However I see not a lot has changed. Alan Pardew is, against all odds, still in the managerial hotseat, we’re still struggling as a team and we’ve still yet to record a win in the league this season.
United will be aiming to change the last part of that statement this afternoon when newly-promoted Leicester City visit St James’ Park. It’s an interesting one for me personally as I live near Leicester these days and married into a family of which half were born in Leicestershire, so for me today the banter stakes are high.
For Newcastle, the stakes are even higher. Results may have been poor but I cling onto the fact that we’ve salvaged recent draws against Hull and Swansea when we could have hidden and got beat. Again. Although a large part of avoiding defeat has been down to the return of Papiss Cisse who will be hoping to add to his tally of four league goals this season.
Newcastle:
Emmanuel Riviere is doubtful as reported yesterday although the other injury concerns, namely Tim Krul, Daryl Janmaat and Paul Dummett, should be fit to feature. French pair Moussa Sissoko and Remy Cabella returned from international duty with France with no problems while Cheik Tiote and Papiss Cisse survived long-haul international trips unscathed which means that Davide Santon and Siem De Jong remain our only senior first-team absentees.
Leicester City:
Matt Upson and Zoumana Bakayogo are the only injuries that former United caretaker boss Nigel Pearson has to contend with.
Previously…
We haven’t had much of a recent history against the Foxes with our last meetings coming from when we faced each other in the Championship where United secured a 1-0 victory at St James’ Park while only a draw could be mustered against 10-men at the Walkers Stadium.
Historically though we do have the upper hand, especially at home where the 54 games played at St James’ Park have yielded 36 victories for United with Leicester returning home South with victory on just seven occasions.
Overall 108 games have been played to date with Newcastle winning 46, Leicester winning 37 with 25 stalemates thrown in for good measure.
Stats and facts:
The Magpies are the only side yet to score first in a Premier League game this season.
Out of the 17 ever-present Premier League sides in 2014, Newcastle have earned the fewest points (20), scored the fewest goals (21) and conceded the most (49).
Leicester have only found the net once in their three league matches away from home this season.
However they are the second-most efficient scoring team in the Premier League, with 11 of their 62 shots resulting in a goal (18%). Chelsea lead the way with 20 goals from 101 shots (20%).
Final thought…
It’s actually starting to get desperate and we’re almost at the point where we’ve gone beyond a bad start and look to be settling into a battle to get away from the bottom of the table. That will get harder and harder unless we start picking up points and even a win today would only see us potentially move up one place.
But we do need that win and the longer it takes to come the harder it will be to achieve. Haven’t we waited long enough for one now?
Howay the lads!
Date: Saturday, 18th, October
Time: 3pm
Venue: St James’ Park
Shelvey isn’t that great a talent Cholo mate. He’s no Cabaye. Far poorer shot most of the time and much less creative. An average midfielder. Works hard though. We need a complete re-do as usual but that would take money and football brains neither of which are on offer at our club.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Interesting comments about Harry Troy mate. It’s a sad comment on our club that we would have to spend time arguing whether Harry is better than Alan or vice versa. It’s completely irrelevant. Harry is past his best and needs to spend a ton of money to even build a mediocre team now. Pardew isn’t even a mediocre manager but we probably won’t replace him with anyone better as that would smell too much like ambition for Ashley’s taste.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
No Harry is not a decent manager. He’s another dinosaur that the game has passed by.
MDS(Quote)
We need a younger up and coming manager with European experience but that would require a new owner. Ashley isn’t even bright enough to begin a search for a replacement even though we sit in 18th place and deservedly so.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
There’s nothing like a winter of strife and struggle to look forward to. We look poor now. Imagine if we take on our usual number of winter injuries. The first half of the Leicester game was some of the worst football I’ve watched in the last few years. Diabolical from both sides. Saying it was that poor is frightening since I also watched us play the second half of last season. When does the misery end? It’s like flogging a dead horse with Ashley still mounted and thinking he’s headed somewhere.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Siem De Jong has reported he is ready to come off crutches after seeing his surgeon. I don’t remember seeing anywhere that he even had surgery? I think the Clubs fallout with the press is keeping us in the dark about a few things, FFS The Chronicle are reduced to rehashing Sky stories and re-posting twitter statements from the players 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Yes it’s exciting times at NUFC Eric mate. Ashley is down in the Fuhrer bunker leading us onward and downward. Pardew is making more notes and carefully deciding how to explain his insistence on playing Gouffran after having spent the last year and a half destroying him as a player. It’s topnotch entertainment! Not!!!
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Two things would cheer me up no end: if we don’t isolate one forward in every game and if we can just be a little bit more coordinated and have a bit more variation in set pieces. I think that would offset a multitude of coaching sins and allow some of our flair players to express themselves. Whatever some people say, we do have some talent and skill in this team.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
G2 & MDS
Very surprised at your comments.
That resolves a lot of issues for me. He’s bottom of the league with his team and I don’t consider he’s the worst manager in the league. He’s certainly not a dinosaur.
He had Spurs in the CL only a few seasons back playing great football.
I now know and it’s confirmed my suspicions that you really don’t get this football thing. 😉
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy: old Harry has had a mixed bag of a career but at least won the FA Cup. He riled up the Portsmouth and Southampton fans and is a bit of a bullsh!tter like our very own Pardew. We almost ended up with him but he didn’t want to move up Norf.
If we put Harry, Pardew and Troy in a room I am not sure if the world could take the collision of egos.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Troy I don’t blame Harry Rednapp for QPR’s trouble’s. I blame Mark Hughes. He wasted millions of pounds on **** players and did a runner. Harry tried to pick up the pieces but by then it was to late. Harry has proved that when given funds he can win the F.A cup and qualify for the champions league and that isn’t easy. Pardew on the other hand has never been backed or trusted in the transfer market so it’s difficult to say where we would be if Ashley showed some ambition when we finished 5th. Souness was by far the worst manager we have ever had and I agree with spending within our means. I’m just disappointed we didn’t get an experienced striker in and a experienced CB because there was money to spend and we spent absolutely nothing. The fault lies with Ashley but is it easy to predict how well a cheap player will do or an expensive one ? Many managers have come and gone but it can’t be easy.
Terry(Quote)
I wish Bobby Robson was still manager. I absolutely miss him.
Terry(Quote)
From The Shields Gazette from Pardew on Obertan:
“Let’s just say that events last year – when we weren’t winning and he wasn’t in the frame – were such that we might have listened to offers for him,” said Pardew.
“When he came back pre-season, and I had assembled a new squad, I knew he could be a part of it, and I told him that.
“From the moment we set foot in pre-season, I’ve been trying to build his confidence.”
Yes, he was trying to build his confidence by leaving him out of the pre-season tour to NZ. Pardew is a charlatan, and no matter what our results his doublespeak and revisionist bullsh!t is annoying.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
My point about comparing Pards and Harry, was do demonstrate that if you have **** players then no matter how good the manager it makes no difference.
Both Pards and Harry are facing the chop because they have **** squads yet many believe it’s because of the managers.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Harry was amazingly lucky to get promoted with probably the best and by far the most expensive squad in the Championship last year. They were outplayed by Derby and were really lucky. But, he has done OK in his career and has had a bit more success than his fellow pearly king Pardew. The one thing that comes to mind when you compare the two is how much **** comes out of their gobs.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Here are a couple more points about Redknapp as a manager:
Bournmouth – relegated
Southampton – relegated
QPR – relegated
He is very inconsistent, just like our own Pearly King Pardew.
He also set up a scam bank account in the name of his dog, Rosie, and got off tax evasion charges by hiring very expensive barristers.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Kim – this one’s specially for you!
Getting the Olympic Stadium ready for West Ham to use could cost the taxpayer up to £50m more than expected. (Daily Telegraph)
georgio(Quote)
Troy feels for Pardew.. **** dribblers do tend to gravitate toward each other! 😛
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie – don’t start it all off again.
Is your wife’s sterling work over for the season now? Really good of her to keep things ticking over. Has she explained the offside rule to you yet?
The changing of ends at half time? 😀
georgio(Quote)
Georgio, been on the road with work so she is having a hard time finding time..
What’s this offside business you are banging on about?
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Georgio- I read that as well, Kim will be fuming, but to be fair we all should be! Such a **** take, they bought about ten players in the summer 🙄
Aussie 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Eric
Take time to analyse most managers records when they’ve been in management for almost two decades. You will find they have a list of sackings.
Wenger and Fergie are the exceptions not the norm.
Regarding the bulls hit, they all talk it. Even Fergie and Wenger. That is the norm cos if you are honest you get the bullet.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Georgio said:
“Kim – this one’s specially for you!
Getting the Olympic Stadium ready for West Ham to use could cost the taxpayer up to £50m more than expected. (Daily Telegraph)”
Georgio, Spurs wanted it as well. Getting to Stratford and back from North London would take an age for the fans. Just shows how Levy doesn’t care about football, only money. Like Ashley.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Aussie
Please listen to Kim. She’s a wise old bird. 😉
You know you don’t like it when I respond and ridicule you. 😆
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Aussie – you’re only allowed to have 3 players off the pitch at any one time. The offside rule.
georgio(Quote)
Eric @ 463 – doesn’t take the clever one very long to claim responsibility for the win does it. That’ll probably be Obertan’s only goal this season. Colback said it took a deflection too. Please take them both away.
georgio(Quote)
Troy, it is quite funny Harry having his melt down as long as he isn’t our manager 🙂 Pardew was saying he was going to be calm on the touchline and then went all WWF on a coach. I also might have found that funny if Pardew wasn’t our manager.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Southampton were in the first division / premier league for 27 straight years before Harry got them relegated.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The News Stories are that Siem De Jong will be back in two months. Yeah, right 🙂 he was on crutches this weekend. And as I said @456, they are taking the p!ss:
“Siem De Jong has reported he is ready to come off crutches after seeing his surgeon. I don’t remember seeing anywhere that he even had surgery?”
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric
It’s misleading to suggest he took Southampton down, without quantifying the circs he took over. He took over when they were destined to go down and was brought in to try and save them. As soon as he arrived, his best striker David Beattie was sold to pay off debts.
I’m not claiming Arry is great but he is a seasoned premier league manager and has had some decent teams and won the FA Cup with Pompey.
He now finds himself with a shirt squad and facing the same criticisms as Pards.
My point is, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows lug.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Even the better managers struggle with poor players to achieve relative success related to their abilities. Look at Moyes at Man Utd. He did well getting them finishing in 7th I reckon and if he had been given £200m to spend on players like Di Marie, Falcao, Blind and Herrara I think he would have finished higher.
It’s not rocket science; if you want a good team, you need good players.
Stuart79(Quote)
Troy: Harry has gone pretty apesh!t and it is quite entertaining looking in from the outside 🙂
While our WWF star manager is trying to throw down his own coach and nut a player. Pearly Kings. Who wudda though it, what a palava.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Georgio, ahhh thanks for clearing that up.. 😆 I thought it was how my missus felt about me watching too much football on the tele..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Troy – the squad of players that old Arry took over at Spurs were languishing in the bottom 3 when he took over from Ramos – within the same season he had them finish 8th and got them to the league cup final.
Last season at Palace, Tony Pullis took over the same squad of players Ian Holloway has in the bottom 3 – nailed on for relegation. Pullis had them comfortable PL finishers.
Every group of players at whatever level, need good leadership. Pardew is good if plan A is working, but as soon as plan A stops working we are screwed.
Sharpy17(Quote)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/west-ham/11175803/West-Hams-new-Olympic-Stadium-home-could-cost-taxpayers-further-50-million.html
Well isn’t that dandy 👿
kIMTOON(Quote)
It just so happens David Cameron supports West Ham. I wonder if his behind this ? Who said politician’s aren’t in it for themselves.
Stem(Quote)
The mark of a good manager to me is someone who gets the best out his players (through motivation and tactics) and achieves more than should be expected. The job Koeman is doing at Southampton for example. Moyes at Everton might that. Pards doesn’t IMO, nor ‘arry
MDS(Quote)
We used to complain endlessly about Big Sam on here. But let’s all take a look at the standings shall we? He must be laughing his head off when he sees where Newcastle have ended up under Ashley and Pardew. We really have a pair of sad sacks in charge with nothing but excuses to offer.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
And what is Plan A Sharpy mate? I would argue Pardew is hopeless and the last 26 or 27 league games we have played has demonstrated that. We’ve won about 6 of them and mostly against absolute dross. That won’t work and Ashley either knows it by now or should check himself into the proper facility for dealing with mental illness.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Dross dross dross dross!
Let’s sing it together!
Dross dross dross dross!
Sad sacks in 18th place under Pardew and Ashley.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 I would take Kinnear and Wise over Pardew mate.
Stem(Quote)
I think Wise was a total genius in the transfer market. He was smarter than Keegan.
Stem(Quote)
I think Xisko was an amazing signing.
Stem(Quote)
Wise did his homework signing Xisko. He should have managed the team after Keegan left and showed us how amazing his signing’s were ?
Stem(Quote)
Sadly it was not to be. Ashley had better ideas Joe Kinnear.
Stem(Quote)
Sports direct getting advertised is what the fan’s want
Stem(Quote)
G2 – plan A was to build the whole team around Cabaye – when Cabaye was sold there was no plan B. Pardew went back to plan A when he brought SDJ in – however he got injured and again no plan B.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy17: Pardew did have a Plan B: after 60 minutes of every game he would bring on Shola and have Krul or Williamson belt the ball up to him. Unfortunately it was a very **** plan B. This season he is having to write in his notebook a bit more to come up with a cunning plan, but the results have been the same.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ryan Taylor is available again he says. This offers up a conundrum for Pardew and us. Play him as a right footed left back where he did OK and offered something from free kicks or see him for the totally mediocre player that he is? He is not very good at defending and Dummett is probably better than Taylor in that regard. Pardew better get the notebook out, or better still, play Haidara who is better than both of them.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Kimtoon @485: Why are London and the Nation making a gift to the Porn King owners of West Ham exactly? Barnsley or Rangers could do with the money instead of making porno scumbags richer. Hell, send it to us in exchange for Ashley taking down a few of his Sports Direct signs and to buy a striker.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Seems like Mbwia had a canny game yesterday ….. 😳 😳
FC Bayern, Deutsche Meister la, la, la
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM I thought you supported 1860 🙂 I didn’t mean to pick a fight with you, so I hope we are still cool. I did foolishly try to pick a fight with you know who thinking I could reason with him. However, I did find out that he is not so bad after all when he stops the whoo hooing and excessive emoticons.
I have read this blog for a few years but stayed off on Doctor’s orders and only made a few posts to the Chronicle comments. Now the Chronicle is more hyped up than here, so it is safer on here.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Aye, the Doctor said with my new pacemaker the risk of needing Troyple Battypass surgery is very slim so I thought I would join in until my next check-up.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And Munich Mag: I am not sure if I will ever forgive FC Hollywood for totally outplaying the Manc scum and then letting them win. It means we are still hearing about it 15 years later. Just 3 more minutes and Clive Tyldesley would never have made that night in Barcelona reference 10,000 times.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – bringing Shola on was stage 2 of plan A, stage 3 was world domination!!.
Unfortunately, Ashley sold Cabaye in Jan – which wrecked stage 1. And then stage 2 left in the summer.
So really it’s completely understandable why we’ve started so poor this season.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric – for the record, that was sarcasm.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric, Don’t get me started on the West Ham Olympic stadium fiasco, plenty on here know how I feel about it, suffice to say I’m seething about the whole situation . should never have been allowed to happen without them putting much, much more into it. Pleading poverty then buying players left right and centre is a **** take . With the final negotiations on who pays what finalised ages ago it matters not how much more it is likely to cost the tax payer, they aren’t liable for one more penny, it stinks imo.
kIMTOON(Quote)
I take small comfort in the fact that they spent a shed load on AC and look like losing out due to his never ending injuries. Rumours of us buying him back, just serve to **** me off more. Don’t get me wrong I really like Carroll and when fit can do a really decent job, trouble is he’s never fit and I don’t want us putting a penny into the pockets of those porn merchants.
kIMTOON(Quote)
Sharpy spot on with the Plan A/plan B stuff. It’s my biggest problem with Pards- his inability to adjust to fit his squad
MDS(Quote)
Munich Mag: just for a bit of context, how do you think Williamson would have done against Lewendowski, Robben and Muller? We kept him as opposed to MBiwa. Bayern are one of the top three teams in the World.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The weird thing is if you go to the comments pages of The Guardian or Football365 is seeing people moan and moan about Champions League teams. Arsenal won the FA Cup but after every game some people want Wenger out. Rodgers took Liverpool to second last year, but now he is **** according to some Scousers.
I went to a Man U game a few years ago. There were about half of their fans with the green and gold scarves on complaining. They won the league that year.
I actually think we have a valid reason to moan about Pardew. The statistics this year prove that, along with the fact that we have never won a game under him when down at half time. We are not in the same bracket as the teams I mentioned but we should be comfortably mid-table playing an attacking style of football. We should not be getting pasted 3 and 4 nil so often which is why I don’t think Pardew is a very good manager (among other things).
Add in Pardew’s personality and you have a recipe for conflict. I actually think it is the ex-players, the press and fans of other teams that are delusional and not us.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – I understand what you are saying mate. But using the same logic – I wonder what the Blackburn, Birmingham or Pompey fans make of our moaning about Ashley?. Just playing devils advocate like
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy17: I am not moaning about Ashley. I just don’t like Pardew. I think he not a very good manager, who blames others for his own failings and has a way about him that just gets on my t!ts.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And Sharpy17: I can’t figure out Ashley at all. I like to ***** and moan about Pardew because I don’t like him. I think he is a chancer, a bully and a fake.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – I think the issue with Ashley is that he’s prepared to do just enough and no more. He’ll put in enough to keep NUFC a PL side – for the sake of SD not the footy. Now Bburn, Bham and Pompey fans may say ‘yeah but at least you get PL footy’. Which may be a valid point – if that footy was decent to watch, but under Pardew it really hasn’t been.
I think Pardews comments about Obertan is a perfect example of him as a manager –
“Let’s just say that events last year – when we weren’t winning and he wasn’t in the frame – were such that we might have listened to offers for him,” said Pardew.
“When he came back pre-season, and I had assembled a new squad, I knew he could be a part of it, and I told him that.
“From the moment we set foot in pre-season, I’ve been trying to build his confidence.”
Shouldn’t managers be working with their players ALL the time?. So within a matter of months, Pardew went from wanting to sell Oba, to now wanting to make him a 1st team regular 😕
Maybe if he tried to build Obertans confidence in Jan (or before), then he could have used him on the pitch. But then that could be said of a number of players last season.
Sharpy17(Quote)
So he thought Obertan would be part of the squad? I thought he didn’t go on the NZ trip?
MDS(Quote)
Sharpy @515: going on about Pardew may seem to some like flogging a dead horse. I disagree. He is Manager of NUFC, the most important person at the club after Ashley and this is a NUFC forum.
The man keeps doing stuff that validates a position that he is a total w@nker, like you said @515. He said he would calm down on the touchline and then tries to body slam one of his own coaches like it is WWF. FFS.
I think he is a **** manager and some on here disagree. I doubt they would disagree that he is a w@nker though because he proves it all of the time with his back stabbing, mind changing and pretending he never said what we all know he said – AND WITH A STRAIGHT FACE.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
After he tried to push Meyler away with his face he swore he would now take a back seat and never be on the touchline again. 🙄
georgio(Quote)
Anyone heard about the ‘community service’ he was committed to doing?
georgio(Quote)
Georgio: he also said that we would have won the Stoke game last season if he was on the touchline (I think it was Stoke, anyway it was when he was banned). The man just contradicts himself all of the time. How can we be expected to take him seriously on decisions when the lies are in print and on video tape and he still just comes up with more lies?
The best one is that he has never been in this situation before. Oh, Alan you were sacked at West Ham and Charlton after horrendous runs of form!
Pardew might have the attention span of a goldfish but the rest of us don’t.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric/Sharpy
My issue is that Pardew is a bang average manager and always has been – he’s also fairly arrogant and can talk complete garbage – however there’s almost no managers out there who I actually respect both as a coach and as a person. I hate Hughes, Allardyce, Redknapp. Gary Monk comes across as even more of a moaner than Hughes. I couldn’t stand SAF. Pellegrini isn’t much better and seems to act like a lot of Man City fans do nowadays, like they are entitled to success. I could probably count on one hand my list of managers who I actually rate and like on a “personal”/how they come across via the media. So “Not liking” Pardew on a personal level isn’t often in my thinking because I doubt I’ll enjoy whoever is next through the door.
I do think Pardew is trying his best (relative to what he is capable of, obviously) but I’ve never thought his best was going to be good enough for where I want to see Newcastle United. He shouldn’t be here, but it seems like he will be until his master goes or until we get hammered 10 times on the trot and the players give up on him.
Mike Ashley however is clearly a clever individual, with a great eye of marketing, profit, and making a successful business. The fact he seems so disinterested in a club he claimed to love only a few years ago and the fact that he is perfectly happy to turn up/to let others turn up and watch the football being served up is what annoys me. The fact he doesn’t seem interested in growing Newcastle as a brand annoys me. The fact he doesn’t even seem interested in getting some money back and then buggering off for good absolutely incenses me! What the hell is he doing here like? It’s not even about football for him and for me that’s the biggest issue right now.
Newkie(Quote)
Newks, Great points, totally agree and I think the answer to your question is quite simply money, and what global advertising can do for SD and him. He has never hidden that in fairness, that is after all what he told SJH his reasons for buying us were and the man still sold to him, knowing that the Toon weren’t first and foremost in his thoughts.
kIMTOON(Quote)
Newks the last bit of your post made me think Jabba could be thinking this.
But I’m a creep
I’m a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong here 😉
kIMTOON(Quote)
And as for Percy, a bit more Radiohead,
Karma police, arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He’s like a detuned radio 🙄
kIMTOON(Quote)
Kim I agree mostly with Ashley but do think he also hoped to have a bit of fun and planned on spending some money. The problem is it stopped being fun for him after the Keegen fiasco and relegation caused him to pump more money in than he planned
MDS(Quote)