Is this the same team that took us down?
Posted on November 8th, 2010 | 94 Comments |
But it is hard to start things off softly when something gets on you nerves as much as certain pundits get on mine.
You could argue that it is just them doing their job by getting a reaction.
I, however, would argue that their job is to give a reasonably detailed, reasonably accurate account of what is going on with various teams. So please forgive me for getting a little bit annoyed with various pundits who seem to have decided to label this current Newcastle side as ‘the same side that took us down’.
So as you may have guessed, I have decided to dispel the theory that these pundits, such as Andy Gray and Jamie Redknapp, have when they trot out the very lazy and tired line of us just being the same old team that whimpered out of the Premier League just eighteen-months ago.
It’s actually not that hard to research either, which is even more shameful when you consider the money some of these pundits earn, and the fact that they are backed up by an army of people who are armed with facts and stats at the touch of a button.
First off, what we need to do is look at the team that actually took us down. The team that played day was;
Team vs Villa 08/09 – Steve Harper, David Edgar, Damien Duff, Fabricio Coloccini, Steven Taylor, Nicky Butt, Kevin Nolan, Danny Guthrie, Peter Lovenkrands, Oba Martins, Mark Viduka.
Straight away I can see five first-team players who have moved on, plus the leech that goes by the name of Michael Owen who was on the bench. He has also now, thankfully, moved on aswell. Granted, a lot of the names in that team are still with Newcastle, but it still isn’t the same team. To illustrate that we need to have a look at the current side.
Team v Arsenal 10/11 – Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Jose Enrique, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Andy Carroll, Shola Ameobi.
So I make that only two players who started yesterday who also started that match against Aston Villa. Same team indeed.
Anyway, I was using that to prove my point, but it doesn’t really matter. A lot of our squad is still the same to be perfectly honest, but the ethos within that squad has changed dramatically.
It irks me that these various pundits, and some of our own fans aswell, believe that we went down because our players were not good enough. To be fair, most of them have gone on to do ok at their new clubs, apart from Michael Owen of course, which kind of debunks that theory.
Those players didn’t cover themselves in glory in fairness, but that was only one of a number of reasons behind our relegation. Psycholgically, that team was battered. They would turn up for games and not even look like winning, not even look interested in some cases.
That is something you could never accuse this team of. It’s been a while since I have seen a sqaud that is so willing to fight for the shirt, the badge, the club, the city I love as much as this squad does.
Same team my arse!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Its absolute rubbish when they say its the same team that took us down very poor knowledge from the pundits that say it. It makes me laugh they say how well we did to get promoted after loosing so many players and then say the team is the same!