Watching Newcastle United being described as ‘giants’ during a cup game against lower league opposition on Sky Sports is, I suspect, the closest most of us will ever get to being wolf whistled. Which is to say that any sleazy urges to be flattered are overwhelmed by the awareness of the proponents’ deeper-lying impure motives. As Alan Pardew pointed out during his pre match interview, the broadcasters wouldn’t have been there in the first place if they hadn’t sensed blood.
Our season in The Championship threw this tie in to further confusion, casting dubious light on Sky’s David & Goliath angle. We were actually beat at this ground in 2009, on a night when certain fans took exception to Kevin Nolan’s overegged celebration of an equalising goal. Funny old thing, football. If you had told some complaining that night that Nolan’s over zealousness would be replaced in two year’s time by a French Championship winning international they would most likely not have opined that we would miss desperately Nolan’s leadership and grit. Because that night we were opposed to that type of thing, we considered it ostentatious and put on and plain tacky. Fans often look at a result first and branch out their complaints from there and we’re a remarkably resourceful bunch when it comes to things about which to be unhappy. And none of the complaints or sources of unhappiness truly make sense until you conclude how little they actually matter.
I was broadly in favour of the Nolan sale, and opposed to the Barton one (insomuch as you could always justify his presence in the team- I found his supposedly anguished tweets on it during the last days hugely boring, and there’s a certain relief he’s taking his drama queen act elsewhere), but what arguing about both does is serve to ignore the wider issue, and I’m concerned pointless veneration of either will help assist the club in their campaign of lies and misinformation, when in reality any dispute between the parties is self serving and childish on all their parts and of no material benefit to us and what we need. Because the thing is, the club can claim, with some justice, to be in the right on the Barton issue. And as long as they have a moral high ground they will abuse it and use it to distract from something they can actually do something about while we all squabble with each other to no meaningful conclusion.
So Barton’s gone. Thanks for playing well from the middle of August until the middle of February last season. Whatever. We need a striker. Failing that, we need Nicklas Bendtner. We created lots during this game; ignoring Gosling and taking it from Vuckic’s introduction, we have a midfield which is mobile and adroit and shrewd. But Best, hardworking and likeable but grossly limited, and Lovenkrands- lamentable- wasted each and every chance given them through timidly, bad decision making and that awful bit at the end of ninety minutes where Lovenkrands stood and watched a stinging low cross pass between him and the goalkeeper, presumably temporarily confused with a game
of heads and volleys where any goals hit from crosses played along the ground mean the goal scorer has to take over in goal.
The highlight was the kids. Vuckic simply oozes class, granite jawed and broad he looks straight out of one of our 1950s cup winning teams, and Sammi Ameobi is direct and purposeful and, weirdly, looks a bit brilliant. As much as everybody is L-O-Ling at the prospect of the surname Ameobi for another ten years, I can’t help but fear that’s wildly optimistic. In fact, that’s the nagging thought about the whippersnappers: for years Newcastle have produced pretty much nothing in terms of home grown, or at least home nurtured, stars. Now, when you can pretty much guarantee they’ll be gone to the highest bidder at the earliest possible junction, we apparently have an unending stream of the bastards.
On that note, with Manchester United surely considering their goalkeeping options, it can’t only be me hoping that Tim Krul managers to throw one in on Sunday against Fulham? Not to the detriment of the final result, obviously, but I have a feeling that the final nasty surprise of the transfer window is still to be unleashed upon us.
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