Taylor: Muckraking hypocrite.Football’s most risible muckraker, The Guardian’s North East football correspondent, Louise Taylor, has declared war on football supporters with computers who have the nerve to queer her own pitch; spreading specious tittle tattle and general nastiness about virtually anyone associated with Newcastle United football club.
Obviously distressed by the competition, her latest piece of astoundingly hypocritical venom is entitled “Blog standard lies in the gutter”. It concentrates on Louise’s latest hobby horse, the alleged incident between Andy Carroll and Steven Taylor and also a recent rumour about Aston Villa’s manager, Martin O’Neill which have allegedly been doing the rounds on Aston Villa sites recently. I’ll leave that section for the Villa fans to get furious about, and concentrate on the latest chapter of Taylor’s hateful screed about Newcastle United, it’s staff and it’s supporters.
After casually describing football supporters (her own readers) and the ‘web as an “increasingly noxious mix” who should have their fingers taped together every time they go near a keyboard, she then smears us all by association with the tags of racism and homophobia. As she has in all her stories in the past few weeks, she then moves on to her own latest smear story, which she simply will not shut up about, her mischief making about the “ALLEGED altercation” between Andy Carroll and Steven Taylor. In what could be a remarkably accurate description of her own jaundiced drivel, she rants: (more…)
This empty space needs filling!It was a little under a year ago now back in May of last year when my world caved in. After bearing witness to probably the most gutless and feeble excuse for a performance from a Newcastle team I have probably ever witnessed, we were relegated amid the jeers and cheers of fans around the country. Uncertainty remained around the club, what was going to happen? Would we ‘do a Leeds’? Virtually everyone had the knives out for us. However many numbers of different factors contributed to our relegation didn’t matter, the one thing most of us thought is that the future looked less than rosey.
Fast forward 11 months and things now seem different. The smiles have returned and the feel good factor has been creeping back, a feel good factor that came to head on Monday evening as Newcastle announced their return to the Premier League at the first time of asking in front of a packed St James’ Park and a worldwide television audience.
Gone are the visits to Glanford Park, Bloomfield Road, London Road to be replaced with trips to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Anfield, venues for which we have now earned the right to play at. Amongst the mutual back-patting however there is still a job that can be done this season and the lads can put on hold the romantic thoughts of visiting those famous grounds whilst they finish the season in style and bring a deserved trophy to Tyneside. (more…)
All we care about is NUFC.Level 7 was undoubtedly in fine voice last night as the natives played their own part in Newcastle’s crucial victory over promotion hopefuls, Nottingham Forest. By the time Jose Enrique scored to make it 2-0, the appropriate volume which would have been fitting for such an occasion deserted me. I was so hoarse it came out as a whisper.
Each new ditty seemed to spread further and further round the ground, and when the last goal went in, the roof lifted off to ‘Jose’ ringing around the ground. And yet one song which has become less and less popular in recent weeks is the ‘Get out of our club’ song aimed squarely at our much-maligned owner, one Mike Ashley. This isn’t yet another excuse to dredge up the past because my feeling is that for now, supporters have almost, more or less, accepted an agreement to disagree on the current incumbent. Because not once did I hear the song being aired from my lofty perch, not even a whisper of it. The closest we got was the more neutral ‘All we care about is NUFC’ song. (more…)
Planning ahead?Turbulent. One word to describe the roller-coaster ride of Mike Ashley’s reign at Newcastle United. But with various reports cropping up about players that we are looking at and with the return of the scouting system that brought us the likes of Tamas Kadar, Haris Vuckic and Nile Ranger, could this be the signal that Mike Ashley is prepared to stick with Newcastle for the forseeable future?
Recent reports have suggested that the newest addition to the scouting network, Graham Carr, has been a busy bee and is already compiling a list of players that would improve the team should we secure what looks to be a likely promotion. Names such as Jamie O’Hara, Pablo Hernandez from Valencia, Getafe’s Juan Albin, Yohan Cabaye from Lille aswell as youngsters like Adama Diakite, have all been linked with us in recent weeks, and all of these players fit the criteria which Ashley himself has talked of implementing. (more…)
Llambias: Stiff defence.Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias has once again mounted a stiff defence of the club’s owner, Mike Ashley. He reiterated that the club has now moved well away from the ‘trophy’ signings of the Shepherd era, and more towards the development of younger talent. Llambias also raised the spectre of Portsmouth’s current financial situation as a warning once again, heavily hinting that Newcastle may have gone the similar way if the decadance of the Shepherd years were allowed to continue.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Llambias made comments on a this theme recently, and he he seems to be on some kind of ‘counter offensive’ on behalf of Mike Ashley, himself, and their current stewardship of Newcastle United. He elaborates further in this interview though, and he began by contrasting the old model with the new, saying:
“We have to take a realistic view. Hopefully we will be there (in the Premier League) and we will have to have a squad that will keep us there. But that needs to grow.”
Hinting at the decadence of the Shepherd years and many previous, poorly negotiated contracts for players, he went on: (more…)
