We’ve been disappointed so far with the performances of Kevin Nolan for Newcastle, since he was signed from Bolton Wanderers in January for £4M.
Kevin Nolan – still has good future at Newcastle United
But strangely, we are still fans of the Liverpool born player and think he will turn out to be a good buy for the club down the road.
It’s hard to fault the character of the player, as was evident when he was sent off for a terrible two-footed lunge on striker Victor Anichebe, shortly before half-time in the game with Everton in February.
Kevin apologized to the player as he left the field, and then apologized to his team mates at half time, and lo and behold the lads held on brilliantly in the second half to get a well earned point.
Joey Barton obviously didn’t learn much from Kevin’s behavior that day.
And it appears that Alan Shearer hasn’t given up at all on Kevin, and has insisted Kevin Nolan is still part of his plans for the future.
Alan said today:
We’ve got to get Kevin into the positions he had at Bolton,” Shearer said. “We’ve got to get him on the end of things in the box.
“We’ve got to get him driving in there, and being a threat from set pieces, because he can do that. He showed it at Bolton.”
We’ll probably bring out a list of players we think let the club down badly this season, and it will not be too long, and it’s mostly our high end wage earners.
But Kevin Nolan will not be on that list, because while he hasn’t played at his best for the club since January, it’s hard to doubt the lad’s spirit and potential.
We expect Kevin is very like the fans, and is hoping like crazy we stay in the Premier League this season, but if we go down he’ll be one that we expect to stay at the club.
If we do go down we expect the two Tayls, Harper, Beye, Bassong (hopefully), Enrique, Duff, Lovenkrands, Butt and Guthrie to stay, along with of course all of our outstanding youngsters. We would expect some of our promising young players like Carroll, Tozer, Ranger, Kadar, Krul, LuaLua and even Haris Vuckic to be starting to show through nicely next season.
Most of the rest will be sent packing, and quite honestly we will not miss many of them, and Mike Ashley will save a fortune on the wage bill.
Alan will have to build the squad using those players as a base, but we have no doubt we could have a very strong and appropriate side come August, for the Championship. Iain Dowie’s experience at getting Crystal Palace promoted in 2004, will be important and a good help to Shearer.
But we would expect to get out of the Championship at the first attempt, just like Birmingham City have done again this year, for the second time in the last three years.
But we hope we will not need that season of rebuilding down in the Championship.
Howay The Lads!!.
Comments welcome.
170 comments so far
DJG
May 9, 2009 at 9:12 AM
Comment #161If we can’t beat the pathetic boro then we deserve to go down.
geordie deb
May 9, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Comment #162Morning lads
Batty haven’t you got relatives in Stoke? Can you arrange for them to nobble the Hull players?
DJG
May 9, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Comment #163If we go down next season there will only be 2 leagues between Newcastle and Gateshead !! They got promoted in the play off final last night to the Blue Square Premier. Their second promotion in a row !! Get in Gateshead. They need to replace Lee Novak though who scored 28 goals on loan from Huddersfield.
Tom_Toon
May 9, 2009 at 9:35 PM
Comment #164Nolan is one of the worst players in the prem.
Tom_Toon
May 9, 2009 at 9:36 PM
Comment #165He needs to be sold at the end of the season IMO. He would struggle in the championship.
Rodzilla
May 10, 2009 at 1:40 AM
Comment #166/
Rodzilla
May 10, 2009 at 1:44 AM
Comment #167Tom mate, dive in with your comments. It’s all cool here. Anything goes, just finish with at least a word.
Rodzilla
May 10, 2009 at 1:50 AM
Comment #168…incidentally I’d disagree with “Nolan is one of the worst players in the prem”.
….worst at what exactly? Nolan is our new Gary Speed – we just need to nurture. Stay up, spend, top 7 next year.
COME ARN!!!!!!!
Rodzilla
May 10, 2009 at 1:57 AM
Comment #169…
Rodzilla
May 10, 2009 at 2:36 AM
Comment #170£&*@