Why?
Put simply, I don’t know. There are rumours (and there will be a lot of them) circulating suggesting that Kevin Nolan has been informed that he is not guaranteed a starting place in the team next season, which to be honest I can quite easily see. Take his goals out of the equation and there isn’t much else to his game in all honesty.
Now I know people will say that he was our top scorer last, and they would be correct in saying that. It’s also worth pointing out that 25% of those goals came in one game. A memorable game, and one that will ensure that Kevin Nolan has a place on Tyneside folklore for years to come, but it was still just one game.
If anything it’s his leadership that we are going to miss more than anything, or are we? Nolan talked the talk, but to us fans he very rarely walked the walk where it mattered – on the pitch. Quite often games passed him by, but that didn’t really matter (or it’s actually been forgot about temporarily) as Nolan was a popular player with both fans and fellow players.
This is the first chance I’ve had to write about the Nolan fiasco. I was at work on a break browsing on my phone when I first saw the news. I wasn’t overly impressed, but the hours that have lapsed since have given me time to reflect on things.
Am I bothered about Nolan going? Yes and no. Yes because I worry that it may lead to others players leaving, like Joey Barton and Jose Enrique (although I’ve been prepared for the latter for some time now). No because I’ve realised that Nolan is not that hard to replace.
Once again people will go an about his goals, but he only scored four goals since December. Without Carroll, Nolan became almost redundant. We don’t have Carroll for next season either so what would have happened then? Same again? I guess we won’t get the chance to find out.
It will be interesting to see just what Nolan has moved for. The porn barons that run West Ham will no doubt reveal the costs to placate their fans and show them that they are committed to getting the Hammers back to the Premier League. If they do that though they may just placate some of our own fans in the process.
Think about it. I’m pretty **** certain that Nolan won’t be moving for the money, so it’s either a footballing decision (in terms of playing time) or a career decision (in terms of deal length). I’m going to suggest that it may be a bit of both. The usually vocal Nolan has not uttered a word about all this, so he clearly wants to go and is clearly going to get something at West Ham that he can’t get at St James’ Park.
The truth is we are on the verge of outgrowing Kevin Nolan. Yes he has been great for us, but he won’t continue to be great for us and there will soon be better options available. This is where NUFC need to do their bit.
Quite understandably some fans are pensive about the departure of Nolan. I’m exactly the same. What the club need to do now is show that they mean business and get some players in sharpish to demonstrate exactly that. I still hold out some hope that they’ll do just that, which is why I’ll always wait until the end of the window to properly evaluate where we are and, usually, what went wrong.
So good luck Kevin. All the best. Times move on and circumstances change.
Only time will tell if it’s a change for the better, for both parties!
Good read toonsy agree on mostly every point.
Word is Nolans getting 55k and a 5 year deal…Isn’t much difference in wage surely. He obviously wanted the 5 years.
AndrewNUFC(Quote)
Andrew – Exactly. In which case you can’t really blame Nolan OR the club.
Nolan is getting what he wants in terms of stability.
The club have, quite rightly, not buckled to the demand of a five year deal. Can anyone seriously suggest that Nolan would still be worth 55k at the age of 34? I can’t.
toonsy(Quote)
Surprised about that stat that he only got four goals when Carroll left.
Toonsy, a think it’s time you went to bed, your worse than me 😆
dan4toon(Quote)
How can I Dan? With exciting news such as……
NUFCtoonarmy NUFC Group Facebook
Might be really late on this. But I somehow missed it. Wayne Routledge is set to report to pre-season training on the 5th as a #NUFC player.
😆 😆
Nah, I’m off now. Not long got back in from work so just having a chill for a bit. Catch you in the morn 🙂
toonsy(Quote)
And the goals were against, Sunderland, Wolves, Bolton, West Ham.
Granted Carroll was still at the club for two of them games, but he was injured anyways. If you take it literally, he only scored two since Carroll left.
toonsy(Quote)
Good thread Toonsy-I agree that he’s kinda not needed, but I would have preferred it if we’d brought players in before shipping him out. My worry is the same in that it might fully convince Jose to ****** off, which would lead to a domino effect through the rest of us squad and leave us needing to replace a lot more than we originally needed. Still, some have suggested a couple of signings will follow and if they’re decent I imagine the waters will be calmed.
Weird to think almost half of Nolans goals came in two games-Villa and Sunderland, when we scored for fun anyway. Still, I think he’s been a good servant for us and he’s popped up when we needed him. Now if we can just sign Barton up…
Newkie(Quote)
The other thing I’d add to your point at 5 Toonsy is that the majority of Bartons assists came from when we still had Carroll, so this summer could definitely be a case of out with the old (a bit long ball, but not as bad as Allardice) and in with the new (on the desk speedy trickery)
rinton man(Quote)
rinton-I don’t quite agree with that, Nolan may have struggled to find a place in the team but I firmly believe there’s an important role for Barton to play at the toon. His crosses may have become less important due to the loss of Carroll, but he’s also been partly responsible for all the goals from set pieces, good corners especially, and they’ve been crucial for us all season. Also consider he’s out of position on the right and is naturally a centre mid-when he’s played centre mid at both Chelsea and against West Brom Barton basically ran the game for us, made solid challenges and spread the ball through the park. Nolan couldn’t do that, but Barton sure as hell could.
Newkie(Quote)
Later toonsy mate.
Newkie, to follow on…. I’ve been updating this for a while but I think now is a good time to show it;
In;
Matuidi – £11 million
Erdinc – £8 million
Barnetta – £6 million
M’bengue – £6 million
Cabaye – £4.8 million
N.Taylor – £1 million
Ba – free
Abeid – free
= 36.8 million/250k
Out;
Enrique – £8 million
Nolan – £5 million
Ranger – £1.5 million
Smith – £1 million
Routledge – £1 million
Xisco – £1 million
Campbell – free
Kuqi – free
Forster – loan
Lualua – loan
vuckic – loan
= 15.5 million/280k
I know, I’m sad 😳 😆
dan4toon(Quote)
Easy to replace? 12 goals from midfield. If it is so easy why aren’t there loads of other midfielders doing that? A big reason we stayed up last year was down to the excellent team spirit developed over the last two seasons. Nolan was at the heart of that. It’s such a shame they are happy to dismantle the good bits of our team instead of building on them.
Dominic(Quote)
Blimey dan 😀 definitely an exciting list, and even if we lost bodies we’d definitely have more reliable strength in depth avaliable, all across the board really which is the important thing. Ashley would definitely love that list-its realistic and he’d only have to spend twenty mil 😆 Although finding someone who’ll buy Ranger for 1.5 and Smith for 1mil might still be tough, and I’m not even going near Xisco 😛
Would definitely count that as a successful summer, what do you think our chances are?
Newkie(Quote)
I think if its Liverpool(skumbags) who are going to buy Jose we could easily squeeze them for 15 million, too much money on them and no sense, or class
Lobacka(Quote)
Newkie, like you said that list would mean Ashley wouldn’t have to spend loads but the players coming in are quality.
Even if we lost the likes of Smith and Xisco for free, a think Mike would accept it with the wages off.
I honestly do think that that would be a realistic summer 🙂
dan4toon(Quote)
-Lobacka, honestly I’d prefer if he went for less to Barca or another country than if he went to Liverpool, but if it was the difference of 5million then we’d be mad not to take it, 15mil would be brilliant, but I can’t see it happening myself, Liverpool would probably prefer to tap him off and steal him after next season, and I think Jose has been dodgy this season since he’s decided to move, so if he doesn’t sign up now we need to ship him off anywhere we can.
Dan-I think Smith might genuinely leave for footballing reasons if he was allowed, if leeds came in for him I think he’d willingly take a wage cut, I don’t think he ever wanted to leave and although you can’t trust footballers at all he never struck me as a c@nt. Xisco though? The guys a leech…might be able to lose him for nowt or get another loan job somewhere though. Anyway they’re only the miniscule details, we can sell all the players we want, just need to bring them lot in.
Have you emailed Carr with your suggestions? 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Brilliant article. I completely agree. Goals aside, we can probably sign a better player, and indeed probably already have better players in our squad. If there’s one thing that we’ve got cover for it’s central midfield – Tiote + one is the obvious formation choice – so who is the one? Well Cabaye is a central midfield maestro. Gosling has immense promise. Vucic needs a few games. Ples we’re linked with yet more central midfielders so Nolan can be adequately replaced.
There’s no arguing with Nolan’s goals record in the last two seasons, but I agree that without Carroll he’s not been the same force that he was, and we need a player who contributers more on the pitch. To me, Nolan is a 21st Century midfield version of Mick Quinn. I’d have been happy with him staying in the squad for 2 more years, but wanting a 5 year 50 grand a week contract? Forget it! Thanks Kev, and good luck, but it’s time for the Toon to move onwards and upwards…
chris Talbot(Quote)
Newkie 😆
Comolli’s been in touch like asking we want so he knows who to for for Liverpool 😉
dan4toon(Quote)
God I hate that guy, done well for both Spurs and Liverpool…stealing our bloody targets 👿
Newkie(Quote)
Me too, the players he gets don’t need scouting he just goes for the flavor of the month.
If you don’t mind me asking Newkie, where abouts do you live 🙂
dan4toon(Quote)
Ayup, and earns himself a fair wage I’d imagine…why couldn’t it be me?
I’m fortunate enough to live in the splendid city of Newport in South Wales mate. I go to Uni in Reading, be my third year starting in October. Was born in Gateshead though 😀 How about yourself?
Newkie(Quote)
Ah nice 🙂
I was born in South Shields and live it South Shields 😆 so I’m lucky enough to have a season ticket!
dan4toon(Quote)
Lucky ******, I haven’t been able to make a single game this season 🙁 and neither Reading or Cardiff could do me the favour of getting promoted and giving me an easy away day, bellends.
Newkie(Quote)
Typical eh!
Aye a sit next to Andrew, there’s a few others off here who a sit next too but they don’t comment as much 🙂
Next time you go to a home game we should meet up!
dan4toon(Quote)
Ahh right cool 😛
Yeah man definitely 😛 we still have our flat in duston, just up the road from where Gazza’s dad used to live 😀 and we still have family up there so I do get up, but its like a seven hour drive so its never easy to plan like 🙁
Newkie(Quote)
I guess I am not totally surprised that Nolan is going. I think I am ok with it, a bit upset only because of his apparent leadership quality. However, I have to admit that I would love to see either Barton or Colo made captain next season. I do hope that we can keep Barton.
I missed the chance to add in my thoughts all day. I liked JerseyGeordie’s idea of Jozy coming in…been saying that since last year actually.
Also, I don’t think we can judge the outcome of this window until perhaps December, or rather the opening of the next. If this window is a success then we will have no need for a lot of activity in January and will likely be sitting in a comfortable position in the league (top 10 perhaps). If it was a failure, then expect desperate actions, and that won’t be any fun at all.
I still remain hopeful that good contributors will be brought in.
NorCal Toonfan(Quote)
Yeah I can imagine mate.
Right am off, meant to be some decent stuff in the Journal about us 🙂
dan4toon(Quote)
Norcal-agreed there…keeping Barton is key for me, losing Nolan and Barton at the same time is dangerous, even if we replaced them with quality players I still feel we’d be missing something…
Newkie(Quote)
Night dan mate 😉
Newkie(Quote)
NorCal, I really want to get into it and have a conversation with you about that but I need to be up in like four hours 😯 😥
dan4toon(Quote)
Why do people think that other clubs would pay real money to acquire the services of Smith or Xisco?
Alfred(Quote)
Alfred-I think there would be championship teams willing to spend money on getting Smith, maybe only half a mill or so, but its wages that would really mess with them, so the transfer is the problem. As for Xisco, well there must be a spanish equivalent of dennis wise prowling round youtube somewhere…
Newkie(Quote)
Ha! Yeah, it’s crazy though. We can’t give those two away. This is linked to Nolan deal. We can’t have people earning huge wedge and potentially not doing much. That can only be good.
If there is a Spanish Dennis Wise then they should meet up. Hopefully they’ll knock each other out.
Alfred(Quote)
Really amazed that your skipper may have chosen to jump ship. I personally have always rated him.
He always did a job on us Hammers over recent years. I think your owners should have given him an extension on his current contract but your loss etc.
Nevertheless and whatever happens I wish you all the best in the prem next season!
Best wishes
HammerRay 😉
Ray Hand(Quote)
THanks RAy.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
@ Chris
Which ear, left or right, or yours heard that Kevin wanting a 5 year 50 grand a week contract?
Terence Lim(Quote)
Were are we going to find 23 goals next season?
Paul(Quote)
im 50/50 for all the reasons above!!
But i do believe he was an intgegral part of the team spirit?
Possibly the vocal heart of the team. Finding someone to fill his shoes next year should have been done next season. Gosling,HBA, Barton or .. a new signing. but unfortunately for everyone they couldnt agree on whats best for both parties.
At least we are not giving them away like the days of…waddle, gazza beardo etc.
aspengeordies(Quote)
I would have liked him to stay for the team spirit but if we replace him with some really qaulity signings then so be it. Barton needs to stay to take the team spirit up,dont forget got two players coming back from injury which iam glad about,Gosling,Arfa two very gifted players.
Think cabaye will be very good for us he looks a class act and a steal 4.3mill. Get barnetta and Zogbia then we will be very strong in midfield. and we will have probally 3-4 midfielders what could all score quite a few goals between them.
Just sign a qaulity goal scorer ie 20 goals season. : : 😀
hammy/nufc(Quote)
Sold nolan for what cabaye cost so still got 35mill to spend could buy some really good players with this get at least another 5-6 then we would be in a very good position,and maybe push on for europe.
hammy/nufc(Quote)
Well got up earlier and came on line to see if we bought any1 and find we selling nolan disgraceful,the fella slot 10 spot on mate
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Think you lot have got a great player for a promotion push Ray and although Allardyce does not play the kind of football that you lot are known for ,i think he will get you back in the premiership and a club like West Ham should be their . Good look next season and enjoy the promotion party .
Axel(Quote)
Barton in-line for new captaincy?
Then what will happen to Smith? 😯
I am disappointed time and time again,with the timing of the sale of key players…at this point of time,when we are going into 2nd season of EPL after promotion,is not that stable YET.
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
Bollox to the notion that keeping Nolan, Barton and Jose would boost team spirit. By refusing new offers, they’ve set themselves apart from the squad!
lesh(Quote)
Joey Barton has predicted a player exodus from Newcastle after club captain and top scorer Kevin Nolan was allowed to leave for Championship club West Ham for £4million.
Nolan, who scored 12 goals last season, has agreed a four-year deal at Upton Park worth £55,000-a-week, after rejecting Newcastle’s contract offer
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2004007/Kevin-Nolans-West-Ham-spark-exodus-warns-Joey-Barton.html
🙄 😯 4YRS DEAL?!!
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
And guys,do rmb Nolan was having this knee problem for quite a long time.
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
A long way to go yet, it’s not all doom and gloom. If HBA comes back well and cabaye adjusts well it’ll look like good business, a lot of “if’s” though.
jay jay(Quote)
I think 4mill for a 29 year old is good enough look at berba 7.5 and he scores 20 goals in season how i dont know. Think pardew should get some real raw talent in that is young and hungry for succsess
hammy/nufc(Quote)
Nolan, Barton, Ranger, Smith, Enrique, Routledge, Kuqui, Ireland, Campbell and possibly Jonas, thats a lot of change at once to a team and i hope to god they have a plan in place other than slash and burn.
If you add the players we were promised in January that never materialised Pardews “improved squad” will have double figures of incoming transfers.
If not, he will be lucky to organize a 5 a side in training.
Robert(Quote)
Good look next year ray now how you feel but hopefully you will bounce back and enjoy the promotion party like we did. Hope nolan does you hammer fans proud and scores quite a few goals for you.
hammy/nufc(Quote)
smith,kuqi,campbell,did not play nearlly all season anyway as for ranger shows signs but thats it and routledge was on loan all season. Ireland featured one game then shipped back would have liked to seen more of him though. Think we have some good young youths coming through to the senior levell.
hammy/nufc(Quote)
Ray….he was offered a 2 year ext which would have taken him to 4 years but he rejected it, I think the rumour about him not being guaranteed a start next season had more to do with the move.
Good luck next season,make the most of it and enjoy the Championship, we did, there’s some class away days with proper fans who support their “local” team unlike alot of Prem clubs fans.
I’d recommend Peterborough….what a weekend, happy days 😀
Good luck Kevin(if you go).Thanks for the memories.
richietoon(Quote)
You win nothing with raw talent. You need a balance of experience and youth. Look at Chelsea and Man u they have a backbone of experience. Look at Arsenal the ashley model what do they win? ****** all! Ashley proves time and time again that he does`nt have a clue how to run a football club. We are the laughing stock in the tabloids again because of Barton and his gob. I would rather have kept nolan and got rid of the loose cannon Barton he will never change idiot.
Freddie Shepherd(Quote)
jay….that’s the worry, all the “if’s” and even “if” the players who come in turn out better than the players who go out that just improves the team but what about the squad? To improve that we need to keep some of the players who get ousted from the first team to still be in the squad for that to happen. Please get Joey signed up but he needs to get rid of his Tw@tter account because with some of his comments he’s in danger of becoming the rotten apple and if he continues with it then I’m afraid rotten apples get removed. Hopefully his statement yesterday was a move in the right direction. Pardy sign him up, Pardy Pardy sign him up 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Arsenal might not win or won anything for 6-7 years but year in and year out they qaulify for champions league and think they should have won the premier this season just lacked experiance and leadershp. I hope MA and the rest of them no what they are doing.
hammy/nufc(Quote)
What statement was that? That he was leaving Newcastle or later that he wanted to stay after slagging them off. You want somebody as unstable as that to captain the team. I don`t think so!
Freddie Shepherd(Quote)
Yesterday, on another blog, I had a right old blast and let go somewhat with a string of expletives and foul language which is probably still awaiting moderation. I apologise for that to anyone who knows my other blogname.
Like the writer of this piece, I have had time to digest what has ocurred and I too am now totally nonplussed about the situation. We will be bringing in younger, fitter and more potent players whom we all hope will improve things all round and take us forward to our next phase of rebuilding. It’s called change, improvement,or moving on. I am convinced that our supreme being (MA) is gradually turning things around and we all will be reaping the benefits in the not too distant. HWTL
Porciestreet(Quote)
Freddie was that at me?….If so I didn’t mention him being captain and as I said he needs to bin the tw@tter ****, if he doesn’t he’ll be kicked out and rightly so, you don’t slag your bosses in public,
richietoon(Quote)
Just a thought guys- Joey was busy slating the board and claiming that him,Jose and Jonas will be out next,but then almost instantaneously he was on sky claiming that he wanted to be here and he would work his socks off for us and all.Subsequently the nature of his tweets also changed tune to he could understand why the club was doing it añd all that…
What Was the reason for this sudden change in stance?
Did the club get in contact with Joey and tell him that they were willing to discuss a new contract? Are they taking steps to stop the revolt?
deepak is an indian toon(Quote)
Sorry but for me, Barton has to go. You just cannot keep criticising your employers and get away with it.
Is he going to be a bad influence on the squad next season?
Time to move on, bring in younger and better players.
Changing of the guards.
Stuart79(Quote)
Your right richietoon you cant slag your empoyers of and normally get away with it,probally why he has not been offered a new contract.
I like joey he normally says what he feels,but sometimes saying what you feel should be kept under wraps.
hammy/nufc(Quote)
i think we are missing the entire point of the Nolan sale tbh… toonsy is right in what he says about Nolans playing ability etc.. but that is not the issue at all and he is looking at it from our side. Lets look at it from NUFC’s side… just recently AP said that Nolan was a key player etc eetc.. we need to keep our best players and build a squad around them. These were AP’s words. Now Nolan has gone, **** player or good player… i am more interested in the way our club is ran, the thought train behind what makes our club captain jump ship and perfer to play in lower leagues than the PREM. It would not matter if we had confidence that him going would lead to a squad strengthening but even the most die hard of fans will admit that it may well not lead to being a better team. It worries me that our club are happy to let jose/barton/nolan/jonas/colo etc etc all go. They seem to have no plan in place. we are very random and i dont floow what our strategic game plan is anymore. We cant even say its buy young and keep em cos we sell them. we cant say its use the youth policy as we sell them. there is no sysytem or reasoning to what we do or how our board thinks anymore.
craig chisholm(Quote)
Sad to see Nolan go, but the financials, length of contract etc was always gonna be a problem.
I have a fear that too many changes may disrupt the team balance, but until we sign replacements or new players we’ll just have to wait and see.
Anyone who scores a hat-trick against the makkems will always be a toon legend in my eyes.
Good luck Kevin, thanks for your efforts mate.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Richietoon you mentioned his statement yesterday, I questioned which one, he made two contradicting himself. I took it a stage further by stating imo Barton should not have the honour of captaining the team if he reacts like this in public.
Freddie Shepherd(Quote)
Craig, The policy seems to be sell anyone that an acceptable bid is received for.
Robert(Quote)
I agree that MA hasnt got a clue or has he lol but look at when we were relegated we had 9-10 first team players that jumped ship because they were all greedy and our young and some first team took us straight back to the big time but our aim should be building on where we finished last season and thats getting better and not leak as many goals. If we only leaked half of what we did last season then we probally wouldnt be in this postion,and be in europe because we would have won more games.
hammy/nufc(Quote)
Well if we do buy a replacement I hope somebody keeps tells Pardew about it.
Brisvegas(Quote)
Craig 60 you are right it is not just a case of slagging the fat man off for the sake of it. it is identifying the fact that they don`t appear to have a clear plan/startegy in place. A bit of communication from them might help!
Freddie Shepherd(Quote)
See there’s a few rumours re: Matuidi comng to toon including the president saying toon is an option
If we sign Matuidi for anything between 10 – 15 million Tiote is obviously being sold, Matuidi is a defensive mid and no way would Ashley spend that sort of money on a backup and highly unlikely to play both as that would mean dropping cabaye
How much you reckon we’ll get for Tiote then?
4411(Quote)
Freddie….I agree and doubt he would be made captain with the **** he comes out with on twitter. The only statements I read were the ones he apparently said on twitter when he was obviously p!ssed off with Nolan apparently going and did himself no favours, for me they should be banned from using the bloody thing. The other statement I read was the one on Sky with him “seemingly” backtracking a bit.
Stuart…as you say you can’t slag them off and get away with it and as I’ve said if he continues then he’ll have to go before he drags the rest down, but “if ” we are going to bring in a load of new players we are going to need a plan b if they don’t gel right away, plan b though will be hard to implement if all the components of it have been sold on imo.
richietoon(Quote)
The plan seems clear to me: Bring in players who play a fast paced possession game.
So far only Nolan has gone – probably the least fast-paced possession player we have.
Brisvegas(Quote)
richie… i dont think we even have a plan A ffs…so far everything we have done has been the opposite of what AP said he wanted to do. its a bit funky man… just last week AP said that Mike Ashley wanted to see stability ahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahah!!!
craig chisholm(Quote)
i think this poses one big question…..can we now classify ourselves as a selling club??
many of the arguments against this have now been made redundant! i think we need to take our heads out of the sand and admit it as painful as it may be
buddy(Quote)
Ritchie,As I said on a previous blog I find it embarrasing ,a supposedly grown man gibbering on like a schoolgirl on twitter.I certainly wouldn’t want him as a captain of my team.I honestly think Joey as undone a lot of the good work he as done in the last couple of seasons.He was my favourite player last season,but some things should be kept in house.
Mick G(Quote)
Yeah, buddy, we’re a selling club – we have, after all, sold 1 person. But we’re also a buying club, because we bought 1 person.
Brisvegas(Quote)
@69… the entire sqaud is de-stabalised dude. Nolan has gone,, they tried to get rid of barton but wont budge… jose will not even discuss new deal.. they want smith gone, AP has said no future for routledge..jonas said jose staying is vital for him staying.
There is no amount of spin you can put on it that will deflect from the fact our club is still in a constant state of flux and turmoil with zero direction YEARS after ashley bought it. Its not getting any clearer or better.
craig chisholm(Quote)
Only Nolan has gone.
Brisvegas(Quote)