Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

No Excuses For Pardew Now Then?

11 years ago
Share

As predicted, Ashley stepped up to the plate and has bought a load of players, thereby giving the whole club a massive boost and delivering considerable hope to the fans…a fine PR job if ever there was one and credit where credit’s due, he’s proven yet again he’s one hell of a businessman.

Very few could have predicted the level of investment and the number of players brought in but the real rational behind this Waterloo-esque raid on France is of course down to the gambler that lurks within, realising he only had one throw of the dice left.

Being in such a treacherous league position and Ashley’s master plan for selling the club in such disarray only months before the biggest pay day in Premiership history. As the new TV rights deal kicks in next year, he switched into high stakes gambling mode to protect his investment from being flushed down the bog yet again and luckily for us he threw a six.

I’ve openly criticised Ashley & Lambias and Pardew over the last 5 months but fair play to Ashley; he came to a decision, picked up the dice, went through his lucky shake routine and he’s now delivered a pool of players that adds significant quality to the squad. It creates important competition in key areas that in my opinion means we are now more than capable of going on to do greater things, never mind just help us gain short-term premiership survival.

Sissoko is a quality player; Ashley was definitely wearing his highway robbery mask when he did that deal.

Haidara although little known in the UK is very highly respected in France and has a great future in front of him.

Yanga-Mbiwa is no doubt real quality, already a French international with great Pedigree and composure for such a young man.

Gouffran is someone I know little about but looks like he’ll be used as a wide player supporting Cisse, like Ba used to before defecting to Les Bleus…and with Debuchy bought early on in the window we as fans can only be hugely delighted at the reaction of Ashley to the situation we’re in.

So 10 out 10 Ashley, you might be a cold miserable b*st~#d but you’ve put your money where your mouth is and I’m sure I’m speaking on behalf of the whole Geordie nation when I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving us some hope and some sort of chance we’ll not be relegated this year.

Enough of the praising thing, I’m starting to feel a bit queasy so I’ll move on to more pressing matters…

I only see two holes in the plan but to be fair the window is not shut yet and owt could ‘appen!

Hole No 1. We still need a striker with good premiership experience to replace Ba, Cisse broke the mould when he arrived halfway through last year and did what he did but I can’t honestly see anyone else coming in and making the same impact unless already a proven premiership goal scorer.

With Cisse still misfiring we need another striker for sure though form is temporary – class is permanent, so whilst I have no worries about Cisse going forward, I’m not so sure he’s going to score enough goals this year.

Target wise Bent would be great and Wolfswinkel looks good, but not so sure he can come into the premiership and make the immediate impact we need to get ourselves quickly out of trouble.

We also need to replace Captain Colo, it’s great news he’s staying til the end of the season but he’s not going to staylong-term so we do need another centre half.

So just in case you’re still feeling lucky Mike, can we have Bent and a good centre half???

Hole No 2. The manager. I’m not going to harp on about how woeful he’s been all year and I’m happy to draw a line in the sand on the basis we must now all agree he’s got no excuses with the squad now available to him.

I therefore have 2 questions…

What do we do if Pardew plays 4-4-2 against Villa with Jonas on the left and Obertan on the right and the Mackem slayer up front with Cisse????

Will Pardew sacrifice advancement in the Europa league for premiership survival when he now has a much bigger squad that could no doubt have a go?

NUFC to beat Villa 9/5
Cisse to score first goal 9/2
NUFC to win 2-0 17/1

Sign up to BetVictor and get a £25 free matched bet

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks