£8.5m? Sounds a bit high.Newcastle United allegedly consider a Swiss striker to fill the gap left by Andy Carroll while there are rumblings of interest by other clubs in Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez.
Well, Alan Pardew only has two and a bit days left if he wants to achieve his aim of signing a new striker before the Arsenal game. On which note the Daily Mail has us ‘interested in’ Bayer Leverkusen’s Eren Derdiyok.
They allege that Graham Carr has been watching the striker and that we’re now ‘considering’ a move for him.
The 6ft 3in, 23 year-old, Swiss striker started his senior career at BSC Old Boys where 10 goals in 18 games got him noticed by FC Basel. After moving to Basel he scored 27 goals in 80 games and thusly came to the attention of Bayer Leverkusen. They signed him in 2009 and he has scored 18 goals in 65 games for them, which is not what I’d call prolific. He has also played 33 games for Switzerland scoring 3 goals.
The English media had us ‘interested in’ him back in June 2008 but the rumours failed to materialise into anything back then and I have my doubts as to whether they will now either. Judging by the stats alone, it looks like he’s the sort of player who started out extremely well but has not quite managed to maintain the scoring level that originally got him noticed. (more…)
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…)
Colombus Crew's club crest.You may be happy to know that a video stream of Newcastle United’s game with Ohio’s finest, the ‘Columbus Crew’ is available on the club’s website here. Columbus Crew’s matchday page on the game with other braodcast informtion, radio, live updates etc is also available here.
The game will kick of at 7.30pm local time (12.30pm UK time) so be ready!
Hopefully, the lads will perform better than they did against Orlando City, and not lose any more key players like Hatem Ben Arfa for the upcoming Premier League season.
Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew’s pre match interview for the game is available for your viewing and listening pleasure below to get you in the mood for the match.
And also a pre match interview with Jonas Gutierrez and Steve Harper with an American lass called Ashleigh Ignelzi. (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…)
Jonas: Another one on his bike?Tyneside newspaper, The Journal, are claiming very confidently that Newcastle United’s Argentine wing wonder, Jonas Gutierrez, will be the latest in a series of senior players to be edged out the exit door at St James’s Park as the club are willing to “listen to offers” to use the Journal’s words.
If correct, this news would follow hot on the heels of Kevin Nolan’s exit to West Ham, the complete breakdown of contract negootiations with Joey Barton, Alan Pardew’s earlier admission that Jose Enrique may not be a Newcastle player next season and several other things as Mike Ashley’s Footballer Farm project gathers momentum. However at the time of writing, nothing official seems to have been confirmed by the club itself. However, Joey Barton dropped a strong hint on his Twitter page that he, Jonas and Jose Enrique would be the next to go after Nolan was sold to West Ham, however Barton later expressed that he would be staying at the club to see out his contract, interestingly using the hashtag “#bosmanruling”. (more…)
