Pardew still wants Jose to stayNewcastle United hit back at Jose Enrique with a fine and a telling off after his recent renegade comments on Twitter.
This Jose Enrique nonsense is a sour old kettle of fish and no mistake. The player is clearly upset by the way the club is being run but whether or not Twitter is the way to go about expressing that is another matter.
In response, it seems that Enrique has been hit with a £100,000 fine for his comments. According to reports in such esteemed places as The Sun, Pardew was ready to leave Enrique with a mere slap on the wrist for his digressions but Ashley insisted on a two-week fine. There is no substantial evidence that Ashley did in fact make such a command of Pardew and it could easily just be the press stirring things a bit, but Pardew has responded to Jose’s Tweet by saying:
“Jose was wrong to put those comments up and I told him.
“It’s a good offer which we have given him and maybe the frustration of the situation got the better of him.
“I want him to stay, he’s a good lad but this didn’t reflect well on him. It was a mistake, he knows it and so do I.” (more…)
Non-news IMHONews about a bid for Mevlüt Erdinç may not in fact be news and Pedro’s boys get a result in Holland.
I’m a bit confused. News is doing the rounds that Newcastle have had a £6.5m bid for Mevlüt Erdinç accepted and that Alan Pardew was informed about the situation in the States.
I thought we’d already had a bid accepted by PSG anyway and that it was just the personal terms where things were being held up, so that bit saying that Alan Pardew was informed about matters threw me as that made it sound like a new thing.
The French press – which, rightly or wrongly, I tend to see as more reliable in terms of truth than our own – has nothing new to offer in relation to our potential interest in Erdinç and is only quoting the rumours in our own newspapers here and there.
I’m therefore of the opinion that this is a bit of a non-story. What I mean to say is that I’m pretty sure we are indeed pursuing Erdinç’s signature but that nothing has changed to prompt the ‘news’ appearing in the Sunday press. (more…)
Turf ripped upPitch problems needed to be solved ahead of Newcastle United’s pre-season game against Orlando this evening.
It seems there are a few problems with the pitch at Orlando. Apparently the Orlando team usually play on astro-turf (not be confused with Astro Boy) but Pardew wasn’t keen on that idea due to its alleged proclivity for producing injuries. So Orlando owner Phil Rawlins spent a six figure sum getting real turf laid for tonight’s game.
However, after a pitch inspection today, both teams have agreed that they don’t particularly fancy the freshly rolled pitch after all.
It was thought that Rawlins might acquire a magic carpet from Orlando’s ‘Olde Shoppe of Inexplicable Items’ to play on but, alas, they’d sold out, so it looks like they’re going to have to put the astro-turf (not to be confused with Batman) back.
As a result, Pardew may have to rethink his team selection for tonight and it’s thought he may opt to leave Demba Ba and Steve Harper on the sidelines in case the synthetic pitch affects their troublesome knees in some way, although Bolton played on the astro-turf (not to be confused with Deputy Dawg) last week without any problems. (more…)
Swapsies?Rumours abound that Wigan may be interested in Newcastle United winger Wayne Routledge. Could some sort of swap involving N’Zogbia be in the offing?
The Sun is rumouring that Wigan might be preparing a £2.5m bid for Wayne Routledge to replace Charles’ N’Zogbia if he leaves the club as expected. N’Zogbia has in fact not gone to Austria for pre-season yodelling practise along with the rest of the Wigan squad, thus creating some sort of expectation that his transfer out of Wigan is perhaps close.
Apparently a £9m bid for N’Zogbia by Villa was rejected by Wigan recently.
Maybe Ashley will quote a ‘special price’ of £5m for Routledge for non-Champions League contenders, rather like Wigan allegedly did for us when we first showed some interest in The Zog!
Rumours tend to snowball, so of course this particular one has resurrected our interest in N’Zogbia and plays to the idea of some sort of swap deal being arranged.
Personally I think that, even if we took £2.5m off the N’Zogbia’s price and gave Routledge to Wigan instead, it might still be seen as too expensive for another midfielder given that, presumably, some money will need to be kept back for a striker of some sort. I suppose there’s always the possibility that Ben Arfa could be used as a striker and another midfielder could be recruited in his place, although I tend to think we want to recruit an out-and-out striker as a priority. (more…)
Destination FloridaIn the second of their three-leg American pre-season tour, Newcastle United face Orlando City tonight.
Our pre-season tour of the States continues with a game against Orlando City Soccer today. With much of America gripped in a heatwave – and Florida’s pretty hot and humid in normal circumstances anyway – the game will be another tough test of the team’s fitness.
Pardew said that, whilst the heat was an issue to contend with, he thought that playing in it would be beneficial to the squad in the long run:
“The heat is definitely an issue.
“No matter where we play in America, it will be hot. We can’t do anything about that, we just have to play in whatever weather that day has in store for us.
“It is not unusual,” said Pardew, doing a commendable impersonation of Tom Jones. “I saw the light of the night that I past by her window,” he added, trying to perfect the voice.* (more…)
