Showing posts with label Newcastle United. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newcastle United. Show all posts

Monday, 4 November 2013

10 Questions For Alan Pardew

"This win is for Mike Ashley and all our fans.  Trust me, he is a fan and I’m pleased for the club.  We are all Newcastle fans."  ...Alan Pardew


Would a real fan try to rename St James Park?
Over the last few months Alan Pardew seems to annoy me more and more every time he opens his mouth.  His latest comment to get me completely riled up (made after the Chelsea game) will no doubt have annoyed many other fans as well, and it's printed above.

Mike Ashley is a fan, is he, Alan?  If that's the case, here are a few questions which perhaps you could answer...

1)  Would a real fan trouser the £60 million TV money for himself, or would a real fan spend that £60 million on improving the squad?

2) Would a real fan sacrifice millions of pounds worth of potential advertising revenue by using marketing space at St James Park to promote his own company for free?

Sunday, 20 October 2013

Things More Useful Than Joe Kinnear

Joe Kinnear: A modern day proverbial chocolate fire guard...


Joe Kinnear: The modern day
proverbial chocolate fire guard.
At the close of the transfer window many Newcastle fans were questioning the point of Joe Kinnear's role at the club*, and there were a few tweets doing the rounds on twitter using the hashtag #ThingsMoreUsefulThanJoeKinnear.

* Actually, long before the close of the transfer window fans were questioning the point of Joe Kinnear (and that's the polite way of describing fan reaction).

Some of these tweets brought a chuckle to my face, so I thought I would do a round up of the most amusing tweets (plus a few other examples) in a list of 'Things More Useful Than Joe Kinnear'...

1) #ThingsMoreUsefulThanJoeKinnear Alan Shearer's hairbrush. (@GeordieCulture)

2) #ThingsMoreUsefulThanJoeKinnear The 'g' in lasagne.

3) #ThingsMoreUsefulThanJoeKinnear The 'share this on facebook' button on any adult website.

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Everton V The Toon: Tips Round-Up

"...the inconsistency being shown was disturbing at one point." ...Alan Pardew


Alan Pardew would get few arguments that the inconsistency of Newcastle is disturbing.  He also talked about restoring a bit of pride in the second half, which we did, but it's also worth mentioning the following insightful comment from twitter, "That second half shouldn't fool anyone. That was as much about Everton switching off than any so-called comeback."

My tips followed a similar 'game of two halves' pattern as Monday's match with my Newcastle tips being a total washout and my general football tips making a reasonable overall profit.

This is the breakdown on how my general football tips got on...


General Football Tips:

Tottenham V Chelsea - Over/Under 2.5 Goals:
10 points on Under 2.5 Goals at 1.95 (Stan James) - WIN 20 points

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Everton V Newcastle United (30/09/13)

"If we want to be serious about being in the top ten or look to bigger things, or be a big team in the Premier League, we have to start to take the chances we have." ...Fabricio Coloccini


As you'd expect given our disappointing result against Hull on Saturday, my Newcastle tips were a total washout last week.  My general football tips performed quite well, however, as I correctly predicted QPR to beat Yeovil 1-0 and Swansea to beat Crystal Palace.

Last season the trend was for my general football tips to regularly outperform my Newcastle tips, and things have started off once again in that vein of form.  I don't know whether that means it's therefore wiser to keep your emotions out of your betting choices, or maybe it just means Newcastle are an unpredictable side who often lose the games we should be winning.

I've come to the conclusion that when Newcastle play, a lot depends on which side turns up on the day, and by that I'm not necessarily referring to who Pardew picks in his starting eleven.  We just don't seem to have any consistency, and our performance can vary quite considerably even throughout the ninety minutes.

Despite that unpredictability, however, I'm still going to try to pick out some winning Toon bets.  I'm skipping our League Cup tie against Leeds and instead making a few predictions for our match against Everton on Monday...

Friday, 20 September 2013

Newcastle United V Hull City (21/09/13)

"This season will see the best of Hatem Ben Arfa, more consistency in every game, not just one good game, I want to play every game to a big level." ...Hatem Ben Arfa


Unfortunately from early October due to my circumstances I won't be able to get to any games for a few months.  I'm therefore going to make a final few sets of tips over the coming weeks before then taking a break for a while.

Here are my predictions for Saturday's match against Hull...

ToonTips:

Match Result:
20 points on Newcastle at 1.85 (Bet365)
On paper this looks like a comfortable victory.  However, although Hull lost their first two away matches of the season, those matches were against Chelsea and Man City, so we can't take anything for granted.  Nevertheless if we start with a similar line-up and approach as we had in the Villa game, then we've got to be confident of getting three points.

To Win To Nil:
10 points on Newcastle to win to nil at 3.2 (Coral)
Hull have found goals hard to come by so far this season, with just a single goal in each of their league home games and no goals yet on their travels in the league.

Thursday, 12 September 2013

Aston Villa V Newcastle United (14/09/13)

A round-up of which bookies are offering the best prices for Villa V The Toon.


Here are details of where you can find the best odds for Saturday's game...

Match Betting:

Aston Villa - 2.15 (Bet Victor, Coral)
Draw - 3.4 (Bet Victor, Coral, BetFred, Stan James)
Newcastle - 3.8 (32Red)


The best odds in the First Goalscorer market are as follows...

Thursday, 29 August 2013

Newcastle United V Fulham (31/08/13)

A round-up of which bookies are offering the best prices for The Toon V Fulham match.


It was hard to take many positives from the match against Morecambe, but if you look at things in terms of the bigger picture, then hopefully Mike Ashley must surely now realise how wrong he is if he thinks out current squad is good enough.

I generally don't take much interest in conspiracy theories, but a mate of mine raised the issue (only half-jokingly) that he wouldn't be surprised if Pardew actually picked his team last night specifically with the purpose in mind of opening Mike Ashley's eyes to reality.

If we look back at the Brighton game back in January then as well as the shockingly poor performance that day by our team made up largely of squad players, one of the other consequences of that match was that we subsequently went out and made a few signings.  Hopefully last night's performance will lead to a similar result with Mike Ashley finally realising what every Toon fan has known all summer.

I don't want to come across as too negative because if our first eleven are fit (and in form) then we can put out a strong team potentially capable of putting a good run of results together.  However, if we get another batch of injuries like last season, then last night should have hopefuly made it very clear to Ashley that if he fails to strengthen our squad then he's taking a big gamble again.

Moving onto Saturday's game, it's very hard to tip the Toon with any real confidence at the moment (other than perhaps for another nil nil draw), so once again I'm instead going to round-up the best prices which various bookies are offering on the Toon.

Wednesday, 21 August 2013

Newcastle United V West Ham United (24/08/13)

A round-up of which bookies are offering the best prices for The Toon V West Ham match.


After the lack of summer signings and the performance away to Man City, it's hard to be overly confident about the forthcoming season.

Of course it's worth keeping things in perspective and remembering that we were playing one of the best three sides in the country away from home, but even allowing for this you have to ask which match Alan Pardew was watching when he remarked in his post match comments that "we gave a decent account of ourselves in the first half".

We're priced as favourites against West Ham, but it's hard to back us with any great deal of confidence, so once again I'm going to avoid making any predictions on the match.

Instead here's a round-up of which bookies are offering the best odds on various betting markets for The Toon V West Ham match...

Match Betting:

Newcastle - 2.3 (William Hill)
Draw - 3.4 (Coral, Bet Victor, SkyBet, Bet365, Totesport, BetFred, Sporting Bet, Paddy Power)
West Ham - 3.5 (Bet Victor)

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Man City V Newcastle United (19/08/13)

A round-up of which bookies are offering the best prices.


We couldn't have been given a tougher opening fixture, and therefore even the biggest optimist would find it hard to confidently tip Newcastle away to Man City.

So instead here's a round-up of which bookies are offering the best odds on various betting markets for The Toon's opening fixture...

Match Betting:

Man City - 1.33 (Coral, Bet Victor, Paddy Power)
Draw - 5.5 (SkyBet, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Bet 365)
Newcastle United - 11.0 (SkyBet)

Thursday, 25 July 2013

Reasons To Be Cheerful...

Miscellaneous Toon Bets For 2013/14


I think it's fair to say that so far this summer hasn't gone the way most of us would have liked, with the appointment of Joe Kinnear and the lack of signings being the two most obvious disappointments.

However, the optimist in me always wants to find reasons to be cheerful and so I've been looking at the odds involving the Toon for the coming season in various betting markets to see if we can take encouragement from the bookies' level of confidence in us.

I have to admit there aren't overwhelming reasons to be confident, but here are a few odds to take slight encouragement from...

1) Top North East Club

Despite Sunderland making several signings, every bookie offering odds on the 'Top North East Club' have us as favourites to finish above Sunderland.  That's SkyBet, William Hill, Paddy Power, Totesport, YouWin, BoyleSports, BetFred and Ladbrokes who all think we'll finish above Sunderland.

If you fancy a bet on Newcastle to be the Top North East Club then the best odds are currently offered by SkyBet who have us priced at 1.8.*

* Please note, SkyBet also include Hull in their 'Top North East Club' market.

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Who Will Leave Newcastle First?

Pardew V Kinnear


You can bet on pretty much everything nowadays and Paddy Power were recently offering a market on who will be the first to leave Newcastle United, Alan Pardew or Joe Kinnear?

A recent poll on The Mag suggested that fans think Pardew will leave the club before Kinnear and the bookies seem to agree with the odds as follows:

Alan Pardew - 1.5
Joe Kinnear - 2.5

Joe Kinnear's appointment was initially greeted with silence from Alan Pardew, and when he did eventually comment, he wasn't exactly overwhelming in his support of Kinnear with Pardew declaring himself to be 'open-minded' about the appointment.  Given that Pardew generally toes the party line, that's a pretty damning criticism of Kinnear.

Friday, 5 July 2013

Premier League Match Bets Featuring The Toon

Newcastle United Versus...


SkyBet are currently offering a variety of Premier League match bets on which of two teams will finish higher in the Premier League next season and The Toon feature in four match bets.

Specifically, SkyBet offer prices for us against Everton, West Brom, the mackems and Southampton.  According to SkyBet, we're favourites against the mackems, West Brom and Southampton and only Everton are regarded as more likely to finish above us in the Premier League next season.

Here are the odds for each of the match bets:

Newcastle V the mackems
Newcastle - 1.4
the mackems - 3.0

Newcastle V Everton:
Newcastle - 2.63
Everton - 1.5

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

First Premier League Manager To Leave?

The bookies don't rate Alan Pardew's chances of staying in his job...


The internet has unquestionably brought many positive benefits to the world, but it has also brought with it some negatives.  For example, because of the internet, last week while I was enjoying myself on holiday in Magalluf, I was unfortunately still able to discover the depressing news of Joe Kinnear's return to Newcastle.

Joe Kinnear's appointment has led to various theories among fans as to why Mike Ashley would ever consider making such a ludicrous appointment.

Perhaps Ashley appointed Kinnear because of his alleged excellent record as a manager which Joe has been telling everyone about.  It's an excellent CV, and if not for the fact that it's a complete work of fiction then you would possibly be impressed.  So maybe Mike Ashley is the only football fan in the country who isn't aware of Joe Kinnear's problem with differentiating the truth and reality from the fictitious version of history he seems to have dreamt up for himself.

Thursday, 30 May 2013

The Latest Transfer Odds

Transfer Rumours: Who Will Be The Ins and Outs At St. James Park?


We're only a couple of weeks into the close season and already the transfer rumour mill is into full swing with new potential transfers being reported every day.  A lot of the time the stories make no sense at all and you get the impression sometimes that the papers have just plucked a player out of one hat and then plucked a team out of the next hat when coming up with their stories.

I think sometimes a better guide to potential transfers are the odds being offered by the bookies, as obviously bookies have a lot more to lose than newspapers if they get it wrong.

The latest rumour in yesterday's papers was that Monaco are interested in Hatem Ben Arfa and according to SkyBet the current odds on a move for Ben Arfa are as follows:

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

2012/13 Season Round-Up

"No football for three months!"


It's been a season to forget and one with very few positives, but despite the poor standard of football on offer this season, I still found myself yesterday morning thinking, "Ar, no!  No football for three months!"

Obviously the eternal optimist in me wants to hope that next season will be better, but for that to happen changes clearly need to be made.  I've gradually lost patience with Alan Pardew and his constant excuse making as the season has gone on, but I'm not necessarily as desperate to see him go as some fans are.  I just want him to start accepting responsibility when things go wrong.

Managers are susceptible to good and bad form, just like players, but if things are to improve then Pardew needs to recognise his mistakes.  He needs to be more ambitious.  He needs to realise that avoiding relegation isn't a success.  He needs to realise that all clubs suffer from injuries so the time to complain about a lack of depth in the squad is pre-season when you can do something about it, rather than halfway through the season when the damage is already done.

Monday, 13 May 2013

"I don't really care if Arsenal win 4-0." ...Alan Pardew


It was Pardew's "Thank God we are not in the Europa League again” comment which angered me the most.


Our second away win in the league all season owed as much to the mistakes of Jose Bosingwa and QPR's overall lack of quality as it did to our own performance, but at least we can 'celebrate' the fact that our Premier League survival is now guaranteed.

A Liverpool friend of mine commented that being involved in the relegation battle must have been 'exciting' which just shows how little he knows about being involved in a relegation battle.  'Exciting' has been a rarely used word when watching Pardew's tactics this season, and 'nervous' would be a far more appropriate word to describe the final run-in to of our season.

I have to admit that when fans were criticising Pardew earlier in the season that for a long time I personally thought the blame deserved to be pointed higher up and that it was our failure to strengthen the squad pre-season which was the real reason to blame for our current predicament.  However, Alan Pardew's constant excuse making has gradually worn down my patience more and more, and he really needs to start accepting responsibility for our shortcomings.  If Pardew had put as much effort into improving our results as he does into making excuses then we would probably have been challenging for Europe again rather than battling to avoid relegation.

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Newcastle United V Liverpool (27/04/13)

My Tips For The Toon V Liverpool


With four matches to go we currently have a six point cushion over third bottom Wigan (who have a game in hand), and with Villa three points below us and Stoke and the mackems level with us on points, three points against Liverpool would go a long way towards guaranteeing our Premier League status next season.

Here are my optimistic bets this week...

Toon Tips:

Match Result: 
30 points on Newcastle at 2.88
The bookies make Liverpool the slight favourites but their recent form has been average with three consecutive draws against Chelsea, Reading and West Ham.  They'll also be without Suarez who starts his ten match ban (even if Suarez decides to appeal, the automatic three match ban for violent conduct - which he's admitted - would start immediately), so it could possibly be a decent time to play Liverpool right now.  Until the mackem match our home league form was excellent, with four consecutive home wins in the league, so hopefully the derby match was just a blip.

All things considered I'm going to go for an optmistic bet on a Toon win and then back this up with a smaller more cautious bet on us in the Double Chance market.

Double Chance: 
20 points on Newcastle Or Draw at 1.53

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

West Brom V The Toon: Tips Round-Up

My Tips For West Bromwich Albion V Newcastle United: Round-Up


Rather worryingly, Norwich, Stoke and the mackems all won this weekend which means that the cushion of teams between us and relegation is getting ever smaller.  Wigan or Villa still look the favourites to be the third team relegated, but three points against Liverpool on Saturday would certainly ease the nerves.

Here's how my tips got on...

Toon Tips:

Match Result: 
30 points on Draw at 3.4 - WIN 102 points
It was a game of two halves, with chances not taken in the first half ultimately proving costly as West Brom came out with far more purporse in the second half, and a Billy Jones equaliser in the 64th minute meant that in the end we went away with a point.

1st Goalscorer:
15 points on Papiss Cisse at 6.5 - LOSS

Thursday, 18 April 2013

West Bromwich Albion V Newcastle United (21/04/13)

My Tips For West Brom V The Toon


Despite the result last weekend it's clear who the bookies rate as the better side, as at the time of writing Sunderland are currently a 7.5 shot to go down compared to The Toon's odds of 21.0.

The league table is looking very tight this year though, so we need to quickly move on from our performance against the mackems and start getting some points in the bag, hopefully starting with West Brom...

Toon Tips:

Match Result: 
30 points on Draw at 3.4
With only one league win on our travels all season, and no points from our last four league away matches, it's difficult to have too much optimism but if I'm looking for positives then West Brom have been inconsistent at home in recent matches.  All things considered I'm keeping my expectations in check and therefore going for the draw.

1st Goalscorer:
15 points on Papiss Cisse at 6.5
Papiss Cisse's recent goal scoring form remains decent with 3 goals from our last 4 games in all competitions and 5 from our last 8, and without a dodgy linesman against Sunderland it would have been even more.

Friday, 12 April 2013

Newcastle United V Sunderland (14/04/13)

My Tips For The Toon V The Mackems


The disappointment of last night's Europa League exit is still present as I write this, but a positive second half performance meant that we went into the final few minutes with dreams of Cisse working his injury time magic once again, but unfortunately it wasn't to be.

Onto the mackems, and last week both my sets of tips made a profit, so hopefully that bodes well for my tips for Sunday's derby...

Toon Tips:

Match Result: 
30 points on Newcastle at 1.91
The form book can sometimes go out of the window for local derbies, but the Toon have won our last four league home matches, whereas the mackems haven't won in the league since 19th January (away to Wigan), so it's no surprise that the bookies have us as the odds on favourites.

To Score in 90 Minutes:
20 points on Papiss Cisse at 2.25
It's tempting to go for Shola the Mackem Slayer in this market, but the obvious concern with that bet is how long Shola will get on the field, so taking that into consideration I've decided to go for Papiss Cisse to continue his recent goal scoring form at St James Park.