Collymore - pundit, of sortsStan Collymore claims Newcastle United defender James Perch should be given a 3-match ban for ‘diving’.
Alleged pundit Stan Collymore has had plenty to say about the game against Liverpool on Sunday. First of all he said that Andy Carroll should be banned for his dive in the box and then says Perch should be banned for being headbutted by Pepe Reina. Collymore chose Twitty to express his views and said:
“Not many suggesting punishments for diving, so is it now with us for good? I say give Carroll/Perch three game bans. They won’t do it again.”
Whilst I tend to agree that diving should be punished and would therefore support the idea of Carroll being banned for 3 games, I can’t support the idea that Perch should be banned for 3 games too. Clearly I’m writing on a Newcastle United ‘blog and would expect cries of unfair bias, so I ought to try and justify myself before the tar and featherers dust of their tar and feathering kit and make their way to Somerset to try and find me.
In Carroll’s case the various replays showed that there was definitely no contact on him from Krul. I can’t say for definite that he didn’t merely ‘stumble’, as Kenny Dalgish claimed, but it looked very much like a dive. Make what you will of that but in Perch’s case there was contact between Reina’s head and Perch’s. He was nutted, basically. (more…)
Potential target?Newcastle United have been linked with two defenders from the Dutch league recently: Douglas and Erik Pieters. But is there anything to subtantiate the rumours?
The Chronicle – and other elements of the press – have been linking us with FC Twente’s Douglas Franco Teixeira recently.
The 6ft 4in 24-year old central defender has apparently told FC Twente boss Steve McClaren that he wants to leave at the end of the season and the Premier League is his destination of choice.
Apparently a ‘source’ at FC Twente said:
“It’s not a case of if Douglas wants to play in the Premier League – it’s simply when. He’s told the manager he wants to go.
“Steve McClaren also has a new defender lined up to replace him in the summer and appreciates that Douglas wants to move on.”
Anyway, on the back of this report I thought I’d do some digging around in the Dutch press to see if I could find some sort of indication that Newcastle is indeed in the running. (more…)
Carr (circled) in his Telford United heyday.Newcastle United chief scout, Graham “Fatty Man” Carr, the less than svelte father of Alan, has, of course, built something of a reputation amongst Magpies fans for his player spotting abilties.
Carr, a Northumbrian who was born in Corbridge like Steve Bruce, was brought into the club in February of 2010 by previous manager, Chris Hughton, renewing a working relationship they had at Tottenham, where Carr was brought in as a scout by Tottenham’s then Director of Football, David Pleat. Since then of course, his reputation has gone from strength to strength on Tyneside with the quality of players signed since he took control of Newcastle United’s scouting department. This interview for Talksport was conducted by Adrian Durham and ex Yorkshire and England cricket legend, Darren Gough, for the station’s “Drivetime” slot yesterday evening.
Below is a written transcription of the whole interview, well, minus a tiny “chatty” bit at the end about Alan Carr’s lack of football skills as a bairn.
Adrian Durham:“So describe exacly what your job is, Graham.”(more…)
Cisse bags another brace.Newcastle United notch up a comfortable 2-0 win over Liverpool to retain 6th place on level points with Chelsea, 10 points clear of 7th-placed Everton.
We kicked off the game at a glorious, sunny St James’ Park and it was to be a tightly contested half with both sides having their chances. Our front three were once again impressive but Liverpool looked to have decent attacking options too, particularly with Craig Bellamy who managed to find himself in space on the right a few times.
Within the first 5 minutes Shelvey’s dipping shot took a deflection and nearly dipped enough to get in under the bar but was just over in the end leading to a Liverpool corner. After defending that we got away and on the counter-attack with Ba finding space up the left. Ba put the cross in to Cisse but Reina managed to snatch the ball from its path ahead of him.
Perch picked up a yellow card after 6 minutes when he took the ball – seemingly cleanly – from Suarez but managed to upend the Uruguayan in the process. The yellow was a bit harsh I thought, but those sorts of things generally pick up a yellow these days. (more…)
In demand?Much speculation surrounds Newcastle United’s Demba Ba with rumours of release clauses, interested clubs and new contract offers from Newcastle. So will Demba Ba still be at Newcastle United next season?
Demba Ba has been hailed as the Premiership’s best buy of the season. This and his 16 goals for us this season has obviously attracted a certain amount of attention and we keep reading rumours about clubs being after him.
Blabbermouth Redknapp went on record to say that there’s a release clause in Ba’s contract that might make it easier for clubs to try and swipe him away from us at the end of the season. Redknapp seemed to take a particular delight in publicising that one but I’m sure Ba’s agent would have made that common knowledge amongst clubs anyway, if it wasn’t already.
The latest rumour from The Sun suggests that we’ve offered Ba a new 4-year contract with a much improved salary and terms. The Sun alleges that his salary will rise from £35k/week to £50k/week and that he will also get a £5m signing on fee paid over the 4 years. That works out at about £74k a week, which is not bad although he would probably get offered more by the alleged ‘richer’ Premier League teams if they were interested (Chelsea, Spurs, Man City … maybe Liverpool). Of course any speculation about our alleged offer and the monetary sums suggested depends upon The Sun’s report being true and it could of course be complete twaddle. (more…)
