What, me again?Well, 1732 of you voted at the time of writing, and for the second time in a row NUFC Blog’s player of the season is (drumroll):
Fabricio Coloccini!
He beat off Tim Krul into second for the second time in a row too, with Davide Santon replacing Yohan Cabaye on the bottom siep of the podium. However, a poor season for the team seemed to make it much harder for all of you who voted to pick a decisive winner. Last year Captain Colo recieved received a mighty 34% of the entire vote, or 525 votes out if 1522. This year however it was only 17%, or 287 votes out of the aforementioned 1732.
You can see the full results in the poll at the bottom of this piece.
Though not a perfect defender, many are better in the air including central defensive teammates such as Mike Williamson and Steven Taylor, his abilty with the ball on the floor and the way he can build play from the back have marked him out in Newcastle United’s heart of defence. Unfortunately though, this quality has hardly been a feature of Newcastle United’s play in general under the old fashioned “kick and rush” style of Alan Pardew. (more…)
Kinnear and Carr: NUFC’s scouting “dream team.”They are two chubby old men who swear so much, they even make Bernard Manning and Chubby Brown sound like a pair of Vicars.
One is reviled and one is revered by significant sections of Newcastle United’s fanbase, yet they are almost like peas in a pod. Two chubby, foul mouthed, old school pros with two lifetimes worth of experience in football. Carr has already been an excellent scout for Newcastle United, and there is no reason why Joe Kinnear can’t add to that significantly too, as a scout himself, as well as a bridge between the football side of the club, Mike Ashley and the future Managing Director, whoever that might be.
Since Kinnear’s return to the club, the first lazy stereotype of uninformed newspaper hacks was that Kinnear was putting a stop to the foreign signings because he’d never heard of them, that he was looking to sign more Kevin Nolans and Ryan Taylors, and also that Carr was set to walk out of the club in disgust. However, if you cast your mind to his time as interim manager at Newcastle, Kinnear was actually exploring the French market long before Carr came to the club. One transfer target Kinnear bid for was potential Butt replacement, Stephane Mbia, then a Stade Rennais player who eventually moved to Marseilles for over £10 million and eventually, QPR. There were others too such as Toulouse right back Albin Ebondo, who was looked at by Kinnear before he eventually moved to St Etienne. (more…)
Kinnearophobia is really getting out of hand now.It’s time for this ridiculous circus to end.
Criticism is one thing, but what has Joe Kinnear supposed to have done to deserve the vilification which has been heaped upon him in the last few days? Has he renamed the Newcastle United’s stadium the Joe Kinnear Arena? Has he sullied Newcastle United’s name by associating it with the UK’s most infamous loan shark? Is he swallowing the club’s identity by turning it into a gigantic free billboard for a retail chain so tacky it makes Poundland look like Harrods?
No, he has come in as a Director of Football to help with recruitment and act as a bridge between the football and the non-football sides of Newcastle United, something which might even turn out to be a good thing. Oh! and he has also given a couple of interviews containing some admittedly ill-chosen words since his arrival. That’s about it really.
All the important, substantive things mentioned above, things which have affected the very fibre of the club have been forgotten now in an orgy of blind hatred for one man who caused none of it. (more…)
Joe Kinnear – A lightning rod?Last season seems like a dim and distant memory now.
Things like a sixteenth placed finish, Alan Pardew’s abysmal tactics and even more abysmal excuses have all been completely forgotten. Forthcoming delights such as the arrival of Wonga and all the opprobrium that will bring have been completely forgotten too, all because of a few interviews from Joe Kinnear as Tyneside finds itself once more in the grip of “Kinnearophobia.”
Is it pure genius?
Strangely, the “local” Mirror Group media, the Chronic and the Journal, have seemingly abandoned their usual sycophancy to the current regime, and have happily been laying into Newcastle United’s new Court Jester at every opportunity. It’s almost as if they’d been given the go ahead to be as brutal as possible by Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambaisie Llambias.
Personally, I do not share the antipathy to Kinnear held by many fans, and some of the stuff has been shameful, like the headline in another Newcastle United blog which read “Gan On Kinnear – Have Another Heart Attack!.” I’m not as horrified at his appointment as some claim to be and have alot of respect for what he has achieved in his football career in the past. (more…)
Uncle Joe: Why no word from the club?Since yesterday evening, there has certainly been no shortage of statements from Joe Kinnear on being appointed as a new Director of Football at Newcastle.
Like his new colleague Alan Pardew, keeping his mouth buttoned has never been one of Kinnear’s stronger points, though even he has surpassed himself this time with a verbal Tsunami of what he is going to do at Newcastle United over the next few months.
However, at the time of writing, there hasn’t been one word of confirmation or denial from Newcastle United.
Bearing in mind Kinnear’s previous, the club could perhaps be forgiven for not arranging a full press jamboree with Simon Bird in attendance to unveil their new key member of staff. However, at the time of writing, there hasn’t even been a small announcement in the news page of Newcastle United’s official website. Is it just me or is this rather odd?
To borrow the words of Marvin Gaye “What’s going on?” (more…)
