February 28th, 2012 The FA Headquarters, London, England
"Dave, are you really sure about it?" the secretary asked, a note of apprehension in his voice.
"Why not?" Dave replied, "we've got to appoint someone now. And we have to do it soon. I'm saying why not him?"
Another man spoke up from the gathering of four. "But he hasn't got experience-"
David Bernstein cut him short. "We've had enough trouble in the past with experienced managers. Fabio was just one more in that list."
"This is the biggest job in football and you're saying we give it to him!" Alex spoke up, astonished.
"Yes. And because he is one of the best talents ever to have come up from the coaching ranks."
"We need someone with authority. He's younger than most players themselves. And plus, he's got no previous managerial experience before. Which makes it all the more harder for players to respect him."
"We all saw his presentation. He gave us a pretty clear idea of how he is going to handle all that. I'm going for him. And plus, we've had enough trouble appointing managers with experience. I'm saying-let's give this lad a chance. He's one of the best graduates ever in the UEFA Coaching Programme and he's fresh, young blood. That's what we need for England. We need someone young to take the mantle. And to be honest, he's got very interesting ideas."
"I have to agree there. His ideas were interesting. Maybe we should give him a try. Offer him a temporary contract till the European Championships and we'll see where it goes after that." Another man gave his assent. The others followed suit a little while after.
*****
March 1st, 2012 Tottenham Court Road, London, England
I had no hopes of getting a job. I had sent in so many applications. First Leicester City, then Tranmere, then Fulham and now West Ham. All had rejected me. I had also sent mine to the FA. They called me for an interview and I presented my ideas to them. But I think that's about it. I had no hopes of getting the England job. Not when people like Harry Redknapp, Alan Pardew, Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink were involved. I was definitely not going to be England manager.
As I sipped my coffee, I pondered how long it would be before I got the phone call announcing my rejection as England manager. Or maybe they did it by e-mail. Whatever it was, I was prepared for the outcome. Just then, the phone rang. I picked it up.
"Hello?" I said, responding cautiously to an unknown number
"Hello. Am I speaking to Mr. Peter Johnson?"
"Yes," I said, "and you may be?"
"I am Christina Hansen, secretary to David Bernstein of the Football Association."
I gulped.
"Yes. What can I do for you?"
"Well, Mr. Bernstein wants to meet you tomorrow at his office to discuss the contract terms that the FA would be offering to you with regard to the England job."
To be honest, even my worst critic couldn't have been that bad at his reaction to my appointment. Trust me, during the initial days, had it not been for David Bernstein's warning that I was in for a tough time, I'd have easily been put off by the sheer number of protests across England. For once, it seemed I had united England. Everyone, from Spurs fans in London to Sunderland fans in the north-east, took to the roads to protest my appointment. I even saw a petition from all football fans in London asking the FA to strip me of my manager's post.
But after about two weeks, the protests automatically died down following repeated statements that the FA would not back down on what they had done. And plus, after a lengthy and suspicious delay, the key players of the England team asked their fans to calm down and assured me their full support. Among them were Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Scott Parker and others.
My first week as manager was uneventful. Except for the fact that I was dealing with the protests. Basically, we sat for discussions-the FA and I-and landed on a preliminary list of about sixty players whom we could take for the European Championships. Out of this, I had to cut thirty by May 10th. And another seven more by the end of the same month. And to do that, the FA said that I had to travel and look at player performances myself. Anybody who didn't perform, was out. Simple.
Talking of the European Championship, England landed up in what could arguably be called the Group of Death. But before I get to that, we'll take a look at the friendlies I fixed as pre-European Championship preparations.
Italy vs. England 25 May 2012
San Siro, Milan
Norway vs. England 29 May 2012
Ulleval Stadion, Oslo
Croatia vs. England 1 June 2012
Maksimir, Zagreb
Chornomorets Odesa vs. England 3 June 2012
Spartak Odesa, Odesa
Our training base was to be in the Polish city of Krakow. But before going there, we'd first head out to the Portuguese city of Porto. We'd go there and relax for a while, at the same time using FC Porto's training facilities for about (who'd graciously given us permission) five days. We'd then head out to Milan two days before the match and use the facilities at the San Siro to train. Following this, we'd travel to Oslo on the 26th and use Valerenga's training facilities. We'd then travel to Croatia to take on the hosts-and use Dinamo Zagreb's training facilities. Our final stop will be at Odesa to play the Ukrainian club Chornomorets Odesa. We'd then head out to Krakow.
Coming up to the Group Stage now. Like I said, we were in the Group of Death. Just take a look at this.
Group D
England
Spain
France
Belgium
That's right. We have fellow contenders France and defending European and world champions Spain in our group. My task was surely cut out. I would need to do my best to hold Spain to a draw and then try and grab six points out of Belgium and France-not a very enviable task for a young twenty six year old manager.
********** March-May
Everywhere in England
Well, during this period, I was travelling a lot. The main aim was to cancel out a lot of the names in the list of sixty. Which didn't exactly prove very hard in the beginning. There were many names which were cancelled out by me sitting at home. That brought the list down to forty. The next ten were going to be hard. These were the players who would have just missed out on the England squad. Now, considering the fact that there were about twenty players or so who fell into the 'liable for exclusion' category, I began my job of travelling.
I was basically everywhere. In fact, by April 20th, with my visit to the Sports Direct Arena in Newcastle for the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Norwich City, I had been to each and every stadium which hosted Premier League games. From the Liberty Stadium in Wales to the Old Trafford in Manchester, I had been everywhere.
At the end of it, as I sat in my house with just two days to go for the European Championship squad announcement, I managed to cut down the ten names who had just missed out on the England squad for the Euros.
*********** 10 May 2012 Wembley Stadium, London
Finally! I thought to myself when David Bernstein gave the mike to me. Gulping down my saliva, I began, "As you all know, I have always said in my previous press conferences that the emphasis will be on performance rather than reputation. So when I selected this squad of thirty, the first thing I looked for is a regular run of games, and secondly, I looked for excellence in the league. There are some players who will be making their debuts over the course of the next few weeks and there will be a few stars who will not be travelling to the Euros this summer."
A few murmurs were heard in the room. I waited for them to die down before signalling the operator to switch on the projector. "So, without much ado, you have before you, the thirty man preliminary squad for the Euro 2012." With that, I pressed a button on the laser pointer and the projector kicked itself to life, showing the squad.
Goalkeepers: Robert Green (West Ham United), Joe Hart (Manchester City), David Stockdale (Ipswich Town)
Defenders: Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), John Terry (Chelsea), Michael Dawson (Tottenham Hotspur),Phil Jagielka (Everton), Gary Cahill (Bolton Wanderers), Leighton Baines (Everton)
Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham Hotspur), Scott Parker (Tottenham Hotspur), James Milner (Manchester City), Ashley Young (Manchester United), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham Hotspur), Stewart Downing (Liverpool), Adam Johnson (Manchester City), Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Attackers:Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Peter Crouch (Stoke City), Darren Bent (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Andy Carroll (Liverpool).
After they had finished copying down the squad for the morning papers, I continued, "And one more thing, this time, there will be a change of captain. After considerable thought and discussion, I have come to the conclusion that Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard will be re-instated as captain with Chelsea left back Ashley Cole acting as his deputy. All players are expected to return to international duty at the London Colney Grounds in London two days after the end of the Premier League season."
Just as the press wanted me to answer questions, David Bernstein intervened and said, "I'm sorry but Mr. Johnson will not be taking questions today. You may leave."
Rather curt, but it served the purpose. They left quietly and so did we.
The Premier League season ended on the 14th of May. And guess who won the Premier League? Yes, Arsenal ended a seven year wait for a trophy and finally won the Premier League ahead of all the major contenders like the two Manchester clubs, North London rivals Tottenham and Liverpool. Chelsea were a major disappointment this season finishing seventh and not even qualifying for the Europa League-a major setback for Abramovic. So, it was no surprise that Andre-Villas Boas was sacked as Chelsea manager. Wayne Rooney (19 goals) finished as the Premier League's top scorer with Andy Carroll and Peter Crouch (18 goals) finishing second and third respectively. Good omens for England eh?
On the other end of the table were Stoke City, Sunderland and Swansea City. Sunderland and Stoke parted ways with Steve Bruce and Tony Pulis for this reason. Meanwhile, Aston Villa and Newcastle United completed their seasons on a very disappointing note and they ended in 14th and 16th respectively. Soon enough, Alex McLeish and Alan Pardew were out of their jobs. Alan Pardew was later appointed Aston Villa manager and Alan Shearer returned to manage Wolves-Mick McCarthy left them for the recently-relegated Sunderland- while Bob Bradley, former Egypt coach, began his tenure at Stoke City in the Championship.
I wasn't approached by any club even as I began preparations for the Euro 2012 at Porto on the 17th of May. The England squad was fun to work with. I trained them in three main formations mainly. One was to be a standard 4-4-2 which would be used for the matches where we would be on the defensive. The others were a 4-5-1 which would be an attacking formation and the last one was a weirdly shaped 4-1-2-2-1 for matches against equal teams-like France.
We kept training hard at the formations, especially the 4-4-2 since we would need it a lot in the European Championships. The boys were really co-operative and while most were older or my age, they respected me as a manager and respected my ideas. At the same time, I allowed them to express their own ideas and come up with suggestions on our style of play. While the mornings and the afternoons were filled with gruelling training sessions on fitness and tactics respectively, the evenings were filled with aerobic training through five-a-side matches. The nights were just reserved for fun. The players and everybody was allowed to roam around the city of Porto exploring the various nightclubs and restaurants. But they all had to be back by ten.
*************
We travelled to Milan two days before the match against Italy and arrived at our hotels at night. Our preparations were basically the same. I didn't have much of a hope of winning the match. It was mainly to get our act together and to get some competitive feel. And plus, our players weren't exactly on prime fitness with the Premier League season having ended just a week ago. So, when we played Italy at Milan this is what happened. Italy 3-2 England San Siro, Milan (Giovinco 11' 45' Matri 64' - Bent 38' 50')
Sebastian Giovinco and Stefano Mauri were on top form today as Italy absolutely ruled us. But our defence was also good today. All the three Italian goals-two from Giovinco and one from Alessandro Matri- were scored from long range efforts. Darren Bent played his role of a poacher really well. Peter Crouch set him up beautifully for the first one with a controlled header and Gareth Barry played a lovely aerial ball for Bent to volley home the second but unfortunately, it wasn't enough.
Our next trip was to Oslo, where we would play Norway in another friendly match. Norway was a weaker side and compared to the summer in Porto, Oslo was a lot cooler and it helped build up our fitness even further. I decided to field my best eleven for this match and see what happens. I also decided to employ the attacking formation of 4-5-1 and see how it worked. It was important because I was going to play this against Belgium.
**************
Meanwhile, Newcastle United approached me to give me their hot seat. After much thought and discussion with both my England players and my friends and family, I decided to accept the job. St. James Park was always going to be a tough appointment and I knew the expectations that weighed upon me as I took the job over.
Among the first things I did was to look out for people whose contracts were ending in about a month or so. So, after some nice little research, I came up with the following shortlist of players.
Conor Coady (Liverpool)
Andreas Beck (Hoffenheim)
Andreas Isaksson (PSV)
Amr Zaki (Zamalek)
Alexander Frei (Basel)
Christian Poulsen (Liverpool)
Apart from these, I also had transfer targets whom I would buy on a price.
Kevin De Bruyne (Genk)
Younes Kaboul (Tottenham Hotspur)
Mehmet Topal (Valencia)
Ryan Shawcross (Stoke City)
Scott Sinclair (Swansea City)
Peter Crouch (Stoke City)
How many of them would actually be able to sign for the Toon is a question that would be answered over the coming weeks. My priorities were first to strengthen the defence a little bit. And then move on the midfield and attack. I wasn't planning on many departures. One man I found to be redundant was Valerica Gaman, a Romanian defender signed by Pardew. He would be leaving by the end of the pre-season mostly. I also promoted Danny Guthrie to the first team and renewed his contract a few days later as he was going to play a key role in midfield. Also, Ryan Taylor was brought back to the first team and he would also find a place in the next season in our team.
So next up we had our next two friendlies with the England squad. The first was a trip to Oslo and we were going to play the attacking 4-5-1 for the match. We absolutely dominated Norway from start to finish and I am really happy with the way it all went. Rooney and Adam Johnson were especially good today with both of them scoring and grabbing an assist each. Norway 0-4 England (A.Johnson 31' A.Young 46' W.Rooney 60' Downing 71')
Our third and penultimate match was against Croatia. It was a tale of two halves at Maksimir. I gave some of the fringe players a chance in the first half and we were absolutely rolled about the park and Croatia were in fact very unlucky to be heading in only 1-0 up thanks to Mladen Petric. At halftime, a disappointing Phil Jones was taken out for Gary Cahill and Wayne Rooney came on for Darren Bent. And the equation completely changed. John Terry headed home a Downing corner and Coupled with changes later in the second half, the team was just superb and we managed to dominate Croatia completely and were unlucky not to have scored two more goals when Rooney and Downing hit the post twice in seven minutes. Croatia 1-1 England (Petric 42' - Terry 52')
*********** At this point, I had to select my twenty three man squad for the Euros. I decided straight away that the disappointing Phil Jones and Theo Walcott would be thrown out of the squad. Michael Dawson, Phil Jagielka, and Ryan Shawcross also followed suit. One man I reluctantly left out was Manchester City winger Adam Johnson. Though he scored in one match, overall he didn't shine as much as I had expected him to and he lost out on the places to Downing and Young. Tottenham right back Kyle Walker also narrowly missed out on the squad as he was slightly less capable than Chris Smalling or Glen Johnson. *******************
Newcastle United
Meanwhile with Newcastle, I was making progress. I was granted a fairly good transfer budget but I chose to concentrate more on signings. The squad was out for vacation, except Yohan Cabaye who was out on international duty with France. He would be a key player this season but that is only if I can hold on to him. Liverpool and Atletico Madrid both came up with 28 million bids and I decided to negotiate and try and get them to 32 million.
I don't know yet whether they would come back with it but from what I hear, both of them are unlikely to come and get him.
Meanwhile, I made contacts with Genk for the sale of Kevin De Bruyne. They want 7 million pounds while I am prepared to give them a maximum of four. Negotiations are still on as such. I have also expressed an interest in signing Younes Kaboul from Tottenham but nothing is final just as yet. Meanwhile, I have contacted the people whose contracts are running out in the summer and I'm pleased to say that the following have so far accepted to join Newcastle.
Andreas Beck (Hoffenheim) He's currently on international duty with Germany at the European Championships and he is going to be a big capture for us should he join us and not accept any other offer in the meantime.
Amr Zaki (Zamalek) The Egypt international will be a key addition to our squad this summer. We really need someone upfront to support Demba Ba this season and he would be a really good signing.
Other to-be-free-agents whom I am planning to approach soon are Sweden international goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson and Liverpool's England Under-17 captain Conor Coady. I might also look to sign Chelsea's Ulises Davila on loan along with Alex Chamberlain, although loan signings will have to wait till the *** end of the transfer window, just to see if I can cover up the other gaps before then with normal transfers.
Also, I have had agents offering me various players and some players really caught my eye. Pescara's Marco Verratti seems to be a really good prospect but as of now, I'm not sure if I will be making a move for him. Scott Sinclair is also at loggerheads with the Swansea management and I am monitoring his situation.
*********
NEXT UPDATE IS THE BIG ONE GUYS!
DON'T MISS OUT ON IN THE IN-DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE GROUP STAGE AND KNOCKOUT ROUNDS OF ALL THE TEAMS INVOLVED!
A tough group it proved to be for Italy on the field though on paper they were clear favourites to go through. The early loss to Bosnia meant that they finished second in the group while Bosnia went on top in Group A as they had a better head-to-head record. Co-hosts Ukraine crashed out in third place despite putting on an impressive show. Had it not been for the opening match draw against Greece, they could well have been on top of the group.
(Almeida 19' Danny 34' Pepe 77' Amorim 86')
Portugal completed their group with a perfect three on three record but all the other teams ended up on the same number of points after all of them beat one team but lost to the other. So they had to be sorted out on goal difference and by that respect, Poland joined Portugal into the quarterfinals as they managed to have a better goal difference than the other two teams-Croatia and Montenegro. Croatia's exit is likely to ruffle some feathers elsewhere especially after they put out a team having some of the most creative players ever like Luka Modric and Eduardo.
(Kallstrom 12' Ibrahimovic 45 + 2' 58') - (Keane 40')
A group in which Germany strolled through, taking nine points out of nine. But the surprise elimination was that of the Netherlands who lost out the second place to Sweden on the number of goals scored for. Despite their best efforts to try and score with their two main goalscoring outlets, namely Robin Van Persie and Klaas Jan-Huntelaar, they failed to find the net many times and hence lost out.
Final Standings
1. Germany
2. Sweden
3. Holland
4. Ireland
***************************
Group D
England
Spain
Belgium
France
Fixtures and Results
Spain 1-1 England
(Iniesta 4') - (Gerrard 26')
France 0-0 Belgium
Belgium 0-1 Spain
(Kompany O.G. 36')
England 2-1 France
(Rooney 51' Lampard 62') - (Remy 88')
Belgium 1-1 England
(Lukaku 37') - (Lampard pen 28')
France 1-2 Spain
(Ribery 65') - (Pedro 42' Busquets 50')
The Group of Death lived up to it's expectation. My first competitive match against Spain was an absolutely good match. We restricted Spain to long shots while we got many chances from closer ranger ourselves. But unfortunately, they scored first and then it took some spectacular Steven Gerrard shot to gain a point against the world champions. Meanwhile, I was lucky Belgium had held France to a draw because it gave us a very good chance of progression if we managed to beat them in our next game. And beat them we sure did. While Spain registered a highly undeserved 1-0 win over Belgium thanks to a Vincent Kompany own goal, we beat France comfortable with a 2-1 margin thanks to goals from Rooney and Lampard. The final game against Belgium was very easy (or so I thought) and despite us creating many, many chances, we failed to put them away and we would have lost had it not been for a Lampard penalty. Meanwhile, France failed to beat Spain and hence ended up in last place, behind Belgium.
Final Standings
1. Spain
2. England
3. Belgium
4. France
**************************
QUARTERFINALS
Poland 3-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Lewandowski 41' Jelen 59' Blaszczykowski 78') - (Zec 55')
(Torres 20') - (Elmander 23') (Spain win 4-3 on penalties)
The first of the four quarterfinals between Poland and Bosnia was a one sided affair as a ten man Bosnia went down to an on fire Poland. Portugal needed extra time to beat Italy thanks to a Hugo Almeida brace and even though Italy fought strongly till the end, the sending off of star defender Giorgio Chiellini made things a lot harder for them. Before I come to England-Germany, we'll come to Spain versus Sweden where the European champions were pushed to the very end and only when Sergio Ramos coolly slotted home the winning penalty did their ordeal end. Fernando Torres continued his good form and scored for the first time in the European Championship this year.
The England-Germany match by contrast saw a completely counterattacking performance from the English side as they held off wave after wave of German attacks and produced deadly attacks of their own with their pacey wingers Aaron Lennon and Ashley Young. In the end, it took a piece of brilliance from England captain Steven Gerrard followed by a stunning shot (which went in after crashing against the inside of the bar) from Man City midfielder Gareth Barry to settle the issue in injury time, just when both sides were starting to worry about extra time. I was absolutely delighted with it and it was a great defensive performance from the lads!
******************************
SEMIFINALS
Poland 2-0Spain
(Mila pen 4, Reyes O.G 28')
Spain were not at their best in this tournament and it showed in the semi-finals as Poland finally sent the Spaniards back to the Cibeles in Madrid. Though the manner in which the goals were scored may seem to convey a fluke win, it was anything but that. Spain were forced into long shots as the defence held on firmly to deny their creative midfield of Xavi, Iniesta and David Silva any space. And Torres was invisible in the match, just like David Villa.
And this is a great achievement for the rank underdogs as the co-hosts have reached the final of the European Championships where they'll meet the winner of the match between England and Portugal.
Portugal 3-4 England
(Almeida 32' 65' Danny 70') - (Young 8' Rooney 68' 90+1' Bent 108')
We seem to be in a mood to take revenge on all opponents who threw us out of the past few world cups. First Germany and now Portugal. Rooney was in top form as he scored twice, the first a tap in from Lennon's cross and the second when he knocked home the rebound in injury time after Frank Lampard's penalty was parried by Ricardo. It was one of the best games of football with plenty of chances at both ends and plenty of end to end action as Joe Hart and Ricardo were on top forms. It was an even match from start to finish though we dominated slightly in the later stages of the game when Cristiano Ronaldo limped off in the 95th minute, too fatigued to continue, to be replaced by Varela and Bruno Alves was sent off in the 115th minute.
Ronaldo was a constant thorn in our side just as Rooney was to them. However, Glen Johnson did an excellent job of keeping him under control and it was one of his best performances-easily meriting the man of the match that he got at the end, for both his defensive work and his assist which led to Bent's winning goal.
************************** FINALS
England 2-1 Poland
(Terry 45+1' Bent 80') - (Mila 43')
Wayne Rooney missed out on this game due to suspension and Darren Bent filled in for him. And what a game it was! We created many chances and we showed why we deserved the win, though to be honest, I thought the defence was lazy as they allowed the Polish side to continue counterattacking. Despite our attacking performance, we fell behind to a Sebastian Mila shot in the 43rd minute but John Terry restored parity just before halftime with a solid header from Stewart Downing's corner. The second half continued where we left off with England attacking and Poland counterattacking. But finally, Darren Bent managed to sneak in a winner ten minutes from time and we were European champions for the first time in our history! I feel so proud to have won it now!
***************
Admitted, we'd had some lucky escapes, the most notable being the fact that Germany failed to put even one shot into the back of the net and the fact that had France not messed up and drawn with Belgium and had beaten it instead, we'd have gone out of the Euros in the group stage itself. But anyway, all that matters is that we've got the win and it's a nice trophy to begin my career with.
Now, I have to concentrate on Newcastle United and preparing for the World Cup Qualifiers that begin with a trip to guess where? Yes! Poland.
********************
European Championship Best Player: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) Golden Boot: Hugo Almeida (Portugal)- 7 goals Goal of The Tournament: Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Croatia Running from inside the Croatia half, Ronaldo skins an opponent before scoring a fierce shot.
Dream Team of Euro 2012
GK: Manuel Neuer (Germany)
LB: Ashley Cole (England) CB: Pepe (Portugal) CB: John Terry (England) RB: Glen Johnson (England)
LM: Andre Schurrle (Germany) CM: Sebastian Giovinco (Italy) CM: Danny (Portugal) RM: Pedro (Spain)
ST: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) ST: Hugo Almeida (Portugal)
Subs: Iker Casillas (Spain), Andrea Ranocchia (Italy), Xavi (Spain), Miguel Veloso (Portugal), Wayne Rooney (England), Gareth Barry (England), Ireneusz Jelen (Poland), Giorgio Chiellini (Italy), Sejad Salihovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ashley Young (England), Darren Bent (England), Ruben Amorim (Portugal)
******************************
Screenshots of England matches
So after a great run in the Euros with the England team, it was now time for us to start preparing for the new season with Newcastle United. I was going to use the same three tactics which I had been using for England. As I said earlier, I have been making a lot of approaches to many players on free transfers. I was also going to look for some good loan signings and some nice transfers too given my fairly hefty transfer kitty.
Newcastle United Transfers
Transfers In
Mehmet Topal (Valencia) - 625,000
Kevin De Bruyne (Genk)- 4 million
Andreas Isaksson (PSV)- Free
Andreas Beck (Hoffenheim)- Free
Amr Zaki (Zamalek)- Free
Conor Coady (Liverpool)- Free
Younes Kaboul (Tottenham Hotspur) - 3.2 million
Marco Verratti (Pescara) - 1.8 million
Alexander Frei- Free
Ulises Davila - On Loan From Chelsea
Scott Sinclair (Swansea City) - 6 million
Alex Chamberlain- On Loan From Arsenal
Transfers Out
Steve Harper- Free
Peter Lovenkrands- Free
James Tavernier- Free
Jeff Henderson- Free
Paul Dummett- Free
Stephen Folan- Free
Greg McDermott- Free
Patrick Nzuzi- Free
Liam Henderson- Free
Michael Richardson- Free
Samuel Adjei (Hereford)- Free
Ryan Donaldson (Plymouth Argyle)-Free
Valerica Gaman (Benfica) - 1.7 million
Gabriel Obertan (Granada)- 3 million
Jonas Gutierrez (West Ham)- 7 million
Mehdi Abeid (Rochdale)- Loan
Ryan Taylor (Birmingham City)- 2.3 million
Frederik Stoor (FC Porto) - Loan Fee 550,000
Screenshot
Manager Comments
I'm very happy with all the transfers that I have made. Of course, the fans were a little disappointed that Jonas went out but I felt that he didn't really bring anything to the side while Sinclair brought some pace and good dribbling with him. I also managed to offload a lot of the dead wood on free transfers while Frederik Stoor was farmed out to Porto. I didn't intend on selling Ryan Taylor but he wanted to leave so I had no choice but to let him go to Birmingham City. Obertan was also an unnecessary player and he was let out to Granada. Valerica Gaman found a good club in Benfica after he was told that he was surplus to needs.
Pre-Season Matches
We played very tough teams right from the start and I'm really pleased with the way pre-season went. The boys were gelling well with each other and I think we can give a good fight for the one of the positions between 7th and 10th this season. The loss to CSKA Moscow was a disappointment though as we needed to win it before the season began but anyway, pre-season was otherwise fine.
August and September
The first two months of my reign at Newcastle were fairly fun to be honest. We had some very easy games and one or two tough ones. We also had two world cup qualifiers with England against Poland and Montenegro.
Barclays Premier League
Newcastle United 3-0 Queens Park Rangers (Verkhovtsov 22' 77' Ba 30')
Demba Ba and Dzmitry Verkhovtsov, two of Alan Pardew's signings, were on target today as we beat QPR by 3 goals. Verkhovtsov headed in two corners and Ba scored a brilliant volley to give us a 3-0 win at St. James Park. But our defence was a let down in this match and we gave them quite a lot of chances to get back into the game. But they didn't take them and we ended up as 3-0 winners. Barclays Premier League
Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle United (Gerrard 2' 75')
Hands down! Liverpool deserved to win this match. I tried to play something of a back to the wall game and ended up paying for it as Liverpool put in wave after wave of attacks and it resulted in two goals. The first was a twenty five yard freekick from my national team captain Stevie G and the second was a simple tap-in from Henderson's cross.
Carling Cup 2nd Round
Newcastle United 2-0 Sheffield Wednesday (Verkhovtsov Pen 45' De Bruyne 89')
After the Liverpool match, I was itching to see a good performance and the lads gave it to me. We gave Sheffield absolutely no chance and if not for their goalkeeper, we'd easily have won this match by five or six goals. They tried to park the bus and paid for it first when Amr Zaki was brought down in the box. Next, they again paid for it when Kevin De Bruyne burst through their defence to score a good goal.
Barclays Premier League
Newcastle United 5-2 West Bromwich Albion (Frei 8' 65' Kaboul 55' Ba 80' 84' - Brunt 10' Scoco 57') Ismael Fuentes Sent Off (West Brom) 62'
Okay, I'll admit it. It was the red card which brought us back into the game. If not for the red card, I don't think we'd have gotten three points from this game. Maybe a point, but then even that would be too close to call. After the red card, we let loose and we attacked freely, but West Brom were still a threat on the counter. Good performance from the boys, especially from Alexander Frei and Demba Ba. 2014 World Cup Qualifiers Poland 2-4 England (Blacszykowski 7' Jelen 54' - Rodwell 6'Cahill 11' Walcott 36' Lampard 83')
A very good performance from the lads. Jack Rodwell got his debut in this match for England and he marked it with a stunning strike to open up the scoring for England. Dortmund winger Blacszykowski levelled after a minute but Bolton centreback Gary Cahill made it 2-1 five minutes later before Theo Walcott scored again to make it 3-1 at halftime. Ireneusz Jelen pulled one back but Lampard put the tie to bed late on.
England 2-0 Montenegro (Hooper 1,70)
Celtic striker Gary Hooper scored twice on debut as England beat Montenegro 2-0 at the Wembley. It was a solid performance from us and we absolutely demolished Montenegro, not giving them much of a chance to level things up again. We were unlucky not to have scored more as Scott Parker and Hooper himself again came close late on with two shots cannoning back off the woodwork. All in all, it was a very satisfying game and a very good weekend for us internationally.
Barclays Premier League
Manchester United 2-0 Newcastle United (Vidic 5' Rooney 48')
We came to Old Trafford and tried again to play a "back-to-the-wall" game but failed again. Nemanja Vidic broke us with a header from a corner and after numerous failed chances and lucky escapes, Wayne Rooney finished it off in the 48th minute with a sublime finish. Nothing much to learn from here except that we were disappointing.
Newcastle United 2-0 Leicester City (Tiote 12' Marveaux 56')
Cheick Tiote and Sylvain Marveaux got their first goals of this season as we hammered Leicester at home. Really solid performance as we bounced back from our defeat to United. A really good performance and I hope we can keep this going. Carling Cup 3rd Round
Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Newcastle United (Coloccini 116')
A really tough match for both sides. It was finally settled by a moment of pure brilliance from Fabricio Coloccini when he decided to run with the ball forward instead of clearing. He scored with a low shot into the bottom corner after getting past two defenders and exchanging a one-two with Alexander Frei. Brilliant stuff! But credit to Blackburn for not giving up and fighting till the end. There was controversy though as they deserved a penalty in the 120th minute when Ryan Nelsen was brought down in the box, but the ref didn't give it.
Barclays Premier League
West Ham United 1-1 Newcastle United (Carew 81' - Verkhovtsov 52')
We had the majority of possession in this match but we still didn't create many more chances than West Ham. We were disappointing to say the least and our finishing was suspect. We should really have put it past the Hammers with all the possession and the chances we had, but somehow, we managed to score only one goal through a Verkhovtsov header from a Danny Guthrie freekick. But John Carew's late goal ensured that the Hammers got at least a point from this game while we lost two.
Premier League Table
So, after six games, we sit in the sixth place, three points behind fifth placed Tottenham. We've had a steady start to this season but our real challenge will be over the next few weeks as one by one we start to take on teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Aston Villa and the others. Liverpool are surprisingly not doing too well. And I'm being linked to the job after speculation that Dalglish may be forced to leave began doing the rounds earlier this week. But of course, we'll have to wait for their results over the next few weeks before we reach a conclusion.
************** Player Of the Month
Dzmitry Verkhovtsov
The Belarusian international has been in solid form this month, not only being a rock at the back but also scoring some important goals. Alexander Frei also came close to taking the award but for me, it has to be this guy. He's been superb and deserves the plaudits coming his way!
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