Laurent Blanc: Why not?Many thanks to “ToonBano” from the Toon blog www.toonbano.com for his fifth guest blog here – wt.
Apologies for the sensationalist headline but bear with me there’s a point to it. My patience with Alan Pardew has been down to a thread for most of this season (just have a little look in my archive section to see the proof), but since that Brighton humiliation the thread has snapped. For good. The man is totally incompetent at his role and how he manages to get away with it without any real criticism in the footballing world is astonishing. His greatest talent is being soaked in Teflon it seems.
To the eye of the realistic, honest and well informed Newcastle United supporter, his incompetence does not go unnoticed however. In fact, it drives us up the wall! When you look at every aspect of the Newcastle Utd managers responsibilities he holds, it is quite reasonable to say that the one we have in place has failed at almost every single one of them. I’ll name a few and you decide whether he gets a ‘pass’ or a ‘fail’: (more…)
Debuchy: Still no confirmation.Since the allegations that the arrival of Lille and France international Mathieu Debuchy on Tyneside was imminent, I have been poring over various French sources for details.
This is because it seems that the information coming out of the UK media on the story has just been lifted from a story in French journal, “La Voix du Nord” or “The Voice of the North,” which I translated in my previous piece on this seemingly everlasting imbroglio.
Casting back our minds to the failed bid for Debuchy in the Summer, you might recall that Newcastle United refused to go beyond €6 million (around £4.9 million at current rates) for the €15 million rated (£12.2 million) player, with Lille holding out for €8 million (£6.5 million).
Moving forward to the negotiations for a move this current window, it seems that Newcastle United’s offer was slightly increased. The €6 million basic figure was the same allegedly. However, there was supposedly an offer of a €500,000 bonus (£407,000) on top of this, dependent on appearences, with Lille supposedly suggesting that the offer would be accepted if the bonus was increased to €1 million (£800,000). (more…)
Not him again!News has been circulating all over the UK and French media that a deal for Lille full back Mathieu Debuchy had been resurrected, and that the Frenchman would sign for Newcastle United for a fee of around £5.5 million in the imminent January transfer window.
So I decided to probe deeper and chase up the original French story which “broke” the news. It turns out that it is another one of this “According to a source close to the club” stories which are, more often than not, specious guff.
Here is my (dodgy) translation of the original as it appear in the French Journal “La Voix du Nord” or “The Voice of the North”
“The deal is not yet official yet, but according to our information, Mathieu Debuchy will no longer Lille in 2013. While its leaders finalise at this very moment an agreement with Newcastle (Premier League), who wanted to him to come this summer, the side prepares for the departure of the 27 year old. A page turns. (more…)
A watershed moment in Newcastle United's season?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 22nd December, 2012. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Kevin Friend (Leics). UK TV: None.
Hello good afternoon and welcome to this extra special Christmas match banter for Newcastle United’s home match with the “R’s” of Queens Park Rangers.
To say that this was an important game for Alan Pardew and the Magpies would be an understatement. With The Magpies being pulled ever closer into the relegation quagmire, a fairly daunting pair of away games against Manchester United and a recently resurgent Arsenal follow, not to mention a tricky home tie with sixth placed Everton to complete the Christmas and New Year holiday fixture list. With QPR being one of the few teams which are below in in the table at the moment, hopes have been pinned on this game as the best hope of getting a desperately needed 3 points. However, despite their lowly position at second bottom, even here the momentum is with today’s West London visitors. Even Pardew himself has acknowledged this. Speaking of QPR in a pre match interview he said: (more…)
What a load of old cobblers!“Alan Pardew backed by 95% of fans Chronicle poll reveals” wrote the Chronicle.
This staggering revelation would give Toon’s Silver Supremo the same kind of popularity as Kevin Keegan in the heyday of his “Entertainers” side, or Bobby Robson when Newcastle United were once again a top four side who were competing in the Champions League. Yet Pardew’s Newcastle United are currently 14th in the table and sliding downwards, with only one win in our last ten games.
So how can this be?
Let’s look at it another way. If you look at the image below displaying the results in the form of a bar chart, you may also observe that the story linked above could also have had the title “Over 50% of Newcastle United fans are less than content with Pardew Chronicle poll reveals.” (more…)
