Alan Pardew has talked today about how Newcastle should be nowhere near teams like big-spending Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham, but we are.
Papiss Cisse scoring against Swansea City
Can he get a goal tomorrow – after his haircut?
And indeed we are 13 points ahead of Liverpool and 2 points ahead of Chelsea, and level on points with Tottenham, but when you look at what those teams have spent in the transfer market over the last couple of years, compared to what Newcastle have spent, we are nowhere near their spending.
As just one example, Liverpool have spent close to £120M since a year last January, and Newcastle have spent around £24M in that same time-frame, but of course we also sold Andy Carroll for £35M, and the net spend is much lower than that.
But the team Alan Pardew has helped put together, with some shrewd buys from Chief Scout Graham Carr and the Newcastle Board, we are a match for any one of those three sides this season.
And along with Arsenal, Newcastle are fighting it out with Tottenham and Chelsea for 3rd and 4th places in the league, which will decide who represents the English Premier League in the European Champions League next season.
Newcastle have been in the top six in the league almost all season, so it’s not really a fluke, and the side are currently on a run of five successive wins, when results really count, over the last ten games of the season – the business end of the season.
Some teams, like Tottenham in particular, have come to a grinding halt in terms of their wins, and they have but one win and 6 points in eight games, since they hammered Newcastle 5-0 at White Hart Lane on February 11th.
In the same period Newcastle have picked up 17 points, five wins, two draws and only one defeat – at Arsenal – in our eight games since the away defeat at Tottenham.
This is what Alan Pardew said today:
“We are calm, we’ve got momentum and there’s a good feeling at the training ground. That makes us dangerous.” “We’ve not got carried away all year, we haven’t patted ourselves on the back and we’ve just got on with the next game.”
“We will continue to do that until the end of the season.” “We are batting well above our level in terms of the teams, salaries and transfer fees of these other clubs.” “”We shouldn’t be anywhere near them, but we are and we continue on our good form.”
“We are in great form at the moment, momentum is with us and we take that to Stoke.” “The most important thing is to get past Stoke. It’s a home game and we’ve been strong at home.”
Newcastle will be hoping to make it six wins on the trot for the first time for around 17 years, when the lads take on Stoke City at St. James’ Park tomorrow afternoon, and all three points could even see Newcastle clear on 62 points in 4th place.
That will depend on how Chelsea fare at Arsenal in the game before Newcastle’s, and then how Tottenham do at QPR, in the game following ours.
But all Newcastle have to worry about tomorrow, is how they can pick up all 3 points against Stoke, in the second last home game of the season.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
81 comments so far
geordiejamie89
Apr 21, 2012 at 1:32 PM
Comment #81He had short hair anyway I doubt we’ll notice a massive difference.