Mackems: In trouble.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sun 14th April, 2013. Kick off: 12.00. Referee: Howard Webb. UK TV: Sky Sports.
Well it’s that time again, the time when we simply must beat the Mackems, especially so as it’s our home soil that will be sullied by the visiting vagrants of Wearside, and of course their new Fascist manager, Paolo di Canio.
Di Canio’s fascist past has even made the national news, not to mention topical news shows like “Have I got News for You,” and fans have been told that any Roman saluting at St James’ will ruthlessly stamped out by the local Gestapo, but I daresay there’ll be a few give us a wave Paolo’s being shouted this afternoon.
However, the controversy preceding this match has come from other quarters, most notably the revelation that the Mackems’ Texan owner, Ellis Short, was overheard saying “Why don’t you just f off?” to Magpie Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew, at our last game back in October when Pardew tried to shake Short’s hand. This was probably in response to Pardew’s handbags with Paulo di Canio’s predecessor, Martin O’Neill. Bairns will be Bairns. (more…)
NUFC Blog’s latest blog on metro.co.uk is out now! Just a quick note to let you know that my latest piece for metro.co.uk” has now been published.
Entitled “Alan Pardew says the funniest things sometimes,” it is a brief (they’re only supposed to be around 500 words in there) reflection on some of Pardew’s words after Newcastle’s victory against Stoke, where he marked the cards of foolish romantics who prattle on about how teams need a “fantastic spirit” to win a game once they’ve gone behind. Instead, he insisted that only teams with “world class players” like Yohan Cabaye can change a game once they are a goal behind.
Just to refresh your memory, his exact words were:
“People get them mixed up sometimes, they talk about the spirit of the side and ‘You must have a fantastic spirit to come back from a goal down’. (more…)
Who is right?Speaking in recent interview on Swansea City’s Europa League campaign next season, Chairman Huw Jenkins knocked Europa League knockers such as Alan Pardew, who has frequently used midweek European competition as an excuse for his poor League form this season (amongst other things), with Jenkins dismissing such talk as “rubbish.”
Meanwhile his manager, Michael Laudrup, has also welcomed the extra games next season, seeing no need to significantly increase the numbers of his small squad (around 23 currently) for next season’s European campaign. On this Laudrup commented:
“I know one year that Barcelona played with 19 first-team players, as well as a few younger players, and they played every three days. It is possible.
“I know again the risks if you get an injury. Look at what happened to us when Neil Taylor broke his ankle the day after the transfer window shut. That has special implications, but I don’t believe in having 27 or 28 players (27 was about the size of Newcastle United’s first team squad before the new French player were beought in). You won’t have 27 players who are at the same level, so you will still have five or six who never play.(more…)
Pardew: Fuming over foreign Premiership mercenaries.Speaking from the year 2006, West Ham manager Alan Pardew launched an blistering broadside at Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger over the amount of foreign players in his side.
Speaking in the wake of a 1-0 Champions League victory for Wenger’s foreign mercenaries over Real Madrid, a game where not a single English player was fielded for Arsenal (though Madrid had two, Jonathan Woodgate and David Beckham), Pardew fumed:
“I saw a headline saying Arsenal are flying the flag for Britain, I kind of wondered where that British involvement actually was when I looked at their team. It’s important clubs, especially top clubs, don’t lose sight of the that. It’s the English Premier League and English players should be involved.”
While Pardew acknowledged the contribution foreign players have made to the Premiership, he feared that things were now getting out of hand, adding: (more…)
"It's all your fault!"It’s time for the long awaited second installment of this series looking at Alan Pardew’s role at the club, and if he know what he’s doing? (Hence the title). Because of recent events, I have decided to do a piece on his tendency to blame all and sundry other than himself for some disappointing performances this season so far.
Part II: Playing the Blame Game
Because of all the success we had last season, anything that went slightly awry, (and there were many of them, but that’s for another day/blog) became difficult to criticise. Fans seemed to soften their opinions towards the fat man and Casino Derek (or at least turn them down to avoid derision from more optimistic supporters), and why wouldn’t they? The team was doing well and we looked like we had found stability and a vision for going forward into the future. This season however has been a different story.
The optimism gained from 11/12 was slowly eroded away, even the most committed Pardew apologists have doubts in their minds and most people now feel that he has overstayed his welcome. This deterioration in confidence doesn’t only effect the fans but also the players, the owners, but most importantly the manager. In an effort to avoid coming to terms with the reasons why his Newcastle career has gone so far downhill, Pardew now almost routinely blames different elements of the organisation (or at least ones that don’t have the platform to fight back) game to game. (more…)
