Craig's A Celt
The
Bellamy saga has been concluded, at least until the summer, with the
news confirmed that he's joined Celtic on loan until the end of the
season. While the departure of Bellamy is a must in terms of club
harmony, it's left us looking a little sparse up front. No replacement
appears to be coming in, so we have to hope that an increasingly ineffective
Shearer, an unfit Kluivert with an questionable attitude and a yet-to-prove-himself
Ameobi is enough to get us through the season, particularly with a
league still needing to be climbed and two cups still up for grabs.
Bye Bye Bernard - Bellamy To Bhoys?
The contract wrangle with Olivier Bernard has ended, with the defender
deciding to reject any offers we may have made, and instead move to
Premiership strugglers Southampton for a fee thought to be around
£400,000. From the outside, this looks like a purely money based decision,
although the idea of Southampton offering more wages than us still
seems an odd one.
Meanwhile, reports say Craig Bellamy will be arrving at Celtic to
discuss terms of a loan deal until the end of the season.
Toon Will Be Live On Five
The first leg of the UEFA Cup tie between
Newcastle and Dutch side Heerenveen will be screened live on 'five'
television. The channel, which has previously showed Newcastle games
will show our match as the second in a double-header, which includes
Middlesbrough v AK Graz.
The second match will be live on ITV2, as will all our home games
and the final.
FA
Cup 5th Round Draw: NUFC Vs Chelsea
The draw for the 5th Round of the FA
Cup has taken place and it hasn't been kind to Newcastle, with
Chelsea due at St. James' Park on the weekend of 19th/20th February.
Chelsea of course dumped us out of the League Cup back in October
with a 2-0 win in extra-time and back in 1995-96 they beat us
on penalties at SJP in an FA Cup 3rd Round replay after a 2-2
draw.
NUFC's FA Cup record against Chelsea:
P: 9, W: 2, D: 3, L: 4, F: 15, A: 11
Growing
Support For Bellamy?
Kieron Dyer quotes:
"The big losers, in the end, will be Newcastle because Craig
would be in the starting XI and it's as simple as that. He has
not signed for another club yet and, you never know, he might
still be a United player on Tuesday. But the biggest lesson
I learned was that you can't be selfish - the club pay your
wages and that is what matters.
"It does look like Craig will never play for this club again.
"But we are his friends and we have read a lot of stuff saying
that he has lost the confidence of the dressing room. That is
not the case. We were just trying to be open-minded.
"Not once did we side with the manager or Craig because we had
confidence in both and hoped the situation would be resolved.
"When I heard about last Monday's interview I was on the telephone
to Craig begging him not to do it and to keep his thoughts to
himself.
"But he had his reasons for talking and it's a pity he went
ahead.
"He is an opinionated guy and and he felt the club was going
against him.
"He is probably my best friend at the club and the way he plays
on the pitch is the way he is off it."
Meanwhile Patrick Kluivert, speaking on his Icons website, had
this to say:
"The situation with Craig Bellamy is a real shame. I think
Craig is, first and foremost, a very nice guy and a very skilful
player. However, this dispute is just between the manager and
Craig - even the rest of the squad here don't know what they
have really said to each other.
"This kind of thing happens at every professional club and normally
stays behind closed doors. But I hope that it can all be sorted
out and that Craig will be back in the team before long, because
we are a stronger side with him than without him.
 |
There
May Be Trouble Ahead (Part 2)
So I'm back from Leicester and in my
time away the turbulent existence of Newcastle United has taken
quite an amazing spin with a quite ridiculous bust up that could
easily have been avoided. Everyone is blaming everyone for it
which is starting to resemble the school playground blame games
on who kicked the ball on the roof. It's all very childish and
just says everything we needed to know about the current state
of Newcastle United Football Club. It seems as if whenever the
transfer window is about to shut something goes laughably wrong.
August 2004 went down as one of the most incompetent months
in the history of the club, but January 2005 seems to be trying
(but admittedly failing) to emulate it.
[Read
More +]
Bellamy
Knocks Back Brum
Despite agreeing a fee with Birmingham
City, it looks like Newcastle may not be able to peddle Craig
Bellamy before the transfer window shuts, with the striker having
turned down a move to St. Andrews. Whether another club will
come in by the end of the day remains to be seen, but it now
looks likely that Bellamy will decide to sit at the club until
the summer at least, waiting for another chance/collecting his
wages, depending on your point of view. What is sure is that
we've not heard the last of this one. |
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