Our magnificent support.It’s an easy thing to say, especially when your view is a little biased, like mine for example, but Newcastle do seem to still have a bit of pulling power about them.
It would have been easy to lose it after our season out of the top flight. It would have been easy to lose it after all of the shenanigans of the last few years, yet still that pulling power remains.
Players still recognise Newcastle, they know all about St James’ Park, all about our fans, Alan Shearer, Bobby Robson and so on. Those are all things that won’t be forgotten by just having one year away from the top flight of English football. (more…)
How do the new rules affect us?Newcastle United’s return to the big time has coincided with the launch of a new set of rules that all clubs in the top flight must adhere to.
I am of course talking about the new ‘home-grown’ and ’25 man squad’ rules that come into force this season. But how does it affect Newcastle?
Well let’s start off by looking at the rules themselves. The intention is to nudge clubs in the direction of nurturing youth players rather than buying established ones all the time, although whether it works or not is something that will only become clear over time. It wont stop clubs going abroad to buy top youngsters, but it should stop clubs from warehousing them.
Basically, a squad can name a 25 players in their squad for the league season, and of those 25 players, eight of them must be ‘home-grown’. A home grown player is a player, of any nationality or age, that has spent 36 months registered with an English or Welsh club between the ages of 16 and 21. (more…)
Gattuso - Toon target? Nee chance!In amongst the realistic speculation there have been some pearlers over the course of the summer, and that doesn’t look like it is going to end soon as silly season really does begin to swing into action.
Earlier I wrote about Sol Campbell, which seems like a pefectly reasonable acquisition and wouldn’t be out of place. But some of the other names mentioned this Sunday just make me laugh. One of those names is AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso and the other is Real Madrid’s Mahamadou Diarra. You just have to laugh don’t you?
In a funny way I preferred it when it was apparent that we didn’t have any money as all of the wild paper speculation disappeared. Now it seems the press mongs are back out in force, fuelled by our recent £1.2 million pund spending spree on James Perch and possible capture of free agent Dan Gosling, who incidentally could be announced next Friday as that would be the end of Everton’s 14-day appeal period. (more…)
Hughton - Can he cut? Maybe he can...After a brief flurry of transfer activity and rumour on the Newcastle front, things seem to have settled down a bit.
Dan Gosling, as yet, hasn’t signed, and our players have been away for a week training in Ireland. Obviously this has meant that Chris Hughton has been away with them as he tries to whip his troops into shape in preapration for the new season.
The knives are out for Newcastle, again, and amazingly it is some of our own fans who are ready to stick the blade in if we falter. Despite claims from Danny Guthrie the other day, which suggested that the players will be ignoring the critics, there is no doubt that it will end up cranking up the pressue on the players over time, and it will probably be Chris Hughton who will pay the ultimate price if things do start to get out of hand. That price will likely be his job, but is he good enough to avoid that situation arising in the first place? (more…)
Newcastle need backup for these two.At the moment, all the rumours seem to be surrounding players such as Dan Gosling and Tom Cleverley.
The problem for me is that both of those are midfield players, and in my opinion we should be making signing a striker a priority. Now it’s only speculation surrounding those two players, but they are both tipped to move to Newcastle soon if you believe what you read in the press.
That is all very good and what not, but what happens at the business end of the pitch? Who is going to put the ball in the back of the net? We need to score goals to survive in the Premier League. Do I have faith in the players that we have at the minute being able to do that? Yes and no is my answer, which is obviously confusing so let me explain a bit more. (more…)
