Arsenal 0-1 Newcastle United FC

[JonTheMag 4]

we're on now

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/m...day/8912563.stm

 

I dont get that because I'm not in the UK Anyone got a torrent?

[Noelie 103]

again Noelie!

 

probably easiest if we all just refer to him as Wilson.

 

 

I don't know why I keep saying Wilson instead of Simpson. There must be a reason but I'm damned if I know what it is.

Instead of everyone referring to him as Wilson I'll just say the bloke at right-back in future.

[Ayatollah Hermione 12781]

 

Our new right-back.

[Guest WDP]

If only we'd beaten Blackpool/Stoke. Title challenge !

We'd be joint top with the extra 8 points from Wigan, Stoke and Blackpool not to mention being unlucky at Man City.

[Holden McGroin 4932]

If only we'd beaten Blackpool/Stoke. Title challenge !

We'd be joint top with the extra 8 points from Wigan, Stoke and Blackpool not to mention being unlucky at Man City.

 

I suppose Arsenal could say that same thing about their defeats to us and WBA. Funny old game.

[luckyluke 1]

Missed the game as I was at work but what a result! The team will be full of confidence now, and they should be eyeing up the Blackburn game like Chris Moyles eyes up an all you can eat buffet, let's give Allardyce an absolute twatting.

[Anorthernsoul 1221]

Flying, loving it.

[Dr Gloom 19879]

any good pics from the match?

[Guest alex]

Delighted to see Simpson proving me wrong. I was worried he wasn't up to it after not being too impressive last season before his operation, with the caveat that I hoped he'd been carrying the injury a while and it was effecting his form. Looks like it might well be the case. Positionally he's different class to Perch and he's as good an athlete. Probably better going forward now and it's great to see us having such a solid defensive unit with a 'back 6' of Krul, Simpson, Williamson, Colo, Ricky and Tiote.

Fabulous result and it's great to feel good about the club and how the lads are doing. Just shows how much difference a good team spirit and work ethic can make. There's more to it than that though, we've got some pretty good players too.

[ChezGiven 0]

Me too, Simpson was excellent yesterday. He has completely bought into the whole vibe around the club and team spirit, looks delighted to be part of it. Hoyed his shirt into the crowd at the end.

[Dr Gloom 19879]

Me too, Simpson was excellent yesterday. He has completely bought into the whole vibe around the club and team spirit, looks delighted to be part of it. Hoyed his shirt into the crowd at the end.

 

aye a few of them did that - barton, krul and colo too. you could see all the players and staff buzzing after the final whistle. all of them hugging and applauding the away supprt. speaking of which, the atmosphere from our end was quality.

 

i enjoyed the "are you sunderland in disguise?", "can we play you ever week?" chants

 

plus tiote already seems to have his own little ditty to the tune of "music man"

[Guest alex]

We'll miss Tiote when he gets his inevitable ban like.

[NJS 3986]

We'll miss Tiote when he gets his inevitable ban like.

 

Just looking at the next few games I'd take a booking on Wednesday to miss Fulham - probably the game he'll be least missed. I'd hate for him to miss Chelsea or Liverpool.

[Barney 0]

any good pics from the match?

 

Might be worth a bookmark, gloomy; NUFC's Flickr Account

Not may up there yet though.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2010 by Barney

[Tom 13883]

Just checked and we are joint top in the away league - with Chelsea and Man City on 10 points.

[vinnieq 0]

Gutierrez tho.... has to be said..

 

Seriously in the first half... HE WAS MUCK... didn't do as much damage in the 2nd half.. Am guessing someone had a word with him at half time..

 

Has the ball just outside the arsenal box right after an Arsenal set-piece and passes right back to them...

[manc-mag 1]

Fucking brilliant that.

 

Not to get too overwhelmed by it all, but that is what following a top club is like in my book. 11 players just busting a gut for the shirt, for themselves and for their manager. The club can always bang on that it's proud of its fan base, but to be fair it's put out generations of teams that (with few exceptions) literally couldnt give a fuck about the club or it's following. Yesterday was a flavour of what it feels like following the top clubs week in week out.

 

Obviously I know it's only a part of the story and for the rest you need (insightful) investment in players, but it's all a waste of time if those players dont care about playing for the club. That's always been the biggest (and I mean absolutely fucking massive) gripe for me.

 

Hansen's comments on MOTD last night must have provoked a similar reaction in everyone I reckon. Absolute joy but also near disbelief to hear the words falling from his lips. That speaks volumes for me because really I take those comments simply to be another way of saying that the players cared enough individually and collectively and showed enough heart and bottle for a change. The fact that that is not something that's automatically associated with Newcastle is the biggest indictment of the way the club's been run for years in my eyes. The fans can always be proud of their contribution but how many times have we had a team like that wanting to fight and win as badly as though they'd piled in a Ford Transit, filled up on the A1 and driven down themselves at their own expense?

 

I won't sail too close to the wind with those analogies because I realise there's a massive inherent danger in doing things on the shoestring we're operating on at the moment and you could almost imagine MA asking Chris to drive the lads down to London in a Bedford Rascal, never mind a Ford Transit...but suffice to say it can't go on indefinitely. It will need some fairly imminent investment in the manager and players alike.

 

I've still no time at all for Ashley because I still think this largely reamins a case of him winging it as ever; but we were a club that had long needed to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. Seriously we had become an outright joke and everyone knew it. So even though I think Ashley doesnt have a plan beyond driving down absurd costs, I do hope he is intelligent enough to see which of the advances we've made are due to good fortune alone and what advances can only be sustained with some actual follow up investment. Because this team and this manager actually deserves it. It goes without saying that the fans do too.

 

Tiote sums this up more than anyone. What else is left to say? The guy is immense and has become pivtal for us. Without rehearsing what I said earlier, that for me is part of what being a big team is about. Having a player like that in the centre that wins you every ball and represents the spirit of the whole club on the pitch. Again it's utterly shameful that it's become such an oddity for NUFC to have that type of player, simply because if you don't, you're automatically on a hiding to nothing most of the time against anyone that does. Again, back to Ashley; we've managed to acquire him, now it's about retaining him. A different challenge.

 

On that point I honestly don't subscribe to the view held by some that Tiote (and players like him) simply represent a tidy profit for the club next transfer window-or that Ashley's business model is solely about making a £10 million net return on player transfers each season. In all seriousness (and to give him the credit he does deserve) this is an actual billionaire we're dealing with, not a leveraged chancer. While it may seem surreal to the rest of the world, £10 mill and sums like that is nowt to him-it's simply not worth his time and energy. That's not his motivation in finding better quality players at good value. So I dismiss that type of talk because I think it's baseless; for me, what he did in fact realise was that you simply can't afford to pay the likes of Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Oba Martins all circa 100k per week when they're indifferent (at best) about their employer and put in performances reflecting that. We have to come to terms with that because the reality is, wherever income fails to cover expenditure it is actually Ashley's own money plugging the gap (whether loaned or gifted). Other viable forms of credit to cover shortfalls in income simply arent available anymore.

 

What is crucially important though and where there is a danger in his pricing policy is in making sure we do compete on wages where someone is actually worth keeping and another big club comes sniffing about. That's a different matter altogether and requires a proper strategic plan going forward.

 

That said, only Chelski and Citeh are bankrolled into that fantasy division that isolates them from reality and nobody knows how long that will go on for. Outside of that everyone should be capable of competing in the real world using any and all of their natural strengths to their advantage. We're still posting gates that are top 3 in the division so we're still a big club on that basis. That sort of revenue profile warrants a strategic spending plan that allows us to consolidate on what we've got and keep improving imho. That and the fact that (and I only hope this continues) we've got a manager that seems to have truly forged a team spirit and pride in the club, must only make us more attractive to genuinely ambitious players.

 

I think this season's still going to throw us back and forth numerous times but as long as the effort remains then I'll largely be happy. We're in a cycle where we needed sheer honest endeavour on the pitch to restore credibility to the club, pride to the city and lead the ressurgence in the clubs fortunes. It's quite right that the blank cheque method was abandonned. If the team lead resurgence can continue however then there will be absolutely no excuses if competitive sums are not made available to a manager who will have earned the right to invest in his team.

 

We'll see I suppose.

 

For the moment, fucking gettin' and howay the lads!

[Holden McGroin 4932]

Gutierrez tho.... has to be said..

 

Seriously in the first half... HE WAS MUCK... didn't do as much damage in the 2nd half.. Am guessing someone had a word with him at half time..

 

Has the ball just outside the arsenal box right after an Arsenal set-piece and passes right back to them...

 

Sagna was quicker and stronger than him. The Arsenal forums are saying that he had a tough game.

 

If only Jonas had an end product. He'd genuinely (no joke) be a world class player.

[Guest alex]

Good post, Manchester Magpie. I've think I've got a little tear welling up

[Holden McGroin 4932]

Manc-Mag has gone all soft and gooey eyed.

[Asprilla 96]

...what he did in fact realise was that you simply can't afford to pay the likes of Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Oba Martins all circa 100k per week when they're indifferent (at best) about their employer and put in performances reflecting that. We have to come to terms with that because the reality is, wherever income fails to cover expenditure it is actually Ashley's own money plugging the gap (whether loaned or gifted). Other viable forms of credit to cover shortfalls in income simply arent available anymore.

 

What is crucially important though and where there is a danger in his pricing policy is in making sure we do compete on wages where someone is actually worth keeping and another big club comes sniffing about. That's a different matter altogether and requires a proper strategic plan going forward.

 

 

Edited November 8, 2010 by Asprilla

[Barney 0]

Good post Mancy.

 

2 things that are churning on in the background that have the potential to fuck shit up, are the managers contract and the bonus scheme that is currently pissing off the players.

 

I agree 100% about your point regarding wages/player attitudes. Be interesting to see what happens when Collo's contract starts to wind down.

[Guest WDP]

Fucking brilliant that.

 

Not to get too overwhelmed by it all, but that is what following a top club is like in my book. 11 players just busting a gut for the shirt, for themselves and for their manager. The club can always bang on that it's proud of its fan base, but to be fair it's put out generations of teams that (with few exceptions) literally couldnt give a fuck about the club or it's following. Yesterday was a flavour of what it feels like following the top clubs week in week out.

Obviously I know it's only a part of the story and for the rest you need (insightful) investment in players, but it's all a waste of time if those players dont care about playing for the club. That's always been the biggest (and I mean absolutely fucking massive) gripe for me.

 

Hansen's comments on MOTD last night must have provoked a similar reaction in everyone I reckon. Absolute joy but also near disbelief to hear the words falling from his lips. That speaks volumes for me because really I take those comments simply to be another way of saying that the players cared enough individually and collectively and showed enough heart and bottle for a change. The fact that that is not something that's automatically associated with Newcastle is the biggest indictment of the way the club's been run for years in my eyes. The fans can always be proud of their contribution but how many times have we had a team like that wanting to fight and win as badly as though they'd piled in a Ford Transit, filled up on the A1 and driven down themselves at their own expense?

 

I won't sail too close to the wind with those analogies because I realise there's a massive inherent danger in doing things on the shoestring we're operating on at the moment and you could almost imagine MA asking Chris to drive the lads down to London in a Bedford Rascal, never mind a Ford Transit...but suffice to say it can't go on indefinitely. It will need some fairly imminent investment in the manager and players alike.

 

I've still no time at all for Ashley because I still think this largely reamins a case of him winging it as ever; but we were a club that had long needed to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. Seriously we had become an outright joke and everyone knew it. So even though I think Ashley doesnt have a plan beyond driving down absurd costs, I do hope he is intelligent enough to see which of the advances we've made are due to good fortune alone and what advances can only be sustained with some actual follow up investment. Because this team and this manager actually deserves it. It goes without saying that the fans do too.

 

Tiote sums this up more than anyone. What else is left to say? The guy is immense and has become pivtal for us. Without rehearsing what I said earlier, that for me is part of what being a big team is about. Having a player like that in the centre that wins you every ball and represents the spirit of the whole club on the pitch. Again it's utterly shameful that it's become such an oddity for NUFC to have that type of player, simply because if you don't, you're automatically on a hiding to nothing most of the time against anyone that does. Again, back to Ashley; we've managed to acquire him, now it's about retaining him. A different challenge.

 

On that point I honestly don't subscribe to the view held by some that Tiote (and players like him) simply represent a tidy profit for the club next transfer window-or that Ashley's business model is solely about making a £10 million net return on player transfers each season. In all seriousness (and to give him the credit he does deserve) this is an actual billionaire we're dealing with, not a leveraged chancer. While it may seem surreal to the rest of the world, £10 mill and sums like that is nowt to him-it's simply not worth his time and energy. That's not his motivation in finding better quality players at good value. So I dismiss that type of talk because I think it's baseless; for me, what he did in fact realise was that you simply can't afford to pay the likes of Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Oba Martins all circa 100k per week when they're indifferent (at best) about their employer and put in performances reflecting that. We have to come to terms with that because the reality is, wherever income fails to cover expenditure it is actually Ashley's own money plugging the gap (whether loaned or gifted). Other viable forms of credit to cover shortfalls in income simply arent available anymore.

 

What is crucially important though and where there is a danger in his pricing policy is in making sure we do compete on wages where someone is actually worth keeping and another big club comes sniffing about. That's a different matter altogether and requires a proper strategic plan going forward.

 

That said, only Chelski and Citeh are bankrolled into that fantasy division that isolates them from reality and nobody knows how long that will go on for. Outside of that everyone should be capable of competing in the real world using any and all of their natural strengths to their advantage. We're still posting gates that are top 3 in the division so we're still a big club on that basis. That sort of revenue profile warrants a strategic spending plan that allows us to consolidate on what we've got and keep improving imho. That and the fact that (and I only hope this continues) we've got a manager that seems to have truly forged a team spirit and pride in the club, must only make us more attractive to genuinely ambitious players.

 

I think this season's still going to throw us back and forth numerous times but as long as the effort remains then I'll largely be happy. We're in a cycle where we needed sheer honest endeavour on the pitch to restore credibility to the club, pride to the city and lead the ressurgence in the clubs fortunes. It's quite right that the blank cheque method was abandonned. If the team lead resurgence can continue however then there will be absolutely no excuses if competitive sums are not made available to a manager who will have earned the right to invest in his team.

 

We'll see I suppose.

 

For the moment, fucking gettin' and howay the lads!

Absolutely spot on probably your finest football post to date. The bit bold is so true. We've had teams far more talented than this one that wouldn't have got that result yesterday, they all grafted like they were playing for their lives, showed pride in the shirt and togetherness. Togetherness, and team morale is comfortably the most important thing in football. Holland had the team in 1990, 1994 and 1998 to win the World Cup in my opinion, but every single tournament they had fall outs with key players, unbelievable how many times it happened. Too many fractions and cliques in the squad. Real Madrid by their standards have been shit for 6 or 7 years, a lot of it down to too many ego's and little harmony. We have a decent side I wouldn't say on paper in the top 10 in England but a decent squad, and they all fucking love each other you can tell, and when you have that you can take on the world, and you have to say Hughton deserves the majority of the praise for getting them together.

Edited November 8, 2010 by WDP

[Wavey Davey 0]

Fanzone

[David Kelly 1117]

Hope this doesn't come back to bite me but after the last three games I have absolutely no worries about relegation now.

I've been pretty happy with our performances all season (the Wigan game was the only where I thought we were shite and even then we showed great spirit and fight to get back into the game), we could have easily beaten Blackpool and Stoke on other days even though they weren't our best performances. But the fight and togetherness (along with some excellent moments in posession) in these last few games have been abolutely fantastic.

We aren't going to keep a run like this going all season but I'm confident this is not just about a bit of good fortune or a purple patch, I genuinly think we have a pretty decent team and I think a mid table finish this season is well within our capability.