For many seasons Newcastle United fans have been urging owner Mike Ashley to splash the cash during the transfer window, and they finally got their wish in January 2019. The Magpies splurged on Atlanta United playmaker, Miguel Almiron, with the lively Paraguayan commanding a club-record fee of £21 million. He’s made an impressive start to life on Tyneside, with his work rate and productivity immediately endearing him to the Geordie faithful. He’s certainly helped Rafa’s men look sharper in the final third, but how does Almiron’s impact compare to the club’s previous record-signings? (more…)
“Newcastle fans, following my Football Focus interview, plenty of you tweeting me saying you don’t blame me for getting injured but for leaving when we got relegated.”
“Despite the club saying they did, they didn’t ever offer me a new contract despite them putting it in the press that they did. How could they when they had just been relegated? It would have been financial suicide. I’ve seen it a million times, a club will blatantly lie to their fans to take the moral high ground leaving the player with no leg to stand on. I’ve taken the stick for years which is fine but you really don’t know half of it. All will be revealed one day.”
Tweeted Michael Owen on his final season at Newcastle United. Then however, he backtracked somewhat, updating his Twitter with the following:
“Just to clarify. My tweet yesterday referred to no contract offer after Newcastle relegation. Which I said was understandable. Newcastle did make me an offer to extend in 2008 when Joe Kinnear was manager. Apologies to the club if there has been any confusion. I just didn’t want the fans to think I had deserted the club after relegation. I didn’t.” (more…)
It’s been a turbulent 12 months for Newcastle United, but after a season in the second tier we can now once again, ahem, look forward to the regular visits of Manchester United, Chelsea and all the rest.
It took some luck, some balls of steel, a bit of skill and many more factors to click into place all at once for us to secure promotion, but in the end it was very much a case of mission accomplished as Newcastle pretty much blew the rest of the Championship away.
Newcastle are back in the big time, back where it can be argued that a club with infrastructure and fanbase we have belongs, and we also have the chance to get back at those players who left us, the ones who got asked to shape up or ship out after that 6-1 pre-season defeat to Leyton Orient last season. That is not to say that I blame them for leaving, not one bit in fact, and I believe that those players leaving was the catalyst behind this new found team spirit that we keep hearing about. Having said that, it’s still always nice to get one over on your old colleagues, even Jose Enrique admitted recently he would be itching to do just that. So with that in mind, just what have they been up to whilst Newcastle have been away? Do we have anything to worry about from our former players? (more…)
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…)
Steven Taylor has been speaking out again, this time to reassure the fans that the off-field problems have actually brought the team closer together. According to Sky Sports he said:
“The fans at this moment probably think the club is a shambles and the players haven’t got a clue what is going on. They probably think we are fighting in training.
“But with us, it is completely different and I just wish they could even spend one day just looking at the training ground and the way we are going on with each other.
“It’s a much better team-bonding.”
Yesterday’s Sunday People carries an article about how Michael Owen feels like a 21 year old again now that he’s playing with Manchester United. (more…)