In what must be one of Newcastle’s worst ever opening day displays for a long time at the Etihad Stadium tonight, there was very little manager Alan Pardew could take out of this game, and in particular our back four looked very poor.
Mike Ashley – must work with Kinnear to get three new players through the door
The only bright spots for Newcastle were the performances of Tim Krul in goal, who kept the score down, and Ben Arfa, who made a few good runs but had absolutely no support from the rest of the forwards.
We thought we only needed one more striker and we’d be in good shape, but this performance has shocked us by its ineptness – and now Joe Kinnear really had to earn his money and Mike Ashley has to pay out some money – otherwise Newcastle could again be fighting relegation this season – based on this first performance of the season.
We must get another top center-back in, and it looks like a huge mistake by Kinnear to cancel the deal for Douglas in mid-June, after it was all set up by Derek LLambias before Joe was appointed.
We need a striker and a center-back and since it seems Yohan Cabaye is ready to leave Newcastle.
And if Yohan wants to leave we should let him go – because he hardly helped the cause tonight – probably our best player – and he wasn’t in the right state of mind to play.
Newcastle now need an attacking central midfielder to replace Cabaye – who we assume will leave Newcastle in the next couple of weeks – but who exactly is available in Newcastle’s price range is not known.
We shouldn’t over-react to0 much, but Newcastle’s squad looks bereft of class – based on tonight’s performance.
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190 comments so far
NUFC FOR SALE
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:05 PM
Comment #161Anita is a good player
If Keegan was manager Anita would start every game because Keegan would know how to use him.
Face facts if Pardew had his way we wouldn’t have Anita, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Cisse, Sissoko, Marvaeux etc….we’d happy Carlton Cole, Bobby Zamora, and another dozen plodders.
We have a decent squad with 4 good quality additions it could be a great team but it matters not as we have a manager who has to go down as the most clueless manager I have ever known in my time supporting newcastle,
Slater
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:05 PM
Comment #162In a 4-0 defeat, it’s hard to say this but I was really impressed by Mbiwa and Dummett. They looked very composed whenever a threat was near. Cisse was muscled off every ball he got near it.. City were brilliant though.
JackButler
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:05 PM
Comment #163ToonDownSouth
What I’m saying is that this type of thing happens all the time in football and I don’t understand the outcry simply because it’s happened against us. If this was the only time that it had happened then fair enough
There has been an outcry towards Wenger and Arsenal’s lack of spending all summer so this can’t be just a knee jerk reaction to their result against Villa and why is it that Baines and Fellini can still put in a performance for Everton yet Cabaye has had his head turned?
I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I’d bet that we have removed him the squad to protect him form the possibility of injury so the deal can and will go through
geordie1892
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:05 PM
Comment #164What the hell has happened to Tiote? Absolute liability.
I like to try and be optimistic but that was p!ss poor. I expected defeat but the lack of fight and passion makes me seriously worried for the coming season.
We need a win and more importantly a spirited display against West Ham or we are fcuked!
Sazzer
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:06 PM
Comment #165I don’t get why a bid would change anything. It feels like an yet another excuse. Unless Arsenal wants Cabaye in their squad against Fenerbache. I don’t see why he wouldn’t give his all against City today and play for another team next week if that what they agree on.
Zero
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:06 PM
Comment #166Well we carnt blame cabs not playing, we ‘should’ have ample replacement to come off the bench…..
Any road, Debs was shocking, if cabs goes he should go too… i really hope the PSG talk of the double swoop is true. Sell them and replace them just dont rip off the fans again.
check the toastie
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:06 PM
Comment #167Love the way Percy is advising Arsenal on how they should conduct themselves in the transfer market. F#cking Balloon.
Spuggy
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:06 PM
Comment #168We played 442 until sending off 😉
fray bentos
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:07 PM
Comment #169Average manager with mostly overrated average players coached by seemingly average coaching staff, all brought together in a haphazard incohesive manner where price overrides positional needs as the most important factor in transfers. Throw in plenty of penny pinching and a moron director of football who still lives in the dark ages and has a serious personality disorder.
Oh what fun lies ahead this season
Beattie25
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:07 PM
Comment #170TDS
I agree 100%.
I’ve said for a while now that a vast majority of nufc fans see it as a day out. They take the shirt of the hanger, go out and have a few beers, go and watch the match, rant about it afterwards, put the shirt back on the hanger and return to normality.
They have no care about the long term plan for this club, they don’t care enough about the style of football, the quality of the team, the passion from the players.
They want what Ashley wants, Newcastle to stay in the prem so they can enjoy watching them against big clubs. They accept mediocrity because it means they can enjoy Pl football.
wolfshead@toon
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:08 PM
Comment #171check
pardew out joe in? 🙂
hotdog
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:08 PM
Comment #172I can see a bid for Hatem coming in. He has the quality top teams are looking for and then it is goodnight Newcastle united.
SeanNufc87
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:08 PM
Comment #173Beattie
im usually quite timid on this blog compared to on other social media, but shut the hell up.
there are NO supporters of the regime, just people who dont look at everything through an emotional teenagers glasses.
nobody wants ashley most didnt/dont want pardew but we are stuck with him.
its people like you that make our club look like crap, our biggest stock is the fact we have an amazing fan base, if you lose us our team is just another sunderland.
your not supporting the team, your not supporting the manager, your not supporting board, tell me what team you support and ill show you a liar.
irishtoon999
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:09 PM
Comment #174Joke of a manager and joke of a club! Just back from the game and the manc fans didn’t even slag us, they were embarrassed for us, between the way we played and the cabaya news.. We R n serious trouble this season, make no mistake, we can’t hold on to the ball and we can’t pass!!
stu mel
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:10 PM
Comment #175Beatie
Please mate chill
Over teams loose games badly too. Go do your protest you go tell Ashley to send the cash I bet while your do that he not there and he won’t be listen
Here the options as a fan as like it or not in the eyes off the law the club is Ashley’s lump it
Accept that your club is shite but still support are don’t support.
Myself I just see so much waisted of what the club could be
check the toastie
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:10 PM
Comment #176If I was Sam Allardyce on Friday i would put some bids in for Ben Arfa, Sissoko and Krul, maybe Collocini, clearly they would then need to be pulled from our squad.
A new tactic for opposition sides, put ridiculous bids in for our players and then they wont play. For F#cks sake.
PATHETIC
Novocastrians
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:12 PM
Comment #177Get Fat Ass out and all will be well until then just shite !
toonking
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:12 PM
Comment #178BPC actually I am annoyed at these result but I am not brainwashed by tis stupid belief that any player from a different league is a super star as carr found him I look at the facts.
1. team such as lyon hardly ever progress beyond the group stages of the CL
2. this is call the premier league a league which is physical and fast the French league is a league with players take ages to close down on the opposition
3.the fact that we lost out on remy to a team that was already virtually relegated.
4.when ba got put back into the centre right away he was back to scoring lots cisse on the other hand goes into the centre in January but is always offside.
5. when simmo and raylor were FB we had a excellent defence and the midfield were always able to get forward then santon replaced raylor due to injury and goals started leaking then we change to a 4-2-3-1 concerned about the leaks with our defence then simmo goes causing the right to get leaky too.
fatman
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:17 PM
Comment #179lets not blame Pardew its not his fault he gets 1% of all sales, that might have something to do with Cabaye being left out they cant play an injured player as only we buy crocks, every player has a price, if they are offered the money the player goes, its Ashley’s way out, he cant sell the club so he will sell player by player, then sell for £50m-£80m when we go down, we are just as poison to him as he is to us.
stuart no9
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:17 PM
Comment #180you cant just blame pardew for this league 3 side he has put together, Ashley – kinnear- pardew , look at those 3 names, 3 names that wouldnt know class if a big concrete slab fell from the sky with class written all over it, and hit them on the head, the 3 have to go, newcastle will not recover from this ,and if they do , it will be half a dozen games from now but they will be rooted to the bottom of the league and will be too late anyway,
People who know football will probably know , tonight they have witnessed the worst team the prem has ever seen with the worst perfomance the prem has ever seen, tonight was ashleys night , his 5 year plan starting to take effect, the 5 years he has predicted it will take before nufc are the laughing stock of world football and not give us a sniff of a chance to to rectify it.
Dont think because 52000 fans turn up at SJP for the next game it will make them play better – it wont, this performance has shaped us for the season- the long miserable season ahead,
We were lucky tonight – it should have been 8 , if i was the man city manager i would be ripping into my team for wasting so many chances, luckily it wasnt man u or chelsea we were playing.
The 3 wise men have to go . what is needed is boycotts demos , riots who cares , they have to be removed now, BOYCOTT.
BennygivesmeTinglyBalls
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:18 PM
Comment #181Wish we had sold Tiote instead of Perch. Pardew is clueless , I wish Ashley would have sorted this out earlier, offering him an 8 year contract was bonkers. If we had someone like Laudrup as manager, life would be so positive
West Lancs Geordie
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:19 PM
Comment #182Get real all you optimists. We are officially a selling club. Cabs is on his way to whoever but we won’t have a replacement lined up. Why did we not start recruiting in June because Ashley has no intention of spending. Who of any substance is going to be attracted to us? WE are already in a relegation dogfight. Injuries pre kick off Remy, Santon now Guti. Taylor banned for 3. Sold 3 Englishmen in key cover areas – not replaced. Willo, Obertan, Gosling and several more not good enough even to offload (nobody wants them). If we are going to have to rely on youngsters why let Campbell & Ferguson go out on loan. There was no passion tonight & one of the few Englishmen we have was stupid & naive. From Cabs money must spend wisely : Tom Ince £8M (young,quick, goals & English) Then we must trawl big clubs for loan players : Milner, Vermalen, Lescott even Ba. Think £15M for McCarthy would be too much.Forget Gomis . But batten down the hatches we are in for a real bumpy ride but whats new with this regime?
BandB
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:21 PM
Comment #183Ibiza,
No bedtime story for you chucky egg. I have a lullaby for you though.
“Keep ye feet still Ibiza hinny, let’s be happy through the night.
“For we mightn’t be so happy through the day.
And give ‘us this bit comfort, keep ye feet still Ibiza lad.
I wadn’t drive ya bonny dreams away.
I remember you last summer when you were vastly less on the fence. A neat trick.
King of the Five-Year-Plan and Negger-Finder-General, I recall.
You haven’t changed. You are just more subtle.
wynsleap
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Comment #184In nearly 60 years of watching the Toon rarely have I seen a full back display as bad as Debuchy’s tonight.
The people who slagged off Danny Simpson should be hanging their heads in shame tonight as the lad never had a game anywhere near as bad as that in his time at the Toon.
Even a young kid came on at left full back for his first ever first team performance and made him look like an amateur.
People say that Cisse looked disinterested. Wouldn’t you with that level of service and response. The guy was made to look foolish wandering around on his own up front.
Why take Ben Arfa off – he looked fit and hungry and made some decent runs. Anita is second rate at best.
Taylor is finished at this club in my opinion. Never fully fit he has now developed into a player who runs around the defensive area like a headless chicken and still hasn’t learned to keep his arms by his side.
Felt sorry for Tim Krul tonight – without four fabulous saves we would have been looking at a total massacre. His body language seemed to suggest he wasn’t exactly impressed with the team’s performance.
We now know that we need two strikers, a decent right back and also a creative midfielder seeing as poor pussy Cabaye didn’t ‘get his head right’ for tonight. Bravery of the first order from our overhyped Monsieur.
This club is up to it’s neck in impending disaster. Fans must mobilise to get Ashley OUT of Toon or we are going to be the biggest laughing stock in Premiership history.
West Lancs Geordie
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:32 PM
Comment #185To all you who said City were brilliant – they bloody well should be for all the money theyve spent. They could have put out a far better team than us from players on the bench & not even in the squad. The Premiership is stuffed. Far better for the rest of the teams if Man U , Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs & Liverpool created their own Elite League. WE wouldn’t have to be content in finishing 15th & put out weaken teams in Capital One & FA Cups just to try & preserve our Prem survival. It’s a nonesense! Bet we don’t take five points from those six teams this season!
chrisj9
Aug 19, 2013 at 11:38 PM
Comment #186Firstly well done Krul and Dummet, also thought sissoko did ok defensively in second half, the rest were very poor, debuchy especially poor, every time i see newcastle on tv Tiote missplaces passes or looses the ball, which is a shame and i thought we looked pretty much like last season. Y steven taylor was deliberatly trying to get sent off i dont know, i think at best he should only be used as cover. Cabaye for me all summer even before kinnear arrived was trying to engineer a move away, it just shows his lack of loyalty, I don’t think Ben Arfa is as loyal as he should n could be either given his comments a few months ago. As for pardew i think we need to get a new fresh manager, maybe like poyet, and as for mike n joe we need signings quick, I commented on the gomis transfer when we’d had a big accepted every1 was happy but I said I don’t think he’ll sign due to his agent fees, and I also said cabaye would leave before we spend anything, Douglas should of been signed and we should of got gomis or Sum1 very similar up top, poor game for us, to say the leaat
toonicle
Aug 20, 2013 at 12:52 AM
Comment #187Tiote was basically useless, unfortunate that Anita wasn’t a whole lot better but he hasn’t had many first team chances to be fair. The whole thing was pretty much a disaster.
The overrated Frenchman
Aug 20, 2013 at 1:54 AM
Comment #188Part of the problem is that we bought these European players primarily because they were available and cheap. There clearly wasn’t a systematic plan of building a team and a style of play. What position was Anita bought to fill? What role is Sissoko meant to be playing? And Gouffran? (Not that they are much good anyway). And as someone remarked, Cabaye was a one-season wonder (along with Cisse and Tiote). Debuchy was obviously brought in to play right back, and obviously can’t. And if Jonas is supposed to be a winger, well he ain’t.
Grumpy
Aug 20, 2013 at 2:02 AM
Comment #189Its only the first game , Calm down.
The overrated Frenchman
Aug 20, 2013 at 2:15 AM
Comment #190First game yeah, but no real prospect of any improvement that I can see. We looked just like we looked last season, and that wasn’t pretty. It’s quite possible that at the end of the season the table will be the same as it is today. Man City on top, NUFC on the bottom.