Nicky Butt and Kevin Nolan reckon their relegated Newcastle side were a “better” side than current Tottenham Hotspur. OK?
The first Toon couple was there ‘The good, the bad and the football’ podcast where they reminisced about the Magpies’ relegation in 2008/09.
During that time, Newcastle waved their respectable manager; he chose a relic that did not know the names of his players; they sold their best player in January; and finally he went down under another local hero; with many players not bothering to hide their desire to leave the club. And that’s not only half the story.
However, Nolan sees the same things what’s happening at Spurs this season.
“It’s very similar to what’s happening at Tottenham now,” he said before agreeing with Butt that their Newcastle side are better.
“When you hear Spurs people saying ‘oh we’re too big to go down’, they’re not too big to go down because I believe we were a better team, man and man and team than Spurs are now.”
We all watched that Newcastle team and, naturally, would have rejected that claim.
But the combined XI of Newcastle then and Tottenham now includes more Mags than Spurs. Only.
Here’s that XI, paying attention to form rather than reputation…
GK: Shay Given (Newcastle)
Perhaps Newcastle’s best player of the 2008/09 season and many in the ranks of the Toon Army will point to his sale to Manchester City at the end of January as the point where it all started to go wrong. Not that they were flying with Fane on purpose; they were 15th at the time with two points separating the bottom six.
RB: Pedro Porro (Tottenham Hotspur)
The Spanish defender was… okay. It certainly hasn’t helped that he’s been asked to play in different positions on the right-back recently and it’s been a lot of trouble for him since he was stuck at Palace. It was Porro or Habib Beye.
CB: Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur)
Romero’s madness this season has been a form of Argentina midfielder while Micky Van de Ven’s decline has been even more surprising and alarming. So basically the devil better you know, Romero is in.
CB: Sebastien Bassong (Newcastle)
He voted Newcastle’s youngest ever Player of the Season before forcing his way out of the club at the first opportunity, moving to Spurs in the summer of 2009 after he went on strike, refusing to go on a pre-season tour of the Magpies, calling the political situation at the club ‘disturbing’. He had a point.
LB: Jose Enrique (Newcastle)
Like Porro’s choice at right back, Enrique is the better of the two very ‘meh’ options. The form of Djed Spence is enough for Thomas Tuchel, but without a good spell in the autumn, he certainly did not look like part of the solution for Spurs. Enrique was solid enough and determined to get Newcastle out of the Championship, winning the Club Player of the Year in the second division.
MORE: Tonali to Man Utd, Gordon to Liverpool as six Newcastle stars reassigned PIF ‘open for business’
CM: Archie Gray (Tottenham Hotspur)
Should Spurs go down, Gray will be one of the few players to be applauded off the pitch on deadline day, a youngster who fills every role asked of him – there have been many – and one of the few who will have the chance to make the big move that some of his teammates seem to think they will too.
CM: Nicky Butt (Newcastle)
Only one player played more than Butt in what was supposed to be his last season before retirement. But the former England international didn’t want to do the ‘s***house’ thing and walked away, leaving Newcastle in the hole he helped them find. So he signed up for another season and shared the captaincy with Alan Smith to lift the Championship trophy before hanging up his boots.
RW: Mohammed Kudus (Tottenham Hotspur)
The Ghanaian winger remains Spurs’ top assist player and has been out since January 4. Only Richarlison has more goal contributions. His return, possibly for next week’s trip to Sunderland, could be crucial as a new manager is being drilled.
LW: Damien Duff (Newcastle)
Perhaps Newcastle’s most consistent player of the season, Nolan made sure to exclude Duff from the list of players whose performances suggest they want out of St James’ Park. He played just one game in the Championship before Fulham paid £4million to bring him back to the Premier League.
CF: Richarlison (Tottenham Hotspur)
The Brazilian may not be liked by many, but he has scored more than twice as many goals as Spurs – and has more than any Newcastle player in the relegation zone. That the two Tottenham players closest to him for Premier League goals are midfielders tells you a lot problems faced by Roberto De Zerbi.
MORE: Top 10 issues De Zerbi and Tottenham must deal with immediately to try to avoid disaster.
CF: Obafemi Martins (Newcastle)
Martins and Owen both scored eight league goals but the Nigerian didn’t even get up on Tyneside every day and generally bore the air of a man who hated dragging his horses to play for the club. Martins at least said he wanted to stay and help Newcastle out of the Championship – before being sold to Wolfsburg. His last game was a 6-1 pre-season defeat at Leyton Orient which Nolan remembers fondly.
#relegated #Newcastle #todays #Tottenham