Destination Northampton?Ben Tozer and Newcastle United agree terms to cancel the player’s contract and allow him to leave on a free transfer.
Apparently Ben Tozer is quitting Newcastle in favour of Northampton. Or at least that’s what Sky Sports are suggesting.
The 21 year old defender started out as a youth player at Plymouth Argyle, which is his home town, and then he transferred to Swindon Town in 2007.
Newcastle signed him from Swindon in 2008 on a four and a half year deal after he was touted as one of the most promising young defenders in the country.
Alas he only played one cup game and three minutes of a league game for us and was loaned out to Northampton for most of last season where he made 31 appearances and scored 3 goals.
Given his struggle to get into the Newcastle first team, he would allegedly prefer to transfer to a club where he’ll get regular football and League 2’s Northampton are in the frame as the most likely club to take him. (more…)
Thou shalt not pass!Two months (and a bit) on from the last review, with the transfer window looming, I thought it might be worth having another look at how the players are doing. With off-field sagas taking a backseat for now, the focus is thankfully on the pitch and given our recent blip, does it add significance to the opportunity to invest this month?
We’re just about halfway through our first season in The Championship since our untimely relegation, and as we sit proudly at the top of the table, it goes some way to proving the quality and endeavour that we have available in the squad.
There is still that underlying fear that our position owes much to the lack of quality elsewhere in the league, an argument which holds some water. Much of our good start to the season is undoubtedly owed to a tremendous defensive record, which was something surely none of us expected.
For what it’s worth here’s my own term review of the keepers and defenders. I’ve only included the lads who have played at least a couple of games so far and I’ve just added to my initial review from back in October. (more…)
Jus' chillin'?Chris Hughton has admitted that he is pretty laidback as the hour approaches and the ‘temporary loan signing’ window shuts at 5pm tomorrow night until February.
It has long been reported that Leon Cort has been on Hughton’s radar but Hughton has been telling the Chronicle that he’s not in any rush to sign players just for the sake of it:
“You never know, but realistically looking at the squad I don’t really expect to bring anybody in during the next month or so.
“Of course, all sorts of things can happen in the next 24 hours, and phone calls will be made on Thursday with players potentially becoming available.
“Some clubs might make a decision that some of the players who weren’t available earlier in the season are now there for loans. But we’ll see.”(more…)
Have we been nicking Premiership balls?Just how much can you discuss the same thing, day after day? Well to be fair, we’ve given it a good go but rather than rant on about the off-field stuff, I thought it might be time to reflect on the on-field matters at Newcastle United.
We’re almost a third of the way through our new season in The Championship and surely the players at our disposal must be half-decent seeing as we’re sitting pretty at the top of the table?
Clearly, some of us have different ideas about the quality in our squad and argue that our position is as much to do with luck and the lack of opposition. I’d probably agree with some of that but you can only beat what’s in front of you (to coin a well-worn cliche). Mind you, we could be here all night talking about the entire squad, so I’ll split it out a little.
For what it’s worth here’s my own term review of the the keepers and defenders. I’ve only included the lads who have played at least a couple of games so far – (more…)
Carling Cup Round 3Tonight’s Carling Cup 3rd round tie with Peterborough is likely to see a few of Newcastle’s youngsters get an outing.
It’s partly forced on Hughton as Ameobi, Gutierrez and Simpson are injured and Khizanishvili is cup-tied, but I think Hughton will also see this as an opportunity to rest a few players anyway. We’ll certainly want to win of course but in the grand scheme of things promotion is far more important to Newcastle than Carling Cup progress.
On paper we’re 16 places and 12 points better than recently-promoted Peterborough in the Championship, although Peterborough are unbeaten in their last 5 games.
We’ve never managed to beat Peterborough in the two previous League Cup meetings between the clubs and the last time Newcastle met Peterborough in the League Cup was in 1991 when Ossie Ardiles was manager and Justin Fashanu made an appearance for the Toon. (more…)
