Personally I never subscribed to all the doom and gloom predictions from pundits and press at the start of the season and knew we wouldn’t be involved in any kind of relegation scrap like some had us down for, but equally I never expected us to be level on points with the 4th placed team heading into the last five games of the season!
The big question is now, can we keep it up and carry on punching our weight at the top end of the table? Can we do even better than that and challenge for Champions League places? Can we go further than that and mount an assault for the Premier League title? Probably not on the last one, but for the other two I see no reason why we shouldn’t be in and around the European places again next season.
Obviously much of that is assuming that we follow the transfer policy that has served us so well. That, unfortunately, means that it might be the end for one of our senior players, but it also means that we’ll get multiple replacements that will make our squad stronger and benefit us as a whole. Not just that, but those that do stay will have an extra year of Premier League experience and will have built up a chemistry which, hopefully, lead to better performances.
Of course it’s very likely that we’ll have the distraction of Europe to contend with next season, and we’ve seen just how a bit of fixture congestion can affect a season. Extra injuries, travelling, fatigue can take their toll on a squad. It’s also likely that we won’t be viewed as such a surprise package next season and teams will take us seriously from the word go, which is up to us to overcome of course.
It’s a fine balancing act, but if we carry on doing what we’ve been doing I see no reason why we can’t be up there again next season. Expectations will be raised and it’s up to the manager and staff to try and match them by showing that this season hasn’t just been a one season wonder.
Can we do it though?
They got the shirts at the 1 day only 90% off sale at sports direct sale Newkie… so it is all legit 🙂
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
hi everyone sorry i aint been on much , had my 10 month old son at rake lane in north shields as we didnt no what was up with him having a temp up to 39.6 , dangerously high!! found out he has bad tonsilitis!! 😥 hopefullly bettter soon , nothing worst when your wee child is poorly
whats everyones predictions on the last 5 games then?? mine would be
toon 2 stoke 1
wigan 1 toon 1
chelski 2 toon 1
toon 3 everton 2
everton 1 toon 2
😀
Army69(Quote)
oops the 2nd last game was meant to say man city 😀 heads all over
Army69(Quote)
the way cisse is scoring i would bet on him beatin demba ba to top goal scorer for the toon by the end of the season
Army69(Quote)
i wouldnt*
Army69(Quote)
Witters-Yeah, it probably is theirs, just looks stingy like 😉
Aussie 😆
Army-Sorry to hear about your kid buddy, wish you all the best like 😉
As for the predictions…I’m a superstitious and I’ve not predicted on any of our recent fixtures just incase I jynx it. Having said that I think we’ll beat Wigan and Stoke 😀
Newkie(Quote)
i hope we can beat wigan like!! cheers mate hes just a baby so he hasnt a clue what is going on bless him
Army69(Quote)
Army, poor little mite,it’s scary when they are so little ,all they can do is cry and you feel so helpless . Hopefully a good blast of penicillin and he’ll be his happy self again. Best of luck anyway.
Talking of babies ,wheres baby Toonsy ,still no show yet?
kimtoon(Quote)
aye hes on antbiotics for a week so hopefully they kick in quickly cos i do feel helpless when he cant tell you what he needs 😕 it hits home how much you love your kids when they are poorly
Army69(Quote)
i cant work this out , what is the best result we can hope for on saturday – chelsea winin , arsenal winin or a draw?
Army69(Quote)
I see the original plan was for the tour to be across in the US again in the summer, but now Euro league qualification could scupper it. Was thinking about last time we were in America, we were really ****, the American league must think the PL is **** since we’re dominating in it 😆
andymag(Quote)
@Army69: The best result would be a draw between Arsenal v Chelsea.
As chelsea would cotinue drop further two points paving open the gap between us and them,and that we can also close up the gap to Arsenal. 😯
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
@310
Prob a win for ****, reckon 3rd is out of reach and we want to distance ourselves from chelsea.
andymag(Quote)
Army I would say Arsenal to win as I don’t think we can catch em .We would stay ahead of Chelsea and if we win we will be 5 points clear of them and if Spurs lose too all the better cause we are level with them at the moment and we would leap frog them as well . 😀 It is vital we get a win out of Stoke to realisticly be still in the mix for top 4 place imo.
kimtoon(Quote)
Also Army69: My prediction for the last 5games are simple
Win Matches: Stoke,Wigan,Everton
Draw Match:Chelsea>>>(Rmb last season,we come back twice to make a draw)
Lose Match:Man city.
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
I disagree that Arsenal should win chelsea,and that i dont see them winning chelsea either. 😯
Chelsea has been and always been great under an interim manager. 😐
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
Yeah I’d prefer an Arsenal win to be honest, I can’t see them running out of steam with their remaining fixtures…third must be out of reach, surely 😛
Newkie(Quote)
Contrary to the rumours going around, if Toonsy’s new bairn is bald, wrinkly and whinges a lot that doesn’t mean it’s mine…….necessarily 😉
richietoon(Quote)
kim cause we can catch arsenal 😀 if they lose on saturday and we win our 2 games we are infront of them 😉
Army69(Quote)
I’m cool with Arsenal takeing 3rd spot ,the way they have come back is worthy of that spot .For me Chelsea have cheated their way through the league with the amounts of luck and dodgy decisions they have had and I really don’t wanna see them anywhere near top 4 .Spurs are the masters of their own downfall really ,if all that talent can’t get it together for the run in then they don’t deserve top 4/5.Newcastle have battled and really pulled it out the bag and we deserve our moment in the sun I think. 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
so most think arsenal win or a draw is best so i will hope for one of them 😀
wheyyyy just been reetweeted by jj hooper and adam campbell 😀
Army69(Quote)
To be honest I don’t care where we finish now.. 6th looks like being the worst case senario and to me this is a fantastic result in itself. If we finish higher than that it will be a bonus
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
AoD…I would’t call winning 3 of the 6 prem games in charge great for Di Matteo when Pards has won 5 of 6 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Army…did they tweet “stop stalking us or we’ll call the police” ? 😆
richietoon(Quote)
kimtoon im not cool with arsenal being 3rd … why?? ROBIN VAN PERSIE!!!! 😈 😈 😈 😈 ive lost a lot of a respect for that player , hes a brilliant player but what an arsehole!!!
Army69(Quote)
AOD-Bear in mind tho, Chelsea have fluked quite a few of their latest matches on ref decisions, they’ll also have Ivanovic out, as well as niggling injuries to Cahill, Luiz and Terry. Weak defence against Arsenals full strength attack? Arsenal have a great chance.
Newkie(Quote)
have u been on my twitter richie 😆 .. no they said ive heard that richietoon is a cocky bugga 😆
Army69(Quote)
either way really on saturday it is going to benefit newcastle united with the arsenal v chelsea game as long as we win
Army69(Quote)
Rich, has been very liberal with his ‘cocky’ by the looks of things.. 🙂
aussie magpie fan(Quote)
where have wigan got this form from? beat liverpool at anfield , should of drawn with chelski , beat man utd and beat arsenal at the emirates 😯 , they have average players fightin for there lives
Army69(Quote)
hahaha
Army69(Quote)
Army…if they said that, then it’ll be me calling the cops….total slander 😆
Aussie….I have to spread the love
richietoon(Quote)
…Army, meant to say hope the bairn gets well soon.
richietoon(Quote)
Army ,Totally agree on RVP ,hate the stroppy Feckwit but he’s just one player .As a team it can’t be denied they have really come back well after such a bad start. But hey I would still love to pip em to 3rd . 😉 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
@richietoon: I did mention chelsea always perform well under an INTERIM MANAGER. 😉
The last time an Interim Manager happen, Grant brought them to UCL FINAL. 😯
Guus Hiddink won FA CUP with chelsea. 😎
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
@KimToon: Hence the best result would be a draw.
Chelsea drop further 2points,with Arsenal too.
And if we win stoke,we are just 2points behind Arsenal too. 😆
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
AoD…yep but we’re talking league games and Di matteo is an “interim manager” and his league results aren’t great 😉
richietoon(Quote)
…though I agree with you they seem to do well in the cups 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Di matteos results have been helped by some shocking refereeing decisions and players deciding to turn up after getting the other fella sacked.
He showed at west brom that he was a pretty ***** manager, Had the **** easy job of getting them up without having to buy anyone, The side was ready made for promotion by mowbray and then nearly got them relegated before woy (quality manager/fart sniffer) kept them up easy…
CC(Quote)
@ 333 cheers richie 😉
Army69(Quote)
Toonsy are we there yet 🙂
batty(Quote)
toonsy waiting for the bus
icedog(Quote)
Ice if its one of his own buses he’ll be waiting a while, as they’re always late.
Maybe thats what the Cub is practising for to be a mega bus driver 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
DAVE 😆 😆
icedog(Quote)
Well Ice the Cub might aswell take after his dad now, start as you mean to go on.
Im sure they are well pissed of waiting we were lucky all ours were a week or so early and all born in no time, maybe thats why I can’t stand people that are late 😀
Reet may get back to do a bit more work catch you’s later, by which time the cub will be born
Big Dave(Quote)
Anyone ever remember the visionary bloke who wrote this:
“I awoke from a deep sleep, NUFC were financially crippled, wages were 70% of turnover which meant we would lose money again this year, no money for signings – as we can’t add to the wage bill, I asked why we were like this.
Because we were on the Bus to oblivion being driven by Shepherd was the answer, he has sanctioned 35million in dividends over a time when we had lost 55million – Oh I exclaimed.
On speaking to bystanders I was told the club were paying the conductors 80k a week but they had stress and couldn’t work, the mechanics were on 70k a week, but didn’t like oil, others who were on similar wages just weren’t performing. They looked closer and saw that all the money in ticket sales had been removed from the Bus company as dividends, nothing was left.
The passengers asked where are we headed, “Leeds is just ahead” was the reply. I looked out of the window, I could see the Leeds Hilton Hotel, just beyond it Leeds Station and Leeds University, it was true, the tachograph and fuel reciepts also told the same story.
Well just turn the bus back to Newcastle I said to the passengers, we cant, no-one can do it, the engineers wont engineer, the driver is taking us there, and the conductor, mechanics and workers just can be bothered. Employ someone else to do it, we cant came the reply – we cant afford any wages we are imploding and going to crash.
Suddenly a multi-billionaire called Mike stormed onto the bus, he was an expert engineer and he could drive, albeit just a car, he hadn’t driven a bus before.
So what of this new driver – Apparently he has cleared out all of our debt from his own pocket – impeccable pedigree, he has shown himself to be incredibly successful.
Yes he has cleared off the debt, we’ve seen the buses accounts, but we hate him – he is just going to make money out of us shouted the passengers, “Sorry” I exclaimed “I don’t understand”. We were going to crash and he is steering us to safety. Don’t Care – came the reply, get more people on the bus, but how? We have no money, don’t care get more people on the bus.
Mike slowed the bus and started to turn it around, Mike being an expert looked at the paint, he had his best coachworkers look at the bus. “Bodge came the reply. The chassis is rotten, the suspension cant take this load, the engine is lazy and sluggish yet incredibly expensive to run, in fact the whole bus is being held together by its Shiny Red Paint.
Mike used to be a strong and wealthy man, but in between buying the bus and starting to mend it he had lost most of his wealth so he didn’t have the money to put things right the way he wanted to, he envisaged fun and jy at owning the bus, reality was settling in.
“We hate him” the passengers shout, in looking at the chassis Mike scratched and chipped the paint. And now he is throwing the staff off, he says he doesn’t want them as they are lazy, always off sick, he wants to make the bus go faster with a new fuel in the engine, a fuel that is a mix of youth and experience.
The freeloaders were thrown off, Mike stripped off the thin veneer of paint, and found rust everywhere, he stripped it all out until it was back to bare metal. He started rebuilding the bus, he brought in cheaper but more eager and better skilled workers. He could not do it all at once as the lazy underperformers had long contracts, removing and replacing staff was an almost impossible task that had to be handled carefully.
Mike eventually got the steering working, the bus had a direction again, the new youth fuel showed great promise, the experience mix, at the right price was harder to find, Mike knew not to buy the wrong or expensive to run fuel or his bus would grind to a halt, he was prepared to run light for a while and only add people to his bus that would make it run faster.
As the bus travelled back to Newcastle the panels were all new, the chassis firm, and they knew things were being put back together. The new windows went in, the seats were replaced, and they scoured the world for the best staff who would work for reasonable wages. They couldn’t afford anything else.
As they approached Newcastle and drove over the tyne bridge, a team of engineers on the bridge marveled at the new panels and improved chassis, Mike shouted that he would improve the engine even more in time, the windows gleamed, the bus was solid, it was able free of some of the lead weight able to move and turn quicker.
As the past the engineers as crowd gathered – “Where’s our red Paint” they screamed, the red panels were replaced by a stealy grey metal finish, mike couldn’t afford to add the finishing touches, he had been rebuilding the chassis and mechanics first.
Wheres our Red paint – a Mob gathered. Mike came out, he made a statement, produced his figures, explained he had a limited budget. The Crowd were incensed. Wheres our red paint they screamed with their bedsheet banners.
One of the gathering crowd threw a brick and smashed the windscreen, taking mikes attention away from the road, the engineers screamed “ no the bus is starting to work now you need patience, it’s the only way” the mob didn’t hear it was furious. The bus crashed and luched from side to side as the mob attacked it.
A second brick, a third and a barrage. The bus windows and panels smashed, the wiring and seats were ripped out, the tyres slashed, then a petrol bomb, Mike didn’t know what to do. As the mob pelted the bus he was sad as they had simply misunderstood. Perhaps if I had told them exactly what I was doing he reflected – maybe he was right.
Mike tried to sell the bus, he couldn’t no-one would buy it – they were scared to operate a bus in such a volatile part of the world, so Mike thought he would put it back together, he knew as he was an engineer, the only way to make it work was to start with the chassis again.
At this point wise man Shepherd came to his side. “Paint it red son, Paint it red – forget your new fuel, forget the chassis, the passengers are happy with getting from A to B, and you can take as much as you want from the club with a bright red bus, they just hope to get to the journeys end although we never do, and when we nearly got to leeds you turned us around”
Mike believed passionately he wanted to get to many journeys ends and see great things, he knew that started with getting the right people on the bus, he knew how to build a fast reliable bus despite everyone telling him he didn’t know how. He knew engineers built things that lasted forever and other engineers would appreciate what he would done, in time those who simply wanted red paint would have to understand – a bus needs something that holds it together.
Mike went back to his bus, the crowd were there, brushes in hand painting the rusting shell and burned out wreckage bright Red, even though the bus could no longer move.
The crowd looked at Mike and realised that the bus chassis, even though burned was stronger than a year before, the bus still stood even though it could have been ruined.
Question – do you want Mike to re-build the bus from the chassis, add the staff and fuel it can afford over time to get to many happy journeys end – or do you want the bus painted Shiny Red?
Looks like I am Baba Vanga too!
Stardust(Quote)
aye was it that billy bunter 😆 or wor donna 😉
batty(Quote)
Whats the latest news toonsy ❓ 😉
ANDYMAG(Quote)
haha mike slowed the bus after wasting millions trying to add go faster stripes to the bus
stevep(Quote)
Billys dead Batts – you should know – you killed him 😆
Stardust(Quote)
i couldnt give a **** what colour the bus is, i was brought up with one main bus company name, but now thats changed, do i care? YES, but i dont want a knackered bus, i want a bus where the “wheels go round and round” for many years to come, i want a bus what my sons can ride on, and be proud, and there children too. 😛 😛
toonsoldier9(Quote)
two days without a new topic.has this toonsy bloke got nowt better to do 😆 😆
mg man(Quote)
Well, there’s always the Forum for new topic discussions…
At least until Toonsy’s decided he’s had enough of the bairn and needs to be around some adults…cough cough.
Any wagers on height and weight…things of that nature…granted i can’t convert inches and pounds to CMs and Kilos.
Also, doesn’t someone else have the access to post new articles? I know there are a few of you who contribute some great pieces, but can you not post them yourself? Is Toonsy the blog dictator that we all think he is?
NorCal Toonfan(Quote)
Stardy thats a cracking wee story right there.
Big Dave(Quote)
Norcal I can only guess the other writers are busy 😕 and I know Moreno was away on his hols and only just back, I guess we’ll just have to wait till Toonsys Cub comes into the big wide world.
Big Dave(Quote)
i say big dave should knock a thread oot,likes working with his hands and batty telt me hes always lying aboot like a loppy dog 😆 😆 😉
icedog(Quote)
NTF
screw pounds and kilos, what position will he be trained to play when old enough, expectation is on the no9 of course 😆
ANDYMAG(Quote)
NorCal…I actually looked at forum the other day, meant to tell Toonsy it looks like a spammer has taken it over 😕
Could somebody just copy and paste a short article in a comment box if theres no other way of doing it?
anyhoo, ganna watch Madrid now
Vamos los Blancos
richietoon(Quote)
Richie just looked there the bastad has took it over 😀 but I can’t do nowt on the forum otherwise the c@nt would have been with the Pig 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave…he owns that forum like 😆
Madrid 1 doon 😥
richietoon(Quote)
Norcal – mostly students, probably all have exams around this time of year
Dubtoon(Quote)
I’ll shoot you down every time Stardust, with my pistol tits.
… 😯 PEETCHOO, PEEOWNG!
Rodzilla(Quote)
Billy Baker born at 16:01 weighing 9lbs exactly. My boy and wife are both fine 🙂
toonsy(Quote)
congrats mate 😉
batty(Quote)
Good job toonsy 😉 Future no9 in the making
ANDYMAG(Quote)
…nice to see the awld deed reed bus rising up like the mighty phoenix though. 😯 😀
….Stardy, that was a fantastic story on Ed’s blog, but we’ve moved on now mate. Write sumik else eh. 😯 …and make it topical to currant affairs, maybe something about the sultana family.
Rodzilla(Quote)
TOONSY rock on mate,been glued to this screen for 24hrs,worse for you two, cons again mate
icedog(Quote)
WHOOO HOOOO 😯 😯 😯
….welcome to the world, young Billy! 😎
Rodzilla(Quote)
Congratulations, Toonsy. Glad to hear all are well.
NorCal Toonfan(Quote)
…must admit, a thought it’d be a lass, but only cos av seen Toonsy’s **** and there’s not much te gan rund like.
Rodzilla(Quote)
(a think that’s how they work it oot)
Rodzilla(Quote)
Many congrats Toonsy 🙂
3hourswasted(Quote)
….reet, turtley coincidental I appeared at the right time, but congratulations anyway Simon, and fucking well played to the lass too. 😎
All the Leon 😎
Rodzilla(Quote)
Toonsy. Brilliant news ,Congratulations to you and mrs Toonsy.Welcome to baby Billy newest member of the Toon army. 😀 😀 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
congratulations to you and mrs T
toonitis(Quote)