Happy campers?From what I can recall, at the start of last season, Newcastle United were seemingly going about their pre-season in reasonably quiet fashion.
We had of course, just dispensed of the Championship at a canter, and were looking forward to a return to the Premier League. At the start of that particular summer, we had a statement from the Newcastle board, citing mainly that:
“The first team squad that won the Championship this year will form the basis of the team for next season in the Premier League.
“There is no plan for new capital outlay on players.”
Well, that particular line certainly had a few people up in arms at the time. In the end though, Newcastle did do some business recruitment wise, bringing in Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sol Campbell, Cheick Tiote and the majestic James Perch.
More importantly last summer, I remember the current crop of players being reasonably happy with life at St James Park. There was no moaning or bitching about the ‘politics’ of the club. This could be due to the explosion of ‘Twitter’ this past year (certainly in Newcastle United’s case anyway), with a fair few of our squad now signed up to the social networking site. (more…)
Pardew still wants Jose to stayNewcastle United hit back at Jose Enrique with a fine and a telling off after his recent renegade comments on Twitter.
This Jose Enrique nonsense is a sour old kettle of fish and no mistake. The player is clearly upset by the way the club is being run but whether or not Twitter is the way to go about expressing that is another matter.
In response, it seems that Enrique has been hit with a £100,000 fine for his comments. According to reports in such esteemed places as The Sun, Pardew was ready to leave Enrique with a mere slap on the wrist for his digressions but Ashley insisted on a two-week fine. There is no substantial evidence that Ashley did in fact make such a command of Pardew and it could easily just be the press stirring things a bit, but Pardew has responded to Jose’s Tweet by saying:
“Jose was wrong to put those comments up and I told him.
“It’s a good offer which we have given him and maybe the frustration of the situation got the better of him.
“I want him to stay, he’s a good lad but this didn’t reflect well on him. It was a mistake, he knows it and so do I.” (more…)
Enrique: Right or wrong?Of course, as most of you will no doubt know by now, disgruntled left back, Jose Enrique, the subject of much contract and transfer speculation over the past few weeks has been extremely critical of the club’s transfer policy and claimed that they “lie all the time”.
As my esteemed collegue, ‘Thump’ also reported on the pages of this ‘blog, he also accused them of lying “all the time” on his official Twitter page, which seems to have gone missing in action. To refresh your memories, the war of words started back in May when master of discretion, Alan Pardew, started giving a running commentary on the players contract renewal before they had even begun saying:
“We have been waiting to see his representatives, they are due here in the early part of next week.
“We are going to make Jose a very, very good offer and we are hoping he is going to accept it.
Adding a note of caution though, he then continued:
“We are realistic about Jose, because the ball is in his court on that one, not in ours.
“He will be offered a fantastic contract here, he knows that, but still it is going to be down to his decision. I am still hopeful.”(more…)
A scathing attack on Ashley.Like Joey Barton before him, it seems that Jose Enrique is using the social networking site Twitter to express his disdain at the club and appears to be finally acknowledging to the fans, and the club, that he wants a move – or at least a huge improvement in policy at NUFC.
Speaking on Twitter today, Jose Enrique indirectly lambasted the club’s owner Mike Ashley and the clubs transfer policy. Some of you may recall Pardew being unhappy with the Spaniard’s conduct on Twitter after announcing to fans he would not be taking part in the upcoming game against Spurs and his deletion of his Twitter account but it seems Jose has decided to reopen and this account has been confirmed by both Wayne Routledge and our fake account killer Danny Simpson.
Mike Ashley has been well known to be an admirer of the Arsenal model, bringing young players in cheap via extensive scouting networks and love of the French market which for a club that is recently promoted is a high risk, high payout gamble but if we get something wrong, we may very well be up the Tyne without a paddle. (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…)
