Newcastle bounce back to premier league

Newcastle United sealed the Championship title at first time of asking with a comfortable win over Plymouth Argyle last night, sending the Magpies back into the Premier League from where they were relegated around this time last year.

Any fears at the start of the season that Newcastle were on a slippery slope that could see them slip down the league in the same fashion as Leeds United and Southampton, were squashed during the first months in the Championship.

Things may have been different if Newcastle had stuck with Alan Shearer in charge of the team, but the no nonsense approach of Chris Hughton worked wonders this season, he has managed to keep the players feet firmly on the ground, deflated any egos and made the team work for every point they have won.

As always the Championship has been no pushover this season, there are no easy games in this division and the game is as much about work rate as anything and that is where Newcastle have excelled.

Every player has given everything for the cause and ending the season as Champions is justice, given the effort put in. On a personal level it is fantastic to see Chris Hughton given a chance and proving his worth, he has done everything that has been asked of him this season and it will be interesting to see if he can continue to do the same in the Premiership.

Sadly last night’s result also sealed the fate of Plymouth, who are relegated to League One along with Peterborough.

Newcastle close in on promotion

Newcastle United moved even closer to fulfilling their dream ambition of returning to the Premier League after just one season away, following a hard fought victory over Nottingham Forest last night.

Promotion could be confirmed as early as this coming weekend if results go in favour of the Magpies and they beat Peterborough and Forest lose to Bristol City.

Nottingham Forest’s purple patch now seems a distant memory, despite the team putting up another brave and gutsy performance at St James’ Park they once again ended the game with nothing to show for their endeavours, stretching their run of away defeats to seven.

Newcastle remain unbeaten at home this season and had the better of the chances in the first half, but amazingly the game remained goalless up until the 71st minute, when substitute Shola Ameobi grabbed the opening goal.

Jose Enrique added the second very late in the game after everyone and his dog had chances for Newcastle to seal the win, but Lee Camp in the Forest goal was superb at keeping them at bay until Enrique popped in the first goal of his career.

It was a close game and Billy Davies will take heart from his teams performance, but I can’t really see them winning an automatic promotion place now and they may have to settle for the play offs, where they already lead the pack.

Newcastle have got stuck in from day one in the Championship and have been favourites for the title all season. I have to say it will be no more than they deserve if they grab promotion this weekend, if not, it is only a question of time.

Many top flight football clubs are faced with the prospect of being earmarked for relegation during the festive period. With the Premiership tables being crammed full of football clubs with wealthy backers, it seems somewhat a dreadful situation for them to know to have spent millions on players and managers only to see results fall flat. Ultimately relegation looms. We can just look at Newcastle United for such a classic example last season. Newcastle was a sad story of mismanagement which actually started off as being quite promising. A rich multi-millionaire in Mike Ashley with a long standing clothing business bought the club in 2006 but where things turned sour was the continuation of the infamous revolving door policy for managers which led to all kinds of instability in the dressing room. Players lost interest and the club’s results slid until they were demoted in 2009 to the Championship via a lack lustre performance against Aston Villa – a match they had needed to win.

A club like Newcastle United, who enjoyed 16 years of the premiership football and they have begun their Championship campaign with gusto, much to the surprise of sports pundits. Some football bookmakers on the online betting circuit had faith in seeing the Toon promoted with odds of 15/8 back in August 09. Not bad considering that Newcastle United had just dumped its talisman, Alan Shearer, in favour of the untested Chris Hughton as manager at the time. However, the last thing a club would want to know is the betting odds; the first priority for any ex-Premiership club was to get rid of the excesses and there usually are plenty of them in player wages.

Players who expressed no desire to play on were quickly shown the door. In the case of Newcastle, those players were Damien Duff (undisclosed), Obafemi Martins (£9m) and Shay Given (£6m). Obviously, the sale of high profile players would help cushion some of the blow of reduced income from TV and sponsorship deals. That coupled with a parachute payment which totalled around £12m for dropping a league down.

Compare this to being in the Premiership, where a club get £38m just for being in that league and that’s discounting other lucrative deals on top. Ticket prices are normally affected as well with 8-10% price reductions to try and entice disgruntled fans back into stadiums as well as keeping those all important season ticket holders. Right now, Newcastle can comfortably fill around 42-49,000 spectators for a home match which is nothing to be sniffed at. Newcastle United has always been credited for having a large hardcore fan-base and this season so far has proved nothing less.

Both West Brom and Newcastle have adapted well to life in the Championship whilst Middlesbrough have been the surprise strugglers despite the help of the newly recruited, Gordon Strachan. Newcastle had to do much more to bolster its chances for promotion at the start. Much to their credit, there work has so far paid dividends, with a club managing to keep a lot of its past season’s players who have so far proved that a class above the rest in this league.

A higher wage bill will probably be the price to pay for returning to the Premiership.  Some may argue that playing in the Championship has done Newcastle more good then if they experienced another hapless season in the Premiership. Just look at them now as they have got rid of some deadwood and now play with certain ambition in them that has led to back-to-back wins – a feat they could not achieve in the past few years in the top flight league.

The Premiership 2009-2010 season is just as tight at this stage with three out a possible 11 teams trying to avoid the drop. Like Newcastle United before them, Portsmouth have been handed the uphill task of trying to regain some kind of form against a dire backdrop of boardroom controversies.

Will they be relegated to the Championship? A betting man will no doubt put money on it.

The former Bolton player has been in impressive form for the Magpies scoring nine goals so far this season. While the 29 year old is chuffed with the award he says his main goal is returning to the Premier League with Newcastle at first time of trying.

He said he would be happier for Newcastle to win every remaining game without scoring himself, to get back to the Premiership.

Stern John, who joined Ipswich from Crystal Palace on loan until the end of the year, says he would be up for making the deal permanent if he is wanted by the Suffolk club.

John made his debut for the Tractor Boys in last weekends 2-1 win over Cardiff and said he is keen to leave Selhurst Park and will see what happens in January.

He is contracted with Palace until next summer, with a possible one year extension, but admits that the chances of remaining with Palace are slim with the current financial difficulties at the club.

Derby County are keen to terminate the contract of Australian midfielder Ruben Zadkovich, who was brought to the club by previous manager Paul Jewell, but has spent 10 months out injured and has yet to feature in the first team under current boss Nigel Clough.

Zadkovich has been offered a termination agreement to cover the remaining six months of his contract at Derby and Clough said they are waiting for a response from the player’s agent. The Australian has made seven appearances for Derby since joining the club in April 2008.

Nigel Clough says he is keen to re-sign Everton striker James Vaughan on loan in January. The 21 year old was injured soon after arriving at Pride Park on a previous loan agreement in September.

Vaughan has recovered from surgery on the injured knee and is back in training with Everton and Clough said he is hoping to get him down to the midlands to train with Derby in an effort to re-sign the player on loan in the January window.

The Rams face losing the services of Paul Dickov and DJ Campbell in the New Year, both players are on loan from Leicester City until the end of the year.

kevin nolan sends magpies top

Preston will have every right to feel hard done by following last night’s Championship game at home to Newcastle, the hosts produced the better football throughout the game but succumbed to a Kevin Nolan goal in the 74th minute that saw all three points go to the Magpies.

Newcastle are now two points clear at the top of the table, ahead of West Bromwich Albion and six clear of third placed Leicester City, and manager Chris Hughton will no doubt claim, Alan Hansen style, that playing badly and winning is the sign of a true championship contending team.

Preston had made the better chances during a fairly drab affair at Deepdale with Neil Mellor forcing good saves from Steve Harper on two occasions and firing wide on another attempt when he was clear on goal. Michael Tonge making his first appearance since joining Preston on a loan deal, also made an impact and should have been rewarded following a long range effort that shaved the crossbar.

But it was Kevin Nolan’s eighth goal of the season that secured the points for Newcastle, pleasing Hughton but leaving Preston manager Alan Irvine ruing his teams misfortune, he said after the game;

“I don’t think we should have lost the game, certainly. I thought that we matched Newcastle for many parts of the game. I felt as if we had some good chances to score ourselves. But we didn’t take our chances and Kevin Nolan finished his chance, which was maybe not even that much of a chance, very well.”

Preston are currently in 12th place in the Championship with 24 points, one point behind Middlesbrough and only three points off the play off positions with a long way to go in the season.

newcastle united@st james' park!

Barry Moat says that he is still keen on taking over ownership of Newcastle United even though current owner Mike Ashley has taken the club off the market.

Moat told Sky Sports that he remains committed to buying the St James Park club despite having his offer of £60 million up front and a further £20million next season turned down by Ashley. Moat believes that his offer matched Ashley’s valuation but the Sports Direct owner wanted £80 million up front.

While Moat has no immediate plans to make a fresh offer, he also has no desire to walk away form the opportunity and says he will take time out to mull over his options.

“It’s extremely disappointing. It’s something we’d given up a lot of time and effort and abortive costs with so I’ve been feeling pretty bruised by the whole process. As my wife keeps telling me, ‘No-one’s died’ so you’ve got to get on. That’s fundamentally where I see it now.

“I think from my perspective I don’t think Mike Ashley wants to stay at St James’ Park for the long term, so I’ll never give up. I’ll keep beavering away in the background and hopefully one day we’ll get there.”

With the Magpies currently sitting on top of the Championship and among the favourites for automatic promotion back to the Premier League, the chances of picking the club up on the cheap may not last too long.

Newcastle were easy winners against a Peterborough side who are struggling for form and find themselves unceremoniously dumped at the bottom of the table, thanks to Roy Keane’s Ipswich picking up a point from the 1-1 draw with Reading.

West Brom who faced a recent dip in fortune found their way back to winning ways at Leicester, who despite the 2-1 loss remain in the dogfight for promotion play off places in sixth. Albion are clinging to Newcastle’s shirt tails in second place, two points behind the Magpies.

The game of the weekend in the Championship, for me anyway, was the clash between Welsh clubs Swansea and Cardiff. Cardiff have been scoring goals for fun as Ron Atkinson might say and were favourites going into the tie. Swansea have been doing pretty well themselves following the adjustments at the club following the departure of Roberto Martinez.

New manager Paulo Sousa has instilled a winning mentality into the Swans and before Saturday’s derby they were unbeaten in nine games, having conceded only ten goals and five points adrift of Cardiff but heading in the right direction.

Cardiff manager Dave Jones on the other hand has a team that had scored 31 goals, the division’s top scorers, and had just picked up the Manager of the Month award for guiding the team to third in the Championship.

On the day it was Swansea who came out on top in an enthralling encounter which they won 3-2, with two goal Darren Prately the player of the match.  It is hard to argue with the result, Swansea just having that extra edge throughout an excellent and exciting game, for a neutral.

Elsewhere, Middlesbrough continue their free fall from the top of the league, even Gordon Strachan needs time it seems, Crystal Palace taking three points from them with a 1-0 win.

As ever in the Championship, at least half of the table are within early sight of the automatic and promotion play off places, leaving the other half desperately trying to accumulate enough points not to be dragged into a relegation place.

newcastle united@st james' park!

However you look at it sportsdirect.com@St James’ Park Stadium definitely does not have the same ring about it as Mike Ashley’s business rival Dave Whelan’s JJB Stadium which was renamed earlier this year to the less impressive DW Stadium.

Newcastle United say that they will use the new name as reference to the stadium and also to showcase Ashley’s business empire outside of the game, until the end of this season when they hope to draw in a big name sponsor for the coming season.

Sporting giant Adidas who supply Newcastle’s kit were among the most likely sponsor of the stadium but they have issued a statement saying that they have not been offered the naming rights to the stadium and would not wish to take the rights if they were offered.

The move to rename the stadium has angered many of the Newcastle faithful, but the clubs managing director Derek Llambias is convinced that the fans will soon forget about it if the team can deliver success on the pitch.

Judging by the fans behaviour since Mike Ashley bought the club, I cannot imagine that they will ever forget anything that he has done in the short time he has been in control of the club, and will view the renaming rights as just adding to a string of catastrophes for Newcastle United during his tenure.

newcastle united

At long last Newcastle United have offered Chris Hughton the managers position on a permanent, basis following his third spell as caretaker manager at the club.

There is no doubt that the Championship Manager of the Month for the last two months running, deserves to be offered the position, despite last night’s loss against Nottingham Forest, Newcastle look likely to bounce straight back to the Premier League.

Hughton said: “I am honoured to be offered the job. We are still in negotiations, but it is something we hope will get resolved. I have always felt that the manager’s situation was an issue, but not the most important one. Getting results has been the most important thing.

Once we have got Scunthorpe and Doncaster out of the way, we will have discussions with Derek Llambias. It will involve moving from caretaker to manager on a full-time basis. They have indicated to me that they want to turn it from a temporary role to a permanent one.”

The contract offer also suggests that Mike Ashley has decided to sit and wait for the right offer for the club and does not expect it to be in the immediate future. Like everyone else I suspect he has got fed up with hanging around for Barry Moat and endless others and decided to get on with it.

keegan awarded damages

Kevin Keegan has won his case against Newcastle United for constructive dismissal from the club, and has been awarded £2million plus interest in damages.

The Premier League managers arbitration panel decided that in signing Uruguayan midfielder Ignacio Gonzalez, against Keegan’s wishes, the club were in breach of a term in his contract.

Keegan left Newcastle in September 2008 following the signing of Gonzalez on the final day of the summer transfer window on August 31st. The official report of the case concluded that;

“The “commercial interests”, according to the Club, were that the signing of the player on loan would be a “favour” to two influential South American agents who would look favourably on the Club in the future. The loan deal cost the Club nearly £1m in wages for a player who was not expected to play for the first team but no payment was made by the Club to the agents in respect of the deal.”

An obviously relieved Keegan made the following statement:

“I am delighted that the Premier League manager’s arbitration tribunal has today formally announced that it has upheld my claim for wrongful dismissal against Newcastle United. The tribunal has found the conduct of the club in forcing a player on me against my wishes represented a fundamental breach of my contract of employment.

I do not believe that there is any manager in football who could have remained at the club in the light of their conduct. I also want to confirm that a central purpose of my claim has always been to clear my name and restore my reputation. I consider it of vital importance that I was able to let people know about the full circumstances of my resignation and the way in which I had been treated by the club. I hope that this purpose has now been achieved.”

Newcastle United have so far made no comment on the outcome of the case.