Out of all of that perhaps the most surprising thing is that Marktoon will be buying a round. Just kidding. Actually I think the most surprising thing is that Newcastle United seem to sailing rather smoothly. The results are stacking up and the performances are getting there, and along with that there seems to be a fantastic spirit and camaraderie amongst our new players.
One by one they have taken turns to talk about how fantastic life is at NUFC at the moment. From Captain Colo to Dreamboat Cabaye to Spiderman Jonas to Oooh Ahh Demba Ba, most of our players have taken a turn in the media to praise each other, the club, and the team spirit that has been formed rather quickly considering the summer of change that ended up taking place.
What can we glean from that though? I mean we have a group of players who hardly know each other and yet it seems as though they’ve managed to bond straight away. Cutting to the chase, would this have been possible with the likes of Joey Barton or Kevin Nolan still in the ranks?
Personally I don’t think it would have been. A lot has been made of the influence of those two players, but is it not possible that perhaps they had too much influence? Too much of a handle on the dressing room? Were they too vocal for their own good?
In a way it’s kind of a moot point as there is no way that Nolan would have got into our team and I think Barton may have ended up struggling aswell in the long run had they both stayed. Neither of them would have been happy with that so they would obviously be a bit upset about it. However presume that they were still here. What would it be like?
Well to gauge that I guess we have to look at the form book. First off there is Kevin Nolan who liked to paint a picture of being Mr Newcastle. He was important in the dressing room and even tried his hand at transfer dealings when he helped to sway Andy Carroll to Liverpool. I’ll never forgive Captain Fantastic for appearing on Liverpool TV and telling the bindipping nation how he’d told Carroll what a great club Liverpool is and how he’ll be a fantastic player for them and so on.
Anyway I’m ranting. Back to his importance. Could it be that his importance could have stifled the rest of the group. If you have one dominant player then the rest don’t get a chance to flourish or come into their own. I think the removal of Nolan has allowed for others to step up to the plate but perhaps in a different, more quiet, more assuming way.
Then there is Joey Barton. I have no doubt that if he’d have stayed he would have put in 100% effort on the pitch, but off the pitch I’m unsure that he would have been such a fantastic influence. We saw how he spat the dummy ahead of the Leeds game because Yohan Cabaye was tasked with corner kicks. That wasn’t good enough for this team player and he resorted to Twitter to air his grievances.
Whatever the complexities or the rights and wrongs, I sincerely believe that we wouldn’t have this stability, this rebirth of a new, more equal, team spirit amongst the players with both Nolan and Barton in the ranks meddling with things. Perhaps the loss of these two strong characters has been good for the dressing room? On the evidence supplied by the members of it it’s pretty hard to argue against that.
Are we better off without Barton and Nolan in the dressing room?
DIFSB @53
“owen was hugley different. barton and nolan when on the pitch gave all they had and fought for the cause”
WHEN being the operative word in Barton’s case.
He was at the club for the roughly the same amount of time as Owen in which time he managed just 10 more appearances and yet while Owen is widely regarded as a ****, Barton is lauded as some kind of hero because he “gave his all”. Like that somehow makes all the **** he created alright. I wouldn’t have minded so much if he had some kind of stats to back-up his reputation as this great match winner I keep hearing about.
Toon Chicken(Quote)
Lace…I usually used to stand under the scoreboard and book my away travel with the liitle supporters shop round the corner from the Haymarket bus station.
richietoon(Quote)
Mark….check@49 😉
richietoon(Quote)
good point TC
I did like Barton but I believe to took us for granted and was full of sound-bites about his love for the toon. 80k per week playing infront of 14k fans soon ended his love-affair.
mark(Quote)
@richietoon
cheers dude, too many messages so I skipped to the end 🙂
mark(Quote)
TC, I’m not hero-worshipping the bloke at all, I just like him. Horses for courses eh.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Indeed, Rodz. Looks like you’ve backed a bit of a knacker to me tho. 😉
Toon Chicken(Quote)
Rod:
I am saying it is a contradiction. The Banksy thing is the latest fad art and just a different way of Joey showing off. Now he is cultured because he is off to the Tate Modern and hangs out with Morrissey for 5 minutes?
To be sure, let him do it, but to be banging on about it all the time says to me he is trying a bit too hard to show that he is such a cultured, intelligent man of the people now.
He has become a figure of fun for some of the football websites and newspapers and he doesn’t even see it. I know some of them are stuck up their own ars*holes and also pseudo-intellectuals but it doesn’t make them wrong.
GS(Quote)
GS, billions of people use social networking sites everyday to tell people what they’re up to. Should they all stop “banging on about” what they’re doing too? Like I was saying, it’s only because he doesn’t fit in to the conventional footballer mould that brings about so much criticism. That along with the fact that he’s in the media spotlight, and always likely to get ripped into over his ramblings.
Of course he sees he’s a figure of fun for the media. He just doesn’t care!
…anyway, I ain’t his shrink and I’m sick of playing Joey’s advocate, so it’s onto the next thread for me!
😀 😎 ➡
Rodzilla(Quote)
Rodz, why don’t you get your shrink to contact Joey and give him advice? 😯 😆
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy, al fkn shrink yee in a minit bonny lad.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Re the Evening Standard article. That only re-affirms my view on the bloke.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/football/article-23991574-exclusive-interview-the-world-according-to-joey-barton.do
Nowt wrong with him. Knowing his football playing career will be over in 6 or 7 years, he’s doing the right thing by expressing his ‘verbal’ creativity now.
I can’t find anything wrong with that interview. Maybe I’m just a c*nt too? 😯
Rodzilla(Quote)
Rod:
Your thoughts on Barton don’t make you a c*nt.
I think the picture tells a story, even though it was a set-up. If you wanted to do a parody of a pseudo-intellectual wannabe you need only copy exactly what Joey is doing. Maybe, he is doing the philoposhy and art thing as a self parody NOW, but it all started seriously.
As I have said, I don’t really mind Barton but think he is trying too hard to come off a certain way. I think that comes through in the interview – y’know – Banksy in his library!
GS(Quote)
Nah, I think he can come off as really pretentious but he just really wants to express himself. And that’s fine, good for him… I was having a chuckle at the article the other day having not read it properly, but fair play to him. But I don’t think we need players who are really absorbed in embracing their own uniqueness, we have players who don’t need to assert themselves for psychological reasons but all seem very balanced, like they have already got their **** together. Joey’s better off in London going to museums and being a captain, and we’re better off with our happy and harmonious unit… we outgrew each other.
Susan(Quote)
Raylor aside I was never too comfortable with so many bin dippers at the club
julio laker(Quote)
Yeah Sue, it’s easy to come across as pretentious in the written word. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and I doubt I could tell one from the other until I’ve met the person, in person.
I’ve got myself into trouble plenty of times through written communication, seemingly arsey when I’m just asking a question. Things can be taken so far out of context.
GS, I think you’re missing Joey Barton’s irony to be honest.
I’d have a library too on his wages, in fact no, I’d have a fucking zoo. With a special little enclave where dolphins teach the complete works of Shakespeare to Marmosets, Tigers, Limpets, Dodecahedrons the lot. You name it.
Rodzilla(Quote)
bad move Rod, dolphins can’t stand marmosets as a rule like 😐
richietoon(Quote)
Personally liked Nolan and Barton and think they were decent enough players that helped us back to the prem and stabilised us in mid table, good luck to em but def feel we are playing a different game these days where they would prob struggle
They were paid to do a job and they did it, now someone else is paid to do that job – the king is dead, long live the king and all that
stevep(Quote)
Richie, not the marmosets in my zoo. I had a dolphin knock on the door last Tuesday asking for young Malcolm’s mobile.
Could see he was up te nee gud like, so a cut iz flippaz off an fed him te the Bourbons.
Vicious fkers them Bourbons like.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Rod:
You’d be like Al Pacino in Scarface or the real life Pablo Escobar with your zoo.
Joey talks about his library to convince people he reads books and doesn’t just copy quotes from the internet.
Not missing much irony with Joey I don’t believe. It is now part of the persona that he is trying to uphold, but it didn’t start out that way. He is trying to get in on the joke now, but the joke is on him and that is not irony on Joey’s part. Although it is ironic.
GS(Quote)
Looking at the way Pardew set up his teams I think the players we have at the moment suit the manager and the tactics.
The previous players (Carroll, Barton, Nolan) suited a more…Sam Allardyce English sort of setup rather than the continental one we play at the moment.
If you were to ask me, which group would I prefer to be successful with? It would be the latter, as I had more of an affinty with them with them being Northern English.
With the way Pardew sets up his teams though, in hindsight the latter needed group needed to go for the team to play this new style (which is working) So impressed with our passing at St. James’s, if this team stays together with a few additions we are looking very very good.
It won’t though, we’ll flog them when offers come in.
Moreno(Quote)
GS, I think we’re just gona have to agree to disagree on this one.
You can see the truth through the veil.
I can’t see a veil.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Moreno, be cool honey-bunny.
Rodzilla(Quote)
…this film’s ****, let’s slash the seats.
Rodzilla(Quote)
GS, so how does CTRL Cing (or CMD Cing on a Mac) differ from just repeating what you’ve just read in a book? I’m struggling to differentiate between moron and idiot.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Are you a David Holmes fan Rodz?
Toon Chicken(Quote)
TC I like allsorts mate. That was just off the cuff. I love ‘Let’s Get Killed’ though – one of my favourites. I also like Mr Scruff, gentle pigeon crackle treat. The sound of Bernard Cribbens shaking a packet soup.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Aye Rodz, Let’s Get Killed is a class album. Not sure about Bernand mind. 😉
Toon Chicken(Quote)
…(that last bit was actually Mr Scruff’s comments to one of mi mate’s musical compositions, when he was doing a music production course in the mid 90s, I think he writes incidental music now for stuff on the Discovery Channel)
🙄
Rodzilla(Quote)
lisnin to it now TC, that guy was a heavyweight wrestler.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Reet, am off. Neet ladies.
Rodzilla(Quote)
Rod:
I am fine to agree to disagree on Barton. He means nothing to me anyway. Or is that like me pretended never to have liked the girlfriend who dumped me?
In all seriousness, I hope he shuts up a bit though because his patter will get very old, very quickly.
GS(Quote)
I also like Ozric Tentacles, walloped between a couple of slices of gorilla bread, neatly nestled within a moistened clout of HP.
Rodzilla(Quote)
…the patter is dead. Long live the patter!
😎
😯
😡
❓
😀
Rodzilla(Quote)
Ah the smilies are back
You aware you on the wrong thread gringo?
Moreno(Quote)
I think Bartons anger display against Arsenal did him no favours in the boards eyes, always a potential back page story plus his constant tweets before that. Too much influence by 1 or 2 plyers intimidates the others and leads to disharmony. But who knows, we can guess. But to let a player go for free is odd, especially for MA.
tooneye(Quote)
Interesting post. I think it is a bit too early to accurately judge the loss of these players. The team is playing well and seems to be jelling which is good, but teams need leaders. Players who can rally the others when the chips are down. Whether Barton and Nolan would have been able to lead this group is debatable, but they both were fantastic for us last season and that drive they provided will need to be replaced in some way if we are to continue our success into the winter months and beyond.
JayDee(Quote)