Newcastle United: A long history of great centre forwards. With the long pause in Premier League action, I thought it might be a good time to go down memory lane and look at some of our favourite players from times past, so I have decided to list five of the top strikers in Newcastle United’s history. All the players selected played at least 150 games for the Magpies at the highest level, which means that great, but more fleeting Newcastle centre forwards such as Albert Shepherd, Albert Stubbins, Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand etc have not been included. The players are listed in chronological order, starting with the most recent players and going backwards in time. (more…)
Gayle: An excellent season at West Brom. We had almost forgotten about him thanks to his swap with West Brom target man, Salomon Rondon, but he’s back. Much to the chagrin of West Bromwich Albion fans (if the Internet is to be believed), The Throstles decided they couldn’t afford Premier League wages in the Championship and have sent back Dwight Gayle back to St James’ Park. It certainly wasn’t due to poor performances, he had an excellent season, scoring 24 goals. Some even say that the reason West Brom didn’t get to the play-off finals was because Gayle missed out on the second leg of the semi final against local rivals, Aston Villa, who only won on penalties in the end. He scored in the first leg, but also picked up two yellow cards, leaving West Brom bereft of their top hitman when it came to the crunch. (more…)
Lascelles – Taking the reins of the captaincy Since Newcastle United’s previous Premier League relegation, the club were in search of new heroes within their squad and latest Captain and Defender, Jamaal Lascelles, has appeared as just that.
The solid centre back has been superb for the Toon in recent seasons and has become club skipper under the watchful eye of Spanish manager and former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss, Rafael Benitez.
Lascelles was handed the captain’s armband during last season by the experienced Spanish tactician and his performances have improved ever since, becoming a strong leader in the heart of his side’s rearguard in both the Championship and Premier League in recent months. (more…)
Gayle: Can he be as prolific in the Premier League? If you took a straw poll of Toon fans, I’m pretty sure that most would agree that Dwight Gayle has been Newcastle United’s player of the season so far, and by some distance for 20 obvious reasons. Signed for around £10 million from Crystal Palace, it might have seemed like quite alot for a player with a bit of an injury record who made alot of his appearences off the bench. To get to the point, I was inspired to bring it up after Crystal Palace and ex-Magpie manager Sam Allardyce was asked by the Croydon Advertiser if he would have got rid of the Championship’s top hitman had he been manager last summer. He replied:
“Goals in the Championship doesn’t relate to goals in the Premier League for some players. I saw Abel Hernandez score 20-odd goals to get Hull up last year and he’s struggled badly this term. (more…)
The last Toon goal scored by Cisse which wasn’t ruled outIn case you missed it, Papiss Cisse had yet another perfectly good goal ruled out as offside against Norwich on Saturday, yet another linesman seemingly judging Cisse on his reputation, rather than what he could actually see.
Luckily for Newcastle United, they still won 2-1 and got the three points so all was well that ended well. Even so, that hasn’t always the case and it is getting absolutely ridiculous now, to the point where lazy linesmen are just saying “oh it’s Papiss Cisse, it must be offside.”
I use the word “reputation” above, though it might come as a surprise to some so called fans (and Sports Direct News rent a quote, Malcolm MacDonald) that Cisse is not the most ‘offside’ striker in the Premier League by any means. Romelu Lukaku, Christian Benteke and several others were caught offside more often last season.
However, when it comes to having perfectly good goals wrongly ruled out as offside, Cisse in in a league of his own. He had seven wrongly ruled out last season, including two in one game against Metalist Kharkiv, and one which robbed us of a derby win against Sunderland. This means that he would have scored at least twenty goals last season had those seven goals stood. (more…)
