EPL Transfer News: Rob Elliot Signs for Newcastle FC

The latest news circulating twitter is that Charlton FC goalkeeper Rob Elliot has signed a 5 year deal, for an undisclosed fee at Saint James Park.

This seems like a logical story as Sky Sports News were reporting earlier today that the 25-year-old stopper was having a medical at the Newcastle ground.

The only question is why?

Newcastle have 3 very good keepers on their books already in Dutch international Tim Krul, long serving Steve Harper and Fraser Forster who is on loan at Celtic.

And Tim Krul has been in scintillating form at the start of the premiership campaign, despite being told by Alan Pardew that he is not guaranteed the number 1 jersey.

I watched the last two games against Scunthorpe and Fulham and can honestly say that without Krul we wouldn't have won them.

His reflexes are world class and he made some vital saves which had the Toon Army drooling and the opposition fans frustrated.

It therefore baffles me that we would need an extra keeper because even if Krul gets injured we have the experienced Steve Harper to don the gloves and step in.

This leaves me to question the future of Steve Harper. I can't believe that Pardew would have signed a talented new goalkeeper as 3rd cover; the lad simply wouldn't have come.

Does this mean he wants Elliot to push Krul for a starting place and edge Harper out of the picture?

It's an interesting question and only time will tell what role the lad will play in the Newcastle squad but hopefully he will be a decent signing for us, provided he didn't take too much of a chunk out of the transfer budget.

Comments Welcome:

Newcastle United Transfer News: Macheda to Toon?

Reports we're circulating on twitter last night that Manchester United forward Federico Macheda could be heading to St James Park on a season long loan.

And this morning this story has become more credible, with the player's agent saying that United want to loan him to a Premier League club and Newcastle have the edge over QPR.

To me this is a story that makes sense.

Pardew and Sir Alex are friends and the move looks like it could benefit both sides.

United have a wealth of attacking talent at the minute, just ask the Arsenal fans, and the 20-year-old Italian will struggle to get a look in at Old Trafford.

And in contrast Newcastle are lacking forward options.

Leon Best is looking good with his brace over Fulham and Demba Ba showed last season at West Ham that he definitely knows where the net is.

Unfortunately I'm not so sure about (Shola) Ameobi and Lovenkrands.

Lovenkrands is looking less and less impressive every time I see him play and I don't think you can count on Shola for more than 10 goals a season and so signing a new striker is priority number one for Alan Pardew.

I think Macheda could do a job for the Magpies; He's shown glimpses of brilliance at United and if given regular games then he could flourish into a very good striker, much like Danny Welbeck at Sunderland last season.

The worry for the Toon Army though, is that if Macheda comes will the pursuit of a new striker end?

Newcastle have been linked with a host of attacking talent this transfer window with the most recent being Fulham's Clint Dempsey and Sochaux's Mali international forward Modibo Maiga.

Both these players would excite the Toon faithful who love their centre forwards, but would also command high transfer fees which could put off owner Mike Ashley who has been tight with the purse strings this summer.

But I think that few would be complaining with the acquisition of Macheda who is young, exciting and can score goals.

Comments welcome:

Fan Boys

Is it just me or have people been noticing a rise in fan boys recently?

People who haven’t previously shown any commitment to a particular Premier League Club, suddenly turn up in their £50 replica shirts with their favourite player’s name on their back, and start mouthing off about how they’ve always been a childhood fan.

In my youth the title of biggest fan boys went to Manchester United.

Not surprisingly due to their dominance of English football, but it always used to wind me up when kids who couldn’t name you ONE non-United football player, would mock me about how my team did on the weekend.

Now I’m a product of the old school.

Dad, Uncles, Granddads, everyone in my family supported football so when I was growing up it was everywhere.

And, to be fair to them, they never tried to force me into following their teams. (Probably should have though ‘cos Dads a Chelsea fan. Missed a trick there.)

And when you’re a kid everyone chooses their team for different reasons, whether you’re following your Dad or your Best mate, whether you like a certain player or, like me, whether you liked the kit. (I know, bit unorthodox.)

At that age you know nothing of football but you may have your favourite player, and you get bought the kit for Christmas and you wear it around the house as proud as punch.

Then when you get a bit older you do suddenly begin to enjoy football and you follow your elected team through thick or thin.

That’s how it should be.

NOT waiting to see which team is the best, jumping on the bandwagon and then claiming you’re a real fan.

I first noticed this at about 15 when I was playing for a team with a kid who suddenly turned up, literally overnight, fully clad in a Chelsea kit.

Is it a coincidence that the team now had lots of money, fantastic players, arguably the best manager in the world AND had won the title the year before? I don’t think so.

So now you’re probably waiting for me to say that I walked into my Southampton local yesterday and saw wall to wall Man City fans.

That would make a lot of sense. Great players with massive price tags, lots of money and a free spending manager.

But no.

I think that because City are so heavily criticised for trying to “buy success” that aspiring fan boys have been put off supporting them.

Plus the constant controversies surrounding Tevez, Balotelli and off the field bust-ups won’t help.

So which team are all the little fan boys heading to now?

Well in my experience the winner is... Spurs.

With the recent form of Van der Vaart and Gareth Bale giving every Spurs fan a giant erection which they feel the need to tell us about on a daily basis, plus Harry Redknapp’s seeming need to buy every midfield player in the premiership; Spurs are starting to look like a fan boy’s wet dream.

They’re in the Champion’s League, the buy lots of players and Gareth Bale is the greatest footballer to ever grace the world.

Also because they’re a London club we can get the excuse that:

“I always go and watch Spurs, well I mean I always go to London, well Kent, and when I say “always” I mean occasionally because my Auntie lives there, well she did but she moved, to Manchester, but I’ve ALWAYS supported Spurs.

And I’m sure that now I’m going to get a barrage of comments saying I’m just jealous ETC but that’s not the point.

I’ve got no problem with Spurs fans, I’ve got no problem with teams buying players and I’ve got no problem if you’re a United/Chelsea/Arsenal/City fan if you have been for more than 10 minutes.

My problem is if you chose to follow a team just because they are doing well and then start making wild claims that Van der Vaart is the best player in the world and that Gareth Bale invented penicillin, then we have a problem.

You’re not fans, your fan boys.

And fan boys have no place in football.

Most Defining Sporting Moment

Recently in my Journalism lecture I was asked to write about my most defining sports moment and I found myself taking a very different approach to my class mates.

So give it a read if you enjoy a very pessimistic view on the world of sport:

When people are asked to talk about their greatest sporting moment, most of us will have a story about a world cup winning goal, a last minute wicket or relegation saving try.

They will look back on that great day with rose tinted glasses and a tear in their eye, telling you exactly where they were, what they were doing and even what they were wearing.

Because for most fans this is what sport is all about, the great highs that will live forever in the memory and make you and your team feel invincible.

Unfortunately for me I’m a football fan who made the misguided choice as a youngster of picking Newcastle United as the team which I will follow for the rest of my life.

Even more unfortunately for me I’m English and so my sporting life hasn’t been filled with victory and silverware, more anguish and heartache.

It’s unfair for me to criticise England as a sports nation as, in my short 20 years alive, I have seen England Rugby team win a World Cup, Kelly Holmes get a double Olympic gold and our heroes in the Cricket team win the Ashes and, more recently, demolish the Australian down under.

But selfishly I would trade all of that for something as trivial as Newcastle winning the League Cup or England FC to reach a final, and not embarrass themselves too much in the process.

In short I am a pessimistic young man and to me sport is a reflection of life.

It isn’t always about the victories and the highs, and I think you learn more from failure than success.

So for me the thing that comes into my head when asked about what defines sport for me isn’t the record £15 million signing that brought Shearer back home, or the Asprilla Hat trick against Barcelona or even the 5-1 demolition of United when Centre Back Pillip Albert lobbed Schmeichel (although that was a magnificent day.)

No. For me the most defining moment sport was when Newcastle got relegated in 2009.

I remember the season of 08/09 like it was yesterday and I always will.

The Messiah Kevin Keegan had returned and we had an impressive team that boasted a strike force of Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins and Mark Viduka. So surely we wouldn’t have a problem scoring right?

That season was the worst in living memory and made my beloved team look like disgrace.

Our new owner had no idea how to run a football club and we went through 4, yes 4, managers in that season, one of which was Joe Kinnear who is a walking heart attack.

And there is nothing more frustrating as a fan than seeing prize assets walk out of the club, but we were treated to Keegan quitting and the selling of our best talent Milner, N’Zogbia and Shay Given.

Oh but they were replaced, under very dodgy circumstances, with Xisco and Ignacio Gonzales. Who? I don’t know either.

AND the club was constantly up for sale at a stupidly high price after our beer swilling, cockney owner fell out of favour with our fans. I’ve no idea why.

Ok rant over. The fact is that after we instated Alan Shearer and Ian “relegation expert” Dowie for the latter stages of the season, to save us from the drop.

We played must-win-game after must-win-game and failed to notch up enough points to steer us to safety and on the last game of the season the eyes of English football were fixed on the bottom of the table as NEWCASTLE UNITED were staring relegation in the face.

I will always remember that day.

It was my gap year and I was working at my local corner shop. I couldn’t get the day off work so there was no Soccer Saturday for me, I had to smuggle in my radio and listen to the most horrific 90 minutes of football ever.

A Damien Duff own goal put Villa 1-0 up but for once, Man United were doing us a favour and were beating Hull.

All we needed was a goal and I was literally on the edge, Christ knows what was going on in the shop, it could have been on fire or being looted but I was in a trance, wishing with every fibre of my being for an equaliser.

My mind was casting back to the press conference that Michael Owen gave when he signed for the club: “I can’t promise you victory but I can promise you goals” (or words to that effect.) Well Mike one would be very useful now if you want to earn some of the £100,000+ wage you’re getting.

I was listening on 5 Live and with 10 minutes to go I was feeling sick and about to cry when Stan Collymore made the wild prediction that we would get a list minute equaliser and stay up.

It gave me hope; false hope. Cheers Stan.

And what happened next was my defining sports moment.

The final whistle blew, we were down, HULL survived and I just wanted the ground to swallow me up.

I felt strange, empty and physically wanted to vomit, it’s weird how just a game can make you so depressed.

And then my phone started buzzing with a barrage of texts which ranged from the: “unlucky mate” to the: “ha ha ha enjoy the Championship.” (The latter, of course, were almost exclusively sent by fan-boy Man United fans.)

I was officially in a state of mourning; first anger, then denial, then acceptance.

Now I may have been exaggerating my pessimistic views a little bit, but for me this is what sport is all about whether you’re a player, manager or fan.

It’s not about the wins, we’ve all scored a last minute own goal, bottled a penalty or dropped an important catch and I personally remember these more vividly then my successes.

It’s as much a part of the game as the victories but it makes them taste so much sweeter when they come.

And as a fan I would much rather have the highs and lows at a club like Newcastle than all the silverware of Man United.

Because when we finally win some and people ask me about my most defining sporting moment, I might have a different answer.