Yanga-Mbiwa alleged latest targetNewcastle United allegedly turn their interest towards a 22 year-old Montpellier defender while both Simpson and Coloccini are yet to sign new contracts.
The last flurry of transfer speculation about Newcastle was mainly about attackers and, in the interests of balance, the press have been hitting us with speculation about defenders – either new or current – over the last few days.
The Daily Mail and The Sun, for example, have us interested in Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, which is easy for them to say. He’s 22, plays for Montpellier and is a naturalised Frenchman originally from the Central African Republic, which is a place I really like on account of it being exactly where it says it is. A sort of geographical onomatopoeia.
Anyway, Yanga-Mbiwa started out as a right-back and has more recently played as a centre-back, which is the sort of versatility managers like. He’s been at Montpellier for his entire footballing career and has also notched up 8 appearances for France’s under-21 team. Arsenal were linked with the player, who is contracted with Montpellier until June 2013, at the end of last season. (more…)
De Jong just making absolutely sure he maims Ben ArfaVenue: City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester. Date: Sat 19th November, 2011. Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Chris Foy (Linesmen: D Bryan & D.C.Richards).
Don’t forget that as usual, we will also be doing our usual “what the managers have been saying” review in the run up to the game, and also our regular “match banter” feature where you can make comments, share good streams for the game etc while the match is in progress. This should be going up around and hour before the kick off. Also as usual, we shall also be posting our report of the game some time after.
Well, it’s all gone quite swimmingly for Newcastle United so far, even against contenders such as Arsenal and Tottenham where we departed with honourable draws. However, the next three games (Man City, Man United and Chelsea) could well be reality check time, starting with this one away against table-topping, moneybags Manchester City.
Practising for contract negotiations?Newcastle United have some player contracts to sort out, in particular the contract of team Captain Fabricio Coloccini who – it is rumoured – will initially be asked to cut his wages by half.
With all the furore over the stadium naming, let’s not forget that there’s a football team somewhere there in the background!
Apparently the international break is being used to sort out some contract issues with players, most notably those of Fabricio Coloccini and Danny Guthrie.
But one item of news I did read in connection with Coloccini worried me a bit. It comes from the Northern Echo, which first suggests that Coloccini’s wages are currently around £80k/week and further suggests that the club will be looking to cut those in half as part of a renewed contract.
I have seen quotes of £60k/week – £80k/week for Coloccini’s wages in the past, so I’m not sure how accurate the Northern Echo’s assessment is, but surely the club will struggle to get Coloccini to cut his wages by half won’t it? Again, I’m not sure how the Echo knows that’s what the club intends to do but I’m hoping that, if there’s any truth in it at all, it’s merely a starting point for negotiations. (more…)
Watching Tony Pubis ‘kick off’ because of our defenders using their (Stoke’s) tricks, er, tactics at throw ins. Namely, taking time to dry the ball with the towels provided for Rory Delap’s thunderbolts. He must have thought double drat when Ryan Taylor actually produced some howitzers of his own; nice one Ryan.
He (Pubis) also looked ‘put on the spot’ and decidedly uncomfortable when asked by the reporter about Stoke’s reticence to buy Demba “ticking time bomb” Ba when they had the chance recently.
All in all, Stoke were ‘out Stoked’ in a game that made them look perticularly ordinary and belied their terrific and enviable home record. Newcastle took the game to them, put them under constant early pressure and were rewarded for their endeavour with a 2 goal half time lead.
Most of Stoke’s lads were rendered anonymous for large tracts of the game. The ref seemed to ‘help’ Stoke back into the game in the second half with what looked a very innocuous penalty, but to his credit, he seemed to ‘even it up’ just 6 minutes later, handing Demba Ba the opportunity to complete a ‘perfect’ hat-trick from the spot. (more…)
The man in the mask salutes hat-trick hero, Demba Ba.Venue: Britannia Stadium, Sir Stanley Matthews Way, Stoke-upon-Trent. Date: Monday, October 26th, 2011. Kick-off: 8:00pm. Referee: Mike Dean.
Demba Ba’s second hat-trick of the season powered Newcastle United to a 3-1 victory at the Britannia Stadium and up to 3rd place in the Premier League.
Stoke usually start apace at home but it was us who made the running from the off today and Stoke’s defence of a strange flick from Obertan to nobody in particular gave us our first corner within 2 minutes. Our first attempt came to nothing but Stoke only managed to clear for another corner and from this one Ryan Taylor fashioned himself a chance with a long shot that was wide and high, although not by all that much.
Most of our play was up the right and Best and Obertan looked busy in that area but the deadlock was broken with a move started by Tim Krul. A Stoke attack led to a goal kick, with which Krul found Guthrie. Guthrie put the ball into space on the right of the box and Obertan caught Stoke sleeping, chipped a lovely ball across the box right onto the head of Demba Ba who made no mistake finding the net after only 12 minutes. 0-1 to us. (more…)
