One Gutierrez, there's only....At one point during this game, I thought my match write-up might be best illustrated by a big daft grinning smiley. Because at one point, that seemed to sum up the sort of mood around the ground today among Newcastle fans despite all of the ill-feeling toward the current incumbent. This also despite the fact that we should really have finished off Peterborough in the first half and that we allowed them a fleeting glimpse of hope in the second when we took our foot off the pedal.
The truth is though, that this was nothing short of a walk in the park, give or take a few nifty saves from Steve Harper. In fact a viewer might have been forgiven for mistaking this as being a football lesson to the minnows by the professionals in the FA Cup First Round today. If you ignored the 40,000 people in the ground, of course……
Perhaps we shouldn’t get too carried away though, because Peterborough are now rock-bottom and should the remainder of the season follow current form, there will be a full division between these two sides come next season. However, let’s focus on the plus points because there were quite a few. (more…)
Prepared to say noChris Hughton claims he will fight to improve Newcastle United’s squad in the January transfer window.
Since being made permanent manager it seems many people think he’ll just be a ‘yes man’ – a puppet and apologist for Ashley’s regime – but Hughton was keen to dispel such rumours, indicating that he’s strong enough to get his own way.
When asked if the accusations of being a ‘puppet manager’ bothered him, Hughton said:
“Does it hurt if people say I am a yes man? No. I have one responsibility and that is to manage this group of lads, my remit is simply that. At this moment we are sitting on top of the table so we must be doing something right.
“We have to make sure that continues. I can only work within my brief, and that is to manage this group of lads and football club. We know we have had financial restraints for obvious reasons and all I can do to is work around them.” (more…)
Master and discipleChris Hughton has asked Newcastle United fans to put their disagreements with the board behind them and support the team.
Fans are, of course, particularly upset that Ashley plans to peddle Sports Direct on the back of – or, to be more precise, on the front of – the St James’ Park name. Hughton evidently fears rebellion is in the air.
Praising our supporters, Hughton said:
“There are two ways of supporting a team.
“There is no support in this division which has turned up as consistently as our fans have. That is something that is vital for us.
“It is the supporters’ prerogative [to protest], it is their club. My concerns are that they get behind the team and from that angle they haven’t let us down.”
We’ve averaged just over 41,000 this season, which puts us in 6th place in the entire football league. (more…)
Mr. Popular.In the latest salvo of the Ashley counter offensive, Newcastle United’s managing Director, Derek Llambias, has been revealing the depth of Mike Ashley’s financial black hole in an interview for Radio Newcastle. He moaned about the financial meltdown involved when a monster £70 million wages club that is supposed to be geared up for European competition get relegated and much more…
What follows is Llambias’s exchange with Radio Newcastle’s Mick Lowes.
On the financial consequences of relegation, Llambias said:
“It’s been extremely painful – it was a shock, it was unthinkable. We did have a business plan in place at the time that we just put into a cupboard, because we thought we never needed to use it.
“We’ve had to move on since then and it’s given us an opportunity to bring the wages down to an acceptable level in the Premier League, but not in the Championship. (more…)
ChucklesIn his statement when he took Newcastle United off the market, Mike Ashley said “… he is totally committed to the future success of Newcastle United and will be focussing on gaining promotion back to the Premier League.”
Fair enough, but what’s with all this nonsense about giving Hughton a million or two to buy some players as if it was some unplanned afterthought? I mean, what’s his transfer window budget for January, the summer, the January after that?
Surely if he’s ‘totally committed to the future success of Newcastle United’ he’s made financial projections for some years ahead, established his incomings and outgoings and got some sort of business plan for rebuilding the club that takes into account various scenarios (such as succeeding or failing to get promotion).
Of course, after his screw-up over Keegangate, he’s keen to make it known that he has the final say on transfers. Llambias said in his recent interview:
“We work with Chris. Let’s clear up the final say – the final say is with the board, which basically is Mike. At the end of the day, Mike has to put the money into it. But Chris will recommend the players and we will go out there and get his first choices, if we can.” (more…)
