Could Euro 2012 benefit Newcastle?

Cabaye and Co will be fighting for an international place
It’s shaping up to be an exciting year of sport, but as I don’t really have any interest in the Olympics I’m instead going to focus on the European Championships to be held in the summer.

I’m not even looking at England. No doubt they’ll do the usual early bow out of the competition amid a frenzy of scandalous headlines and shocking behaviour.

Instead I’m looking much closer to home, at Newcastle in fact, and at something that could stand us in good stead for the second half of the season, particularly when you look at players such as Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Tim Krul and Yohan Cabaye .

All four of those will want to be away in Poland and Ukraine representing their countries at the European Championships. Realistically though only Yohan Cabaye is what can be described as a near cert for the French squad, but even then he has to make sure his form doesn’t drop. Tim Krul is on the verge of the Holland squad and may get a call up although he faces competition for a place.

The other two have been forced out of the international through injury mainly. Hatem Ben Arfa used to feature regularly for France before he suffered his horrific leg break last season whilst Davide Santon has also been capped for Italy but a lack of first team games meant that he lost his place in the senior squad and was relegated to the U21’s as a result.

Both of these players are playing for a chance to represent their countries at the Euro’s, but to do so they must first pull out all the stops for Newcastle United and show their international managers that they are worthy of the call.

Obviously that will mean that they will need to perform at the top of their game which will only benefit Newcastle as the season reaches its climax. Imagine a fully fired up Hatem Ben Arfa doing what he does best? Along with Yohan Cabaye proving that he has a right to be in the squad and Davide Santon bombing up and down the wings and generally not letting a lot get past him in defence and Tm Krul pulling off his spectacular saves.

Food for thought and scope for hope surely?

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.

14 thoughts on “Could Euro 2012 benefit Newcastle?

  1. True. Good point. Completely forgot about him until now 😳

    I’d say he is already trying his best though and will be going, but he has a few people in front of him dstill

      (Quote)

  2. There’s also the fact that will be putting our boys firmly in the shop window for all of Europe to see. They also meet up with their international team mates who tell them how mint it is playing in the Champs League.

      (Quote)

  3. What about Leon?
    Does he not play for that Ireland (the one which qualified)?
    Need a win tomorrow lads, Im not going as im at work but will hopefully be listening, terrible time for the game as if it was @ 3pm I would make it.

    Mackems losing vs chelski…………..shame as I wanted them to both lose 👿 👿
    HWTL

      (Quote)

  4. lol u forgot 2 mention willi, Gabby :p, simo and the rest as well to play out the skinz n get into the England squad as waterboys… smithi…lol

    good read Toonsy…. will think of it all day n nit…hehe

    tomorro we win 3-0 🙂

      (Quote)

  5. Great chance to get back into 6th tomorrow! Can’t wait for the euros, always preferred them to the world cup for some reason. Lets hope all the lads with international expectation really get into gear for the second half of the season.

      (Quote)

  6. will the euros be bad news for us?the way we look into all aspects of a player it takes a while to complete our transfers if any targets are euro bound then the risk of other clubs nicking them increases 😆

      (Quote)

  7. toonsy, are we forgetting about the football played in the olympics (of which SJP is a venue) where we could potentially see colo and guti busting a spleen to get noticed by argentina, abeid for algeria and many more, plus the england fringes might want simmo or guthrie 4 england

      (Quote)

  8. Krul has Stenkleburg ahead of him but after that it’s only Swansea’s Vorm, and although more senior, is he really better than Krul? 😕

    No doubt experience plays a big part in picking international players for finals though, especially ‘keepers.

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *