Mehdi to go?

Mehdi ready for first team?
One of the key performers for Newcastle is undoubtedly Cheik Tiote.

In short, when he plays well the whole team seems to play well. Consequently when he has a more subdued game the rest of the team seem to follow.

This may be cause for concern given that Tiote will be away with Ivory Coast at the turn of the year as the African Cup of Nations gets underway. However it seems that plans are already in progress in terms of finding an able replacement for Tiote, and that replacement will come from within our own squad.

Now don’t panic. Alan Smith is not the one who has been earmarked to replace the temporarily departed Tiote. Instead we will apparently be looking to young Mehdi Abeid as cover for Tiote.

“He’s in my thinking when Cheik goes away. I’m gearing him up for that period,” Pardew told the Sunday Sun.

“His progress continues. He scored two for the reserves the other day and he could find himself jumping ahead of one or two others, we’ll see.”

Abeid started the game against Nottingham Forest in the “Tiote” role, and I imagine he’ll be doing much the same in midweek when we face Blackburn in the Carling Cup. In fairness he played rather well against Forest, although he did tire towards the end, and I can see why he is being groomed as a stand in for Tiote.

To me it makes sense. Abeid is highly rated and is impressing behind the scenes, more so than the likes of Dan Gosling and Danny Guthrie it would seem. Personally I thought that one of those two would be the top candidate to fill in for Cheik.

Apparently not.

Is Mehdi the right man to replace such an important player? Do you think it should be somebody else? As ever let us know your views.

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.

105 thoughts on “Mehdi to go?

  1. I think we should play our “shadow” side eg
    Harper
    Santon, perch, kadar, ferguson
    Gosling, vuckic, Abeid, Marveaux
    HBA
    Shola

    should be good enough

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  2. Bit surprised when I saw the title to the article… 😯 But I see he’s not going anywhere!

    He should be a good replacement and look forward to seeing how he performs against Blackburn (assuming he plays)..

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  3. I think Abeid is most prepares to offer a similar game as Tiote. Maybe not as physically dominating, but he reads play well and has excellent touch on the ball

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  4. toonsy you always seem to manage a title like that. Coincidence mewonders? :mrgreen:

    I would like to see a strong side, I wouldn’t make wholesale changes, just the odd one or two that are pushing the first team maybe.

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  5. Chelsea are playing Arsenal when we play stoke. We could be top 3 after 10 games 😯 but beating Stoke away wouldn’t be easy.

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  6. Wow city beat United 6-1 holy ****. Is that there biggest loss since we duffed them 5-0?

    SAF is getting sacked in the morning 😀

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  7. He was the worst player on the pitch against Liverpool during the week. Will be interesting to see how he does against Blackburn. He has to start!

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  8. And chelsea lost. 😈

    Whoa,Almost All chelsea players are booked.wtf
    What is happening to the likes of Liverpool,Man utd,chelsea this week. 😆

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  9. For wednesday with our next game after that not till Monday I would go with
    Harper
    Santon
    Saylor
    Colo
    Ferguson
    Tiote
    Cabbaye
    Abeid
    Vuckic
    Ben Arfa
    Shola

    harper

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  10. Agree with most of that Toby but I’d take cabaye out as he was a doubt for wigan. Put in gosling maybe? And marveaux for vuckic with him and sammy on the bench

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  11. I wonder when Man U and Chelsea last lost on the same day in league games, bet you would have to go back a few years.

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  12. Id say so mehdi is much better than guthrie and goslings not a ballwinning break the play up type of midfielder , I have to disagree with people who think wholesale changes is ok for wednesdays game its to important with a place in the quarter finals at stake i would like to see santon mehdi marquex and hatem start but not the likes of perch ferguson or shola .

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  13. the lad is 18 years old..lol…only playing him at reserve level…….1 or 2 years at confrence and lg 2 and 1 is the way its going now(if you can twist a managers arm at that level ,as its very competetive to get the kids a 1 to 3 month loan in most cases)…..when this lad goes on a loan spell then you know alan pardew is considering players for fringe to first team.

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  14. alright lads, been playing footie today. Only just come on, I’m not sure about this to be honest. The lad has a lot of quality but I don’t see him as a central midfielder, I thought he was more of a winger than a CM

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  15. It was a friendly but we lost 8-1, pretty rubbish tbh. Nearly had one go in the top corner but the goalie just managed to catch it 👿

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  16. Zoe you’s got a bigger thumping than Manure 😯 that must hurt 😀
    As for some saying that Mehdi is better than Guthrie and Gosling put together How do they even know how he is going to play in the Prem, or where did they watch him to come up with the idea that he is that good ???

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  17. Dont really get the title Toonsy?! If Abeid is being groomed for Tiote’s role then I dont understand where Gosling fits into the picture. Obviously Marv ans Sammi have the wings covered for the minute, leaving Guthrie covering Cabeye and Vuckic covering Benny when we want a 4-5-1, but where does Gosling fit? Unless he can challenge Guthrie for his place, in which case one of the two will be off this summer. I know Guthrie’s contract is running down, so actually thinking ‘out loud’ it could be the latter who should be worried…

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  18. Evening lads and ladesses what a day can’t wait for motd level on points with Chelsea haha!

    Wonder if our run of 3 fixtures against big 3 will be billed as ‘title contenders’?!? Of course I jest but can’t believe we are still there.

    On abeid I actually think he is going to be some player. I like gosling but he really can’t get a look in for some reason which all seems a bit fishy to me? Any thoughts?

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  19. they say theres no smoke without fire,but the report in the sunday sun that pardew is trying to play down that benny wouldnt play for ressies at swansea saying it was a mis-understanding,bloody strange to more so when he went on to to say we have to be careful how we handle this player?????

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  20. Sham im pretty sure that Guthrie will be heading for the exit door in Jan. tbh i wont blame him as I think he has a lot of potential and could be a regular for a bottom half team

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  21. Hmm Dave, I like the lad but reckon you could well be right. A lot of the readers from the article I did on him a couple of weeks back thought he was worth keeping in the long term, but our midfield has really jumped up a notch this year. Be a case of thanks for your efforts Danny and best of luck for the future….

    Like you say, he’ll do a good job at a ‘lower half’ side…

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  22. I thought abeid was more of a winger aswell. I can remember the video’s you guys put up when he first joined, he was on the wings then.

    I hope Sammy, Ferguson and Vuckic get a game at Blackburn. I think that plonker kean will go all out to win this one to get some of the fans of his back.

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  23. Dunno if guths will be too missed hes very injury prone but much better cover than smith!

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  24. @Ice

    Thought that was a bit strange aswell but did he not leave that game to go visit a sick family member?

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  25. Icke what I heard was that he was withdrawn to go back home, but that the club had forgot to remove his name from the submitted ressies team sheet ❓

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  26. I think we should play our strongest team possible at Blackburn in midweek.
    We’re one step closer to Wembley, and we don’t need to go experimenting at this stage, let’s keep the momentum going.

    Perhaps HBA, Santon and Marveaux to get a run out, but Blackburn are at home, are a tough nut to crack, and need to be shown the appropriate respect.

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  27. MM your right mate we need to be going for it, but tbh I dont see Benny, Santon, and Marv as taking a chnce which is a good thing 😉

    Ice your right once he gets the uniform on he turns into Inspector Blakey

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  28. Batty 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

    Spot on mate…that MM is ***… 😆

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  29. Big D…you’re right mate, I don’t see those three lads as taking a chance. Cannae wait for the Blackburn game to be honest, as with all toon games at the moment..

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  30. We have to play our strongest team for the league cup. We aren’t bloody Man Utd .
    A cup would be unbelievable !

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  31. Couple of comments about the title…

    As you can see by the article there is no hint of him leaving, so its nothing sensational. Merely a play on words.

    Mehdi to go = Ready to go

    As in ready to go for the first team….. 🙂

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  32. Fair enough Toonsy, got to admit it does look a bit controversial but who cares – the content is quite clear! 🙂

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  33. Shamrock – I was going Mehdi ready to go, but you can’t have ‘ready to go’ in a title without attracting the attention of some misguided mackems and, frankly, they can go bollocks 🙂

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  34. I have read Toon fans claim we dodged a bullet with Gervinho. Well, I had the pleasure of seeing him live today and he is superb. He is a bit inconsistent, but incredibly hard to deal with. We would be a force right now if we had him on the right. 🙁

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  35. Haha no we can’t be having that Toonsy! 😆

    Re: the Blackburn game, i’m in two minds. Think I’d prefer to see a mixed side of defensive stability with acouple of the fringe/youth players getting a run around further up the field. They need these games for fitness, confidence, self worth and experience…

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  36. KID he cheats a bit like m8 but still a canny player 😉 ,but i will say this the fans rave about benny and maybe rightly so,to me they will get a shock when marv gets into first team and up to speed imo he is a top top player “if”he settles in PL, plus he hasnt got the probs maybe benny may have 😉

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  37. Couldn’t be doing with Mackems man. Just had one on the way down explaining how they’d turned a corner… I reminded him that they are still ****. Won’t be long before they roll out the yuro bandwagon though 🙂

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