Respected player?Since joining Newcastle United from Mallorca, Jonas Gutierrez has been an almost permanent fixture in the side. But has he finally earned the respect of that fans?
Jonas started his career with Argentina’s Vélez Sársfield as a youth in 1999 and he moved into first team in 2001. He stayed with Vélez for 99 games, winning the title with them in 2005 before moving to Mallorca for just over £3m after the title-winning season. Jonas bought himself out of his contract with Mallorca to join us in July 2008 and there was something of a furore after that with Mallorca demanding £13.2m off us in ‘compensation’. The dispute went to a FIFA hearing in the end and Mallorca settled for an undisclosed – but much lower – fee thought to be somewhere between £2.5m and £5m.
He slotted fairly quickly into our left midfield position and he’s more or less been there ever since. He did play a couple of matches at left-back for us and for his country he has often played at right-back, particularly under Maradona who one described his team selection policy as “Mascherano, Messi, Jonas and eight more“. (more…)
Has been a key player for us.Having already taken a look at our goalkeepers and defenders, the focus for the next edition of our player review moves up the pitch again to see how our midfield have performed throughout the season.
It’s been a strange position for us this year. On one hand, some say the midfield has been our achilles heel, it lacks mobility and creativity. On the other hand though, it has been a position that has yielded a return of 30 goals from the season. Without checking, that is probably a damn sight more than what we have had in return from the past few seasons. Of course 17 of them have come from Kevin Nolan which has helped improve that figure, but despite the criticism that has been aimed at them from time to time they have chipped in with their fair share of assists aswell. After all, strikers need service from somewhere, right? (more…)
Video highlights of Newcastle United’s 4-1 victory over Blackpool at St James’s Park yesterday.
Features the goals from Jonas Gutierrez (with mask), Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan, Wayne Routledge and finally, a consolation goal from Blackpools Brett Ormerod. (more…)
Chris Hughton: The sixth manager to gain promotion for NUFC.On the event of Newcastle United’s promotion to the Premier League, I decided to take a look at some of the statistics of Newcastle United’s season in the Coca Cola Championship, and here are some of the results.
Chris Hughton is the sixth manager in Newcastle United’s history to acheive promotion into the top tier of English football. The first was Frank Watt and the Newcastle United Selection Committee of 1892-1929. Watt was the longest serving and most successful manager in Newcastle United’s history, though his teams were selected by commitee. The full list is below.
1897-8: Frank Watt and the Newcastle United Selection Committee 1947-8: George Martin 1965-66: Joe Harvey 1983-84: Arthur Cox 1993-4: Kevin Keegan 2009-10: Chris Hughton (more…)
Looking and feeling a little rusty in the middle?The previous 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.
Today’s review 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. Our midfield this season has been very much part of a strong defensive ethos, and while we have grafters in there, we’re also lacking some natural creativity and pace.
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 a la 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…)
