Top Six ToonWith a top six place and Europa League entry assured for next season, Newcastle United head into the last game knowing that mathematically we could still play in the Champions league if results go our way on the final day. So continuing with the “Top Six” theme – what are the top six things we have learned or had re-affirmed this season as fans of Newcastle United? I’ve set out my ideas below and would welcome your own views on this!
One – Mike Ashley Is Not Out To Ruin The Club – this allegation was one that was prevalent when Ashley and Co carried out a summer sale, flogging off our more expensive players on high wages who were reckoned to also be our “better” players. The term “asset-stripping” was freely bandied about by fans. As we now know, those players were replaced with younger, cheaper imports and the overall quality of the team has improved as a result. Would anyone care to go back and swap Cabaye for Barton or Tiote for Nolan? Me neither!
Two – Alan Pardew Is A Good Manager – When Pards was drafted in to take over from the popular Chris Hughton, it has to be said it didn’t go down well with fans. Pardew had two main targets. Not only did he have to win over those fans, but he also had to fulfill his brief from the owner to “take the club to a top 10 finish” – which was the publicly stated target for season 2011-2012. Now you can argue till the cows come home over what system Pards should have deployed in what game, team selection etc, in fact – that’s what fans love to do. But there’s no getting away from the fact that the man has not only done it, not only achieved his twin targets but has actually exceeded his brief. Credit where it’s due, he has emerged as (at least) one of the top six managers in the Premier League this season on much reduced revenues and budgets in comparison with the people he competes with directly. (more…)
Catch of the season?One-time Newcastle United chief Freddy Shepherd has been putting a downer on things by suggesting that Papiss Cisse could be sold in the summer, but how much truth is there in that?
Ex-Toon phlebotomist Freddy Shepherd seems to think our chances of hanging on to resident goal-merchant Papiss Cisse will be slim this summer and suggests that we may receive offers too good to refuse for the player. Shepherd had this to say about our prospects of keeping the player:
“It’s impossible, if they want to go, it’s no good keeping them. I think there may be an offer Newcastle can’t refuse for Cisse coming in.”
However, there’s an important part of his statement we shouldn’t overlook and that’s: if they want to go. There is perhaps an even more important thing that Shepherd didn’t mention and that’s if Ashley wants him go because when all said and done that will be the deciding factor.
I can’t say for certain what Cisse wants of course but my guess would be that, with a good finish under our belts this season and some sort of European football to look forward to, he might just fancy staying with the club. There’s always the risk that a club like Man City or Chelsea – or maybe even Spurs or Arsenal – would offer a big wage and a better finish (this season, anyway) to try and tempt him away, but we’re not too far from the running ourselves and our club could be seen as one on the up. Maybe Cisse would choose to stay with us anyway. (more…)
For the sake of poor fans says Llambias.Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias, has been speaking to David Conn for yesterday’s Guardian.
In the interview he spoke on how he has received so much abuse from Geordie ingrates that he doesn’t hear it any more, how Mike Ashley told him that he would have “a horrible job” in May 2008, just before he took over as managing director to oversee Ashley’s Sports Directification of the club, how the club spent all of the £35 million Andy Carroll money (although the club made a mighty profit of £36.731 million on player trading without amortisation in their last set of published accounts). Conn also wrote of many other things Llambias supposedly revealed to him in what is a rather fawning piece overall.
Irritatingly, for much of the “interview,” Conn give his own version of what Llambias told him, rather than just giving the quotes themselves in something which reads like a PR piece, something Llambias usually reserves for his friends at Mirror Group titles such as the Mirror, People, Chronicle and Journal. But I digress. (more…)
Response to defeat required at Stamford BridgeNewcastle United suffered at the hands of a top-quality Wigan on Saturday and it will be a big test of their character to see if they can bounce back from that in Wednesday’s match against Chelsea.
The weekend’s defeat by a resurgent Wigan brought us down to Earth with a thump after a 6-game unbeaten run. It got worse too because Spurs beat Blackburn 2-0 to leap over us into 4th on goal difference and Chelsea hammered QPR 6-1 to pressure us up the rear, just one point adrift in 6th place.
We didn’t play particularly well on Saturday but Wigan were outstanding and they played as well as any team we’ve faced this season. You have to wonder why it took them so long to find their form. Things didn’t go our way in the short spells when we did get the upper hand but, then again, some weeks we’ve had things go precisely our way when perhaps we’ve been lagging behind the opposition on pure footballing merit. We were beaten by the better side on the day – it’s as simple as that.
We’re going to Europe come what may now and that’s a great achievement after so many years without European football. Credit goes to the players, Alan Pardew and the club’s upper echelons for orchestrating that – it’s more than most people expected of us. (more…)
4th place may not be enoughNewcastle United could suffer if Chelsea prevail with their European ventures this season. It might mean that only the top 3 positions in the Premier League qualify for the Champions League.
There are those who would tell you that there’s no such thing as luck and that its all down to averages and subjective determination. I can however reveal exclusively to NUFCBlog.org readers that this is not the case.
With the aid of a particle accelerator in my kitchen – some would call it a blender – I have discovered a couple of subatomic particles. One is called the ‘chancion’ and, as every particle has its antiparticle, the other is called the ‘antichancion’. These particles stream towards Earth from the centre of black holes – and indeed vast astro-blenders – and it’s the antichancions at work when you stub your toe, when the day your car breaks down is the only day in the last year you forgot your mobile phone, and when the clear sky that was there when you started your walk turns apocalyptic at exactly the furthest point from home and you have to hitch a ride back on Noah’s Ark. And so on and so forth.
Thus I fear that St James’ Park is under siege from antichancions at the moment, possibly because Stamford Bridge has all the chancions. I am of course talking about Chelsea’s progress in this season’s Champions League. (more…)
