
This seems kind of fishy to me and has the stench of an agent trying to get the best deal for himself. After all, such a committed player has refused to sign a new contract and could leave his current club in the summer, earning them no money whatsoever. I like to think the best of people, so perhaps the lad is comitted to The Blades after all? (more…)
Howay the New Year!This time ten years ago, we were staring into a brand new millenium and the late great Sir Bobby Robson was halfway through the first season of his popular reign as manager at Newcastle United. The slightly uninspiring capture of Diego Gavilan was the only January transfer that Robson made and the little Paraguayan never made the impact he would have hoped for at St James’. Sir Bobby, conversely, went on to create one of the most exciting sides of a Toon generation.
Despite falling short as Keegan had done back in the ’90s, with his wealth of experience, Robson played a brand of football that the supporters could once again get behind. And the football wasn’t just good to watch but effective as we flirted with European and domestic success. But of course, the end of his reign was somewhat soured by it’s nature as many fans welcomed the decision feeling he’d lost the dressing room, and he was unceremoniously dumped by Freddy Shepherd.
2000 actually saw Robson get rid of one of our most infamous and old-fashioned bad-boys, Duncan Ferguson, but the new millenium brought the advent of a new type of bad-boy. The ‘noughties’ became the decade of the ‘naughties’ as Robson built his side around ‘bling boys’, such as the likes of Keiron Dyer, Jermaine Jenas, Titus Bramble and Craig Bellamy. (more…)
