Rob Lee: I fear Newcastle United will find themselves in a relegation struggle this season
Sep 05, 2014 09:26
Opinion
by RobLee
Alan Pardew should have taken the same approach to Hatem Ben Arfa that Kevin Keegan took with David Ginola
The first thing Kevin Keegan did every morning was to tell David Ginola how much he loved him.
He put his arm around the Frenchman and whispered nice things in his ear. Kevin’s reward was that David was absolutely brilliant.
Kevin left, Kenny Dalglish came in and he and David just didn’t get on. The next thing we knew was that our enigmatic Frenchman was off because he wasn’t loved.
That’s how you handle these players. They need looking after. Their talent has to be caressed.
Hatem Ben Arfa is such a player. He and Alan Pardew clearly never got on so that’s why he is now at Hull City and not with ourselves.
Newcastle with Pardew in charge were never going to get the best out of the player and that is a real shame, a real waste.
I don’t care if his attitude wasn’t always great or the fact he was never going to run back 50 yards to put in a tackle. Ben Arfa should have been told he was loved. I bet that’s what Steve Bruce is doing every morning down at Hull.
I think Steve is a fantastic manager. I really do. I wish Pardew and Newcastle would have a look at what he’s built in Humberside and that the penny drops for them.
He has bought British players or British-based players. They know the Premier League. They are used to English football. They realise what is expected of them.
With the greatest respect to Hull, I don’t see why we didn’t go for the likes of Michael Dawson and Tom Huddleston. These are exactly the type of players Newcastle United should be looking at.
The nucleus of Steve’s team is British lads. I will say keep saying this, but it’s the way Newcastle should go. But these players cost a bit of money and we buy cheap, foreign imports who we then sell on for a profit.
I am really worried for this season. We are a team that doesn’t look like it has a lot of goals in it with a defence isn’t great.
When you put these two factors together then you are only going to go one way and it’s down. I am not even sure we could finish mid-table. I fear we will struggle.
We have signed nine players, but two have gone back to Nottingham Forest which I didn’t understand. I don’t know much about Karl Darlow, but I have seen quite a bit of Jamaal Lascelles and he is ready for the Premier League.
Of the other seven, only Jack Colback has any Premier League experience. It’s not a great surprise that of all the signings he has started the best, although I have been impressed by Daryl Janmaat.
I saw it myself at Newcastle that foreign players take time to get used to English life and the Premier League. Even the best need six months – at times a year – to get used to things.
This is a hard league. It’s quick, it’s physical. Yet we are asking some quite young overseas players from, Holland, France, the Spanish second division and Ukraine to get up to speed right away. It just doesn’t happen like that.
Emmanuel Riveire has talent. But is he going to score us enough goals? And if not him then who?
We got away with it last season because Loic Remy was a consistent goalscorer. We got away with it, just, the season before when Demba Ba and then to an extent Papiss Cisse scored enough goals to keep us up. But if Riveire doesn’t start scoring or gets injured, I can’t see anyone coming into the team who can guarantee goals.
And when that happens, you are only asking for trouble.
There is no Yohan Cabaye and now Ben Arfa has gone. Is Siem de Jong going to chip in with ten goals? I’m not so sure.
Remy Cabella has ability and I believe he will do well once he gets used to things. But he is lightweight, he really needs to beef up, and that’s hardly going to help him score goals and that’s what we desperately need.
You might be able to just get away with this if the defence is rock solid, but we have conceded five goals in two home Premier League games. And we have sold a centre-half, leaving us with just three senior central defenders in the squad.
Now Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa is not my cup of tea but he is a body and we have just let him go without a replacement. Same goes for Ben Arfa. And if there was an injury he could at least come in for a game.
Our squad is nowhere close to being strong enough to allow two signings to return to their club and two senior players to leave without them being replaced.
In terms of numbers, we are no better than a year ago. There is no equivalent of Cabaye or Remy. Can you blame me for being worried? It’s a good job that in Tim Krul we have a fantastic goalkeeper.
I have heard that Pardew is under pressure. But then I’ve been hearing that for 18 months now.
I started with Ben Arfa and I’ll end with him. He is going to be brilliant at Hull. He has a manager who trusts him and they are going to get a great season out of the man.
