The Newcastle United Blog

We publish all comments on this blog, but some have to be moderated initially for bad language or other reasons. But it's clear that this comments policy is not working too well at all of late.

Please remember your comments are only opinions and not necessarily fact, and while we know that may be difficult to understand for some people, let's try to respect everybody's opinion, even if we don't agree with it.

Personal attacks on other readers are discouraged.

And since there have been increasing personal attacks on me over these last few months, I discourage those as well.

I am certainly not a professional journalist, but a retired IBM executive, and I make no real money off this blog - it's simply my hobby. This blog is not about me, it's meant to be about the great Newcastle United Football Club.

What I'm putting on the blog are my opinions - that's all, and you are most welcome to agree or disagree with them, but in a civil way.

When I refer to "we" in the articles, that usually means me, (this is a one man blog) or it refers to Newcastle United - it is never meant to be speaking for the Newcastle fans.

It really works if we follow these simple rules, and we can then have some excellent and even entertaining discussions, about our great club Newcastle United, which is really what this blog was created for in the first place.

There will also be fans of other clubs who will periodically come to the site, so let's be at least polite to them - remember they just want their clubs to be successful, just as we want Newcastle United to be successful.

I have become increasingly concerned about the level of personalized comments on the blog, and I will try my very best to get this corrected one way or the other - but I don't want to be forced to restrict all comments.

Please keep the language decent for our younger supporters, who we know are still regulars on this site.

Thanks!

Ed Harrison

==================== Exclusive TOFFS SHIRTS OFFER

The Newcastle United Blog has entered into an exclusive promotion with TOFFS, to allow our readers to buy the famous TOFFS retro shirts at 10% off.



TOFFS, the old fashioned football shirt company, have a fantastic range of products from 1910 to the late 1970's and they sell quality authentic Newcastle retro shirts.

The most popular shirts, not surprisingly, are the Newcastle 1950's FA Cup shirts and the 1960's / 70's Classic shirt.

You can link directly to these shirts as follows:

1950's FA Cup Shirts

1960's / 70's Classic Shirts

To claim your 10% off simply click on the link, choose your Newcastle Retro shirt, and enter the promotion code nufcblog at the checkout.

Here are the conditions of this specific offer:

• One use of code per order is permitted

• Code cannot be used in conjunction with any other TOFFS offer

• Offer valid until the 15th July 2008

You can link to the TOFFS offer

HERE

==================== TRANSFER RUMORS

It is now the crazy summer transfer season, and Newcastle have already been linked with about 184 players as of early June.

We had some experience of this last summer, and it's obvious that some reports we will publish will not be true, even when comments are issued from the actual players and agents.

What we will do during the summer is report every rumor that we see, but at the same time try to say how truthful they look to be - as best as we can, from a fan's viewpoint.

But it's very hard for us to sort out the wheat from the chaff, so we'll publish most of the stories, and as long as we take the reports with a pinch of salt and not get too serious about them, we should be OK.

We are bound to be falsely linked with many players this summer, this is Newcastle United after all.

At least we'll know a lot more about all the players we are linked with, if nothing else, because we'll make an extra effort to get as much information on each player as we can.

==================== CONTACT US

Please contact us about anything (by clicking above) and we'll respond within one business day. We enjoy hearing from our readers.

==================== PHOTO LINE-UP



Owen scores against Wigan



Owen upside down



Oba scores at Bolton



Watch out



Here we go



I did it boss



Was that our 3rd or 4th goal?



Well done son

NEWCASTLE'S YOUNG FANS



This is one of our favorite photographs and we are putting it up here because these are some of the youngsters who we want to visit this site. Not James, but his pal.

It will also help with their reading - so please keep the language decent.

The other point we note here is why has James copied the youngster's hair style?



Mike Ashley with Newcastle fan Benn Allen



Mike Ashley with Newcastle fan "Beefy" Keith Roberts

Unknown to us over the last few days, blogged.com has rated our site based on the following criteria:

Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.

After they reviewed each of these criteria, our site was given a score of 8.3, which is apparently very good - rated "great".











====================
SIR BOBBY ROBSON FOUNDATION



The great man cast in bronze

Robson’s foundation will fund cancer research and treatment, a cause close to his heart after contracting cancer five times, including inoperable tumors in his lungs.

The hope of the foundation is to raise an initial £500,000 to fund 12-bed treatment rooms, a laboratory, and consulting rooms for a new Cancer Care Center at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital, though he has no intention of stopping there.

We’d like to help wherever we can so donations can be made here or by mailing a check to:

Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, PO Box 307, Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE7 7QG. England.

SPONSOR THE NEWCASTLE UNITED BLOG

We are looking for sponsors to keep this site going.

We can offer various packages as far as advertising and costs are concerned.

Please take a look at our stats over this last year, and the pricing to advertise on our blog, and if you are interested use the contact form to contact us directly.

Thanks.

Pos Team      Pld  GD Pts

11  Tottenham  38   6  46
12  Newcastle  38 -18  43
13  Middlesbro 38 -12  42

FIXTURES-MATCH REPORTS

Goals

Player  PL   FAC CC Total

Owen 	11    1   1  13
Martins  9    0   1  10
Viduka 	 7    0   0   7
N'Zogbia 3    1   0   4
Milner 	 3    1   0   4
Butt 	 3    0   0   3
Cacapa 	 1    1   0   2
Geremi   1    0   0   1
Emre 	 1    0   0   1
Taylor   1    0   0   1
Beye     1    0   0   1
Faye     1    0   0   1
Barton   1    0   0   1
Duff     1    0   0   1

PL – Premier league
FAC – FA Cup
CC – Carling Cup

Injuries

Player  Injury   Return Date


Krul    Shoulder   no date

Cautions

Player    YC   RC  Games 


Butt 	  14 	0    3
Smith 	   9 	1    3
N'Zogbia   5 	0    1
Milner 	   3 	0
Barton     3    0
Faye 	   3 	0
Taylor 	   3 	0
Beye       2    0
Geremi 	   2 	0
Emre       2    0
Given      2    0
Duff       2    0
Cacapa 	   2 	0
Owen       1    0

YC - yellow card
RC - red card
Games - games suspended

ACTIM INDEX

Player     Points    Rank

S Taylor    283       81
M Owen      266       93

Points – Actim points
Rank – Place in PL top 100

Dr. Ed Harrison is a recently retired IBM Consulting Group Executive who now has time, lots of time, to write about his lifelong passion - Newcastle United Football Club.

Ed was born and bred in Newcastle Upon Tyne, and watched his first game at St. James’ Park in 1949 as a 4 year-old with his Mother and Father. Ed was told to look out for number 9 - Jackie Milburn - Wor Jackie.

In football terms Ed was a goalkeeper and played for Wharrier Street Primary School and Newcastle Minors (Newcastle Schoolboys Under-11), in 1956 and went on to play for Newcastle Schoolboys and Northumberland Schoolboys (Under 15) in 1959 and an England Schoolboys trial.

He was at Newcastle United for a couple of years from 1960 as an amateur, while still at school, and played with Bobby Moncur and David Craig, amongst others, for the Newcastle United Juniors side (Newcastle N’s in those days), during the relegation season of 1960-1961.

Ed attended Heaton Technical and Manor Park schools, and then went on to study at both King’s College, London (BSc Electrical Engineering) and Newcastle University (PhD Computer Science). He played for Newcastle Universities and England Universities from 1967 until 1970.

But a short couple of years after Ed joined IBM in 1970, he was shipped over to the USA, with his new wife Madeline, a beautiful local Newcastle lass.

Ed and Madeline live just outside Raleigh in North Carolina. Their twin sons Paul and Neil, and daughter Elaine, now all in their early 30s, live close by. Neil has carried on the family tradition, and is an avid Newcastle United fan.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW YOUNG PLAYERS

FABIO ZAMBLERA

TAMAS KADAR

BEN TOZER

WESLEY BAHENG

OLLE SODERBERG



HUGHTON - ASSISTANT MANAGER



Chris Hughton became Kevin Keegan's Assistant Manager at Newcastle United yesterday, February 25th.

We warmly welcome Chris to Newcastle, and hope he can help fix that defense quickly.

100th APPEARANCE

When Steve Harper came on in the second half on Saturday it was his 100th appearance for the club.



Congratulations to Steve for his dedication and excellent play for our club over the last 12 years.

NIGEL PEARSON NEW MANAGER AT SOUTHAMPTON

Just 10 days after leaving Newcastle United for pastures anew, Nigel Pearson was appointed manager of Southampton Football Club on Monday, 18th February.



This is a great opportunity for Nigel and you can read our report on this here

I had a pleasant surprise today, American Independence day, when one of readers, Uros, from Bled in Slovenia, sent me a new header for the blog - we think it looks great and many thanks to Uros.

Take a look at Uros' home - it looks terrific.

One thing that's really great about running a site like this, is we get to hear from Newcastle supporters from every part of the world. There's no doubt that Newcastle United is a popular team, even more so now that Kevin is back.

I have banners also from Phoon CK from Singapore, who has provided 2 of the last 3, and I'll try to see how I can use all 3 different banners in the future.

We thank our readers for helping us out so much on the blog over the last 14 months, believe me when I say it's appreciated greatly.

TRANSFER STATUS
...................................

 
IN:

Name:             Fee £M

Gutierrez          3.0?

OUT:

Name              Fee £M

Ramage           Free
Carr                Free
Diatta              Free
Troisi              Free
Rozehnal         2.8
Emre*             4.0

* pending 

Board of Directors

Owner          Mike Ashley
Life President Sir John Hall
Chairman       Chris Mort
Exec Director  Dennis Wise
Football
Vice President Tony Jimenez
Player
Recruitment 	

Management and Coaching

Technical      Jeff Vetere
Coordinator
Manager        Kevin Keegan
Assistant Mgr  Chris Hughton
Adviser        Arthur Cox
Coaches        Terry McDermott               
Reserve Team   Adam Sadler
Goalkeepers    Paul Barron
Fitness        Adrian Lamb
               Craig Russell
Youth Academy  Joe Joyce
Manager
Youth Academy
Coaches        Kenny Wharton
               Simon Tweddle
Physios        Derek Wright
               Kev Bell
Head Scout     Paul Montgomery
Scouts 	       Chris McMenemy
               Vic Halom
               Bobby Saxton
               Jack Chapman

KEEGAN HOPING THAT SHEARER WILL JOIN HIM

"I’ve definitely not given up on it, what we have agreed is that he is going to come in training with us to start off with and then we are going to revisit it later when the commitments that he’s made to other people are no longer in place."

"The door is left absolutely wide open. It’s up to Alan and me to come up with the right solution for him coming in here. I’ve left the door wide open because I respect him and know that he would bring something to the party."

"He’s now got a bit of time to think about it and he will think about it deeply. As he always has done in his life, he will come up with the right decision. I’ve definitely not given up on it and Alan’s not said anything to my knowledge that suggests he doesn’t want to do it. I think deep down he does."

KEVIN KEEGAN PHONE IN