Amalfitano: Bringing "Champagne football" to Newcastle?As regular readers of this site will know, we usually bring you the hottest Toon news first.
Well, back in early March, I wildly speculated reported that Stade de Reims midfielder, Romain Amalfitano, had signed a pre contract agreement with Newcastle United. In truth, I wasn’t quite the first to report it. The Independent ran a fairly insignificant story reporting that Derek Llambias was “happy” with the club’s latest set of accounts, but tacked on to the end was this:
“The club yesterday completed the signing of the French winger Romain Amalfitano from Reims on a three-year deal.”
Which was odd. No one seemed to take a blind bit of notice of it at the time apart from yours truly, so I did some background research on it, eventually tracking back to this story from the in France sports journal, “L’Equipe”, which went as follows (according to my rough as a bear’s arse French translation):
“Scoring three times this season with Reims, who will rise, Romain Amalfitano will have caught the eye of recruiters from Newcastle, who will recruit for next season. According to our information, a three year contract has been proposed to the young attacking midfielder (22 years old). He arrived in Champagne in 2010 from Evian Thonon Gaillard F.C. and will be out of contract in June.” (more…)
Entertainers Mark 2?Newcastle United midfielder Yohan Cabaye and manager Alan Pardew give their view on our Champions League aspirations.
Alan Pardew’s switch to a 4-3-3 has certainly improved Newcastle in terms of entertainment value and with players like Ben Arfa on the pitch we’re recapturing a little of the classic, 90’s ‘Entertainers’ era. Yohan Cabaye gives a nod towards that era in his latest interview. Cabaye said:
“I was young but I remember David Ginola playing here.”
Thanks Yohan, you’ve made me feel quite old. He’d have been 8-10 during those years.
“They were fighting with Man United for the title and they beat them 5-0, and I remember Ginola’s goal. We are proud to share some records with them.,” Cabaye continued.
Then, talking about our Champions League aspirations, Cabaye said:
“Why not? We have four games and we’re in a good position.
“It was important to beat Stoke to help secure the Europa League. For the Champions League though, I think we must wait to see if we are still in the race when we play Man City here and Everton away. But we have a chance.” (more…)
Cabaye bags a brace in win against StokeThe march towards Europe continues as Newcastle comfortably beat Stoke 3-0 at St James’ Park with goals from Cabaye (2) and Cisse.
Two weeks seems like a long wait between games, particularly when Newcastle have the winning momentum with them. Time seemed to pass so slowly that I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve entered a new geological era in the interim. The tediolithic, perhaps. However, the winning momentum hadn’t deserted us and Newcastle cruised to a well-deserved win over Stoke.
It took us a while to get warmed up to things though. For the first 14 minutes we probed Stoke a little but didn’t really threaten and Stoke had the best of the early chances. On 7 minutes Etherington floated a long shot over our bar and a few minutes later Crouch headed a ball across to Walters who was right in front of goal and a mere yard or two away from it, but he couldn’t control the ball enough to get a decent shot off.
But then we started to play. Santon brought the ball up the left and started working it with Benny, who broke off to the left of the box, plying his mesmerising skills as usual. Benny got a cross in across goal and Cisse headed onto the bar but Yohan Cabaye was lurking to put the rebound into the net. 1-0. (more…)
Bombs Away!Venue: St James’ Park, NE1. Date: Sat, 21st April, 2012. Kick-Off: 3pm. Referee: Andre Marriner (Sheldon, West Midlands). UK TV: None.
In the middle of March, with 10 league games left to play, Alan Pardew stated that winning five of them would just about get the club into Europe next season. He was right – but even he didn’t expect the team to win those games straight off! But they did. Now, with 5 games still left to play, United find themselves on the threshold of qualification for the Europa League, but because of those 5 straight wins, they are now also gunning for a place in the Champions League!
United’s rise to prominence this season has not only surprised most of their fans, it has also made quite a few media pundits look a bit foolish. Let’s just pause and savour that for a moment – as it doesn’t happen very often where we are concerned. First, Ladies and Gentlemen I give you every Newcastle United fan’s favourite pundit Mark Lawrenson. As we all know, Mark never fails to stick the knife into United and invariably predicts that we will lose, whoever we are playing. Mark’s nomination for “daftest bollocks uttered by a pundit” this season is “Newcastle won’t finish in the top six”. (more…)
The fall and rise of Newcastle United?It is certainly fitting of Newcastle’s unexpectedly successful season that, on the night of the 12th March, after a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates, they trailed the 4th placed Gunners by eight points.
It looked like the wheels had come off the North East bandwagon and they would slip into the mid-table mediocrity that had been predicted after a summer of unrest at the newly named “S_____ D_____ A____.” However, under the stewardship of manager Alan Pardew, what has followed has been remarkable: Five straight wins means they close the gap on a now third-place Arsenal to three points, and have moved level on points with Tottenham Hotspur who occupy the last of the four Champions League spots. (more…)
