While NUFC suffer it is important not to forget that there is more football on Tyneside and in Northumberland. With Gateshead and Whitley Bay both having relative success this season its a chance to take your disillusion and help the smaller clubs. There is potential for a second or third side to flourish in the areas and this is why...
Gateshead FC - 1st Conference North
The Tynesiders are strong and strengthening. The hope will be that they can stick this out and get back into the Conference next season. Once there it is always going to be tough to stay their, but the dream of a second league football side on Tyneside could be here in a couple of years.
Blyth Spartans AFC - 19th Conference North
The FA Cup specialists have struggled in the league this year, and like their Premier League counterparts survival is the best they can hope for this season after the glory run in the cup.
Newcastle Blue Star - 5th Unibond North
Hopefully Blue Star can push on this season to stay in the play off positions and sneak into the Unibond Premier next season. The dream is to push on to break into the Conference divisions in the next couple of years and finally become a solid alternative to United. A well run club in Newcastle and lets hope that they can push on to get 3 Tyneside teams in League positions in the next 5 years!
The Best of the Rest...
Dunston Federation - 2nd Northern League
Newcastle Benfield - 3rd Northern League
West Allotment Celtic - 4th Northern League
Whitley Bay FC - 6th Northern League
With promotion to the Unibond difficult to gain both on and off the pitch, and Consett leading the way, the hope would be that either Fed or Benfield can win their games in hand to get a Geordie team into the Unibond structure for 2009/10 and push on in the way that Blue Star have. The biggest team of the bunch, Whitley Bay, don't have a chance of promotion this year, but a strong cup run could set them up nicely for 2009/10 and you would expect them to be the most likely in the long run to be able to push on and survive in the higher division.
Sunday 29 March 2009
The Pride of Tyneside
This weekend saw some pride restored in Geordie football with a step closer to a Wembley cup final in the form of a 2-1 cup victory.
This is something which should be shown before the game at Chelsea next week, as Whitley Bay took the focus off their famous neighbours at Newcastle. Lets hope that the boys can stick it out further in the next leg in Norfolk and kick on to allow tens of thousands of Tynesiders take the trip to Wembley with a realistic chance of victory. There needs to be some positive energy at the moment, and if only that could transfer into the Premier side.
Looking around Tyneside Gateshead look to be on the verge of promotion, Blue Star are still in with a chance of pushing for promotion and The Bay can have a decent finish and get to a cup final. If all things go well and we see United staying up and Bay winning a cup, and Star and The Tynesiders getting promoted then it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom just because of Mr Ashley!!!
HOWAY THE LADS!!!
This is something which should be shown before the game at Chelsea next week, as Whitley Bay took the focus off their famous neighbours at Newcastle. Lets hope that the boys can stick it out further in the next leg in Norfolk and kick on to allow tens of thousands of Tynesiders take the trip to Wembley with a realistic chance of victory. There needs to be some positive energy at the moment, and if only that could transfer into the Premier side.
Looking around Tyneside Gateshead look to be on the verge of promotion, Blue Star are still in with a chance of pushing for promotion and The Bay can have a decent finish and get to a cup final. If all things go well and we see United staying up and Bay winning a cup, and Star and The Tynesiders getting promoted then it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom just because of Mr Ashley!!!
HOWAY THE LADS!!!
Sunday 22 March 2009
Reality Bites
Its now time to be realistic and look to the future for NUFC. If Newcastle do survive they still need to re-structure and go back to basics. A spirited performance for 60 mins yesterday proved there are players capable of fighting in the Premiership, but a lack of leadership saw things fall apart, and a frankly disgraceful sub performance from Michael Owen summed up our season.
The clearout must begin with Owen, Smith, Geremi, Butt, Ameobi, Viduka, Cacapa and Duff all needing to be shipped out alongside Gonzalez and Xisco to free up space for some of the talented youngsters. While we may not find any money coming in for these players it will at least open opportunity and save in the region of £350k per week in wages. With bonuses etc that equates to £20m across the season in savings.
What would that leave?
GK - Harper, Krul, Foster
Def - Beye, Enrique, Collocini, Taylor, Bassong, Edgar, Tozer, Kadar
Mid - Nolan, Barton, Taylor, Gutierrez, Guthrie, Lovendkrands, Lua Lua, Inman, Vukic
For - Martins, Carrol, Ranger, Baheng, Danquah, Spear
This side would need a decent striker to support Martins and another central midfielder as well as a left winger but isn't too bad a base to try to survive in the Premieship next season and build. If we go down though we will lose Martins, Guttierrez and Collocini (as well as potentially Bassong), but in the Championship it should still leave a solid squad to build on.
It may be that paraniod leadership this season has restricted our ability to move forward in a squad with players such as Tozer, Lua Lua and Ranger who have not been given a chance while poor players with more experience have been given a go.
This is still a 25 man squad, although with only 15 or 16 who would genuinly be seen as first teamers, so there would have to be investment. This should be bringing in good Championship players such as Eagles or Paterson from Burnley, or young fringe players from the top 4. It has to be sensible and anough to either get us mid-table (or heaven forbid promotion) next season with a realistic financial structure.
Newcastle are in trouble and the current regime needs to be focussing on winning games, but the management must start to think beyond this and plan the business model for the future. The first point being to clear out the dead wood and not just keep giving them new contracts (such as Nicky Butt).
The clearout must begin with Owen, Smith, Geremi, Butt, Ameobi, Viduka, Cacapa and Duff all needing to be shipped out alongside Gonzalez and Xisco to free up space for some of the talented youngsters. While we may not find any money coming in for these players it will at least open opportunity and save in the region of £350k per week in wages. With bonuses etc that equates to £20m across the season in savings.
What would that leave?
GK - Harper, Krul, Foster
Def - Beye, Enrique, Collocini, Taylor, Bassong, Edgar, Tozer, Kadar
Mid - Nolan, Barton, Taylor, Gutierrez, Guthrie, Lovendkrands, Lua Lua, Inman, Vukic
For - Martins, Carrol, Ranger, Baheng, Danquah, Spear
This side would need a decent striker to support Martins and another central midfielder as well as a left winger but isn't too bad a base to try to survive in the Premieship next season and build. If we go down though we will lose Martins, Guttierrez and Collocini (as well as potentially Bassong), but in the Championship it should still leave a solid squad to build on.
It may be that paraniod leadership this season has restricted our ability to move forward in a squad with players such as Tozer, Lua Lua and Ranger who have not been given a chance while poor players with more experience have been given a go.
This is still a 25 man squad, although with only 15 or 16 who would genuinly be seen as first teamers, so there would have to be investment. This should be bringing in good Championship players such as Eagles or Paterson from Burnley, or young fringe players from the top 4. It has to be sensible and anough to either get us mid-table (or heaven forbid promotion) next season with a realistic financial structure.
Newcastle are in trouble and the current regime needs to be focussing on winning games, but the management must start to think beyond this and plan the business model for the future. The first point being to clear out the dead wood and not just keep giving them new contracts (such as Nicky Butt).
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