Pedro purrs as Santon prepares for Wolves

toonsy

Santon to be thrown to the Wolves
There are two good things to have come out of Wales recently.

The first, as ever, any road out of the country. The second, and arguably most important to us Newcastle fans, is the news that Davide Santon came through the reserve match against Swansea last night unscathed.

Santon managed the full 90 minutes in Llanelli yesterday evening in a match which saw Peter Beardsley’s reserve team outfit beat their Welsh counterparts from Swansea 5-3. Defending was evidently not on the agenda for either side in that one. However I can report that despite conceding three goals our Italian U21 Captain had a very good game and very nearly scored, three times in fact. It’s also worth noting that he wasn’t at fault for any of the goals conceded and that pretty much nothing got past him all game. In fact his performance left Pedro positively purring as he reflected on another win for his reserve outfit.

“I thought Santon was excellent,” he told the official club website. “He very rarely gives the ball away, joins in well, he’s two footed.”

“When I look at him – and I don’t want to put people’s expectations too high – but when I look at Maldini, he plays the same way. He’s obviously nowhere near that level yet but he reminds me very much of him, the way he wants to play, the way he wants to bomb forward, and to be fair to him he’s quite happy to defend.”

Pedro continued: “He’s very clever. He’s a good footballer, there’s no doubt about it. To be a right-footed left-back, you’ve got to have confidence and he has.”

“But he’s two-footed, he’s very two-footed. I’d say possibly his right’s stronger, but overall I’d say he’s very two-footed and I think the manager’s made a good decision there to buy him.”

It’s not the first time that Santon has been compared to Paulo Maldini. Jose Mourinho once compared him to the illustrious Italian left-back whilst other notable names in football have been quick to heap praise on the youngster. Time will tell whether or not Davide can show his immense potential, but I can only think that moving to Newcastle and not having as much pressure on him will be a good thing for him.

The fact he came through 90 minutes last night and has a whole week of training behind means that he goes straight into the matchday squad for the weekend trip to Wolves. He probably won’t play from the start but I see no reason why he won’t make an appearance from the bench. Let’s face it, he can play in enough positions to warrant an inclusion on the bench. However let’s not get carried away as a space in the squad is an improvement. Here Alan Pardew confirms that Santon will travel with the team to the Midlands.

“That is probably the biggest news we have had this week, because he (Santon) has managed to get a week’s training and also play a game with that knee,” said Pardew in his pre-match press conference.

“That more or less signals to us that that problem is behind us, and therefore he will be in the squad for Saturday.”

Pardew then went on to tell us a bit more about Santon, only without the Maldini comparison.

“He’s very quick and he will want to get forward. That goes with what we have here, I have always said that I want to add some pace to the team.”

“He’s as quick as Jose Enrique, who was quick indeed, and we have Gabriel Obertan to throw into that as well on the right.”

The return to fitness of Santon will mean that the Newcastle squad almost has a clean bill of health. The only casualties of not will be Haris Vuckic, who is back in training, and Mike Williamson who is still a couple of weeks away from returning to training.

In terms of injuries, things are most certainly looking up at Newcastle right now.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

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101 thoughts on “Pedro purrs as Santon prepares for Wolves”

  1. Glad to hear he’s travelling with the team, going by what little I have seen and what I have read, I have very high hopes for the Lad 😉
    Toonsy nice to get the wee 😐 😆 😀 🙂 😉 back

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  2. The sooner he gets in at left back the better for everyone, Ryan Taylor can’t be trusted at all playing there – he gifted Blackburn their goal and he was completly out of depth against QPR. Not that it’s his fault though he has given his all and he should be credited for that, but at this level you can’t afford to have such lack of quality in defense and get away with it.

    Expect Santon to be on the bench against Wolves then start vs Spurs.

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  3. Sorry to harp on Barton.

    Rod:

    read the Evening Standard interview and you will see he believes his own hype and most of his stuff is not tongue in cheek.

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  6. Just a thought re the previous thread (sorry) & the west ham article…I wonder if the story about those ‘birds’ going back to Nolan’s with coke wasn’t entirely as it seems. 😯

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  13. Cant wait to see this little gem play.

    The feel good factor is strong at the minute and im loving it 😀

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  15. I dont buy that Joey ‘doesnt care what the media think’

    I believe he’s either totally deluded or he thinks he one step ahead of the media..

    Probably deluded, esp when he speaks of Henry saying ‘he’s always putting his foot out trying to hurt ppl’ this is the guy that kicks, thumps players all the time + his off field antics are even worse, assault, burning eyes with cigs etc

    I wonder if Barton will ever reveal all about ‘what goes on at our club’, he was probably full of **** and nahs nowt interesting…

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  18. Lace Daemon Ian @12

    I thought Barton was our best player pre-season.

    .mmmmwaaaaaaaah-hahahaha

    😆

    GS@14, I’ll have a quick sniff (and no, Titus isn’t at my house)

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  20. …and I’ll post my Barton comments on the other (relevant) thread anyway, if any. Best not to play straight into his hands and give him too much attention (while he sits at his desk, stroking his white cat, fingers poised over the crocodile bridge release button).

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  22. Rod:

    I just think the cult of celebrity has gone a bit too far with Twitter and Facebook. The way people get worked up about Big Brother is mental.

    And who cares what hand Rio Ferdinand wipes his Ars* with.

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  23. fingers crossed he gets up to speed asap and to come into a winning team hopefully the pressure wont be as bad for him………………

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  25. Aye, you should be, I actually have a picture of Megan Fox on my wall, my mam wants me to take it down tho 🙁

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  27. GS, it’s just a sign of the times mate. Football and showbiz used to run in tandem, now they’re much the same thanks to the advancements of technology.

    Someone once said…”Everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes”

    …the old pasty crater-face obviously didn’t see the internet coming. 😎

    Fair play.

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  30. And Toonsy,many ppl seems to focus on santon recovery,but it seems some forgotten another player.

    GOSLING? 😕

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  31. With their playing ability level, Titus Bramble had to ensure he went down as a worse player than Emile Heskey……………To be fair he’s taken being caught in possession to a whole new level :mrgreen:

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  32. Personally can’t wait for Santon to start.

    Really glad he seems to be raring to go.

    Sick of the fkn NUFC injury curse. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of it.

    (apparently Pardew curled a brownie oot under each corner flag in August to banish the demons, so am told)

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  35. AoD, everyone is focused on Santon because that means a quality player at left back. We already have plenty of quality in midfield.

    Gosling should be pushing though. But to be fair he is currently facing Ben Arfa, Marveaux, and Sammy for time on the bench, let alone starting. Guthrie is challenging him also! There is just a lot of depth and quality in our midfield right, which is great for the cup games so we can rest people but still put out a good side

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  36. Rod 😆

    Beardsley said the other day that Gosling was in a “lull” ……now whether he meant fitness wise or attitude wise who knows, either way he probably doesn’t think the lad is ready for the first team yet.

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  40. Rt- you ignoring me for a reason? Ide rather have one of your abusive comments than be ignored! 🙁

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  52. Rich – I dunno what he paid with, but he went to the bar with his buttoned up and came back without said buttons. Merely speculating of course…

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  53. Anything that looks good, maybe city sky lines, I want a good one of the tyne bridge and surrounding areas actually.

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  63. Richie, wor Peytar could’ve said anything to be honest. I can hardly understand him. “in a lull” could translate to “been awful”, or “Liverpool” or “on Halaal”, which would suggest young Danny is dining with Cheick, Demba and the Islam lads.

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  66. Spencer…Alternatively there are loads of art studios near the cluny & I’m sure there’s a weekend in November when they’re open to the public. Not cheap tho

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  67. Spence if you click on the print galleries button on the site it’ll show you a few.

    Rod……very true 😆

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  68. Spence….think there’s a shop in the metrocentre that does them and think I remember seeing one in Eldon square, possibly at the monument entrance

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  73. Not really interested then ice 😉

    Witters, I like them with a bit of colour in them but fire away 😛

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  75. Spence, most print shops will print anything you want onto canvas, it’s pretty standard nowadays.

    Divn’t nah what kind of canvas yer after, but if yer just after some canny artwalk ye can pick up a lot of good original posters and screen prints through OMGposters.com – quality blog that leads to some crackers, if you’re into that kind of thing.

    Frame-wise though, this site is fkn ace for building custom frames, and cheap too:

    http://www.eframe.co.uk/

    Anyway, aye, Santon is mint.

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