The Premier League Owl
Some quotes have come out of Newcastle from Alan Pardew about Cheik Tiote and the midfielder’s disciplinary issues, and it’s hard to argue with him.
I will be talking to him before the Brugge game. We talk to him before every game. We talk to him at every half-time and I’ll be talking to him again.
It’s not a laughing matter because he’s one of our big players and I can’t have him not playing. It could be costly and he needs to understand that. He will play on Thursday, he needs to stay match fit.
Newcastle ‘talk to him before every game’? Really? This is a 26 year-old player, not a teenager who doesn’t know the difference between enthusiasm and recklessness. There’s so much to admire about the Ivorian and what he brings to this Newcastle side, but he has to improve his self-control. Apologists for him always use the lack of red cards he’s received in England as a means to defend him, but that’s not the point – anytime he gets yellow-carded it changes the way he has to play, his effectiveness gets tempered by the threat of dismissal and that weakens Newcastle’s midfield.
If Tiote could solve this issue, he would be a better player – and he’d attract genuine interest from the top sides on the continent. Newcastle fans probably don’t want to hear that, but it’s a fair observation.
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