Category: Newcastle

I Always Rated William Prunier

DURING pre-Christmas week I was in hospital. I had my ankle broken and fused in three places at a right angle and a tendon moved from one side of my foot to the other. I got out of hospital at 10pm the day before Christmas eve, the paramedic transport forgot about me, I went to my parents’ house and I spent 5 days being babied by my Mum. I have had better months.

But Manchester United’s form over the same period, now THAT was painful.

In Europe and on the home front we have been getting spanked harder than a politician in a dungeon with a safe word.

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They Ruined My Headline

“Newcastle United are a massive club. Not in terms of success but they are a massive club.”

A Newcastle United fan shows that they aren’t in fact deluded.

  SOMETIMES the team that has just lost their manager play their first game without him like they should have done when he was there. I have to admit, this was not strictly what happened today as we faced Newcastle, though for forty five minutes when the red United tried and failed to make the breakthrough, I did wonder if they would eventually have the last laugh. Newcastle United’s team had a strangely familiar look to it with Nicky Butt and Alan Smith in midfield. Nicky Butt seems to have gone through an on off love affair with the Newcastle fans and it seems they finally may now be taking to him. Although the Toon Army are a funny lot so maybe acceptance isn’t on the cards for Butty just yet, but they should admit that he does a job for them.    ”If you ignore the chances Manchester United had during the game, it easily could have been a draw!”

Given to Score  hero Alan Smith was back at Old Trafford. He got a well deserved welcome from the Manchester United faithful. They will always be grateful for the blood shed for the Old Trafford cause by that man, and many were sorry to see him go but football is like that and old loyalties were forgotten fairly quickly on both sides. The result makes the look one sided and in the second half it was, but that was only after chances galore failed to find the net. How Wayne Rooney did not bag a goal today is a question which he may still be asking himself. How the home team were not awarded at least one of the two stone wall penalties we could have had, is a question which Rob Styles can ask himself. We certainly asked him from our seats, along with the hail of words which I cannot repeat, I have a picture of my impressionable little brother in my wallet and familes read this website!  Steven Taylor certainly left his leg their for Ronaldo in the first instance, the Newcastle defender can be happy with his performance today when you consider that he was in the right place for goal line clearances in the second half. There were very few plus points for the visitors today and he was the only player to go and salute the visiting pogoing Newcastle United fans at the end of the game. Maybe another who would have applauded was Alan Smith, had he been on the pitch at the time.

Continue reading “They Ruined My Headline”

Newcastle Down Stale

YET again this season Manchester United met an opposition just after they had seen fit to rid themselves of a manager. Previously, Jose Mourinho departed Chelsea before his team came to Old Trafford, and now we met Newcastle United without Sam Allardyce.  Newcastle United fans have requested that fans of other clubs keep themselves to themselves and leave the opinions on the St James’ Park club, to those who know them best – the fans. They believe that Newcastle United are a special breed, a team apart and that during bad times they can be left alone to lick their wounds.

I don’t remember such ‘leave us to it’ reactions during the mid nineties when they were apparently Sky Sports’ favourite team and they were gunning for the title. They wanted all the attention then.  Everyone else has an opinion on the Newcastle debate and I will leave it alone once I have made three points. Sam Allardyce seemed to get the job at St James Park for working on a shoe string at Bolton, but also working out what the team’s strengths were and playing to those. It is perhaps then a little naïve to think that with a supposedly bigger club, he would change his ideas on how to play. Eventually Newcastle seemed to fight for free kicks and lump the ball from back to front. It was this display at Bolton that got him the Newcastle United job and it was the fear of this happening to the Toon army that meant he was never a fan favourite, apart from the opening day when they loved him. 

Newcastle United fans seem to be the most deluded ones in the league. They believe that simply because they haven’t had success or won trophies since the abacus was the hip new must-have product, that they deserve it. They do not. By that reckoning Bury FC deserves to win the European Cup this season. They believe they are special because even though they constantly disappoint their ever so demanding fans, fifty thousand of them turn up every week to see the poor show. THAT is loyalty, I will give them that. The fact that they are in essence a one club city has nothing to do with it, obviously.  As a side note it is worth remembering that the year United were in the second tier, Old Trafford saw the league’s highest attendances of the season. Newcastle United did not write the book on still supporting a football team during dark days. 

Finally, Alan Shearer is a clever man. It is very unlikely he will come anywhere near the manager’s job at the current time because I suspect he knows the task of steadying the ship is beyond him. Without experience, it is. Even those with experience are not dying to take the job. If Alan Shearer took it now and failed he would be yet another legend that returns to his old stomping ground, flatters to deceive and leaves the team and his reputation with the fans in a bad state. If Alan Shearer really thinks about it, the best time for him to ride in on a white horse and save the day would be following the Geordies’ relegation. Then the Shearer day can truly dawn! If Newcastle stop thinking that they are any kind of sleeping giant, they may have a chance. They are a small club with high expectations that they have no real right to possess.  If they accept that they are in trouble and need a manager who is good at that style of management, rather than the big name they demand then they can start to turn the corner. Unfortunately for them, they came to Old Trafford to underline the latest dark period in their history.

Today’s result can see them end that chapter and move on.