Wallace

I thought there were a few occasions when Ben Arfa was in loads of space and they passed to a more congested area of the pitch. Doesn't mean to say they were deliberately not passing to him though.

Yet Mark Douglas said today on Twitter that Pardew is not convinced by MYM. Might help if he got the opportunity to play in his correct position.

I recall seeing some footage from a French TV programme which I think was at Cabaye's house with the other French players around for the evening and Ben Arfa was there.

I have never understood why they don't close Strawberry Place on matchdays or at least pre and post match for an hour. I think those barriers that were installed for the Olympics are still there.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/yoan-gouffran-on-what-its-like-to-get-up-close-with-alan-pardew--newcastles-excitable-manager-9209002.html Yoan Gouffran on what it’s like to get up close with Alan Pardew - Newcastle’s excitable manager While the United boss has to stay away again, his ‘workaholic’ midfielder will keep calm and carry on, as ever MARTIN HARDY Author Biography Friday 21 March 2014 The first push, almost immediately forgotten, came from David Meyler. The reaction from the Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew, leading with his head towards the Hull City midfielder, will be an enduring image of the current season for years to come. There was a brief movement to make peace from Howard Webb, the fourth official at the KC Stadium that day. It did not calm the fury of Meyler, a player who spent five years at Sunderland. At that point, one man stepped forward to keep an irate player away from his manager. First Yoan Gouffran had to grab the arm of Meyler, then there was an emphatic push, to establish boundaries. By that mostly overlooked act, Pardew was spared a far worse fate. That has been Gouffran’s way ever since he moved to England 15 months ago – doing right by his manager. “Of course it is a very good relationship I have with him,” the Frenchman says. “He has trusted in me as a player since I first came to the club. He has believed in me and I believe in him. “He changed my position. I was hesitant at the start when he first did that, but it has worked. I work hard for him. When I worked my way into the team I scored a few goals and all I continue to do is to work hard, play each game as if it were my life and give everything I can.” There was no fanfare when Gouffran moved to Tyneside in January last year. He was one of five Frenchmen to do so, and his stardust remained well hidden, as did the pedigree. Attention instead focused on Mathieu Debuchy, Moussa Sissoko and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, established internationals for France. Gouffran cost around £700,000; he was considered a squad man. It did not quite stack up with his achievements in France. At 21, five years before he eventually arrived, there had been talks about a move to England. “Yes, I was excited,” he adds. “It was Arsenal. I remember it well. I was a lot younger then, 20 or 21. I didn’t know if it would happen. My name was being mentioned with Arsenal and I was playing for Caen. The discussions were quite lengthy, they were taking a long time, and then it did not happen.” Gouffran scored 25 goals in two seasons as he waited. Instead, he moved to Bordeaux for €6.5m. He had just turned 22. “I was 14 when I joined Caen,” he says. “My dream was always to be a footballer. It was a really important club for me. They were my first club. They took me away from where I was, in Paris. They gave me my first start when I was 17. That was a really big thing for me. I had a great few years playing there and even today it is a club that is still important.” On the final day of his first season at Bordeaux, in May 2009, he returned to Caen. Victory would give his new club their first Ligue 1 title in a decade. It would also relegate the club who gave him a career. “It was a really, really special match for me and a really difficult one. It was the first time I had been back to Caen. We were top of the league but we had to win to win the title. I had butterflies in the changing rooms before the match. I went through a lot of emotions. Then I scored the winning goal. “Obviously, I was ecstatic but I had so many friends who were still playing there and the goal relegated them to the second tier of football in France. I held back and did not celebrate the goal. Only when I went into the changing room could I enjoy it.” In his final 18 months at Stade Chaban-Delmas, Gouffran scored 26 goals. He had resisted the overtures from the club president to sign a new deal. There were less than six months left on his contract at Bordeaux when Fulham and Newcastle came calling. “I loved playing for Bordeaux, but there was a part of me that wanted to play in the Premier League. The president at the club was forcing me to stay and sign a new deal. I know it is risky to run down your contract, with the risk of injury. I continued to work hard and play hard for Bordeaux. Also, we had played against Newcastle already in the Europa League. When we played here for Bordeaux I loved it, the atmosphere was fantastic and I wanted to come here and play at St James’ Park. Yohan Cabaye had talked to me a little about it here and Charles N’Zogbia, who is a good friend of mine, had talked to me about it and only said good things. “I did score quite a lot of goals in my last two seasons in Bordeaux. I was at the end of my contract; perhaps Newcastle did get a bargain when you look at my goals ratio compared to how much they paid. It wasn’t too expensive for them.” In England, he was moved to the left side of midfield. He had tests done on the muscle mass in his legs on his arrival. He was substituted in his first four games. He has admitted the physical demands have caused severe cramps, but he has emerged as the hardest-working member of Pardew’s team. He took on extra fitness work. The cramps have disappeared. In Newcastle’s final away game last season, with the side down to 10 men, he scored the winning goal that kept Newcastle in the Premier League. Managers do not forget things like that. His form this season has relegated Hatem Ben Arfa to a bit-part player. He scored in five successive home games –the fifth in a 5-1 victory at home to Stoke that lifted the club to sixth place – equalling a feat of Alan Shearer. During the run that followed, when Newcastle won once out of nine games, Gouffran spoke of his feeling of shame. “Even without knowing the whole history of the club, if you lose at home, at St James’ Park, there is a feeling of shame. After the Tottenham game I felt I was ashamed, so I said so. You cannot lose in that manner.” The Newcastle assistant manager, John Carver, sits flanked by Gouffran and Paul Dummett, the young Geordie full-back, in a room at the club’s training ground during a Barclays event with grass-roots coaches that ends in a revealing question-and-answer session. “Some players are energy-sappers,” says Carver when asked about different attitudes to training. “But we have to tell Gouff to come off the training ground; he’s a workaholic.” Today, for the second game, Carver’s voice will be the highest in the chain of command for Gouffran and his team-mates. Pardew will be absent from the stadium in which his team is playing, because of his suspension following that clash with Meyler. Today against Crystal Palace will be bigger than last week at Fulham because it is at St James’ Park; Pardew will sit in a room at the training ground, four miles away, watching a live feed of the game. “Last week was a strange match,” Gouffran says. “Before we went to the ground, the manager gave us a team talk in the hotel. He told us there was still a lot to play for this season, that we must fight for a European place. “To be honest, we prepared for it all week. We knew the manager would be banned from the stadium. It was slightly different but we were ready. We have been here for a year, we know the coach. We are used to the manager and his style, but he wasn’t there; you have to adapt to the situation, that is what football is all about.” Gouffran is good at adapting, as Pardew will testify. My other life: A table tennis star They used to be huge on darts at Newcastle. Now, the first-team squad compete regularly inside the club’s training ground at table tennis. “Yeah, I play a lot,” says Gouffran. “Am I good? Yeah, I’m the best at the club, along with Davide Santon. What do I do outside of football? I play table tennis and look after my son, because he takes up a lot of my time.”

Not sure who our "senior" players are these days - other than Colo and Shola and the latter has no right to have an opinion on another player's performances.

I think the garden was created by the Council so I guess they own that land.

Trivial point but it really winds me up when he says "my fans" as did in an interview on Radio Newcastle earlier. It is something he often says and I am sure he means to say "our" but I always find myself shouting back at the radio "I am not your fan".

If they know Debuchy is going to leave then why are they not looking to sign a right back rather than plan for a loan. There is plenty of time and we should be looking ar right backs anyway as we need cover in that position. If Jenkinson was to come on loan then it would surely be as first choice as I can't see Wenger agreeing to loan us a player without guarantees about him playing a significant amount of games.

At one time, the club supposedly owned a lot of property and land so it seems as if there will be little left other than the stadium (which seems to be used much less these days than previously outside of match days) and the training ground. Will there be anything else left to sell off? Maybe this is how they are going to pay for the training ground re-development? I think we are fortunate that the land the stadium is on is owned by the council. I always wondered if prospective owners might see the location of the ground and think about how much they could sell the land for (wasn't that one of the reasons people were buying Portsmouth?).

Said in the paper this morning that he had been granted leave because a family member was sick. It implied that he was back though and that because of his absence, he was not fit enough to be included in the squad.

Was mentioned on here, think its pre Xmas his last game. I think the last home game he went to was back in September when he was chaperoning JFK.

A lot of Championship clubs are unhappy with the parachute payments as they feel it gives the relegated clubs an unfair advantage so I guess these penalties are related to that.

He might not have been talking about Street in particular as that incident happened straight after a match. I think it was more a generalisation about young players and their attitude to football today. With regards to NUFC, there seems to have been plenty of occasions when people have reported on some of our kids (who have never been near the first team) acting Billy Bigtime and of course they are earning loads in comparison to their contemporaries which doesn't help.

You see ... so if Perch stays we never see the Anita we do today, and everyone would be claiming he was s*** or not suited to the premier league. This is why I refuse to accept the crap on Ben arfa or Marveaux, because I don't believe in our manager at all. He's a clown. That was my interpretation as well - that Anita would not have got his chance had Perch stayed.

Interesting couple of lines in the Journal today in an article about Anita. "Twelve months ago the jury was out on him, not least among Newcastle's coaching brains trust. The Journal understands that one of the reasons James Perch was sold despite Pardew's exhortations to hand him a new contract was because Mike Ashley had been advised that Anita was being under-used."

Hallelujah! Nearly unlocked the thread to post the exact same thing earlier He's catching on, you know? That has been so obvious. Taylor looked so uncomfortable on the left-side and MYM looks uncomfortable on the right side. When MYM played left-back, he did OK but struggles at right back. The partnership has to be one of Colo/MYM or Willo/Taylor unless injuries dictate otherwise.

He's tactically switched on. I don't think there is anything special about him though. Keep them up and get to another Final and maybe, just maybe... RE the makems I know I said I wanted them to win, but in reality, had they won, it wouldn't have bothered me and from a NE perspective and anti modern football perspective it would have been OK, but they lost so f*** them and all the in the world their way. Puts him a few levels above quite a few of the oafs currently managing in the league then. They say he is very ambitious so I can imagine he would jump ship very readily if a bigger club came in for him.

I think he might well get a stadium ban for the rest of the season. It is not as if any FA action against him is going to have an impact on our season. I also wish the club had announced they were donating the fine to a charity so that we would know for sure that he had been fined and that it doesn't just go to improve the bank balance.

So far he has managed not to be constantly offside or to foul the defender which means our attacks are not being stopped the moment the ball is hit upfield. It was noticeable yesterday how much better our attacking play was in and around the box and we actually got a lot of players into the box for a change. We have rarely had players (with the exception of Gouffran) in a position to follow up a parried shot as Sissoko and Anita did yesterday. And LDJ was in good positions in the penalty area as well.

Remy is going to be their excuse for lack of transfer activity in the Summer. It will be a case of they were waiting for his decision before deciding to move on to other targets by which time it will be too late to get them over the line.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/11039090._Why_doesn_t_Mike_Ashley_sell_Newcastle_United___Here_s_one_compelling_reason____/?ref=var_0 "Why doesn't Mike Ashley sell Newcastle United?" Here's one compelling reason.... 7:00am Thursday 27th February 2014 in Sport The Northern Echo The key issue of advertising at St James' Park was discussed at a fans' forum involving senior Newcastle United officials this week. And as Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson explains, the subject gets to the very heart of Mike Ashley's continued ownership of the club “WHY doesn’t Mike Ashley sell Newcastle United?” It’s a commonly-asked question, and one that until now has been difficult to answer definitively. In many respects, it’s easy to see why the Magpies might provide a massive headache for the hugely-successful sportswear magnate, whose attempts to guard his privacy and maintain a low individual profile have been undermined by his controversial ownership of the club. Does he really need to have his name dragged through the gutter whenever Newcastle’s perceived lack of ambition is discussed? Can he derive any enjoyment at all from having to sit at matches with his minders close by? And might he not have better uses for the £300m or so that he has tied up in the club? All of those are powerful negatives to set against his continued ownership of the Magpies, yet there is one key positive that appears to conclusively override them, and for the first time, the minutes of a fans’ forum held in St James’ Park’s Sir Bobby Robson Suite on Monday provided an insight into Ashley's major motivation for retaining sole ownership of Newcastle United. Advertising. Free, or at least cash-neutral, advertising that enables Ashley to spread the Sports Direct branding message on a truly worldwide scale. Glance around St James’ Park on a match day, and you do not have to be a marketing genius to deduce that Newcastle are effectively a glorified billboard for Sports Direct. The electronic advertising hoardings are beamed in front of a global television audience of around 4.7bn. That’s a lot of potential customers looking to buy sportswear. Of course advertising in football is nothing new, but what makes it such a controversial topic at Newcastle is that, as the owner of the club, Ashley is perfectly entitled to award himself the advertising space for nothing. Or at least for a sum that has never been publicly disclosed. Instead of selling it off to the highest bidder in order to increase revenue for Newcastle United, Sports Direct exert a near monopoly over the advertising space. As a result, Ashley’s main business enjoys a prominence and exposure, in a market perfectly tailored to its needs, which would be hard to replicate in any sphere other than Premier League football. The issue was discussed at this week’s forum, with the club effectively conceding for the first time that it views the arrangement as good value for money given the investment Ashley has made in the form of an interest-free loan, and the previous funds he has committed in order to wipe out historic debt that was necessitating significant interest payments each year. The exchange went as follows: Steve Cole (Supporters’ branch representative): “What is the saving that Sports Direct makes on advertising around the stadium?” Club response: The club suggested that while it is always proactively looking to attract new commercial partners and to sell that advertising space, in the current climate, it could not command a sum for that space anywhere close to the £129m invested into the club interest free by the owner.” Andrew McClay (Members’ representative): “Can the commercial value of that advertising not come off the debt that the club owes the owner?” Club response: The board explained that the owner’s position is clear, and that the club is not attempting to hide it. To add context, it was explained that the club’s debt cost £8m in interest alone every year before Mike Ashley purchased the club.” So there you have it. In a nutshell, Newcastle regard the ongoing advertising agreement with Sports Direct as a justified trade-off for Ashley's continued financial support in the form of an interest-free loan, which in theory could be called in at any minute. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. Newcastle get financial stability, as reflected in the latest set of accounts released on Monday which displayed a £9.9m profit after tax; Ashley gets the chance to promote his business interests at way below the market rate. Given that he owns the club lock, stock and barrel, he's perfectly entitled to do as he likes, and while some might bemoan the lack of investment in the playing squad in recent years, particularly in light of the recent £20m sale of Yohan Cabaye, stability is not to be sniffed at given the extent of the financial mess that was bequeathed by the previous regime. Yet Newcastle's argument that the current arrangement is a win-win situation is undermined by their own comments. In a statement released alongside this week's accounts, the Newcastle board said: “Ultimately, the income the club generates - particularly, given the restrictions of the Premier League Financial Fair Play rules, from matchday, commercial i.e. non-TV income - will directly impact on the strength and quality on the pitch.” Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations mean a club's commercial revenues effectively dictate their ability to spend money on transfer fees and wages, yet in Newcastle's case, one of the biggest commercial revenue streams available – match-day advertising – is effectively off limits. By failing to sell at the market price, Ashley is handicapping his own club's ability to compete with its Premier League rivals. And as the full effect of the FFP regulations begin to take force, that can only achieve the self-defeating result of making it more and more difficult for Newcastle to achieve the board's minimum ambition of finishing in the top ten. In the short term, it is easy to see why Ashley believes his current arrangement makes financial sense. And once that is concluded, it is equally easy to see why he regards Newcastle United as an asset worth retaining. But the sums only work if a minimum level of success is achieved on the pitch. And whichever way you look at it, that would surely be easier if advertising revenue was increased.

Apparently NUFC accounts are due to be released early this week.

As much as I want Pardew gone, I am not too concerned about him still being manager at this stage. However that is based (entirely unrealistically I know) on Ashley adopting the "correct" approach to appointing a new manager. If Ashley is planning to sell up any time soon, it would make sense for him to leave the decision to the next owner and to let them incur the pay-off. If he is planning to stay then it makes sense to appoint a DoF first and then to jointly decide the criteria for a new manager before looking to see who is available and of course there might be better choices available at the end of the season. If the "right" man is available now, then it would make more sense to get him in ASAP so the players get to know him and hopefully it will encourage a few that there are better days ahead. Needless to say I have no faith that the right approach will be adopted and it will be more a case of Ashley throwing the names of his mates into a hat and picking out the winner.

Because we will need so many players in the Summer, I thought they would have realised from last season that players need time to get used to the league and it would have been a good opportunity to integrate a couple in the remaining games so they are ready for next Summer. If there is as big an overhaul as they are implying, regardless of the quality of the player, we could struggle purely because there will be too many players trying to adjust to a new country and a new league (assuming of course that we recruit only foreigners as usual).