Looking and feeling a little rusty in the middle?Yesterday’s review of the current squad, took a look at the Newcastle defence, an area that this season we’ve been surprisingly strong in, given our poor reputation in recent years.
Tonight looks at arguably the fulcrum of a successful team, the midfield, the place that could and should control a game and dictate the style of play. That doesn’t bode well for our side at the moment because arguably, we have a midfield full of players who are very similar and lack pace. Therefore, the pace is often pedestrian and the game often goes stale.
Looking at the current crop, it really makes you pine for some of our former midfielders who have graced the hallowed St James’ turf in the last couple of decades. Reminisce about the grace of French wingers David Ginola and Laurent Robert. Recall the guts, determination and drive of Robert Lee and Gary Speed. Consider the guile we had in Emre, albeit fleetingly, and the sheer brilliance of Nobby Solano. Even having pure pace ala James Milner, Keith Gillespie to worry the opposition. You can even look at some of the less popular characters. We would kill for the pace of Kieron Dyer and dare I say, I could forgive Jermaine Jenas. Possibly even Damien Duff is a big miss? Maybe that’s stretching it…..
Anyway, that was the past, what about the present? – (more…)
Isn't it?Well it’s been a busy news day for Newcastle United fans today…….
Literally nothing of note to write up about except for a slightly tardy mention of Barton’s belated ‘olive branch’ to Alan Shearer, after his admission that there was a falling out. More on the story and Joey’s quotes can be found here, but frankly despite my initial support have some of his misdemeanours I think I’ve had enough of him.
Why does he have to keep admitting his mistakes and making his apologies? Because he keeps ****ing up. He has not yet offered enough on the pitch to outweigh the damage he’s done to our reputation, for acts either before we bought him or during his spell here. At times, he’s single-handedly dragged our name through the mud.
In other news, former Newcasle great (ahem) John Barnes has been sacked by Tranmere along with pal Jason McAteer. While our other favourite ex-player Michael Owen has been invited to join the England squad as a guest of Fabio Capello. Obviously he’s mixing with the right crowd these days. (more…)
“You learn to understand the reaction but if you do step back, you think it is strange or unfair.
“When you are being relegated, nobody is interested in listening to you. But I knew it was all to do with me not scoring.
“If you don’t score and you don’t win, you are wrong to have a helicopter and fly home each week to see your kids. You are wrong to have a business outside of football. You are wrong to plan for the future.
“If the goals had been going in I would have been a great lad, popping home to see my three kids and be a family man on a Tuesday after training. I would have been thoughtful and innocent little things would not be misrepresented.”
Well as far as I’m concerned Owen’s missing the point. His lack of scoring might have been due to the fact that he wasn’t getting the service from a poor midfield but what about his disinterested attitude? Or the fact that as Captain he said little about any responsibility he felt for us being relegated and just cleared off as fast he could to play Champions League football while leaving us to rot in the Championship. (more…)
Joey Barton: Should he stay? Or should he go?Should he stay or should he go?
OK enough of the song titles….
Joey Barton, where to start? Forget his misdemeanours. Forget his unreliable temperament. Forget how little he’s actually played for us. OK, so that’s pretty difficult. Point being, can we afford to ignore these pressing issues and yet conversely can we afford not to? Is a man we paid dearly for in transfer fees and wages and arguably even more so in damaging publicity, really worth it? Let me begin by saying that once upon time I was a supporter of Mr Barton. I was lured by his obvious intelligence and articulation when speaking. I was accepting of his apparent remorse for past and present misdemeanours. I have since however, in addition to taking a continued disliking to him, decided that this is something we’ll forever make a loss on, one way or another.
