Butt InjuredAfter just a couple of friendlies we’ve picked up our first injury of the season. According to the official club site, Nicky Butt will be out for 4 weeks and will have a hand operation to repair the partially dislocated thumb he received during the Darlington game. This of course means he’ll miss the start of the season.
I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. We seem to have had a particularly injury-prone squad in recent seasons and I was beginning to wonder whether that’s just down to bad luck or whether there’s something wrong with the training / physio regime.
According to The Chronicle, the players have been told that they can expect Hughton to be in charge for the start of the season, which is no real surprise given the way things seem to be dragging on. The article also suggests that the Malaysian consortium that was recently given a tour of St James’ Park has fallen by the wayside, although I’m not sure how The Chronicle knows that because all that Ashely’s PR man had to say on matters was: “we can’t give out anything on the record“. (more…)
Bobby Robson: Messiah? Or very naughty boy? As NUFC fans we are living in tumultuous times. The club is a mess from top to bottom, the fans are in disarray and we are about to start our first season outside top flight football for 16 years.
Here, I will attempt to disseminate all the chaos that is surrounding the club and show you the exact point where it all went wrong and the one single person who is to blame for all this. Although the tabloid style headline may give you a clue as to where I’m going with this, please, keep reading you might be surprised.
First of all let me take you back to 1992. Suede were playing at the Riverside, A second laser tattoo removal ward opened at the Freeman hospital and in February of that year a certain Osvaldo Ardiles was still manager of Newcastle United Football Club. Before the end of February he would be replaced by a Mr. Kevin Keegan. At the time I remember being more shocked than elated. Here was Keegan, a footballer I’d admired when he played with FC Hamburg, a legend at St James Park and the person who allowed me to see a helicopter up close for the first time ever, coming to manage my football club. Along with Sir John Hall now firmly on board nothing could go wrong. We were saved!
By the end of March Keegan had walked out. Bugger. (more…)
