Dwight Gayle (now playing for Hibernian)

[TRon]

If he didn't reach 30 from this point it would be pretty disappointing.  His target has to be to finish ahead of Glen Murray. 

[TRon]

Good interview in the Times today with Martin Hardy but it's behind a paywall. Great title for the article as well, 'Gayle force wins'.

[frankpingel]

Fingers crossed he's fit for tomorrow's match.

[TRon]

Gayle force wins

 

Dwight Gayle has brought goals to Newcastle, who have given him a home

 

There was a wedding and there was a huge Newcastle United flag at its entrance. It was the summer and in the plush Hilton Hotel, on the banks of the River Tyne, three new Newcastle players bore a nervous curiosity as they walked past.

 

Dwight Gayle, Matt Ritchie and Matz Sels had been signed for a total of £27million by Rafa Benitez to lead a charge back to the Premier League. A second relegation in seven years had to be repaired; more damage, more rebuilding.

 

For Gayle there would be the added burden of the No 9 shirt, following a timeline that in the modern era had ran from Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer through to Andy Carroll and Papiss Cisse. Goals and pedigree everywhere. Six years previously Gayle had been getting lifts in the taxi of a friend’s dad for games in the Essex Senior League with Stansted.

 

His was the biggest leap of faith; he was called personally by Benitez. Shunned by Tyneside’s old guard in Alan Pardew, then welcomed by the new, and invited into a wedding party.

 

“I was staying at the Hilton until I found somewhere to live,” said Gayle . “There was a wedding downstairs; they had a massive Newcastle flag. A few of us were staying there at the time. We walked past and they were going mental! They welcomed us in. Everyone wanted photographs and it was their wedding. It was a bit weird but it was a sign of things to come. It gave me an early insight. It is different here. The fans are a lot more connected to the club.

 

“In London everyone has their own stuff and things they want to be doing. There’s ten or 15 clubs so a lot of the time people leave you to it and they don’t notice you. At Newcastle, there’s one club. Everyone is a Newcastle fan and everyone cares about the club and everyone loves the club. It’s different. It’s unique.

 

“There was me, Matty and Matz Sels. We were looking after each other. We sat down that night and talked about it. Everyone there knew who we were and what was going on. The publicity that is given to this club and what it means to everyone stood out.

 

“It was a bit overwhelming at first but you knew the expectation. It was a good sign though, experiencing the passion is different to being told about it. You can’t really explain it until you feel it.

 

“People said to me ‘You’ll love it up there, the fans are mental’ but you take it with a pinch of salt. Then you come here, you notice, and you say to the person who told you, ‘Yeah, you was right, it’s absolutely crazy and it’s great’.”

 

Gayle, 26, cost Newcastle £10m, and if photographed at the party he did not become national news. He needed to hit the ground running and scored four in his first four Championship games. There has also been a run of seven in four, so he’s the division’s top scorer with 19 goals in 20 appearances.

 

He is a quiet and shy man, who talks down into his tracksuit top but smiles when the conversation turns to goals. He has brought them back to Tyneside but at 13 he was rejected by Arsenal, and it has been a long road to return to the brightest of lights.

 

“For me it released a lot of stress,” he adds of Arsenal’s decision. “For a lot of boys at 16 they’ve been working like it’s a job for five or six years.

 

“I remember finding out. I was a bit surprised. I wasn’t expecting it. It was a letter and it asked us to go in and have a conversation with the coaches. I let my parents go, because I was a bit upset. I was a bit embarrassed. I didn’t really want to show my face.

 

“When my mates used to come into school and talk about their game on a Sunday or stuff, I would be like ‘Why can’t I play with you? It sounds so good’. You had to stop a lot more of your school work. You can’t be going out. You have to focus a lot more on football. It can slow down other things in your life. I do remember thinking, ‘I don’t want to be going training’.”

 

Gayle’s life took a different path. He never thought it would return to professional football and worked with his dad as a carpenter from turning 16. “I would get up for about half five,” he adds. “Most of the work was in central London so I would get the train at about half six. It would still be dark in winter; it was horrible.”

 

The goals came for Stamsted. His dad, Devon, had also been a centre-forward, and then came a move to Dagenham & Redbridge in 2011, when more choices had to be made.

 

“Yeah, it felt like a big step when I couldn’t do the day job any more.” he says. “My dad pushed me towards it. At the time Dagenham offered me a lot less than I was earning at work. I was like, ‘I won’t take it dad, it’s not really worth it’. He said, ‘Just do it, I’ll give you the extra money’. He pushed me. I thank him for that.”

 

Gayle went on loan to Bishop’s Stortford, scored goals, then did the same for Dagenham.

 

“I remember rumours when I was first at Dagenham that Peterborough had put in a bid of £300,000 and never thought anyone would pay that for me.” He went for £500,000, and within a year cost Premier League Crystal Palace £5m, scoring 26 goals over three years before joining Newcastle.

 

“I thought [benitez] could add to my game,” says Gayle. “He works with me in training. Tactically he’s so aware of what we need to be doing to allow space in other areas. That’s one of his main attributes. I hope this is a Premier League club in waiting. Signing for Newcastle was a no-brainer. I knew the club I was coming to was fighting to get back up. We have shown that but we have to keep going.”

He has breezed into the role of a city’s hero, but it is still not enough for his father.

 

“The funny thing is I scored a fricking hat-trick against Birmingham and we were driving home and he was moaning about me holding the ball up,” said Gayle. “I was like, ‘Dad, are you sure?’”

[TRon]

Love that bit about Rafa working with him in training.

[Figures 1-0 Football]

Comes across as a really down to Earth and nice guy.

 

He was nice when I met him too, I get the shy bit as well - he always has a bit of a worried look about him

[Mr Logic]

Tried to sign up for that new customer offer from Coral on nufc.com through the link where you can get 6/1 on him being the Championship top scorer.  Funnily enough, for both myself and my mate who tried it, they let us sign up through the link, deposit cash and the bet was nowhere to be seen.  Text chat support say I signed up with an offer of free bets if I bet a fiver or something, which is funny because I'd never seen that signup page until they linked me to it and I distinctly remember Gayle's toothy grin on my sign-up page.  Just to save anyone else bothering with it.

 

Same thing happened to me a few weeks back on another bet/link from .com

[Newcastle Fan]

Even with his goal scoring record i really don't think he's premier league quality, always bottles it at tough games like today, its very easy to score at this division at a team like ours when we are battering shit sides.

[Ryan]

Service to him is absolutely shite mind.

[Lotus]

Didn't think much of him today tbh. Didn't bring others into play much, didn't run into space, thought he was very ordinary.

[triggs]

Couldn't blame him today at all. Service was shite

[Disco]

Should've scored. Didn't. Fly off the handle.

[Lotus]

Couldn't blame him today at all. Service was s****

 

I agree that he didn't get much quality ball but he was bullied out of it pretty easily with his back to goal.

They'd played deep so he didn't have space behind so i would have expected him to move wide and pull some defenders with him. He didn't, he was quite predictable.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Gayle plays like that in every match though imo. He doesn't really contribute beyond goals, but that's fine by me while it's working.

[Dave]

Even with his goal scoring record i really don't think he's premier league quality, always bottles it at tough games like today, its very easy to score at this division at a team like ours when we are battering shit sides.

 

This post literally makes no sense.

[KaKa]

I can't help but imagine how good this guy would be with a better midfield and number 10 behind him. It's outrageous that he has scored so many, when for the most part we haven't had consistent play to support him.

[Pilko]

He's class, but when he's having an off day Rafa won't trust anyone else. Three minutes for Murphy ffs, why buy him?

[cp40]

title needs something added.

 

except against Blackburn

[Guest firetotheworks]

He's class, but when he's having an off day Rafa won't trust anyone else. Three minutes for Murphy ffs, why buy him?

For that very purpose, he's a last resort/cup player.

[Pilko]

He's class, but when he's having an off day Rafa won't trust anyone else. Three minutes for Murphy ffs, why buy him?

For that very purpose, he's a last resort/cup player.

 

Three minutes is laughable though. Was clear that Gayle was both starved of service and having an off day; Murphy should have been on for longer than that.

 

I'm a Rafa supporter, massively, but having sat through Boxing Day and today, I'm very concerned that his reliance on certain players and this system is going to lose us points that we should in no way be dropping.

[Guest firetotheworks]

 

 

He's class, but when he's having an off day Rafa won't trust anyone else. Three minutes for Murphy ffs, why buy him?

For that very purpose, he's a last resort/cup player.

 

Three minutes is laughable though. Was clear that Gayle was both starved of service and having an off day; Murphy should have been on for longer than that.

 

I'm a Rafa supporter, massively, but having sat through Boxing Day and today, I'm very concerned that his reliance on certain players and this system is going to lose us points that we should in no way be dropping.

 

Tbf, Gayle is that type of player. Murphy hasn't really got a lot going for him aside from being something a little bit different. Agree that he should have come on earlier.

 

I can't agree with the bit in bold, his system has gotten us where we are, no harm in being flexible but I don't necessarily agree that he isn't, just maybe not to the extent that some want him to be.

 

 

[Pilko]

I probably didn't word that all too well. The system has largely done us proud this season, but his failure to revert from it at certain moments has us worse off than we should be.

 

Nowt wrong with sticking to your principles, but it's starting to cost us more and more often now.

[TRon]

Couldn't blame him today at all. Service was shite

 

The two half chances he had, he still got them on target as well.

[Happinesstan]

 

 

He's class, but when he's having an off day Rafa won't trust anyone else. Three minutes for Murphy ffs, why buy him?

For that very purpose, he's a last resort/cup player.

 

Three minutes is laughable though. Was clear that Gayle was both starved of service and having an off day; Murphy should have been on for longer than that.

 

I'm a Rafa supporter, massively, but having sat through Boxing Day and today, I'm very concerned that his reliance on certain players and this system is going to lose us points that we should in no way be dropping.

 

Tbf, Gayle is that type of player. Murphy hasn't really got a lot going for him aside from being something a little bit different. Agree that he should have come on earlier.

 

I can't agree with the bit in bold, his system has gotten us where we are, no harm in being flexible but I don't necessarily agree that he isn't, just maybe not to the extent that some want him to be.

 

I think it's understandable, when it doesn't work, for people to wish he had tried something that did.

 

There is no guaranteed recipe for that something, though so there will probably always be disagreements.

 

I watched today's game and for most of the first half tried to pass our way into the box, we did all right but BBurn were well organised and their keeper was in good form. Towards the end of the 1st half we appeared to have a bit more urgency and we managed to rattle their defence on a couple of occasions, resulting in clearances that were less composed and could have been capitalised on by another body in the box.

 

442 would have been perfectly safe in stopping any counter attacks, especially with 2 defensive CMs. In fact fuck that, take Colback off and move Diame into the centre.

 

Christ though, we need to get a penetrative left winger or FB.

 

[Happinesstan]

Also, that opportunity when Gayle shot from the right and the keeper tipped it away and round the post.

 

Another forward  would have been in the box long before Diame, (Who arrived too soon as a result of him realising we needed a body in there) and would have been in a great position to tap home.