Hughton bringing the Premiership back to Newcastle.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sun, 23rd Sept. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Neil Swarbrick. UK TV: None.
Chris Hughton will make his first public appearance at St James’ Park since he managed a 1-1 draw for the Toon against Chelsea in November 2010.
We all know that shortly after that game, with the team standing in 11th place in the Premier League (after our one year sabbatical in the Championship) Messrs Ashley and Llambias showed Hughton the door to bring in a manager with much “greater experience” (i.e. their own man). Pardew, an unpopular choice as Hughton’s replacement, tried to make the most of his opportunity and said this week:
“Both of us could probably look each other in the eye and say we have done a decent job at Newcastle”. Maybe but…
Now is not the time to drag out the old “should he / shouldnt he” routine but lets hope that Chris, who led us back into the top flight at the first time of asking (accumulating 102 points along the way), as well as bringing Graham Carr to the club, is afforded the same reception as former manager Kevin Keegan experienced on his return with Manchester City all those years ago. (more…)
A disappointing stalemate. Whilst Maratimo displayed some good build up play and passes into the box from players such as Sami, as I predicted in my preview of the game, they couldn’t really have anyone who could supply a killer finish. Then again, neither did we! (more…)
A holiday in the sun for Pardew's happy campers.Venue: Estádio dos Barreiros, Funchal, Madeira. Date: Thurs, 4th October. Kick off: 6:00pm Referee: Robert Schorgenhofer. UK TV: ESPN.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this evening’s Europa League clash versus S.C Maritimo on the paradise island of Madeira, home of Christiano Ronaldo, cake, and many a fine fortified wine.
Even away, the Magpies should normally go into this match as strong favourites, however with injuries and manager Alan Pardew prioritising the Premiership at home, he has travelled with a somewhat depleted squad to Funchal, which should add a bit of a “squeaky bum” factor to this game. However, I will spare you from too much of the usual pre match waffle here, as I have alredy done more than enough of that for this game, not only with my fairly extensive match preview from this morning, but also in another story in my series probing our Europa League Group Stage opponents from a few weeks ago. As I noted in the preview though, the squad Pardew has taken out there is: (more…)
DON'T PANIC! DON'T PANIC!Speaking in a pre match press conference for this evening’s Europa League game against Maritimo in Funchal, Alan Pardew has revealed his displeasure at the recent words of Demba Ba’s spokesman, Alex Gontran, also revealing that there is STILL a release clause in the player’s contract.
Telling the media of a recent conversation with Ba about his spokesman’s comments, with Ba himself also revealing that “lately I am not so happy with some things going on.” at the club in his Everton post match interview, Pardew commented:
“I have spoken to Demba [about his agent] and told him I was disappointed with some of the comments around him. Sometimes it’s out of his control and out of my control. We know each other well enough. I just think people were saying things they shouldn’t say, really.”
Pardew then reiterated however that despite all the current fuss and bother, they still have a good working relationship, saying: (more…)
