Good vibes include Delboy, says TaylorNewcastle United defender Steven Taylor talks about the excellent team spirit at the club, including good relationships all the way up the hierarchy.
I was alarmed to see a headline in The Telegraph that said ‘Newcastle have Europe in their sights’. Admittedly the author of the article intimated that European football is more likely in future seasons than this one, but it also mentioned ‘whispers of Europe on Tyneside’ for this season following our good start.
The reason this alarms me is because it raises expectations and we’ve been down that road before. Many times.
I prefer it when nobody thinks we’re capable of anything significant and that with each win we’re exceeding expectations. Obviously our current Premier League position is going encourage some talk of Europe in people of a more hopeful disposition, but I fear that such people are simply setting themselves up for disappointment. (more…)
Time to get behind Ashley, says ShepherdFormer Newcastle United owner Freddie Shepherd has surprisingly good things to say about the man who took over from him.
Freddie Shepherd celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday and in his after-dinner speech he actually heaped a load of praise on Mike Ashley which, given some of the criticism Shepherd has slung Ashley’s way in the past, is a bit of a surprise.
Shepherd said:
“I am still a massive Newcastle fan. True to say Mike and I have not always seen eye to eye but you’ve got to give him some of the credit for what is happening this season.
“I think it’s time for the fans to get fully behind him and give him a chance. After all, no one really owns Newcastle because it’s simply a football institution.
“Maybe he is right in his policy and I was wrong. Maybe we gave our managers too much money to spend in the transfer market. I reckon we spent around £300m on players like Alan Shearer, David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Tino Asprilla and Michael Owen.(more…)
Two players we really need to hold on to in January?With our success in the league this year, the question was always going to be, “Can Newcastle hang onto our best players?”
With the recent article by my fellow blogger Hugh regarding Captain Coloccini and rumours regarding a potential shift to Scouserland I did begin to wonder…
In my opinion I can see this rumour being the end of Coloccini and Pardew’s patience with the board. Colo is on a high wage at the moment, over £80,000 per wekk, and has yet to sign a contract extension. He’s not getting any younger, he’ll be celebrating his 30th birthday during the next transfer window and I’d imagine Mike Ashley would be reluctant to offer him a long contract extension. With Pardew coming out recently and stating that Colo was not for sale I feel he’s set himself up on a “colosion” course (Attempt at humour there) with Ashley and the board.
I would highlight Chiek Tiote as a key player for us, without him our back four looked decidedly shaky against a poor Blackburn side. I’ve read recently that Manchester United are poking their ugly noses in to try and shore up their midfield. (more…)
Can't turn back time on the League CupNewcastle United have a big test of their ability to bounce back from defeat with a tricky game away at Stoke on Monday. I do actually manage to squeeze in some references to the game in an article even more rambling than usual.
The mid-week League Cup defeat was disappointing but without a time machine* we can’t change that now, so it’s time to get jiggy about our upcoming game against Stoke.
This in fact is the attitude of Davide Santon, who had his first start for us on Wednesday. Santon said:
“We hoped to get into Europe through the League Cup but now we must look to the league for that.
“We need to aim for a top-four spot. We have a fantastic squad. But we have a lot of very, very big games against very good teams coming up and we need to put all of our efforts into doing that now.
“We lost Wednesday’s game, but we’re in a good place in the league. That is where we are concentrating now. We need to keep going and carry on winning.(more…)
Destination Anfield?Rumours are once again doing the rounds about Liverpool interest in Newcastle United’s captain. Whether there’s and truth in those rumours remain to be seen but should we even consider letting our captain go?
The press has decided to regurgitate the story about Liverpool’s alleged intent to try and lure Fabricio Coloccini to Anfield in the January transfer window.
The Daily Mirror claims that Liverpool’s Director of Football Damien Comolli personally led a team of heavily armed scouts in a black ops mission to St James’ Park to watch our captain in action, although they don’t appear to have any quotes from anyone important to back that up.
If it’s true then I’m guessing they’ll come in with a decent offer and a salary that we won’t be able to match.
Colo may not want to leave Newcastle of course but, as one of the few remaining über-salaried players at the club, I’m sure Mike Ashley will give much consideration to the right offer.
But should we let him go for the ‘right’ offer or should we work extra hard to keep him? (more…)
