Played our first preseason game on today. Lost 2-1 away to Oldham. DeJong opened his preseason account to give the team a 1-0 advantage before the team gave up 2 second half scores. DeJong and Colback both started in the midfield with Perez coming on in the second half. Few interesting notes: *Colback played all 90 minutes, so did Abeid who took the CKs for the team. *Armstrong started and went over 50 minutes. *Excited to see that Rolando Aarons got so much playing time and hoping it means he is as highly thought of by the senior backroom staff as Beardsley is. (Which side bar, since when did Beardsley get the title of Newcastle's Football Development Manager? Is that a title like Youth Development manager you see in American sports front offices or just means he's the Development team gaffer? *I have to give the guys over at NUFC.com the credit for the following info which led to some interesting questions: Pre-season pitch time (in minutes): 90: Alnwick, Abeid, Colback, Yanga-Mbiwa 70: Dummett 63: Aarons, De Jong, S.Taylor 54: Anita, Armstrong 45: Gouffran, Ameobi 36: Satka, Perez 27: Streete, Haidara, Vuckic 20: Bigirimana Non-combatants: Holiday: Cabella, (Debuchy), Elliot, Krul, Sissoko, Tiote Fitness: Cisse, Good, Mbabu, Santon, R.Taylor Not selected: Coloccini, Kemen, Obertan, Williamson Not considered: Ben Arfa, Gutierrez, Marveaux Played for U21s: Campbell, Ferguson Unused sub: Woodman *OK, so looking at this last part brought up the following questions: 1) Why were HBA, Jonas, and Marveaux not considered for the game. 2) This is more an observation/question, but how far has Campbell fallen in the eyes of the backroom staff when he plays for the U21s instead of Armstrong who starts for the senior squad. 3) Just full observation, but thank god Kinnear is not near the club anymore when his choice for a transfer signing already playing for the club is playing for the U21s and cannot even get on the senior squad when they sit almost every other wing.
I think it seems that Marveaux, HBA and Jonas are all heading towards the door. Rumours abound in particular of HBA having an epic fall out with Pardew from the end of last season. Marveaux... well Pardew never really fancied him did he? Jonas has a long way to come back with spending the second half of last season on loan. There have been murmurings for ages that there is some sort of contractual obligation with Jonas to do with more minutes at the club. I'm not sure if I totally buy that though because he was in the team last year up until he got injured, then couldn't get back in. Seems more like a falling out to me anyway. I've heard rumours about Campbell having a terrible attitude; suggestions that he already thinks he's made it, was rarely used during his loan with Carlisle because they thought he didn't want to be there. Don't really know how well he did at St. Mirren - but I wouldn't bet against him going back out on loan. I don't know if it is true or just a lazy cliche that he seems to think that he's made it though. Used to hear good things about his attitude to be fair. And if there's one thing that this post shows... there are always plenty of rumours in Newcastle.
Today's game in New Zealand will be on BeIN Sports tonight at 9:30 EDT in the USA. 8:30 on the Spanish channel. http://soccertvblog.com/summer-club-friendlies Thx, Jay!
I just looked at the BeIN Sport Connect website. The have the Wellington game on the web only at 12:30am Eastern (about an hour from now) Not sure if you can view a replay there. Thx, Jay!
Looks like the Schalke Cup games are on ESPN3. http://soccertvblog.com/summer-club-friendlies And the one against Malaga is part of the Primera World Challenge. LFP World Challenge (streaming on www.lfp.es/laligatv/lfp-world-challenge) Thx, Jay!