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Newcastle’s Alan Pardew waivering on Cheick Tiote
“You never know with the window — it’s such a minefield of possibilities. I think I’ve learned from the Andy Carroll situation and outside of Manchester City, every club has a player that is vulnerable.
We have one or two players here that top clubs, I’m sure, would be interested in.
The one thing I would say is that they will have to pay a lot of money to take anyone out of here because we’re in a good position — not just on the playing side but financially.
Cheick is a big target because he’s a great player and great players will be targeted.
We value him very highly here and I think, on my part, I expect him to stay.
But that does not mean to say something might not come out of the fire.
If he did go, it would have to be for a silly price.”
That’s Alan Pardew on the possibility of Cheick Tiote leaving Newcastle.
Why not just say he’s not for sale? All Pardew has done here is give encouragement to any sides that are sniffing around his midfielder – he’s basically confirmed that the Ivorian is for sale at a certain value. You can’t really blame Pardew, because I suppose that he’s aware that his owners will sell any of his players for the right price, but it’s just a shame to hear this kind of comment after the start Newcastle have had.
If I’m a Newcastle fan, all that’s happened here is that it’s been reinforced to me that we’re a selling club – and that there’s a ceiling to our progress. Brilliant.
This is why Mike Ashley shouldn’t own a football club, because if he’s ever forced to make a decision between trophies and cash, he’ll choose the latter. Sometimes you have to ignore the economic benefits of owning a football club, and focus a little bit more on rewarding the fans.
Andy Carroll was sold for a ‘silly price’, but that was never properly reinvested in the squad – so what’s the upside of a similar scenario with Tiote from the supporters’ perspective?
“We’ve sold the lynchpin of our midfield for an exaggerated transfer fee!”
“Great, who will you buy with the money”
“Oh, nobody – our owner will just use the funds to erect SportsDirect marketing material around our stadium.”
“Great.”
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Slightly irritated by Newcastle’s good start
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Newcastle’s start to the season irritates me a bit.
Let me get this straight, it has nothing to do with the fans or the players – because they do deserve the success that they’re currently enjoying. It’s not even really much to with Alan Pardew.
No, it’s because of Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias.
Everything that Ashley has done since he’s owned the club has been done to benefit himself. Selling players, reducing the wage bill, branding St James’ Park. Mike Ashley is interested in Mike Ashley, that’s it. All of his actions can be traced back to his desire to sell the club for as much money as he can possibly get for it. In a business sense that’s obviously normal, but his philosophies are just too cynical for football. It’s very hard to tolerate.
With that in mind, Newcastle’s start to the season is miraculous. And annoying. Ashley has stumbled into a successful formula with Pardew, and he’s struck gold without ever really mining for it. Any situation in which Ashley or Derek Llambias could potentially receive any credit is one that’s highly-objectionable.
Cash-in on a club’s assets and replace them with cheaper, younger alternatives. Then refuse to reinvest the majority of the surplus back into the club. It’s unforgivable. But he’s got away with it. The stars have aligned, and the players that have arrived have gelled perfectly and are playing without any semblance of fear.
Alan Pardew deserves a lot of credit for what he’s done, but even that doesn’t sit that easily. Pardew was brought to the club because he wouldn’t object too strongly to the Cockney Mafia’s refinancing and meddling, and because he wouldn’t command high-wages. A club the size of Newcastle could easily attract a manager of higher-profile, or even someone that’s actually won something – but they went down the path of least possible resistance. Someone who wouldn’t ruffle too many feathers.
It was a decision predicated on anything but football, but it’s paid off and they’re starting to get undue credit for it. As unreasonable as it may be, that annoys the hell out of me.
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High-flying Newcastle still an unknown quantity
Let’s put the breaks on the Newcastle love-in that’s running wild in the media.
Let me prefix this by saying that I’m a big fan of the the type of players that have been brought to St James Park, but the rush to judgement is premature.
Alan Pardew’s side have started well – better than those with an anti-Ashley agenda would have hoped – but it’s still very early in the season, and that side hasn’t really faced a proper examination yet.
This is not an attempt to be negative, it’s just caution in the face of past precedents. It’s always the way at the beginning of the season, we feel the need to brand teams with an identity as soon as possible. There’s a fresh feeling to Newcastle at the moment, a novelty, a lot of young foreign players will tend to do that – but we’re six games in.
If there’s one criticism of this new look Newcastle, it’s that the squad looks surface-deep. Factor in the inevitable dips in form that occur over a season, the injuries, the inexperience within the club, and there’s still cause for concern at St James Park.
Players like Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan may have been high-earners, and while that’s clearly against Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias’ financial philosophy, those are players that would have given this team more security, more backbone. While this looks like a leaner and fitter Newcastle and while Ashley looks to have gotten away with his Summer penny-pinching at the moment, it would only take a couple of negative results to change the atmosphere in the North East.
As mentioned, I like a lot of the players in this team at the moment – Yohan Cabaye is an elegant footballer, Hatem Ben Arfa has too much flair not to be liked, and Cheik Tiote is one of the most unheralded players in the league – but there’s not enough security in numbers.
In November, Newcastle play Everton, both Manchester clubs, and Chelsea – if those results don’t go well, it will be interesting to see how this team handles the long Winter period that will follow.
Marveux & Demba Ba promise hope for Newcastle
Newcastle’s a funny club.
The first half of the week saw the ownership derided for the ambition-less sale of Kevin Nolan to West Ham, but by the time the weekend has arrived there’s cause for some real optimism on Tyneside.
There have been many low-points of the Cockney Mafia reign in the North East, and the failure to adequately replace Andy Carroll is fairly prominent. The sale itself probably doesn’t rankle that much given the vastly inflated fee that they recouped, but watching Shefki Kuqi trapse into the club immediately afterwards was probably less gratifying. Overseeing an exodus of talent leaving a club, and then not obviously reinvesting the sales revenue into new players is one of the quickest and easiest ways to alienate yourself from a club’s support. The sale of Carroll was a case study of how to do this, as £35m seemingly disappearing into a blackhole.
But credit where it’s due, the last 24 hours have seen two very astute purchases – Sylvain Marveux and Demba Ba will both significantly improve the first eleven at St James’ Park, and combined with the earlier acquisition Yohan Cabaye, Newcastle suddenly look like a really interesting proposition again. If Jonas Gutierrez, Joey Barton, and Jose Enrique can be retained – which the new arrivals may allow – then Alan Pardew will be a right-back and a central defender away from a team that can do some damage inside the top half of the league.
Given his five months in the East End, most fans will be fairly familiar with Demba Ba by now and can rest assured that he’ll contribute goals – he’s the kind of player that will always score wherever he goes. Quick, powerful, good movement, and a really good finisher – a Shola Ameobi for the digital age. Yohan Cabaye is more subtle, and he brings an elegance and a creativity to the midfield that will complement Joey Barton’s combative style. Sylvain Marveaux is possibly the biggest risk of the three, but his potential upside is huge – and at twenty-five he’s still a developing player. Liverpool fans will no doubt now dismiss him after their club seemingly blinked at the negotiating table, but Newcastle could be getting a real steal on a free transfer – a versatile forward with extremely good feet and a fondness for Laurent Robert-esque left-footed fireworks.
St James’ Park will be fun place to watch football next year, so far so good this Summer, and Ashley, Llambias, and Pardew have us eating our words a little bit. Maybe, just maybe, Newcastle are taking shape as a flair team again.
Real reasons for Alan Pardew’s appointment.
Something tells us that Jose Enrique might be a little underwhelmed by the identity of his new manager, especially after saying this yesterday afternoon:
‘We were all happy with Chris. He’s a great person, he works really hard and we all wanted him to stay. He’ll get a chance with a big club soon because he is a great manager. If they are going to fire someone as good as Chris, they have to then bring in a big name, someone who has won trophies. And that doesn’t even mean he will necessarily be better. If they just bring in someone similar, it’s a joke.’
Joke is right Jose, only this one probably isn’t causing too much laughter in the North East.
By the way, we can shed a little bit of light on how Alan Pardew managed to find himself in charge at St James Park obviously ‘in charge’ is meant in the loosest possible sense. Pardew is an acquaintance of Derek Llambias, having struck up a friendship with him during Llambias’ time as Chief Executive of the private members club and casino ’50′ in St James’ Street, London.
So really, when Mike Ashley spoke about trying to find a manager with more experience, what he actually meant was that he wanted a soft touch who would allow him and Llambias to interfere in team affairs – as they were rumoured to constantly try to when Chris Hughton was in charge.
It just gets worse and worse and worse.
Mike Ashley does some home-wrecking for… Alan Pardew?
Are you serious?
You risk the club’s stability, you dump a manager who the players believe in and are willing to play for, and you risk that to bring in Alan Pardew?
If Newcastle had appointed a manager with a track-record for success and wise spending, Chris Hughton would still be remembered fondly – but Mike Ashley would have gone a certain distance towards sweetening the sour taste that has been left in the mouth of Newcastle’s fans. Unfortunately though, part of that sour taste is the result of the rumours that Ashley persists in giving his ‘footballing input’ to whoever manages his team – so maybe the more serious candidates on his list were endure the interference of someone with no experience in the game whatsoever. Just a thought.
If we were drawing up a CV for Alan Pardew, the only positive previous work-experience we’d be happy to display to potential employers would be his time at West Ham, where he guided the Hammers back to the top-flight after their relegation. After getting there, he managed to lose the dressing room and oversee a plunge into the relegation zone – even with Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in his squad.
The future’s bleak.
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