Newcastle ‘Player of the Season’ Vote: 2) Midfielders and Forwards
May 17th, 2012 | 115 Comments |
Midfield: (more…)
Archive for category: Poll.
Newcastle United “Player of the Season” Vote: 1) Defenders / Utility Players
May 15th, 2012 | 24 Comments |
There have been quite a few stand out performers and stand out performances this term. Some were almost anticipated, others almost definitely weren’t. A few players have come in when the chips were down and done an excellent job. Others either came back from injury or suffered injury and made way for squad players to shine. Then there was the little matter of the African Cup of Nations riving a few players away to play for the respective countries, whilst depriving us of their services. It all adds up to most players getting games to show their worth and to be fair, I can’t think of anyone that has let either themselves, nor Newcastle down. In fact, this season has showed one of the most ‘United’ fronts we’ve had the pleasure to witness, even after the amazing efforts put in through very recent seasons to get us back into the position we find ourselves. Whilst the team effort has been monumental and it’s an ethic that has permeated throughout this campaign, deserving of all the credit in the world, I’m still going ask you: Who is Newcastle’s individual ‘Player of the Season’?
Here’s a little resume to help you along, starting with case for the defence: (more…)
Cisse pips Benny and Taylor to MOTD’s “Goal of the Season” award
May 14th, 2012 | 9 Comments |
Well on BBC’s “Match of the Day” on yesterday evening, there were no less than three Newcastle United contenders (out of ten) for the show’s coveted “Goal of the Season” award. The first was Ryan Taylor’s mag-nificent strike against Everton from November of last year, the second, Hatem Ben Arfa’s mag-nificent strike against Bolton in April of this year, and finally, Papiss Cisse’s, er, mag-nificent strike against Chelsea at the beginning of this month. Of those, both Ben Arfa’s and Cisse’s efforts were regarded as being amongst the best three by sofa pundits, the two Alans (Dull and Duller), with Peter Crouch’s amazing volley for Stoke against Manchester City being the other one. (more…)
Who has been Newcastle United’s best Premiership signing?
May 12th, 2012 | 50 Comments |
Much of the credit for this has gone to the club’s current chief scout, Graham Carr, who was brought into the club in February 2010 by previous manager and Carr’s former Tottenham colleague, Chris Hughton. Of the players included below, Carr was involved in all but three of them (James Perch, Demba Ba and Gabriel Obertan).
I have listed eight of the signings made since the club was promoted below. Of course, there have been more but I have left out more peripheral members of the squad such as temporary loanees like Stephen Ireland and Sheffki Kuqi, bairns for the future such as Mehdi Abeid, those who haven’t been able to make much of an impact one way or the other through injury such as Sylvain Marveaux and so on. All of the players listed below have made at least ten first team competitive appearences; here’s a brief résumé of their Toon histories so far. (more…)
What is Ben Arfa’s best goal for Newcastle? Videos & Vote.
April 12th, 2012 | 57 Comments |
Hatem Ben Arfa has certainly brought some flair to Newcastle United and scored some cracking goals in the process. He also seems to do a job defensively when necessary now too. Earlier in the season Alan Pardew was a little critical of Benny’s defensive work and that might be the reason why a lot of his 25 appearances for The Toon were as a substitute, but he now seems to command a regular staring place so his defensive duties must at least be up to Alan Pardew’s satisfaction.
Ben Arfa started his senior career at Lyon where he’d previously been a youth player. He played for Lyon from 2004-2008 and scored 11 goals in 87 appearances before moving to Marseille for €11m. In his time at Marseille he notched up 15 goals in 91 appearances before first being loaned to Newcastle in 2010 and then being transferred in 2011 for approximately £5m.
He’s played for us 21 times now and scored 7 goals – 6 league and 1 cup – and of course he had to contend with a major leg break injury after a crunching tackle from Manchester City’s Nigel de Jong. Of those 7 goals, I narrowed it down to 4 contenders for ‘Ben Arfa’s Best Goal So Far’, so take a look at these and vote for your favourite. (more…)