Two great legends - One sadly missed,, and another who will be.Gary Speed MBE: 1969 – 2011.
With the sad news on Sunday morning of the passing of the ex-Newcastle United midfielder and Wales manager, I thought it would be a nice gesture to post something that would give an opportunity for our readers to reminisce about Speed’s career on Tyneside.
I wrote the this article as a tribute to the great man about three months ago. After contemplating doing a series of pieces highlighting some of my favourite Newcastle United players of the last decade. Gary Speed was the first player that entered my head when I thought of the more recent legends who have graced the black and white shirt, so he was the first subject of my ‘Magical Magpie Legends’ pieces.
I have also included a video below, posted by youtube user “pbraddazz”. It is a video tribute to Gary’s six and a half great years at Newcastle United, from his signing by Kenny Dalglish in February 1998, to the time of his departure in July 2004. There is also another video of Gary Speed’s his final appearence on Saturday’s “Football Focus”, which was recorded only a few hours before his tragic death.
Back in contentionNewcastle United injury round-up and manager’s opinions ahead of Saturday’s visit to Old Trafford.
There’s good news for Alan Pardew as the word on the street is that Gabriel Obertan will be fit for Saturday’s game, although it remains to be seen whether or not he gets a start. Less encouraging news is that Tiote is still ‘doubtful’ with his knee ligament problem, although as far as I understand he hasn’t been ruled out yet.
Leon Best is likely to be back in contention for his usual place up front alongside Demba Ba too but I wonder how Pardew will set things up. Hatem Ben Arfa showed signs of some of the skills we bought him for when he played against Manchester City, but is it enough for Pardew to start him even with Best fit?
Anyway, Pardew fears a backlash from Man United’s midweek draw and said:
“I know he will be smarting from Wednesday’s draw, so unfortunately, we are on the back of a negative from Manchester United’s point of view, so it will be a tough game for us.” (more…)
Remains positive after defeatHow do Newcastle United fit into the Premier League landscape? And will the City result affect us?
Saturday’s defeat was disappointing, although hardly surprising. I’d be very surprised if any team takes points off Manchester City at Eastlands this season. The fact that we only let in one goal in open play, looked fairly solid for the first 40 minutes and even managed to breach their defence with a goal of our own are all plus points.
Manchester City look destined to join that ‘elite’ group of teams who will always be there or thereabouts over coming seasons. There’s the big money three of Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea; behind them there’s Liverpool and Tottenham – neither team being short of a penny themselves – and perhaps the more modestly budgeted Arsenal. Based on the past few seasons and the way things look at the moment, I would suggest that those are the teams most likely to occupy the top 6 spots. (more…)
Respected player?Since joining Newcastle United from Mallorca, Jonas Gutierrez has been an almost permanent fixture in the side. But has he finally earned the respect of that fans?
Jonas started his career with Argentina’s Vélez Sársfield as a youth in 1999 and he moved into first team in 2001. He stayed with Vélez for 99 games, winning the title with them in 2005 before moving to Mallorca for just over £3m after the title-winning season. Jonas bought himself out of his contract with Mallorca to join us in July 2008 and there was something of a furore after that with Mallorca demanding £13.2m off us in ‘compensation’. The dispute went to a FIFA hearing in the end and Mallorca settled for an undisclosed – but much lower – fee thought to be somewhere between £2.5m and £5m.
He slotted fairly quickly into our left midfield position and he’s more or less been there ever since. He did play a couple of matches at left-back for us and for his country he has often played at right-back, particularly under Maradona who one described his team selection policy as “Mascherano, Messi, Jonas and eight more“. (more…)
What's in a name? Lots of potential damage seemingly.I was planning to write a follow up to my previous piece on why Mike Ashley’s “rebranding” of St James’ Park was ill conceived from the very start and doomed to fail.
In it I was going to outline how the value of Newcastle United’s brand has been damaged so much by this that it will lose far more in the long term that the minimal amount gained through selling the stadium’s naming rights. Going on similar deals on considerably less problematic new build stadiums, this amount will be nowhere near the £8-10 million foolishly quoted in public by Derek Llambias in an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle. Going on similar examples such as Arsenal’s Emirates Studium and Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park, it will be more like a third to a half of that sum unless a shirt deal is also included and even then, the price is still somewhat ambitious.
As most of you will know, current shirt sponsors, Northern Rock, recently pulled out of their recent rather meagre £2 million per annum shirt sponsorship deal, and it has even been suggested that the furore over the Ashley’s second attempt at a stadium rebrand will jeopardise this sponsorship, as potential sponsors distance themselves from this now toxic brand. As I mentioned in my previous piece on the subject the offer has been almost universally derided by the people in the sponsorship industry who advise corporations on the efficacy of such deals, with one exception, from someone called Jonathon Gabay, who was reported as being an “unofficial consultant” to the club on the renaming issue. (more…)
