Speaking in his post match interview after Newcastle United’s abject 4-1 capitulation to the Bluebirds Red Dragons of Cardiff, Alan Pardew blamed injuries to top players for the defeat.
In a fairly confusing message from the Grey Gaffer, he also blamed the attitude of the squad because they thought they should have brought the big names, (presumably Ba and Cisse who both missed the trip) even though they were carrying knocks. However, you can listen for yourselves in the video above. (more…)
Highlights (if that’s the right word) from today’s 0-0 with Den Haag at the Kyocera Stadium in the Hague.
It was something of a lacklustre performance from the Magpies against a Dutch side who were about the equivalent of a middle ranking Championship side over here. It was once again a return to Pardew’s “back to basics” 4-4-2 style of early last season rather than the Pardiola 4-3-3 / 4-3-2-1 of later in the season, with Ba and Cisse as the two big lads up front. The other big lad, Shola, came on to join the party later, and the Fenham Eusebio did indeed have the ball in the back of the net at one stage, though sadly, it was judged to be offside.
The definite lowlight was the monkey chanting from Den Haag fans at Papiss Cisse as he had a word with the referee.
Douglas: Nutter.Speaking in an interview for “talksport” radio, their consultant on matters of Dutch football, Marcel van der Kraan, suggested that Newcastle United’s alleged pursuit of FC Twente centre back, Douglas Franco Teixeira, has been complicated by the fact that he is a Brazilian who is owned by three Brazilian agents, who will all want “a big share of the pie” as van der Kraan put it.
After explaining that both Newcastle United’s manager and scouting department have been in the stands at Twente closely checking out the “big unit” centre back, van der Kraan went on to outline the difficulties of signing Brazilian players in general due to the highly complicated ownership of players by agents rather than clubs, saying:
“The tragic thing about this is that Brazilian players are owned by three different people in their own country. When they’re young, they sign contracts for agents instead of clubs – The agents hold the ownership of the player. It’s a card, what they call the player’s pass, and that is usually signed by the player and his parents for about ten years or even longer. They’re sold to the agent, and the agent has ridiculous power over the player for so many years. (more…)
Newcastle United v Olympiacos highlights (opens in new window). Highlights from yesterday evening’s “Guadiana Torneo” match, which saw Newcastle United drawing 1-1 with Greek Super League champions, Olympiacos, at the Estádio Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
It was Steven Taylor who opened the scoring for the Magpies after 25 minutes on his return from a very long injury layoff. However, Kostas Mitroglou levelled for Olympiacos in the 79th minute, even though they were down to ten men after Francois Modesto was sent off five minutes beforehand for receiving two yellow cards. This meant that the match went to penalties. I won’t tell the result of the penalties if you haven’t seen them yet, but don’t look below if you want to watch them first! (more…)
Highlights of today’s Newcastle United pre season friendly against Turkish Super Liga runners up, Fenerbahçe, at the Sonnenseestadion in Ritzing, Austria.
It was Newcastle United who opened the scoring, with youngster, Mehdi Abeid, cracking one off in the 76th minute. However Fenerbahçe drew level with an strike from Cristian just before the final whistle.
