Former Arsenal star Paul Merson was very critical of Roy Hodgson’s decision to select Newcastle United star Andros Townsend for the England national team for the upcoming European Championship.
His main criticism regarding Townsend’s selection was the fact that the winger only ‘turned up’ during the final few games of the season and as a result, he never really deserved a place in the Three Lions’ squad.
Merson perhaps has a point and Roy Hodgson has most certainly gained a notorious reputation of employing favoritism whenever he makes a selection for the national team.
In truth, the call up earned by the likes of Jack Wilshere, Jordan Henderson and Fabian Delph are equally questionable but unlike the aforementioned trio, Townsend’s inclusion can be justified.
Leaving any Newcastle bias aside, Townsend certainly did not enjoy the best of campaigns after spending the first half of the season at Tottenham with the kids and he did take quite a while to get going at St. James’ Park as well following a £12million January move.
Nonetheless, Townsend’s form during the final six games of the season was simply superb as he scored crucial goals against Swansea City and Crystal Palace, and his contribution was perhaps the most important one in helping Newcastle give themselves hope of avoiding relegation.
Unfortunately, Townsend was unable to save the Magpies but on a personal level, the 24-year-old would surely have been very pleased with his performance and it would be hard to find a more in-form player in the Premier League over the last two months of the campaign.
Admittedly, selection for such a big tournament would be better off done on the basis of performances throughout the year rather than just a few games and many feel that West Ham’s Michail Antonio deserved a place ahead of Townsend.
However, Townsend was forced to miss the first half of the season at Tottenham due to his attitude problem and while one should not condone such behavior, the winger certainly buckled down to prove his worth at Newcastle.
Perhaps most importantly though, Townsend’s advantage over Antonio is the fact that he already has international experience under his belt and also has the trust of Hodgson. On the basis of statistics, Antonio should be on the plane but Hodgson clearly does not rate the West Ham man and he would perhaps be a waste of a space if he had indeed headed to France.
Townsend is unlikely to start for England, who are priced at 8/1(10Bet) to go all the way in France, but he does have the X-Factor to change the course of any game when thrown on as a sub and overall, Hodgson has perhaps made the correct decision in including the Newcastle star in his squad.
Kim I said that I thought Rafa would stay providing he was given the assurances that he would be given the tools he needed to run the club properly, and I was 100% sure Rafa wouldn’t be stupid enough to just take Jabba’s word for it. For me Jabba has tried from last season final game when he done the sky interview to do the right thing, but this season has showed him that he can hand money over for players, but it needs to be handed to the right person , that will buy the players needed not just investments.
MM check your mail, I think that is you sorted now
Big Dave(Quote)
Aussie – you are so negative at times.. 😯 🙂
It is a new dawn. One of hope, ambition and inspiration!
Stuart79(Quote)
Dave, yes mate it does look like lessons are finally being learned, lets hope all pans out as we all wish. Gonna be an interesting season as everyone expects us to bounce straight back now so Rafa needs to get off to a flyer and keep the momentum going. Nowt was really expected last time we dropped but there is a lot of pressure this time, player recruitment needs to be spot on both in talent and character if we are to go up.
Kimtoon(Quote)
I hope you are right Stuart.. you are normally wrong so here is hoping for that new dawn 😉
Kim, i cant be any stranger than some of the crew on here! 😆 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Kim tbh I think all if not 95% of the fans expected us to go straight back up last time. But there was some doom and gloom pundits that thought we would do a Leeds.
Big Dave(Quote)
Can’t see Townsend moving on, loaned out perhaps ?
Munich Mag(Quote)
Big Dave ….. I’m back in the fold mate…. 🙂 Thanks for your efforts 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
Aussie 😆 very true
Big Dave, Tbh I was one who thought we’d maybe make the playoffs but not a leeds.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Glad to have you back MM Mate
Big Dave(Quote)
Kim with the team we had I had no doubts, and if Rafa keeps the core of the team then anything other than top 2 would be a failure IMO
Big Dave(Quote)
No I can’t see it either I think he will be thankful to us for the chance we have gave him and getting regular footie
Big Dave(Quote)
Aussie – I know what you mean, but to be fair I’d wonder about people coming onto an NUFC full of sunshine & rainbows the way things were.
I am loving the new hope & optimism that has been born or Rafas arrival – and despite relegation.
Get yourself back in amongst it mate and bring your Aussie brethren with you!! 😉
Sharpy17(Quote)
If Rafa has the intention of keeping certain players – Andros Townsend is going nowhere!!! – whether he likes it or not.
Are we allowed to watch the England game tomorrow with it being at the stadium of *****? 😯
And is anyone going?
Sharpy17(Quote)
I know this site is getting slated but Arbeloa signing for us?! Now that would be mental
http://www.nufcblog.com/2016/05/26/benitez-could-be-interested-in-real-madrid-defender/
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
I think Townsend has a release clause so if a club meets it it’s up to him if he leaves or not.
Stuart79(Quote)
Andy
Be amazing if we could sign him, after yesterday, anything could happen
Simon(Quote)
Free agent and has the Madrid connection so I guess anything could happen.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Andy/Nick,
Thanks for being a bit more open about what’s going on. It’s been disturbing to me to see so many regular posters just disappearing. Some of that is what Aussie hinted at – a general malaise about all things NUFC which is no surprise considering the ownership and running of the club (into the ground). Hopefully the Rafa appointment will bring a real resurgence at the club and also on here.
I listened carefully to what Rafa had to say and the most striking thing was repeated – it’s all about the football. He didn’t say ‘not profit, not pound for pound, not buy cheap sell high, not shop window for better things” and all those horrible phrases that came from Llambias and then Charnley.
So onwards and upwards! HTL
Georgio(Quote)
Andy I had a vent yesterday because there is no link to new threads UNDER the comments and also because it would be nice to interact with the new writers from time to time. Cheap rumour articles are a personal dislike of mine but that is subjective I suppose? I should also have balanced it out a bit by recognising the efforts of the new writers to get posts up and also to you and Nick for taking the place on – hopefully the feedback will be taken onboard and you guys get the place rocking toa new level! I do enjoy SRF’s articles it must be said. He is a good writer. now let’s all move forward together into what should be very good times for all asaociated with NUFC ?
Shamrock(Quote)
AMF: I agree with Kimtoon that I am I am glad to see you comment again. I have said it before that I think you are funny. But you don’t like me 🙂
Anyway…
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Even though I can’t see it happen but how much could our younger players learn from him, as I think we have missed out on that type of player that could still do a job for us but would set a real good example to the youngun’s
Big Dave(Quote)
@Big Dave and Sham – wasn’t ignoring you , tried to reply on my phone last night but due to Apple’s ridiculous number of updates it is ridiculously slow and took me 5 minutes to type out one line!
They’re fair points from both of you re the blog. Our original plan was to have it providing both news and opinion to get the best of both worlds but it’s clear the former doesn’t work on the site at all as it interrupts flow and doesn’t provide value to REGULARS. Communication is also another good point, it has been poor recently but also feel we’ve done some good stuff with the site too. We will try harder (because we want to not because you guys are annoyed by it) and by we I mean mainly myself and SRF who will be taking a more active role going forward (Nicky’s commitment has been worse than mine and he will remain a kind of ‘silent owner’).
Being totally frank we WILL continue doing news pieces as that was our original aim HOWEVER they will no longer appear on the front page or be anywhere in view. If people really wish to access them we can place a link in the top menu so people can take a look should they wish. So essentially the homepage will become a members only page where regulars go and only stuff contributed by the likes of SRF, Sham, myself, Kim toon and others will be featured. Does this make sense to everybody? I ‘believe’ this is the best way forward for everyone.
Comments welcome.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Townsend’s the one I’d really like to keep but his star is rising rapidly and he’d probably find it hard to turn down a big offer.
Will be really interesting to see who Rafa eventually keeps. His eventual first team would stroll the championship as it is.
Georgio(Quote)
No worries mate, that confused everyone – I did mention in the comments we would do that but it wasn’t exactly clear people coming straight to the home page.
Yeah SRF is very good, I’m still uploading his articles atm – trying to get him to become WordPress savvy 😉
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Thanks Georgio, I want to be as open as possible. Check out my comment above and let me know what you think.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Sounds great And. I know you would not be in this if you did not want it to succeed and it must be tricky trying to innovate at the same time as keeping the existing core happy – looking forward to a tip top season on a tip top blog with a bit of luck.
Shamrock(Quote)
DAVE imo yes to help the younger players but no good as a first team player he’s lost three yards of pace he would get murdered for pace in the ccc it’s a bloody tough lge mate he would end up looking like colo
Icedog(Quote)
Yep that’s the challenge right now! We also have a Facebook page project going on right now and the idea of the news was to drive people from there to hopefully drum up some new regulars that have never been on the site before. We have a guy called Gaz who helps run it and is class. I think it’s working as a i have seen the odd ‘new face’ on here, unless they are just old posters who havent been on in a while.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Have to say it’s good to see Lee Charnley giving an interview. Came across ok, said the right things and I hope Rafa can guide him in the right direction.
Stuart79(Quote)
Will we give Rafa ten games?? like SM wanted lol
Icedog(Quote)
Agreed.
Heads up, we have a new thread going up at 5pm discussing Rafa appointment.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Good on you Rafa
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/05/26/rafael-benitez-further-endears-himself-to-newcastle-united-fans/
Icedog(Quote)
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/05/26/rafael-benitez-further-endears-himself-to-newcastle-united-fans/
ten out of ten Rafa 🙂
Kimtoon(Quote)
ice, Snap 😆
Kimtoon(Quote)
😆 😆 😆 👿
Icedog(Quote)
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2016/05/26/ashley-and-co-deserve-praise-after-benitez-swoop/
New article by me folks
Andy the Magpie(Quote)
Hi,
I hope this email message finds you well. We just came through your website https://www.nufcblog.co.uk
I wanted to reach out to you regarding advertising options on your website.
Can you please write to us if you can publish an article with a link to our website or any other form to link our website and how much it will cost.
We can take text link on the upcoming article / existing articles/sub page/homepage if possible.
We hopefully look forward to hearing back from you.
Thanks & regards
Mikael Laustsen
Email: [email protected]
Mikael Laustsen(Quote)