Geordie runner, Mark Allison, at the Columbus game.At my request, site user ‘Geordiedug’, a Geordie currently living in the New York, has very kindly agreed to write about his time at the Columbus Crew game, and also with the lads at their hotel. Below are his impressions of both the game, and meeting the players. Many thanks Geordiedug! – workyticket.
As an expat geordie living in NYC for the last 9 months ‘soccer’ and supporting NUFC from the ‘States has taken a whole new meaning for me. After becoming a member of the Toon Army NYC fan club when I arrived, I have met a lot of different Newcastle fans from around the world and I’m very impressed with the knowledge and passion of the boys out here.
So with the Toon coming to the ‘States it was a perfect chance to get a summer fix of seeing Newcastle United live. Some made the trip for all 3 games; others like me could only do 1 so I met up with the gang in Columbus. (more…)
Happy campers?From what I can recall, at the start of last season, Newcastle United were seemingly going about their pre-season in reasonably quiet fashion.
We had of course, just dispensed of the Championship at a canter, and were looking forward to a return to the Premier League. At the start of that particular summer, we had a statement from the Newcastle board, citing mainly that:
“The first team squad that won the Championship this year will form the basis of the team for next season in the Premier League.
“There is no plan for new capital outlay on players.”
Well, that particular line certainly had a few people up in arms at the time. In the end though, Newcastle did do some business recruitment wise, bringing in Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sol Campbell, Cheick Tiote and the majestic James Perch.
More importantly last summer, I remember the current crop of players being reasonably happy with life at St James Park. There was no moaning or bitching about the ‘politics’ of the club. This could be due to the explosion of ‘Twitter’ this past year (certainly in Newcastle United’s case anyway), with a fair few of our squad now signed up to the social networking site. (more…)
Newcastle United failed to produceHeat problems, turf issues and a collection of cartoon characters stood in the way of today’s game. Undeterred, Newcastle United went to watch a game of football – and that’s about all they did.
Immediately after kick off, the lads were forced to defend as Orlando City threw everything they had at us. Misplaced pass after misplaced pass plagued our team who were unable to escape their half of the pitch for the opening 5 minutes. Short of some smart runs and passing play (including a 1-6 between Alan Smith and Cheik Tioté), Orlando controlled the game.
In that time Ryan Taylor, who was playing at left back, managed to pick up a knock and was substituted on the 25th minute for Jose Enrique. Here’s hoping that knock is minor and he was taken off as a precaution.
Just so you have an idea of Orlando’s dominance, we had conceded around 4 or 5 corners at this stage – compared to the 0 Orlando had conceded.
Once the 35 minute mark had hit, Newcastle sprung to life and charged out of their end of the pitch, thanks to Enrique, and tried to keep the play beyond the centre circle. Dinks from Jonas (playing on the right!) was blocked, and as the ball was kicked out wide to Dan Gosling, he promptly ran into an Orlando defender. Canny. (more…)
Tiote chuffed to be as Newcastle United.Newcastle United midfielder Cheik Tiote says he has committed himself to the club and has a positive attitude towards the coming pre-season games.
I can only presume all the gloom with Toon supporters is due to my unplanned absence from article writing of late (more of which later). Or possibly not.
Anyway, there is some good news coming from the mouth (which is presumably attached to a head and body in the usual fashion) of Cheik Tiote. The Ivory Coast superstar is nuts about Newcastle and would chop off his left leg to play for them, although of course that would perhaps hinder his footballing capabilities.
First, Tiote addresses the rumours that might be heading to another club, specifically Chelsea:
“It is only the journalists who have talked about Chelsea – I haven’t said anything.
“I am a Newcastle player, and I will do my job in Newcastle. I have a contract, and that’s the most important thing for me.
“I’m happy – if I wasn’t happy, I wouldn’t have signed for six years.”
So that should be the end of any speculation about a move anywhere else. (more…)
Would you buy a used car from these men?I remember thinking that Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias, chose his words quite carefully in the wake of Andy Carroll’s £35 million transfer to Liverpool FC, though perhaps not so carefully in the attack on Alan Shearer that came with it. When defending the decision to sell Carroll and pack him off in Ashley’s helicopter he said:
“Yes, he went in our helicopter. But the sooner the deal was done the sooner we could make our own moves in the transfer market. It was already very late.”
Then adding:
“We will spend in the summer. Every penny of the £35m will stay in the club.”
He also told the Sun:
“Mike Ashley has only ever put money into this football club. He has never taken a single penny out. And he won’t take a single penny of this £35m either – all the money will go to the club and we are already working on identifying transfer targets for the summer.”(more…)
