Nolan: Not gannin' says agent.In the wake of recent Mirror rumours linking Toon midfielder, Kevin Nolan with a return to Bolton, Nolan’s manager, Mark Curtis has come out and said that Kevin is happy at Newcastle, and relishing the chance to fight for a return to the Premiership. Curtis told the mighty Shields Gazette today:
“Kevin’s happy at Newcastle, and wants to help them get back into the Premier League,”
27 year old Nolan has been back in the goals this season, scoring twice in pre-season friendlies, contributing a goal in Newcastle’s last Championship encounter with Crystal Palace, and getting the crucial winner in the 84th minute of last night’s Carling Cup clash with Huddersfield Town.
Speaking of the nerve jangling confrontation with the ‘Udders, Nolan commented:
“It felt very nice to get the winner. It’s always great to get a two-yard tap in, and Shola did fantastically for me.
“I’m delighted to get on the scoresheet again. Hopefully, it’ll continue – not just my goal streak, but the winning streak. That’s the main thing – we’re all delighted with the win.
“You always enjoy it more when you win like that. We could have made it a bit easier for ourselves, but we’re just delighted to be in the next round.” (more…)
Bale - possible loan target? Apparently Gary Megson wants to take Kevin Nolan back to Bolton, or at least that’s what The Mirror is saying. We paid Bolton £4m for the midfielder in January and his £40k/week wages might be seen as reason enough to let him go in the current phase of cost-cutting at the Toon.
I wasn’t particularly impressed with Nolan’s contributions to the team last season but this season he looks much better, although I admit that’s probably to be expected now that we’re down a league. Nolan has even scored a couple this season, including the winning goal in last night’s 4-3 romp against Huddersfield (for which we have match reports here and here).
It’s not all bad news though because the BBC claimed last night that Gareth Bale could be on his way to Newcastle from Spurs. When we sold them Bassong it was rumoured that one or two loan signings from Spurs were on the cards and this could be one of them.
The Welsh under-21 international made his professional debut for Southampton in 2005-06 and scored 5 goals in 45 games before transferring to Spurs in May 2007. Bale usually plays as either a left back or left winger, so he could be seen as a replacement for either Enrique or Jonas if either should be sold this season. (more…)
Nolan strikes again.I didn’t realise that I’ be travelling up from London to SJP to cover this match, so it was all a bit of a rush, and I felt a little disoriented to find myself back inside the mothership at such short notice after some time away. Observations on my return were that the mighty SJP can be a bit of a big, echoey barn when there isn’t a huge crowd in there, though of course, 20,000 plus (a rough guesstimate) is of course more than respectable for a Championship team in a midweek Carling Cup match. Returning old boy and ‘Udders manager, Lee Clark got a friendly reception as expected, and things seemed to be happy enough at this stage.
Nee Stevie Tayla, not even on the bench was the word when the teams trotted out, though the also absent Collocini received less mention, despite a decent performance last time out. The crowd sounded in fairly good voice anyway, despite the stadium being half empty. I was looking forward to having a look at Kadar again, in what was to be his debut start, along with wor Kazenga LuaLua. The much anticiapted young Slovenian destroyer, Haris Vuckic, who was rumoured to be playing a role tonight, was only on the bench though apparently. On a gossipy note, the latest ownership candidates, Barry Moat and latecoming Uncle Fester-a-like, Graham Sheard, didn’t seem to be in attendance this evening. (more…)
Oh Danny Boy!Well that was a bit drab then! I don’t think anybody expected that sort of entertainment but Newcastle ran out 4-3 winners against Huddersfield Town in a pulsating Carling Cup game after coming from 3-1 down to put us in the Third Round draw.
With old boy Lee Clark was back in toon, his side were also in tune as both teams gave the supporters value for money. As predicted Hughton gave some of the youngsters their debuts and that probably gave Huddersfield more opportunity as the new-look team tried to gel early on.
Having taken the lead on the half hour through Guthrie, Newcastle went 3-1 down but with the grit and resolve we sorely lacked last season coming from the current squad this season, we fought back with goals from Geremi, an Ameobi pen and then although Nolan seems to have been awarded it, he and Shola may fight it out for that honour as Nolan appeared just to help his header over the line for the winner.
So this is more like the character we’ve been looking for, albeit against slightly inferior opposition but they were there to beaten and they still gave us a scare. However, as John Anderson mentioned on Radio Newcastle, we’ve got back into the habit of winning and that’s crucial. To have a team that doesn’t know it’s beaten is a valuable thing and it seems that’s how we are at the moment. (more…)
Bassong fined, but leaving anyway.According to The Chronicle, Bassong has been fined two weeks wages for his failure to travel to Dundee for last weekend’s friendly. Hughton had previously stated that Bassong wouldn’t have featured in the game anyway because he’s serving a ban for the West Brom trip and Hughton wanted to field a team against Dundee that was as close as possible to the one he intends to field for our opening league game.
To be honest I can see both sides of this: Bassong is obviously frustrated by things at Newcastle – perhaps particularly in relation to any transfer he might want – but as of right now he’s contracted to Newcastle United and should behave professionally and in accordance with his manager’s wishes.
Anyway, The Mail claims that all this has moved Bassong’s exit closer and that he has a preference for Spurs over Man City. (more…)
