Fabricio Coloccini came back into the side to lead Newcastle to our first win since the 3-1 win at West Ham last month, and that was possible because of a fantastic performance and two great goals from Yohan Cabaye, in his final appearance for Newcastle, and he is now at PSG.
Fabricio Coloccini – Newcastle one of the biggest clubs in the country
Loic Remy has said that Newcastle have not given up on qualifying for the Europa League this season, and Fabricio Coloccini has said that motivation in the Newcastle dressing room for the rest of the season is not a problem:
“People might say there is not a lot to play for in the rest of the season, but that is not correct. Motivation is never a problem.”
“All of us in the dressing room know about Newcastle’s history, we are playing for one of the biggest clubs in the country. That is what we are fighting for when we go on the pitch.”
Newcastle are in 8th position in the league and a full 5 points behind both Everton and Tottenham, but the Europa League is an exhausting competition, and there’s even more games to play than in the Champions League.
That’s because some clubs who don’t qualify for the knockout rounds of the Champions League, drop down to the Europa League, which is bizarre to say the least.
But the Europa League seems to be the competition that Newcastle can qualify for – with the chances of being a top four club again in England being very very slim in the next few seasons.
What do you think?
Comments welcome..
Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and +1 on us on Google+
71 comments so far
catchy in norway
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:06 AM
Comment #41I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.
Alexander the Great
Charlie in the Gallowgate
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:06 AM
Comment #42On about cup and season tickets.
Some poeple do my dinger in moan, moan, winge, winge
Take last seasons Europa cup I went to every home game with my son the prices were £15.00 adults and £5.00 juniors.
Half the buggers that have season tickets never bothered turning up until the quarter final and they will be the first to moan.
This seasons FA Cup 31,00instead of moaning get there and get behind YOUR team
Lilongwe Geordie
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:08 AM
Comment #43Jail,
I didn’t see that. Yeah, Red Bull Newcastle, not convinced I like it but the benefits it comes with and the possibility of global links with clubs bringing us top young talent is a benefit I would love to see.
Sage,
Yeah, I said at the time, if it just to showcase why not use The SBR Foundation Arena. That way you are doing good for a local charity, and a club, and national legend.
Using SD was just a cheap and tacky way of getting increased column inches and increased coverage for the company. Funny how it was meant to be worth around £10million a year, but Wonga bought that and the shirts for around £8million plus unspecified other advantages…
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:10 AM
Comment #44lil
I suppose, but surely it is still a bidding process they could partake in? I suppose just a prem league team would attract a wider audience than some champs league seeing as there are a guaranteed 38 games a year which get broadcast across 200+ countries…where champs league might only be 6 matches, so the prem league has a huge advantage there even without european football.
firebug
All teams buy the league though, that’s the problem now….whether your players are cheap bargains or over priced it makes no difference, very few sides contain even 20% of academy lads, most players are bought ready for the first team.
Lilongwe Geordie
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:11 AM
Comment #45Firebug,
Completely agree, I don’t want an owner who will spend £1billion over 5 years on new players, I’d much prefer we build a club and a squad to win the league. Ashley’s five year plan would have been great, if he was the right man to implement it. Sadly he has failed on just about every point apart from the financial profit on players part….
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:12 AM
Comment #46charlie
Personally I have better things to spend money on than ticket,. travel plus other costs for the day.
When the club puts little into the coaching and playing staff I won’t put my money into the club.
Lilongwe Geordie
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:14 AM
Comment #47Sage,
I think the other bonus with the Prem is it is easy to attract the worlds best players, and I’d imagine that written in to the very top players contracts would also be advertising rights. This would effectively enable them to pay much higher wages as it could be put down also as a sponsorship deal from Red Bull, rather than wages. That could also be a handy way around some of the FFP rules. Red Bull pay a huge sponsorship contract, Newcastle pay small wages….
Laurent Robert 32
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:15 AM
Comment #48Jail, if a Red Bull Newcastle United was the future and it had to include changing the black and white tops to be like the New York tops, would you still go for it?
It’s quite a big step and I’m unsure what I’d choose. There are a number of pros and cons. If it was built round playing in the Champions League then they should be wise to it that they’ll need to buy the top players and certainly a top manager.
Downside is a possible colour change and name change amongst other things.
firebug666
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:18 AM
Comment #49TS
I have to disagree with you that every team tries to buy the league. We buy (maybe) player who will help us compete against the top six teams in the country, But city will buy players who will sit on the bench all season, just so none of the other top five can get their hands on them. They have the money and some of the worlds greatest players there now. We look for a top ten finish, and the chance to test ourselves against the top six.
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:19 AM
Comment #50laurent
Sorry to but in…I’m not keen on a name change but will that be the norm in 20 years to allow teams in our bracket to push on and challenge the established teams? I hope not personally…but then again the name could change but as long as the team is in the city representing the city that’s the main thing I guess.
As for colour change, also don’t want that but could accept it as our away/third kit.
Jail for Ashley
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:20 AM
Comment #51LR32,
I would definitely have a swanky Red Bull away kit., and if it meant wearing it only in the CL then that means we’d be in it, simply couldn’t change it for the PL though.
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:21 AM
Comment #52firebug
I don’t think city do that, I think they buy top players so they are covered for injuries, same as man utd, chelsea, and plenty others do.
Jail for Ashley
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:22 AM
Comment #53Banned again
Jail for Ashley
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:24 AM
Comment #54No I’m not, no mention of my post about a spanky Red Bull away top though, although I didn’t say spanky.
firebug666
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:26 AM
Comment #55TS maybe your right, I just grumpy this morning. But every club does not try to buy the league, just a select few. If we were to have a better owner who had that sort of money to spend, Yeah guess it would be good to start with, but I would prefer us to get there on merit rather than money.
Lilongwe Geordie
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:26 AM
Comment #56Sage,
City not to the extent, but I disagree on Chelsea. They currently have 30 players out on loan, if that isn’t hoarding players then I don’t know what is….
jimmysmith
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:26 AM
Comment #57A name change, ground renaming, strip change, what next, taking our home games on the road. It’s not acceptable in the slightest and I haven’t seen any of the top established clubs entertaining it either.
Laurent Robert 32
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:27 AM
Comment #58Transfer, i agree. It looks excessive that a name and strip may change, but in reality there’s not much difference to when clubs had sponsorships plastered on the front of the shirt when it used to be plain.
Look at Barcelona until the last few years. They believed that their brand alone made them enough money and didn’t need to advertise on the front of the shirt. Even they have that same logo space filled now.
Elements of history and tradition need to be kept, but being too rigid prevents further development, especially if say a Red Bull will fill the team with Champions League quality players.
Look at us name dropping them right now. It is free advertising. If they did take over then like Ashley, they would see a ‘healthy’ boost to sales.
mindshaft
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:30 AM
Comment #59Funny that we go on about the club lacking ambition but when someone suggests we push for Europa league people are saying our squads too small, too many games etc
Jeez we’re 5 points behind and both Everton and manure have to cone to SJP
If we get Europa it’ll help attracting better players
It may be unlikely but if we aren’t trying we may as well just end our season now, let the 1st team start holidays early then play the kids to see if they can hack it
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:31 AM
Comment #60lil
Chelsea do that I agree, but then again its cause they buy a lot of top youngsters, put them on long and high paid contracts then when they get to 19/20 they haven’t developed to play first team but they can’t shift them as they on huge wages.
Firebug
I don’t think every team buys the league, just mean that most teams that do win leagues/challenge tend to be the ones who spend the most money…especially in top leagues.
Laurent Robert 32
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:32 AM
Comment #61Jimmy, anything can be bought for the right price though. Governments, judges, anything. If it happens, we’d be relatively powerless to prevent it. Unless of course nobody turned up, then they’d want out.
firebug666
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:34 AM
Comment #62Gotta go the missus is back, Reason for my grumpiness just walked in. lmao, Have fun guys and gals.
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:35 AM
Comment #63mindshaft
would love us to get europe, just can’t see it, but we aren’t out of it, must keep trying to win every single game possible and hope others slip up more than we do.
Jimmy
I agree, don’t want those changes myself, just it will be interesting to see how many teams do go down that route in the coming years.
Laurent
I wouldn’t want those changes, but never know what will happen in the future.
Lilongwe Geordie
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:36 AM
Comment #64Mindshaft,
But the simple fact is our squad would be too small unless we signed a large number of players during the summer. Everyone would love us to be playing in Europe, but not everyone has the faith in Ashley to finance a squad that is capable of competing in several different competitions.
It might attract better players, but that isn’t any guarantee that we would be interested in paying the cash for better players. That is why people go on about the club lacking ambition.
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:39 AM
Comment #65lil
I don’t think the small squad was the issue with europe. Look at how many changes we made, mainly during the group games, it was 7/8 a game, it’s not that many first teamers playing.
I’d say it was more down to the lack of experience of the manager in knowing how to deal with differences to training schedule and lack of game prep/rest and knowing how to combat this.
Lilongwe Geordie
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:39 AM
Comment #66Sage,
But the players out on loan are challenging for titles all over Europe. It isn’t like they are kids. Lukaku is one example, Piazon, Courtois. Lukaku his currently the top scoring Chelsea striker in the Prem for the second year in a row, yet Mourinho has said he wants a top striker in Jan… Lukaku was reported to have put in a transfer request last summer which was turned down.
Transfer Sage
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:42 AM
Comment #67lil
I agree but I think it’s still because they aren’t good enough to break into the chelsea team as oppose to them keeping them from others….there is no way you can keep enough players on your books to stop other rivals having equally good players in their squad, it’s impossible.
for every lukaku chelsea hang onto man utd buy a van persie, a rooney, liverpool buy suarez, etc etc.
Lilongwe Geordie
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:43 AM
Comment #68Sage,
I’m not talking last time. I’m looking forward and being realistic about what we have, who looks likely to leave and who is likely to come in. Unless there is a change of strategy by Ashley in the summer, the squad would not be equipped to deal with 4 competitions.
On the tactics and training, I think that our current back room staff is now smaller than last time (No Donachie), and I don’t think Carver will have come on for it given he has dealt with it before. Essentially we are pinning hopes on Pardew being better for it. That worries me.
Rotonda heights
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:43 AM
Comment #69Would love to see Red Bull take us over. Far better prospect than Vince McMahon. Red Bull Newcastle wouldn’t bother me in the slightest. Not as if NUFC has brought us anything meaningful since 1955.
I don’t know if we should stick with Pardew in the hope he will eventually get things right. I think many other managers would have dropped or not brought back Saylor in the first place.
That did seem to coincide with our horrendous run starting 10 matches ago. Why did it takes so long to drop Santon too? Point being maybe Pardew does get there eventually. Maybe not.
Not sure how easy it would be to get rid of Obertan if he decides to sit out his contract. Similarly with Marveaux and others. Would be happy to see Gosling, Shola and Saylor depart. Maybe we’ve had our fun with Ben Arfa too by now.
Ins
Grenier
Cabella
Corchia
LDJ ?
Remy
Outs
Shola
Gosling
Saylor
Jonas
Obertan?
Marveaux?
Ben Arfa?
jimmysmith
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:44 AM
Comment #70I think Red Bull go for sporting organizations that are amenable to taking on their distinctive brand.
Thankfully, I think they clearly realize the city wouldn’t go for Newcastle Red Bull Utd turning out at Red Bull Arena in a blue and red and silver strip.
I don’t think they would go beyond entertaining any notion of making a bid. But, yeah they easily could if they were set on it and to my mind it’d be far worse even than the indignities we are currently subjected to.
70TWO
Feb 25, 2014 at 8:45 AM
Comment #71Coming in on this topic late, but IF and it is a big if, Newcastle were prostituted to a brand for sponsorship I would potentially want the name to be devoid of Newcastle in the Premiership listing. Perhaps Red Bull NC? Sports Direct NC???
It would have to be in conjunction with a significant annual transfer kitty, fan representation at board level and greater community investment.