FLIP FLOPS OR TURNING POINT ?

kimtoon

flipflops
After the shambolic display at Everton there needed to be a vast improvement against Arsenal. Newcastle were rightly slated by fans and pundits alike, given Evertons form of late and mid week outing in Europe it wasn’t out the way to have expected a point or 3 from that game. Newcastle being Newcastle don’t do things the easy way though and simply didn’t show up on the day with Gary Lineker suggesting they already had their flip flops on for the summer.
It’s pretty safe to assume the majority of us were expecting a proper mauling at the hands of an in form Arsenal and some fans even said they wouldn’t watch such was the worry it could be a very embarrassing scoreline. Well what a pleasant surprise we got, ok we lost and we did fall apart for the two goals in that crazy 5 minute spell but second half we were outstanding and truth be told no one could of complained if we’d gotten a point from the game.
I’m still baffled how we can go from being utterly useless as a unit to completely united in one game but this isn’t the only time this has happened, we also saw it under Pardew. The funny thing is that under Pardew we would be great first half and awful the second, leading many to wonder what got said at halftime!
John Carver came out after the match to say how proud of the players he was and rightly so. What ever he said at half time, and he alluded to comments about pride in the shirt, it certainly worked. The difference was simply amazing, especially considering this was a patched up team.
So is this a turning point, do we actually have a team capable of attacking and creating chances and goals that get bums off seats? Or was this just a flash in the pan performance bought about by the fear of yet more ridicule from the fans and pundits? Is there actually some pride and sense of something to play for or are we deluding ourselves?
St James Park was rocking second half on saturday and I for one haven’t heard such noise for a long time. This cannot of gone unnoticed by our owner who was watching in the stands. I wonder how much he wants that atmosphere every home game? Just a couple of astute transfers of real quality in the summer and no more daft loans and sales and we could yet have a team to get back that wonderful atmosphere on a regular basis and maybe even turn St James Park back into a fortress again.

By KIMTOON

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287 thoughts on “FLIP FLOPS OR TURNING POINT ?”

  2. I spent all afternoon cutting up an old carpet with a Stanley knife incident free, then cut my finger open on the lid of a tin of kidney beans 🙄 I swear them lids are welded on. 👿 If it wasn’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.

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  9. Kim and Ice maybe with serving my time when I left school as a baker turned me of pastry. Though I do like an odd melton mowbray 😉

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  10. KIM aye saw that,pie in the sky if anyone thinks he will change,more chance of Dave getting a round in 😆

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  13. Saw an article today in the Chronicle saying we’re interested in a Serbian striker but as soon as I saw £15m rated I stopped reading…

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  14. I really don’t understand this situation with the 5 at Rangers. Papers are saying that Bigi didn’t even have a medical at Rangers before the move and he is unlikely to play at all this season.
    Why wouldn’t you want to keep your injured players under the watchful eye of your own medical team to monitor their progression?
    Or is it the clubs way of telling them that they aren’t wanted and should find a new club?

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  15. Sharpy I think the 5 players were sent for 2 reasons

    1 it made Jabba look good that he would help them out and swell the numbers.

    2 he was hopeing that haveing to pay the 40k loan fee then paying their wages would make rangers use up the 1st part of his loan, meaning they would have to draw down the 2nd chunk of the loan, and in doing so would entitle him to have another 2 men on the board , and trigger other clauses .

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  16. Dave – quite possibly option 2, but Ashley was never going to make himself look good sending 5 duds out on loan.
    I could understand if he send 5 fully fit players who could have improved their season, and pushed for their promotion – as unlikely as that would have been, but at least it would have given the fans something to get excited about and may have changed some of their opinions on him.
    That said, nobody knows better than us toon fans that Ashley doesn’t care about what fans think.

    I think it was either a case of letting the players know they aren’t wanted, or a show of muscle to the Rangers board – as in ‘if you need players, I can get you 5 in the drop of a hat’ – therefore I’m the best man to run the club – only that didn’t work.

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  17. I seriously doubt any of the under 21 players will make it to the first team. Why, because we are in the 2nd division in third place.

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  18. Looks like we might miss out on Ayew. Free transfer, good leader, everything we need but Mike and Lee have better options. AS IF

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  20. The “treatment” of Jonas is an interesting topic, footballers at this level are paid handsomely and know that their careers can take them from club to club, country to country at the drop of a (relegation/change of manager/change of owner/change of financial direction) hat. So I don’t think any of them should be surprised by a move, even if they don’t actually want it themselves. I don’t think Jonas has been “good enough” for the side for a number of years, and for people like aarons to come on people like him needed to move on, particularly as he is on massive wages and was on the brink of a bumper payout/contract clause (supposedly anyway, won’t be any clarity from either side on that I doubt)

    Where it gets sad/shocking is the cancer bit and how it all ties in – all seems a bit dodgy and unclear to me. My main gripe would be with the club doctor who failed to diagnose it. I’m still not entirely sure on the timelime of events, but clearly the club didn’t provide the kind of pastoral care you would hope they would show, especially as Jonas has always been a great lad and top professional for us, regardless of his ability.

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  21. How far are falling behind medical wise I see another toon player had to go abroad to France for a opp on his knee?

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  22. Stem – where have you read that we have gave up on Ayew mate?

    Newkie – if Jonas was fully fit, then I would totally agree with you that it was right and fair to try and move him on.
    However if the club has done that knowing he was receiving treatment for Cancer (which Jonas says they did), then that is the problem I have with it. Going through all that, the main thing he needed was stability & support – neither of which were given.
    What I find telling is that the club have taken no steps to either deny what Jonas is saying, try to shut him up, or fine him for slagging the club off.

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  23. Do you not think maybe its Ayew who has better options ??

    There will be a host of clubs offering him pre contracts

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  25. Much better contracts and a much healthier option of playing success. Ayew won’t come here.

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  26. Apparently Bigi has Hep c which is why he can’t play in Scotland, different rules for Scottish FA to ours.

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  30. If Ayew ends up here I will platt fog! He’s a top player on a free transfer so will command high wages. That rules us out as other teams will have no issue paying them.

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  31. Stuart79@255, agree 100%, anyone believing that line about Ayew really is deluded.
    ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE …..

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  32. How many is this now that get injured and they say will be out for a week or two and then it turns into months – Ryan Taylor, Abeid, Haidara, De Jong, Aarons, Bigi, Krul, Elliot. That is on top of long term injuries to Steven Taylor, Dummett, Obertan, Cisse, Tiote. I am probably missing somebody.

    What are our medical staff doing. Haidara’s injury was a month ago, did it take them that long to diagnose that he needed surgery, and why in Lyon?

    Did the club Doctor go to Medical School or Clown School?

    The Jonas situation highlights their incompetence but so do all of the rest. Seems to me that we need a complete overhaul of the backroom staff and that includes the coaches because this all cannot be bad luck. They must be doing something to stress our players’ bodies to cause so many injuries? Maybe it is bad luck, but there are a hell of a lot of knee injuries and thigh strains at our club.

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  33. Instead of flip flops or a turning point possibly we’ve hit another flopping point? It’s that time of the season when we usually flop mightily and sink in the table. No depth in the squad, which leads to few wins in the second half of each season as injuries and suspensions mount.

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  34. Really poor player management is just one of our major failings. The number of long term injuries is ridiculous. It means huge problems going forward because Mike is a notorious cheapskate on top of that. We’ve got numerous players that no other team wants. Who will take players like Obertan, and made of glass Saylor off our hands? Who would want Riviere after this season? Ferreyra will obviously leave after being totally useless on loan. We should be a comedy club not a football club.

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  35. To build a top 10 competitive squad we would have to do the following: get rid of Obertan, Saylor, Willo Riviere, Fereyrra, and Gouffran, and retire Jonas (respectfully), That’s 7 players. We would need 2 top CB’s, 2 top strikers, and 2 wingers immediately. That would be around 35M-40M pounds straight away in the summer. A new manager/head coach (what a joke), new coaching staff, new medical staff brought in as well. Does anyone actually believe there is any chance at all that will happen under Ashley? So prepare yourself for another bottom 10 finish next season, if not outright relegation if some of our better players get fed up and leave as well.

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  39. The tea lady is always priority one with Ashley Stem mate. After that comes paper recycling from the bogs, sacking staff to save money, and lowest priority of course is players. We will definitely be looking hard into loans in the summer as well as picking up any free transfers available as long as they don’t want reasonable wages. After that comes finding a man stupid enough to come in as head coach with no power to do anything. A busy summer for Charnley and Ashley then. :mrgreen:

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  41. Never fear mates we’re only 8-10 good players, a good manager, a good coaching staff, and a good medical staff away from being a top 6 side! And I just saw a cloud of moths around Ashley as he opened his purse. This summer is going to be so exciting! Not.

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  44. G2 I have spoken to Mike Ashley personally and it’s 50/50 at the moment in the head coach department. Alex Mcliesh is his number one target but Carver is on standby just encase.

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  45. Ashley like’s Carver but he opens his mouth to much to the press. Ashley doesn’t like and wants someone who only talks about football matters on the pitch basically. Alex Mcliesh would just do what his told.

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  47. There is money available Stem mate. But it’s in the Salvation Army donation pot and Mike has to plan a way to get it out.

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  48. G2 I think most fan’s on here will be over the moon when Alex Mcliesh is holding up the Newcastle scarf at SJP with a big smile on his face.

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  51. Dave, ok, good idea. Hopefully the accounts will be out soon and someone can do a thread on it. 😉

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  56. I wonder if the toon players really do have to pay there own medical treatment ? Haidara operated on in France, out for the season.
    I suppose it’s not unusual to prefer to be operated on in your own country, despite the fact that you play abroad… the players aren’t short of a bob or two, so a jaunt back home for a quick op is probably no big deal…

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  58. Munich, He does mate, wish he was ours. It’s been ages since I liked many of the England players but I like him and will enjoy watching him.

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  59. MM, What they all saying about that Plane crash ? Can’t believe that co-pilot did that, horrific.

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  60. Kimtoon, it’s horrendous mate, too sad for words.
    It could have massive repecussions because the bloke had interrupted his training a couple of times due to illness, yet still managed to find his way through the Lufthansa training system…
    The whole country is in shock..

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  61. MM, I bet. I was talking to our Hazel about it. I said, it’s sad enough for those folk to lose a loved one but if it’s an accident at some point you may accept it. To then find out that there was absolutely no need for them to die that day just compounds the grief because anger takes a hold. What ever must of possessed him to take so many with him, that’s not suicide it’s mass murder. Very sad and it will change air travel, yet again.

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