January 2010 Archives

Is it just me or have Newcastle United actually been fairly efficient during this transfer window? There is a first time for everything and it seems as though Mike Ashley has finally realised how to operate in the transfer market.

Allow the manager to identify the players he wants within a workable budget and then make sure everything possible is done to get them without being held to ransom by anyone. If deals fall through, move quickly on to other ones and repeat until squad is up to required strength.

There are times in this job when you write things on the spur of the moment, caught up in the emotion of events, when everything is raw and sore and your judgement is clouded.

It happens in arguments, particularly when alcohol is involved. Something which seemed a complete injustice, an outrage, the worst insult ever, a shocking turn of events can quickly become something trivial by the time the hangover has arrived.

I feel a bit like that after my Crystal Palace match report. Newcastle were poor, sloppy and slapdash. They were lucky to win and they won't go up playing like that for the rest of the season.

I've always liked Kenwyne Jones, both as a player and a person, but he has lost his way, head turned by interest from rival clubs, head messed up by Steve Bruce's handling of the speculation which surrounds him.

The whole sorry saga is a shambles. Jones has been a shadow of the player he should be and at times he has looked as though he is going through the motions as a Sunderland player.

That isn't acceptable in any way shape or form, but he is reacting to events going on around him. A confused sulk would be the best way to describe his behaviour.

One down, two to go. I'm pleased Danny Simpson has seen sense and decided a permanent move to Newcastle was the best thing to do, but as ever, whenever one player signs the focus immediately switches to the next one.

But who is the next one? It must have irritated Newcastle fans to read on Thursday morning that Sunderland are on the verge of signing a player who has already turned down a move to United this month.

If Matthew Kilgallon does sign for the Black Cats it will say one of two things. Sunderland have paid over the odds for a player who will be a free agent in the summer, or Newcastle no longer have the muscle to compete with their local rivals in the transfer market.

It was impossible not to be caught up in the emotion of the occasion, but Peter Lovenkrands's equaliser against West Bromwich Albion was a get out of jail card as well as a fitting tribute to the memory of his father.

Seeing Lovenkrands burst into tears after scoring arguably the most important goal of his Newcastle career moved everyone who saw it and I'm absolutely delighted for him. The thought of losing a parent at a young age is one we all dread and it took a tremendous amount of mental strength for him to play against WBA.

But that should not distract us from the wider issues surrounding the game and if we learnt one thing it is that Newcastle will have plenty of work to do if they do manage to haul themselves back up into the Premier League this season.

When people like me write it is far too early to talk of a crisis, it normally means it is far too early talk about a crisis but things had better start improving quickly or it will be time to man the panic stations!

That is exactly the situation Sunderland and Steve Bruce find themselves in after the humiliating 7-2 defeat at Chelsea at the weekend, a scoreline which could easily have read 10-2 - or worse - and one which almost completely banishes the memory of that encouraging start to the season.

It was one of their best performances of the season - albeit against one of the worst teams they have faced - and Newcastle United should be happy with the manner in which they booked their place in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup.

I'm still struggling to get away from the feeling the FA Cup remains an unwanted distraction. It seems ridiculous to say that about any competition, but I can still remember watching Sunderland reach the semi-finals in 2004 where they lost to Millwall and then in the play-offs to Crystal Palace as their games in hand failed to take them into an automatic promotion slot.

However, Newcastle can't simply go out and deliberately lose. They would be slaughtered for it. Winning breeds confidence and confidence breeds victories so perhaps we should just accept the FA Cup as more of a pleasant distraction, a nice break from the pressure of the league.

So Ricky Hatton is going to fight again against the advice of almost everyone who has an ounce of respect in the fight game.

If any of you have seen Hatton on television recently he looks about as much like a professional boxer as I do after eight pints and four double vodkas. Not so much out of shape as shapeless.

We know he has had a drink, he looks as though he has been doing little else since he was flattened by Manny Pacquiao, but this has all the sense of drunken call to your ex-wife at 4am in the morning to see if she's interested in a reconciliation after catching you in bed with her best friend.

Graham Onions had better be careful. If he carries on like this people are going to start thinking he is an all rounder and the next thing you know people will be calling him the next Andrew Flintoff.

I'm never entirely sure I'd want to be the next anyone to be honest. I'd rather be the new me, which knowing Graham will be exactly how he feels.

He has enough on his plate at the moment trying to establish himself as a front line Test match bowler. He doesn't need to be living up to anyone's expectations other than his own.

The writing has been on the wall for months. Even if Kenwyne Jones does not leave for Birmingham City during this January transfer window he will only be postponing his Sunderland departure.

Steve Bruce doesn't get Jones, he doesn't understand him and he struggles to accept it. What I mean is, Bruce likes him as player, or rather he likes the idea of him as a player, but he cannot work out what makes him tick and therefore he does not know how to get the best out of him. It infuriates him.