Looks like we have a striker incoming after all, as Papiss Cisse allegedly jetted into town to become our first January signing.
Knowing diddly-squat about him, we’d like to say how delighted we are with his signing, and how excited we are to see him finally strutting his stuff in the black and white stripes*.
*Unless it all falls through, in which case we’d never heard of him, so he must be shit.
Is it a man or a woman?
Ben Arfa’s absence from the starting 11 may have more to it than meets the eye?
Taken from Everton FC.com - Please be aware - thanks @oldheatonian
Everton officials are requesting supporters travelling to Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon to arrive earlier than usual due to searching procedures that will be undertaken on entry to the stadium.
St James’ Park is a venue for next summer’s Olympics and there is a requirement from LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) to carry out a number of test events to trial their search capability prior to the start of the games.
It means all of the visiting Everton supporters will be searched at each of the six away turnstiles (numbers 89-94), to the standard required for the Olympic football events at St James’ Park in 2012.
This will include a meet and greet away from the turnstiles where supporters will be required to empty their possessions into a A4 sized plastic bag prior to a full search at the turnstiles.
Bag searches will ushered to one side to prevent any backlog and travelling female Evertonians will be channelled into a separate lane.
There will be crowd control barriers under the crowd corridor to direct supporters to the search area and additional signage will be in place.
There will be two search stewards for each turnstile in addition to the stewards at the meet and greet area explaining the search procedure prior to fans entering the stadium.
Amnesty bins for alcohol will be provided away from the turnstiles to allow supporters to dispose of any cans or bottles. Persons found with prohibited articles (drugs, weapons, fireworks etc) will be liable to arrest.
Please note the home supporters entering the turnstiles adjoining the away entry gates are also being subjected to search.
NUFC have announced a superb deal for fans who wish to buy a season ticket at SJP for the rest of the season.
Existing ST holders can purchase unlimited extra STs for 50% of their original price, and can even move seats for free to be sat with whomever they purchased for.
There’s no denying it’s a tremendous offer, but what the incentive is for existing ST holders who have now paid 50% than necessary is open to debate.
Full prices are here.
Thoughts?
Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew will be the special guest on BBC Newcastle’s Total Sport programme this Thursday, 20 October from 1830 BST.
You can ask him a question by visiting the BBC’s site and submitting a form.
We’ve already asked what his favourite type of pie is and if he enjoys Shola’s hat collection.
Let’s see if he answers.
Hopefully not inspired by Mike Ashley’s latest jaunts into the world of seductive dancing…Newcastle United have signed a deal with a lingerie company to produce branded little numbers for her or his (mostly his I’d imagine) pleasure.
http://www.fcbusiness.co.uk/news/article/newsitem=1402/title=newcastle+united+sign+lingerie+deal
Not wishing to offence, I find this quite apt given that we have two tits and a fanny in charge at our club.
– The Evening Chronicle toe the party line once more. What a pointless publication this has become. Club says jump, Ronny says how high.
As you should all be well aware by now, Mark Allison ran 31,000 miles across the USA this summer in 100 days.
Whilst people down south rioted and smashed up their own horrible city, Mark was busy running through the streets of Manhattan completing this absolute mammoth task. He managed to finish this sub-human feat within his target.
He’s an absolute legend and should be an inspiration to everyone.
With this in mind, one of our followers @WeAreTheMags (an exiled Mag down in Southampton) has kindly donated a Newcastle United top from the Championship Winning Season Squad to give away in exchange for money towards Mark’s Run Geordie Run fund.
Details are yet to be decided on how one of you lucky people will get their hands on it, but it’s a lush prize and something definitely worth your hard earned cash.
Here’s a few pics to whet your appetite:
Good Old Supermac will be doing a few free talk-ins this Sunday before the game and afterwards too.
11am in Mood at the Gate.
15:15 at Floritas down Collingwood Street.
Feel free to pop along, have a few pints and hear what he has to say.
…Shola’s house is for Sale!!!
The once featured on MTV cribs pimping pad is up for grabs.
His pictures of the Dene and backlit table have gone sadly.
It’s also tidy, so no missing chequebook is included in the deal.
http://www.sandersonyoung.co.uk/buy/view.aspx?pr=11254
Thanks to @JonhanG for this one.
The futures bright…
Obviously with being avid fans of the club, we at The Seats lurk on various websites, forums and sources for information. Most of it’s shite mind, but occasionally articles that give us a little insight into things crop up.
This morning whilst on Newcastle Online, poster OCK chucked up this fantastic post on how things are developing behind the scenes at Newcastle and how the future looks to be bright. I asked him if it was ok to put it on the site, to which he kindly agreed.
It’s a cracking read:
I’ve said a number of times that improvements to the training ground and academy facilities were made with some of the money from the Andy Carroll sale. Yet, because its not an instant gain/improvement to the first team squad people balk at the idea. Sure a bore hole isn’t going to score us goals, but it will save the club a load of money in the long run, its long term planning. Likewise the under soil heating at the training facilities, no one cares about it now, but come Winter when we’re still training and can go largely unaffected by bad weather…
The academy facilities are almost identical to the first team setup, its very impressive, and when the Elite Player Performance Plan (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/8276220/Premier-League-plot-a-youth-revolution-in-English-football.html) comes into play (if it does), Newcastle should be in line for a decent grade, better long term funding, and greater benefits (money/grants and quality of player) due to the investment.
These are basic things a club of our stature should have had for a long, long time. Don’t know about anyone else, but how many years have people sat there and envied ‘Boro, recently Sunderland, certainly Man U, Everton and West Ham as they seemingly managed to produce 2-3 Premier League sufficient, at least, calibre of players to put into their squads. Home-grown talent. Local lads.
When you look over the list of ‘notable’ players that Newcastle has managed to produce in the last decade or so (going off League debut), it’s not really stellar (no offence to any of the players listed!):
2011: Michael Richardson+
2010: Shane Ferguson, Haris Vuckic, Sammy Ameobi, Phil Airey+, James Tavernier+, Jóan Símun Edmundsson*+
2009: Ryan Donladson, Matthew Grieves+ (NL), Nile Ranger*,
2008: Tamás Kadar*, Ben Tozer*+ (L2), Wesley Ngo Baheng* (Non), Fraser Forster+ (SPL),
2007: Kazenga LuaLua, James Troisi+ (TUR),
2006: Ben Smith+ (L2), Tim Krul*, Paul Huntington (L1), Andy Carroll (EPL),
2005: David Edgar (CH), Matty Pattison (SAF), Daryl Smylie+ (SWE),
2004: Peter Ramage (CH), Martin Brittain (BSP), Lewis Guy+ (L2/L1), Charles N’Zogbia* (EPL), Alan O’Brien (L1),
2003: Neale McDermott+ (Malta), Calvin Zola+ (L2), Phil Cave+ (BSN), Steven Taylor, Tomi Ameobi+ (Ice),
2002: Adam Collin+ (L1), Richard Offiong+ (Aus), David Cowen+ (Scot), Joe Kendrick+ (BSP), Bradley Orr*+ (EPL),
2001: Gary Caldwell*+ (EPL), Adam Rundle+ (BSP), Brian Kerr (Scot),
2000: Michael Chopra (CH),
*Bought from another club
+League Debut with another club
(Current League Level)
Players in Bold have played in the Premier League
Players Lost to other Academies:
Adam Johnson (Boro)
Michael Carrick (West Ham)
Jack Colback (Sunderland)
Liam Nobles (Sunderland)
Louis Laing (Sunderland)
Most of this is off the top of my head, so by no means is it comprehensive, or even entirely accurate (for 6am in the morning). So we’ve managed to produce 15 or so players that have played in the Premier league since 2000.
Is this good, is this poor?
Of the 15 8 are currently still playing in the Premier League.
Of the 8 5 have made more than 10 appearances in the Premier League.
If you look at the 10 years before 2000:
Lee Clark
Steve Watson
Steve Harper
Steven Taylor
Steve Howey
Steve Caldwell
Robbie Elliott
Aaron Hughes
Jamie McClen
Shola Ameobi
Matty Appleby
Alan Neilson
12 Players who played more than 10 games in the Premier League
James Coppinger
Paul Arnison
Stuart Elliott
Alun Armstrong
Paul Brayson
Stuart Green
6 Players that managed a decent career at various levels.
Obviously the Premier League has evolved a lot since the 90s, so you could argue its harder for younger talent to break into a side, but still, we’ve produced half as many Premier League ‘quality’ players since the 90s (at least from this off the top of my head list). Its entirely possible that an in depth look (which time and resources I’m lacking at the moment) will show a different picture - could be better, could be worse. Certainly, think it could be worse, if I was to try and include every player that has passed through the Newcastle Academy since 2000, with most of them ending up out of football, or Northern League (though that’s to be expected and is the same across the country).
If I was to try and compare it to another club, say Boro and Sunderland, again, we might look better or worse. Though off the top of my head I feel like Boro have produced more Premier League players than Newcastle.
Currently the club has more youth coaches than its ever had, coaches with a high degree of coaching experience and qualifications. They’ve actively tried to recruit proven Youth Coaches that have helped other clubs produce a successful youth team (Willie Donachie - Man City, Frankie Bunn - Man City, and if rumours are true Ricky Sbraga - Sunderland). We have one of the most highly regarded young youth coaches in the North-East in Liam Bramley coaching our U16 squad, which in 2010 managed to get into the World Nike Cup for the first time in the club’s history. In the process Adam Campbell was voted the MVP, which isn’t something to be dismissed.
They’ve finally, after several years of inactivity, started to take an interest in Grassroots football again (could be a coincidence this is happening under Mike Ashley’s reign). We’re actively recruiting and scouting at youth level again. Maybe even for the first time. I believe that’s largely down to a stable structure, and a scouting network setup by Tony Jimenez & Jeff Vetere, who have a proven history of setting up good youth policies and structures.
It’s also the first time a long time we’ve had a stable structure at the Academy level with Joe Joyce overseeing the Academy since 2006. The last time we had anyone in his position for so long was in the late 90s and Early 00’s when we arguably produced our best home grown talent (Taylor, Shola, Chopra, Hughes etc.), until recently, with Alan Irvine in charge of the Academy.
So, it looks like we’ve finally caught up on years of constant change at Academy Level. When Irvine left Kenny Wharton, John Carver & Glenn Roeder switched as Head of the Academy (all of which coincided with a change of 1st team manager). The Academy seems to now by an autonomous set up immune to 1st team management changes, which is a good thing, however, its still working closely, if not as close as its ever been, with the first team, due to the introduction of a Reserve/Development squad (looked after by Peter Beardsley). The Development squad is the first time, as far as I can ever remember, where Newcastle have kept a pool of players after the Academy to allow the younger talent to keep developing (rather than cutting ties at 18). Man U have done this for years, with ‘21’ being the cut off age for most of their talent - if they haven’t made the grade by then they’re sold on or released (often sold on for a fair bit of profit). This only makes sense, considering the new Premier League squad registration rules that allow for U21s to play without being registered. Also financially it makes sense too, since Newcastle can claim compensation for their time and resources for any players that leave the club to join another before their 21st Birthday (as long as they haven’t been released).
I’m not entirely sure what my point is with this post, I just feel that the time and efforts that the club have put into the Academy (and Development Squad which I group together) often go overlooked and unappreciated. We’re trying. For the first time in a decade we’re actually seeing some sort of result from the Academy, yet little notice is paid as people would prefer to worry about money from a transfer, and instant rewards to the first team. Whereas years ago it would have been us spending £15m-£35m to bring in talent to the first team to fruitlessly fight to fit into the Top 4 of the league.
We sold a locally produced player for £35m - a transfer record for a British player. A player that could have been on Sunderland’s books, but was swayed to join the Newcastle Academy -possibly because he loves the club (though that hasn’t stopped others joining Boro or Sunderland). But we might not have even been in the position to have produced a player to sell for £35m (all Jan Transfer window factors aside).
Genuinely optimistic about the club, despite what might or might not be happening with the first team. Alan Pardew, for whatever reason, is utilising and taking advantage of the youth players coming through into the development squad, we haven’t had a manager like that since Bobby Robson (not saying the two are same or even comparable just pointing out how long its been).
Just look at the player threads for Shane Ferguson, Haris Vuckic and Sammy Ameobi (obviously Nile Ranger too), for how daft some of the posts might be in them, at least people are happy/hysterical, dare I suggest, cautiously optimistic about the young players.
We haven’t had that for a LONG time.
Ask anyone else who goes to watch the Development/Youth team regularly (or even start at page 1 of this thread and work your way through) and they’ll tell you how impressive the 2009-2010 youth team were. Not only were they Quarter Finalists in the FA Youth Cup (the furthest Newcastle have managed since the 80s), but their football was fantastic too. There’s a good batch of footballers in that group. It’s no coincidence that a handful of them are now in and around the First Team.
They might not become world beaters, but right now it’s a bit of hope, a bit of excitement for us as fans. I can only imagine what it might be like for other players in the Development Squad to see their team mates and peers get a chance in the First Team. If they have any sense about them that’s one huge incentive - there is a door, it is open, put your foot in it and show them what you can do.
Last Saturday we beat Chelsea 4-3 in the U18s league. OK, that might not mean anything, but to me that’s a bit of hope. Chelsea, arguably, have one of the best Youth Setups in England, and have ploughed millions into its development over the last 5 years or so.
Thanks again to OCK over at Newcastle-Online.org.
Currently doing the rounds on Twitter is a campaign to help bring back a bit more life into St James’ when we face Fulham this coming Sunday.
The plan is to recreate that special atmosphere for Shearers testimonial by asking people to fetch along their own Newcastle scarves and get the place buzzing with a twirling sea of Black & White again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK5ChD1EBrE&feature=related
We’re not sure we’d condone wearing a scarf in the middle of bloody August mind (as it will make you hotter than Steve Bruce’s face was on Saturday just gone), but it’s a cracking idea and we’ll be fetching ours along. We just don’t want to be the only 3 plebs doing it. As it will look shite. And we’d look like even bigger bellends than normal.
It’d be nice If the club would give away some scarves at the gates on Sunday…you know, giving a little back to the fans and all that.
What with that £40m still sitting in the bank…
Its back. Football is upon us again. The time for speculation and pondering is over and we are back to the nitty gritty shitty reality of premier league mediocrity…
Arsenal (H)
What better way to kick things off than with an incredibly dull draw against Arsenal. A total contrast to the only home game I missed last season. Typical.
The Arse looked lost and devoid of anything other than fancy passing and we looked devoid of fucking anything at all…apart from Captain Colo being mint, Ryan Taylor being ok at the now vacant Left Back slot and Gabriel ‘Mars Attacks’ Obertan showing some pace and a bit of skill. Not that the BBC’s Match Of The Day would have you believe that our players were doing anything other than watching Arsenal play mind.
Speaking to one of the generic mackems at work they also suffer from the outright shite coverage from the BBC. I tend to agree. If you’re not in the Sky Top Bestest Brilliantest Fantastical Six they assume you don’t care.
Then again, when it comes to the likes of Wigan…
If anyone knows who edit’s the footage for the frankly biased MOTD? If so, please give them a kick in the cunt from me.
This aside, the game itself was so uneventful I found myself for the first time in a long while sitting down in our new not-so-shite seats bored and close to touching myself inappropriately. Either way you look at it, a point is a point and it’s still the same amount we got for having to come back from four down last season.
Talking of the new ‘view from the not-so-shite-but-still-shite’ seats…
New Location
This is where two of us three (and a guest writer - Nick) now reside. 
To say it’s shite is a bit harsh. To say it’s good would be being a bit kind. It’s somewhere in the middle…much like our season is destined to be (hope I haven’t condemned us with this comment).
We got a few strange looks when coming out with the bilge you’d normally hear us chant in L7, but for the most it was ok…apart from nearly getting hoyed out after 8 minutes for touching the pigeon protection by some jobsworth steward. It’s not Nick’s fault is 8 foot 5.
The net
It’s a strange one…after years of being in the same seat, speaking to the same bunch of renegades every other week, it just hasn’t got the same appeal at the moment. Perhaps after a few matches we’ll have settled in and hopefully inspire the Gallowgate into a few new shite songs then my opinion may change.
We also heard there was a bit of hostility shown to some movers down in the ‘Berry’ corner too. Howay man lads. Calm down. Relax.
And on the subject of calming down…
Joey Barton
This is not the first time I’ve found myself writing about ‘Wor Joey’ recently.
Like him, loath him, suffer him with indifference, you can’t disagree the man is an interesting character. Unlike most footballers Joey is not scared to give his opinion or speak his mind. As demonstrated in Saturdays game he is a passionate individual.
He’s still the only player in the league who can be stamped on and slapped in the face but end up being the villain. (see Graham Poll, Alan Shearer, Lee Dixon for a list of ‘pundits’ sticking their oar in).
Some of this morning’s paper press need to take a step back, check the FA rulebook and then base their reporting on something other than personal vendettas before putting keyboard to screen. I’m looking at you Steven Howard of The Scum.
Reading that piece this morning I’m guessing he doesn’t like reading quotes by Nietzsche or listening to The Smiths. If anyone gets the chance, take a look, it’s inflammatory at best, I suppose that was the point?
5under1and (A) – Next week
Shit hole.
That is all.
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