It must have been a harrowing experience in January for the five new French players who arrived and at the time we had just been beaten at home 2-1 by Reading, and we thought that was the low point of the season – we were wrong.
Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa – things will be better next season
Newcastle did quite well initially with the French players and won our first two league game sat Aston Villa and then at home to Chelsea, but it was after we were eliminated form the Europa League that we really fell apart.
We lost our last three home games 3-0, 6-0 and 1-0 to Sunderland, Liverpool and Arsenal – and maybe the low point of the season was that defeat by Liverpool – the heaviest defeat at St. James’ Park since 1925 – ouch!
24 year-old Yanga-Mbiwa played 20 times for Newcastle since he arrived, and he looked particularly good towards the end of the season at left-back, and he’s talked in the local press today:
“When I first came to Newcastle, it was definitely complicated coming into an entirely different system.” “I have had to adapt to the English game, which wasn’t easy for me. It’s been a case of me working hard and really grafting in training.”
“I’ve had half a season at Newcastle United. I now know how everything works and I can’t wait until next season so we can get stuck in.” “I am sure all the French players who came this year can do well next season.”
“All the French guys had worked under different managers, so we had to come in and each one of us had to buy into the manager’s philosophy.”
“Each manager has his own way of doing things, of course, so there were different things we needed to get used to. “But the manager knows our qualities. He knows what we can give to his team.”
Obviously we didn’t see the best of our five French players over the four months, and it’s always hard to come into a team, especially from overseas, when you don’t even know the language.
But we saw from every one of our new French players, Mapou, Moussa Sissoko, Mathieu Debuchy, Yoan Gouffran and Massadio Haidara, that they can play a bit.
They’ll be much better once they are through the pre-season, and we assume they are all going to English classes overt the summer – one of the difficulties was that none of the new arrivals knew any English in January – and that didn’t help.
It was a terrible season, but with the players we have we should be able o do a lot better next season – and we don’t want to be anywhere near the relegation zone – it’s not good for our health – in fact it’s very bad for our health.
Keep the faith we’ll be much better next season – won’t we? 😀
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27 comments so far
Indian Magpie
May 25, 2013 at 9:55 AM
Comment #1Are u sure it wasn’t pardew?
Bearsize
May 25, 2013 at 9:58 AM
Comment #2Mapou will be brilliant next season as long as we offload the poo like shola
sparky55
May 25, 2013 at 9:59 AM
Comment #3a more honest appraisal might have been…it was very difficult coming from a good well run club with a good manager who knew what he was doing to a club ran a bunch of loons who have appointed a manager who hasn’t got a clue
JackButler
May 25, 2013 at 10:00 AM
Comment #4Mapou was starting to look very, very solid in the last few games for us so hopefully with a good pre-season under his belt he can pick up where he left off
josh
May 25, 2013 at 10:00 AM
Comment #5Any chance we can move on from pardew now we know he is staying. It’s worse than loose fkin women on here at the moment. Ya cant scroll 5 comments without a whine. If we all sat in a room the floor would be wet with estrogen. Let’s move the fk on and get over it.
sparky55
May 25, 2013 at 10:00 AM
Comment #6nope…all we need to do is offload the manager and get someone in who knows what he’s doing
JAMSHA
May 25, 2013 at 10:02 AM
Comment #7Bearsize
Agree
josh
May 25, 2013 at 10:02 AM
Comment #8Which ISNT GOING TO HAPPEN
JackButler
May 25, 2013 at 10:04 AM
Comment #9But I’d rather see him played as a center half as long as it’s not alongside the erratic, jazz hand waving Saylor
saxonfenken
May 25, 2013 at 10:06 AM
Comment #10sparky55
Same old crap, day in day out, when will you people realise we have got him wether we like it or not, all this negativity, same about not getting new players, lets just wait and see, the lesson was learnt last summer, it will not happen again.
So can we give it a rest until things do or do not happen
Midtoon
May 25, 2013 at 10:06 AM
Comment #11Is torq about anywhere
Get French Football (@GFN_France) tweeted at 9:36 AM on Sat, May 25, 2013:
#Belhanda: “Germany, Spain, England or Italy. A top four side in those leagues would appeal to me.” #MHSC
(https://twitter.com/GFN_France/status/338211835947929600)
spitfire_
May 25, 2013 at 10:07 AM
Comment #12“Each manager has his own way of doing things, of course, so there were different things we needed to get used to. “But the manager knows our qualities. He knows what we can give to his team.”
Not ours Mapou… but you will learn.
sparky55
May 25, 2013 at 10:08 AM
Comment #13no need to shout. One things for sure Josh it will happen at some point because no manager keeps his job forever so YES it will happen and the sooner we make ourselves heard and influence the decision then maybe we can help get the club back on track with a manager who knows what he’s doing.
Censoring this blog to suit your current mindset ain’t gonna happen…otherwise it wouldn’t be blog would it
Indian Magpie
May 25, 2013 at 10:08 AM
Comment #14That is ud out of the race for belhanda
sparky55
May 25, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Comment #15saxonfenken…you seriously think this club learns by it’s mistakes…where’ve you been for the last 5 years???
Stu-Prudhoe
May 25, 2013 at 10:10 AM
Comment #16I do think we will be better next season. I have lost faith in Pardew and do believe a change is needed, because his philosophy isn’t suited to the type of players we have and the style us fans want to see. Football has changed a lot in the last 15 years and Pardew is more suited to back then. An English manager that thinks we have a good passing team, but hoof the ball up and hopefully I will fall nicely o one of our players. Long ball doesn’t work with players we have. We should be a solid attacking unit that plays on the ground and hit teams with quick attacks. A 4-4-1-1 formation would be best or the 4-2-3-1 but Pardew needs to install a passing philosophy that is what all the French players are use to, anita was signed from ajax, one of the best passing on the ground teams in Europe., even cisse should be a poacher not a target man. He should be receiving through passes on the ground so he can hit the ball 1st time. A t has to change, but mostly Pardew. I am happy with the club off field, the running of the club and how they are trying to make it affordable to go to matches etc, but whether Pardew needs a few more experienced coaches to help him or completely changes his style as a manager. ONLY THEN WE WILL GET BACK TO BEING A GOOD FORCE IN THE PREMIERSHIP
JackButler
May 25, 2013 at 10:14 AM
Comment #17saxonfenken
We may be stuck with him (for the time being at least) but it doesn’t mean we have to like it or simply look blindly at the coming season praying that everything’s suddenly going to fall into place and work for us.
And to be perfectly honest it’s border line delusional to think that anything will change, after all, it’s not as if they have all lied to us or failed us before is it?
josh
May 25, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Comment #18Of course at some point he wont be there, but for now he is here and we might as well get behind him. Do you think ashely gives a flying squidgy turd what 1200 people on a blog think? Im not trying to censor it, just trying to reduce the input from the san lorenzo brigade. Constant whining and pushing for something that is not about to happen. If we have a whole summer of this, my eyes are in danger of popping. It’s worse than mothers on facebook talking about their kids with the “I cant believe” tag line. Believe it, it’s concrete, it’s happening.
croftus5678
May 25, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Comment #19@5 josh
hahaha funny but very true bud.
Munster Mag
May 25, 2013 at 10:16 AM
Comment #20Nico at 196…..good post. Says a lot about this defensive midfielder of a manager we have. No wonder he plays 3 of them at times. He must love it. Anyway, the only good things about the summer is that we wont have to listen to some of Pardews match quotes….but i’ll remind you anyway.
We wasnt a fret
Thats not my team….my teams are on the front foot
Me and Colo are both winners
We was comfortable until they scored and goals change games ( especially when I dont know what to do with my defensive midfielders )
We need to look past Everton now ( or something like that )
My team is tired
“The group” ….etc etc
josh
May 25, 2013 at 10:19 AM
Comment #21Nobody said anybody has to like it, im not too fond of pardew myself. I wasn’t from day one. Im just not prepared to throw a daily tantrum.
snowdone
May 25, 2013 at 10:20 AM
Comment #22It may be time to take a break from the blog! Pardew is staying. How many more times do we have to read the same old, same old…….. But it is a free blog and if you fell the need to repeat yourselves like older citizens sometimes do, be my guest.
There is no doubt the January transfer window was a success with all five imports bound to bring something fresh to the side once they’re settled in.
The current team quality is not good enough for a top six finish and I look forward to seeing how we do in the next six weeks in bringing new blood in to take the team rebuilding a stage further.
I voted to keep Pardew and see how he progresses next term. He has received his last year’s report and has been given areas to improve. I will give him the chance to learn from his mistakes.
josh
May 25, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Comment #23http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=5zz4A4jFuQk&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5zz4A4jFuQk this is essentially my feeling on the pardew butt hurt scenario
josh
May 25, 2013 at 10:31 AM
Comment #24Actually no it’s not. Wrong video lol. Watch that anyway, good crack.
remember69
May 25, 2013 at 11:04 AM
Comment #25I remember when the blog used to be a great place for
conversation and interesting viewpoints. Now it is being squated by those whose sole contribution to any discussion on team affairs is to vent their own feelings on getting rid of Ashley, Pardew or Shola.
I understand and respect other views, but believe me they have been heard over and over and it’s hard to extract worthwhile discussion. It’s hard to get through a post without the same folks jumping in with the same negative comments.
MA, AP at least are here to stay. We all understand that there are a great number of fans who a re not happy – I do not need to read about it on every 2nd comment on every post.
F or the sake of keeping the blog an interesting source for discussion can we please move on?
Geordie-Exile
May 25, 2013 at 12:49 PM
Comment #26I for one agree that we need to move on from all the negativity surrounding the retention of Pardew. As my American wife says,”it is what it is!” Lets be proactive and have a debate on whom we may recruit realistically this summer. I for one would like us to be aggressive in the transfer market albeit within the bounds of reality.
toonluvva
May 25, 2013 at 4:38 PM
Comment #27The reason the blog is full of negativity is because of the managers negative approach to our football.
We as supporters are behind the majority of the players with a few exceptions. You all know who they are.
Personally I think we have some decent players who under a better management could easily be in the top 8 most seasons. They have the ability to play attractive football in my opinion, and a new coach would bring out the best in them.
That’s why so many people are on this blog moaning their heads off. They can see what’s wrong and who’s to blame. It’s just a shame that those who could do something about it don’t see it.