Demba Ba: The plot thickens.As most of you will probably know, Tottenham Hotspur manager, Droopy Dog Harry Redknapp, claimed in an interview that there was a release clause in the contract of Demba Ba, with well known bastion of truth, the Daily Mail, following up the droopy one’s claims with a story that the figure named in that clause was £10 million.
Redknapp’s words in an interview went as follows:
“Demba Ba’s done great, hasn’t he, everybody’s looking at him suddenly,”
“Anybody could have had him a year ago. Full credit to Alan Pardew, he took him.
“He’s done a fantastic job. What a strike-rate he’s got. He’s probably the most in-form striker anywhere at the moment.
“They say there’s a release clause in his contract, that’s what we all hear.” (more…)
Highlights of the game. Sorry, they aren’t very good I know but I thought I’d put them up just for Ben Arfa’s sublime goal, which must be the best I’ve seen all season, and also the return of “Spidermag” too. I still haven’t received any thanks from Alan Pardew for telling him he was a divvy for not playing Ben Arfa on the wing! (more…)
Spidermag returns to save us!A tale of absent friends made this cup tie somewhat less of an occasion than it could otherwise have been.
We knew that Demba Ba and Cheick Tiote wouldn’t feature in this game, but when Blackburn lined up without Yakubu and Samba – that was a bit of a bonus. Also missing was Paul Clement, the now ex-Blackburn Assistant Manager who clearly decided he’d had enough of the abuse from the Blackburn fans and joined Paris St Germain last week. Finally, there were the 20,000 or so United fans who didn’t turn up, for whatever reason.
Newcastle actually made four changes to the side that started against Manchester United in that glorious win (just wanted to mention it one more time!). Two were enforced of course, with some of our stars off to light up the African Cup of Nations. Abeid, Obertan, Ben Arfa and Best were brought into to the team with Shola Ameobi and Ryan Taylor returning to the bench.
Is another Ba the highest priority?Newcastle United are set lose Demba Ba to the Africa Cup of Nations soon, yet it seems the club is concentrating more on strengthening the team in defence rather than attack. Is this the right decision?
Much was rumoured recently about us not being in for a striker this January after the Maiga deal fell through but, with Demba Ba due to leave for the African Cup of Nations very soon, how will we cope?
When Pardew was asked recently if we can cope without Ba and Tiote, he said:
“Obviously, I am hoping so, but they are two massive players. You take a huge figure out of one of the other teams and it’s significant. If you took Rooney out of Manchester United, probably they wouldn’t look the same for seven games, so you have to accept that.
“Having said that, we have got players who are champing at the bit. Hatem Ben Arfa wants a chance, Leon Best wants to show what he showed last year, Peter Lovenkrands will be eager to throw his hat in the ring, so we have still got great players in the club and we hope that we can keep the momentum and the form going.
“We have just approached one game at a time, but we have got to the halfway stage in seventh place and that’s significant. It can only arm us with confidence to go forward.“
King Kenny has the last laugh.It was chucking it down with rain as the teams took the field at Anfield, with Newcastle United wearing their first choice kit of Puma’s version of black and white stripes. Three ex-united players were in the Liverpool team: Bellamy, Enrique, and of course, Andy Carroll. There was also some bloke called Jordan Henderson, who, as we know, has a dodgy past.
First Half
The first 10 mins saw United getting plenty of the ball without actually threatening the Liverpool goal. As expected, Mike Williamson got the job of marking Carroll. I was going to say “Williamson was preferred to Perch” but I thought better of it.
Both teams were taking a while to settle and the first bit of excitement came in the 11th minute when Downing hit the ball against Ryan Taylor’s hand. There was a shout from the Kop for handball rather than the Liverpool players, but there was nothing doing from the referee.
After a quarter of an hour we saw a dangerous cross from Enrique – cue the chant from the Geordie faithful “you’re just a s**t Ryan Taylor!” I’m sure they both saw the funny side. (more…)
