Chris Hughton - Faces some tough choices.Right, before I get the obligitory comments of “all over the place” regarding the article title, think about the financial situation we currently find ourselves in, regardless of the circumstances behind it.
By that I mean that we know that we won’t be sloshing money that we don’t have around, ala Feddy Shepherd, but after the capture of James Perch and the seemingly imminent arrival of Dan Gosling, it does at least look like Mike Ashley is going to back his manager, a little.
You can also add to that the fact the we are apparently biddong for players from the continent, with strong links to small, pacey forwards like Mevlut Erdinc and Yanick Djalo having surfaced recently. All of these deals are not costing a fortune, but they are adding strength to the squad and kind of loosely fitting in with that now famous statement that Mike Ashley made – It does seem that the team of last season will form the majority of the team for next season. So with that in mind, plus our tight pursestrings, where should be the next focus of our attention? (more…)
The main men.Newcastle head back into the Premier League with near enough an entire team that has a point to prove, and that could play right into our hands next season.
There is absolutely no doubt that these players can play in the Premier League, the problem is making sure they do play. Between them, our regular first team squad has over 1,400 Premier League appearances under their belt, and that is something that a newly promoted team has never had the benefit of before. You can call on any number of reasons for our relegation; players that weren’t committed; lack of form; injuries; a poisoned atmosphere around the club; 3,000 managers in one season; lack of direction; lack of investment, any one of them, or any combination of them can be blamed. (more…)
And the winner is...The goalposts are down, the World Cup is just around the corner, and the summer sun will soon be upon us. Yes it’s the end of the season, so what better time to announce the NUFCblog.org Player of the Season result?
It has been down to you, the reader, to decide the destination of this much coveted award. It’s only fair that we are the ones to pass judgement on how a player has played for us throughout the season, we know much more than the experts anyway. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that the winner of this award, as voted for by you and with 28% of the final vote is….. Jose Enrique.
I’m sure he is ecstatic knowing that he is now the proud owner of our coveted award, but as yet I have been unable to track down the Spaniard to ask him how he is feeling at what must be an emotional and triumphant time for him. Unfortunately he will have to wait to be presented with the widely respected trophy although I can give everyone an update on the progress of it’s construction. I can reveal that the finishing touches are being applied and all I need now to finish the trophy off are some nails, glue and some tin-foil. And to think my mother never rated Blue Peter and wondered why I used to watch it as a child, who’s laughing now eh mother? (more…)
Has been a key player for us.Having already taken a look at our goalkeepers and defenders, the focus for the next edition of our player review moves up the pitch again to see how our midfield have performed throughout the season.
It’s been a strange position for us this year. On one hand, some say the midfield has been our achilles heel, it lacks mobility and creativity. On the other hand though, it has been a position that has yielded a return of 30 goals from the season. Without checking, that is probably a damn sight more than what we have had in return from the past few seasons. Of course 17 of them have come from Kevin Nolan which has helped improve that figure, but despite the criticism that has been aimed at them from time to time they have chipped in with their fair share of assists aswell. After all, strikers need service from somewhere, right? (more…)
Has been Fab-ulous this season!Here I continue with the second of four installments of my player reviews for the title winning season just gone.
Last time out we had at look at how our goalkeepers had been getting on throughout the season, which was pretty easy by all accounts as there isn’t that many of them. Now we step up the difficulty and broaden our review to feature our whole defence and look at how they have performed this season. The back four has been a very strong area for us this season, a strange thing for a Newcastle fan to say following year after year of shabby backlines that nobody really seemed to be able to sort out. Granted we may have been playing against weaker opposition, but we have come out on top of them, miles on top in fact and we head to the Premier League with best defensive record in The Championship safely in the bag. I know we have had loan players in the shape of Patrick van Aanholt, Fitz Hall and Zhurab Khizanishvilli but I am going to discount them for this as they aren’t technically our players and only really played a handful of games for us. (more…)
