Carr (circled) in his Telford United heyday.Newcastle United chief scout, Graham “Fatty Man” Carr, the less than svelte father of Alan, has, of course, built something of a reputation amongst Magpies fans for his player spotting abilties.
Carr, a Northumbrian who was born in Corbridge like Steve Bruce, was brought into the club in February of 2010 by previous manager, Chris Hughton, renewing a working relationship they had at Tottenham, where Carr was brought in as a scout by Tottenham’s then Director of Football, David Pleat. Since then of course, his reputation has gone from strength to strength on Tyneside with the quality of players signed since he took control of Newcastle United’s scouting department. This interview for Talksport was conducted by Adrian Durham and ex Yorkshire and England cricket legend, Darren Gough, for the station’s “Drivetime” slot yesterday evening.
Below is a written transcription of the whole interview, well, minus a tiny “chatty” bit at the end about Alan Carr’s lack of football skills as a bairn.
Adrian Durham:“So describe exacly what your job is, Graham.”(more…)
Highlights of Newcastle United’s 3-1 away victory at the Hawthorns.
A very good start against a lacklustre West Brom saw Papiss Cisse (2), and Hatem Ben Arfa both scoring in a game which looked like it could have been a rout at one stage. However, West Brom marshalled their forces in at half time and came back looking much stronger after the interval. Though they came back with a goal from half time substitute, Shane Long, it was too little, too late.
A full match report will follow, and I shall be endeavouring to post a link to a video of the full match if / when one becomes available. (more…)
The Hitman.When Norwich City rocked up to Saint James’ Park on Sunday with Paul Lambert (manager) and Delia Smith in tow, it was going to be a great opportunity for a bit of revenge after the mauling we took away to them earlier in the season.
Last time out we were missing a few key players in defence and midfield. This time we had a better squad to pick from, but still missing a couple in the shape of Cheik Tiote and Ryan Taylor. No matter,the game kicked off and Newcastle got straight on it. Captain Coloccini misplaced an early pass out of defence that went straight to a Norwich attacker, but Yohan Cabaye was quick to mop up, spun around and lofted a sweet ball right into the path of Pipiss Cisse, whom had beaten any offside trap expertly. John Ruddy, the Norwich ‘keeper, rushed out to close him down but he still had plenty of time to trap, then try and lob it into the Leazes net. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite get enough height on it and Ruddy duly picked it out of the air.
That spurred the team on though and it was all Newcastle for the first 10 minutes. As the clocked ticked towards the 12 minute mark, a great bit of Hatem Ben Arfa tenacity from deep in his own half, where he won the ball back from the opposition and turned it into attack. First feeding Cabaye, who returned to Ben Arfa, the ball then found it’s way to Guthrie who curved a great ball out to Jonas on the left. One touch later he whipped an excellent early ball into the Norwich area that found the marauding Cisse around the penalty spot. His deft, glancing, sidefoot shot then crashed into the top left corner of the Leazes goal. Newcastle United 1, Norwich City 0. (more…)
Alan Pardew - Silver supremo? Or Grey gob*****?As we look towards our game against Norwich City, Alan Pardew’s 51st Premiership game as Newcastle United’s manager, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to look back on his time so far and see what we have learned since he arrived at St James’ Park.
The Silver Supremo’s first game, a 3-1 victory against Liverpool, was certainly a good start, as was his eleven game unbeaten run at the beginning of this season. Despite this, he still has his detractors, as well as those on the opposite side. Let’s take a look at the long term picture of what he has achieved in terms of results, and also touch on some of what we have learned about his style of play.
Statistics
I suppose that the best place to start would be to take a look at the statistics of those first 50 games to give us some kind of reference, so here goes! (more…)
