The Mailbox is #TeamMary in the wake of Joey Barton’s latest nonsense. Also: lots of love from the Toon Army for Eddie Howe – the best manager since Sir Bobby Robson, apparently.
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Barton’s a bell
I’ve never given a shiny brown Mr Whippy about the Beebs SPOTY stuff. All of these yearly awards are just an excuse for an expensive piss-up at someone else’s expense if you ask me.
That was until I read Joey Barton’s latest tirade, this time against Mary “Bag of Potatoes” Earp… now I reckon it’s up there with the Ballon D’or and believe she should be made Queen Mary asap. The guy is an absolute moron and should still be starring for Prison FC for what he did to that youth player, or for his appearance on Question Time.
Imagine being called “Mediocre” by Joseph “Marquis of Mediocrity” Barton! He played for still sh*t City, still sh*t Newcastle, QPR, Burnley and got a whopping ONE England cap FFS!.
Ta,
Dave
Read more: Mary Earps wins but lacy outfits and braless hosts still dominate SPOTY chat
Newcastle’s dark side
Have to agree wholeheartedly with Ash from Wednesday morning’s mailbox. Not that I expect Newcastle fans will care one bit, but I find them intensely unlikeable.
Eddie Howe’s time-wasting was a disgrace even back at Bournemouth, but at least they had the excuse of being a relatively small club doing whatever they could to get results. This Newcastle side play some lovely football at times, but even as a relative neutral, that is vastly outweighed by all the time they waste feigning injury. Like Ash, I also feel they have had very favourable treatment from both referees and media this season.
Oh, and let’s not forget that Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes are among the least likeable players in the league too. I’m delighted that they’re out of the league cup, even if it sadly means Chelsea now have a chance of salvaging something from their miserable season.
Tom, Northwich
Steady over Eddie
Get this to the next board meeting.
“Listen to the Toon . Don’t fall into the trap of sacking the manager as per other clubs without a heartbeat. We have a great opportunity to break the mould. We are passionate and loyal. EH believes in this club. Results will come . Stick together.
Listen to the Toon .”
On behalf of all the Geordies down under,🦘
Paul Lelliott
…I have just read your article on Eddie under pressure or is he.
As you well know there is pressure on all league teams.
Eddie is just short of a two year stint at Newcastle in my own opinion he is the best manager since Sir Bobby Robson.
So far throughout his time spent at the club Newcastle have qualified for the champions league unfortunately they were knocked out by Ac Milan.
After his and Newcastle’s latest run of form yes I believe he is under pressure but you must take into consideration that they have played two London clubs in the last two weeks Tottenham both who have at least double or triple the money that Newcastle have in addition they were very unlucky against Chelsea in addition they have been very unfortunate in the injuries that have occurred
I believe that January especially with the the January transfer window the owners will have to give him the money build up the squad so they will be able to challenge for foreign and domestic trophies next year in my own opinion I believe under the managerial guidance of mister Howe success will be brought to Newcastle.
Diarmuid
…Just stop ! Pack it in now 😡
Lazy journalism ! It’s like gossiping on the street corner, you sad stupid little men!
Eddie Howe is going nowhere, you all in the media think you can cause trouble where there is none. You lot may not like the fact but Newcastle is going to be a thorn in the sides of the so called big six and the hierarchy of the Premiership.
NUFC is two years ahead of time in a 5 year plan, we are victims of our own success, last year we had normal amount of injuries , this year we have constant double figure , some long term injuries. Howe and the club have never moaned about it nor made excuses but it’s a fact.
We were out of Ch league that night in France with the 8 minutes of extra time , should have been under 5, and the non penalty incident. How about getting investigations into improper conduct at best, corruption at worst , by the referees and officials !
Lay off with the lies !!
Anon
Mikel Arteta and Man Utd
I had wanted to send in this mail on the eve of Manchester United’s bleak 3-0 loss to Bournemouth on 9 December.
Watching the Red Devils mired in the miry sludge of inconsistent mediocrity, I thought of a rough comparison between Mikel Arteta and Erik Ten Hag.
Fortunately yesterday was the third anniversary of Mikel Arteta hired by the Arsenal hierarchy so I felt it was a good time to send this in.
Looking back on the Spanish Manager’s tenure, what he has been able to achieve at Arsenal has been nothing short of incredible. Miraculous, even.
When Arteta arrived, the atmosphere that pervaded Arsenal was toxic, and even mutinous.
Acrimony reigned in the stands. The dressing room was in a mess. The culture at the club has slid into anomie.
To get such a huge footballing institution like Arsenal pulling in one direction, while instigating a complete cultural reset from boardroom to dressing while playing an eye-catching brand of football is phenomenal.
To put what he has achieved in context, you only have to look at the number of coaches that have been turned over at Old Trafford.
He has been constantly and unfairly compared to the likes of Frank Lampard (lol), Brendan Rodgers, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik, Thomas Tuchel, etc and being perceived as the more inferior manager/coach.
However within the last three years, most of the managers he was compared have either been sacked or are struggling. (A manager is good as his last result, and all that.)
His handling of problematic players while unpopular at the time has proven to be spot on.
In tandem with the grudgingly brilliant Edu, he undertook a merciless clear out of the likes of AMN, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi, Pepe, Aubameyang and Ozil, the latter duo, high profile players who were on high wages but had to be forced out because of the negative influence they wielded in a young dressing room.
His clarity and articulation during press conferences is immaculate.
He has made Arsenal a team difficult to play against once more, a trait that has been missing from the Gunners since probably the Invincibles.
Arsenal have become decisive in the transfer market. Gone are the mad trolley dashes on transfer deadline day or the lean, penny-pinching era of late Wenger years.
It takes a special manager to get the owners to loosen the purse-strings.
And doing all these in just his first job? Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Due to the arrogance and bullying that Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United meted out on Arsenal over the years which cost the Gunners at least 2-3 PL titles, nothing would please me more than see the continued decline or at least the confused rigmarole of the Red Devils.
But if I were to advise Manchester United, they ought to swallow their pride and do a complete cultural reset.
Manchester United can’t really replicate the same success as Arsenal now because it’s not about giving Ten Hag time, as was accorded Arteta. It’s about a top to bottom cultural reset.
Achieving that cultural reset is nigh on impossible because the Manchester United board runs the club solely for profit and nothing more.
Does Erik Ten Hag look like the one to catalyze this change? Based on what he achieved so far, I doubt.
So even if Erik Ten Hag is given a Todd Boehly-sized war chest, he would achieve middling success at best; an odd cup here, a final there, just enough to give a semblance of moving forward.
But it’d be difficult to get Manchester United to achieve the buccaneering success of the Ferguson era.
I hope the Lego-haired Spaniard spends several more years at the Emirates dugout even though I know that the likes of Stewie Griffin and Richard Keys would be gritting their teeth in agony.
William, Sunderland Gunner. (Stewie Griffin, I’m waiting for a “factual and clear-eyed” rebuttal and doomsday prediction of why Arteta should be sacked next week after spending £600m+ in 3 years and bottling a PL title. 😀)
ABC
I wonder if Mark has been as passionate about defending the value of the World Club Trophy in literally any season before this one? I am thinking no, and I am also thinking that he could probably start an argument in an empty room, looking at his bizarre diatribe.
And of course, all teams have their eejit supporters, but supporting a team that was in the deep doldrums twenty-five years ago only to have their fortunes transformed with oil money and probable serial rule breaking has turned a staggering amount of City fans into unbelievable gobsh*tes. There are bad losers, but bad winners are a different breed.
Enjoy it whilst you can boys because one day your overlords will grow bored and your house of cards will come tumbling down, and my, how the rest of us will enjoy it.
Matthew (GO FLUMINENSE!)
PS Christopher – you get 50% credit. Had I not been drowning in hubris all the standing up in the world wouldn’t have saved you.
Wrong target
Did anyone notice Jamie Redknapp highly criticised Mudryk for not being in the right position for the cross which led to the goal, which would have meant he would not have scored the goal? And essentially praised Trippier for his mistake because Mudryk should not have been there. He said it was a bad finish as well, when I’m not sure what else he could have done to slot it in the bottom corner. Old Chelsea may be dead but at least the hatred is still there, we feed off it.
A Starving Chelsea Fan
Car Keys
Followed a 3.5L badly driven Audi for a bit today, registration K3YSI3 … had to be, didn’t it?
Jeremy Aves
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