We all wanted some big name additions this summer but it looks like the capture of Merino will be our best piece of business. He has adapted seamlessly to the Premier League and is already becoming a key part of our style of play and potential success this season. Maybe it’s the legendary Newcastle 23 shirt rubbing off on him…
Style of play
I really enjoy watching Merino play. He joined us with a reputation as a classy ball playing deep lying playmaker with a typical Spanish style, centred on ball retention and excellent vision. He has showed these qualities of course, but it is ability to also break up play, low centre of gravity and awareness of English football so soon that has really impressed. There is a purpose to his play and his ability to pick a pass adds a new dimension to our game. Being left footed also gives us a nice balance in the middle of the park.
@mikelmerino1 vs West Ham (h): pic.twitter.com/KEwzflbWrz
— John (@jbxnufc) August 27, 2017
He seems to be getting better with each game and this has culminated with him being awarded the Newcastle player of the month award for August. It may have been frustrating at the time but the Shelvey sending off may have been a blessing as it gave Merino the chance to come into the side and flourish. It will be interesting to see if Rafa plays them together this season.
Already a fans favourite
Newcastle fans are already taking to Merino, with his own chant already appearing. He has also conducted some grounded and level headed interviews this week too, including stating how grateful he is for the opportunity Newcastle have given him. I have no doubt it was the influence of his countrymen Rafa Bentiez that persuaded him to come to Tyneside but, now he is here, a real rapport with the fans appears to be blossoming too.
Impact
Merino has been superb ever since he came on a sub for his debut against Spurs during the opening day. I even thought he showed real promise against Huddersfield despite the idiotic comments of ex- Toon failure Souness for Mooy’s winner. However, he has really came into his own the last two matches and has been integral in us picking up six points. A great stat was released from Squawka football showing his impact already:
Mikel Merino for Newcastle in the Premier League:
Most passes (150)
Most tackles won (8)
Most interceptions (7)
Most take-ons (6)⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/XUV6rHFe4A
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) September 14, 2017
Is he here for the long term?
It is widely reported that Merino is on a season long loan deal from Dortmund which costs us £2m as a loan fee and if he plays more than 20 games, it automatically become permanent for a further £6.7m. Under £9m for such a talented 21 year old is an absolute steal in today’s market, where the likes of Sam Clucas are going for £16m.
He looks the real deal and I am sure Rafa will be trying to get him to 20 appearances as soon as possible. Once made permanent, it would mean he either stays for the long term and we have a fantastic player or we can charge potential suitors an extortionate fee.
What have you made of Merino’s performances so far?
Again:
Happy Birthday Lewis.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Thanks Eric 🙂 , he’s gone off with his new nufc shirt on to day centre with a very big chocolate cake 😎 He’s still coughing like a forty a dayer but hopefully he has a nice party. Well remembered by the way.
Simon, thanks for the thread, I think Merino is gonna be a class act for us going off what we have seen so far and could well become a firm fans favourite . Stoke are a bit of a strange team, capable of giving us a torrid time or being very ordinary . They are very much a Sparky team, dogged and determined most of the time.
KIMTOON(Quote)
These threads are like buses now… 😀
Merino looks to me to be an excellent player. Typically Spaniard.
Will be our player of the year.
Stuart79(Quote)
Agree Stuart
georgio(Quote)
Cheers Simon. I agree Merino has made a great start. Makes a mockery of players needing to adapt to the PL.
shamrock(Quote)
The energy levels he and Hayden have brought to midfield have changed our team.
georgio(Quote)
I have always liked Hayden since he joined. Great attitude and work ethic. Worried about the lack of cover for him.
shamrock(Quote)
Happy birthday Lewis
Good m/f player can play two roles,think a good word for Richie this season he seems to have put another 20% into his defending this season
Icedog(Quote)
Happy Birthday to Lew ?
shamrock(Quote)
Icedog: you were saying that Stoke had only taken up half of their allocation. They are not the worst fans in the world. That is Real Madrid.
I was at the Bernabeu (I know) last year and they were booing Ronaldo. He scored 2 goals in the last 5 minutes to shut them up. Now they are booing Gareth Bale.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Imagine if at NUFC you had a player who scored a goal to take you level in the Champions League final against your cross-town rivals and you go on to win it? A year later you are booing him!!!! And Ronaldo scores a goal a game for them and they were booing him.
Being an NUFC fan I just couldn’t believe it. It would be like booing Shearer or Beardsley.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Just watching the final images taken by Cassini before it crashed into ******. Wow, stunning close up images, what a great probe it’s been, top marks NASA . 😎
Can only hope Toon serve up such a feast for the eyes this weekend.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Classless
KIMTOON(Quote)
Bleeding pilot hasn’t turned up! Suppose to be in NYC at 1630! Looks like it’ll be straight to the hotel and straight on the town.
Suspect only Irish bars will be open at 10am in the morning for the “soccer”
Eric, fly over and we can have a few beers. You can scroll through the thousands of comments to try and find that supposed comment that riled you so much recently. 😳 😀
Stuart79(Quote)
Living in Chicago, you know what I would like to see on here? A perspective of an NUFC fan who went to an away game and watched the match. The sights, the sounds, the stories… A vivid explanation of what it was like to be there. From the drive/train down to how it was a pain in the **** to walk from the train station…
I go to a pub and watch games with Yanks who never really had a connection with NUFC but have been to SJP. I talked to a father and son last year, probably 55 and 30 and they went to a game and said that they were in the city centre later with scarves on and people heard their accent and wondered why they were there supporting NUFC. Long story short, they said they didn’t buy another drink all night.
That’s what I would like to see on this blog. I like what they are doing but it would be good to get some personal stories. Something different than the inane ***** the Chronic normally writes or Uncle Ed’s view from 3000 miles away in North Carolina.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stewie: I don’t stay riled for long.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Also, the Irish bars only show Liverpool and Man U 🙂 Just look up the local NUFC supporters club and go there.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Since it really quiet again I will tell you a story about a match I saw in Chicago 20 years ago. At a bar in Chicago when you didn’t really get much football over here. The Dalglish team.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Cologne fans putting Arsenal shirts on to trick their way into the ground last night, bloody Colback has been doing that for years at the toon
Icedog(Quote)
Cassini and the two Voyagers have held me interest for a long time. Sad to see it go.
shamrock(Quote)
So, I go to the bar and it is 8 am and see this Irish guy I vaguely know who is a boyfriend of someone my wife knows. He is there ordering drinks and I say – get me one, holding out a tenner. He says “**** off you Geordie C@nt”.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
You’re obsessed.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Of course Man U gave us a beating so he was in a much better mood later, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind that he was such a ****.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So, cut to a few years later, and the FBI arrest this guy after him and his wife move to Colorado and deport him to England where he has a warrant for rape in Manchester. It was a clampdown after 9/11 where the FBI were looking for dodgy people.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Bear with me, as it has been quiet on here and I thought I may as well tell a true story about a Man U fan.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It appears the rape charge may or may not be solid but his wife quits her 200k a year job a year and moves to Manchester so she can be close to him whilst he fights it from Strangeways prison. It takes a year but he is acquitted for lack of evidence. However, his US visa is still revoked to they move to Ireland and she becomes a shop assistant.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Is there another football connection Eric? Well, yes there is…
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Being the fantastic Man U fan that he tells everybody he travels to every game from the West Coast of Ireland. An arduous journey that takes a couple of days normally. But they live in the countryside, and Ronda, now his American wife has a horse and a dog to keep her company.
Me and my wife visit and it is beautiful countryside and the horse is nice.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
ERIC Ime assuming you got no problems with bad storms that hit the USA ??,feel really sorry for some people that lost everything,does the government help those people in anyway??
Icedog(Quote)
Meanwhile, his now American wife is writing everybody she knows to petition the US State department to let them back in to the country as he was acquitted. But to no avail.
GET TO THE POINT ERIC.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So, the Man U fan who went to every game from Ireland… It turn out he had another family in Manchester that his American wife didn’t know about. The football games were a front, a scam.
She finds out that her life had all been a big lie and moves back to Wisconsin and brings her horse back as well.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
http://www.itv.com/news/2017-09-15/ex-footballer-clarke-carlisle-reported-missing-by-family/
Hope the lad is ok
Icedog(Quote)
That’s the weirdest TRUE story ever, so I thought I would share since it is so quiet on here.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
No problems in Chicago. The Government have appropriated lots of funds to help. That is a good thing except when a similar thing happened in New Jersey the Texas senators blocked the funding for that. hypocrites.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Wow. What was their reason?!
shamrock(Quote)
That’s **** mate
Icedog(Quote)
Flight now 1900! Only the 5 hour delay! That champagne and bar will be getting some hammer on the flight!
Stuart79(Quote)
Me too sham, love all that stuff, painted the lads chimney breast with a massive nebula, took me 22 hours (not all in one go ) and his other wall has a massive solar system I did with 3D planets that I made. Will be sad to leave it behind when we eventually move. Have to hope someone with a mad science kid moves in who can enjoy it.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Ted Cruz said that the bill had things in it that were not related to hurricane relief but he is a lying scumbag. Some of the funds were to help repair the damage down the road and were not for immediate relief so he said it was a government handout. He and the rest of the congressmen from Texas effectively killed the bill.
It is always like that over here. That the Republicans hate Government and paying taxes until something happens to them.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If you don’t know who Ted Cruz is, he is sort of a USA Nigel Farage. Everything he says is for his own benefit and 99% of it is a lie.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Bein sports Arabia is showing the game tomorrow
Icedog(Quote)
Sham: there are lots of statements from Congressmen in NY and New Jersey saying that they will vote for disaster relief for Texas even though the Texas caucus blocked the same aid for NY and NJ. Their reasoning is that they, the NY and NJ congress members, are not c@nts. You can look it up in places like The Washington Post or The New York Times.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ice: NBC sports over here show every PL game so you should be able to get an illegal stream.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Oh I will get it somehow mate I can get any game anywhere,but cannot put it on here how,sorry
Icedog(Quote)
I can get all USA sports,basketball,Baseball ect ect
Icedog(Quote)
Brighton vs Bournemouth, 1st half. The most boring game in the history of football. I think there has been 1 shot – Defoe, off target. Both playing a high press and cancelling each out, meaning the game is essentially being played in the middle 3rd. If we are not better than both of these piles of shyte then something is seriously wrong.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It is like watching 2 fat Mackem lasses (are there any other?) in a hair pulling contest.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I was bored silly so turned it off,pity I was kinda looking forward to it
Icedog(Quote)
Ice: it has picked up a bit but I am not impressed with either team. I have no doubt that with Rafa as manager we will be above both of these teams.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Looks like it has 2.1 now Ibe seems to have lifted the game a little,but aye think Rafa will have their card well marked
Icedog(Quote)
Glad I watched it. Everybody is playing the high press now. I trust Rafa to figure out how to beat that. The tactics for both teams were exactly the same – high press, hope to win a corner or free kick and score from that. When ahead, high press for 5 seconds and then go back to 2 banks of 4. That was Steve McClaren’s philosophy. I am far from being a tactical genius but I could see what these 2 teams were about.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
McClaren was such a fcking idiot that he told the other teams what he would do. He said that if his team lost the ball in the opposition half they would try to win it back with the high press for 5 seconds (exactly 5 second like they all had their I-phones on) and then drop back into 2 banks of 4.
I know the other managers could probably have figured out what his “tactics” were but you don’t have to tell them!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So nobody liked my Man U “fan” story. Let me summarize. I had met him a couple of times through my wife, but saw him in a bar to watch Man U vs NUFC cup final and he called me a Geordie C@nt. He then moved away to Colorado with his wife but was tracked down by the FBI and deported for an alleged rape he had committed 10 years before. Was put in Strangeways for a year and his wife quit her very well paying job to go over to Manchester and support him and write letters on his behalf. Finally, he was released and he went back to Ireland because the USA still banned him. The 2 of them lived in idyllic bliss for about 7 years until the American wife found out he also had an English wife and 2 kids and his trips to see Man U were all a front. She moved back to the USA and brought her horse with her.
Could be a movie script.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Joselu will score the winner against Stoke!
Sure as ****, if you sell a disgruntled player, they come back and haunt you! Watch out Stoke! ??
Aussie(Quote)
So what you have to do boys is either wear your i-watch and look at it constantly as it ticks to 5 when we lose the ball, ignoring everything else the other team is doing, but run around. And for those of you who cannot read the time on English watches, there is an easy answer – count 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi etc. until you get to 5 and then immediately come back stealthily into 2 banks of 4 so the opposition manager doesn’t notice.
And for you African players that is 1 hippopotamus, two hippopotamus etc.
Do I make myself clear?
Run around a bit, count to 5, 2 banks of 4.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That was my Schteve tactics session in case you didn’t realise.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I promise you, that’s what Schteve’s tactics were. He said it many times. Lose the ball, try to get it back for 5 seconds and then drop back and defend. And he was England fcking Manager and coached Man U to a treble (although Bayern should have been 6 ahead before that lucky comeback).
Eric Sykes(Quote)
2 hippopotami? No, stop confusing me. Lose the ball, run around for 5 seconds, 2 banks of 4.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
What sort of banks Schteve? Barclays? Blood banks. Banks of the river Tyne. What sort of banks boss? Can I go to the ATM and get me some cash for some more bling?
NO, NO, NO. Two banks of 4 after 5 seconds. Not Barclays, not the Tyne, not blood. Who fucking mentioned hippos and Mark Twain anyway!!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So, to be perfectly clear – when we lose the ball you go to the blood bank and donate for the children in Louisiana who are suffering on the banks of the Mississippi due to being sat on for 5 seconds by hippopotami and needing to find an ATM to buy more bling and defend.
GOT IT !!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
OK. It is a big game tomorrow and me, Schteve, Mr. Roy and Ray Lewington will take a cruise up the Tyne and leave Wayne Rooney in charge as we prepare for Croatia. No, I mean Iceland. Poundland?
But Wayne Rooney doesn’t even play for us Boss.
On the bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond…
Eric Sykes(Quote)
A minor technicality boys that Wayne Rooney doesn’t play for us! What he brings is a winning mentality, a Captain’s attitude and a slapper at 3 in the morning.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Good insight again Olly from your interview with the Stoke lad.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
😆
KIMTOON(Quote)
NEW THREAD
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2017/09/16/newcastle-vs-stoke-pre-match-thoughts-team-news-predicted-line-ups/
Today’s matchday preview vs Stoke
Here’s hoping for another win lads – will be a far tougher test than our last home encounter me thinks..
Olly Hawkins(Quote)