It seems a long time since we were celebrating promotion back to the Premier League.
The plaudits and euphoria soon died down though and many pundits were quick to point out how NUFC would struggle upon their return to the Premier League. In the eyes of many people, and even in the eyes of some of our own fans, they saw a team that was almost the same as the one who took us down. On paper that may have been the case, but in practice they were very wrong, especially Andy Gray who said that West Brom were the best team to win promotion despite finishing way behind us in the league last term.
Fast forward eleven months and it’s Newcastle who are top of the trio of promoted teams and look favourites for safety whilst Blackpool and West Brom both linger just one point ahead of the drop zone. Whilst safety is yet to be guaranteed, I would much rather be in our position than in the position of either of those two teams
Which brings me to my point really. I found an article earlier which named the a ‘Best XI’ team of players from the promoted clubs, and to my surprise I found that only four players from Newcastle had made the grade. Here is the team that Sport.co.uk have nominated. Needless to say I disagree with it, but here goes:
Matt Gilkes, Danny Simpson, Jonas Olsson, Alex Baptiste, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Kevin Nolan, Charlie Adam, Jerome Thomas, DJ Campbell, Peter Odemwingie.
The first thing that strikes me is the goalkeeper. Matt Gilks has been out since November, so can he really qualify? Has he been any better than Steve Harper? And does he qualify simply because he is playing for the Premier League’s latest love affair that is Blackpool?
Danny Simpson and Jose Enrique I’d agree with, as I would with Jonas Olsson, but does Alex Baptiste really deserve to get in there in front of Fabricio Coloccini? I don’t think so!
Moving onto the midfield, I can’t really argue with that. I’d probably drop Kevin Nolan if I’m being honest and replace him with Cheik Tiote. It would be harsh on Nolan as he has been good for us again this season, but Tiote is the better player and gets the nod from me.
As for the strikers, well where do I start? No Andy Carroll? Granted the chap is a Judas, but he did score eleven goals in half a season which is more than both DJ Campbell and Peter Odemwingie. You could even put a case forward for Leon Best as he has scored nearly the same amount of goal in less appearances, but I’d probably plump for Carroll instead of Campbell.
That would leave my team ‘Best XI’ looking like:
Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Jonas Olsson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Charlie Adam, Cheik Tiote, Jerome Thomas, Peter Odemwingie, Andy Carroll.
Any advances on that?
About toonsy
A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.
RICHIE what a way to *** a ride to spain,buy a plane ticket you tight git
icedog(Quote)
Batty he dosn’t fly the chopper man he just ties it down and cleans it for him, the only thing Rich can fly is by night.
When he is deserting his hometown 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
Batty I told you it was an American Bulldog you slag
Big Dave(Quote)
aye dave he must have took sum tips of judas when he flew him doon too pool 😉
batty(Quote)
stop telling porkys dave or ile show dog the message 🙂
batty(Quote)
Ice is there not another name for your dogs ❓ like st johnston or something like that ❓
Big Dave(Quote)
sure BATTY is loseing the plot,needs to gan to spec savers too instead of that cheap boots ***** 😉
icedog(Quote)
batts its a staffie bull.
batty(Quote)
dog there it is ive had too delete his name off it 😉
batty(Quote)
🙄 😆 😆 dont try to blame me after you upset him by saying his dog was a staffy
Big Dave(Quote)
dave and you once called his dog a poodle under another nick,can you remember dog ❓
batty(Quote)
DAVE you know your dogs,there are two types the johnson type is the smaller ones,mine is the standard type (bigger)
icedog(Quote)
Ice your right he is lossing the plot its all the time he is spending with the Fatman and Owl heed 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
Ice is it just Johnston ? yeah it is I see it now the bigger ones are nicer looking 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.dntamericanbulldogs.co.uk/gimages/johnson_1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dntamericanbulldogs.co.uk/history.html&usg=__JK7XgboPJa9fJarZadpHMCWRBzI=&h=508&w=472&sz=65&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=GCF4K2voyq_ATM:&tbnh=153&tbnw=171&ei=Nah6TafPNtS7hAfzr5zfBg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Damerican%2Bbulldog%2Bjohnson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D917%26bih%3D649%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=329&vpy=277&dur=86&hovh=233&hovw=216&tx=95&ty=95&oei=Nah6TafPNtS7hAfzr5zfBg&page=1&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0
Big Dave(Quote)
fuk that was some size of link Ice have a look at that one mate I think it is a corker
Big Dave(Quote)
reet Lads thats me outta here catch you’s tomorrow
Be Good
Big Dave(Quote)
AYE BATTY thats reet just remembered that,new i could trust you
icedog(Quote)
you can always trust me dog , that dave is always trying too wind u up 😉
batty(Quote)
night lads
batty(Quote)
nt mate,ime off too
icedog(Quote)
🙄 hello ❓ 🙄
richietoon(Quote)
I’d say tiote wouldn’t qualify as he was part of the team that won the dutch league and not the team that got promoted… And though Nolan isn’t the most talented player we have, you can’t denie he’s been immensly important this season and he keeps on scoring, so he must doing something right.
frysian(Quote)
I just read in the ‘Mail Online’ that they quote Pardew as saying Barton, Enrique, Jonas and Ireland will be out for the Stoke game. So that seems to leave us a tad short with the rest of the injured and loan players away. My thinking is maybe a line up of Harper, Simpson, S Taylor, Colo, Ferguson, Ranger, Tiote, Nolan, Lovenkrands, Best, Ameobi. Playing 4-4-2 with Ranger on right wing and Lovenkrands on left. Who would you play?
Jill(Quote)
Your team jill 🙂
jay jay(Quote)
No Willo? 🙁
richietoon(Quote)
We’ve never lost at Stoke 😯 😀
richietoon(Quote)
….. at the Brittania that is, so not so impressive now 😥 😳
richietoon(Quote)
I hate records like that 😕
toonsy(Quote)
It’s only 5 games tho Toonsy 😀
richietoon(Quote)
Jay Jay @100 😀 😎
Jill(Quote)
rich try 1cup game and 1 leauge game at the brittania or and 1 friendly 🙂
batty(Quote)
HARPER , COLLICINNI , ENRIQUE , WILLAMSON , SIMPSON , GUTIEREZ , TIOTE , ADAM , NOLAN , BARTON , BEST
Army69(Quote)
Harper, Simpson, Collo, Olsson, Enrique, Brunt, Tiote, Adam, Nolan, Judas (or if to exclude) Best
MarkToon(Quote)
ooh and barton obv
MarkToon(Quote)