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Mike

Listed below are comments made by Mike between Friday, 11th December 2009 and Thursday, 17th December 2009.

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Kevin Nolan - the Championship's best player? 11:50am on 17 Dec 2009 "Given left Newcastle and Harper had to play you went from mid table to relegation, trust me there was a correlation between those factors"

None of that statement is true. I think we were 16th when Given left!
Kevin Nolan - the Championship's best player? 11:46am on 17 Dec 2009 "Also those on the Steve Harper bandwagon - WAKE UP! When Given left Newcastle and Harper had to play you went from mid table to relegation, trust me there was a correlation between those factors."

Given was one of the prime reasons we had a poor defence. For all his shot stopping brilliance, his command of a defence, and a penalty area is bordering on hapless.

The reason the Cechs, Lehmanns, Van de Sars, Reinas of this world make the odd mistake, is the fact that they come out for almost every cross that comes into the box.

Given was a good shot stopper, but never came off his line. His first line of defence wasn't punching it out, or claiming it.

It was just waiting for someone to have a chance, and then saving it.

So you have a highlight reel of super saves, but not a single clip of him claiming a cross, or punching a ball out.

Newcastle fans have for a long time thought that Harper was actually a better keeper than Given, as he had a better all round game.

And there weren't too many tears when Shay was sold.

I think it's foolish to suggest that our new defensive look doesn't have a lot to do witht he fact that Harper is in goal, and commanding the box.

We just look very very organized.

There is a reason the Man Utds and Arsenals and Liverpools have never bothered with Given, and it's above.

He's a great shot stopper, but his command of the box, and organization of a defence is hopeless.

Big teams want goalies who come out for almost everything. On the basis that even if they make mistakes, the net result is generally a better defense. They'll stop more chances than they will create, by coming out a lot.

Shay isn't any good at the above. As he's barely 6 foot tall.

If you look at Man Citys defence at the minute, I think it's perfectly obvious that the problems have just followed him there
Kevin Nolan - the Championship's best player? 11:40am on 17 Dec 2009 #85

Sadly Phil, most southern fans just have an opinion of "geordies" and just rise to the comments of a small minority of our fan base.

If you go on a Man Utd board, you'll find fans saying Anderson is world class, Berbatov is one of the best forwards in the world, and Ryan Giggs was better than Pele.

As I said, there are a lot of (southern) fans who rather take delight in this sort of rant. And merely look out for the minority of comments, as if to prove that all geordies are "loony".

I assure you, if you actually took time to talk to Newcastle season ticket holders, you'd realize they are incredibely realistic about the club.

And the image you try to project, is merely trying to highlight the words of about 1% of the fan base.

As an example, in a Newcastle fanzine vote, 55% of the fans were actually against the appointment of Keegan.

Do the London tabloids want that? of course not. So they find a fan with a messiah sign, and try to claim that the whole support thinks that.

It's an old London tabloid trick to feed southerners with amusing stories about "geordies", "scots" and "scousers".

Nearly all of which are pure fantasy.
Kevin Nolan - the Championship's best player? 11:34am on 17 Dec 2009 As an ex-pat Geordie, living abroad, I actually went into this season with pretty high hopes.

I just wasn’t convinced that the Championship was that strong. Just on the basis that I went to games, and watched Newcastle completely hammer West Brom and Boro in the premier league.

I was just thinking, if we keep the majority of our players, are there going to be that many teams better than West Brom or Middlesbrough – who are pretty average.

And there isn’t in truth.

The problems relegated clubs have is that they:

A: Didn’t have very good players anyway
B: Lost them all when they got relegated.

Newcastle suffered from neither. Our form was championship level last year, but our players were certainly not.

If a manager could get the attitude right, we were always going to do well.

We’ve just done well as:

1: We have a very strong squad. Better than a lot of premiership teams. Other than our big name players, we also have about 2 under 21 regulars, and 5 under 19 regulars. There is a heck of a lot of talent there.

2: The championship is a strong league, if you have championship level players when you head down there. It’s not if you are a legit premier league first 11. Even the best teams aren’t that good – West Brom, Cardiff and teams like that are average at best.

3: Newcastle are incredibely solid these days. Hughton, tactically, has changed a lot of things. If anything we are the classic counter attacking side now. We almost play Mourinho sort of tactics.

We have the best defence in the league by a long way, and rarely let in goals.

4: We just have a lot of class in the side, that other teams don’t. For all their failings, guys like Collicini, Steven Taylor, Ryan Taylor, Nolan, Butt, Harewood, Ameobi, Alan Smith, Gutierrez, are legit premiership level players. 3 of them will be playing games in the world cup in the summer. Steven Taylor the England Under 21 captain. Butt, Smith, have won premiership winners medals. A lot of the squad have champions league experience.

As I said, I was one of these people who just thought we’d storm the league as soon as the transfer window closed to be honest.
Colour barrier finally broken at Athletic Bilbao 1:25pm on 16 Dec 2009 "As you said, Athletic Bilbao have a policy of only playing Basque people, so why is it a skin colour issue?
"

Bilbao take the stance to protect the regions heritage from Globalization.

They give up success, money, and various other things to stick to the club's historical purpose - supporting the Basque region.

They miss out on most of the world's best players because of theit vital political stance.

They should be applauded. It's a very principled move, in a sport dominated by profits.

The club was set up to give the Basque region an identity. And they should be applauded for sticking to these principles.

Cheap shots on race are misleading
Colour barrier finally broken at Athletic Bilbao 1:23pm on 16 Dec 2009 Ever so slightly misleading.

If there is a region that respects the needs to respect minorities, it's the Bascque region.

There isn't a more liberal region in the world than the people of the Basque country. In fact there prejudice ironically is more to white Spaniards!

I think Athletic Bilbaos stance is wonderful. They give up money, trophies, and success to keep the Basque identity going.

They'd be a lot richer, and a lot more succesful if they played none Basque players. But they stand up for their region and principle.

English teams could learn a lot from Spain. Where they have pride in their shirts and teams, and they aren't just big businesses.

Barcelona, Real, Bilbao, Valencia are owned by supporters. Not big business. And hence tickets are very cheap, and the clubs heritage is protected.

And hence Barcelona don't sell kit sponsorship, and Bilbao stick to their teams heritage of only signing basque players.

When you have United putting their sponsorship on a Munich memorial, and every team in the country wanting to sell naming rights, it really shows you how great elements of the Spanish game are.

There's nothing remotely racist about Spanish teams signing of black players. Samuel Eto was loved just as much as Messi in his time there.

It's more the fact that there aren't that many black people living in that rural area of spain
Wenger wins in madcap weekend 11:41am on 14 Dec 2009 I love the way that Arsenal's performance "didn't have the stamp of potential champions" when they went there and won.

And yet the media keep telling us how genuine title challengers United actually are after getting played off the park at Anfield.

United and Aresenal are basically level on points. And there is nothing between the squads.

If the media actually had the nerve to risk upsetting their major audience, (United fans), then they'd probably admit that United aren't any better than Aresnal these days
Pre-Budget report disagreement between Treasury and No 10 1:30pm on 11 Dec 2009 As for the politics of the economics. I have to say, the debate isn't really happening, as the media are only giving us one opinion.

As in, in regards to the IFS report on the parties approach to cutting the deficit.

They were pretty scathing of Darling. Stating that he hadn't revealed the true extent. But at the same time, they were equally scathing of Cameron's policy as well.

In short, they said neither had a real clue. And neither had been that honest so far.

The ratings they hand out, for policy. Labour's (chance of success in cutting the deficit) got 25%. Cameron's got 16%. So in essence, they basically hinted that "cutting the debt immediately" statistically, has less chance of success (!!) than concentrating on growing the economy.

The tories have had an IFS report saying their "cut now cut fast" idea is basically doomed to fail.

Labours isn't much better. But do the voters get to read about the former? Does any of this reach the media? Of course not. So we remain on the same path?

As for the IFS, from what I got from the report, again, the media play tricks. I've read headlines of "20% cuts". Insuinating that there will be 20% cuts in each department.

The cuts will actually be a more palatable 6.9%. The 20% they refer to is actually the figure for 3 years of cuts combined. That's the time scale the IFS thinks we will need to make a dent into the deficit.

So 6% cuts. Not great. But no "the sky is falling in" sort of stuff. Again. Tory media, tory objectives. The objective being to convince us all that we are doomed.

The IFS also state categorically that tax rises will be needed, across the board, to tackle the deficit. And stated that the top 10% will have to be taxed heavily to get back on track.

Do we hear anything about the fact that tax rises are actually more important than cuts? Of course not. We read that even a 0.5% rise is too much.

When in fact, that's actually the first positive move either party has made in regards to solid commitments to fixing the problem.

It's a media war. Brown not wanting to highlight cuts. Cameron not wanting to highlight tax rises.

Cameron has more media support, so cuts dominates the agenda. When in fact, taxing is going to be just as big a part.

Why did Labour announce tax rises early, and break ranks. I'd probably suggest that it's mischief making of their own.

If the media aren't playing ball, by putting tax onto the agenda, then just give them no choice, by putting it into your manifesto.

This move will just put pressure on Cameron to make his taxation plans crystal clear before the election. Or appear flimsy on the economy (the same attack he used on Brown for cuts - as in, be honest, or be labelled flimsy)

Something he really doesn't want to do.

Future. Expect Labour to attack Cameron on his lack of taxation plan from now until the election.

And further pressure when basically every economc think tank states that tax rises will be neccesary
Pre-Budget report disagreement between Treasury and No 10 1:18pm on 11 Dec 2009 "Gordon Brown says that reports of a rift between himself and Darling are completely wrong. Does this mean that our son of the manse PM (armed with his moral compass) is trying to mislead us? Surely not?"

3rd more likely option. Tory media machine trying to cause mischief, at a time of a big government announcement
Pre-Budget report disagreement between Treasury and No 10 1:17pm on 11 Dec 2009 #43

"I can understand that Labour's recent reversion to "class war" has invigorated the Labour leadership, MPs, and no doubt activists."

To be fair John, the class war you speak of is a mere media invention to protect Cameron.

Alaister Campbell predicted the move months ago in his blog, "as soon as anyone tackles the inheritance tax policy".

The issue is that Cameron wants to give a tax break that only 2% of the country are eligible for, in a time of recession, when the rest of us are getting tax rises.

In effect, the 2% of the country won't get tax rises, as they will get it back in a combination of corporation tax cuts (tax cuts for share holders) and inheritance tax cuts.

So, there is an obvious argument of "taxing the poor to protect the rich".

As I said however, when you own the media (as Blair did before) you can fight off very real policy debate, by just rounding them all on the accusers.

So every time you have your own policies attacked, set every paper in the country on them (well other than the Mirror and Beeb) on the "class war" footing.

People don't have an issue with class. Blairs the biggest toff of the lot. They have an issue when toffs set policies, to blatantly help out their own types.

It's not Cameron's fault. Part of getting the tory leaderships is making promises to back benchers and big business. They aren't his polciies. More the price of admission.

But they are obviously open to attack. Just as Browns attitude to spending is.

The fact that a leader is probably going to get away with cutting taxes to 2% of the country, while raising taxes for the rest of us, is a classic example of the part the media plays in "king making".

I'd suggest, honestly, that our leadership is decided on a combination of 3 things:

1: The economic climate (boom times, Labour tend to do well. Less money, Tory austerity)

2: Who the media chooses to back

3: Which leader gives big business the best deal.

Leaders in truth don't get in on policy (aka Blair). It's just who gets the roughest ride in the media.

I'm sure Major would have beaten Blair, and Brown beaten Cameron if the media traffic was "Blair/Cameron are sleazy liars, dishonest, blah blah blah"

Depressing but true.

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