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Is boring good?

Posted on September 3rd, 2010 | 122 Comments |

Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzz.
Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzz.
You’ll probably have noticed that there isn’t a lot going on at the moment regarding Newcastle.

Things seem to be ticking along nicely, which is a concern that I will get to later, there is no football to come for over a week, all of our transfer deals have been done and the window is now shut, and there wasn’t even a surprise omission from the squad of 25 for the first half of the season.

I mean compare it to just one year ago when the club was still on the market and new buyers were apparently being sought, we didn’t actually have a full-time manager, the transfer window had just slammed shut with only one addition is the shape of Peter Lovenkrands, and most of us were still reeling from the fall-out from relegation. So in comparison it is pretty boring at the moment.

Is that a good thing though? It isn’t for me as a blogger as I like to have juicy things to write about, and if there isn’t much going on surrounding the club then that doesn’t give me much ammunition to fire from my literary guns.

I would have loved to be a ‘blog writer back the club was up for sale, when we were a laughing stock, when people were keen to knock us. There was always something to focus on, or at least that is how I remember it. The fact that there isn’t that amount of uncertainty and upheavel just one year later has to be to the credit of the club.

The good ship Newcastle United is sailing in ultimately calmer waters at the moment. Transfer dealings have been dealt with professionally, the squad has been strengthened with some real quality, results and performances have been decent. It’s very much a case of ‘move along, nothing to see here’ at NUFC currently – a far cry from this time last year you’ll have to agree.

It’s all rather boring though isn’t it? Perhaps it is because we are being starved from club football, the ONLY football that really matters? Maybe it is because a lot of us are eagerly awaiting the chance to see our newest signings, particularly Hatem Ben Arfa, or the H-Bomb as I am now going to call him, in action? Maybe it is because our next game is at home against a team which we should hopefully, and I repeat hopefully be taking three points from. Maybe it is a bit of all of that combined?

The history of supporting Newcastle should tell us to expect the unexpected. Time and time again things have appeared to be going rather well, smoothly if you like, only for some form of bomshell to be dropped out of the blue. I’ll wait to see if we get one this time around!

But for the moment there isn’t a lot going on, which is a good thing from a club perspective as it appears that for the first time in a number of years that things are actually relatively settled. It shows that we are being run steadily at the moment. No upheavel like this time last year, no sale saga, and we have a full-time manager to boot!

Long may it continue, but it’s shite for me!

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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122 Responses

  2. I think we’ll need to need to learn not to fear the various randomn reports that come out. In the past they have often been true but Chris has handled things very well and I think has stabilized the club (as much as he can) to the point where I would pay less attention to what is reported.

  3. I like this boring calmness Toonsy…not ideal weather conditions for Blogging though I agree.
    Really looking forward to seeing Ben Arfa he looks immense and exactly what we needed.

  4. calmer the better. i hope we sign gai assulin and that lens player nasim. would be icing on a very creamy cake.

  5. There is an old army saying (I think) “war is hell, peace is boring”….. It really applies to being a NUFC fan… I can remember thinking, I can’t wait for the transfer window to bloody close… Now that it has I feel strangely let down (very happy with our dealings don’t get me wrong!!)
    You are right Toonsy – Bring on the football, that is all that matters at the end of the day!!

  6. I am watching SSN, I just don’t get this obsession with Beckham, he is and has been for some time, finished as a footballer yet the drum keeps banging for him to come back, its really driving me mad and I wish they had a new record to play.
    On thread, a two week break from the league just as we were getting going is a blow, maybe the league bosses need to throw their weight about and sort FIFA out as its definitely a case of the tail wagging the dog here, they have a full weeks training and play like a bunch of fannys so why not just go straight into the games after a couple of days together.

  7. Umm -Kevin Keegan is a greedy bastard that tried to rip the club off!!

    Well -Mike Ashley the FCB is running the club into the ground and investing no money!!

    Sorry Lads, just trying to spark something up.. It is sad day we we can’t find something to fire up about

  14. I’m quite happy for it to be “quiet” – much better than the chimps on SSN trying to doom-monger about us going down/having no money/infighting etc etc etc

    I’ve always been of the mindset that Andy Gray has some kind of personal hatred of NUFC – but even he has backed off (a bit) recently

  15. Boring? The shite that went on during the transfer window was boring. Ed’s blog is boring. The international break is boring. Analysing media content is boring.

    What we have at Newcastle right now is nerve tingling suspense that even Hitchcock in his prime couldn’t emulate.

    If you’re having trouble with finding things to write why don’t you just follow the tabloids and make the fecker up? The transfer window was more fiction than fact and you obviously weren’t bored then.

  18. We have been run impeccably for the last year, we have some real bite and great quality in almost every department of our squad. NUFC have shown some real intelligence in how we have handled the media, transfers and how to get the most out of even the most difficult personalities in our squad. As a result of this it is a bit quiet and it is a bit “boring” for a blogger, but this is only going to add to the reward of excitement where it matters “on the pitch” and be a real benefit to NUFC, we are going to have a very positive season! (Idea for a blog) If you look at our squad and compare it to any team of last season that finished outside of the top 6 would you swap, or would it be a close run thing? Now im not wanting to put any pressure on ourselves by saying this, but I think quietly and methodically Chris Houghton has done a very good job for us and Mike Ashley. Come May and im not hoping, im confident! we will be in a position of much more stability financially and on the pitch than we have been in any recent times, with a finish in and around the 6th>8th position providing us with a great platform for 2011/12. Is boring good? “Yes” HWTL!!!

  19. Here’s a bit of gossip:

    But some backstory … After being in Oz for a couple of years I went to Canberra. Shared a house with 2 guys – Sam and Ravi. Sam turned out to be Mark Viduka’s uncle (I even went to Mark’s 3rd birthday party). Anyway, I’m still in touch with Uncle Sam, as he became known.

    The gossip: Mark almost signed for Newcastle last season. The contract was there and Shearer wanted him. Shearer had no doubts that he’d be manager. Shearer wanted Oba out as fast as possible. MO would have stayed if Shearer had stayed.

    So that’s my contribution to lifting the boredom.

  20. Aussie Mag – thank christ we have the A-league to look forward to this weekend. Life’d be like off-season without it. And it’s good to see the rise in standard too. Brisbane are playing like Arsenal. Gave Everton the run around pre-season – but lost 2-1.

    They still haven’t leant to score.

  21. Toonsy fella, I just hope that ‘H-bomb’ has you’ve called him doesn’t disappoint us in his first game, especially against Blackpool or it’s going to be a very long season, with blog writers, crap-loids & fans ripping the sweet jeez out of him…..

    One thing I don’t understand, why is there an international break just after the transfer window shuts, just when most teams have gotten their new players in & need to see them play, just when there’s a need to watch how teams perform with their new recruits, I dn’t get it!!!!

    Here’s something for your to write about fella, how about writing a peice on which teams ‘HAVE NOT’ made their 25 man quota, ie Arsenil & Chelski as far as I’m aware due to not having enough home grown players like us :)

  22. I have to agree Vegas, the level of play has really improved and I have seen some good football (been watching most games). I was only saying as much to a couple of mates of mine last weekend.
    My missus is none to impressed by the amount of football I have been watching on the weekends… long may it continue I say (the football – not angry wife)

  24. Oh, and it was all about money why Shearer didn’t become manager – not money paid to Alan (I’m i was rumoured that Alan was happy to work on a results basis – he was confident Newcastle would be promoted) or transfer funds but because Ashley was intent on cutting costs – like the wage bill.

    Viduka and Owen were prepared to take a cut in pay in return for a longer contract, as were some of the others – not Oba it seems, or Duff. And Beye was a pratt. So was Robert.

    There was a culture of faked injuries at the club. Apparently Nolan was appalled at it when he arrived.

  25. Nice inside info Vegas… The wage bill did have a bit of excess fat that needed trimming if you ask me….

  28. Minicging french winger who liked to shoot for goal from inside our own half..Not to be confused with “H Bomb”

  29. Ah i see , was tryin to think who by the first name Robert left last season! Couldnt think of anyone lol

  32. Having been invited by friends to see the Wolves game from the executive end it gave me a different perspective.We certainly have more to look foorward to than them and a few other teams.As my Wolves Friends agreed its not very encouraging to go into home games with a game plan of kicking people.I think on first showings we can look forward to some good football at least we are trying to move the ball about.
    HWTL

  33. So bored at work,I’m going to think up a few songs for the terraces for our new signings..Sad but true :)

  34. Although like you all I am also frustrated by the lack of club footie this weekend, it does actually make some kind of sense to have the break just after the window closes – it gives the newbies an extra week to settle into playing systems. I suspect that most of them would be on the bench at best if games were being played this weekend (except for those clubs who are in panic mode already – fortunately not us). I do like the Hitchcock suspense analogy, it’s very true and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see 52,000 back at St James’ next week as a result.

  35. It’s going to be interesting to see how Benny Arfa & Cheick Tiote mix in with the rest of the squad.. mmmmm

    He actually reminds me of a very young Terry Henry when he first arrived at Arsenil, playing out on the left wing until Arsene Whinger started playing him as a striker & look how he turned out.. mmmm

    Cheick Tiote, I’m hoping he’s going to grow into the next Essian too, as if we can get players of there quality to sign for us now, in a few seasons time, if we haven’t sold them on by then, we should have a fantastic squad… mmmm

    If I was Ashley, I’d put a £20m price tag on both their heads now, so that will keep the likes of Villa, Toffees, The Spurts etc away from trying to buy them off us, especially if they’re as good as everyone thinks they are.. mmm

  36. Putting a £20m price tag on Ben Arfa really wouldn’t be a good idea considering we don’t even own him!

    If we did that I think marseille might be wanting a little more than £6m for him next season.

  37. Borning is beltin’!! :)

    Howay lad – lets revel in it for a while.

    Seeing as we’re all basking in a blaze of positivity why not reflect on even happier toon times, toonsy?

    How about starting a thread about your favourite toon moments and then invite the rest of us to share ours??…

    Favourite Game, Favourite Player, Favourite Goal, Best Memory and so on…

  38. ‘Any subject can be made interesting, and therefore any subject can be made boring.’

    Hilaire Belloc

    He must have had a premonition about certain NUFC blogs…

  39. Here’s a suggestion Toonsy: use the quiet time to gather predictions from us lot with a view to reviewing them and giving awards at the end of the season? Ask everyone to guess points, goals for and against, table position, who gets rellied, highest scorer (and which order the strikers rate under that), perhaps one ‘out there’ prediction like ‘CH in line for England job’.

    Should be interesting. Which we could do with…

  40. Toon Chicken says:
    September 3, 2010 at 9:19 am

    Could you just expand on the meaning of the word ‘borning’ please?

  41. Christ , Stuart, has your obsession got so deep that you’re now scrutinising my every word for typos?

    Borning = Boring

    Get a life will ya :roll:

  46. Stuart79- Thnx fella, yeah L’OM wouldn’t be too happy but hey, when we take the option after he’s played 25 games for us, then we can slap a high price tag on his muggings yeah :)

  47. Toon Chicken says:
    September 3, 2010 at 9:39 am
    Stu – you really should get out more – even if its just to see a counsellor.

    Now that’s irony!

  51. 48 Toon Chicken says:
    September 3, 2010 at 9:43 am

    You’ve never annoyed me, only make me giggle – Especially when you threatened to smash my face in…….

  52. Stu – FFS man – what are you on about?

    You are seriously starting to lose it, man.

    I can quite categorically say that I have never threatened to “smash anyone’s face in” on the interweb.

  53. quite is boring if you allow it to be boring. and in my humble opinion HBA will be a million times better than robert ever was. why do we even compare them i would never know.

  55. Toon Chicken says:
    September 3, 2010 at 9:59 am
    Stu – FFS man – what are you on about?<<<<<< hes trying too say your stardust who once sed i would have great pleasure by smashing your face in stuart

  58. toonsy why dont do a blog on the wasters we got rid of when we got relegated and the 1s we have replaced them with all in all i think we have a better team now

  59. BATTY i must say you always make me laugh and i enjoy the blog when your on,instead of some of the moaning sods,keep it up pal,long may you reign :)

  60. Toonsy – it’s never boring if it’s about the team! I think Ashley and co have dropped a real clanger with HBA. The kid is fantastic. They should have paid the money outright and upfront. When he’s played 10 or so games the whole world will see he’s worth about 20 -30 million. Where will we stand then?

  63. georgio – it is my understanding that we have signed an agreement with Marseilles based on appearances. Legally I don’t think they will be allowed to up the price even if Hatem wins the Balon D’Or (sp?).

  64. if the contract states we only have to pay another 6 mil..then they cant change it..if he plays 25 games which if it does state we only got to pay that.they cant change if it is written in the contract..

  65. Right, that’s it!!

    The white sheet’s all laid out and the brush and paint-pot’s ready for daubing.

    Now then, what’s a good whinge topic today?

    Goddit…..

    Toonsy – get a spell-checker! Keep Stuart happy!

  68. toonsy why dont do a blog on the wasters we got rid of when we got relegated and the 1s we have replaced

    Great idea Batty – that’s another slogan for the sheet and paintbrush!

  75. After the whole racism debacle the other day I would just like to say that I find comments that relate to mental health problems highly offensive. Perhaps I ‘should’ be on medication icedog but to use that as a stick with which to beat me reveals you are quite ignorant. Do you like to laugh at and deride people who have the misfortune to be of unsound mind?
    I live in hope that in the future such attitudes will be looked back on as barbaric.

  78. Re: the article, I don’t find it boring, I find it refreshing. Maybe we will all get to talk about what goes on the pitch, critiquing our players, etc, and Mike Ashley and Llambias will just be 2 more guys in the stands for awhile…

    If you are looking for an article Toonsy, something on the youngsters perhaps? With the new players brought in, it seems as if many of our youngsters have been pushed further sown the pecking order. Anyone else find it interesting that CH talked about the youngsters yesterday but didn’t mention Vuckic?

    “When I look at the fringe group, lads like Ranger and Kadar are so close to the first team, they have a chance of playing.” “We have players like Brad Inman and Greg McDermott who are developing this season too.”

    “Maybe Shane Ferguson and Ryan Donaldson are the type of players who are in the middle and need to go out on loan.” “We don’t need to make those decisions this week, we’ll look at it again. We don’t expect many more going out on loan, possibly one, maybe two.”

  79. MDS – “Anyone else find it interesting that CH talked about the youngsters yesterday but didn’t mention Vuckic?”

    It might be that CH doesn’t see Vukic as one of those in the “fringe group” anymore.

    He has been on the bench for all 3 of our PL games so far.

  81. Jesus man. Nice to see The Chron aren’t going too over the top with HBA. Just the seven articles today 8O

  82. “Supporters were asked to pledge 10% of their investment into the account and guaranteed that the money would be returned if the bid fails.”

    ——————–
    Well…if theclub isn’t for sale, shouldn’t they return the money? What else are they going to do with it? Dodgy if you ask me

  85. Haha, I like where he says

    “Newcastle had made the effort to try to sign me and I wanted to come”

    sounds like he has a hard-on for us

  87. Batty maybe Cacky Pants has been banned under his other nick, but it does seem like he is just a grade a knob trying to wind bloggers up, but there has been a lot smarter wums on here before and im sure there will be a lot more in the future ;)

  94. Also, I think a fair few people have kinda missed the point in this, or perhaps I haven’t made it obvious enough?

    The point is that we are not producing ludicrous stories as a club at the moment, like we were last year. That is great and shows the club is being run professionally, something we haven’t had for years and years, possibly since Sir John Hall. Even back then it wasn’t alwasy plain sailing though and there would quite often be something popping up.

  95. The Chron’s treatment of HBA is the exemplification of moderation and restraint! They’ll be nominating him a gong for services to sport or putting his name down for beatification next!

    We can now expect the Pope to call in to see him play when he’s in the country. Could we read of them sharing a bottle or two in Rosies before the match his holiness getting a seat among the singing fraternity fro the match!

    Makes a change from Andy C flying high though!

  98. The point is that we are not producing ludicrous stories as a club at the moment, like we were last year.
    —————-

    Well, the season’s still young Toonsy…give it time. We’re still NUFC.

  100. Your right Toonsy, we aren’t producing ludicrous stories as a club at the moment – despite the best efforts of Lousie Taylor and sadly, Harry Pearson who seems to have jumped on her bandwagon.

    Boring but compared with the last couple of seasons, paradiise!!

  113. Lesh says:
    September 3, 2010 at 1:47 pm
    Infact fcuk off Batty you ugly fcuking skeet!

    Batty. It ain’t me @109 promise.

    Cheers for that richie but I’m not linked to a web site -don’t know where you got that from.

    Toonsy, is there any way that nickin’ nicks can be stopped? There’s potential for problems – as you’ll appreciate I’m sure

  114. Cheers for that richie but I’m not linked to a web site -don’t know where you got that from.

    Whoops richie…. I appear to be just that – linked to a web site that is!

  118. lesh says:
    September 3, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    “Toonsy, is there any way that nickin’ nicks can be stopped?”

    People moan either way, whether it necessary or unecessary to register in order make comments in here. I know who says what, and if anyone seeks to abuse the system with really malicious stuff when not signed in, they will be terminated.