This empty space needs filling!It was a little under a year ago now back in May of last year when my world caved in. After bearing witness to probably the most gutless and feeble excuse for a performance from a Newcastle team I have probably ever witnessed, we were relegated amid the jeers and cheers of fans around the country. Uncertainty remained around the club, what was going to happen? Would we ‘do a Leeds’? Virtually everyone had the knives out for us. However many numbers of different factors contributed to our relegation didn’t matter, the one thing most of us thought is that the future looked less than rosey.
Fast forward 11 months and things now seem different. The smiles have returned and the feel good factor has been creeping back, a feel good factor that came to head on Monday evening as Newcastle announced their return to the Premier League at the first time of asking in front of a packed St James’ Park and a worldwide television audience.
Gone are the visits to Glanford Park, Bloomfield Road, London Road to be replaced with trips to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Anfield, venues for which we have now earned the right to play at. Amongst the mutual back-patting however there is still a job that can be done this season and the lads can put on hold the romantic thoughts of visiting those famous grounds whilst they finish the season in style and bring a deserved trophy to Tyneside. (more…)
Will tonight be the night?Could this be the night when Newcastle United regain their place back in the Premier League at the first attempt? Well, the maths are that if Nottingham Forest lose their match against Cardiff City, or The Magpies just manage to scrape a draw against the Blades of Sheffield United this evening, then we will be promoted in either of the top two automatic promotion places.
As the whole region waits in anticipation of the big match, the team news is generally good. Only long term casualty, Steven Taylor, and ‘One Size’ Fitz Hall will be missing from selection, and a full strength team will be expected no doubt at St James’s Park this evening. (more…)
Tamás Kádár: Future may lay elsewhere.It appears our young Hungarian central defender is becoming fed-up with waiting for his chance to show what he can do on Tyneside, and believes his future could lay away from St James’ Park if he is to develop his undoubted potential. At just 20 years old Kadar is one of a handful of bright talents to come to Newcastle in the hope of getting the training and first team games needed to develop his game but feels that games are needed to help him improve, something that he currently isn’t getting many of.
The defender has played well and not looked out of place in the handful of first team appearances this season, a season that it was thought would be ideal for taking the promising young players we have at our disposal and giving them proper competitive playing time. Of course, Chris Hughton will know more than us about the player as he has the luxury of watching the players train and may see something we can’t, but from the outset I would say that Kadar is probably the player that is closest to making the step-up towards a regular first-team place. (more…)
Taylor: Has he had enough? The inevitable speculation has started already surrounding the future of Newcastle defender Steven Taylor and his desire to stay at the club. The claims made by The Guardian and The Mirror are that 24 year old Taylor has been left disillusioned over the apparent defence and acceptance of Andy Carroll, with one paper claiming there is a hate campaign against the defender and the other questioning whether Chris Hughton is really the man to take Newcastle forward.
On the face of it, the reports of Taylor leaving may not be far wide of the mark. Out of contract in 14 months he would be the prime candidate to be moved on should he not want to sign a new contract extension as the club would seek to gain a fee for the player rather than risk losing him on a free transfer. That said, we simply must remember that this is more than likely just the press trying to stir things up, something that they haven’t had much of a chance of doing so far this season. (more…)
Displaying leadership.Mystery continues to surround the recent bust-up between Toon team-mates Steven Taylor and Andrew Carroll as manager Chris Hughton chose to keep quiet on the situation that marred the build up to the Doncaster match. Those looking for any juicy bits of gossip emanating from his post match interview were left disappointed as Hughton yet again showed amazing professionalism.
The fact that the spat is currently under an internal investigation at the club probably helped in his decision to stay mute about the details of it, but his silence says more than the many column inches filled by the press about the debacle and is the strongest hint yet that something has happened.
There have been many different versions of the story over the past couple of days, Taylor started it, Carroll started it, it was about money, it was about women and so on, none of that really matters. What does matter is keeping the team on track and keeping their minds focused on the promotion run in. (more…)
