Photo from the BBC site. 
For those who haven't been following this story I won't go through it again - Rob and I know what it's about! Anyway - the fans, as predicted, were less than happy about Joey's antics this week but he fronted up and played very well by all accounts. He made the first goal despite being loudly heckled whenever he got the ball and according to the highlights on MOTD this evening he got a standing ovation when subbed late in the game. Psycho is far more pragmatic, he was interviewed after the game and pointed out that Barton still has 18 months left on his existing contract so he'll play when picked - and however daft our Joey is he can't be stupid enough to fall out with SP can he?
Lawro clearly reads this blog as his first comments about Barton were that he's been very poorly advised - exactly what I said!
For those who haven't been following this story I won't go through it again - Rob and I know what it's about! Anyway - the fans, as predicted, were less than happy about Joey's antics this week but he fronted up and played very well by all accounts. He made the first goal despite being loudly heckled whenever he got the ball and according to the highlights on MOTD this evening he got a standing ovation when subbed late in the game. Psycho is far more pragmatic, he was interviewed after the game and pointed out that Barton still has 18 months left on his existing contract so he'll play when picked - and however daft our Joey is he can't be stupid enough to fall out with SP can he?Lawro clearly reads this blog as his first comments about Barton were that he's been very poorly advised - exactly what I said!
8 careful considerations:
As we discussed at length, JB was stupid. But why do football fans always call anyone who leaves, or expresses a desire to leave, Judas? They are professional footballers, and if another club offers them more pieces of silver, why shouldn't they consider a move? It's been like this since 1961 and the abolition of the maximum wage, so I think we should be used to it by now. Similarly with the tappping up "scandals" - why shouldn't an employee talk to another prospective employer? If I see a job I fancy, and I ring up to have a chat about it, am I being disloyal? Football fans are, in the main, terribly naive. They expect the players to feel the same passion as they do, but unless they are home-grown died in the wool fans, they won't.
I'm not convinced by this argument Rob, certainly not the assertion that anyone who leaves is a Judas. At City the only person who left who is still, to this day, called Judas whenever I see his name mentioned in a fanzine is Kendall after he declared loyalty and then promptly left for Everton. Many fans still adore Quinn despite him going to Sunderland and I think most were pragmatic about SWP leaving. I agree that there is a good deal of naivety and that some of the current stuff about "tapping up" is plain silly but I think the "Judas" tag has been applied to JB because of his oft repeated show of kissing the badge and his loud pronouncements about commitment to the club. He's also (as we both agree) gone about all this in such a stupid and seemingly underhand manner that he's sure to upset people. And he's not been done any favours by whoever let the wage offer become public - we all know that footballers are paid (and I was careful to avoid saying "earn") obscene amounts of money but when someone with Joey's profile is seen to turn down a weekly wage that is probably higher than the average annual income of the +30,000 who buy the merchandise and turn up at Eastlands to watch is likely to inflame passions isn't it?
Perhaps there is also some form of prejudice at work here? With an "exotic" player like Anelka or Wanchope we pay them to do a job and while they might gain some affection and respect that's it. When a guy who talks not unlike us, who comes from "round the corner" and looks like a kid we played footy with in the playground starts turning down "untold wealth" and saying he's worth even more............. I wonder if there are some deeper issues at stake?
But he's a scouser!!! Yes, I think you are right about foreign mercenaries, though two of City's legends are German, and one of my all time faves was Polish.
Meanwhile, I note that on planet Souness "We had most of the ball but did nothing with it"
Official stats on possession- City:54.6%; Toon- 45.4%...
I know he's a scouser but that's not "exotic" like, say, Peckham is it? :-) I know one of the Germans is Bert and I'm guessing Uwe for the other one but I'm lost on the Pole.
I don't know if you saw MOTD but even on their edit we looked in control and the rolling stats at the end suggest we had possesion and the attacks. The Newcastle defence looks to be playing the way ours did during our rebound year in the Prem - roll out the deckchairs, light a B&H and lets watch this wonderful attack pass through. I think Souness is doomed and we'll see them protecting Shearer by not letting him take control (and thus distance him from the wreckage). In some ways I'd say they had it coming for treating Sir Bobby so badly - a suggestion of natural justice.
And within five minutes of me posting that R5 announce that Souness is out!
Spooky! My favourite Pole was the now deceased Kazimierz Deyna, an Allison signing. Same type as Gunter Netzer. More
here
in a curious English that reads like it's been machine translated.
I know of Deyna but part of my problem was unpicking all the nationalities we've employed - I know that the wonderful Kinki is Georgian but Shelia (Okay - I've looked it up now - Georgian), Tskhadadze (another Georgian - we must have bought a job lot!), Mazzarelli? Kavelashvili (yet another from Georgia).
Roeder/Shearer to look after Newcastle until the end of the season with Big Sam or Sven named as possibilities by the chattering classes.
Souness has been unlucky. Unlucky that of the £50M he's spent in the last 18 months he's not really picked many gems - and his best signing is injured. Unlucky that the fans and board at Newcastle have an even more over-inflated opinion of where they should be than City do and unlucky in that he's not realy ever shown himself to be a good manager! Newcastle need only look at the old Maine Road manager merry-go-round to see that swapping managers around simply doesn't work - there is even talk of Keegan going back and while he'll set them alight up front it's unlikely their defense will overcome the current frailities.
yes - I agree with all of that. Trouble for Souey's successor is that there's no quick fix via the transfer market now.
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