Pardew: Pumping his little fist once again.Many thanks to “ToonBano” from the Toon blog www.toonbano.com for his sixth guest blog here – wt.
As I get over the shock of actually winning a game from behind for the first time in over two years and trying to get my head around winning back to back victories for the first time this season, something amongst our latest turn in fortune has jumped out at me (apart from the new signings) and that is the system. A formation of 4-2-3-1 has been paramount throughout recent weeks and it’s about bloody time. Maybe it’s because Demba Ba is no longer in a black ‘n’ white shirt as he gets his head kicked in by Coloccini but the ‘Hoofball 4-4-2’ days seem to be over. Are they over for good?
If this is the case and we are no longer subjected to the nonsense of lumping it up to the strikers, even when we are losing, then Pardew deserves some credit for finally seeing the light. After all it’s in my opinion that it was this factor of a pre-historic style of football that was holding this club back over anything else. Not the injuries or the Europa League, but the totally cowardly non-attempt at even trying to play to our strengths and actually play some football. Our long ball stats are dropping like a stone with every game that goes by. Thank the Lord. (more…)
Captain Colo: The latest vistim of made up media stories?There has been much talk amongst fans in the past few weeks on the situation with Newcastle United’s captain, Fabricio Coloccini.
While there is no doubt that the player is having personal problems at the moment, that he made a request to go back and join his family in Argentina, and that one of his previous clubs, San Lorenzo (where Coloccini’s father Osvaldo works as a youth coach) tried to take advantage of the player’s personal problems by making an audacious attempt to sign the player for free, and finally that the situation has now been resolved until the end of this season at least, there have been other things have been repeated as facts in the media which were completely unsubstantiated.
Is this just the usual dishonest media tripe? Or was a “deep throat” who was party to the negotiations leaking information?
One example without a byeline in the Daily Express confidentally proclaimed: (more…)
Laurent Blanc: Why not?Many thanks to “ToonBano” from the Toon blog www.toonbano.com for his fifth guest blog here – wt.
Apologies for the sensationalist headline but bear with me there’s a point to it. My patience with Alan Pardew has been down to a thread for most of this season (just have a little look in my archive section to see the proof), but since that Brighton humiliation the thread has snapped. For good. The man is totally incompetent at his role and how he manages to get away with it without any real criticism in the footballing world is astonishing. His greatest talent is being soaked in Teflon it seems.
To the eye of the realistic, honest and well informed Newcastle United supporter, his incompetence does not go unnoticed however. In fact, it drives us up the wall! When you look at every aspect of the Newcastle Utd managers responsibilities he holds, it is quite reasonable to say that the one we have in place has failed at almost every single one of them. I’ll name a few and you decide whether he gets a ‘pass’ or a ‘fail’: (more…)
Debuchy: Still no confirmation.Since the allegations that the arrival of Lille and France international Mathieu Debuchy on Tyneside was imminent, I have been poring over various French sources for details.
This is because it seems that the information coming out of the UK media on the story has just been lifted from a story in French journal, “La Voix du Nord” or “The Voice of the North,” which I translated in my previous piece on this seemingly everlasting imbroglio.
Casting back our minds to the failed bid for Debuchy in the Summer, you might recall that Newcastle United refused to go beyond €6 million (around £4.9 million at current rates) for the €15 million rated (£12.2 million) player, with Lille holding out for €8 million (£6.5 million).
Moving forward to the negotiations for a move this current window, it seems that Newcastle United’s offer was slightly increased. The €6 million basic figure was the same allegedly. However, there was supposedly an offer of a €500,000 bonus (£407,000) on top of this, dependent on appearences, with Lille supposedly suggesting that the offer would be accepted if the bonus was increased to €1 million (£800,000). (more…)
Not him again!News has been circulating all over the UK and French media that a deal for Lille full back Mathieu Debuchy had been resurrected, and that the Frenchman would sign for Newcastle United for a fee of around £5.5 million in the imminent January transfer window.
So I decided to probe deeper and chase up the original French story which “broke” the news. It turns out that it is another one of this “According to a source close to the club” stories which are, more often than not, specious guff.
Here is my (dodgy) translation of the original as it appear in the French Journal “La Voix du Nord” or “The Voice of the North”
“The deal is not yet official yet, but according to our information, Mathieu Debuchy will no longer Lille in 2013. While its leaders finalise at this very moment an agreement with Newcastle (Premier League), who wanted to him to come this summer, the side prepares for the departure of the 27 year old. A page turns. (more…)
