Andre Villas-Boas’ reputation as Europe’s hottest young coach took quite a battering at Chelsea, lasting the increasingly standard nine months at Stamford Bridge. As Tottenham’s weekend 3-1 win over Man City confirmed, that protege status was indeed no joke.
Luis Suarez, having revealed himself to be the most famous vampire since Dracula himself, will next be striking at Newcastle’s home, St James’ Park. This being an occasion with many thousands of people attending, will be the perfect chance for this particular day-vampire to continue his old-fashioned brand of retribution on society.
Ryan Taylor’s hopes of a return this season, and probably the next one, took a killer blow this week when he suffered a recurrence of his cruciate knee ligament injury. The Newcastle full-back joins the unfortunate list of injury-prone Premier League stars, of which there have been many.
Sometimes a club must uproot themselves and start again elsewhere – whether that be because 25,000 seats just isn’t enough to sustain the club anymore, or because bits of the main stand are falling and crushing passing linesmen. Whatever the reason, such a change can often affect a club’s form in the short-term.
There was great satisfaction on Tyneside last May as Newcastle secured fifth spot, and manager Alan Pardew earned the LMA and Premier League manager of the year awards. As their current season lies in ruins after a 3-0 home defeat to bitter rivals on Sunday, a cursory glance at the history books reminds we have been here before.
A huge talking point through much of this season has been the demise of Queens Park Rangers, and the gamble taken in January to try and spend their way out of trouble. As we can plainly see, with a seven point gap between themselves and the safety mark, it hasn’t worked.
