In Other Toon News...
Sidestepping the whole Bowyer-Dyer affair for a moment, there
are other Toon news snippets to report on:
Sir Bobby Robson has settled his dispute
with the club and will receive a £2.1m pay-off.
Half-Term Reports are in and the six-month figures show
that turnover has increased by 3% to £49.5m. Match revenue is
up 5% to £21.2m. Sales of Toon shirts and other various club
merchandise are surprisingly down by 13% from £5.5m to £4.8m.
Player and club employee wages have increased by 10% to £25.4m
and £20m was spent on additions to the squad including pre-season
signings of Patrick Kluivert, Nicky Butt and James Milner (transfer
fees and wages).
The BBC will screen United's
FA Cup Semi-Final with Manchester United on the 17th of April,
a 2.00pm kick-off.
Darren Ambrose is wanted
by his former club Ipswich Town apparently, with a fee of £1-2m
being banded about.
Robbie Elliott is fit
again and the Chronicle are reporting that he is to start
Thursday's match against Sporting Lisbon in our UEFA Cup Quarter-Final
1st Leg.
It Was Inevitable, Really!
From the official Newcastle United website:
A Disciplinary
Commission has rejected a claim for wrongful dismissal from
Newcastle United FC on behalf of Kieron Dyer.
As a result, Dyer will serve a three-match suspension with immediate
effect.
Earlier this morning Lee Bowyer's fate was decided, the midfielder
has been charged with voilent conduct by the Football Association.
From the FA's official website:
Newcastle United's
Lee Bowyer has been charged with a breach of FA Rule E3 for
violent conduct.
The charge relates to an incident involving Kieron Dyer during
the match against Aston Villa on Saturday 02 April, for which
both players were sent off.
Section A, Paragraph 7(i) of The FA's Disciplinary Procedures
allows a charge to be brought under Rule E3 for an incident
where a player was dismissed and is subject to an automatic
suspension.
Lee Bowyer has until 20 April to respond, and the case is due
to be heard by a Disciplinary Commission on 22 April.
Dyer: Fight NOT Sparked By Racial Abuse!
Kieron Dyer has hopefully put an end to rumours doing the rounds
that Lee Bowyer's attack was racially motivated, by claiming
that it wasn't in any way, shape or form. Good!
Dyer said:
"The whole
thing is just a nightmare.
"The hours and days since Saturday afternoon have been one of
the hardest times in my life.
"Both Lee and I know that we have let a lot of people down.
"I thought I had done the hard part in winning the fans over.
"I have put in a lot of hard work to do that and I've been really
concentrating on keeping my head down and staying out of trouble.
"I've been enjoying making headlines for my football.
"I feel I have learned a lot in the past few months.
"It will be the biggest game I've been involved in at club level
and I'd be gutted to miss it.
"I'm so upset that this has all happened just when everything
seemed to be going so well for me here.
"I feel I've really responded to the new manager. I've done
a lot of growing up but I know some people aren't going to see
it that way.
"I didn't know what to do when the thing with Lee began.
"I was just trying to defend myself. I've never been in that
situation before.
"To his credit, Lee has held up his hands and said it was down
to him. I'm thankful he has done that. It takes courage to do
that, too.
"I know a lot of people assume there must be some sort of history
of this sort of thing between us and that we just don't like
each other.
"People have said there must have been a lot going on behind
the scenes but the truth is that there has never been anything
like this before between us. There's no history. There's no
previous.
"In fact, the thing is that I see him socially. He rang me after
the game to say sorry, which was nice. I've got on with him.
I still consider him a friend.
"I want to clear one other thing up, too. There is no question
that the fight was sparked by racial abuse from him. That is
categorically not the case.
"It was just a silly argument about not passing the ball to
him. It was a flare-up out of nothing, proably not helped by
the fact that we were 3-0 down at the time.
"But there was absolutely nothng sinister about it and now we
both just want to put it behind us and get on with our football
as soon as we can.
"I really do feel that Lee and I can put this behind us. I'm
quite happy to be in the same team and the same dressing room
as him. I haven't got a problem with that at all.
"Like I said, he and I are friends and, even though it sounds
strange, what happened on Saturday won't change that.
"What I need to do now is to prove to everybody at the club
that I can put this in the past and make it up to them all.
And I intend to do that on the pitch."
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Bowyer/Dyer Fracas: An Alternative View
I read with great interest the views
expressed by Howaythetoon on behalf of himself and no doubt
countless other members of the Toon Army. However I did not
find that the content of the piece reflected my feelings following
the events of Saturday afternoon. The main thrusts of the article
appeared to revolve around the following points:
[Read
More +]
Behind Enemy Lines: Post-Match Chat With A
Villa Fan
Newcastle-Online.com caught up with
John Atkin again, the Editor of an Aston Villa supporters website
- The Villa - to get his post match views on his side's lucky
3-0 win over Newcastle on Saturday, the talking points of the
match, Villa, NUFC, the game and more. This is what John had
to say...
[Read
More +]
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