No Toon job this seasonAlan Shearer reveals that whilst he’d take the Newcastle United manager’s job today if it was offered, he’s prepared to get on with life in the interim.
With Barry Moat’s bid – or indeed anyone else’s bid – looking less likely to succeed as time goes on, Shearer’s chances of becoming Newcastle manager this season are fading. It looks like we’re stuck with the current regime for the moment and Shearer has been reflecting on this, saying:
“I can’t revolve my life around that any more because I have other things going on.”
The future Toon manager then touches on the philosophy of determinism, saying:
“If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Whatever has happened has happened. If anything else happens then it does – I will just get on with it.”
Which seems to me to be a clever rewording of Laplace’s Demon* – deep stuff indeed from the former number 9. After that philosophical interlude, Shearer goes on to praise Hughton, saying: (more…)
Ticketless Toon fans, 1974 - great hat!The Forest fixture against Newcastle United on Saturday brings to mind a bizarre group of matches between our two teams in 1974.
Following success in the earlier rounds, Newcastle United found themselves at home in the quarter finals of the FA cup in front of a crowd of 54,500 facing second division Nottingham Forest.
Excitement was at fever pitch as we were only a couple of games away from the final. The great unwashed of Sunderland had won the cup the previous year, so surely it was our turn to get out the daft hats, practise Abide with Me and take a trip down Wembley Way?
Our form leading up to that game had been poor, especially at home, so the writing seemed to be on the wall when we went behind in under 2 minutes. It didn’t get much better and we started the second half 2-1 down. Coming up to the hour mark, disaster struck when our big centre half Pat Howard was sent off for pushing the referee in the chest when disputing a penalty award. Forest scored and we found ourselves trailing 3-1. (more…)
Kadar - on standbySteven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini face late tests to prove their fitness for Newcastle United’s game against Forest this weekend.
Both players have been hit by hamstring injuries – Colocinni’s a few weeks ago and Taylor’s just recently – and Hughton has this to say about their chances of playing on the weekend:
“Steven has a hamstring problem, but we’re refusing to rule him out. We’ll see if we can get him involved with the main group first, and get him up and running before we rule him out of Saturday.
“Coloccini is probably up to about 90 per cent in the work he has been doing and is another one we are not prepared to rule out. Hopefully we will get him on the training pitch on Friday.”
Tamas Kadar is on standby in case he’s needed, with Hughton commenting thusly on the lad:
“Tamas has done very well for us,” Hughton told the Gazette. “He hasn’t had the opportunities he’d have liked, but he’s developing with each training session with the first team, and he’s very much part of that group now. He gives us valuable cover at centre-half and left-back.” (more…)
Hughton nonchalent about jobAs speculation mounts about Chris Hughton’s appointment as permanent Newcastle United manager, the man himself is chilled about the whole thing.
The caretaker manager said:
“I am very happy to do this job for as long as I am asked to do it.
“Speculation about my future is something that I have very much got used to. But that is not the important thing. The important thing is being able to focus on football matches and up until this stage we have been very much able to do just that.
“Any publicity like that is nice and always flattering but the only things we can really deal with are facts. We are where we are and until we are told anything different we just crack on as per normal.
“We are just getting into the campaign. We are a quarter of the way through it and we are enjoying the experience so far and we are learning more and more about this division with each and every game.
“It is very much about the team and that team is growing with each game. We have to maintain that. We will have to play three games in eight days and we know that the league position could change by the end of the week. There are nine points to play for and we have to very much stay focused on the job we are doing and make sure that we remain at the top end of the table.” (more…)
Next permanent manager?Nicky Butt has recently called for Chris Hughton to be made permanent manager of Newcastle United, but what are the options?
Apparently Derek Llambias will shortly be reviewing the positions of Hughton and Calderwood in light of our great start and Nicky Butt hopes that their positions are made permanent until the end of the season. Butt said:
“The team is showing there is belief here, and Chris and Colin deserve the job now.
“Hopefully they get it and that will mean we can all concentrate on the job in hand.
“People keep looking at us and say ‘they still haven’t got a proper manager’ even though Chris is acting manager.
“He’s not done anything wrong, but he hasn’t been named as boss.
“So it would be nice to see Chris get the job.”
Personally I don’t want to see a manager appointed ‘for the rest of the season’ – I’d rather see someone appointed for 3-5 years. The frequent changes of manager have been one of Newcastle’s main problems and one of the reasons why we were relegated last season. We need to get away from this short-termism. (more…)
