Could the result at Everton be the spark we needed?
Our start to the season I think would probably be described as ‘sluggish’. Even after the opening day display against Tottenham I was still not overly impressed. So far this season I think Hatem Ben Arfa has been the one to stand out and has played some great football which has in turn helped out his team-mates slow starts.
Yes, football is a team game but so far this season and even up until the second half of the Everton match we have not really had that fight and determination in the team which helped us into 5th position in the league last season.
I was not been impressed by our performance against Chelsea, I think we went to Stamford Bridge prepared for the slaughter, we never put up a fight against them and we just seemed to roll over and obviously at that standard against players like Eden Hazard and Juan Mata you cannot afford to do that or you will be punished.
Also against Aston Villa I think we forgot all about our game plan and fell victim to the way Aston Villa setup in that game which was in a very defensive manner. We stopped playing our game and got to caught up in how Villa were playing, kicking it long and hard tackling, at home we should definitely be looking to beat teams of Aston Villa’s standard.
Newcastle are going to have to get used to teams coming to St James’ Park and setting up to try and take a point from us or hit us on the break like West Brom did last season. If we are going to be competing with the top clubs we need to figure out, just like your Manchester United’s and Chelsea’s, how to play against teams who stick ten men behind the ball and try to frustrate you.
Everton was a very strange match in my opinion. In the first-half we were non-existent and Everton should have really put the game to bed, but when we came out in the second half we looked like the team we all loved to watch last season, we had great attacking flair and looked solid at the back, Pardew had obviously installed some belief and confidence into the lads at half-time.
I think the Everton match will definitely give the players back that belief and confidence which we seemed to have in great quantities last season and help us really push on, not just in the league but also in Europe, I think the game would have reinstalled that never say never attitude from last season and we won’t fear any opponent going into any match.
Howay the lads! Onwards and upwards.
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Solid at the back second half? You really should of conceded 3 goals.
Everton should have convered 2 or 3 in the first half in fairness. Yes they dominated that half, but they still fell asleep at times and it was only poor finishing that saved them. No arguments with the ref cocking up on the. BLues’ 2 2nd half goals though. Albeit was it baines who pulled Benny back on the vreak? Whoever it was should have been sent off, so the game could have ended very differently if it weee not fir a poor ref on the day. It was a good game fir the neutral though!
On subject, yes I think the Evertin 2nd half performance combined with a win against a poor Norwich side today will certainly be a catalyst to push our boys on
Good read Connor I don’t think it was as much a hard fought point but more a lucky point with some help from the ref.
Sham it would be good if we get the points of Norwich today and maybe even beat them tomorrow aswell
I certainly hope so Conor , think getting the draw the way we did may feel like a win to us and give us a boost ( I know such a cliche ) , but be in vain if we dont get 3 points tomorrow. I hope Chris gets a reception he deserves.
Good article. Agree that we were lucky but still the lads played very well in the second half. If we get a win Sunday I think we can take off in the league a bit. If we’re sitting 2-2-1 after this weekend with the schedule we’ve played it would be hard complain.
Sounds good to me Dave
Newcastle were played off the park as a neutral coming from a neutral for both sides everton deserved to win baines and pienaar ran the show an everton were unlucky not too be three or four up at half time. Pienaars shot were Osman was unmarked and had acres of space the defence need close these down faster same thing with anichebes goal he was allowed to turn and shoot when the defender on had to hold him up. Newcastles first goal was a decent finish but Howard should of got down to save it 8 times out of ten Howard saves them second goal again Howard didn’t stand his ground came rushing out jumping about though ba had more than one optoin were to put the ball. Both goals were clear bad refereeing cost everton the 3 points but to come from behind twice was a big ask though they did it. That draw must feel like a loss for everton as they ran a good 60/70 minutes of the game but there a very good side now with just as much quality as every other team outside the top 4.
Dave @ 7 I think that is a fair assesment. Everton were robbed on Monday night , we will take the point and not say too much about the goals that never were , but if was other way around Id be raging. I do think second half was more even than you suggest and I think Ba took his second goal very well. Showed a lot of composure to slot it under Howard.
On the first goal, I think Howard was surprised that BA took that shot from there rather than take a touch and try to beat the defender….
off topic for a mo,just saw fig that toon got 54.2mil for that top 5 finish last season from PL
55mil? That is a nice bit of coin!
Dave, get over it mate
Ice, have you finally finished cutting those hedges yet?
Ice & Johno > Just a pity they couldn’t of spent a little of it on a CB
Knowing now they have coined 54.2m makes me even more exasperated with our penny pinching 
.
Aussie> News of that 54m has left me glass well empty
I reckon we will be up for it tomorrow! ! Specially with all that money in the bank
3 nil to the Toonsy 
No wonder Ba wants 90k a week ,he must know about the clubs big payday
Out of interest, anyone know how much our gates and merchandise generate in comparison to player wages and other running costs? I assume TV income/prize money accounts for a lot of our outlay? I lknow nothing about the ins and outs of the finances, so without seeing it in black and white I think shouting and screaming about our spending is ignorant.
Aussie> A win tommorow and their could be some fluid in my glass again
I’ll ask Mike to buy you a brand new glass that is full Kim, he is loaded
3 nil to the Toon
not Toonsy 
(THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)
There’s no getting away from it, we’ve looked pretty average for the pre season and this season in the premier.
However, we also looked pretty average a lot of last season as well.
It seems we rely on the goal scoring ability of Ba & Cisse as the rest of the team don’t contribute enough with goals.
Ba & Cisse saved us from some hopeless displays at times last season.
Our midfielders don’t get anywhere near as much as they should when it comes to goals.
I’ve said it for ages and nothing has changed.
£55m for finishing 5th. That’s why I feel cheated that Carr, Ashleyand co haven’t found that elusive CB to replace Willo for the past 2 seasons.
Hopefully the second half of the Everton game was our kickstart.
We were SHITE in the first half, I was expecting a rout by the 30 minute mark. For me that was largely down to Marveaux being useless. I’m not gona get my Marv mallet out just yet but for a player who I expected lots from this season he’s shown very little for me. He doesn’t see that arsed.
The game changed in our favour in the second half (after Marveaux left the pitch and Ba came on), and we looked a completely differernt side. I’m sure it wasn’t just down to the subs though; Pardew must have kicked some ass in the changing room.
For me though, we don’t seem to be grabbing the bull by the horns from the off. We seem to be slow starters (90mins-wise).
The vast majority of our goals seem to be scored in the second half, or at least after the half hour mark. I don’t know if this is tactics or not
but I want to see us come out of the blocks in the first half like a whippet on crystal meth, not a cow on smack.
I suppose we’ve had a tough start, fixture-wise, and of course we’ve got the bonus of fixture congestion this season too. Well, at least FATBOY stuck his chubby fkn knuckles in his shit-stained jeans pocket this transfer window!
….ah, hang on.
We were rubbish against Maritimo too, far too many wasted chances, far too many useless balls in from Obertan. They looked like a league 1 side. We should have put 4 past them.
Hahaha, I started writing this in a moderately jovial mood, and it ended up as a rant.
…as for all this Ba nonsense. His agent needs a fkn slap. Shit-stirring bastard.
(is Harry Redknapp his agent?)
Shamrock@18 ,I’m actually really shocked we got allo that for 5th place ,it’s a hell of a lot of cash .Got no idea on the other revenue we get ,i’m sure someone on here does though.
Feckin hell, look who has just sobered up
I dont know how many times I’ve said this, but Obertan is shite. A headless chicken who’s legs are too fast for his brain. He has been here long enough. 1 decent game in 10 or 15 is not good enough at this level. He’s not a scapegoat. He’s just not good enough.
Yep Obertan won’t make it.. He just doesn’t he stuck in enough.. lets the game simply pass him by..
Everton absolutely destroying Swansea now. Maybe we can admit they are a good team who started brilliantly now and it wasn’t just our players being terrible?
Morning, Oswaldo.
….been working this last couple of weeks, hence my lack of posting.
Eds article shows the 54m was the TV and prize money total for 2011/12. But we don’t have the full financial figures for that season figures as they haven’t been released yet.
The full season numbers he released are for the year ending June 30, 2011, our first season back in the Prem. It says we lost 4m without transfers but profited 30m when transfers are counted. This obviously is due to the Carroll sale but doesn’t include the Nolan/Enrique sales or ba/cabaye/cisse/santon/etc. Those will show up on the next financials
As a rough guestimate I’d say we are spending £24 million per annum on player wages. Then there are staff wages, travel costs, running costs, hotels etc, security, promotion costs, debts, transfer fees including agent fees, club running costs and potential charity costs. Probably more costs on top of that.
Is the £54m prize money taxed?
Just how much does Llambias earn by the way?
I’d guess that when all those things are factored in, we dont have a lot of change. Merchandising cant generate a great deal, we dont have the global appeal of a lot of our competition….
Sham@32, I tend not to bother even attempting to work all that out mate.
For me, trying to work out the club’s ‘spending money’ is a futile exercise. I’m sure some on here could give a half-decent mathematical analysis, but it’s all guesswork really. I just look at it from the layman’s perspective. A higher league finish (more successful season) means more money to spend on players in my naive eyes.
…can’t believe we’re still talking about Ba leaving anyway, less than a month AFTER the transfer window shuts.
Yeah I agree Rodz. Just find it frustrating that so many get so pissy about lack of spending when they, like I, do not have the foggiest when it comes to how much money the club actually has free to spend. I am not aiming this at anybody in particular by the way, it’s a general observation that I’d love to understand and join in on – but I’ve not seen anybody produce any cast iron facts to justify the constant digs regarding spending…
Swansea are getting absolutely chinned by Everton and they have less possession at home, compared to the 80% or whatever crazy possession it was against us. So a point at Goodison looks a great result and can’t all be down to luck.
Steven Pienaar and Leon Osman are two great little players that cost Everton very little.
Imagine if we had Pienaar on the right wing and Baines at left back with Santon shifting to the right.
Yeah Shamrock, I admit I was pissed off at our lack of spending in the summer window, but in all honesty I ain’t got a scooby how much (if any) is in ‘the pot’. I just see potential improvements/holes and expect them to get filled. It makes sense to me, as it hugely strengthens the club’s chances of keeping up their positioning through a little investment I.E. 15m on a CB and a CF increases the liklihood of it getting paid back through a higher league finish. For Fatboy the billionaire gambler I expected a different approach to the window just gone, really. But he seems to favour ‘gambling’ on us not fucking up, rather than speculating to accumulate.
I can remember something being said about £20m a year on players quite a while back, and expected that to be our transfer wedge. Dunno where that came from anyway. I might have dreamt it.
JJ
Pardew said that the left flank of Everton was up there with the best in Europe. At first I thought he was being silly but I can see what he means. We used to have a good left wing not so long ago.
morning Rodz
glad to see you are earning some legit coin and you are no longer stealing and hocking wheel barrows 
Rodz each league position is only worth lime 550k I think and it will be vesting 5th
If the club really intends to break even each year the only way we will see 20m spent on new players is if we sell players and reinvest or end up in the champions league
Now that Man U have signed Buttner, I just wonder what our chances of getting Patrice Evra are. He would have to take a hit in wages but surely we are not worlds away.
DJG, Evra
where did you pull that one from 
Rod I think that 20mil figure was from when Ashley first bought the club. And with all our trial and tribulations from what I remember he decided that he was not going to put that money in anymore and we had to be self sufficent and live within our means. I could be wrong but that is how I have it in my head how things went
AMF
Dunno, just a thought. I didn’t realize he was 31 though, I thought he was younger than that.
Yeah johno that was also before he put the money in with the loan
Here is a link to the last Toon finances (2011 – the 2012 accounts will be out next March)
http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/newcastle-united-life-in-northern-town.html
The key points are that in 2010-11 we earned £49 million from media (TV), £16 million from commercial and £24 million from gate receipts. We will have earned a bit more last season due to higher finish so £55 million is probably about right. It sounds like a massive sum but it’s only £6 million more than last year.
Even with these figures our turnover in 2011 was £88 million and we made a loss of £4 million (and that includes the Andy Carroll money). TV money accounts for 55% of our revenue so by far the biggest earner for the club.
I’ll wait to see the next accounts and see whether the club made a profit but it’s not just as simple as looking at what appear to be huge TV monies and assuming we can afford to splash £20 million or so on players.
Johno @43 – that’s right. Ashley subsequently found a black hole in the accounts due to the fact he didn’t do due diligence and Shepherd had hocked the club up to the eyebrows. Ashley has had to stump up £140 million in loans to the club to keep it viable (about £40 million of that was due to relegation for which I guess you could lay the blame at his door). Fortunately there is no outside debt and Ashley is not getting interest otherwise we would be paying £10-£11 million out just in interest to the banks.
)
Shamrock @32 – the last accounts showed the highest paid director was paid about £220k from memory. This was almost certainly Lamearse. It’s a lot of money but peanuts compared to what Shepherd was taking out. Ashley has taken nothing out at all (bar some free advertising for SD
3hrs, regarding your last sentence. Cheers for the link. Yeah I know the ‘never that simple’ rule should always be taken into consideration.
Oz@39, who said “legit coin”?
Huge demand for wheelbarrows at the moment. And pushchairs. 
Johno @43 yeah that rings a bell mate.
MDS, hhhm, yeah I guess
….who knows, as I said I don’t bother trying to work it all out. I’d rather just moan when we don’t strengthen. 
Seeing the FFP ruling starting to take effect is sure to shake a lot of clubs up as well. At least it may see outrageous player transfer fees (and agent fees!!!) start dropping to more realistic figures.
I’d like to see them scrap the transfer window too once it all kicks into place.
SHAMROCK @26 i agree oba will never make a PL player imo,ive never rated elliot but he had a good game mid-wk,but then again one swallow doesnt make a summer ive seen him play a few games and he was crap,the one that fell well below par for me was marv he “was”a top player what has gone wrong beats me
…dunno if anyone else noticed an incredibly tanned Lee Charnley sat in the stands against Everton anyway? It looks like he’s been laid up on a beach in the Bahamas or somewhere all transfer window while we’ve all been visualising him jetting back and forth to Belguim, Holland and France.
oba couldnt cross the road never mind a good cross into box
Everton have blown Swansea away and the scoreline doesn’t do them justice. Swansea must be dying for the final whistle by now. They’ve really been taught a harsh lesson.
I hope Everton get a few injuries. It sounds bad, but if they keep their first XI fit they’ll prove themselves a much better side than us and will secure top 5/6. Their most important player is Pienaar. Since he has returned they look twice as good. Not to mention the lethal partnership he has with Baines.
Cheers 3HW, most informative. Re: £220k for a director, still silly money, but to be honest I imagined he would taking an aweful lot more than that!
….Marv hasn’t looked happy to me Ice. Pre season too, just looked like his head wasn’t in it. Who knows eh? I’d imagine if we have got some unhappy campers he’s one of them though.
I know i’ve said it numerous times, but Marveaux needs time. Remember Ben Arfa when he returned from injury? He did little apart from lose the ball, but everyone knew how good he was so he was given time.
Marveaux is a lesser player than HBA so will also need time and probably more of it. He looks shot of confidence right now and just needs a run in the side. He is a very clever player and would give us more balance in a 433.
People will refer me back to the Everton game, but Everton were fantastic in that first half and seemed determined to prove some kind of point. Couple that with a player out of form and low on confidence and you end up with a poor performance.
I hope he gets time against Norwich.
I have always maintained Sir Alec rarely if ever lets a top talent slip through his fingers and Obatan bares this out. So much pace and so little football brain
Would of been better the other way round tbh. The only other thing I would suggest is play him central rather than the wing.
Ice – I’ll tell you what’s gone wrong with Marv – He’s played 1449 minutes of football in the last 2 and a bit seasons. That equals 16 full games in that period. He’s way under match fitness, probably lost some pace not to mention his touch, confidence and muscle memory.
It will take him a full season to acclimatise to the Premiership (if he can stay fit that long) – otherwise he has no chance of making a significant impact for us.
Problem is, because he’s so out of touch with the English game and has not had a decent run of games at any level in so long – using him as an infrequent sub will not really sharpen him up much.
To be honest, the only way I can ever see him coming in and being a solid part of our team is loaning him out for 6 months 1st team footy somewhere – and hoping he stays injury free during that time…
Rodz
I must admit I did smirk to myself as I typed ‘legit coin’ 
Ice, take it easy on Oba, he can cross the road but he struggles to get past the bloke in front of him
life can be a bitch
The wife is at the match tomorrow in the Bamburgh Suite entertaining her customers (free drinks and food).
Meanwhile I will be stuck at home babysitting the bairns
The ironic thing is, she bloody hates football
NOT HAPPY !!!!!!!!
TGS. Just pretend to be one of her customers. Problem solved
The Kid@55> I would agree ,he needs time to really settle and get confidence after his injury ,also he’s another who likes to come in alot I have noticed.
I think if you could pick a team from Everton/Newcastle, you would be top 4 trying to win the league.
———- ———Krul——————
Santon–S.Taylor–Collo–Baines
Ben Arfa-Cabaye-Tiote–Piennar
————Fellaini———————
——————Ba———————
Howard, Jagielka, Simpson, Jonas, Mirallas, Osman, Cisse
Tgs@59> That’s not a bad idea from MDS@60 ,worth a shot I’d say
What are people’s thoughts on Steven Taylor?
I think he’s been poor this season. He is making poor decisions in terms of positioning and marking, I think Colo makes the lad look better than he is.
KID stardust will love you
Kimtoon
Yes, he does love to cut in, which is probably another reason why Cisse started ahead of Ba against Everton. Pardew probably felt Marv and HBA cutting in and providing through balls would be perfect for Cisse, who is best used running the channels/breaking the offside trap.
However, it was the wrong game to test it out. Norwich at home would have been a better game for it, but Ba scoring a brace has knocked back our 433 hopes for a while longer and we’ll probably see 442 again tomorrow.
THE KID
Well, Jagielka is supposedly an England international and I thought S.Taylor looked stronger in the air and made more effort. He got turned for the Anichibe goal, but it was a good goal. Jagielka let Ba get a simple shot away unchallenged and Ameobi beat him in the air with his chest.
Here is a link to a previous Swiss Ramble article on Toon finances. It is interesting to see the state of the club when Shepherd sold up and how much he took out along with the Halls. I think anyone reading this can see it was highly likely the club could have folded:
http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/newcastle-uniteds-finances-in-black-and.html
“In contrast to Ashley, the former owners did very nicely out of their investment in Newcastle United, thank you very much. In fact, they absolutely coined it with the Halls (Sir John and Douglas) receiving a total of £95 million over the years, while the Shepherds (Freddy and Bruce) had to make do with £55 million. The Halls’ money comprised £55 million from the sale to Ashley, £20 million from previous share sales (to NTL and the club itself), £15 million from dividends and £5 million in salary payments, while the Shepherds’ money came from £38 million Ashley sale, £7 million dividends and £5 million salaries.
“Another fine mess he’s got into”
And what was the result of these staggering payments? After years of rank bad management, they left the club in an appalling mess: a £30 million loss; £70 million of debt plus £27 million owing transfer fees; extremely limited borrowing capacity, as all assets and income streams had already been used to secure loans; and a bloated wage bill of ageing mercenaries on generous long-term contracts.”
MDS, that wouldn’t solve TG’s babysitting issue though.
…nothing a couple of pairs of stilts and false moustaches couldn’t sort out though. They could tag along as client representatives.
There ye gan TGS. Sorted!
…reet, speaking of facial hair. I moustache.
Laters peeps, take care of yersells, and each other.
DJG
Thing is, I’m not just on about this one game, against Villa he made some really silly decisions too.
RE Jagielka: The Everton defender may not be as strong in the air, but he is certainly the more intelligent defender.
The Kid
There has alway been the debate about positioning and footballing ability with S.Taylor. He’s not the most polished defender in Europe but he gives 100%, he is strong in the air and I prefer him to Williamson tbh. There are worse defenders about.
A lot of Everton fans were expecting Jags to be dropped for the Toon clash – as they held him largely responsible for the West Brom defeat. I would disagree he’s any better than Saylor.
Re: Saylor, he’s never been the most intelligent – very prone to the odd baffling kamikaze move – however he gives us something nobody else does – proper 100% committment and vocal input fo the full 90 minutes. For that reason alone – he’s vital to our cause.
The KId > Yeah I think 9 times out of 10 we will start in a 442 as it seems to be Pards prefered formation for what ever reason .
.That’s the chemistry of two players linking well like Piennar and Baines for instance at Everton ,lose them two and they will struggle. Saylor tends to take more risks without Colo by him and I’m not sure why he does it . 
On Taylor ,I love his guts and glory attittude to defending but without Colo I agree he looks a tad off form .Sometimes players are brilliant in combination with a certain individual more than another. Take Carroll for example ,with Barton and Nolan around him he was amazing but at liverpool awful ,fast forward to a move to West Ham and a link up with Nolan again and he looks great again.
Jagielka was shocking against West Brom , but he responded the right way with a good performance against us. Ba caused him problems, but he would have caused any CB a problem as he had a proper bee in his bonnet. I haven’t seen Ba play like that since Man United at SJP, where he was unplayable for 90mins.
I agree with the 100% comments, but I don’t think it’s enough. I have never been someone to favour commitment over ability. Taylor’s certainly not a poor player, just a mediocre/decent one. He’s certainly better than his performances this season suggest though, I’ll give him that.
Kim I agree Re: Saylor. He and Colo are like chalk & cheese. That’s why they are a great fit. Footballing intelligence & good passing stood next to aerial dominance, physical committment and vocal leadership. A great combination.
Neither of them do as well without eachother as they do with eachother.
You have to laugh, Evertons first goal was a result from a clear hand ball from Fellani.. I wonder if Everton fans will be whinging about referee’s this week…
Kimtoon
You make a good point and to be honest, I can’t really argue with it. It is far too simplistic of me to suggest Colo makes Taylor look better than he is and trust me, I’m fully aware of that. However, I’m lazy and couldn’t be bothered to develop my point further…
Sunderland up 1 nil against w/ham…
Way of track here – but the photograph of Williams & Fellaini on the BBC website covering the Swansea game is a great shot. Real action shot, capturing the light running through the water spraying off Williams’ head/the ball, the expression on their faces and the clarity of the picture whilst fading out the background. Good photogrpahy, full of detail.
The Kid
Don’t worry you can always trust me to bring it down to it’s most basic level of analysis 
Sunderland get to play West Ham when Carroll’s injured. Of course they do.
I’m watching Guthrie toil away. He got what he wanted, better pay and starting games, but it’s going to be a long old season.
Fletcher has done pretty well since joining the Scum…
The Kid >funny I was just thinking that @82
fecking mackem luck that. 
Fletcher has something like four shots on target and four goals. It won’t last. He’s a good striker, but nothing more than a 15 or 16 goal season man. We have two of those
Shamrock – Is that top secret thingy done?
Haha yes mate,
…But you cant show anyone….
…
…………hmm…. 
….ah well…. 
Haha
Southampton are beating Villa, so Liverpool drop into the bottom 3.
Ice – I posted last seasons prize money in an article within the last few days on the transfer window. That’s why I was getting SO het up at the fact we weren’t/didn’t sign anyone!
It’s absolutely criminal that we are ‘making do’ when we brought that kind of money into the club.
On topic – good article Connor, and I would absolutely hope it will be the kickstart to our season. If I were Pardew, I would have spent the week just showing the players repeats of the 1st half – just to ram home how poor they really were.
You get the feeling that all it will take is one game were everything clicks into place and we get back on track. I’d love to see Cabaye get the fire back in his belly and start to command that midfield again, and you get the feeling that once Cisse finds the net again it will open the floodgates again.
Norwich will be nee push over, and I’m sure Chris will be desperate to prove a bit of a point to the board for letting him go. But I really think we need to turn in a good home performance tomorrow.
Troy – good luck to little Chip tomorrow as well, hope he has a cracking day mate (and you too of course)
Get in Nolan on 90mins. Stopped Sunderland going above us…until tomorrow.
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