Never mind the weather, last Sunday’s win over Chelsea sent all of us back to work with a spring in our step.  The fall out and reaction to our FA Cup win has been interesting to follow.  For me one thing has stood out, most of the discussion has been all about how Chelsea lost the game and not how we won it.   I don’t think we have had as much credit as we deserve but at the end of the day I really don’t give a shite because we won.  So there!

Titus Bramble is finally putting together the sort of displays we know he is capable.  In the Chelsea game he was “colossal” according to The Evening Chronicle. (Article)  Though I do wonder what game The Sun’s Shaun Custis was watching when he named Stephen Carr as his man of the match.

Most of the focus obviously surrounds Mourinho’s triple substitution at half time.  Kevin McCarra  (Article) and Richard Williams (Article) both of the Guardian and both seemingly of the view that the game hinged solely on that decision.  I wonder if they noticed there was another team even on the pitch?  The Times’ Matt Dickinson, never one to miss an opportunity to have a pop at NUFC, went one better in using the post match analysis to have a go at the club as a whole, manager, players, directors, the whole shebang!  (Article)  Brian Glanville writing in the same paper says that “money can’t buy you luck.” (Article) 

Mr Glanville, we know all about that here having seen a number of managers spend a hell of a lot of money and no silverware to show for it. 

 James Lawton in The Independent continued with the Mourinho’s lost gamble line later in the week. (Article)  It seems that the only people prepared to give us any praise at all were the local press (Article) and (Article) and George Caulkin in The Times (Article) in almost direct contrast to his Times colleague Mr Dickinson.

Whilst the dust and the snow were still settling from that, next up was Graeme Souness’cracking interview with Mick Lowes on BBC Radio Newcastle.  (Article)  This is, of course, already nicely summed up else where here on the tf website.  Here (Article) to be precise.  All I’ll add is that once again Souness sounds like a man genuinely proud to be manager at Newcastle United and you can’t fault his commitment to the cause, even if you don’t always agree with how he goes about doing it.  I understand those of you who may be a little cynical at what could be construed as yet another St James’ PR stunt.  I know we’ve seen plenty of them before.  But if you add his words to his comments in the Heerenveen programme notes I think he’s sincere and this wasn’t just another charm offensive.

In the following day’s newspapers a lot of what was written was just recycling of the transcript of the interview.  Hardly difficult journalism that.  Perhaps that’s why your friend and mine Louise “Legion of Light” Taylor emerged from under her rock to jot a few lines down for The Guardian.  (Article)  Mind you what you don’t see in this online version is that she tried to use the article to have a little stab at Souness over Michael Owen’s age.  He IS 25 pet, by the way.

The biggest talking point to come out of the interview was perhaps the attempt to re-sign Nobby Solano from Villa.  Again there will be some who wonder how much of a PR stunt this was.  However whilst Chairman Doug Ellis confirmed he was contacted by us -(Article), whinging manager David O’Leary denied all knowledge. (Article)  Given Ellis and Villa’s recent history I reckon the first O’Dreary would have known about any sale was when the deal was done and dusted.

Next up was Heerenveen.  And with them duly dispatched we are, apparently, the best team in Europe.  No seriously.  (Article)  See.  UEFA co-efficients and the like are best left to the seriously devoted like Bert Kassies whose site is just brilliant at helping us mere mortals through the vagaries that are UEFA qualification rules.  Once again Bramble was superb and deserves the praise he’s getting like this from The Journal this week. (Article) The lad must have some balls to keep coming back for more and he has never hidden and if he can do this consistently then we have the makings of a solid spine to build a team around. 

2 players well quoted this week have been Lauren Robert and Kieron Dyer.  Lauren Robert is an enigma.  Excitement and frustration all in one random package.  He can be brilliant.  He can be bloody awful.  Right now though we look better balanced with him in the side.  He wants to stay according to this interview with The Sun (Article) and to this from The Independent on Sunday. (Article)  Like many players he should leave his feet to do the talking, but at least these noises are relatively happy ones.  His relationship with the manager is a strange one.  Perhaps the most insightful points come from this George Caulkin piece in The Times. (Article)  The two seem to need each other.  The footballing Faust, as one fellow tf contributor eloquently pointed out post-Heerenveen. 
 

Kieron Dyer meanwhile is another player showing good form again.  His interview to The Sunday Sun, excerpts of which are used here in the Sunday Mirror (Article), was full and quite frank.  Perhaps Mr 60 clicks has finally woken up as to what we expect from him.  I just hope he doesn’t think now that he’s had a run of form he can pack up for the season from here on in.  I get the feeling Mr Souness may find a better way of motivating him.  “I’ll play anywhere for this manager” says Dyer.  Says it all really.

NM