Who would make your ‘Best XI’ from the three promoted teams?

Scenes of past celebrations.
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.

110 thoughts on “Who would make your ‘Best XI’ from the three promoted teams?

  1. 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 😆

      (Quote)

  2. sure BATTY is loseing the plot,needs to gan to spec savers too instead of that cheap boots ***** 😉

      (Quote)

  3. DAVE you know your dogs,there are two types the johnson type is the smaller ones,mine is the standard type (bigger)

      (Quote)

  4. 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.

      (Quote)

  5. 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?

      (Quote)

  6. HARPER , COLLICINNI , ENRIQUE , WILLAMSON , SIMPSON , GUTIEREZ , TIOTE , ADAM , NOLAN , BARTON , BEST

      (Quote)

  7. Harper, Simpson, Collo, Olsson, Enrique, Brunt, Tiote, Adam, Nolan, Judas (or if to exclude) Best

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *