The Magpies!

Disappointing news emanating from the Emirates last night but at least I was cheered to learn that iconic British film director Ridley Scott will be filming his homage to the great film maker Alfred Hitchcock. Ridley’s new film will be a re-making of the classic thriller, The Birds! Set in the remote north-east, The Magpies! will tell the tale of a once-great football club, isolated in the fog-strewn area of Tyneside, being torn apart by vicious vulturistic forces. Will the club survive the flocks of attacks or find themselves slipping slowly into the mire of banishment to the dark side in the…… Championship?

Advertisement

Fog on the Tyne

Well I wasn’t going to write anymore about the developing situation at Newcastle U but it just gets murkier doesn’t it? Last night they got thumped again by Arsenal. Even the cynical introduction of serial aggressor Joey Barton couldn’t inject any spark into his team’s performanace. On the upside he didn’t get arrested. At least they could unveil new appointee Dennis Wise whose title is Executive Director (Football). This morning’s reports quote Keegan as saying that Wise reports into him. Well I’m not sure Kev. They’re paying him something close to £1.5m pa by all accounts (my earlier estimate was way short of the mark) to work 2 or 3 days a week in London. How he must have struggled over the decision whether to stay at Leeds or take up that offer.

last roll of the dice for allardyce?

It’s looking grim up north for Sam Allardyce and his chances of remaining Newcastle Utd’s boss. After a dour draw with Derby and a loss to Wigan over the weekend, I reckon he may be hours away from the A1 and the P45. I don’t think the long-suffering Magpies fans have ever minded losing providing the team played with panache and spirit. But the quality of the football recently has been awful. Against lowly Wigan the team couldn’t muster a single shot at goal. What’s gone wrong?

big sam joining little sam?

Clutching their P45’s that is perhaps? What do you think? Allardyce wasn’t the managerial choice of new owner Mike Ashley, he spent quite a bit of money in the transfer window and after a decent start they’ve now gone 5 games picking up just one point in the process. It’s not exactly the biggest slump of all time but the toon are starting to get badly beaten; the fans are, in the words of that great observer of human nature Joey Barton, turning ‘vicious’ in their criticism of the manager and the standard of play, and yesterday it came out that a delegation of senior players led by captain Geremi are making representations to the manager about his tactics and methods. It all sounds very recent Bolton-like.

bbc football analysts

Is it just me or are the ‘expert’ analysers employed by BBC tv and radio for its football coverage just pants? Gawd knows on what basis they are selected beyond being ex-footballers of course. But surely there must be more to it than that. How about an ability to speak near-English, or with insight about the game, or amusingly with wit and verve, or with telling opinions or anything other than mindless cliches and statements of the bleeding obvious.