August 2007 Archives

So that's Barnsley out of the way for Newcastle and while it was hardly a spectacular success against limited opposition, the Tykes were at least dispatched patiently and efficiently enough.

It's far too premature to be talking about trophies and trips to Wembley, but at least the dream lives on for the time being and it is another game unbeaten for Sam Allardyce.

While my old friend Sven-Goran Eriksson may have drawn considerably more plaudits for his excellent start at Manchester City, Allardyce has made a solidly encouraging beginning to his time on Tyneside. Like the performance against Barnsley, it hasn't been thrilling and it hasn't had many fireworks, but it has done enough to suggest he has got things moving in the right direction.

There are some things that should only be done on holiday like karaoke, bingo and getting ridiculously competitive about a game of water polo or pistol shooting against beer bellied, out of shape fellow holiday makers. And then there are things which shouldn't be done on holiday but are, like going down to the pub to watch football on the telly.

You will be pleased/mildly interested/ couldn't care less just get on with talking about the football/ to know that I've managed to do all of the above with the exception of the karaoke during my week in Majorca. One drunken and hideously out of tune rendition of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean earlier this year fills my quota of sing-a-long embarrassments I feel.

I've already had enough of the football season and need to recover after Durham's Friends Provident Trophy success so I'm heading off on another holiday!

Before you ask, I'm heading to Majorca for a week and yes I do sometimes work hard. As ever, if there is anything you want to get off your chest while I'm away, I'll have my laptop with me and will check from time to time. There might even be a poolside rant I need to have.

I guess the most pressing thing on the agenda at the moment is the persistent rumours that Mike Ashley is already looking to sell the club. However, we can only take what chairman Chris Mort said at face value and he insisted it was a long term project for the both of them. I hope he's right.

Then of course there are the new rumours about Obafemi Martins and Manchester United, although, and I might be wrong, I feel these stories about him are the work of an over imaginative agent!

There is nothing quite like a 0-0 draw to dampen enthusiasm, crush expectations and quell excitement, but before everyone gets carried away on a wave of pessimism just remember it could be worse – Newcastle could have lost 3-0 to Wigan Athletic!

While United’s momentum was being checked by Villa, Sunderland’s was being brought to a grinding halt at that most depressing of football arenas – the JJB Stadium. The result was even enough to briefly put everyone’s relegation favourites top of the Premiership. The early days are so often the strangest.

So Newcastle fans, before you make the monumental blunder of thinking it is a good idea to ring up the Three Legends for a good moan and groan about Sam Allardyce and the players, it is worth pointing out that four points from the first two games is a pretty solid start and that, under Glenn Roeder, the Magpies would almost certainly have lost to the claret and blue lot from Birmingham.

May I be the first to congratulate Durham on their Friends Provident Trophy success over Hampshire. Ok, so I'm not going to be the first am I, but I'd like to congratulate them anyway because it was a fantastic triumph and a memorable achievement the whole region can - and should - be proud of.

After years of watching Newcastle and Sunderland blunder their way through yet another trophy-less season this was the first time I'd watched a North-East team win - barring promotions - anything.

It was a special moment, albeit one in which I couldn't use my usual phrase book of disappointments, embarrassments, let downs, humiliations, pain and devastation. No matter, I'm sure I'll be able to get them out again when Newcastle lose in the quarter-final of some cup competition or other!

There are three phrases used more than any other when it comes to writing about Michael Owen, which in various forms generally mean goals, injuries and comebacks. Having spent £17m to sign him from Real Madrid two years ago, there have been precious few goals and depressingly frequent references to the others for Newcastle United.

As a signing for United Owen, whether he likes it or not, has offered about as much value for money as fake Faberge egg. Both might cost a huge amount of money, but ultimately both purchases leave the buyer feeling conned. Given that he was supposed to be the precious jewel in United's crown, Owen's time in the North-East has been an unmitigated disaster.

Do you know what the favourite drink in Bolton is? Lemon juice, the bitter the better apparently! I might have made that up, but there was certainly plenty of bitterness at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday, which only made Newcastle's comprehensive victory even sweeter for Sam Allardyce.

Quite why football fans feel the need to boo and jeer former managers/players/ballboys I don't know. Sometimes it is justified - I present Robbie Savage as Exhibit A for the prosecution - because sometimes players and managers do dump on clubs.

However, when you have achieved as much for a club as Sam Allardyce did for Bolton as a player and a manager, surely it is just better to remember the good times than become consumed with anger and hate just because the guy decided to leave for a new challenge?

If there was a guide to help footballer's win over sceptical supporters it would inevitably include a chapter called 'Coming Off The Bench On Your Debut And Scoring An Injury Time Winner Over Much Fancied Premier League Team From London.'

Okay, so it would probably have a snappier title than that, but things couldn't really have gone much better for Michael Chopra at the weekend could they?

I think it is probably only natural that some Sunderland supporters questioned the wisdom of spending £5m on a striker who was not deemed to be good enough for the Premiership 12 months earlier and who, as we all know, was an ardent supporter of Newcastle United long before he ever became a player for them.

The futility of the pre-season friendlies are already little more than a memory, the new signings are - almost - all in place and finally the real action begins after a summer of transfer speculation, court threats, takeovers and that sport called cricket.

I’ve got to be honest, I can’t stand pre-season because it’s football for the sake of, well, very little. It doesn’t mean anything, you spend half your time dealing with misleading information about transfer targets and the other watching unfit footballers with suntans going through the motions in a friendly against some uninspiring team or other.

All pre-season is about, as the name suggests, is preparing for the new season, the proper stuff, the bread and butter or as the Americans would say in an undoubtedly annoying way, the real deal.

So with the new season upon us, it’s time for my pre-season predictions which will probably be about as accurate as a drunk trying to pin the tail on an imaginary the donkey but anyway..... Feel free to leave your comments with your own predictions for the new season.

There have been plenty of jokes about Scottish goalkeepers through the years - apparently something to do with England winning 9-3 at Wembley in 1961 - but Sunderland supporters will hope Craig Gordon doesn’t become the latest.

At £9m, the Black Cats have made their most ambitious signing yet under Roy Keane, a signing which has certainly made its mark and, as a declaration of intent, breaking the British transfer record for a goalkeeper shows the Wearsiders mean business on their return to the Premiership.

However, while it is undoubtedly a positive signing and a big coup for a club which has had its fair share of troubles in the transfer market this summer - David Nugent and Leighton Baines spring to mind - it is also one which inevitably comes with a risk because of the size of the fee.