Pre Match: Rotherham – Could a Surprise Inclusion Be Possible?

Jake Swinburn

Newcastle go into this game off the back of two wins, two wins that have seemingly ended the  bad run of form that the club previously found itself on.

Another huge boost in the midweek win over Birmingham was the return of Jonjo Shelvey, who was arguably the best player on the pitch.

Shelvey was partnered by Cheick Tiote in that game, in what was possibly the Ivorian’s final game for Newcastle.

It is likely that Shelvey will play again this weekend and is likely to be partnered by one of Jack Colback or Isaac Hayden.

However, it is not there where the surprise inclusion may come. It is in front of them.

Ayoze Perez has not done badly this season, despite what people may think. His goal return is reasonably good and he tries his best to create.

However, with Rotherham struggling, this could be an ideal opportunity to make a change.

Dan Barlaser played exceptionally well against Birmingham. He wanted to the ball throughout and was comfortable receiving it anywhere on the pitch, an incredible quality for a player so young.

Perhaps Barlaser could get his chance in the league this weekend.

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209 thoughts on “Pre Match: Rotherham – Could a Surprise Inclusion Be Possible?”

  1. Team will likely be something like:

    Darlow
    Yedlin Lascelles Clark Dummett
    Hayden Shelvey
    Ritchie Gouffran
    Perez
    Murphy

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  2. If we approach this game as we did the Blackburn games we will suffer the same result,we must have a killer instinct with a 100% effort from everyone,Ime just hoping Colback is not playing

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  3. Could be a couple of surprises. Sammy on the wing and Gouffran up top? Perhaps Murphy doesn’t have the mobility for the Shelvey through balls? Barlaser did well but I don’t think that’s a Rafa move at this stage. On the bench maybe?

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  8. Agree Sham the silence is deafening, we been here before though. I am past getting tied up in knots like I used to. Just wait for announcements now but never expect them. Rafa has been saying something is close to happening and so far nowt, reminds me of previous windows before Rafa arrived.

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  9. No news at all Shamrock. In a way I prefer that to the rumour a day of the past. Don’t even think we need anyone right now whereas we’ll need a huge spend in the summer.

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  11. Since there is no news I will continue my geography lesson. Does anybody know a country that borders Gabon? Of course there is Equatorial Guinea, that’s the obvious one. But also, The Republic of the Congo does. I know what you were thinking, that Gabon shares a border with the Democratic Republic of Congo but you would be wrong, smart ****.

    And close by is The Central African Republic which I will admit I had never even heard of until I just looked at the map.

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  12. Sham: Spurs said they were paying for Sissoko in 6 payments of 5 million. A lot of NUFC fans assume that that 30 mil just went straight into the bank but we have to wait for it. That’s why Ashley made the new loan because our players are on PL wages and we are in The Championship. The parachute payment helped but I doubt it covered the whole shortfall.

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  13. Yeah Eric, I said a few days ago that people should not be disappointed if we don’t spend £30m, as the Ashley loan was to cover running costs, not transfers.

    However, if we can’t afford Townsend then we can’t afford anybody else half decent either.

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  14. I think after Ashley breaking the bank for Rafa he sees that as ample enough investment this season.

    For God’s sake if we can’t get out of this league with that manager and team then we’ve got serious issues. I see no point paying a premium for players now when we can get them cheaper and more readily available in the summer.

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  15. I doubt much will change in the summer Andy. Man U are set to pay 86 million quid for Griezmann so there is silly money out there. That is his buyout clause. I remember when a buyout clause was put in because the money involved would scare teams off. Now Man U just pay it. He is a great player, but I think Man U and Man City are inflating the prices for everyone. A few years ago McCarthy would have been a 4 or 5 million pound player. Now it is double, and will still be double in the summer.

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  16. ive said a few times jabba is not to be trusted,Rafa is finding that out now sucks them in with promises he has no intent to carry them out,but Rafa is no fool and will walk in the summer hes not stuck for other jobs like our past managers were,jabba wants to make money not spend it to get toon in top half of PL

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  17. Andy generally speaking I would agree. However, £13m for Townsend is not a premium. It’s a fair price and he won’t be any cheaper in the summer. In fact he likely won’t be available full stop.

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  18. So are we all now saying that Rafa is a puppet yes man too now then?.

    He’s explained the set up and said it hasn’t changed since day 1. He has said they are working on transfers and he expects Charnley to have something sorted soon.
    Are we saying we don’t believe Rafa as well now?.

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  19. Sharpy not me mate. My concern is we might not be able to afford relatively reasonable transfer fees for players that can take us to the next level. As it stands it looks like we can’t even afford to keep up with running costs, hence Ashley’s loan. Could mean a struggle keeping up with the Jones’ next season in the PL if that’s the case.

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  20. On another note briefly, Andy Carroll is out injured with whiplash – from scoring a goal ?
    You couldn’t make that up!!

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  21. Shamrock:
    Andy generally speaking I would agree. However, £13m for Townsend is not a premium. It’s a fair price and he won’t be any cheaper in the summer. In fact he likely won’t be available full stop.

    Agree with that, and we already know what he will add to the team, which is worth a lot too.
    He could be plan B, coz when he was in the team last season Shelvey wasn’t.

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  22. Shamrock:
    Sharpy not me mate. My concern is we might not be able to afford relatively reasonable transfer fees for players that can take us to the next level. As it stands it looks like we can’t even afford to keep up with running costs, hence Ashley’s loan. Could mean a struggle keeping up with the Jones’ next season in the PL if that’s the case.

    Sham – Do you not think it’s a case of trying to nab a bargain? – which again is a risky business.
    I think we could afford to buy Townsend coz Ashley would just increase his loan and take the money back when promoted.

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  23. Stuart: I agree with your team except I doubt Hayden will start. Probably Colback to let Hayden have a bit more recovery time.

    We have a pretty easy schedule as I have said before. After Rotherham we don’t play in the league again for 10 days and we have 3 league home games in a row now that Brighton is Feb 28.

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  24. Sharpy: Bilic didn’t know what whiplash is. This is what he said 🙂

    “He’s got a whiplash injury, that’s what I was told from the physios,

    Then I went to the dictionary basically to find out what that is. It was a sore neck, but hopefully he will be okay.”

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  25. Fckin Americans have to bring religion into everything. Trumpy, Trump Trump is having his inauguration and they have a Priest making a speech crossing himself and everybody bowing their heads and in silence and now they have a Pastor, and now another one. That is 3 of them invoking God. Fckin strange. The rest of the civilised world have realised how harmful religion is and they give these charlatans a voice on the biggest stage.

    Now they are singing hymns. Trumpy, Trump Trump just looks bored by it all.

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  26. I thought your rants against the ACN and where African countries were was typical American know nowt about anything beyond the US and made your new president look sensible by comparison.

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  27. Prem: I am not American. I bet if I gave you a map of Africa you wouldn’t be able to tell me where Burkino Faso is. I was eductated in England so if I am acting insular and ignorant that is the fault of the British education system and my own stupidity.

    My rants about the African Cup of Nations were about when they are held (during the football season) and that they are held every 2 years. There was certainly no malice against Africa. Read what I wrote. I am sorry if I upset you. Tell me that you know where Chad and Togo are?

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  28. Tell me you knew that The Republic of Congo and The Democratic Republic of Congo were two separate countries and I wont believe you.

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  30. Maybe Rafa wants to save some money here and use the money to buy or a midfielder, due to limited funding?

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  32. I have made similar comments about the International Breaks as I did about ACON so I don’t think I am being racist or insular. I am calling out stupidity. I have always thought you are a bright guy and am surprised you misinterpreted what I said. Where is Benin?

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  33. As long as we have a couple of players in who are wanted by Rafa, it won’t be that bad. Rafa may stay for next season. Finger crossed!

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  34. S’OK Eric, I know you’re not American and was just fishing. Yes I do know African Geography pretty well, but you are probably right in most cases.

    I’m with you on the ACN.

    Have relatives and friends in the US going ballistic re trump.

    BTW have you come across the Mappiness project. Some university using an iPhone app to get feedback everyday on how happy people feel. Blue Monday, 3rd Monday in Jan is apparently when everybody feels at their lowest, holidays over bills in etc. But it pales into insignificance to the day when everybody in UK mind felt their worst in last 7 years since it started. Nov 9th 2016. US election results.

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  35. Prem: I did know that last Monday was supposed to be the worst day of the year. I think Trumpy, Trump Trump is a nut and may do something stupid. I just watched the ceremony and was shocked by how much it was about military and religion. The only religious nut they didn’t roll out was a Mullah, surprise. They even had a Mormon choir which is 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 of crazy religions.

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  36. I think the idea that he is in some way stupid is ridiculous. he is not stupid. I’m all for seperating religion, personal from state, social.

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  37. Prem: Never said Trump is stupid. I think he is a bit of a dangerous nutjob though. Some of the worst people in history like Stalin and Hitler were certainly not stupid, deranged though. I do know the difference.

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  38. If there is not enough money available in the summer then we are in real trouble (assuming we go up of course). It would be one thing to not spend this month but another thing entirely if we don’t have 50M or so to spend in the summer. I don’t fancy another relegation battle in the Prem and I doubt Rafa does either. This is why we’re always in trouble with Ashley. He just doesn’t get it. You can’t play it safe and cheap and hope to finish 15th. It just doesn’t work out that way. You either go out and get decent players and build a decent team or the club will forever be a yo-yo side under Ashley. Surely he knows that after two relegations? We can only hope.

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  39. Oh, and the new Vice President is a religious nut. You should look up some of the things he believes. I am just hoping that Trumpy, Trump Trump survives for his full term coz it could always get worse.

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  40. As for Donald Trump? Talk is cheap. Let’s see what actually happens. Pride cometh before a fall.

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  43. Ice no-one trusts Mike Ashley. His the sort of man that will stingy as hell so Rafa resigns then hire his puppet Alan Pardew.

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  44. G2: I guess you lot look at the US and can’t quite believe what is happening. I am lucky to live in Chicago which is an Oasis amongst the “Make America Great Again” crowd in the Midwest.

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  46. I have never been more worried Eric mate. Even George W. Bush didn’t scare me as much as this man does. He could cause real trouble. It has already begun. Getting rid of Obamacare with no suitable replacement, talking about Japan developing their own nuclear weapons, goading the Chinese, building walls (are Canada going to get one as well?). It looks like four years of hell to me. Protectionism will lead to job losses not job gains. Watch the crying start after a couple of years of the Donald.

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  49. Back to footy though. If we can’t get Townsend I would like to see us sell Mitro and get somebody pacey in there. I don’t think Mitro will ever be a big scorer at any level. I don’t mind going for a young player if Rafa thinks he’s decent. And missing Shelvey for a few games certainly shows we’re one dimensional in the midfield. Without him we just weren’t the same. Two big areas of concern for me. Striker and midfield depth for the Prem.

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  51. He’s appointing a Goldman Sachs guy as Treasury Secretary. 8 years is a long time. Last one was Hank Paulson, ex-chair of Goldman Sachs who almost oversaw the collapse of the global economy. Nobody went to jail and Trumpy, Trump Trump thinks it is time we had bankers in charge of the Government’s money again. Foxes and hen houses spring to mind.

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  52. But he will look after the common folk and restore the middle class. It was not like he was born into vast riches and lives in the penthouse of a golden palace… Doh.

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  53. All sadly true Eric mate. This man is hugely dangerous. His followers overlooked his personality and past history as if it didn’t exist. They didn’t even blink when he talked about grabbing pu$$y. They weren’t worried when he said most Mexicans were either drug dealers, pimps, or rapists. Not all Hispanics of course, just most of them. He talks about an underfunded American military which spends more than the next ten wealthiest countries combined. Scary man.

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  54. Just my two pennies worth but if Trump is so smart why didn’t he just invest all his inheritance , he would surely be worth far more now no ?

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  56. There are a lot of angry folk over there, I wouldn’t wanna be him that’s for sure and history tells us anyone can be got at. Plenty happy to die doing it too .

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  58. So Sam says no one leaves the club unless they get a large bid,and jabba says he’s not going to risk any more money while we are still in the ccc and will only accept loans,so where do we go from here then??.

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  59. Interesting: I’m listening to BBC Sheffield and they talked about beating Newcastle when no-one expected them to and Huddersfield twice. Wednesday are at Brighton tonight. Good luck, we all hope you can beat them as well!

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  60. Ice: we have a good enough squad as is to get promoted. It would be nice to get Townsend back and McCarthy in but it is not essential.

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  61. Eric
    I don’t know a lot about American politics. But it seems that many Presidents have been ex-vice presidents. Either because of death, assassination or resignation (in the case of Nixon). “The Donald” is no spring chicken, so I would worry if Pence was a religious nut. 😕

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  62. Eric Sykes:
    Ice: we have a good enough squad as is to get promoted. It would be nice to get Townsend back and McCarthy in but it is not essential.

    i agee mate,its the penny pinching that i hate when we are so close plus does nowt to help RAFA

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  63. DJG: you are lucky you don’t know much about US politics. They spend 2 years on primaries and non-stop ads. It goes on and on and on. At least in Britain you only get a month of the General Election. They also have 2 senators from every state so a shithole like South Dakota has as much say as California. It is almost as bad as The House of Lords 🙂

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  68. Actually a draw would do us nicely, we’d stay top with the same amount of games played and Sheff Wed are in the chasing pack.

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  70. Personally I do believe Ashley has pissed on Rafa’s chips. Either that or he’s said he thinks we’re going to go up and will save money for then. But personally I think we’re in for a tough/rough old ride now Jabba is back in the town.

    Maybe Rafa is too professional to rock the boat this season.

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  71. I am not that bothered if Brighton win. I have heard a lot of stories that Hughton is a nice man and I hope he goes up as runner up. Now, Pardew on the other hand is a ****. Here are a couple of things to back this up:

    The football website Football365 always refer to him as chunky. It is not because he is fat. No, and this is for real, when he was younger he used to eat a lot of pineapple chunks. Somebody told him it would make his cum taste sweeter – for the ladies. Yes, Arrogant Alan was all about doing things for the ladies, he was a real giver.

    Pards was having lunch with a couple of players and assistants when he was at West Ham, I think. One of the assistants ordered some food that Arrogant Alan took a fancy to and Pards said “I’m ‘avin’ that” and started eating off the assistants plate. The assistant must have looked a bit irritated because Pards said to him “I am the king and the king does what he wants”.

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  72. Stuart79:
    Personally I do believe Ashley has pissed on Rafa’s chips. Either that or he’s said he thinks we’re going to go up and will save money for then.But personally I think we’re in for a tough/rough old ride now Jabba is back in the town.

    Maybe Rafa is too professional to rock the boat this season.

    i say Rafa will walk at the end of season Rafa wont put up with jabba being to stay in lower half of PL just to make money

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  73. This may sound blasphemous, but isn’t it better for us if Brighton win this game, or at least get a draw, as DJG mentioned? Don’t get me wrong, I want to win the league, but the gap between 2nd and 3rd is the most important thing and I think Wednesday are more serious contenders for 3rd than a team like Reading are.

    Based on performances so far (both ours and other teams’), I actually think that it’ll be us and Brighton finishing comfortably (~10 points ahead of 3rd) in the top two, going neck and neck for the title, but I wouldn’t mind a little extra cushion between us and the chasing pack.

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