Ashley, Llambias and Pardew - Did they deceive us over Carroll?A few days after Newcastle United’s already despised Managing Director, Derek Llambias, announced the club’s corporate renaming of the club’s traditional home as “The Sports Direct Arena”, it would be hard to imagine his or Mike Ashley’s reputation sinking any lower.
However all that has changed now after one simple drunken rant in a bar which was recorded by fans and passed on to the Mirror newspaper. My erstwhile collegue, Hugh, has dealt with his jealous and contemptible potty mouthed rants about former managers, Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan and Chris Hughton in this piece. Here I will concentrate on how his words about Andy Carroll’s move to Liverpool seem to suggest that both he and manager, Alan Pardew, deceived the fans about the circumstances leading up to the controvarsial transfer, leading fans to brand Carroll a “Judas” for deserting the club he had supported since boyhood.
If you recall, after a completely bogus story was put around the media about a very large Tottenham bid for the Bensham Bomber, Liverpool’s first bid for Andy Carroll was a lowly £30 million (what on earth were they smoking that day???). When one fan asked Llambias if he thought that Andy Carroll was worth that amount, Llambias replied:
Every player has a price.If we were to listen to the naysayers and those in desperate need of a long course of anti-depressants, the starting XI will be gone come the summer transfer window.
We have always been a selling club, will always be a selling club and unless Ashley leaves, we will remain a selling club. After all, the proof is in the pudding and so far Ashley is just looking to line his pocket with gold. A nugget of truth that somehow ties into todays gutless performance – everybody is for sale. Or something.
The fact is, we aren’t. I know, it’s incredible to think that, but we aren’t a selling club. This season we have sold Andy Carroll.
No, that isn’t a pause for dramatic effect; that’s actually the only sale we’ve had this season. Yes, players have been sent on loan. Yes, players are ‘rumoured’ to be leaving, but if paper talk was 100% true then we’d have Messi and Ronaldo roaming the midfield with Podolski knocking in 80 goals a season and a bench made up of Gervhinho, Hulk, Robben and Shola Ameobi. (more…)
Tevez makes it two!Newcastle succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at St James’ Park this afternoon, but it wasn’t as straight forward as the scoreline may suggest.
It may well be a cliche in footballing circles, but there was certainly enough about the performance to give me hope despite the defeat.
It’s a strange feeling really, as usually I would be pulling what is left of my hair out after a 3-1 defeat, but I feel strangely mellow after witnessing a performance which saw us have the bulk of possesion and create many more chances than our rich, title-chasing visitors. Another heartening factor was the effort and determination on show from the players today. They didn’t give up, despite being behind for 88 minutes of the game.
Fabricio Coloccini returned to the starting line up in place of the poorly Sol Campbell. Wayne Routledge was recalled to play out wide with Joey Barton pushed into his favoured central midfield role whilst Kevin Nolan effectively took the place of the injured Shola Ameobi meaning that Newcastle lined up in a kind of 4-4-1-1 formation. (more…)
Carroll makes it 1-0 to the home side.Newcastle battled their way to a creditable draw against reigning Premier League champions Chelsea this afternoon – A result that means that we still haven’t lost against any London team this season.
On the balance of play you could probably argue that Chelsea deserved to win the match, but that would take a lot of credit away from what was a fairly solid defensive performance from Newcastle. A bit of luck was needed at times from the home side, but I would say that we were just about good enough for the point.
Newcastle were forced to make a number of changes to their starting line-up, and with the squad already depleted by injuries and the odd suspension, the home side were dealt a further blow when it emerged that Kevin Nolan would miss the match after picking up an ankle knock.
Both teams came into the match looking to end a poor run of form. Chelsea had lost the last two games whilst Newcastle had only managed a point in the previous three games. Given the thumping that the lads got at Bolton last week I would hazard a guess that Chris Hughton and co will be more than happy with a point. Chelsea probably won’t be, but that isn’t my problem. (more…)
I have not written for quite a while on this ‘blog, so this post is just a gentle reintroduction from me without much substance, but I feel I can get away with it just this once to ease myself back into things.
It gets worse because I’m about to do some dreaded hearsay Daily Mail style reporting.
I had reason to hire a ‘Man With A Van’ recently to help clear out a house after a bereavement. This ‘Man With A Van’ happened to be a Geordie and came accompanied by a son at no extra charge. I’m not entirely sure of the son’s purpose in the whole house clearing thing I had to do as he seemed reluctant to lift anything and merely ate all my biscuits. However, this son apparently dates a girl who worked in the press office at SJP and we got onto the subject of whether or not Andy Carroll is for sale because, obviously, there has been much speculation about that recently. According to my ‘source’ (hey, I feel like a real reporter now!) Andy Carroll is for sale, but so is everyone else at Newcastle United.
Now of course, I am not silly enough to put any faith in what is essentially gossip, particularly as it came from someone who ate all my biscuits. I am however getting to a point, the point being: Does it matter anyway? (more…)
