The Silly (Mid) Season

So its six players we want according to Souness and the papers say we have bid £ 18 m for Owen. Is it me or is it just coincidence that it is season ticket renewal time? And you know we will end up with Yacubu (or some other name I cannot spell!!), Johnson or Smith or... But not Owen (as in not Rooney) And the Chronic will have a name-a-night rumour on transfers untill they get it right and say "we told you so". Surely one out of every 100 names is bound to be right sometime. Lets all play that game. Names please...

End of Term Report Part 2

Dyer – plenty of fight in him. From a footballing point of view got better as the season went on. Off field activities – ask Souness – 7/10 – keep him.
Boyer – see above re footballing point of view and Sounesses thoughts. 7/10 – keep him.
Faye – jury is still out on him. Flatters to deceive but may be too early to tell. 6/10 – keep him.
Butt – again coming from a successful club how does he motivate himself. Started season as best player until injured and wasn’t the worst at Cardiff. Give him another season as he can be class. 5/10 – keep him.
Robert – where would we be if he didn’t score from free kicks and put in some wonderful crosses for others to score? When he plays well the team plays well. But too inconsistent – 5/10 - if there is an offer take it.
Jenas – England class – my aaa….aunt. Two poor seasons now and hasn’t developed. Too negative and not a Speed type player – 3/10 - if there is an offer take it.
Milner – young and may do better but we haven’t seen this Leeds “wonder kid” yet. May develop but early signs are not good. Just a squad player. 4/10 –keep him.
Ambrose – see above but for Leeds read Ipswich 4/10 – keep him.
N’Zogbia – too early to tell but looks useful more as a substitute rather than class first team player. Just a squad player -5/10 – keep him.
Kluivert – not worth the Euros we pay him. May be class but we haven’t seen it or any commitment. 2/10 – move him on.
Ameobi – how he gets a place I will never know. Well maybe I do cos all the others are crap or naughty. Too anonymous. May be good at Darlington – 2/10 - if there is an offer take it.
Shearer – the text message was true. Past his best, no legs no speed, but can tell he was class. Just a target man. Retire now Alan and leave us with good memories. Am I the only one saying this about Statuesque Shearer? 3/10 - please retire.

Souness – better than Robson and better at playing footy rather than Robson's “hit the ball long to Shearer” tactics. Robson had to go. Some times good passing as a team but overall needs to learn to get the team moving so that the player with the ball has options to pass to and to learn to play the ball to a man facing their goal rather than facing ours with an opponent on his back.

Bellamy and Viana – bye, bye.

End of Term Report Part 1

End of (school) term report.

Given – best man by far in the season but even he has made mistakes. 8/10 – keep him
Harper – who can tell as he hardly ever plays. How does he stay there with his talent and doing nowt. n/a – keep him.
Carr - Steady but not spectacular. Needs to learn how to close down opponents and cross a ball. 7/10 – keep him.
Hughes – just a squad player who hasn’t developed steel and who cannot pass 4/10 – if there is an offer take it.
Boumsong – looks promising but too early to tell. Tends to go walkabout. 7/10 – keep him.
O’Brien – past his best and slow and gets caught out of position. Lost at times. 3/10 – if there is an offer take it.
Bramble – has youth on his side but oh those errors. Needs to learn many things but ball distribution definitely a plus point. 5/10 – keep him.
Babayaro – to early to say but needs to realise he needs to commit more and get stuck in. It’s the danger of buying from a “big” club when he has seen some success where is his motivation 6/10 – keep him.
Elliott – just a squad player with no special attributes and not a class defender – 5/10 - if there is an offer take it.

More to come…

Would you believe it

Despite my best efforts I still cannot get my mate to post a message

I do not believe it!

Psst! Which Premiership club has stopped providing academy team members with packed lunch when travelling to away games?

Newcastle United in chaos

Yet another apology from a Newcastle United player. I've had enough of the idiots who think that they can behave as they wish, either on or off the field, and then offer a statement to the press as an apology. Butt apologises for doing a runner down the Cardiff tunnel without acknowledging the fans. The Truth is that if his performance on the field was genuine the fans wouldn't give a toss whether he waved bye bye or not. Now they just want him to bye bye on a permanent basis
The Evening Chronicle even suggested that part of Butt's problem is that he is playing with poor players. Typical for them to find an excuse. He cannot even pass the ball to a player with the same strip on his back. The sooner he's down the road the happier I'll be. I reckon a mini bus could be booked to take them all to the airport.

Newcastle United 1 Manchester United 4

Yet one more humiliation for the Newcastle United fans. When will it end?
I reckon we have come to the end of the 'lets stick together' phase and entered the deadwood clearance period
The obvious candidates Kluivert, Robert, and Butt. How any management team expect the other NUFC team members to 'die for the badge' with that lot swanning about contributing only to the opposition is beyond me.
Now that we shall be starting a new season without either the money or the attraction to new employees of European matches, it remains to be seen who will come to Newcastle United . I reckon this is when we shall see the true metal of Freddie. I hope he proves my instincts wrong and comes up with some real money for real footballers. I know there is a dread that we will drift towards a team of grafters without skill, but until we install some grit we are likely to remain, what we are at the moment, which is a lower half of the Premiership team.

After Lisbon

UEFA Cup quarter final second leg
Sporting Lisbon 4 Newcastle United 1 (agg4-2)
What a disappointment tonight. I really believed Newcastle United were in for an aggregate win especially when we saw the way in which Dyer was opening up their defence. It could have been so different with the number of scoring chances we spurned. The resurfacing of the familiar problems at the back, particularly the lack of physical challenge against the Lisbon headers, meant there would only be one outcome.
This game could so easily have been won with an average degree of control in defence and midfield defensive work. NUFC seemed to be able to win the ball only for slack distribution to undo the good work
Souness now has his work cut out, deprived of Bellamy, Robert, Dyer, Bowyer all as a result of self inflicted quarantine, and not just for Cardiff.

The big week

Well, I have just managed to get this site up and running with a few minutes to go before the kick off with Lisbon. Having just read about our Frenchman mouthing off again it makes me wonder what planet he thinks he is on. Maybe there is'nt a translation for teamspirit or am I being naive?
Well OK then.