Friendlies, Twitter and Pardew: how does it all fare for next season?
Posted on August 1st, 2011 | 72 Comments |
It’s a fine old kettle of fish isn’t it? This pre-season, that is. We’ve had some poor results on the pitch and the various missives from people like Nolan, Barton and Enrique have done little to enhance things off the pitch.
First up, the friendlies we’ve had. I’m not convinced as to how much of a yardstick for the coming season such games really are, but let’s hope they’re not a particularly accurate one.
One school of thought says friendlies are all about experimentation and that players don’t really get out of third gear for them, but another school of thought says that’s nonsense and that when players are on the pitch they’ll play with all they’ve got for a win.
When my mate – who currently lives in Hong Kong – visits, we traditionally have a ‘friendly’ 4-way competition that involves darts, pool, table football and – bizarrely – tennis. Whereas we might start off with a friendly game of darts, I can tell you that by the time we’re huffing and puffing in the fifth set of a tennis match it’s anything but friendly!
Nevertheless, I do think football players do hold back a bit with friendlies and managers do indeed use them to experiment, so I don’t think summer friendlies are a particularly good yardstick for the season ahead. We may turn out to be completely useless next season or may be flying high but I don’t reckon there’s much clue as to which of those it will be based on our US tour and the match against Leeds. You might disagree with that assessment of course.
The off-pitch stuff is quite concerning though in my opinion. I believe in free speech but – like any employee who criticises their employer – those who do speak out should expect to be punished for doing so. We’ve already seen Enrique get a two-week fine for his tirade on Twitty and I’m surprised nothing similar has been handed out to Barton, although whether or not that would stop him is a matter of conjecture.
What worries me most though is that Barton and Enrique are, at least for now, Newcastle United players and I wonder what kind of respect their off-piste rambling shows for Alan Pardew and whether or not it makes life difficult for him in the future.
I’m a firm believer that respect is earned, unlike obedience, which can be demanded and enforced, either through laws or by putting someone’s head in a vice for example. So the worry for me is whether or not the actions of Enrique or Barton have any repercussions with the rest of the team. I don’t think it should come to fining a player or otherwise disciplining them; if the respect existed in the first place it wouldn’t have happened at all.
Of course, nothing’s perfect and there’s no accounting for people. Hell is other people, as Sartre said. Maybe this is merely the petulant reaction of a few disgruntled players and maybe managers far better than Alan Pardew would have not have been able to stop it. In fact that has been the case in the past – Barton isn’t the first Twitterer to fall foul of his manager.
Maybe the actions of two players (we can ignore Nolan as he’s left) is just ‘isolated’ rather than the tip of any particularly gruesome iceberg, but I guess all we can do is wait and see.
On that general note: have either the on-pitch or off-pitch happenings at Newcastle this summer changed your opinions of how we’ll fare next season?
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
Preseason friendlies give little or no indication of how the season will pan out. It’s a time for the manager to do a bit of experimentation and to see how the new players slot in.
Pardew has probably learned that Vuckic and Abeid are ready for the first team. Gosling is showing why Everton thought so highly of him. Cabaye, like Tiote before him, is showing the skills and commitment that enabled both to win their respective domestic leagues. Demba Ba could have more to his game than a straight forward target man. Ben Arfa could be spending more time on the treatment table than on the pitch. Marveaux could become a good left winger but will be in competition with Jonas. The defence needs Colo for his positional play and reading of the game. Saylor is a far better bet than Williamson, particularly in the opposition penalty box. Only Harper and Krull are in contention for keeper. There is no ready replacement for Jose. Barton is better in midfield than on the wing but there are already at least two players with as good if not better qualifications than he. We haven’t got a 20 goal a season forward and it’s looking increasingly unlikely that PSG will be providing one.