Alan Pardew talked about the owner Mike Ashley, yesterday during his news conference.
Micheal Owen – injury ravaged time at Newcastle
When Newcastle were relegated two years ago owner Mike Ashley had every right to feel let down by the players, since at the time Newcastle had the 6th highest wage bill of the sides competing in the Premier League and yet we finished up 3rd bottom of the league and one point from safety.
And at least as far as their names are concerned, Newcastle had some big players in Michael Owen, Shay Given and Charles N’Zogbia (well for half the season), Oba Martins, Joey Barton, Nicky Butt, Mark Viduka and others, and certainly they were on big wages on Tyneside.
And Alan Pardew brought that up yesterday, that Mike Ashley has been burned by some big signings that just didn’t pay off:
“I understand their point. Not just under Mike’s tenure as the owner of this football club, before that, big players signed here, and at other clubs, and have not been a success.”
“I don’t really like putting tags on players because that doesn’t mean to say we can’t buy an expensive players, we just need to buy the right players for this football club.”
“I understand their point. They have been hurt, and if you have been hurt with a big, big signing who hasn’t produced anything on the pitch, you are going to be slightly wary of that type of player.”
One big signing that certainly didn’t pay off was Michael Owen, who is now warming the bench at Manchester United, when he can get on it, and he’s wasting his skills, which he still has in some abundance it may be said.
Michael was injured a lot during the relegation season, and indeed in his four years on Tyneside, he scored 30 goals in only 79 appearances for the club, but more significantly from February of the relegation year he failed to score a single goal, when we needed him most.
You have to remember Michael was on Tyneside when Newcastle were in Europe and playing over 60 games a season, so only 79 games in four years says he played in only about 30% of Newcastle’s games in that time, due of course to his many injuries.
We still think if Michael was playing for a club where he could start each week, he’d be knocking in those goals, and we don’t understand why he’s not more keen to play regularly at a lesser club.
And until Alan Shearer became manager on April 1st of 2009, Mark Viduka was hanging out in the injury room, but Mark did come back and played well for Shearer in the last few games of the season, to be fair to the Australian.
Newcastle will no longer go after trophy signings, which we think is good, and what we have to look forward to is creating our own stars brought in as youngsters, or getting bargain buys like Cheick Tiote and Yohan Cabaye, who together cost only around £8M, and both will become mammoth signings for Newcastle, and maybe already are just that.
We even like the new strategy Newcastle are on, and Alan Pardew not only understands that, but seems to be pushing Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias to do more to build the team and satisfy the Newcastle fans.
Certainly Alan Pardew is doing very very well, and it remains to be seen if Mike Ashley will continue to support his manager, but it seems high odds that Mike will do just that, because Alan is producing the goods.
Newcastle are doing as well as they’ve done since Bobby Robson was sacked back in August of 2004, and long may it continue.
Comments welcome.
20 comments so far
Toon_Jock
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:05 PM
Comment #1Great article Ed, puts things into perspective really, where we were, and where we are now!
Looking alot better thats for sure!
Hope everything is going well with your treatment Ed – get well soon
HWTL
Dannyo
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:11 PM
Comment #2There’s more players than Owen who’s been “big signings”.
None as expensive as him ofc, but think of Luque, Marceline, Gomas/Gomes(??), and the list goes on.
These were people of big fat wages, and all in the £7-8 million bracket.
That’s allot of money to waste…
TS -77
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:15 PM
Comment #3Goma 🙂
JP...from The Rock
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:20 PM
Comment #4Pardew deserves a lot of credit and respect. We are an exciting team that has made huge strides under his leadership and we have stability at long last. He also knows what the fans want, speaks very well in the media, has the support from all our players and the board it seems. He has handled very difficult situations with ease and is making us get results against the odds. He even has improved players overall game, improved our defense and brings youngsters through from the reserves.
To me what Pardew has achieved in such awkward circumstances and such a small space of time is nothing short of remarkable.
At first I was appalled by his appointment and now I am overjoyed.
He has really worked hard to prove the doubters wrong and I have to say he’s won me over.
Long may it continue.
HTL!
Thump
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:21 PM
Comment #5Honestly, I hate the low transfer kitty and when we got promoted and Ashley released his “no capital outlay” statement, I was foaming… but that said, looking at the quality we have in the squad, it’s paying off well. I think Pardew, with the help of Carr and his scouting team, is showing that you don’t always have to break the bank to bring in a great player.
Long may it continue! (But a bit more money please, Ashley. Just a little.)
drongo
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:27 PM
Comment #6Worst ‘big signing’ ever: Guivarche, 2nd worst: Silvio Maric.
I really think Cabaye will be the pick of the current bunch, more so even than HBA. Benny I think will be similar to Robert in that he can win a game out of nothing, but may also go missing at times. Cabaye covers pretty much every blade of grass.
Benton Toon Exile
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:31 PM
Comment #7We have also had some pretty good ones too!
Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand, David Ginola, Lorent Robert to name a few!
Ashley is just tight!
Cockney Magpie
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:32 PM
Comment #8Andreas andersson was pretty bad lol
Dannyo
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:32 PM
Comment #9@JP
Agree on Pards making players individually better.
Best is working hard, Gutti suddenly looks like an Argentinian national player, Collo is there aswell, Saylor is playing the best footy of his career, Tiote has become just as immense as last season.
Especially impressed without two argies, Gutti looks a constant danger now, even without a good crossing ability. Always keeps the ball up and has some excellent challenges.
The Wolves goal was a feat of strength, a real powerful display. Loved that one, goal of the season for us so far.
TS -77
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:33 PM
Comment #10Would like to add Boumsong to the worst signing list..
And I agree with the comments regarding Pardew. Thought we were in for another relegation when he was appointed but he has done wonders really! Long may it continue with 3 points tomorrow!!
LEROI
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:40 PM
Comment #11Hey don’t forget that useless lazy broken fingered excuse for a spanish centre back Marcelino! What a waste of cash and oxygen he was when he was here! He cost us something like 10million aswell for what??
UpTheRoad
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:43 PM
Comment #12Ba has been the signing of the season so far! Cabaye close behind! Graham Carr <3
@NobbyNolano – twitter
JP...from The Rock
Oct 21, 2011 at 1:46 PM
Comment #13This team is on the up Dannyo. If we could beef up our striker and defence departments we’ll be complete. I never thought I’ll see the day that we have quality competition in every position.
Funny but some credit has to go to Ashley as it was his shrewd move to appoint Pardew in the first place. I hated him for sacking Hoots but now I can see why, although the manner and timing was very unfair and harsh.
Onwards and upwards!!
I also love the fact how proud, sensible and honest Pardew is in every comment. To me he is not hiding anything and telling it as it is. I loved Hoots but you could see he was tactically inept compared to Pardew.
HTL
Eyeball81
Oct 21, 2011 at 2:11 PM
Comment #14People are forgetting Hugo Viana and more recently a certain spanish striker Xisco!!!
LEROI
Oct 21, 2011 at 2:33 PM
Comment #15Pardew said newcastle may still sign big money players so to speak but they will be the right one’s for the club so i say in january let our striker be Luuk de jong £8-10m not cheap,LB=Pieters £6m not cheap for a LB,our CB/RB could be Onouha £4-6m. I also thought about us buying a DCM since when Tiote goes to the ACON choices are 1 ask Cabaye to to take this role [has done it for france] also put HBA in as ACM. 2 put Guthrie in there has done it for us before not anywhere as good at it as tiote though. 3 Gosling untapped resource perhaps? 4 get Smudge in to get yellow carded every game sometimes red if he’s really on form, give away pointless free kicks in dangerous areas and generally be a nuisence to the toon fans!
theleckworthbird
Oct 21, 2011 at 3:26 PM
Comment #16With reference to the Michael Own signing, I think all players should insure themselves against injury as a compulsory clause in their contract. So if an enormous wage earner like Owen and company are injured it’s their insurers who would pay and not the club. Let’s face it, in view the wages they are on they could afford the hefty premiums that would no doubt be incurred, however they could offset these with tax allowance. What do you think?
GeordieTwo
Oct 21, 2011 at 7:01 PM
Comment #17No need to ask why Owen is still at ManU. Because he likes to pick up a huge pay packet for doing absolutely nothing week after week. I think we did recover some of our losses from the FA when he suffered his big knee injury while trotting onto the pitch for England (we had to threaten them with a lawsuit if I remember right), but otherwise he was a waste of space in 2008 and his face could have tripped you up. The word from Pardew about Colo in his BBC interview was a bit ominous I thought. He his “guardedly optimistic about a new contract but the agent is in Argentina which makes it difficult, and they couldn’t turn down a big offer from a big club”. Doesn’t sound promising to me and who would take his place from our squad? Perch? Kadar? Maybe Williamson as a temporary stand in but we would definitely need to spend money if Colo left. How hard is it nowadays to talk to an agent in Argentina? I think there are things called communications satellites now and conference calls are pretty routine. Sounds like another excuse being lined up to me.
shamsoftabriz
Oct 21, 2011 at 10:25 PM
Comment #18So what’s the point of this? Big signings are bad? Man City, Chelsea, Man U, and Tottenham seem to have made some good ones. So have we. Alan Shearer 🙂
I think the Michael Owen contract is really the one we regret. The moral of the story is not “Don’t make any big signings.” The moral is “Don’t make any big signings of players who are entering the second half of their careers.” Often, footballers drop off fast in their late 20s. Especially strikers. If you’re going to invest, invest in a 22-year old with 1-2 years of good results with lots of upside and no history of injuries. Give *that* player a 6-year deal. NOT the 27 or 28 year old who will almost certainly be half the player he is now during the second half of that contract. But low and SELL HIGH…in that respect, getting Nolan and Barton off the books when they did so may have been smart.
oldbobaycliffe
Oct 22, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Comment #19the trouble with buying duffers is you cant get rid smith and xisco are examples just see out their contracts smith will be out of contract in 2012 xisco in 2013
ToonMatt
Oct 22, 2011 at 1:47 PM
Comment #20Yeah cos we all know that all successfull teams have done it without spending a penny?? Big money signings are bad, look at Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand, Tino Asprilla etc i agree with Pardew, Give me a free signing anyday!!!!