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Fabricio Coloccini (now retired)

BeloEmre

by BeloEmre
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Skirge

Skirge

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Coloccini stays focused as Newcastle close in on captures

 

By MILES STARFORTH

Published on Tuesday 24 July 2012 10:30

 

FABRICIO Coloccini is focused on pre-season on the pitch – as Newcastle United close in on transfers off the field.

 

The defender made his seasonal debut in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Fenerbahce.

 

Coloccini and his team-mates were back in training today after being given two days off on their return to Tyneside from the club’s 10-day tour of Germany and Austria.

 

They were due to be joined by Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye, who were given extra time off after their involvement in France’s Euro 2012 campaign.

 

And their international colleague – Newcastle-target Mathieu Debuchy – moved a step closer to a move to St James’s Park after his club, Lille, yesterday signed Djibril Sidibe.

 

Debuchy, a close friend of Cabaye, has been told he will be allowed to leave once his replacement has been signed.

 

While keen for new arrivals, Coloccini – United’s inspirational captain – is focused on the next stage of the club’s pre-season, the two-game visit to Portugal’s Algarve for the Guadiana Torneo later this week.

 

However, the defender was convinced of the club’s ambition before signing a new long-term contract last season.

 

Asked about signings, he said: “We’ll have to wait and see, but I hope so. It is going to be interesting.”

 

Coloccini and his colleagues travel to Portugal later this week ahead of the games against Olympiakos on Friday and Braga 24 hours later.

 

“The tour has been positive overall,” added Coloccini. “We now have two days back home in Newcastle, and then we’ll be ready for Portugal.

 

“It has been a good pre-season, and we want it to continue that way.

 

“Hatem and Yohan are back now too. That can only boost our players here. We want to see them back and fit again.”

 

The Fenerbahce game, a competitive and physical encounter played out on a soggy Austrian pitch, has set United up for the fixtures in Portugal.

 

Mehdi Abeid came off the bench to open the scoring in Ritzing, but Cristian Baroni levelled with the last kick of the game.

 

“The pitch was heavy and it was tough because of the rain,” said Coloccini.

 

“We were disappointed to concede a goal in the last minute, but we have to pull out the positive things.

 

“We just have to enjoy these pre-season games and look forward to the start of the season.”

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/coloccini-stays-focused-as-newcastle-close-in-on-captures-1-4767891

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Guest bimpy474

Guest bimpy474

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Spectacularly late with this post, but did anyone else notice him going to ground against Fenerbache in a very uncharacteristic way? He did it about two or three times, It was really weird.

 

He did it a couple of times last night too, i wouldn't worry though he's just buzzing to be playing again.

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DJ_NUFC

DJ_NUFC

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The Magpies were tipped for relegation last term but confounded the critics by finishing fifth in the Premier League thanks mainly to sensational strike duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse.

 

I don't understand the media constantly spouting that line, WHO was tipping us for relegation? I don't know a single person in their right mind who'd have thought, "oh yeah, there are no squads worse than Newcastle, like."

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Dinho lad

Dinho lad

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The Magpies were tipped for relegation last term but confounded the critics by finishing fifth in the Premier League thanks mainly to sensational strike duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse.

 

I don't understand the media constantly spouting that line, WHO was tipping us for relegation? I don't know a single person in their right mind who'd have thought, "oh yeah, there are no squads worse than Newcastle, like."

 

There was some journalist that tipped us to go down. Can't remember the name, but I think he worked for The Times or Independent.

 

Quite a few others tipped us to struggle as well.

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Optimistic Nut

Optimistic Nut

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The Magpies were tipped for relegation last term but confounded the critics by finishing fifth in the Premier League thanks mainly to sensational strike duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse.

 

I don't understand the media constantly spouting that line, WHO was tipping us for relegation? I don't know a single person in their right mind who'd have thought, "oh yeah, there are no squads worse than Newcastle, like."

 

Terry Butcher for one.

 

Chris Kamara thought we'd go down from the Championship with Peterborough going up. :lol:

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Alberto2005

Alberto2005

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The Magpies were tipped for relegation last term but confounded the critics by finishing fifth in the Premier League thanks mainly to sensational strike duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse.

 

I don't understand the media constantly spouting that line, WHO was tipping us for relegation? I don't know a single person in their right mind who'd have thought, "oh yeah, there are no squads worse than Newcastle, like."

Maybe not, but Ba wasn't certain to be great and Cabaye wasn't heard of by the media. We'd also sold Nolan who scored a lot of goals for us and struggled in the second half of the season after Carroll left.

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Dave

Dave

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there wasn't exactly a whole lot of confidence on here going into last season either tbh

 

Wouldn't agree with that, many were anticipating mid-table and some thought possibly more hence the battle for 7th thread.

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DJ_NUFC

DJ_NUFC

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I was expecting a healthy mid-table with a jaw-dropping, dream-inspiring finish upto 10th, to be honest. 10th was the position I was going around telling all my mates we'll finish, and they would laugh hysterically, being glory-hunting topferers.

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Mole_Toonfan

Mole_Toonfan

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I thought we would finish around 8th or 9th. It was a depressing time but i cant fathom why anyone would think we would get relegated, we wasn't great but there was more than enough teams in this league that was a lot worse than us.

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Kimbo

Kimbo

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I do recall critics tipping us for relegation. Personally I thought we would get top 10, I felt our squad improved last summer as I didn't particularly rate Barton and Nolan, while some others were getting caught up in the "selling all the best players" nonsense.  :smug: *smug*  :aww:

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Ted Maul

Ted Maul

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I was actually on the fence about getting rid of Barton, turns out it was a very good decision.  As much as I appreciated what Nolan did for us I wasn't sad to see the back of him.  I was fairly happy at the start of last season except I was pissed off that we didn't get another striker along with Ba, but we ended up getting Cisse in January so hey ho.

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Guest BooBoo

Guest BooBoo

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I had us to finish 12th last seasn. What made last year so great was the expectation wasn't massive.

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