Souness out!!

From Nufc.com

Newcastle United had announced on Thursday morning that the contract of manager Graeme Souness had been terminated with immediate effect.

An interim management team of Academy coach Glenn Roeder assisted by Alan Shearer took over. A short telephone conversation between Chairman Freddy Shepherd on Thursday led to the decision and Souness was pictured driving away from the club's training ground.

Shepherd and his son Kenneth then made their way to Little Benton and met with Roeder, Shearer and the first team squad.

For Shearer it's the chance to dip his toe in the waters of management while still continuing as a player.

Priority number one remains winning games though, not breaking scoring records.

Let's hope he finds the net on Saturday and registers goal number 201 - if selected...

Finally Graeme Souness is gone. No one could believe how relief the geordies felt. It was just a matter of time really before the axe falls. Something's gotta give. No one believed in Souness(except for fat fred). So who will the next in the firing line albeit in the future? Ottmar Hitzfeld anyone?

Record broken

From Soccernet

Alan Shearer's historic 200th goal for Newcastle spared Graeme Souness a major FA Cup embarrassment.

The 35-year-old fired home from close range from Albert Luque's backheel 10 minutes from time to equal the legendary Jackie Milburn's club record total.

It was Shearer's 21st FA Cup goal for the club and it broke Mansfield's hearts.

Shearer once beat Stags goalkeeper Kevin Pressman five times in a single game during his days at Sheffield Wednesday, but it was a measure of the League Two side's performance that he converted his only real chance.

Had he not pounced late in the game, a goalless draw could have left the under-pressure Souness facing a major revolt.

Caught the game on Soccernet's Gamecast last night and damn kan cheong about how the game went on. If not for Big Al, i think we could have lost it. Must watch the match to see how we fared. Guess Souness can live and fight another day.

Half-term / End of year report

From Nufc.com

When the fixtures were announced, a New Year's Eve trip to White Hart Lane had disappointment written all over it. That's not to say that the 2-0 defeat was in any way acceptable, it just wasn't a shock to return from the capital empty-handed.

It is disappointing, year in year out. Different year, different manager, different squad of players, same result. S.H.I.T.E

Halfway through this season's campaign we are three points and three positions higher than at the same point last season (see points and positions). Of course, the 2004/05 season was our worst in the Premiership so that's not exactly cause for celebration. However, a result by result comparison has us nine points ahead of last season's tally.

Maybe something we can all celebrate after going through another year of heartache. Surprisingly, we have done better than we did last season at this point. If according to statistics are true, we all well on course for a spot in the UEFA cup but you can never predict this kind of things. The list of injuries continues to grow longer and to compound our misery, Michael Owen will be out for 3 months at least. New year has arrived in a form a devil and what we can all wish for is a decent 2006 if not the best. Welcome to another year in the crazy world of Newcastle United Football Club.

St Michael's day

Another win, another goal. Michael Owen first goal at home. A better performance compared to last time when we played to a draw with Fulham. And also an improvement from last week's win at Blackburn. With more players coming back from injury, hopefully we can put on some sort of a run which could see us propel into the top 8, with only Chelsea, Charlton and Bolton who are more than 3 points ahead of us.

More to follow.....

Pre match: vs Fulham

No wins, no goals. Only one point to boast. And now, languishing in 19th spot. All is doom and gloom at the moment. Or is it? Despite a poor or should i say, a terrible start to the campaign, i think most of us can still remain optimistic about the outcome of this season.

Souness manage to dogde the exit door last month where 3 previous managers was unable to escape. Now, with 3 signings made in the last week of the transfer window, Souness should boast that it is his team that is playing. Even fat fred has come out and said that including finishing in the top 6.

So no more talking. Its time to prove it. Against Fulham. 3 points in the bag? C'mon now, we have Owen is team. He should get us the goals we desperately need. But wait a minute, he still need services if he is to score. Just ask Big Al. With Emre and Dyer out, we are short in supplies of ammunition. Even Solano is suspended. So, we are very thin in the centre of midfield. Amdy Faye might slot in if Bowyer is unable to play. Faye is the worse player we have now. Although he earn praises for his performance at Portsmouth, he has yet to find his feet here. He needs to find it quick because if not, he is never going to make it.

But at least we have Scott Parker. With Jenas gone, Parker can be our main player in the centre of midfield. Its his time to shine.

I'm not sure what formation Souness is planning to use and i hope its not the 4-5-1 because its never going to work. 4-4-2 is the best unless he wants to try 4-3-3. But whatever it is, we need something special to get out season going. And the time is now....

Nobby's back home

After saying yesterday that Solano wasn't coming back and that Souness made a bad decision not to take up Villa's offer, i was wrong. Thankfully and fortunately because Solano did come back. I was so estatic when i heard the news and he made it on time before the transfer window closed. 2 minutes to be exact. Perhaps with Luque who could be playing on the left hand side of the midfield, Solano will bring the much needed balance in the team, which was sadly missing since he left 19 months ago.

From Nufc.com --

Transfer deadline day saw the public unveiling of Michael Owen but there was still more movement ahead of the deadline.

The return of Nolberto Solano to Tyneside was confirmed just before midnight despite Freddy Shepherd stating earlier in the day that the deal was dead.

Aston Villa wanted £1.5m plus James Milner on a season long loan which seemed too high a price to begin with but the deal was resurrected at teatime and after a medical Solano signed a new contract.

Nobby returns on a two-year deal with an option to extend that a further 12 months. Meanwhile, Milner travelled the other way to join up with his former boss David O'Leary despite Shepherd's earlier comment that there was "not a chance" of Milner going out on loan.

Solano still has two games to serve of a three match ban so he misses the Fulham and Blackburn games. When he does play he will be wearing his old no.4 shirt - vacated by Nicky Butt while he is on loan at Birmingham City.

O'Leary gave a clue earlier in the day that the deal could be on when he seemed to be resigned to losing Solano and was quoted in the Birmingham Evening Mail as follows:

"I won't let him go to Newcastle unless we get our money back, or a player on loan. He would love to go to Newcastle. The problem we then have is that if we stop him, does he then go into a sulk? That's the way of it with players today.

"He sees what Newcastle are doing with Michael Owen and the size of the club and he wants to be a part of that. He says he wants to go to a 'bigger' club."


I'm just glad that he's back. Most of us were hoping and praying that he would come back even 19 months ago since he left us and our hopes and prayers paid off. Welcome back home Nobby.....

Jenas gone, Nobby not coming home

Jermaine Jenas has finally gotten his wish to leave us. 8 million pounds for a player who has promised so much but delivered little. Too little. Good money if you ask me.

From Soccernet --

The two clubs have agreed an £7million fee for the England midfielder, who has signed a five-year contract with Spurs, and that money will go a long way to helping Newcastle fund the purchase of Michael Owen from Real Madrid.

Newcastle boss Graeme Souness wished Jenas all the best for his future career at White Hart Lane.

'I'm sorry to see him go,' he said. 'I enjoyed the 12 months I spent working with JJ. I'm sorry he didn't see his long-term future with us. We didn't want him to leave, but he's a big boy and it was his choice.

'He has made his decision, and everyone at this club from the chairman down wishes him all the best in his career at Tottenham Hotspur.'


Read the full report here.

On the other hand, Solano was tipped to return to St James Park. Villa was willing to part company with Solano, for the same fee they paid including a season long loan deal for James Milner.

From Icnewcastle --

Meanwhile, Solano, who no longer plays for Peru and is not away on international duty, was ready to rush to Tyneside today from the Midlands and make a return to St James' Park.

But Villa manager David O'Leary would only do a deal on the want-away Solano if he could get Milner, who he brought through the ranks at Elland Road in his time as Leeds boss.

O'Leary would have been happy to take Milner on loan for 12 months before returning him to St James' Park but United see the England Under-21 international as a vital part of their future.



So Souness thinks that Milner will play an important role this season. I think it would have been a good move for him to gain more experience because he can definitely use them. And furthermore its only a loan move. He could come back a better player. Solano would have added firepower and creativity into a team that is lacking creativity and imagination to break even the weakest of defence.

Perhaps Souness thinks that we could use a pair of younger legs. Solano will be turning 31 soon. But in my opinion, this decision might costs us. To a lesser extent perhaps. We'll see.......

In the meantime, no more excuses for Souness now.............

Owen is a geordie

After months or in fact weeks of hanging on the hope of signing Owen, we have finally achieved what was first thought as a unrealistic target. Similar to the Rooney bid we had last season.

From Nufc.com --

Amazing scenes at St. James' Park today as Michael Owen became a Newcastle player for the next four years and signed his contract that contains no get-out clauses.

Owen said all the right things as a very negative press conference was handled well by our smiling new no.10 with Freddy Shepherd having to intervene at one point when an ITV reporter pushed Owen on whether he would stay more than a year.

Inside the stadium a packed Sir John Hall stand waited for the striker to appear in a black and white shirt although early arrivals had a brief glimpse just after 11am.

He duly arrived on the pitch clad in the home kit just before 1.00pm and in front of what must have been something like 15,000 fans, he was interviewed on a hastily constructed platform.


When i first got the news, i was so over the moon. Dreams turned to reality......