Welcome back to the Premier League, Newcastle

[Christmas Tree 3997]

Rob Kelly --- The Telegraph

 

On May 24, 2009, the death knell had seemingly sounded for Newcastle United. Facing an Aston Villa side with nothing to play for, the Toon’s 16-year stay in the Premier League ended in the tamest of fashions with a 1-0 defeat at Villa Park on the final day of a terrible season. Newcastle’s players were a disgrace, showing no fight and no passion for the black and white shirt that so may have worn with distinction down the years. The dark clouds hovering over St James’ Parkhad finally burst, and the club was expected to be washed away in a flood of anger, hostility and civil war.

 

But less than 12 months later, pride has been restored to Tyneside. Not only have Newcastle regained their Premier League status, but they have done so with a swagger. Shaped under the careful eye of Chris Hughton, the beginnings of a tentative rebuilding operation is taking place at St James’ Park. Stage one is complete, now to see if the North East’s most colourful and dramatic club can retain their place at English football’s top table. Talk of owner Mike Ashley suddenly opening his chequebook to lavish a £60million war chest on Hughton is naive, but with sensible investment (anathema in Tyneside in recent years) in the right areas, the club should be optimistic of re-establishing themselves in the Premier League once again.

 

Despite the widespread schadenfreude towards Newcastle last season, football fans should be welcoming the club back into the elite with open arms. Whatever you may think of their passionate fans, at least they fill their ground and make a noise. Matches at St James’ Park (average attendance this season is 42,335, in the Championship) are an event to be cherished. Better that than playing games in front of half empty stadiums at the likes of Wigan (average attendance 17,840).

 

What better club to add more colour, more frisson to an already entertaining Premier League than Newcastle? Whether they are engaged in open civil war with their owner, conducting 20-man brawls involving coaches and players or losing 6-1 in a pre-season friendly to Leyton Orient (and that’s just this season), Newcastle provide drama, and tons of it. Like them or loathe them, they provide endless talking points, both on the pitch and off it, and for that they should be celebrated.

 

We may be pleasantly surprised by them on the pitch, too. Hughton, derided by some because he is a quiet, thoughtful man who simply does not play the media game, has Newcastle playing attractive, passing football with an edge of steel. It is no mean feat to get out of the Championship at the first time of asking with so much time to spare, and it is all the more impressive when you consider that for much of the early part of the season the ownership crisis threatened to overwhelm the club. Hughton, a man previously seen as a perennial No 2, has proved himself a shrewd, calm manager able to unify a shattered club. Given a summer of planning and an enhanced transfer budget, he now has the opportunity to take Newcastle a further step forward.

 

But that can wait for now, until the celebrations in the North East die down. Newcastle have had plenty of dark days in their recent past, it is time to let them enjoy their day in the sun. Welcome back Newcastle, the Premier League has missed you.

 

[Christmas Tree 3997]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Asprilla 96]

 

 

 

[Christmas Tree 3997]

Louise Taylor

 

Newcastle band together to find their way home

 

Several months after arriving at Newcastle United from Villarreal José Enrique joined team-mates on a squad jolly in London. During the course of the day out the left‑back somehow became separated from his colleagues and their privately hired transport. Suddenly stranded, Enrique, who was perfectly sober, eventually made his disconsolate way across the capital to Kings Cross and returned to Tyneside alone by train.

 

Fast forward more than two years and the landscape has changed almost beyond recognition. Countless back pages were adorned with images of Enrique being swamped by affectionate team-mates after scoring the second goal in Newcastle's key home win over Nottingham Forest last Monday. Afterwards Chris Hughton's players queued up to express their admiration for the now hugely popular Spaniard.

 

Although the alleged altercation between Andy Carroll and Steven Taylor, which has left Taylor nursing a broken jaw serves as a reminder that life at St James' Park is not quite nirvana, that incident remains an isolated exception. When the squad socialise these days they do so en masse, and, should someone get lost, rescue missions are mounted.

 

Such new-found unity has been reflected on assorted Championship pitches and is largely responsible for Newcastle's Premier League return. Where once they routinely folded after falling behind, the class of 2009-10 rally to struggling colleagues' sides and, thanks to a tackle here and a word in the ear there, drag each other back into games.

 

This togetherness was forged during the long damp days of last summer when Newcastle were without a manager, up for sale and seemed so hopeless that Alan Shearer warned they were in peril of becoming "the new Leeds".

 

After a pre-season thrashing at Leyton Orient, there was an almighty dressing‑room row. Fingers were pointed but, when the air cleared, a siege mentality emerged.

 

No matter that the Championship campaign began with the nucleus of a theoretically decent starting XI – Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins, Damien Duff, Sébastien Bassong, Habib Beye, Mark Viduka – all departed. A new, powerful, players' committee was running a surprisingly harmonious changing room.

 

With David O'Leary rejecting an offer from Mike Ashley, Newcastle's owner, to take charge for £250,000 a year, Hughton then made a seamless transition from caretaker manager to Shearer's cutprice successor.

 

Giving power to Kevin Nolan, Alan Smith, Steve Harper and Nicky Butt, a man who as a Tottenham full-back had mixed in Trotskyite circles watched that 'Politburo' ensure his coaching drills and game plans were strictly adhered to.

 

Meanwhile the still left-leaning Hughton and the right-wing, brashly capitalist, Ashley formed an unexpectedly close union, their bond arguably deepened by mutual mistrust of the media. Whether this unlikely partnership endures over the long haul depends partly on whether Ashley – who took Newcastle off the market in mid-season – renews his efforts to sell up.

 

Without a change at the top it would be a shock if the modestly remunerated Hughton is replaced by Mark Hughes, Steve McClaren or AN Other. Even so, doubts persist as to whether his brand of dressing‑room democracy can continue succeeding. Will Hughton prove a strong enough man manager at the highest level? How might he invest an anticipated £20m transfer kitty?

 

Then there are the question marks against certain players. If Enrique and Harper look genuine Premier League quality, Nolan, Smith, Carroll, Fabricio Coloccini and Jonás Gutiérrez could conceivably be found wanting once again at elite level. Moreover Taylor's expected departure must surely weaken the defence.

 

If, as seems most likely, Ashley stays, he will increasingly eliminate the stratospheric wages which still see Coloccini and Joey Barton command around £70,000 a week. Indeed, rather like Willie Walsh at British Airways, Newcastle's owner is determined to hire a new "fleet". Significantly Ashley's lieutenants are on record as saying they will sign only players under 26 with potential resale value, earning no more than £25,000 a week.

 

While Walsh claims a cost-cutting plan can ensure his company's survival, Ashley is said to be convinced his club will never truly prosper until a brutal brand of "tough love" is fully implemented. Like BA passengers, Newcastle supporters should brace themselves for turbulence.

[Guest alex]

God, her articles are fucking dreadful.

[Christmas Tree 3997]

 

Brilliant

Edited April 6, 2010 by Christmas Tree

[AgentAxeman 82]

God, her articles are fucking dreadful.

 

 

+1

[Monroe Transfer 0]

Louise Taylor

 

Stopped reading there.

[Craig 6306]

Did she dream that opening paragraph last night or something?

 

Silly bitch!

[Christmas Tree 3997]

Some good video interviews here for anyone who missed them

 

http://www.skysports.com/video/clips/0,23791,16497,00.html

[sandman02uk 0]

Did she dream that opening paragraph last night or something?

 

Silly bitch!

 

All of her articles are appalling, i've yet to read anything from her about Newcastle United that is structured correctly or factually accurate

[Christmas Tree 3997]

George Caulkin

 

“Even if they go on to win the Championship and the European Cup, that 1992-93 season will be hard to top. It was all so new to everyone that anything that followed was never as exciting ... It was the season I will never forget.” Kevin Keegan, ‘My Autobiography’.

 

Supporters sang "Who the f*** are Man United", and Kevin Keegan served notice on Sir Alex Ferguson that Newcastle United were after their title. As their football team prepared to enter the recently-established FA Premier League, Tyneside felt fresh and young and unrestrained. With Keegan filling the role of Pied Piper, promotion had been a free-flowing, glorious procession.

 

Seventeen years on and the mood is different. While those outside the North East might point to Newcastle’s elevation as an exercise in dominance, the circumstances are different, the club is different and the atmosphere is different. Football is different. Fans have earned the celebrations which began in earnest last night - and this is still a city which loves a party - but triumphalism is absent.

 

With the chasm between the divisions widening, with money coalescing at the top of the table, no team can realistically expect to follow promotion by finishing third in the Premier League, as Keegan’s team did in 1994, but in any case, Newcastle’s story this season has not been about fantasy football or dreams. To be truly representative of their efforts, the history books should be streaked with sweat.

 

But, in its own way, it has been memorable, too; memorable for what it might have been but wasn’t, memorable for what it has evolved into. Just as in 1992, Newcastle were building from a low base, but back then Keegan had lifted the club away from oblivion and optimism was established. This time they were still gazing downwards, into a murky and dizzying abyss.

 

The first game of the season, at West Bromwich Albion, took place in the emotive aftermath of Sir Bobby Robson’s passing and, featuring two sides who had just slipped out of the Premier League, was an important staging post, but felt like judgment suspended. At home to Reading on August 15, collective breaths were again held; a 3-0 victory and a crowd of almost 37,000 brought release.

 

At the end of last week, this column put the question to Chris Hughton; was there a single moment when after all the off-field chaos of the summer, he had thought to himself that Newcastle would endure, that worst fears would be not realised. On face value, his answer was surprising, simply because the date he mentioned - November 2 - was so late, but then again, the club is still being weaned off uncertainty.

 

"The Sheffield United game away from home was a real big game for us because it showed we could go somewhere that's very tough and get a result,” Hughton said of Newcastle’s 1-0 win at Bramall Lane. “The team showed everything that day and had a real resilience not to get beaten. I knew we had a good squad on paper and I was generally happy with it.

 

"What we were up against were seasoned Championship teams used to the rigours of this division and going right through to the end. We started well in the first game of the season, which was probably one of the pinnacle games where everybody was looking at us to see how we were going to do, the body language of the players, how many of the players wanted to be there at that stage, because the transfer window hadn't closed.

 

"Most people were, I wouldn't say surprised by the endeavour shown that day, but I think they saw that day that this was a team that was prepared to have a real good go and one that could churn it out week-in, week-out. Some people may not have been expecting that. But against Sheffield United, we showed we had that bit of everything to really compete in this division and that was important.”

 

It was also, of course, the first match after Mike Ashley had removed Newcastle from the market for the second time, when an announcement had been made that naming rights for St James’ Park would be sold, when Hughton’s appointment was finally made permanent. It felt like another opportunity for seismic unrest to shake the club but, as they have done consistently, players and staff held firm.

 

They did the same over the Andy Carroll/Steven Taylor affair, about which there has still been no official comment and while the issues surrounding that episode and the fallout from it are debatable, Newcastle’s reaction (or, rather, non-reaction), to it, did at least fit into the ethos of their campaign. Heads down, no leaks, all in it together and disagreements are settled in the privacy of the changing-rooms.

 

Last season and prior to that, Newcastle leaked like a sieve. While that was manna to hacks and fed a craving for news from a club which was established in the public psyche as institutionally bonkers, it was also corrosive. “When there are conflicts and rivalries between players or anybody needs to get things out, you stand toe-to-toe and get on with it and then it’s finished as soon as you walk out of the dressing-room,” Kevin Nolan said.

 

“When you’ve said your piece, it doesn’t spread out to anywhere else - that’s what we promised each other last summer. No matter what happened between then and the end of the season, everybody was going to be 100 per cent committed to each other, no matter what happens or what gets reported, we’re all going to be together and nobody is going to break the bond we’ve got as players and staff.”

 

So this is different from 1993, but not different worse, just different different and, in some ways, equally vital, because the Newcastle which was relegated last May was no longer sustainable; wage-heavy, battered by mismanagement, in decline, full of schisms. Whatever happens next, they have rediscovered part of themselves. No Pied Piper, no fairy story, no fantasy, no tilts at the title. But a start.

[Christmas Tree 3997]

Welcome back, Newcastle! Five reasons why the Geordies will brighten up the Premier League

 

Daily Mail

 

The result wasn't important in the end but Newcastle celebrated their return back to the Premier League with a victory over Sheffield United to really get the party started. The tears and heartache of relegation are now forgotten and the long-suffering Geordies can now look forward to taking their place back in the big league. And, do you know what? We're glad to have them back. From the ground and fans to their delusions of grandeur, it's an eclectic mix which defines the giants of the north-east. Sportsmail says - welcome back Newcastle, we've missed you.

 

1. The fans

 

How many times we have watched in awe as the legions of Newcastle fans stood, in the middle of winter, with no tops on watching their team? We still don't know why they do it, but it's just one example of the idiosyncrasies which define the 'Barcodes.'

Noisy, humorous and they always turning up in their droves, the Premier League was a quieter place without them.

 

 

2. Misguided ambition

 

The days of Champions League football are long gone and Newcastle have not won a major trophy since the Fairs Cup in 1969. But the fans are still convinced they are not just the greatest team in the north east, they're the greatest team in the world. Not even a stint in the Championship is going to deter some Geordies from considering a tilt at the title in 2010-11.

 

3. St James' Park

 

Sitting proudly above the city skyline, St. James' Park dominates Newcastle physically. The third largest football stadium in the country, with a capacity of 52,387, it is a raucous bowl of noise, capable of intimidating even the hardest of players. Sunderland fans take great joy in calling it Sid James' Park and away fans bemoan the 14 flights of stairs to reach their lofty perch but there's no doubt it is worthy of hosting top flight football once again.

 

4. The rollercoaster

 

The Geordies certainly know how to court drama. Their obsession with messiahs, renaming their ground and images of their chairman necking pints of beer in the stands, life with Newcastle is never dull. We're as certain as we can be that if things don't go well for Chris Hughton, the calls will start for Alan Shearer to retake up the reigns, and who'd bet against Kevin Keegan returning… again?

 

5. North-east derby

 

With Newcastle and Middlesbrough disappearing down to the Championship last season, this year's Premier League has been denied of that famous spectacle – the north east derby. As heated and tense as your London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow varieties, Newcastle have to go back as far as April 2008 for their last victory over Sunderland. And it will be the first match they look out for when the fixtures are released ahead of the start of next season.

[Asprilla 96]

The cunt that cut and pasted that from 2004 should be ashamed.

 

 

I hope s/he thinks there's some chocolate left in the cupboard but someone's eaten it.

[acrossthepond 704]

Welcome back, Newcastle! Five reasons why the Geordies will brighten up the Premier League

 

Daily Mail

 

The result wasn't important in the end but Newcastle celebrated their return back to the Premier League with a victory over Sheffield United to really get the party started. The tears and heartache of relegation are now forgotten and the long-suffering Geordies can now look forward to taking their place back in the big league. And, do you know what? We're glad to have them back. From the ground and fans to their delusions of grandeur, it's an eclectic mix which defines the giants of the north-east. Sportsmail says - welcome back Newcastle, we've missed you.

 

1. The fans

 

How many times we have watched in awe as the legions of Newcastle fans stood, in the middle of winter, with no tops on watching their team? We still don't know why they do it, but it's just one example of the idiosyncrasies which define the 'Barcodes.'

Noisy, humorous and they always turning up in their droves, the Premier League was a quieter place without them.

 

 

2. Misguided ambition

 

The days of Champions League football are long gone and Newcastle have not won a major trophy since the Fairs Cup in 1969. But the fans are still convinced they are not just the greatest team in the north east, they're the greatest team in the world. Not even a stint in the Championship is going to deter some Geordies from considering a tilt at the title in 2010-11.

 

3. St James' Park

 

Sitting proudly above the city skyline, St. James' Park dominates Newcastle physically. The third largest football stadium in the country, with a capacity of 52,387, it is a raucous bowl of noise, capable of intimidating even the hardest of players. Sunderland fans take great joy in calling it Sid James' Park and away fans bemoan the 14 flights of stairs to reach their lofty perch but there's no doubt it is worthy of hosting top flight football once again.

 

4. The rollercoaster

 

The Geordies certainly know how to court drama. Their obsession with messiahs, renaming their ground and images of their chairman necking pints of beer in the stands, life with Newcastle is never dull. We're as certain as we can be that if things don't go well for Chris Hughton, the calls will start for Alan Shearer to retake up the reigns, and who'd bet against Kevin Keegan returning… again?

 

5. North-east derby

 

With Newcastle and Middlesbrough disappearing down to the Championship last season, this year's Premier League has been denied of that famous spectacle – the north east derby. As heated and tense as your London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow varieties, Newcastle have to go back as far as April 2008 for their last victory over Sunderland. And it will be the first match they look out for when the fixtures are released ahead of the start of next season.

 

ATP says, take your welcome and shove it up your arse sideways, Sportsmail, you condescending pack of shiteaters. "Delusions of grandeur" "tilts at the title"...will it never end? That's something I will miss about the Championship, not having to listen to that trash.

[peasepud 59]

On a slightly related note, did anyone else groan and think "here we go again" when fatty took his top off to court that picture on Monday night?

[dbsweeney 0]

God, her articles are fucking dreadful.

 

She was fucking wrong with her articles about disunity ... and she's fucking wrong this time.

[Tom 13847]

Possibly the most awful article in the history of journalism there from the Daily Mail.

 

Stick your welcome you horrible patronising twats!

[JawD 31]

What a total crock of shite.

[johnny tightlips 0]

Was thinking about posting this link about how it didn't take long for the lazy stereotyping to begin when I saw the Daily Mail stuff above. This is from

 

[url="http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/newcastle-fans-to-resume-inexplicable-self%11confidence-201004062618/"[/url]

 

 

Maybe I should write a piece for the Daily Mash "Spoof site produces exactly the same "joke" as the site it is spoofing".

 

 

NEWCASTLE FANS TO RESUME INEXPLICABLE SELF-CONFIDENCE

06-04-10

NEWCASTLE United fans resumed their adorable self-confidence last night by insisting their team was on course to win the Premier League next year without conceding a single goal.

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and Newcastle is the best city in the world, apparently The Magpies clinched promotion yesterday after the rest of the Championship allowed them to be promoted just to see how funny it will be when they go straight back down.

 

Nottingham Forest manager, Billy Davies, said: "We had a meeting last August and agreed it was worth sacrificing a promotion spot just to see the looks on their fat little faces when they lose 7-0 at home to Birmingham."

 

But Wayne Hayes, secretary of the Newcastle United Supporter’s Club, said: "It's been a long hard year of not being able to make ridiculously confident predictions based on nothing.

 

"But that's the price you pay when you give your heart and soul to the biggest and most successful football club that's ever existed."

 

He added: "I've told my local tattooist to order in a big bucket of black ink so I can have 'Champions Of Europe 2011' etched into my stomach next week."

 

Meanwhile owner Mike Ashley has thanked manager Chris Houghton for winning promotion by immediately firing him and scouting for a household name who will be utterly useless.

 

Ashley said: "We're already in talks with Cheryl Cole's people and I've asked that actor who played Brian Clough to be her assistant."

 

He added: "Wait a minute - what about Nelson Mandela?"

Edited April 7, 2010 by johnny tightlips