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da 888casino： Defensive improvement (Finally!) – Everybody and their dog knows that Newcastle’s backline has for several years now been really quite pants. But this season the Newcastle back five has been exceptional and have gone on to record 22 clean sheets in 46 league games, 24 in all competitions. They’ve conceded just 35 goals, the best of any side in the league, which when you compare this to last season’s shambolic back line when it conceded 57 league goals, the difference is hugely telling. The form of key individuals has also been integral to their success let alone how they’ve performed as a collective. Steven Harper has finally stepped out of Shay Given’s shadow and added an authority and organisation to the defence that was sometime missing from the Irishman. Fabricio Coloccini and Jose Enrique have looked like European class defenders once more, Danny Simpson has slotted in ably at right back and Steven Taylor when fit and Mike Williamson have settled in nicely alongside the floppy haired Argie too. They should always have been head and shoulders above the opposition, but at least in this respect they’ve had a much needed morale boosting season.
Hallowed Hundred – Another huge achievement that the club has earned this season is the hallowed total of a hundred points, the mark of any great champions in the league. They’ve won an increasingly competitive division at a canter by collecting 102 points, 11 more than nearest rivals West Brom and 23 points more than Nottingham Forrest in third place. They secured promotion back to the top flight with 5 games to spare yet still never eased their foot off of the pedal by taking 15 out of a possible 18 remaining points to reach the milestone. Not since the 2005/6 season where Champions Reading, who went on to have a great season in the Premiership the very next year, have a side achieved this feat and only three times in the entire decade has it happened, with Fulham being the other side all the way back in the 2000/1 season.
Home is where the heart is – One of the main reasons for such a grand points total was the quite simply sublime home form that the side managed to engineer. They dropped just 10 points at home all season and they remained undefeated with 18 wins and 5 draws from their 23 fixtures. They also scored for fun too averaging nearly 2.5 goals a game and they conceded just 13 times. St James’ Park became a fortress and it became a fixture for every Championship side to fear on its calendar. Their away form was steady too, although not quite as exceptional as their home form. They collected just 12 points away from the comforts of home last season and scored just 16 league goals but this improved significantly and they collected 43 points to maintain their challenge scoring 34 goals to boot too, a fine record to be proud of and they rightly go up as deserving champions.
January signings assessed – In order to push themselves over the finishing line, Chairman Mike Ashley sanctioned a spree of sorts with several new players coming in both on loan and on permanent deals. On loan came Fitz Hall from QPR, owner of perhaps the best nickname in footballing history ‘One size’ to bolster the centre of defence as Steven Taylor was going through some ‘injury troubles’ of his own. Mike Williamson came in for £1.5 after originally signing for one game on an emergency loan also at centre-half. He was signed for £3m the season before by Pompey, yet he never made an appearance down at Fratton Park and he was allowed to transfer to St James’ Park despire the Pompey still owing half of the transfer fee to former club Watford. The South Coast’s club financial worries are not quite so hard to understand based on this evidence, but the commanding centre half has done well since his move all the same. Wayne Routledge came in from QPR too for roughly £3m and added some much needed pace down the right hand flank. Routledge’s career up until this point has been characterised by unfulfilled potential and sporadic form, but he has displayed a maturity since his move and there’s also been a decent end product since his switch, which suggests that he may be able to make the leap up to the Premiership. Leon Best came in from fellow Championship side Coventry for an undisclosed fee and despite being one of the league’s most prominent marksman before his arrival, he has failed to get himself off the mark in his 13 appearances at the club, with the majority of his time spent sat on the bench catching a cold and he’ll go down as a failure for now at least. Patrick Van Aanholt came in on loan from newly crowned champions Chelsea to great effect. The left back slotted seamlessly into the back four in Jose Enrique’s absence, striking up an excellent understanding with Jonas Gutierrez down the flank and the club would do well to get the exciting 19 year old back in some sort of capacity next season.
Cup runs cut short – The side were not however, able to replicate their dominance in the domestic cups and their laboured progress was halted by two poor performances in the early rounds. They exited at the fourth round stage of the FA Cup at the hands of promotion rivals West Brom 4-2 in a truly pulsating game at The Hawthorns after being put to bed by their clinical hosts. In the previous round, it took them two bites of the cherry to finish off relegation fodder Plymouth Argyle, as they added an unwanted fixture to their busy festive period with a replay after drawing 0-0 away from home initially first time around. In the Carling Cup they survived a scare in the second round at home to Huddersfield and they progressed by the skin of their teeth 4-3. In the third round however, they lost at another relegation threatened side in the form of Peterborough 2-0 away from home, after a shoddy display with Danny Guthrie adding insult to injury by receiving a red card after a second bookable offence for a late lunge on Posh striker George Boyd. The saving grace is that by exiting both domestic cup competitions fairly early on, it at least allowed the team to focus on regaining promotion back to the top flight at the first attempt, but they’ll by looking to improve significantly upon this season’s poor showing in both cup competitions next campaign.
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Put your dukes up – One story that manager Chris Hughton could have done without was the dust-up between striker Andy Carroll and centre half Steven Taylor, in what proved to be an unusually feisty training session. The club are no strangers to teammates fighting though, with the now infamous on the pitch spat between Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer having take place on the club’s watch back in 2005. Comparisons were inevitably made between this incident and the Dyer-Bowyer one, leading to lists being drawn up all across the land under the name ’10 best teammate punch-up”. Imaginative stuff I’m sure you’ll agree. Let’s get one thing straight; Andy Carroll is not the sort of person you’d want to get in a scrap with, especially if you’ve allegedly been sending, to quote the Daily Mail at least, ‘racy’ texts. He wouldn’t look out of place in a pair of Y-fronts running into a WWF ring taking on the likes of Triple H or John Cena in a no holds barred ladder match. In short, he looks as hard as nails and a bit mental on top of that too. Steven Taylor however has acquired, according to reports at least, a ‘Johnny big-time’ ego, probably in part down to the quite frankly bizarre speculation that has linked him with the likes of Barcelona and Liverpool in the past. The way Chris Hughton went about his business though was exemplary and he diffused the situation from running on for weeks and weeks in a calm manner, Tony Pulis take note. It didn’t help that Steven Taylor had his jaw broken by the punch, and that it required surgery which would rule him out of the rest of the season, and that Carroll even broke his hand to an extent where he was ruled out of the next two league fixtures. I know what you’re thinking, that must have been some punch.
Management Marvel – Chris Hughton is not quite the man most Magpies thought would be leading them back to the Promised Land of Premiership football, but he’s done a commendable job nonetheless. Newcastle were strong favourites to win promotion at the first attempt, but delivering on that pressure, when every side in the division tries to up their game a notch or two upon hearing your their next fixture, is a notable achievement. He’s utilised the loan market well and the free transfer arrivals of Peter Lovenkrands and even Fabrice Pancrate show a decent understanding. He’s dealt well with, what must have been at times, an insurmountable amount of pressure and expectation, showing his diplomacy skills by keeping the aforementioned squabble in-house in particular. The celebrations might have been all the more fervent had club legend Alan Shearer been in charge of the club this season and achieved what Hughton has, but the man who initially took over as caretaker whilst a sale was trying to be negotiated by Chairman Mike Ashley’s, delivered continuity and impressive results to the extent that it was impossible to ignore him any longer. Hughton may not have planned it, the club might not have planned it either, but the results were fantastic and it’s a great way to start out your first full season as a manager for the unassuming former Irish international.
Midfield spark needed – Kevin Nolan has gone some way to redeeming his reputation with a fantastic season for Newcastle this season. With 17 league goals coming in 44 league appearances, he’s played a pivotal role in securing the side’s push for promotion this season. It’ll be interesting to see whether he can replicate this sort of form next season, and anything between 8-10 goals from him next campaign would go a long way to ensuring the club’s survival. Alan Smith is a steadying influence in the middle of the park with his extra added quality noticeable in this sort of company, but he’s a grafter by trade. Danny Guthrie remains an interesting player, decent on the ball, poor without it, he never looked especially out of place in the Premiership before with Bolton but he’ll need to step it up a level to make any sort of impact next term, as on his day, he’s a player capable of dictating play. Joey Barton, although back in his time at Man City he displayed a season or two of genuine quality, he’s failed to live up to those high standards that he’s set himself, and for some time now and he’s been seriously injury prone. Gutierrez and Routledge mean they have decent delivery down the flanks, but you do get the feeling that they lack strength in depth and enough creativity to flourish next season. Links with Jimmy Bullard look to be wide of the mark for me, but if the club is to get anywhere near replicating the sort of goalscoring exploits they’ve become accustomed to this season, they’ll need reinforcements. Robert Koren recently released from West Brom wouldn’t go a miss; neither would someone like Jamie O’Hara if he finds himself on the fringes still at White Hart Lane next year and both are realistic and most importantly, cheap deals for the club to negotiate.
Striking support required – The Championship has been notable this season for the lack of decent striking talent on show. Michael Chopra has 16 goal in the league in the league, Scunthorpe’s Gary Hooper has 19 to his name and Nicky Maynard has another 20. But the Championship hasn’t been the rampant stomping ground for striking talent this season as it has been in the past, and Newcastle have managed to get by without possessing any real potent finishing talent in their ranks. Andy Carroll is the club’s joint top scorer alongside Kevin Nolan with 17 league goals, and whilst in itself this is not a bad total, he’s going to need better support next season up top. Carroll is a physical player, great in the air and he will be a useful weapon next term in the club’s armoury but his finishing can leave a lot to be desired at times and he’s going to have to be a lot more clinical next season. Peter Lovenkrands is a decent player to have around and his 13 league goals from 28 appearances this year, coupled with his previous European experience for clubs such as Rangers and Schalke, suggest that he could make the leap. Leon Best hasn’t scored a goal since his January move so he may struggle with the step up in quality. Shola Ameobi looked like being a dangerous player at Championship level, but it’s just impossible to keep him fully fit for an entire season and it would be folly to rely on him at all, whereas Marlon Harewood is a decent squad player at Championship level, but he lacks the ability to trouble the best. More is needed up top if Newcastle are to comfortably achieve top flight safety instead of being sucked into a relegation dogfight, because at the moment, not unsurprisingly really, the striking options they have at their disposal look distinctly average as a bunch and baring perhaps Lovenkrands and maybe Carroll, they all look like Championship strikers at best.
Tightening of the purse strings looks ill-timed– Hardly the most popular man on Tyneside, Chairman Mike Ashley’s statement that the club didn’t have any money to spend in the summer transfer window must be deeply frustrating for Newcastle’s fans after stating that “There is no plan for new capital outlay on players” before adding that emphasis will be placed on the academy in future.
The bottom half of the Premiership lacks quality at the moment, and the gap between the top of the Championship and bottom of the Premiership has narrowed to such an extent that they’re largely interchangeable these days. If Ashley spent big in the summer, then safety could be all but secured, as although the core of the squad that Ashley is relying on to do the business got relegated just 12 months ago, they certainly look as much of a Premiership team at the moment than say Wigan or Wolves and they come off the back of a richly rewarding season in the second-tier. It really is an opportune time to spend. It’s a massive gamble on Ashley’s part, hoping that the club will be able to achieve safety at their first attempt so as to balance the books, all whilst trying to sell the club at the same time. But Ashley only ever seems to spend money when he needs to protect his own investment, the trait of a cold-hearted businessman, and now really is the time to invest.
The £50m plus that’ll be gained from promotion will be used to cover the club’s and the Chairman’s own personal debt. The club have drawn up a five-year plan to reduce their debt and break even. Newcastle recorded an operating loss of £37.7 million for the financial year 2008-09 and are estimating a shortfall of £32.5 million for the proceeding year, while their £20 million overdraft is already committed. The finances aren’t in great shape admittedly, but now is not the time to pull away the spending rug so to speak from under Hughton’s feet. He’s had to work within constraints not familiar in these parts already during this season and he deserves a transfer kitty of £15m or above to work with. Failure to invest could be the club’s biggest downfall and Hughton will have to use some of that ingenuity that he’s displayed on occasion in the transfer market again next term. If you think about who the club have lost over the past year or so, Given, Beye, Bassong, Martins, Owen and Damien Duff, that’ s a formidable list of international class players. This Newcastle side is decent but nothing more, if they got relegated with those sorts of players in their ranks, I fear how the club will do next season relying on the current crop which looks short of Premiership quality and depth of talent.
Arbitrary marks out of ten – 8/10 –Delivering on expectation is one of the hardest things to do in football and in that respect Chris Hughton has done a fantastic job, but next term will prove a lot tougher than this. A lack of investment, although not catastrophic could spoil what should have been an enjoyable first season back in the top flight. Welcome back Newcastle, it’s good to have you home.
Written By James McManus