This piece in the times today by George Culkin will strike all football supporters contemplating the forthcoming season. Newcastle are a particular focus for football writers because of the outstanding season they had in 2011/12 season where they finished 5th followed by last sessions where they just avoided relegation.
What will the 13/14 season bring. We will soon know.
Newcastle are teetering on a precipice George Caulkin July 18 2013 10:07AM Here they go again. Here they go; back into Europe, back to prominence, back to a dark past they had just about scraped from the memory and forward into a strange form of limbo. Newcastle United are in Portugal for a week and The Times are there with them (for a bit of it, anyway), attempting to gauge that pre-season no-man’s land where fresh hope wrestles with old cynicism, at a club which defies easy definition. It is the time of year when supporters veer between excitement and fretting when, for good or ill, the previous season is put to bed and the onset of the next one is peppered with newness. New players, new eras, new beginnings. Except at St James’ Park there has been little in the way of new and much in the way of fretting and, in the case of Joe Kinnear’s appointment as director of football, something familiar and troubling. This should not be read as an immediate slide into negativity. It can be reported with some certainty – more of that to come – that Alan Pardew has returned to Tyneside in bullish form, having ridden out the maelstrom which came to a head at the end of a challenging campaign which tested him, his squad and the patience of many. Buffeted, perhaps, by Kinnear’s arrival, the manager remains determined to manage his way. He has a good squad, does Pardew. Or, rather, he has some fine players. If the true worth of his resources lies somewhere between what happened last season and their previous, excellent, fifth-place finish, the top-10 of the Barclays Premier League is a realistic goal, but Pardew needs help and Newcastle require strikers. Two of them, certainly, and another, surely, if Papiss Demba Cisse’s relationship with the club disintegrates further. Here, of course, is the heart of matters. Unlike every other club in the division, Newcastle have not signed a senior player. As good people on Gallowgate (and there are loads of them), struggle to make sense of the altered reality and perplexing hierarchy Mike Ashley has thrown at them, with Kinnear joining and then sharpish leaving on holiday, decisions have not been taken and buttons are unpressed. Pardew (who is 52 today) recognises his own scope for improvement. His employers failed him a year ago when they pulled away from too many transfers, leading to a skinny squad and a scramble in January, and there were moments when some senior players shirked responsibility, but he knows he can do better, too. In a different way, he also knows that he must. Because of the Europa League, the demand of Thursday, Sunday, Thursday matches, Pardew may have over-complicated things last year, thinking in terms of equations and preparation when he might have let the football breathe. He has studied other sports, consulted Faye Downey, the strength and conditioning coach, and revamped set-pieces, but his message will be a simpler one. He promises this summer will be Newcastle’s toughest ever. This eagerness, this approach, this desire to rebuild things with fans, this willingness to let the Kinnear situation play out, the similar enthusiasm he sees in his players, is encouraging and it will be interesting to have a little insight into that in Braga. When the sun shines and ball thuds on boot you remember that there is nothing quite like football. Back so soon? What took you so long? Yet there are concerns, too (and they run deep). Cisse’s reluctance to wear Newcastle’s Wonga-branded strip is a matter which should have been concluded much earlier than this. It takes us into an area of difficulty, an area of religious and ethical delicacy which is not easy to blag through (blagging is the founding principle of my career), but in basic sporting terms it leaves Pardew with a significant hole in his side. Cisse’s absence from Portugal ensures another week will go by without him or any other out-and-out, experienced, frontline striker – ignoring Shola Ameobi, who is present but being pursued by Middlesbrough – participating in first-team training. Nor will he play in friendly matches against Rio Ave and Pacos de Ferreira and with the start of the season now a month away, this can hardly be described as ideal preparation. Meanwhile, Darren Bent is sweating and waiting on his own at Aston Villa, a club who have exhibited their own peculiarities. Villa want some value for a player they have treated as anything but an asset, who returned to pre-season to find his dressing-room locker locked and who is now training with youth players and a few other exiles. He is Pardew’s choice (they worked together at Charlton Athletic) and has been for some time. This is a personal observation, but Newcastle have one significant advantage in one particular battle. Rivals for Bent’s signature include Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace and if the competition is one which features attendances, passion and potential then, all other things being more or less equal, the England international, once of Sunderland, would return to the North East. Bent is keen to talk to Newcastle, Pardew has spoken publicly about his wish to sign him and Villa want rid. There has been optimism in recent days because the will is there – completion by next week has been mooted – but, at some point soon, something has to happen and, presumably, Kinnear is the man who must make it or derail it. They have another, French target (they have been linked with him before), but need to move. Kinnear changes things; there are fears and theories, but we just do not yet know how. So while Newcastle are in Portugal, a country Pardew knows well and has always admired, his players perspiring and plotting, building up muscles which previously proved too susceptible, honing tactics and formations, they simultaneously teeter on a precipice. Let us be honest, they have been here before.
footystuff6 