Keegan gets crystal ball ootFormer Newcastle United player and twice manager Kevin Keegan tips a top 6 finish for the club this season.
Kevin Keegan has, as part of his punditry, tipped Newcastle for a top 6 finish, although he does qualify that a bit. Thrice Messiah Keegan said:
“Long may their good start continue.
“The results for Newcastle have been surprising, but they are doing very well.
“You’d hope they can continue it. They don’t want injuries as they haven’t got a massive squad.
“If they do avoid them they could finish in and around the top six, which would be an amazing achievement.”
He’s right about the injuries. We seem to have players to spare in midfield but are a little more stretched in attack and defence. If we accumulate injuries between now and January, I guess there’ll be an opportunity to address them in the winter transfer window, so all is not completely lost I suppose. (more…)
Happy to wait his turnNewcastle United goalkeeper Steve Harper says he’s content to keep the bench warm for now and has nothing but praise for Tim Krul.
My esteemed colleague recently wrote an article about Steve Harper asking whether he is content playing second fiddle to Tim Krul at Newcastle or whether he may consider moving elsewhere.
And yesterday Steve Harper gave his reply. When asked if he’s prepared to sit on the bench, Harper said:
“Of course. The club made the decision to start with Tim at the start of the season and he has been outstanding. You can’t take that away from him.
“Some games he has been quiet but against Fulham, the cup game against Scunny, and Wolves he was outstanding.
“He has played a big part in the start to the season and I will continue to help him. I know he’s said that. But I will help him as much as I can.
“He is a big player for the future and if I can help get the best out of him then it will only benefit the club.” (more…)
Forgive him his sins?Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has certainly presided over a good start to this 2011/2012 season, but how – if at all – does this alter our opinion of the man?
We’re over a 5th of the way through the season and sitting proudly in 4th position in the Premier League. Somewhere along the line something has gone right.
Whilst it’s right that the owner of a football club has to take the ultimate responsibility for failure, it’s also right that he receives the plaudits when things go well. So for getting us into 4th place at this juncture I have to say well done to Mike Ashley. It’s well done to the manager and the players too, but the over all architect is Ashley, so he should get the bulk of the kudos for things just as he received the bulk of the tongue-lashing when he got us relegated.
But hold your horses Hughy, I hear you saying, we’re only 7 games in, have arguably played ‘easier’ teams and a lot can wrong. True enough and then I’ll no doubt be back to stick the boot in with everyone else if it all goes pear-shaped. (more…)
Sow: unlikely IMHO.Newcastle United are allegedly ‘linked’ with three players at the moment if various press reports are to be believed, although it is perhaps our continued interest on Modibo Maiga that is the strongest rumour.
You’d be forgiven for thinking the transfer window is still open judging by the players the press have Newcastle United linked with.
The Daily Mail has a minimalist report about our interest in Leicester City’s Jeffrey Schlupp, who is an 18 year old German-Ghanaian striker/left winger/left back. Schlupp has been signed up to Leicester since his youth days and has only made 18 senior league appearances, 10 of which were while he was on loan to Brentford. But he has scored 11 goals in those 18 games, which is an impressive start.
The Mail reports this in it’s usual omniscient way so there’s no proof that we’re interested in Schlupp at all, although if we are I’d presume he’s one ‘for the future’ so to speak. (more…)
We should have had a 3rd goalNewcastle United manager Alan Pardew identifies some areas in which we can improve, despite our creditable 4th place Premier League position.
There has been a lot of comment since our 2-1 victory over Wolves on Saturday, much of it of the pat-on-the-back variety, which – it has to be said – is better than the poke-in-the-eye variety that might follow a defeat.
Alan Pardew, however, still has some room for criticism. Pardew said:
“I’m just disappointed we didn’t get the third goal – it wouldn’t have then been a grandstand finish, it would have been game over. We missed a couple of big chances in that period.”
Indeed, whilst it may appear churlish to criticise a team that’s currently performing beyond expectations – at least in terms of league position – one problem I think we do have is that we don’t close games down very well.
It seems to me that there are two ways of doing that. The first is simply to score more goals and put the game completely beyond the opposition. The second is to nullify the opposition with possession, not allowing them to put us under pressure. The latter trait in particular is one which I think we can improve upon a lot. (more…)
