All doom and gloom at Newcastle? Far from it!

Then comes the start of our season, needless to say, it’s been better than what most of us expected. AP seems to have things under control, he targets players to suit his philosophy, and there seems to be some extensive scouting behind each player as well. Look at our neighbours Sunderland; do you not think that they would be better off if they had gone the same way as well? Instead they’ve managed to get quantity ahead of quality. And the one quality player they had, doesn’t settle at all (Gyan anyone?) 27 matches played, 9 victories, 10 draws and 8 defeats is our record during AP’s tenure, which isn’t half bad considering what shape we were in at the time, having no recognised striker and not very good service for our forwards. With the players AP’s targeting, and the style of play he wants to work on, I’d say we’re in better shape this season. Of course a lot of things needs to click for it to work, so we’ll have to be realistic about it. But a 10th place finish should be possible with the current squad. Hopefully we’ll address the CB position in the January window, but I refuse to get my hopes up on the striker, because players tend to be overpriced at that time.

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Moving onto our youth, there are several players seeing the light of day this year, and they’re moving into the first team. Abeid, Vuckic, Sammy, Tavernier and Ferguson are probably our most high profile youngsters, all of whom offer something to the team. In their shadows are players like Dummett, Moyo, Jak Alnwick, Jeff Henderson and several other youngsters who are being talked about around the club. All in all, the work being put into the youth side of the squad after MA bought the club are starting to come to fruition, which is a great thing for the future of the club. This also adds depth that we didn’t have last year.

On our financial stand, all I know about our current situation is what was released through the answered questions in the EC. We seem to be very much under control and headed in the right direction when it comes to the club being self sufficient, according to Derek Llambias, but not quite there yet. This can only be a good thing, as it sets us up for the future quite well. It means that more people can focus on what happens on the pitch a bit more, and it means we can expand things as our scouting network, improve facilities, etc, etc. Everything without MA having to dip into his pockets, which he has done a lot of already.

It’s not all doom and gloom people, there are plenty of things to be happy about. You can disagree with the article all you want, but I’ve only stated facts and personal viewpoints here. I’ll write an angry article about Mike Ashley and his thugs on a darker day.

Howay the lads!

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