It’s a difficult one in fairness as with Coloccini in his last year of contract it could look a little mean to take it off him. On the other hand we know that new managers often like to choose their own man to captain the side, especially when a lot of new players they have picked arrive to the squad. Of course McClaren’s job of choosing a new captain could be made a lot easier if the rumors of Coloccini to Crystal Palace are true. He certainly doesn’t seem to want to lose Coloccini as he has spoken very highly of him. He has praised his work rate and influence around the training ground and said he fully expects him to be running out for us at seasons start.
When asked about a new captain Steve had this to say;
”I want them all wearing an armband and being leaders. We’ve developed a senior leadership group since we’ve come in, and the ones who are taking the armband in the matches are part of that group.”
If the above is the case then we can assume that Gouffran still has a big part at Newcastle since he was given the armband. Gouffran has had some good games for us but really went off the boil last season which was disappointing.
I can see a few who would be good for the armband, Janmaat, Krul, De Jong seems vocal enough and could be good if he can stay fit. But I suspect in the end Colocini will keep it, if only to not rock the boat. He’s in his last year so Steve can pick his own man next season.
Who would you like to be captain? Thoughts welcome.
Kimtoon
[poll id=”84″]
KIM he’s English, young and should improve that’s the daft prices they pay now
icedog(Quote)
Aye, that’s true, Axel! 😆
Stuart79(Quote)
If Whickham was that good why did Poyet play him out wide?. If he is 1000 times better than what we have – why are Sunderland selling him … for £9m … to arguably a rival PL club?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Slightly ironic that West Spam qualified for Europe by the fair play league. They have had 3 players sent off in 5 games
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Sharpy
I think Whickham is better than anything we had last year
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
You’d have to ask Poyet that one, but it wasn’t a coincidence that during their ‘great escape’ it was Wickham who scored the goals as a striker in the last 5 games of the season to keep them up. He’s certainly better than Rivière but then again so was Michael Ricketts!
Stuart79(Quote)
Southampton gonna have an easy trip to Hoyland next week.
They look too pacy and clever for us
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Toby – are you winding me up?! – better than Cisse or Perez 😯
Stu – so Whickham had a decent run of 4-5 games – I’m pretty sure I remember Gouffran having a decent run of 4-5 games once as well. I believe when **** came in Whickham was relegated to the bench in favour of Danny Graham 😆
Sharpy17(Quote)
I tell you what though – £9m for Whickham means £15m for Austin is more than fair!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY@384 not really mate Whickham is only 21 Austin 26,if you have it you can come on a lot in five years
icedog(Quote)
ice – Wickham was dropped from Danny Graham. He’s played 74 games for Sunderland and scored only 11 goals. I’ve read it’s £9m plus add ons – so god knows what it could rise to. Austin is a proven scorer.
The mad thing is that Pardew is going to spend £9m plus on a player who scores 1 in 7. Then will sell Dwight Gayle for about £6m – a player who has a scoring record of 1 in 4 for Palace.
Still he’s doing it at Palace now so let him crack on.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Troy only two more weeks until the season starts and I bet your be saying we should have kept Pardew 🙂 Carver made Pardew look like a saint.
Terry(Quote)
I don’t place all the blame at Carver’s door. If you got a **** defence your going to concede goals and lose points. It won’t be long till the fan’s turn on McClaren and we’ll be back to square one.
Terry(Quote)
Sharpy – How many of them 74 were from th bench and how many playing out wide? We can all distort the facts but don’t compare him to Gouffran. There’s about an 7 year age gap for a start!
He’s not a bad player and he’s better than Rivière.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – if he was that good what was he doing on the bench? or playing out wide?. If he’s that good why are Sunderland selling him or playing Danny Graham ahead of him. As for comparing him with Riviere – he only cost £5m – Wickham will cost £9m plus add ons according to reports.
Would you have preferred him to Mitrovic?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Alone in the world, I don’t think Riviere is such a bad player. He has some good touches and has great movement. His problem is he hasn’t had the goalscoring touch. Which, of course, is not a good thing for a striker.
Brisvegas(Quote)
SHARPY17 384
which part of, we aint paying 15 million for austin. that you find hard to grasp over there 😯
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
I’d love Austin to be signed. But seriously, get a decent bloody defense sorted before anything else. Oh and f@@@ Thauvin. We don’t need a winger over and above a defender and then a striker.
Shamrock(Quote)
BrisV: 🙂 we have had enough of non-goalscoring strikers. I want the one’s that demand the ball when we get a penalty. ****** off Frank Lampard and Stevie G, I want a real number 9 padding his stats like wor Al.
I think we only got one penalty awarded last year. So, along with not scoring from corners and free kicks we were **** at that as well.
Let’s change that this year, Perez and Mitrovic, learn to fall down like you have been shot in the Spanish or Serbian Civil Wars.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Terry @388: McClaren has a nightmare 1st 8 games. We have to give him a chance. He is not an idiot, unlike Carvs.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
McC gets a full season from me at least. He needs time and I don’t think it will be quick. Still need another CB and its time we saw some dead wood drift out too…
Shamrock(Quote)
Simon Smith to be the next GK coach.
Stuart79(Quote)
TAE – where have I said we should?
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY17
try 384
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Sharpy – He was 19 when he joined Sunderland. That might explain his bench warming. Asking if he’s so good why he’s out wide is like asking why Rooney plays out wide or why Ba played out wide. He’s a young kid and in my opinion he’s got bags of potential. You pay a premium for English players as well as everyone knows. That might explain his price tag.
As for rather having him than Mitrovic. Let’s see him play first. I would certainly have him instead of Rivière. If we could have got £5m for him and bought Wickham that would have been acceptable.
Stuart79(Quote)
TAE – read it again kiddo. Where have I said we should pay £15m for him?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stu – I don’t think the kid is **** & I was one saying go and sign him when there was a chance of getting him on a free – but IMO £9m plus add ons is too much. If he’s that good or has that much potential, why are Scum selling him – and why isn’t someone bigger than Palace looking to land him.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stu – Sunderland struggled badly last season for goals, and yet **** (who’s no mug) was going with Danny Graham ahead of Wickham – who was on the bench – that must suggest something … especially as they are willing to sell him to a rival PL club.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Problem is Sharpy I think you’re still looking at transfer fees of about £4 years ago. £9m now is virtually nothing – especially for an English player. Did you think Carroll was worth £35m or Henderson £18m, Bent £18m or Lallana £16m, Shaw £28m and I could go on…
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – not at all mate, though those fees you highlight are crazy money. But if it was £9m for say Bamford, then I could understand that because the kid scores goals. Honestly mate I don’t believe Wickham will get 10 PL goals a season – and my dad & father in law are both Scum – they don’t rate the lad that highly either. They are pleased with that fee – getting the money back on him & hope they go buy someone who can score goals for them.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Wickham has a much better goal scoring record for England and championship than Bamford. I will guarantee you he will score more than Rivière.
Your striker predictions don’t have a good record… How many did you say Rivière would get last season? 🙂
Stuart79(Quote)
Crazy fees are par for the course when it comes to English players and that isn’t going to go change anytime soon.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – he will likely get more game time than Riviere to be fair though. As for my prediction on Riv, I wasn’t the only one to back him – and don’t deny calling that one wrong (badly 😆 ). But I would not be happy if we were shelling out £9m on Wickham. I know the English players will always carry a bigger fee, but I’ll never agree with it. I think it should be about quality over nationality – didn’t Liverpool pay less for Suarez in the same window they bought Carroll? – madness.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Anyone got an article in the pipeline or fancy knocking one up? I’m about this morning to publish it… 😀
Shamrock(Quote)
Riviere got 1 goal I think.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Rivi will score a few more this term if given a few games. He gets in the right positions and his movement is good. It will come off for him.He just needs to calm down a bit and relax when he gets a chance.
Shamrock(Quote)
……….Only if we get the defense sorted and manage to stop conceding goals though and get the ball upfield..
Shamrock(Quote)
hope Mbemba gets the No 5 shirt, queue the sing song…
Mbemba No. 5
Kev(Quote)
Haha sounds like it’s meant to be Kev!
I’m not gainst Woodman going. Something has not been right with our goalkeeper distribution for years and maybe a new coach will freshen things up and refocus Krul and Co.
Shamrock(Quote)
I have never seen a striker have a worse shot on him than Rivière. The one goal he scored, he miss hit it onto his standing foot which stitched the keeper up and he just kept miss hitting them and or completely missing the target. He’s gash!
Stuart79(Quote)
Sharpy – I was talking figuratively when I said 1000 times better.
But you no what I mean.
I really couldn’t give a toss how much cp pay for him. Or not.
I’m more bothered about our own shambles
Boots(Quote)
So are we really going to pin our hopes on a 20 yr old striker with zero EPL experience, and a 21 yr old defender with the same.
Or perhaps it’s SrI and Gini who are going to turn our fortunes around.
NOPE nee chance.
The back 4 is still a disorganized shambles and about as water tight as a sieve.
I can’t see top 8 by a very long margin.
Bottom 3 by xmas is my current forecast.
Hopeless.
Boots(Quote)
Srl ??
SdJ
Boots(Quote)
Just booked my flight for the Bournemouth game.
Stuart79(Quote)
Boots – would you say we are pinning our hopes on a 20 year old striker? Do you not rate Perez at all like? I know neither of us are big Cisse fans, but I’m actully pretty happy up top. Defensively we need to improve, one solid centre back would sort it all out really.
If we were top 10 contenders previously and Pardew was as bad as made out, I’d like to think we’d be challenging for 6/7th again….
😆
Newkie(Quote)
@419 STUART.
check again mate ime sure they have switched that game
icedog(Quote)
Stu – Does the website only sell tickets 2 games in advance for non ST holders? I will be trying to get to the B’mth game but the NUFC website is only advertising our last friendly and the S’oton game for sale…
Shamrock(Quote)
@419 and 421 – they moved the KO time from 15:00 to 12:45..
Shamrock(Quote)
Sham – does that mean it’s on BT Sport?
Sharpy17(Quote)
7th Nov 12:45pm kick off.
Think they’ll go on sale closer to the time but I think only members can buy tickets for away games.
Stuart79(Quote)
Yes Sharpy it’s on BT
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart’s right, you have to be a member to get away tickets and even then it’s often on a points basis.
richietoon(Quote)
I see the Montepellier manager is complaining about Newcastle again with regard to Remy Cabella. I can see him moaning about the weather but the city has a lot to offer as all on here know. My problem with these people is that they don’t seem to understand what is close by – you have York, the Lakes, Edinburgh and lots more. All these players have fancy Masarati’s or Range Rovers so you would think they might not mind a drive for a couple of hours. Also, there are these giant flying metal bird things that were invented 100 years ago and can get you from Newcastle to London, Paris or Amsterdam in literally an hour.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Well i Will be pleased if Woodman leaves , the last of the Pardew era too go .Pavel as the new goalkeepers coach ? He loves the club knows what the premiership is all About and has coaching expirence at Sparta Praag.He might know a couple of decent defenders that he could bring with him as well
Axel(Quote)
AXEL good shout there mate
icedog(Quote)
Have one of the regular coaches teach Timmy for an hour a day as his main failing is his distribution.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Mis given shirt No 45
icedog(Quote)
Ice, So Cisse retains the no 9 unless he’s sold 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim – they were using it as bait for Austin, but God knows where that one is at, or if it’s even still on?!
Sharpy17(Quote)
IMO Austin will sign next week,just a gut feeling,plus it will save me giving a certain person a punch on the nose for giving me duff imfo
icedog(Quote)
Newkie – yes I do like the look of Perez. Love his attitude and commitment to every game.
Plus he knows where the back if the net is too. But he us still young and improving. He doesn’t need the added pressure of being top scorer.
But I reckon he will score plenty for us.
Boots(Quote)
Williamson 6, Anita 8 😯
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Steve has been moaning about travel and jetlag this preseason. Liverpool have notched up over 20,000 miles so far:
http://www.football365.com/f365-says/9929540/F365-Says
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Quite depressing seeing Williamson still got the No. 6 shirt. Even more depressing when I saw that he is more than likely to be starting against Southampton with Taylor… Colo not had any games, Mbemba not trained and Lascelles – well who knows!!!
Don’t worry though – they will have improved beyond all recognition this season. Schteve’s Harry Potter!
Stuart79(Quote)
What do they see in him that I haven’t after watching him for hundreds of hours? If they can’t offload him to Leeds for 2 mil then how is he good enough for our 1st team? I just don’t get it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Some people will say that there is no significance to shirt numbers anymore – well, I bet those same people buy tops with Shearer 9 on them. I had a look at that new non-wonga top and if I bought one it would have had Shearer 9 on the back, for nostalgia but also because I don’t know who of the current players will even be here in 2 years.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The blind leading the blind:
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/recap-no-imminent-defensive-signing-coloccini-s-strange-situation-matip-and-austin-latest-1-7387934
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We’re waiting until August 31st to get the helicopter out Eric mate. Then we can say we tried to get another defender in but just couldn’t get him over the line. Lee considers this an absolutely brilliant tactic along with The Theory of Low Bids….Beautiful.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Hey Folks, can someone explain something to me, as I forget how it works? I thought the squad could only be like 25 or so players big…we have 35 if I counted right…how does that work? Are some given a number, but confined to Reserves? Cheers.
NorCal Toonfan(Quote)
Squad numbers are allocated by Nufc. Significant only to Nufc. Later they have to submit a squad for each competition eg epl. Epl have max 25 some of which have to be home grown. But under 21 are extras
premandup(Quote)
Norcal it’s age dependant if you remember? I think you have to be over 21 to be counted in the 25 man roster.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
You actually say folks Norcal mate? That’s a real Americanism. Even Obama says folks.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Listen to Premand Norcal mate and you’ll never go wrong.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Prem: do you know when we have to name the squad for the PL by? It will be interesting as some of the remaining squad will have to be loaned or let go right? I am thinking like the Rangers 5.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
currently 8 of the 25 must be homegrown
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)