Camden Council: Scuppers No.9 hunt, for now.Right, so now as the dust settles on another tansfer window, where we made some great early progress with players such as Cabaye, Marveaux, Obertan, Abeid and Ba, and a couple of late window acquisitions in the shape of Elliot and Santon, we’re all set for the next big game in the stop/start beginning to this Premier League campaign.
The squads have been handed in to the FA and ‘set in stone’ until the January window creaks open for another round of harem scarem frittering of perfectly good cash on journeymen three-time losers and other teams ‘deadwood’. Can’t wait! (well, maybe I can as I can’t stand the way we have to do business these days).
Anyhoo, Yes, we could’ve done with a new striker to amply fill the legendary No.9 jersey here at Toon towers. But, it is what it is, so we have to just pick ourselves (jaws included) up off the floor, dust ourselves down and go with what we have now.
It’s a real pity actually, ‘cos i’d ’employed’ Mrs. FLiCK to ‘find’ us a new NO.9. A job she totally came up trumps with.
Alas, we couldn’t quite make the deadline in the registration of the ‘Great Black ‘n’ White hope’ in time for the squad lists. I put this down to the inefficiency of Camden Council and their collective inability to speed up the registry service down here in London Town. We were told that we had to form an orderly queue outside the Camden Town Hall and it could take as long as 6 weeks. I said:
Deathmatch v BartonNewcastle United midfielder Yohan Cabaye muses on the English game and is looking forward to playing against Joey Barton in our next league game.
Things seem a bit flat of late. By which I don’t mean that they’ve been run over by a passing steamroller, but rather since the transfer window closed – and without a game last weekend – there just doesn’t seem to be a lot happening on the ‘Toon News’ front.
I’m curious to see how Pardew will attempt to talk around the abject disappointment of the late transfer window dealings. Or lack of them in our case. I actually feel for the guy as I reckon his disappointment will be equal to ours and yet – if history is any guide – he’ll be tasked with trying to put a positive spin on things.
He could start by mentioning Yohan Cabaye, who has been speaking to The Journal to tell them he’s all fired up to play opposite Joey Barton in our upcoming game against QPR.
Yohan said: “I am looking forward to it. I’m sad to see Joey go. I will be happy to see Joey again next week – and to win against him!”
Well, hopefully, although I don’t think QPR will be pushovers by any stretch of the imagination. (more…)
“Get ’em off Mikey boy.”As published in today’s ‘People‘ newspaper, this is a photo of Newcastle United’s proud and dignified owner, Mike Ashley, doing a striptease and flagellating himself to Tom Jones’s “You can leave your hat on” from the soundtrack of “The Full Monty” film.
According to the newspaper, Ashley was pictured at a birthday celebration for a Sports Direct employee at a Chinese restaurant near the company’s headqurters in Mansfield. It reported that:
“As he undressed, workers yelled “More” and “Get ’em off Mikey boy.”
Then quoting from a reveller at the Ash bash, it read:
“Mike was in great form. The DJ started playing that song and all the blokes were egged on by the girls.
“Mike was one of the first up, to applause and cheers. He didn’t think twice about stripping, especially as he’d sunk a few pints.
“Mike gets stick from some people but he’s a brilliant boss.”(more…)
21 - but who's our ace?Newcastle United names a 21-man squad for official notification to the Premier League.
Newcastle United have named a 21-man ‘official’ squad for the season, as required by the Premier League. Rules state that up to 17 of the squad can be anybody (although preferably a footballer), whilst the remainder – up to a maximum of 25 players in total – must match so-called ‘home-grown’ criteria. Players under the age of 21 can be played anywhere and anyhow and do not need to be included in the list passed to the Premier League.
Midfielders: Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Guthrie, Gutierrez, Marveaux, Obertan, Raylor, Smith & Tiote.
Strikers: ShAmeobi, Ba, Best & Lovenkrands.
However, we can additionally use any under-21’s (specifically, they must have been under 21 on 1st January 2011) for ‘free’, which includes the likes of: Santon, Abeid, Vuckic, Ferguson, Gosling, Ranger and Sammyobi. (more…)
In all the numerous striker targets Newcastle United were linked with and failed to “get over the line”, one name seemed to be something of an afterthought, though according to his current club, German Bundeliga side, Freiburg, Newcastle United actually did made a late bid for Papiss Demba Cissé which was refused.
Newcastle were reported to have bid around £7 million for Demba Ba’s 26 year old Senegalese striking teammate, though there didn’t seem to be any official confirmation of the amount, just that a bid was made. One thing which is certain though, he is worth quite a bit more than £7 million and his current contract contains a release clause of around £14 million. Though such release clauses, which are quite common on the mainland of Europe, are usually inflated in terms of the players real value, in this case it isn’t. (more…)
