Graham: Toon Target?Barton expects next season to be tough, Pardew is keen to get an answer from Enrique and Danny Graham allegedly tickles the Toon’s fancy.
Joey Barton thinks that next season will be tougher for Newcastle than this one was due to that ‘second season syndrome’ (or ‘SecSSy’ as it’s known to those of us who have our eye in the circle). He believes that existing players will need to up their game and new talent will need to be hired.
Barton said:
“We believed in the squad and the group that we could achieve what we have achieved and maybe if one or two things had gone our way we might have done a little bit better.
“Next season is going to be as difficult a season, if not a lot more difficult because teams will respect you a little bit more and the Cup Final atmosphere of every game goes.
“It is going to be a lot more difficult that what it has been this season.
“The test is on us to improve individually and as a collective to move forward.” (more…)
Needs to prove himselfNewcastle United manager Alan Pardew has high praise for Haris Vuckic despite only having seem him play once.
You can tell it’s building up to silly season. The press already has Enrique at Liverpool, Barton at Birmingham, Tiote at Spurs and the entire team wearing the goalkeeper’s strip at away games.
I expect the summer will also consist of rumours about Ashley selling the club, Pardew being sacked, Keegan making a comeback and Llambias opening an owl sanctuary. It’s about par for the course.
Us bloggers really ought to sue the press for infringing on our jobs. Blogs are supposed to post rumour, speculation and gossip whereas the press are supposed to stick to reliable, confirmed news.
Thankfully The Sunday Sport made a return last weekend, so we might finally get some proper news. I was all for WWII bombers being found on the moon and everyone knows Elvis is alive and well and living in Grimsby.
Still, I digress. I expect the question most bothering you this morning is: what happened to Haris Vuckic? No? Well please yourselves, I’m going to talk about him anyway. (more…)
Must avoid another card this seasonNewcastle United midfielder Cheik Tiote goes into the record books, although it only gives Alan Pardew a headache.
It seems that Cheik Tiote’s yellow card for tripping Matt Derbyshire on Saturday has gained him a Premier League record. He joins Robbie Savage and Mark Hughes on 14 bookings for the season, which is apparently the record.
Were the McWhirter brothers still alive they’d no doubt be handing him some sort of trophy and John Noakes would pin a Blue Peter badge on him whilst slipping in elephant poo and shouting “get down Shep”.
As records go though, it’s probably one he could do without, particularly as it means another booking before the end of the season would mean he’d miss the first three games of next season.
This has all got Alan Pardew reaching for the aspirin because he now doesn’t know whether or not to risk the player against Chelsea next weekend:
“I will have to consider it. He would miss three games at the beginning of next season and he is very important to the team,” said Pardew. (more…)
Prospered under Nolan's guidanceNewcastle United midfielder Cheik Tiote reflects on his progress this season and looks to improve next season.
Cheik Tiote has had a good season in black and white and seems like the bargain of the century given that we paid FC Twente a mere £3.5m for him.
Tiote would certainly be a contender for my player of the season, although I’d find that a tough call to make this season with Enrique, Colocinni, Barton and Gutierrez also in contention.
To be fair, bearing in mind we have Ben Arfa and Dan Gosling to come back from injury, I don’t think we have too bad a team. There is an obvious weakness up front at the moment, which needs to be addressed urgently in the summer, and we certainly need more depth and cover – particularly if we continue with our dreadful record of training injuries – but I think the basis of decent team is there.
Anyway, Tiote has been reflecting on this season and is looking forward to next season but first he had a special thank you to make to Kevin Nolan:
“Kevin Nolan’s my man in midfield! He’s helped me, and done everything for me.
“I want to say thanks to him for that.”
Clearly Nolan’s influence stretches beyond his 12 goals for the club this season and it’s important that a team has those sorts of leaders. (more…)
We have the best fansNewcastle United’s Kevin Nolan speaks highly of the fans.
Kevin Nolan has been on a bit of a PR offensive for the Toon and dissing the mackems is always a good move in that respect. Nolan said:
“Sunderland have gone out and spent millions and millions of pounds.
“If we had have had the chance to do that and bring players in, we would have been a bit higher than we are.
“Then you see Steve Bruce saying he’s got to buy seven players in the summer.
“That’s a target [finishing ahead of Sunderland] to make sure we finish the season strongly.
“It’s something we can work on – I don’t see why not.
“We don’t really want this season to peter out – we want to finish strongly and get the momentum for next season”.
Too right. Most fans can forgive losses as long as the team has given its all. It’s those games where effort is lacking that really get the fans angry.
A good finish to the season at least means we take a high into the summer, which has got to be a boost for us even if only a small one. (more…)
