JonTheMag

Almost certainly will be going to the World Cup now. This is absolutely mental.

In the biggest news ever, Shola Ameobi just assisted a goal for Nigeria against Italy. Beginning to look very likely that he'll be on the plane to the World Cup if he stays fit. This is the greatest thing to ever happen to football.

Jonas down the left, Sissoko on the right, Gouffran and Ameobi up top. #Workhorse11

What was the picture? It's been taken down

I hear the French are quite kinky you so may be onto something.

Hey everyone - I'm meeting Gerard Houllier today as he's coming into my office - not sure if I'll have time to properly chat with him but if you guys have any questions you'd want to ask I might be able to get one in!

Manchester City's "second squad" that we're playing tonight has 268 international caps combined.

BRING IN SVEN!!!!

Im currently reading one of Simon Kuper's books: "Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest Hour", and it's really good. Looks at football in all countries during World War II and it's fascinating how the different nations approached the sport in wartime. Kuper's other ones are pretty solid too - Football Against the Enemy, Soccer Men, and Why England Lose/Soccernomics are all great.

This is brilliant from Luke Edwards. Link is here, and is less of a headache to read: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/10409369/Were-sports-reporters-Mr-Ashley-not-media-partners-and-were-worth-more-than-you-think.html Newcastle United’s owner Mike Ashley does not like newspapers. We are a nuisance to him, we criticise and dare to question his decisions, but most of all we do not pay millions of pounds every season for the right to cover Premier League football matches. Last week, the Newcastle board, led by Ashley, Director of Football Joe Kinnear and Football Secretary Lee Charnley, decided to punish the three local papers on Tyneside: The Chronicle, The Journal and Sunday Sun. The decision to ban them came after several threats had been made via the club’s media department that they would be if they continued to offer negative coverage of the team and the club. So what was the ban for? One of the papers, which are all part of the Trinity Mirror stable, the Chronicle, gave too much coverage to an anti-Ashley protest march and did not defend the club’s owner enough in the face of a very vocal organising campaign. Last season, Newcastle also banned the Daily and Sunday Telegraph for writing a story about the danger of dressing room divisions after the 6-0 home defeat by Liverpool and that certain players, namely Yohan Cabaye, were more interested in themselves and trying to secure a move than the team. The story has since been confirmed by the club’s former goalkeeper Steve Harper on the record and Cabaye missed three games at the start of the season while on strike in a bid to force Newcastle to sell him to Arsenal. My ban has been lifted. Write a story that is true and you can prove, but we don’t like it because it is uncomfortable for us? You’re banned. Write a story covering the details of a protest march, why it is taking place and what it hopes to achieve, but don’t defend Ashley? You’re banned. There are some of you reading this who will also claim not to like newspapers. Journalists are not the most popular people and it’s fashionable to knock the industry in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry and phone-hacking scandals. But the very fact you are reading this in the first place means you still have an interest in what we write. Whether you agree with what you read is irrelevant, disagreeing is part of the fun. We are, fundamentally, a source of news. We spark debate and we comment on things that happen in the game, but most of you read a newspaper or its website because, on some level, you enjoy it. After all, nobody is forcing you too. Ashley doesn’t like the media when it comes to focus on his life or business interests. He is a very private individual and there is nothing wrong with that. So why, if he doesn’t speak to the media about Sports Direct, doesn’t explain himself to journalists and, through them, to his customers that have turned up in their droves for years and turned him into a billionaire, should he communicate with Newcastle’s supporters? That isn’t going to change. He doesn’t have to say anything in the media if he does not want to, just as any chief executive of a big business doesn’t have to tell a business reporter why he has stopped employees using the internet to read about football when they’re supposed to be working! Tut-tut if that’s you. However, Ashley’s suspicion of the media, and newspapers particularly, has deepened since he became involved in football. Part of that is because he is under more scrutiny, but mainly it is because he has never grasped the fact a football club is a business that is part of the entertainment industry. Like every other area of the entertainment industry, coverage is subjective. When a theatre critic slams a new production of Othello he isn’t banned from the theatre, although the director may never speak to him again. When a new album comes out, it is reviewed, positively, or negatively, depending on the reviewer’s preference. Sales are generated through this coverage. Interest in the musician is created by interviews, features and comment pieces, which in turn publicise gigs and concerts, making the artist and, more important the record companies money. Newspapers get to give their verdict on all of these things for free because it is, in effect, free advertising. It is a mutually beneficial relationship and has always been so. Ashley, though, is one of the Premier League chairmen who want to make newspapers pay to cover games. Thankfully, his calls have been rejected by the Premier League who realise they need newspaper coverage. It provides the widest exposure and gives the game its largest audience figures. In August, despite more than a decade of falling sales, an average of 7,924,574 national newspapers were sold every day. It is accepted that at least two people, on average, look at every paper so daily readership is in excess of 14m people. Combine that with website traffic – around two million people every day read the sport section of the Guardian and Telegraph websites alone – and local newspaper sales, and over half of the adult population in Britain still get their news and sports updates from newspaper companies. To put things into context, BBC’s Match of the Day, the most popular football show on television, averages between 6-7m viewers once a week. But Ashley can cope with television and radio because he can make money out of them. Newspapers are different and he has no control over what we think and write about him or his football club and, within the strict constraints of libel law, we can say what we want. We can print stories that football clubs don’t want to appear. We can reveal sensitive information, we speak to contacts in secret and we protect their identities. We can sway public opinion with our comment pieces and our analysis. We criticise Newcastle, we complain loudly when bad decisions are made and we ask questions that are uncomfortable for the board and the manager. But we also praise and congratulate when things go well. We write rave reviews of performances, offer adulation to players, managers and, as was the case with Newcastle a couple of years ago, praise for impressive financial figures. This is always forgotten. The bottom line is, and it’s always the bottom line Ashley thinks of, we do not show up on a balance sheet, but we do make money out of covering football matches. Fans log on to our websites and buy our newspapers because they want to read about clubs, players, managers and, yes, owners like Ashley too. Ashley, though, wants media partners not independent coverage. Newcastle do not control those who pay to cover Premier League football, but there is a subtle difference between newspapers and the broadcast media. We are not constrained by contracts and we scratch under the surface. Bland pre-match and post-match interviews are a small fraction of what we do. We sometimes find the dirty linen hidden away, not the clean, pristine stuff hung out for all to see by official club magazines, websites, matchday programmes. We are difficult and inquisitive. We sometimes get things wrong, but in a democratic country, sports reporters, like all journalists, are allowed to say and report on what we want. It is comment, it is opinion, it is free speech and it is under threat, because Newcastle United do not always like what we say and we don’t pay to say it.

I mainly work as a producer/editor for a company called KickTV, which is a Youtube channel about football geared to a global, though primarily American, audience. It's probably the most fun I could ever have. On weekends though I do some part-time freelance work for NBC working on their Premier League coverage. I'm taking Sunday off to go get drunk at 7 AM and watch the Derby, although I'm a bit worried as we're undefeated in all the games I've seen while working there! (West Ham, Fulham, Villa, Cardiff)

It's the best, isn't it? I get to do it every weekend with the Premier League, although no blowjobs and bacon I'm afraid. Am taking off work for the derby though!

Decent mini-podcast Derby preview with Caulkin, Edwards, and some cathword named Simon Bird. Would be cool if they did more things like this. https://soundcloud.com/caulkinthetimes/north-east-derby-ask-the-hard

I saw an ISO of Ben Arfa during the goal. He was far away from it - and held his hands up to the sky and cheered. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Yeaaaah didnt think so I'll update you all if anything gets at all interesting. For the record, I'm Newcastle through-and-through, I've drank the 'Premier League is the best League in the world' kool-aid and all that. But having worked within MLS for a few months now, it is a pretty exciting league. Some quality goals scored every week, and heading into the playoffs there's 7-8 teams who could conceivably win the League. It's a nice change from the usual 3-4 title contenders in the Premier League, even if the quality is at a mid-lower Championship level at best.

MLS is really competitive this year - a few games left to go until the playoffs and anyone could win it. I don't much like the playoff structure, I prefer having a proper League table and having the best team after the end of the season win. It does provide some upsets though, and in the run in during these last few games the wheels have COMPLETELY fallen off, losing 5-1, 4-1, 1-0, and now 2-0, when they were at the top of the table previously. It's some great football with some great young players who are using it as a stepping stone to bigger leagues.. I'd be happy to talk more about it if anyone's interested.

Are you sure? I read that while the photos are from 2002, the article is from more recently. Does anyone here speak Belgian?

Seen that floating around - it was published sometime in 2013 so it's not the all seeing future paper that it appears to be. Shame really, would've been a great prediction!!!

If he does have to go, I'll be much happier if he goes to PSG than Arsenal.

I've posted this elsewhere - but the last 15-20 minutes of that match yesterday was the most free-flowing, attacking stuff we've played since the back end of the 11/12 season. Very reminiscent of our displays against Stoke and WBA, and I can't think of a spell last season when we created so many chances with such directness. We were only able to do that though because Fulham was pressing for an equalizer. We just need to be able to have that incisiveness when the opposition is behind the ball, and getting more early goals would help as well!

Not the case at all. If we had Cisse injured we'd almost certainly play Remy up front, likely flanked by Gouffran and HBA. Sure, Shola would get more playing time but he's not going to be our main striker. And also, maybe some others can correct me on this, but didn't Gouffran play more centrally at Bordeaux, and it was us who started using him primarily as a winger/inside forward?

What a wonderful, classy club: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/30/liverpool-twitter-munich-air-disaster

No one bite, it's just not worth it.

Agreed - I'm not doubting his capabilities. More that this is an untested centre-back partnership with a language gap. More than happy with this line-up, but if there was one area that looked shaky to me, this would be it.

A bit worried about the Yanga-Mbiwa, Good combo - we tend to lose games like this as a result of a shaky pair of central defenders - usually off a set-piece or miscommunication. But other than that, very happy. Very happy with the front 4, and I'm excited to see Bigi again.