It’s a football thing

Where the action is

Just a quick nudge to let you know that most of the action these days is happening at www.ourmanincameroon.com but don’t give up on Our Man in Newcastle just yet.

I’ve a couple of posts left in me, not least I want to try and make sense of my year back in the Toon.

Hope that’s all okay.

Love is in the Toon

I just chanced upon this, quite by accident.  But I thought the fabulous pictures were worth sharing.

Photographer Ken Lam explains:

Emily and Kin found me over the internet 3 months ago. We didn’t meet each other until the actual engagement photo shoot in Newcastle. However, it wasn’t an issue at all as we discussed everything through the email and telephone. Communication is key. Kin is a Marketing Consultant and Emily is an accountant working in London. When I heard that they are both working in the same company, I thought “isn’t it great!!!” How come I can’t work the same company with my lovely wife.

Emily and Kin met in the University while studying in Sydney Australia and have stayed there for 12 years. Emily and Kin are keen travellers; their love for travel have brought them to England to work 7 months ago. I could feel their happiness and how comfortable they were in the presence of each other. They have been together since 8 years ago and now, before they get married, they want a set of photographs that can capture their free spirit as a young, energetic couple very much in love. Emily and Kin, I hope you like these photos!

Pictures here.

Try your luck with the Shields Gazette

I’m not a big fan of the Shields Gazette – particularly their woeful sports coverage.

They do, however, more often than not, provide a comments box on the end of each story.  So, theoretically when the story is crap, as they tend to be – you can tell them.

Trouble is, for the past six months I have been trying in vain to get them to publish any comment at all.  Okay so while not one of them have ever said: “wow great article”, they’ve not be so unpolite.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else can beat the SG’s censor.

It hardly seems worth sending out a sport reporter on Newcastle’s pre-season Majorca jaunt but they have. And it certainly doesn’t seem like value for money when you see the standard of the copy provided.  However, I’ve just posted a sickly sweet “great stuff” message to see if I can finally break my posting duck.

Wll it ever see the light of day?

The article is here – any chance we can deluge them with comments to see if anything gets through?

Joey Barton Doesn’t Shame Me

Despite what the media might be telling you about Newcastle United fans – I don’t care about Joey Barton.

The papers might be able to scare up enough gobby prats to parrot their general sense of outrage but, I repeat, I don’t care.

While I am absolutely sure he is a particularly horrible bloke his presence in my football team doesn’t shame me. I didn’t buy him. His bad behaviour reflects on himself, not the club and certainly not us fans. I would rather not have him in my team but all the various options put up by an apparently furious media make very little sense.

Sack him and we write off £6m while Barton profits from a hefty signing on fee elsewhere. If he shines for his new club and keeps his nose clean they get the kudos for rehabilitating him and his value will once more soar.

Fine him, beyond what is allowed by his Union, and we are on dodgy ground. It’s a legal minefield that could again see him walk away for nothing…  join a new club…hefty signing on fee …etc etc.

And that money we’re expected to write off..that’s mine that is. I, alongside thousands of other fans, came up with that cash. We are not Manchester United or Chelsea. Right now, it appears £6m is a great deal of cash for us.

But anyway, hasn’t Barton done his time? Don’t we have some kind of duty to rehabilitate him? Should all ex-cons not be employed? Or just not employed by football clubs?

Or is this part of a wider media agenda – Booze Britain, Broken Britain etc.  Let’s get everyone simultaneously outraged AND miserable. Bet they wish he’d had a knife, or was a migrant, or a Muslim. Bet they wish the booze he drank was cheap.  Bet they wish they could blame Gordon Brown.

Have they all forgotten Tony Adams already? A player who committed an arguably worse crime and did his time behind bars. He then went on to win silverware galore, captain England and recently won the FA Cup as assistant manager at Portsmouth.

Let’s not also forget that Newcastle’s manger Kevin Keegan wasn’t responsible for signing Barton. It’s yet another problem that he has inherited from the genius he replaced.

KK is keeping his cool and his dignity and is getting Barton back into training and, hopefully, away from whatever demons haunt him.

And no doubt, once Barton is fit and performing well, then real cash offers will once more come in.

Then, and only then, will be the right time to sell him.

* It appears I am not the only one thinking this way. Check out here and here.