Heroes or villains?Gathering my thoughts, my notes and my open mind, I ordered a pint of Deuchars last night and settled myself against the bar of The Strawberry at approximately 7.25pm, ready to listen to what the committee representatives of the Newcastle United Supporter’s Trust (NUST), had to say for themselves.
I was under no illusions that with a number of pressing questions sitting snugly in my pocket, that despite my ambivalence (bordering on enthusiasm), I would be seen to be playing Devil’s Advocate nonetheless. However, clearly they had been asked the same questions on a few occasions and have consider the same issues themselves. They answered my questions fairly candidly, although they could not digress on certain key aspects which will no doubt frustrate some people. Unfortunately, these same details are the ones which have led people to distrust the motives of the individuals within the Trust.
Having stood and listened to the commitee members, namely Colin Whittle of True Faith and a solicitor by profession, Mark Jensen of The Mag, Bill (unfortunately not sure of his full name or background) acting as compere. And I spoke at length to Tony Stephenson, who does a lot of the online stuff for NUST (I missed out on Ando doing his ex-player turn, and hope I didn’t put him off with my incessant chat to Ton).
This is what I gathered from the roadshow: (more…)
Loving it!It was something we were crying out for and something even Big Al couldn’t muster amongst the n’er do wells that passed themselves off as professional footballers last season.
Having rid ourselves of some inflated-egos following the drop, we hoped for some solidarity this year. Unity in the camp and everyone pushing for the same things and nobody better or more deserving than anybody else. That way everybody would have each other’s back and we’d be a ‘team’ again instead of just individuals who happened to be wearing the same shirt and kicking in the same direction on a Saturday.
One thing we probably didn’t expect after relegation though was for this to be much fun for the players. Although some of us tried to see opportunity in adversity and treat it like an adventure, we didn’t expect a beaming squad of player at the prospect of capped wages and capacity crowds lower than five figures. However, Steven Taylor has gone on record to say that it’s all smiles around the training ground at the moment and it sounds like life couldn’t be better for the young defender. He said: (more…)
Last man standing.Of course, just when you think that Mike Ashley’s unpopularity with the Newcastle United fanbase has bottomed out and just couldn’t get any lower, it usually does. However the only man who has offered him any kind of lifeline is Chris Hughton, who has resolutely chosen to ignore wherever possible almost everything at Newcastle that doesn’t take place either on a hundred yards of grass or in a dressing room.
In one of his more revealing interviews since his arrival at Newcastle, Hughton has spilled the beans on his time in Toon. Kicking off with the effect his main goal, promotion, would have on Mike Ashley’s efforts to sell the club Hughton commented:
“Of course, it must be a fact that if this club are doing well and if this club is back in the Premier League it is a more saleable asset,”
Moving on to Ashley himself, he continued:
“Does he have a passion for the club most people don’t see? I don’t think you can have the involvement that he has in this club and not be passionate about it, that is an impossibility. (more…)
Great minds think alike?Having so far failed in his efforts to raise the funds to tempt Mike Ashley into selling Newcastle United to him, Barry Moat has now gone on record to suggest that the famous St James’ Park name wouldn’t necessarily have been safe in his hands either. It appears he can see exactly what Ashley is doing and why he’s doing it, and it could have been part of his business strategy had he been in the position.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Moat said:
“I think you have to explore things like naming rights, you have to do that.
“Unfortunately we live in a world where football is big business, and the gap between the Championship and the Premier League is getting bigger all the time.
“So you have to do things to close that gap. We need to get back up to the Premier League as quickly as possible.
“I think if you have to do some of those things, by taking the commercial benefit of a sponsor, then as far as I’m concerned if that gets the right players on the pitch, gives you the right entertainment on a Saturday, then where do I sign?” (more…)
A lot depends on these twoNewcastle United are sitting pretty at the top of the Championship right now. It’s a good reason to be optimistic perhaps but what happens if we actually get promoted?
Even the most pessimistic of Toon supporters would probably entertain ideas of us at least making a play-off spot this season. Sure, we’re only a third of the way through the season and there’s always the chance that injuries could seriously affect our small squad, but it would be a brave man who’d bet against us finishing in the top 6.
Promotion, then, is a distinct possibility.
In terms of our squad, what we have is more or less the players we had at the end last season minus nine regulars and with the addition of a couple of players on loan. Some of the nine we’ve lost won’t be missed but some people would argue that a few of our better players were amongst the leavers, such as Bassong, Beye, Martins and maybe even Duff.
Arguably then, on paper we have a weaker team than the one that got relegated last season. That’s not the full story of course because one of the reasons we were so dismal last season was because we kept changing manager every 5 minutes. This season we’ve had consistency in that area and Hughton’s managed to motivate the team. I think consistency is worth a lot in terms of results but is it enough alone that the current squad would be able to hold their own in – and avoid relegation from – the Premier League? (more…)
