Newcastle Update! Well, so far so good... With the exception of West Ham's win over Man City this weekend, things are going according to my very positive predictions!

I actually listened to the Newcastle v Wigan match on Saturday, I bit the bullet and signed-up for Newcastle's Match Live service, there was a deal on, £7.99 until August 6th, so I can listen to the last few matches of this season, and hopefully from pre-season matches as well.

Pos / Team / Played / Pts
6 / Blackburn / 34 / 54
7 / West Ham / 34 / 49
8 / Bolton / 33 / 48
9 / Newcastle / 34 / 48
10 / Wigan / 34 / 48
11 / Everton / 34 / 45

Since the last post I've read and figured out the deal with European qualification...

- 5th-6th will be UEFA Cup spots
- 7th -would have- also been a UEFA Cup spot if the 2 finalists in the FA Cup were already in the Champions League, but since either Middlesbrough or West Ham will be up against Liverpool or Chelsea, Middlesbrough or West Ham will be the UEFA Cup spot.

So what's the point of finishing 7th? Well, Newcastle apparently HAS signed up for the Intertoto Cup, and this year's Intertoto format has changed quite a bit.

Only 1 team from England will be allowed in, apparently 7 clubs have signed-up, so the highest place of those 7 will get it.

Check this link out for the details....
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/IntertotoCup/news/Kind=1/newsId=412509.html

Basically the English team that goes in will face either the team from Norway, Northern Ireland or Iceland. 2 legs, Home & Away, and the winner goes into the FA Cup!

So that's a pretty good deal, but the bad news is, the dates... First leg: 15/16 July, Second leg: 22 July. The World Cup Final is JULY 9th!

So basically, if Newcastle is in this, any players who are in their National Teams playing in the World Cup won't get much of a summer holiday!

However, a somewhat sobering look at our squad reveals that perhaps we don't have too much to worry about:

Shay Given - Ireland, didn't qualify
Stephen Carr - Ireland, didn't qualify
Robbie Elliott - England, not in the squad (I also hope he'll retire at the end of the season)
Nolberto Solano - Peru, didn't qualify
Emre Belozoglu - Turkey, didn't qualify
Jean-Alain Boumsong - France, will be playing..., but there's also talk that he'll be shown the door.
Kieron Courtney Dyer - England, but not likely to be in the squad due to his fitness, but who knows...
Alan Shearer - England - RETIRED
Michael Owen - England, probably will be playing.
Lee David Bowyer - England, not in the squad.
Stephen Alan Harper - England, not in the squad.
Charles N'Zogbia - France, not in the squad, but if he keeps improving, I don't expect it'll be long before he does get a look...
Amady Moustapha Faye - Senegal, didn't qualify
James Milner - England, not in the squad
Scott Parker - England, not in the squad
Craig Moore - Australia, will be playing
Titus Malachi Bramble - England, not in the squad
Albert Luque Martos - Spain, probably in the squad, but who cares?
Lee Clark - England, not in the squad
Shola Ameobi - England, not in the squad
Steven Taylor - England, not in the squad
Michael Chopra - England, not in the squad
Celestine Babayaro- Nigeria, didn't qualify

So we've only got 4 players (at the moment, not including possible summer transfers) involved in the World Cup, so I say big deal, go ahead and enter the tournament, I think we NEED to take a stab at it to get into the UEFA Cup, Newcastle needs European football...

Of course all of this depends on us finish 7th...  ¶ Sunday, April 16, 2006