Debuchy: No January move.Any fading hope of another Newcastle United transfer move for Lille full-back Mathieu Debuchy in the forthcoming January transfer window were seemingly extinguished by the player himself in one of his most recent press conferences.
Speaking on the forthcoming January transfer window, the silly haired Frenchman had this to say:
“I will not be leaving the team in the middle of the championship, I don’t like the Winter transfer window,”
However he then started to tease potentially interested parties once again by saying:
“In the future you never know what can happen. I prefer not to think about it.”
Speaking of a conference with the Lille leaders after his potential transfer in the Summer, the slightly petulant, attention seeking full back then added:
“I saw the leaders of the club in the Summer. They’re were some things I liked and others I didn’t.
Will this be the winter of Pardew's discontent?Speaking in the wake of Newcastle United’s 2-1 defeat by Stoke City, the fourth in a row which leaves the Magpies slumped at 14th in the table, Alan Pardew, has now acknowledged that Newcastle may well be involved in a relegation battle in the coming months.
When asked by the Shields Gazette’s Miles Starforth if it was “too early to be talking about the club being involved in a relegation scrap,” the Silver Supremo responded:
“Well, we are now, and no, it’s not too early. We can’t bury our head in the sand, and we have to get wins to get out of it.”
After that gloomy initial prognosis however, he then continued on a more optimistic note, adding:
“Actually, I’m so buoyed by the performance [the Stoke City defeat], and by the fact that the things we have changed, the things we’ve done, have definitely helped the team. The team have responded to them. Hopefully, we can take that forward.”(more…)
Simpson: Alot on his mind at the moment.Whilst we don’t usually get involved with tabloid WAG tittle tattle here on NUFC Blog, an interesting tit-bit has come to my attention in the ongoing tabloid drama between Danny Simpson, his old flame Stephanie, and his new flame, that Tulisa woman from that awful “N-Dubz”, and also that awful “X-Factor” thing.
According to the Stun, Stephanie (25) spoke on the Toon right back’s reaction when he found out the she was pregnant with the couple’s second child, sobbing:
“I found out I was pregnant a fortnight ago and he wasn’t very happy.”
Then, in news which may be of more interest to Newcastle United fans, she continued, claiming that the frisky full back said:
“I haven’t got a club — they’re not renewing my contract in May — how are we going to afford another baby?”
Eight more years for the three wise monkeys.If you have been reading Newcastle United stories in the media recently, you will probably have noticed the announcement that Mike Ashley has decided to give Alan Pardew and his backroom staff, John Carver, Steve Stone and Andy Woodman eight year contracts.
There has a recent precedent of course, with chief scout Graham Carr having already been given an eight year contract back in June. Both Derek Llambias and his Public Relations assistants in the the local (Trinity Mirror Group) media such as Lee Ryder and Mark Douglas have been getting excited to the point of tumescence about this latest round of contract extensions, with Douglas even having the impertinence to tell we fans, his readers, how we must think and behave from now on. He suggested that like all fans (and unlike Ashley and Llambias), we are simply primitive, bed sheet wielding “knee jerk” creatures of impulse, but that we must now bow down in obeisance to Ashley’s longterm plan and restrain ourselves from any form of criticism should the club have a bad run of results. (more…)
Pardew: Damning Hughton with faint praise?With today’s game against Norwich City seeing Alan Pardew’s predecessor, Chris Hughton, returning to St James’ Park for the first time since his sacking in December 2010, there has been far more of the usual pre match words from the managers on both sides.
On the Pardew side, amongst other things, he has been anxious to remind we fans that we shouldn’t get too carried away with any kind of appreciation for the man who returned us to the Premiership, not to mention bringing former Tottenham colleague, Graham Carr, to the club as his Chief Scout in the February preceding his sacking.
As with much of what Pardew says, there was a whiff of some kind of underlying agenda in his comments. In some double-edged words of “praise,” he sought to diminish Hughton’s contribution to the club as he not so subtly reminded fans of previous smear stories which circulated about Hughton, saying that much of the credit for leading the club back to the Premiership should actually go to Joey Barton, Alan Smith, Steve Harper and Kevin Nolan as it was they who were really running the first team after Hughton’s appointment. (more…)
