How are our French fancies doing?

John Carver's welcoming party.
In my opinion a large part of our success this season is going to hinge on just how well our French quartet do at Newcastle.

I’m not including Mehdi Abeid in that as he is apparently one for the future, but for the rest I think it’s fair to say that Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux and Demba Ba (alright he isn’t French really, but he is French speaking) will be starting most of the games this season, if they remain fit of course.

That’s a large chunk of our first team if truth be told, so the pressure is on to get them firing on all cylinders as soon as possible and to make sure they are all settled and integrated with the current players.

Which is why it’s good news that John Carver has been overseeing the integration of the new lads into the squad. He believes that there will be no cliques at St James’ Park like there has been in the past and believes that the new lads are settling in just fine.

“The new guys have integrated remarkably well this week and quickly settled in,” Carver told The Chronicle. “There will be no cliques here this season.”

“Alan Pardew has given me the responsibility to make sure they all settle in well, and this is something we have done before at the club. The French guys have already begun to mix and that is a good sign.”

“We split the lads up into three different groups and already the new boys have been spending time with players who have been at the club a while. This means they get to know people – but more importantly get to know the club quicker and what things are all about.”

It’s been a concern with some fans wondering just how unsettled the team will be after a summer shake up, but it actually looks as though the club are getting a handle on things and making sure that what is hopefully going to be a transition in style and success can go ahead as smoothly as possible.

If it does then it will mean our French quartet can just concentrate on their on game, and in the case of Sylvain Marveaux it appears that a big part of his game is going to be thrilling the fans. Marveaux, again speaking to The Chronicle, had this to say.

“I have spoken with the manager a lot. From what he says about the way the team will play I think I can ignite the supporters.”

“The club wants to do very big things and achieve success, which is why I came here. I came here with the idea of playing in Europe. That’s certainly what the long-term vision is.”

“We know there is a lot of work to do before we think about Europe, but we are keen to get something started this season and the French players are all determined to be involved in that.”

Of course at the moment these are just words, albeit very promising words. The real test will be when we see the boys trying to link together during pre-season and then again throughout the season.

There seems to be a common theme about ambition at the moment. Some fans seem to think that the club lacks it, but the message coming from the players is that it is there within the camp. Hopefully they can get somewhere near their ambition this season so they don’t start thinking about looking elsewhere next season.

Roll on the football season! I can’t wait for it now.

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.

83 thoughts on “How are our French fancies doing?

  1. Fair comment, no doubt the management are going to be massively reliant on these 4 .. to my mind, we over-achieved last season and we are really going to have to go some to get 8th which is probably a decent target … i’d like to know what has been done to ensure that Tiote spends more time playing with these 4 than watching from the sin bin

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  2. aye thats my worry to see how they handle the P.L.its a funny old lge,only saveing grace is apart from nolan we still at the moment have much the same team that finished the last season and other teams dont seem to have done much in the market up to now,and who knows we might not be finished yet thats a guessing game imo

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  3. DAVE your on the wrong thread m8 as normal 😉

    agree bendy is ****,with all the chances the gunners make hes hopeless how many did he score in the P.L. last season very very few,his came in cup against 1st div and ccc clubs

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  4. DAVE aye if i didnt know better ide say hes been on the drink,mind i heard off richie that he like a smoke or two 😆 😆 but i dont start rumours like 😉 😉

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  5. FS no thank you sir,by the way your getting like big dave your on the old thread 😉

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  6. Really quiet at the mo but good things is other clubs v quiet expect for the unwashed 😀

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  7. aye you did liam, load of bolloxs.

    Some one put on twitter all the signs were that, what signing 4 players means ashley wants to sell? 🙄 😆

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  8. the rags would be all over that storey if true,dont forget they can tap into phone calls too 😆 😆 😆

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  9. so front six will be:

    ba
    arfa
    marevux guttierez
    cabaye tiote

    right?

    or will Barton play for gutti? or gutti start on the left with barton on the right with marveaux to come on when we need a goal?

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  10. That could be the last news of the word exclusive… And Pardew caught with Imogen Thomas!

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  11. Liam – Same as always mate. Via contact, or if you still have my e-mail then do it through there 🙂

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  12. I don’t have your email toonsy 😳 how do you do the contact button for on the mobile?

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  13. I can’t wait for the season to start to see how we play and what system we use. I think Colo will be a fantastic captain who will endeavour to integrate all the lads together. A perfect Captain for me. Allez le toon!

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  14. Demba Ba IS French, isn’t he? I am sure he was born not far from Ben Arfa.

    He just chose to represent Senegal for football.

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  15. STT you read it wrong because we are used to reading mumbo jumbo from ashley and co,three deep breaths and it will clear 😀 😀 😀

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  16. dave have you noticed theres some reet arses get on her now ,and i dont meen toonsy 🙂

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  17. oh and dave i didnt expect you too turn into a fat ash **** licker ,but i suppose i will have to put up with it 😆

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  18. No, I dont think there is one, how can you tease such a young innocent soul 😥 😆

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  19. Toonsy you get the email alright? Lost my connection but think it sent? 🙄

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  20. You do know I smoke obsessive amounts of cannabis and I am paranoid? Only joking 😆

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  21. Liam – I hope your blog doesn’t include £35M stuff.
    Am bored with al that now 😕

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  22. Liam if it doesn’t have Carroll or the £35 mil its no good mate.
    Spence do you know I answered that c@nts email , oh and yeah Jobey was telling me you done a lot of smoking 😆

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  23. Aye toonsy as long as you happy with the blogs I’ll keep writing them! 😆 love a good NUFC debate 😆

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  24. Batts he only needs to have 10 passengers then as Stardy’s bus only has himsel driving 😀
    Wonder where that wee smoker went to ? maybe skinning one up 😀

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  25. i think were lookin good for next season …. all we were missing was the creative flair, we had alot of games were we struggled to make chances, In fairness to shola/best/loven they took their chances last season, we jus didnt create enough, step up the french they are full of creative flair 🙂

    But i would like to get Long in to replace Loven ,, ship out few the fringe players an bring in some better quality make us a force 🙂

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  26. John tbh if the window closed tomorrow and we had the players we have now I would be happy enough, but would like to get another striker in

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  27. like wise, ill be happy myself 🙂 i like the look of our squad , no harm in an improvement tho, a versatile defender and a striker would be amazing 🙂 like we didnt have Gosling or HBA last season either were a hell of alot stronger … i seen Cabaye playing few times last season he is brilliant

    hopefully we wrap up the Neil Taylor deal, an possibly Long…

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  28. went for a game of fifa you cheeky c@nt, I divint smoke anything 😆

    Sy, when I get moved and settled doon, and back into school work, I think I might produce a few articles, i’ll leave it to the masters for now like 😉 😆

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  29. @batts &big dave

    The train is filling up nicely.
    But the fat controller needs changing. 😆

    By the way lads, when’s the first friendly? Looking forward to seeing how the team plays.

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