Permanent move?Chris Hughton might attempt to sign Danny Simpson permanently at Newcastle United when his loan contract comes to an end in January.
Sources in Manchester have allegedly claimed that Sir Alex Ferguson has written off Simpson’s chances of making it big at Manchester United, so he may indeed be available.
Last week, Derek Llambias said that Hughton could sign players for “£1m-or-so, if it was on the right player, who preferably would be under the age of 23” but whether or not Ferguson would accept £1m for him is another matter. Also, Newcastle may not be the only club interested in signing Simpson, which could force the price up beyond what Ashley’s willing to pay.
Hughton has been impressed with the 22 year old though, particularly with his versatility and willingness to play in any position as necessary to plug the gaps in a thin squad. (more…)
The elusive maskNewcastle United midfielder Jonas Guttierrez claims the international break will do us good ahead of an important period in our promotion push.
Jonas said:
“We have 15 days to recover, to rest and to prepare for the rest of the season. From here to January is a very important period for us.”
To be honest I never understand this ‘important period’ stuff. If we lose too many games at any point in the season we’ll fail to get promoted, so as far as I can see every 3 points is as important as every other 3 points.
Only 9 points separate us in top place from Watford in 12th so all the top places are very much up for grabs. West Brom still look like our biggest threat but I reckon Cardiff, QPR and Leicester will all be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. I reckon Strachan will pull ‘Boro together too. (more…)
He made us sing and he made us danceFormer Newcastle United star David Ginola has been talking about what it means to pull the black and white shirt on.
“When I signed for Newcastle I didn’t know the English mentality, I didn’t know about the English tradition and I came straight away to the North East – and its one part of the world that is even different from the rest of England,” said Ginola.
“My main concern was to see the involvement of the players in the club. When you wear that zebra shirt, it’s a whole tradition behind you.
“Even if you’re French and you’ve just arrived, you need to know what’s going on. The Geordies are not the same as the Brummies, or the Cockneys, it’s a proper mentality and you need to know what goes on in the city before you wear that shirt – you have a lot of responsibility.”
Anyway, no sense in transcribing the whole interview here. You can read it on Sky Sports.
Pro-Ashley?Newcastle United’s Jonas Gutierrez did not celebrate his goal on Saturday with his trademark ‘Spiderman’ mask. This has already been covered, but it also appears he wasn’t too keen on the anti-Ashley demonstrations.
According to report in the Telegraph, Jonas did indeed leave the mask behind because he was unhappy about press speculation related to him wanting to leave the club, but he went on to say:
“We know the crowd were shouting out something to the owner but we try not to think about that because it can be difficult for us.
“The only thing we can think about is to win and get the three points. We know if we do that the crowd will be happy.
“We try to win for the crowd. When they are shouting to the owner we don’t think about it. I have met him and I think the owner is doing really good things for Newcastle. They want to stay. The team is good.
“It is good for Newcastle.
“We are going about things in the right way. We try to win all the games and the owner is now doing the right things. We know Chris Hughton is the manager now and that is very important.” (more…)
Still 2 points clearChris Hughton claims that the team’s focus was the key to Newcastle United’s win over Peterborough yesterday.
Cardiff lost away to derby rivals Swansea and West Brom managed to beat promotion hopefuls Leicester, which means a bit of a gap has opened up between the top 2 and the chasing back.
After the game, Hughton said:
“We have got a totally focused group of players who, from minute one, saw an opportunity for us to stay on top of the division, and very much took that opportunity.
“We have got used to getting on with the job. There are things we can’t affect, but I am very lucky that I have got a group of players who are focused on one thing, and that’s on staying where we are at the right end of the table with the ultimate aim of getting promotion.
“We are focused enough and it certainly hasn’t taken anything away from the victory.” (more…)
