The Ego's Last Stand

Kevin can't hide his disgust.














Those clever-dicks at the Premier League have decided that Wolves can have a suspended fine of £25,000 dished out because they thought they'd have more chance of beating Burnley than Manyoo, so kept their first-team spare, put the reserves out and got smashed 3-0. Fair enough, you might think, after all, they should try to win every game, but what's the difference in losing 1-0 with your first team and 3-0 with the reserves? Especially if the first-team lose the subsequent (winnable) match as they're knackered from chasing shadows at the theatre of ritual humiliation/disembowelment? The loss to Wolves' goal difference was fixed by beating Burnley 2-0, so who really loses? Not even Burnley, because they don't win away games.

The big issue (and the controversy. Hi!) stems from the fact that some teams (Liverpool) rotate all the time but just seem to avoid this punishment... Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Rafa Benitez rotate his team at Craven Cottage in a match towards the end of the 07/08 season to save his key players for a Champions League game? Fulham won. Without those three points, they wouldn't have stayed up, and Reading would have. Perhaps Reading should write to the Premier League; kicking up a fuss worked for Sheffield United. Sort of.

People harp on about the fans getting little return for their money on a trip but maybe they should take their beef up with the Premier League too. Such a sour taste would be considerably lessened if the ticket prices weren't obscene. As a Newcastle fan, this sort of piss-taking is par for the course, which the Premier League seem to delight in.

Best league in the world? I take it you don't watch La Liga.

Lets Not Shit Ourselves (To Love And To Be Loved)

Andy Carroll in the cornrow days of January




Thank you, Andy Carroll. The sinews in the lad's neck may go a long way to keeping Newcastle United in the Premier League after his headed equaliser in yesterday's 1-1 draw with Stoke at that fortress of Total Football, the Britannia Stadium. His headers may be as important to us as Carlos Tevez's were for Man United last season. The paucity of the Premier League is exposed by the malaise of the majority of clubs in the bottom half of the table and ought to be further exemplified by Aston Villa and Everton's showdown at 1330 today (which I am going to the pub to watch, hence the short-term nature of today's blog).

As ever, the clue is in the title. There are some long strides to be taken to keep this club in the league and it all starts again next sunday at White Hart Lane. We've done well against Spurs for a long time now (barring the aberration in this season's League Cup, though when you look at the team we put out...) and that run can continue next week if the players add a bit of skill to the graft that has begun to creep in. Nothing is achieved yet, but all is not lost.