The Mansfield Zanetti
Pardew’s mindset appears to be on cementing a close knit group of players that are manageable without anyone being left by the way side and his concentration on what he has at his disposal is full on in every aspect from fitness, diet, attitude and the dressing room spirit. He appears to have brought out the qualities of a lot of players that most of us fans didn’t know they possessed.
Hatem Ben Arfa came to this club with somewhat of a moody reputation and as a potential hothead that could have upset the apple cart if things didn’t go his way, but although we have seen small, minute glimpses of his little moods, it appears that Alan Pardew has worked on him and made him realise that attitude channelled in the right direction can reap rewards and I think we are seeing that on the pitch with him now.
Many fans were worried about the small squad we had at he start of the season and were rightly worried about us sustaining injuries in the wrong areas of the pitch, which happened when we lost Steven Taylor and for a short period, Fabricio Coloccini. Throughout the season, we have been tested to the limit with injuries to key players in all areas of the pitch and we wondered just how a small squad like we have, could cope with the rigours of a full on Premier League season plus cup games.
Naturally at this stage of the season, the questions have been answered and answered in a way that none of us would have believed was possible when you looked at what we had on the injury table and what we had in reserve.
There is an old saying, “when your back’s against the wall, you come out fighting” and this is true of the spirit that has been bred into the players at this club, which we can see with out own eyes in the graft that they put in from the first to the last minute.
When a team loses key players like we have done, with such a small squad to pluck replacements from, the easy option for those players is to shrug their shoulders and say “well we are just stand in replacements so we can’t be blamed for results.”
Of course us as fans would naturally afford them the benefit of the doubt if that ever happened but it’s obvious with those players who came in that the opposite mentality was evident. They came in with hunger and heart to carry the team forward to keep it in good shape whilst also staking their own claim for a future stab at being a regular part of it.
James Perch is a fine example of a player that could easily have crumbled under the pressure of being plunged into positions that were basically alien to him, whilst also knowing that he was far from ever being a fans favourite. But this lad is an example of a player that has confidence in his own ability and will die for the cause as he has proved many times this season.
He has been guilty of over enthusiasm in some games with his gung-ho rash challenges, but this lad has learned from that and actually looks really composed and tidy and extremely competitive which is a massive bonus to this squad.
Very few players who have been thrust into the limelight this season have disappointed, but some still lack confidence which I’m sure will be worked on to produce the real player as time goes by.
One player is Gabriel Obertan who clearly has the pace and the skills to achieve success but he lacks the awareness and brain to carry it off, plus he appears to be a player that needs a regular supply of confidence boosting help until he realises his own potential.
The main issue though is that if players like him show heart and desire to play for this club like Perch and Ryan Taylor have done, then it’s shows that once you have that desire, the rest can be worked on to great effect and the end product is a squad of players that are all singing the same tune and instil confidence in each other to carry this club forward, and that is part of the reason why this club sits in 6th place when all and sundry had us down to be struggling.
A few small additions as well as keeping the nucleus of this squad can take us a long long way in the seasons to come and who knows what joys await us in that time. All I can say is that it’s been one hell of a season and as it stands and I can’t wait for the final six games plus the added excitement of the summer when we will know just what players are willing to be part of this restructured, resurgent and forward thinking club.
It will also show us just how far we have come when it comes to how many players pledge their allegiance to us for the future.
The future is bright… The future is Newcastle United.
« Newcastle v Bolton – Premier League match preview | Tim Krul: “The good times are back at Newcastle” »
Toon News 24/7
RSS
E Mail
Twitter
Facebook
86 Comments
Good read Toonsy but how can you credit Pards when its been all Carvers wonders that have worked
Pards is only credited with the games we lost
Sorry Dave, this is Wolfie’s work. Forgot to change the name
Don’t know if this is just me being biased to the toon but i don’t think I have ever heard Pard’s blame a result on the injuries we’ve had or players being away. Other managers should take note.
Hey guys, really excited for tommorrow, will be rooting for the toon in the stands for this match
Who else is going?
2nd match that I’ve been to this season, 3rd in two years
Will be re-united with tyneside by doing a santiagooo and running along tynemouth beach with the football, early morning
Nice read Wolfie and I would agree with all of it. We have had a wonderfull season whatever happens from hereon in .Obviously Europe would be fantastic as long as we invest well and adaquately to see us cope on all fronts. That’s the only concern I have really as I don’t want us to suffer in the League because we havn’t got a good enough squad to cover all games .Also Pards and the board need to really think about what they are going to do about coverage for Acon bound players.I understand that first and formost a couple of defenders are a must but a decent striker would be most welcome even if only a season long loan .
Everyone’s buggered off again
If anyone is about can they inform me as to whether captain colo will be fit for tommorrow
Andymag ,How was your first day at work mate.
Toonsy @ 3
i’m surprised as there is no mention of Jabba and how good he is 
Kimtoon
thanks for asking mate, was good but was a 9 hour day, eight hours of which i spent lifting smallish concrete and marble statues as well as shitty outdoor wardrobes, was knackered by the end of it
dam it Lawro has predicted us to win 2-0
On the plus side he has also predicted Chelsea only to draw with Fulham.
Outdoor wardrobes, commonly known as a shed
BB….Lawro’s wrong again, it’ll be more I reckon
I wonder if Lawro has actually got any right
Dave…I think the one and only loss he predicted for Liverpool was actually one they won if memory serves
Dave – There is a link somewhere comparing Lawro’s predictions with real results. Remind me tomorrow and I’ll dig it out
On topic, agree entirely. The squad players have really stepped up to the plate which has covered us no end on occasion. Frightening to think, but even with ACoN we aren’t far away from beating our points total from the first half of the season, and that is without Ba, Cisse and Tiote for a few weeks, plus a suspension to Cabaye and serious injury to Taylor!
TOONSY you will be busy tomorrow
the players have shown all season there a close knit squad, so i dont think anyone will be rushing out the door this summer, unless the board recieve a mega bid for one of our players
like you said, Obertan needs some confidence, and PLENTY of crossing pratice, if he’s to get back into our setup
these last six games will see how close our squad , in terms of busting a gut, to finish off the season as high as possible, we should , on form, be looking at picking up 9 points from our next three games , but ill settle for 7, then its chelsea, who could have there eyes on something else(3points) and man city, who now, have nothing to play for(1point), then everton, FA cup?? (1 point) ends up one hell of a season
4 – 0 win tomoro, demba back amongst the goals
Ice you’ll be busy yerself soon
you’ll be baby sitting for him 
but then I suppose your used to it baby sitting Batty 
Toonsy I don’t think he would have got many right
Andy@12 you will really enjoy your first paypacket .My first paypacket was £18 for 40 hrs work ,feck how old am I .
DAVE
trouble with batty is he keeps awol 
Kim know the feeling there, think mine was about £38 for 37 hours. The youth of today know nowt eh! Thats m feeling old now
KIMTOON when dave was a young boy he was only makeing £18 a year but dont tell him i told ye
but hes a good lad bought me a pushchair oot of that
Ice your right he is forever going awol .
Simon some of the youth of today still get it tight our new apprentice has been working 60hr weeks from before xmas and doesn’t get paid, and he is one of the most decent kids you could come across
Well I have to agree that wor small squad has done marvelous so far.
But we are rapidly approaching the summer transfer window.
I desperately hope we can keep ALL our key players, and ADD to the squad to give us more deapth next season.
A lot will depend on whether we can finish 5th or not. If we do manage to get europe, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see MAshley dipping into his wallet for a few extra sheckles.
Although we all know that to try and 2nd guess him is folly
Ice pushchairs weren’t even thought of when you were a cub
As for Batty I bet he is to busy with his poker friends
haha, dont think mine’ll be as bad as that (I hope
). But it is minimum wage (£3.68 an hour) so I’ll be making just over thirty quad for one day. Only working saturdays (some week days in holidays) so after a month I’ll have earned myself a fair few quad 
see hoots is saying he brought benny,tiote and carr to the club
benny i knew about but
Balotelli sent off again for the 4th time this season
I hope he gets more than a 1 match ban ffs.
Should have had a straight red in 1st half.
Dont think we will be seeing him in the prem next season. Well not at city anyhoo.
Simon @24 What amazes me is I went out 2 or 3 nights a week ,bought clothes ,had me going out gear dry cleaned and bought records and bus fare as well out of that.And i gave mum & dad half my wages too ! .I think half a pint of lager was 15p back then too ,you defo got more bang for your buck in the past ,I remember my mum &dad paid £3000 for a house in 1970 ,years later my cousin bought it off us ,he sold it 3 years ago for £265,000
Ice@25
ice
yeah just read that myself, seems a bit annoyed about the whole situation still. Seems like he’s claiming to a degree he was the reson why we’re so successful in the league this season
BB
If the tevez situation is anything to go by then he’ll be in city’s starting XI come August. That is of course if mancinni stays/isn’t sacked, which by the cock-up that he’s brought about is unlikely.
Ice have you a link for that ?
Andy@36 I don’t see Mancini staying now ,I reckon there is problems in the background within the squad too .Some of the players must be feeling really pissed off with Mario and Tevez being given so much slack by Mancini .I know originaly he played hardball over Tevez but it seems all is forgiven now.
Balotelli did a leg-breaker on Alex Song in the first half but the ref didn’t see it. When asked if he thought the FA would take retrospective action against Balotelli, Mancini answered “I hope so”.
LOL
@39
KIMTOON aye they say things have moved on,my arse they have moved backward imo money wise,yes ago if you were left with a ten bob note on a monday after top week-end oot you were a rich guy
Kimtoon
big bucks may force your club up the league but it doesn’t provide the kind of passion and team ethic that a modest club like us shows every week.
Funny enough I felt a bit sorry for Mancini I think he has put a lot of time and faith into Balotelli and I think today he has finally realised that he has been wasting his time, in a way you have to admire him for sticking by a player but maybe he has stuck by him for too long
DAVE@37 hate to tell you but org has a report on it
Big Dave@37
http://www.nufcblog.org/2012/04/hughton-finally-puts-the-record-straight-on-tiote-ben-arfa-and-carr/
That was weird, I posted the link for the hughton interview but it didn’t appear
Ice I should have known I guess they will forget to mention that it was KK that 1st sent Hooters to run an eye over Tiote, cause that would make it look like it was KK that found Tiote, as for bringing in Benny and Carr well imo if he couldn’t get his own No2 he would hardly have got much else
Andy @42 That brings us back nicely to Wolfies title
Sorry, but I think this article is very misleading. You’ve used the words ‘small squad’ in your headline, and repeated those words three times in the article itself.
You are giving people the impression that we don’t have enough players in our squad, which simply isn’t true.
I did write about this at some length a few days ago, and I don’t want to repeat myself, so here’s a link to my earlier comment, if anyone’s interested:
http://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2012/04/05/swansea-v-newcastle-stat-attack/#comment-180020
@47
BB…I think Balotelli’s ban could be up to 5 games because of his previous bans this season
Chris G
I think what is being suggested by ‘small squad’ is lack of depth, its not a quantity we’re lacking in players (except maybe CBs) its a general quality of the players that neccesarily aren’t in our XI. We should have better back-up players that williamson and gosling(example, I know we haven’t ‘needed him).
Richie
I don’t think mancinni’s too bothered about the length of the ban, he knows city will only finish second now and is frustrated with mario so will welcome the chance to play other players in his place.
Doesn’t Pardew get slagged off for how he handled Tevez and the other Argie bloke whilst West Ham boss.
Hasn’t done Mancini much good has it, having two radgies in the squad, Tevez AND Balotelli… All the madness and distraction most probably cost Citeh a real shot at the title in the end. Cannot see Mancini getting fired over this, though SAF must be laughing in his Irn Bru.
Chris G@48 I think maybe what Wolfie is saying is we don’t have lot’s of top quality backup like the big clubs do ,so when we are decimated by injuries and suspensions like we have been we’ve coped pretty well .I may be wrong but that’s how I read it.
Richietoon, the ban could even be higher and maybe carry over into next season, since the FA may take into account an apparent off the ball incident which the ref missed and should by all accounts have been a straight red.
Didn’t Mario’s agent come out a while back and say he’s thinking of leaving the PL over the way he’s treated or something or was that Suarez agent .I know it was one of them ,very childish anyway .
Good read Wolfie
Did I read somewhere that AP prefers small squads because they are more managable and that he likes players that are versatile enough so that he manage the players to suit availability.
Seems that way from the outside anyway.
Premandup
It seems to have worked so far, so fair play to him
Andy…tbh Mancini was an arse for letting Balotelli come out for the 2nd half, he was always gonnna be sent off.
MM…hopefully
The trouble is city are paying these mercenary players mega bucks, yet they dont really give a fuck about Man city as a club.
There is no team spirit or togetherness.
Yes they have bought some good quality aswell, but they are a team of individuals.
Mancinni hasn’t impressed me very muh with how he has managed them either.
TBH tho I wouldn’t be very happy living in manchester either.
I also noticed that the big sheik bloke didn’t look overly pleased at the end of the match.
I’m actually really pleased they wont win fuck all this season.
Richie
exactly what I said to my dad, thought at half time that dzeko should have come on for him. milner and barry were shit as per usual, so city need to off these trouble makers and over-rated englishmen and get some quality players who’ll fight for the team and not a player that’ll literally fight just for his ego.
you cant buy teamspirit and work ethic.
Its something that has to be developed and nurtured over time.
There is no short cut to the top. In the end you will get found out.
I’m really happy the way things are growing here at NUFC.
Just hope we can keep it going into next season and beyond.
Dont want this season to end up being a one off, but rather a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
HTL
KIM@54, exactly , that’s what I was getting at.
Andy mag – city still have to adhere to the home grown rules etc
Just like the rest of us.
Agree tho that Barry and Milner are dump.
Mancinni doesn’t seem to know which players to pick from one game to another.
mug
PREMANDUP@57, yeah, Pardew prefers to have a manageable squad based on versatility and quality rather than a massive squad of unmanageable mere stand ins that could potentially cause headaches.
Basically, he’s after a squad that he can use fully , meaning everyone gets game time because they are quality in one position or are quality as in versatile for cover.
I think his strategy is better suited when you consider other teams like Chelsea and Man city e.t.c who have players sitting on their arses picking up hefty wages who have basically lost the will to play after being shelved for so long.
It breeds animosity and dressing room upheaval I think.
They say a close knit family looks after each other unconditionally and a dysfunctional one will be unpredictable.
I’d say Newcastle have that close knit family and long may it continue.
BEARDSLEYS BOOTS@64.
Man City’s players are now suffering due to too many ego’s all wanting prime status.
They have unpredictable players who are either magicians one week or villians the next in Ballotelli and Tevez e.t.c.
They do possess top notch model pro’s as well in the likes of Kompany but it has to be a SQUAD harmony and spirit that carries you that extra mile and they don;t have it because pay packets and status take precedence over the managers team/ squad ethics.
All the money in the world can buy you anything except respect.
It’s like SAF said today in the sundays “You have to be united to win”.Much as Taggert gets on me tits you can’t argue with his comment.
Kimtoon
“You have to be united to win”,
more like
“You have to be Manchester United to win”
Yeah Kim, I was never broke back then. Things have gone daft, but suppose we just have to go with the times. At least things are looking the best in a while Newcastle wise, better than having the money to drink, buy records and whatever else
Manager of the year for Pards from Savage, smartest thing he’s ever said
I would rather we rest Collo and Tiote for this one and then they have 12 days to recover. Marveaux should be returning to training but I think he should just take it easy after the injuries he has had. No need to rush him back this season.
‘James Perch is a fine example of a player that could easily have crumbled under the pressure of being plunged into positions that were basically alien to him’
This isn’t true though is it.
‘Early in the 2005–06 season he found himself at left-back to cover for an injured John Curtis, but has since gone on to play in a more defensive midfield role, and also played on both wings.
Perch mainly played in midfield in 2008–09 but appeared in right-back after cementing himself as a first-team regular again
By the end of the 2008–09 season, he had made a total of 199 appearances in all competitions for Nottingham Forest, playing in various positions including midfield and defence, playing at centre back and right back.’
DJG-Agreed about Colo and Tiote, no sense risking them imo. We should be alright without them anyway…there i go jinxing it.
Good point about his versatility as well, I guess Wolfie meant he may have been uncomfortable playing in those positions in the Premier League? Strange now how he looks better at centre back and certainly in midfield than he is in either full back position…
DJG, hate to nitpick, but it doesn’t mention centerback anywhere on there, does it?
Totally agree though that we don’t need to rush Colo or even Tiote back for tomorrow. Although I would rather not see Gosling as the one to come in at CM for Mr. T. Would prefer Vuckic or Abeid just because they seem to have better ball control and class, whereas Gosling just sort of runs around all over the place and doesn’t quite know what to do with the ball at midfield.
Oops, just saw the cb playing at the end.
Anybody else worried that we’re flying so high right now that the lads will take Bolton for granted? I know that i am!
AT – Yep, same. Kind of an after the lord mayors show feel about this one. Will happily be forced to eat my words though
Yeah, toonsy! Would love for the lads to come out hungry tomorrow, but I just can’t see it after doing so well against supposedly better teams.
Although Pardew probably realizes this too, and being at sjp should help. I also think it will help that Demba Ba probably desperately wants to get in the goals again!
Toonsy, I’m going to attempt to write an article for u tomorrow before the game. We’ll see how that goes, but just wanted to give u a heads up.
AndrewT – No probs mate. Just send it through
Just remember a lot of deviants read this so you have to be careful as they will twist anything and make is sexual. I just had to chance “a real good hammering” as I know Richietoon will giggle over his breakfast if he reads that
Re Bolton….we’ve not actually smashed anyone this year unlike last year, and if memory serves Bolton served us up a 5-1 at their shithole…would be nice to return the favour like
Still, these are the matches we usually lose, i’ll take a 1-0 I guess
Last year they smashed us at their shithole Newkie, this year we did them 2-0.
We won’t be taking Bolton lightly, we are focused on getting that euro spot first and foremost.
BB…agree….and Toonsy, yep did have a little giggle
« Newcastle v Bolton – Premier League match preview | Tim Krul: “The good times are back at Newcastle” »