Anita: Excellent vision and technique for a defensive playerOf course, there was much delight on Tyneside when Newcastle United announced they had finally signed the very talented and versatile midfielder and defender, Vurnon Anita, from Ajax.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at Anita’s game gathered from my experience of watching him in the Eredivisie, though it is hardly extensive. I have also included a cornupcopia of videos of the 23 year old mostly looking at his individual contributions in five Eredivisie games, as well as a few more just for fun. Before I get to the videos though, here’s an outline of Anita’s game.
Primarily a defensive midfielder nowadays, Anita started as a right footed right back, and he has also played as a left back too. Though Ajax’s Gregory van der Wiel has kept him from keeping his hand in on the right side of defence in recent times, I’m sure that he could still hold his own there too. (more…)
Demba Ba interview.The latest interview from Demba Ba in which he looks back on his season with Newcastle United and Senegal, the goals, the fans, the excellent season on Tyneside and more… (more…)
Of course, there are lots of NUFC videos on YouTube and the like, but if you seen any by the dynamic duo of Ross and Affy, collectively known as “Gallowgatetoon,” I think you’ll agree that theirs are amongst the very best.
Here’s what they have to say about their work:
“Back in January we set up a joint channel on YouTube (Gallowgatetooners) with the idea that we would work together to produce Newcastle videos. Beyond the obvious season review videos, we didn’t really know what to produce, so we bounced ideas about, and ‘The Goals’ video was conceived, as was the ‘Ben Arfa Wondergoal’ video. We were very surprised by how well the season review videos went down, and all of the feedback gave us a massive boost to continue with what we were doing. (more…)
As I reported back in March and April, Reims midfielder, Romain Amalfitano, had signed a pre contract agreement to join Newcastle United on a free transfer when his Reims contract expired.
Well, as you may know already, he’s been in Toon in the last couple of days to make things official, wave a shirt around in front of a camera and such. However, he still not quite a Magpie yet, as his Reims contract doesn’t expire until the 30th June, from which point he will become a Newcastle United player. Going on previous information, it seems that the player has signed a three year contract to play with the Toon.
Cisse's big banana beat Benny's Bolton dribble.Well, it’s been a week for Newcastle United picking up awards with manager, Alan Pardew, recently being awarded the Barclay’s (bloody awful bank by the way – I know!) “Manager of the Season” award.
Well on BBC’s “Match of the Day” on yesterday evening, there were no less than three Newcastle United contenders (out of ten) for the show’s coveted “Goal of the Season” award. The first was Ryan Taylor’s mag-nificent strike against Everton from November of last year, the second, Hatem Ben Arfa’s mag-nificent strike against Bolton in April of this year, and finally, Papiss Cisse’s, er, mag-nificent strike against Chelsea at the beginning of this month. Of those, both Ben Arfa’s and Cisse’s efforts were regarded as being amongst the best three by sofa pundits, the two Alans (Dull and Duller), with Peter Crouch’s amazing volley for Stoke against Manchester City being the other one. (more…)
