Should Newcastle United follow the Golden Rule?That is the maxim which has been known as “The Golden Rule” for several centuries, but how would Newcastle United feel if they were treated the way they have been treating some other clubs recently?
Make no mistake, there have been reams of complete fiction embroidered around our recent attempts to sign players in an attempt to titillate the excited Newcastle United fan. That empty mantra about Newcastle United not being “held to ransom” over players any longer has been repeated constantly, as if other clubs have been somehow unreasonable for refusing to sell their finest players for sums far below their true worth. The longest and most notable saga in this particular transfer window has been that of Lille right back, Mathieu Debuchy, and this is the case I will concentrate on mostly here, as this piece would be far too long if I looked at all of them in the same detail.
Just to get things straight, Newcastle United’s two bids for Debuchy were equivalent to around £3.9 million and £4.75 million respectively (€5 and 6 million). Hacks such as Lee Ryder from the Evening Chronic were incorrect in quoting them as £5 million and £6 million. As to whether this was deliberate, or just lazy and incompetant “journalism” I cannot say with complete certainty. Neither of these bids had a hope in hell of being accepted by a strong Champions League club for a French international player who has three years left on his current contract, and has been estimated as being worth as much as £10 million in the current market. Lille’s Chairman, Michel Seydoux, made it clear himself that we could have had Debuchy for an very reasonable £6.3 million (“Our price is €8 million, because he is a quality player” said Seydoux). However, that may not have been the point as even after Seydoux’s clarification, Derek Llambias persisted with the same strategy of making another derisory bid which he must have known would not be accepted, perhaps in the possible hope that Debuchy might go even further in his attempts to force the club into letting him go at a much reduced fee. In the event of course, it led to Lille withdrawing the player in complete exasperation with Newcastle. (more…)
Pardew: More hot air?In an interview with the Evening Chronic’s ace football reporter, Lee Ryder, Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo exclusively revealed on Saturday that he will be playing Demba Ba centrally “in 90% of the games next year” in a bid to keep Senegalese hitman happy on Tyneside.
Pardew said:
“Demba wants to play in a central role. He wants to get himself chances to score goals, and I think that in 90% of the games next year that’s where he will play.”
But what could this mean?
Will Pardiola be abandoning his fancy foreign experiment with the 4-3-3 formation and return to his good old fashioned, decent, British 4-4-2 with Ba and Papiss Cisse as the two big lads upfront? Or will it be Cisse who will be shunted to the flank this time, or even left on the bench as an impact sub? (Admittedly, those last one would be somewhat doubtful!) (more…)
Plenty of space for this in the NUFC trophy cabinet!Well, Newcastle United have finally made it into European competition for the first time since Glenn Roeder’s Intertoto dream team made it into the 2006/7 edition of the competition.
So, to mark this momentous occaision, this is NUFC Blog’s cut out and keep guide for Geordies with many interesting and informative facts about the competition, and of course, Newcastle United.
So here goes!
By the time the competitiom reaches it’s climax at Ajax’s “Amsterdam ArenA” (the last “A” has to be capitalised for some bizarre reason), a total of 193 teams from 53 countries will have taken part at some stage. Of these, only three will be English, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United and Liverpool (in that order), unless, that is, one or more of the four English sides in the Champions League are dumped out at an earlier stage than would usually be expected, as the two Manchester teams were last season. There will be no places for English teams through the fair play league, and there is no more Intertoto Cup as there was in Roeder’s time, as that ceased in 2008. (more…)
Will he still be smiling this time next year?My esteemed colleague, Jimbob, has already taken a look back at the season past, you have already voted Fabricio Coloccini as our “Player of the Season,” but now it is time to look forward to next season.
Being the hopelessly deluded, stereotypical Geordies that we are, Alan Pardew seems to think that our expectations will go into overload now that we have finished fifth, and that he needs to embark on a mission to “educate” us to lower our expectations now that a new European front has opened in Newcastle United’s war for supremacy.
Well let’s find out how deluded we really are!
Undoubtedly, we had a very good season. However, though we did well, perhaps our expectations have been just a little on the low side if anything. Our fifth placed finish wasn’t, perhaps, quite the miracle some have thought bearing in mind what Pardew had at his disposal. Bearing in mind previous catastrophes under the current regime though, it has been understandable that expectations have been lowered somewhat by experiences in recent years. (more…)
"Satan's mirror has two faces."Well, Newcastle United have finally managed to finish in the top half of the Premiership under current owner, Mike Ashley.
This is our first top ten finish, and qualification for European competition, since Glenn Roeder’s Intertoto “Dream Team” managed seventh, and Europe, after a storming finish in the 2005-06 season.
However, we fans are constantly reminded that this can only come at a very high cost, that the name of the club’s traditional home, St James’ Park, must be sacrificed to become a free publicity vehicle for Sports Direct, that we must also be subjected to a myriad of fit inducing signs publicising Sports Direct throughout games, that we must pay a £25 membership fee to purchase a season ticket, or even just one away ticket and so on…
Mirroring the spin department of the current administration at 10 Downing Street, everything is blamed on our previous administration for allegedly taking us to the edge of the financial abyss, with neither the world economic crisis, nor relegation to the Championship playing any part whatsoever. Even after five whole years, when controversial decisions are made, the spectre of the Byker Beelzebub himself, Freddy Shepherd, is constntly raised, and the club’s current owner is hailed as a messiah who has somehow led the club from the verge of complete extinction. So, now that the club has completed it’s fifth season under its current ownership, I thought I would put this to the test, measuring the performance of the current owner, both on the pitch and on the balance sheet, against his predecessors under the leadership of Shepherd. (more…)
