What, me again?Well, 1732 of you voted at the time of writing, and for the second time in a row NUFC Blog’s player of the season is (drumroll):
Fabricio Coloccini!
He beat off Tim Krul into second for the second time in a row too, with Davide Santon replacing Yohan Cabaye on the bottom siep of the podium. However, a poor season for the team seemed to make it much harder for all of you who voted to pick a decisive winner. Last year Captain Colo recieved received a mighty 34% of the entire vote, or 525 votes out if 1522. This year however it was only 17%, or 287 votes out of the aforementioned 1732.
You can see the full results in the poll at the bottom of this piece.
Though not a perfect defender, many are better in the air including central defensive teammates such as Mike Williamson and Steven Taylor, his abilty with the ball on the floor and the way he can build play from the back have marked him out in Newcastle United’s heart of defence. Unfortunately though, this quality has hardly been a feature of Newcastle United’s play in general under the old fashioned “kick and rush” style of Alan Pardew. (more…)
Sideshow Bob: It won't all be plain sailing.After Newcastle United’s very good start to the current season, which sees them in the top four after seven games, the clubs captain, Fabricio Coloccini, has joined manager, Alan Pardew, in sounding a note of caution.
Speaking in an interview, he suggested that while everything is good in the Newcastle camp at the moment, we have yet to see how the new look side will react when tougher times inevitably come. After describing the team spirit at the club as “outstanding” at the moment, he also described it as “different” to last season thanks to the club’s fortunes in the League so far. On this he said:
“We’re happy because we’re working well and things are coming right for us.”
“The team spirit is different to last season. When you start well everything is good, everyone is happy. It’s different. We’ll find out more when we have some bad times.
But now the spirit is fantastic. We have some good people in the changing room and I think that’s the key for us to keep winning and playing well.”
A sterner test may come when the Magpies face Tottenham Hotspur, who have looking threatening since getting over a dissapointing start in the Premier League, which saw them fall to bad defeats against Manchester’s United and City. They have won all of their Premier League games since including a comprehensive 4-0 demolition of Liverpool. Another sticky patch may come when the Magpie’s face a terrible trio of games against Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea in succession from the 19th November onwards. (more…)
And the winner is...The goalposts are down, the World Cup is just around the corner, and the summer sun will soon be upon us. Yes it’s the end of the season, so what better time to announce the NUFCblog.org Player of the Season result?
It has been down to you, the reader, to decide the destination of this much coveted award. It’s only fair that we are the ones to pass judgement on how a player has played for us throughout the season, we know much more than the experts anyway. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that the winner of this award, as voted for by you and with 28% of the final vote is….. Jose Enrique.
I’m sure he is ecstatic knowing that he is now the proud owner of our coveted award, but as yet I have been unable to track down the Spaniard to ask him how he is feeling at what must be an emotional and triumphant time for him. Unfortunately he will have to wait to be presented with the widely respected trophy although I can give everyone an update on the progress of it’s construction. I can reveal that the finishing touches are being applied and all I need now to finish the trophy off are some nails, glue and some tin-foil. And to think my mother never rated Blue Peter and wondered why I used to watch it as a child, who’s laughing now eh mother? (more…)
Has been Fab-ulous this season!Here I continue with the second of four installments of my player reviews for the title winning season just gone.
Last time out we had at look at how our goalkeepers had been getting on throughout the season, which was pretty easy by all accounts as there isn’t that many of them. Now we step up the difficulty and broaden our review to feature our whole defence and look at how they have performed this season. The back four has been a very strong area for us this season, a strange thing for a Newcastle fan to say following year after year of shabby backlines that nobody really seemed to be able to sort out. Granted we may have been playing against weaker opposition, but we have come out on top of them, miles on top in fact and we head to the Premier League with best defensive record in The Championship safely in the bag. I know we have had loan players in the shape of Patrick van Aanholt, Fitz Hall and Zhurab Khizanishvilli but I am going to discount them for this as they aren’t technically our players and only really played a handful of games for us. (more…)
Part of the Fab four!It’s that time of the season where awards start getting dished out, both to recognise personal achievements and team achievements throughout the season.
We have already had Kevin Nolan named as the Championship Player of the Year, but last night it was time to announce the PFA Championship Team of the Year. The PFA awards were held at a glittering ceremony in London, and whilst Wayne Rooney must be pleased to have walked of with the PFA Player of the Year award, it doesn’t really interest me so much. What does interest me is the Championship Team of the year, which turns out features four players from Newcastle United this season. They are Fabricio Coloccini (as pictured), Jose Enrique, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll. (more…)
