Adios Jonas!

Jonas and Hughton reunited
Jonas and Hughton reunited
The news that Jonas Gutierrez has now departed Newcastle and joined Norwich is old news, but I’ve not had a chance to write about it as yet so here goes.

It may only be a temporary switch for now, but I get the feeling if he impresses at Carrow Road then Chris Hughton will look to make the move permanent in the summer. That’s if he is still in charge of the Canaries by then.

In many ways it is quite fitting that Jonas has moved to Norwich to be with Chris Hughton once more. For me both of those, among others, are synonymous with our promotion from the Championship and subsequent solidification in the Premier League once more.

However chance for Gutierrez have become harder to come by in recent months. Once one of the first names on the team sheet under Hughton and latterly Alan Pardew, Jonas has only made two league appearances this season although I suspect that would have been more had it not been for injury.

Of course for the accountants it’s no doubt great news. Contracted with us until 2015 it’s more than likely one high wage earner trimmed from the bill – wages that are unlikely to be ploughed back into the club by covering wage costs of a new player.

I still think it’s kind of sad though, in an emotional way, just because Jonas has been with us for a while and stuck (whether through choice or necessity) with us in our darkest recent hours.

But then you have to look at it sensibly. Jonas probably wants to be playing football and if he can’t get it here then quite rightly he’ll want to get it elsewhere. Emotion aside, could anyone really justify a place in the side for Jonas as things stand? How many times has his ability to win a free-kick been used a reason to justify him? Or his work-ethic? 198 appearances with 11 goals and not many more assists speaks volumes.

It could have been different though and I thought it would have been when I recall his debut at Old Trafford. He was exceptional that day and his performance left many fans purring but that was to be an exception rather than the norm.

This is not to say he won’t be missed. A senior member of the squad and reportedly well-liked within the camp he will be, as a person, but as a player perhaps not so much? I wish him all the best and hope his move works out for him, apart from when we play Norwich of course.

All the best, Jonas!

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.

476 thoughts on “Adios Jonas!

  1. Stuart
    Great comment. You missed out Wonga-gate and it resulting in our only decent striker at the time refusing to go on pre-season tour as a result.
    KK
    I see you are ignoring my comment @433 😆 🙄

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  2. Freddy wanted what the fan’s wanted. He tryed buying a champions league place and he defiantly had ambition. We would never have been relegated under Freddy. I don’t believe everything that comes out of Ashley’s mouth.

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  3. The league is more competitive but it’s relative. If there are more ‘better’ teams it means there are fewer ‘elite’ teams that can just steamroll other teams.

    It means any team can give any other team a difficult match (e.g us vs Man City).

    Selling Andy Carroll for £35m was a fantastic bit of business. If we could do that 10 times over i would be happy for the club to do it every time.

    You’re not seriously saying he is worth more than £35m?

    How does a player slagging the owner off while still at the club affect Pardew?

    Or any problems the players have with the board over performance bonuses?

    The renaming of the stadium? Many clubs have renamed their stadium. If it means in the future we actually get paid for it instead of fans being pissed off we might actually use the money towards better players.

    The appointment of a complete joke as a DOF, which led to the resignation of the MD and very nearly led to the resignation of the chief scout – The chief scout is still here, the joke of a DoF has had no negative influence at the club & the MD is the same one that thought a sacked League One manager would be a good fit for us!

    The club banning the local media makes sense if all they do is make rumors up.

    Winning a trophy is NOT a priority…over staying in the league!

    Again, how has any of that been difficult for Pardew. Any problems seem to be between some fans & the board.

    Pardew gets judged on the club results & performances.

    If Man Utd & Chelsea don’t sell players to buy players they will be penalised by the new rules.

    You can’t just expect Mike Ashley to be a sugar daddy for your little fantasies buddy…he’s not interested.

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  4. Ashley has 3 billion pounds his not hard done by and the guy acts like a charity case. He doesn’t care much about Newcastle, his here to take the profits and sale up and double his investment.

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  5. @solanostrumpet – 433

    I don’t have figures which exclude cup games.

    I’m still not sure why it makes any difference. You can face easy or difficult teams in the cup & the league.

    But if you still think it matters, lets see the figures you’ve got.

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  6. Newkie:

    So Ince is going to Monaco. Sharpy is gunna be pissed

    I saw the report this morning, has he gone yet like?.
    I’m not overly pissed off, just think we are going to miss out on a very talented young English player – with probably his best years still ahead of him!.
    I certainly think he would improve our squad and could probably be bought for about 3-4m – what we paid for Obertan and what we are supposed to get when Jonas joins Norwich in the summer.
    With Gosling already being at Bpool, there really should be a deal there with Ince out of contract in the summer.
    Seemingly we are looking for wide players and English players – maybe I’m putting 2 n 2 together here but …

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  7. KK
    So not going to admit that it proves that the “points/game” incl cups can be misleading seeing as Pardew fared better than Roeder than Roeder yet it has adversely affected his points/game ❓ 🙄

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  8. In what Universe is Pardew better than Hughton, Roeder, Souness, Dalglish, Gullit, Allardyce, Kinnear?

    I’m not saying any of them are better than Pardew but Pardew is not better than any of them.

    We would be where we are now with any of those managers in charge.

    You know what is striking about all of these managers?

    Every single one started their managerial league careers in the England & Scotland.

    It’s long overdue but people need to start realising that we produce rubbish players, managers & coaches. Until there is a change at grassroots level we will continue to be a rubbish as we have ever been

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  9. Ive heard MA, AP & JK have planned a meeting for transfers, 2 weeks from today..

    Can’t wait.. finally a signing 😀

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  10. @solanostrumpet

    No, explain why a manager should not be judged on his cup performances?

    Because cups aren’t a priority for us? Is that the excuse?? Or is it because teams in the cup are not as good as teams in the league?

    What’s the excuse?

    A manager should be judged on all of his competitive results. Let’s not try to massage the figures… 🙄

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  11. Pardew is no better or worse than most of the managers we’ve had previously.

    Let’s not kid ourselves into thinking he is some kind of saviour, he’s not. He’s your average English manager & by global standards that is rubbish.

    There are smarter better managers that work harder than Pardew for less money & in harsher conditions.

    Mike Ashley won’t replace Pardew for the time being because Mike Ashley is scared of taking risks.

    There is not really anything else up for debate unless someone can prove otherwise.

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  12. Transfers in are unlikely.

    We need a striker to improve but it’s not a critically important requirement.

    If we sign nobody we will still finish mid table. That’s the target (some fans are happy with that) so if you’re on course to meet expectations nothing is urgent.

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  13. KK
    I’m not saying cups aren’t valid.
    But if someone can do worse in a cup than someone else yet come out with a better points/game – then it isn’t a fair parameter to judge on. That is unarguable.
    Including that Uefa cup run boosts Roeder’s win % by 5%
    Yet Pardew’s Uefa cup run lowers his by 1%.
    How can you honestly include something like that, when Pardew got further than Roeder?!

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  14. @solanostrumpet

    I’m not sure where you got those figures but i’ll use them anyway.

    Win % (including cups):
    Roeder – 45.8%
    Pardew – 38.6%

    Win % (excluding cups):
    Roeder – 40.83%
    Pardew – 39.62%

    So all in all, Roeder has a marginally better win % using your figures which goes back to my point, Pardew is no better or worse than most of the managers we’ve had previously.

    I want Pardew to be the manager as much as i want Roeder, Souness & Hughton to be the manager.

    That’s not a compliment…

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  15. I mentioned this on another blog but I’m going to just add a note here as well. I’ll just come right out and say it. No use beating around the bush. To me Cisse looks itchy. That can be very distracting for a man trying to score goals. I wonder if he’s using the powder I sent him?

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  16. That’s a very thoughtful post KK @466. I would tend to agree. Pardew’s winning percentages are quite poor. About what you would expect for a manager making 500K in a million pound a year market.

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  17. KK
    The figures are based on each managers European cup fixtures. Wasn’t that obvious 😕
    Okay good, so now that is a fairer comparison.
    Next add in any one of the reasons Stuart gave.
    Or you could add that finishing 5th under Sir Bobby was seen as a failure (Roeder only came in 2 years later). Yet Pardew’s finishing 5th was heralded.
    Maybe our perception of our squad is wrong?
    Or that some in the press, only a few weeks ago, named him as their manager of the season so far. Indicator of what the rest of the league thinks of our squad ❓
    Tired of fire-fighting Pardew bashers now. Happy Friday everyone 😎

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  18. What is going on with our strikers? Remy looks to be fading fast, Cisse is itchy and I’m not sure what Shola is doing but it doesn’t involve scoring. Any solutions out there?

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  19. Come on mates. You know, strikers? Those lads that are supposed to score goals. Put the ball in the old onion bag? Oh never mind.

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  20. I think a lot of the thing with our strikers is that they just aren’t getting any direct service because we have a lot of players who seem to want to go for glory. They are feeding off rebounds or mishit shots or waiting for a pass that never comes. It’s great we’re playing more football (like most wanted) but we aren’t really creating still.

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  21. Toonsy @473 – I think its desperation in attacking midfield, its not working as a supply line to forwards. Its getting to be effective at controlling the midfield but penetration into the opposition box, either by intelligent through balls or quality crosses / byline drives across goal is laughably scarce.

    Pardew seems to have used the gains of his new fitness coach to get the workrate up but have you noticed which players have imprved and which have deteriorated this season? We have real depth in central defence now, including the whipping boy of old, Williamson. The FB’s seem to be manageing better but especially in Santon’s case, they are protected by the covering work of Gouffran and Sissoko, especially Gouffran who is fading eerily in the way that Jonas did. I wouldn’t be surprised if Remy settles into a goalless rut like Cisse if some quality play into the box isnt forthcoming soon. And it won’t if he continues to keep Ben Arfa as a 10 minute cameo in favour of his new ‘system’. I should be more cheerful as its getting results, but I hate the prcentage game approach – an unpredictable see-saw of messy wins and losses. We never look convincing somehow.

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  22. Tsunki – Really? Disagree about Ben Arfa though. He was one of the main ones I was getting at. He might beat two or three people but he’ll then go for glory when somebody else might be in a better place.

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  23. @Tsunki & Tsunki

    Our best creator (Marveaux) can barely make it into the match day squad let alone play in a game.

    It is very much a percentage game of football we play. Almost like a smash & grab. Keep it tight unitil the second half, nick a goal, defend for our live, stretch the opposition & hopefully kill the game off by hitting them on the counter.

    I disagree about Ben Arfa though. I don’t think he’s as greedy as some on here suggest. It’s more a case of no one moving into space when he has the ball so he has limited options. We’re too slow going forward in support & Ben Arfa is our quickest & most agressive attacker.

    Marveaux on the other hand can unlock a defence through his passing & vision. He’s a good player especially when we’ve got controll of the game & our struggling to make chances in the final third.

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