Sunday Sun Blog

Vurnon Anita the answer to Newcastle's midfield poser

2013-08-23T13:53:54Z

FOR Newcastle United to rediscover their swagger this season, Alan Pardew must find a solution to the midfield equation which beat him last year.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? If only. The evidence of pre-season suggests that Pardew is still wrestling with the best midfield mix to take Newcastle forward, and that situation will only become more complicated if Paris Saint Germain firm up their interest in United's agent provocateur Yohan Cabaye.

]]> Against Braga, Pardew deployed a 4-4-2 with Moussa Sissoko and Cheick Tiote asked to shoulder the burden of creativity. The problem was that Newcastle, once again, failed to carve out the opportunities from the centre of midfield that were so easy to come by in the season the team finished fifth.

This being pre-season, it is hardly time to thrust palms towards the panic button - even if the Tiote-Sissoko axis might need some tweaking if it is to yield tangible rewards. Perhaps the solution should incorporate the man who found himself the left-over remainder in United' midfield equation last season.

If United are to function more fluidly opportunities must be afforded to Vurnon Anita - a midfielder who offers Newcastle plenty but who was curiously overlooked last season.
Pardew always insisted there was nothing sinister in the omission of Anita from his Premier League squad but as his absences became a consistent feature, it did become a curious footnote to an unsatisfactory season. Add into the mix the self-confessed struggles of virtual ever-present Cheick Tiote and there is reasonable grounds for debate about what Pardew's thinking was.

A personal preference would be for Anita to be given Tiote's role in a midfield three that would see Cabaye and Sissoko operating in a mirror of the sort of "squashed diamond" that Sir Alex Ferguson deployed in his final few seasons at Manchester United.

Anita may not hare around with the intent and occasional malice that Tiote does, but he can tackle, he can pass and there is a goal in him as well. In Bruges last autumn his sumptuous right-footed volley in the Europa League should have been a staging point: instead it proved a false start as a lack of trust in the midfielder eroded his chances of making a proper impact in his first campaign.

The stats were a stark reminder of Anita's stop-start season. After starting consecutive games in August and September Anita made just 17 starts in the league, and did not start a Premier League game in the months of April or May.

That might have been a hangover from United's insipid performance in a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City on March 30, which was the last time the former Ajax man started a domestic match in the heart of Newcastle's midfield. Contrast that with Tiote's 34 games last season, which saw an unbroken run of starts after his return from African Cup of Nations duty with Ivory Coast in early February.

This is not a savaging of Tiote, who remains a useful player who - on his day - can mould and bend the destination of a game through sheer force of will and determination. But if Tiote missteps as badly as he did on occasion last season, Anita should most certainly be given an opportunity.

As a graduate of Ajax's stellar youth Academy, it is unsurprising that he is blessed with the technical attributes to bolster Newcastle's engine room creativity. What is less well know is the hard work that Anita put in behind the scenes to try and adapt to the English game - working extra hours in the gym and on the training pitch to be able to cope with the intensity of the Premier League.

Without international duty to report for, Anita's summer was spent with his family in Curacao, the small Dutch colony off the Venezuelan coast that was where the 24-year-old was born.

"I just chilled for a few days and rested up. The beaches there are beautiful so I relaxed and enjoyed myself because I know this is a big season for me," he said.

The same could have been said about the last, with Anita Newcastle's sole senior arrival of a summer that left supporters disappointed by a lack of transfer activity.

It sounds familiar.

"I was reading about it. I heard all about what was happening in the news but I blocked it out - for me the summer was about resting myself and making sure that I come back with a good feeling," he insists.

"There is talk like there is always talk about this club but it had no effect on me. In fact I couldn't wait for us all to return for pre-season because this is an important year for everyone at the club."

Perhaps Anita's problem was his versatility. Pegged as Pardew's flexible friend when he arrived, he can fill in at full-back, right midfield and in the centre but his best work for Ajax and Holland came when he was partnered with a more creative player.

That very rarely happened at St James' Park last season, although Anita was given opportunities in defence and as part of a diamond. This year, he hopes to play most of his football in a more central role.

"I just want to play in midfield really and I am not too worried about where. In pre-season I have played as a number four and as a number eight and I feel confident playing in both positions. I can play in both roles and it's up the manager to decide where I can play."

The onus, as ever, is on Anita to prove himself. The challenge is to go from occasionally impressive interloper into a genuine, bona fide immovable part of the Newcastle team. If starting jerseys are handed out for diligence and hard work, Anita will be named in the first XI for the Manchester City trip in six days.

"I am ready for the new season and I feel like a different player this time," he said.
"I feel better, I feel fitter and I have got my head around what is required from a Newcastle United. I really hope it goes better this season. I'm more used to the pace of the Premier League and the intensity - and I know my team and my team-mates much better than I did before.

"I just hope to get chances this season but I would not say that it was really tough last season. Everybody wants to play of course but it was just not the case last season. If I keep believing in myself and keep pushing on with my fitness and work then I hope I will get that chance."

That he has returned with a burning desire rather than a chip on his shoulder speaks for his professionalism.

Having lost James Perch, Pardew needs more characters who are prepared to surrender their own aims and ambitions for the good of the team. Anita's pre-season pledge is to continue to work hard this year - and remain an uncomplaining presence in the Newcastle squad.

That is why any suggestions of discontent are batted away effortlessly.
"I did not ask the manager why I wasn't playing. We always talked well with each other and there's no problem between us," he insists.

"I am just waiting for my chance and when I get it I really hope to take it."

Uncertainty isn't meant to be fun....

2013-07-22T10:19:23Z

UNCERTAINTY is not meant to be fun.

Not at Sunderland, at least, where the summer transfer window has a tradition of settling into a familiar, draining process. Since 2007, the churn rate has been remarkable at the Stadium of Light - every close season bringing about a new cast of arrivals recruited to end the sorry cycle of underachievement.

Nine in 2007, eight in 2008. It was eight again in 2011 and the average number of new additions in the last six season has been six - a figure skewed by Martin O'Neill's conservative recruitment drive last summer.

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Yet even though Sunderland have been here before, it feels very, very different. Most importantly, it feels like fun - judging by the reactions of Black Cats whose imaginations have been captured by Paolo Di Canio's wide-ranging summer revamp.

Di Canio makes a good front man but much of the work - carried out in a whirling dervish of activity - has been done by Roberto De Fanti, whose appointment was in place way back in March. Fully aware of the economic reality of Sunderland's accounts, he has got to work accordingly.

There is a blueprint to work to and Sunderland are doing it decisively and with confidence. They cannot predict the future but a culture of underachievement and excuses is being tackled. No wonder weary Black Cats are feeling more energised.

It helps that Di Canio has got back to work. Out in Italy, players are being worked hard as the manager puts the foundations for his new approach into place. His arrivals tell their own story: Jozy Altidore will add yet more physical presence and athleticism to a team that will be bigger and stronger than most of its counterparts. He hopes this will be critical.

"I expect hard work as usual because this is the moment that we can have a fantastic season, if we work so hard it means we are going to build a good athleticism, strength, power and resistance," Di Canio told the club's official website yesterday.

"It's obvious that once again it's crucial that we have the desire and we compete and challenge.

"We can give them more self-belief because it's obvious that self-belief comes from the brain and the heart and your character.

"It's different for your brain working with the body empty rather than the body full of energy it helps you believe what you can do; it helps you believe you can win the challenge."

Di Canio would no doubt appreciate the old maxim about not being able to make an omelette without cracking a few eggs - although given his tendency to order takeout from Romano's as he burns the midnight oil at the club's Cleadon training base, he might prefer it in a carbonara.

Still, the principle has been the same. After a short period of assessing the squad, a list was drawn up of players that Di Canio wanted to progress with, those that he no longer wanted at the club and a third bracket that included those that he would be prepared to sell if it allowed him to make the wholesale changes that he wanted to make.

It is interesting to note that in the second column - the foundation players - he included "bulldog" Jack Colback, who now appears to be unsettled at the club. In the final column he placed Simon Mignolet and Stephane Sessegnon, whose agent was told early in the summer to try and source a move for his client.

In truth, it is almost inconceivable that the influential De Fanti - whose arrival preceded Di Canio's, despite only being unveiled after the season's conclusion - had not had some of those conversations with Ellis Short already.

The key was actually pressing ahead with those plans, and that is where Sunderland's approach has been so bold and so unusual for a Premier League club.

To put it in some sort of context, at under-performing football clubs up and down the country revolution is usually in the air come the start of May. Names of key players clubs would be willing to sell are circulated discreetly and often dropped into friendly journalists with the intention of sniffing out any interest in them and the reaction of the supporters to a sale.

It sometimes leads to what look like leftfield transfer tales but there is almost always some basis behind the bluff, and this process acts as a sort-of half-way house between transfer listing the player and advertising his availability. With Sunderland, there has been none of this. They have acted decisively and with conviction and - most crucially of all - been true to their word.

When Di Canio talked about changing the "mentality" of Sunderland back in April, he was asked by sceptical reporters to explain what this actually meant. We had heard it before from successive managers who were paying lip-service to the idea of turning around a football club with tremendous potential but little tangible modern achievement.

The nostrils flared and Di Canio gestured with both hands as if he was handling the world's biggest medicine ball. "It is this big," he said, confidently. "The most important thing." But words are nothing without action, and Sunderland's Italian team have stayed true to their word: not affording any of their first team stars special status and subjecting all to the same standards.

On and off the field, the revolution has been phenomenal and brutal. Sunderland's head of medicine Glen Rae left early in the summer, following Bryan 'Pop' Robson and the rest of the Black Cats' scouting network at the back end of April.

Match analyser Steve Staunton has also gone but there has been no rush of replacements. Sunderland will work with a tightly-knit team next year.

There are no guarantees of success and only two of their seven new arrivals have any experience of English football. Vito Mannone's time at Arsenal was unremarkable while Altidore admits himself that he returns to the Premier League with "unfinished business" to attend to after a poor spell with Hull City.

The rest must get up to speed quickly, but Di Canio's training camp will help them with that. As they adjust to life in the Premier League they will be equipped with a tough, physical pre-season campaign of multiple sessions that has been devised to make sure they can hit the ground running.

And tactically they will be given a very definite set of instructions and a way of playing by Di Canio. He has time for what he calls "the fantasy players" but for the likes of midfielder Cabral and Mo Diakite, the parameters of their role in the team will be strictly defined.

It is something very different from what we are used to at the Stadium of Light, but it has captured the imagination. You wouldn't bet against them making a flying start.

Silence isn't golden in Newcastle's summer of discontent

2013-07-05T14:51:15Z

AROUNA Kone to Newcastle would have been a transfer that completed the Mike Ashley cycle.

The deal seemed to tick a lot of the Ashley boxes: cheap(ish) but useful, Wigan striker Kone would have been a very decent addition to Newcastle's squad. Not the high end replacement for Demba Ba they require, but an upgrade on what United had last season.

]]> And as a final kicker, it was also a story broken by Ashley's new venture: Sports Direct News. So Newcastle fans despairing over their owner's profligacy in the transfer market are now drawn to a website advertising his leisurewear to read about said recruitment drive. It's pretty ingenious, and I'm sure he'll be using it again in the future to filter out Magpies news.

That slow meshing of the Sports Direct brand and Newcastle United has been going on for a long time, of course - never more so than when the stadium was renamed. But this new development shows very clearly where Ashley's motivation for keeping hold of Newcastle lies: it is a very smart marketing tool for his very, very successful business.

Whatever: the signing of a player like Kone would have been worth celebrating amid all the uncertainty and chaos of your typical murky Newcastle United summer. Alas, it didn't happen and enthusiasm remains at a low ebb. It is worrying.

Given that a top level French source told me the club had missed out on three French targets this week, they need a boost. The pack drill was no names but it seems likely that one was Marseille striker Pierre-Andre Gignac. One of the others was a centre-back, apparently but the other one seems to have been a younger player for the development squad.

How sorely Newcastle - in danger of running into a tide of negativity before a ball has been kicked - need something to come off soon.

It is not that new signings salve all of the wounds that Mike Ashley has re-opened this summer, you understand. But they might at least give the Magpies a fighting chance of generating some momentum in a close season that thus far, seems to have flattened any case for optimism.

I've seen the relationship between Ashley and Newcastle described in a searing editorial in the True Faith fanzine this week as a loveless marriage and it's a pretty appropriate analogy. Neither seems to want each other; neither seems to care for each other anymore. But the financial bottom line is enough to keep both parties involved for the moment.

What I don't understand is that if Ashley doesn't want to invest any more, why on earth is Joe Kinnear there? If he doesn't care, why throw Kinnear into the chaotic mix?

Eventually, someone who is employed by Ashley will have to put their heads above the parapet and formulate some kind of explanation but another week has passed without anyone of standing even mentioning the "K" word.

As we stand, Steven Taylor is the only serving Newcastle employee to pass any kind of comment on Kinnear - apart from the man himself. Derek Llambias did, of course, but his hearty welcome for the new Director of Football looks a bit empty in the context of his hurried resignation less than 24 hours later.

Sometimes, silence is golden. Sometimes, it says a lot more than words ever could and on this occasion it is an accurate reflection of the prevailing mood inside St James' Park. No-one knows, no-one dares speak: there appears to be an unreal air of uncertainty about the club and that, after a while, becomes corrosive.

Traditionally, Ashley has come to rely on Alan Pardew breaking cover in these circumstances. When Andy Carroll was sold, he defended the decision within 24 hours despite the fact it had made him look pretty helpless given his own forthright denials the striker would be sold.

Similarly, Pardew defended the sale of Kevin Nolan two summers ago. He was there when the Wonga announcement was made and trod a delicate and smart political line when the stadium was renamed too.

Kinnear's arrival is different, it seems. Three weeks on, he is still yet to name-check his new Director of Football. If you think that's just a happy coincidence, you might also be interested to hear Father Christmas doesn't exist. It is most definitely deliberate.

The result is unequivocal: another week passes with the fog of uncertainty refusing to shift over St James' Park. At some point, someone involved in this awkward dance will have to attempt to inject but there doesn't appear to be any undue haste from anyone involved at the moment.

Which is ironic, really, given that time is one thing Newcastle don't have. There is no more than five weeks until the start of the season and Newcastle have signed no-one, they've sold a reliable and versatile campaigner and they've said very, very little. All we have right now is the hope that Ashley is hiding another rabbit up his sleeve in the shape of new additions of the sort of calibre required to vanquish last season's demons.

Because in case you'd forgotten, Newcastle had problems before Kinnear came. Thus far, his addition to the mix has complicated an already unsettling situation.

Say it ain't so, Joe

2013-06-17T12:27:36Z

DAY one of Joe Kinnear's second coming and Newcastle United's director of football is confronted with an in-tray the size of Everest.

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For those of you who remember Kinnear from the first time around, that was the mountain he claimed he used to fly over with the Crown Prince of Nepal when he was managing the tiny principality. Verification was never forthcoming on that point, but I digress - Kinnear's workload is undoubtedly mountainous.

Transfers, departures, assessing the playing staff - all key parts of Kinnear's new role that require immediate attention. Perhaps his first order of business should be closer to home, though.

He should start with a clarification of what exactly he meant when he asserted that "Geordies are Geordies", extending the point to claim that the fans of the club are uncomfortable with anyone from outside the area working at St James' Park.

It might seem like a trifling point that will be buried under the avalanche of intrigue about to descend on Barack Road but it's really not. It's a lazy, damaging and utterly false stereotype that has no place being repeated by a senior employee of the club.

For the last couple of years United's most consistent message has been that they want to make tickets affordable. Derek Llambias talked of packing the stadium full of Newcastle supporters - especially younger fans and families. And they backed it up with novel ticket pricing initiatives and themed days aimed at tempting fans through the doors.

You can see the tension here. Club employees have worked hard to try and reconnect, and have made some strides too. It doesn't help when club employees are deploying the tired old cliche about North East supporters placing disproportionate importance on someone's birthplace.

Kinnear should know, too, that fans never mentioned his birthplace during his first stint in 2009. Any concerns were expressed when fortunes begin to slide at the turn of the year, and were always for football reasons.

I doubt Kinnear meant to cause offence. He never does and he's a decent, say-it-as-I-see-it kind of guy. Working with him first time around was a whirlwind and he never really bore a grudge, despite the sweary fury.

The real question is whether he is up to the job - and what the job has been created for. Kinnear has contacts: he knows people. Arsene Wenger still takes his calls, apparently.
But there are serious concerns about whether a man who has only been involved in front-line professional football for five months of the last eight years. The Premier League is a competition that evolves at break-neck speed - and United were caught standing still last season. For Kinnear to walk into that environment and make a flying start is a challenge of monumental proportions. I wish him the best.

There are serious questions here; and pressing concerns. All this froth about Geordies only wanting to engage with one of their own is a toxic sub-plot that needs to be put to bed quickly.

Gym kits and reporter rifts... But don't forget the real issues at St James' Park

2013-05-03T10:41:40Z

SO the week when Newcastle United's Premier League survival prospects moved from comfortable to critical ends with us talking about Hatem Ben Arfa's gym habits, whether a lack of fight is deeply ingrained in Gallic DNA and a banned reporter.

]]> Maybe I'm missing something, but surely the agenda should have been shaped by issues a mite more meaty? You know, like whether Alan Pardew and his lieutenants can conjure a tactical master-plan to counter West Ham's likely aerial assault? Or even how Newcastle will reverse the run of heavy defeats that has already relegated them to the division's worst defenders?

Personnel and approach, that is all that matters over the next 18 days. Everything else is just window dressing.

All the talk has been about character and conspiracy but this misses the immediacy of Newcastle's dire predicament. They aren't heading in the wrong direction because they've got too much French players in the dressing room: it's fairly and squarely down to the fact that no-one at the club has delivered as they should this season.

The bad news is there has been no sign of a major uplift in the performances of the players in this developing black and white tragedy so far. The good news is that they still have time to stave off disaster - but only if everyone re-focuses on what matters.

Banning a good journalist for writing a story that he is standing by won't really help. It won't surprise you to read here that my personal feeling is that stopping any independent voice in the media from going to the ground is a retrograde step. When it is someone that used to work with distinction for this very newspaper it is an even darker day for North East football journalism.

I find it difficult to believe that the French players are to blame for United's malaise, mind. Gary Neville is usually a fantastic watch but his Monday Night Football editorial about Newcastle, while entertaining, was mis-informed.

It is impossible not to agree that it would be better if more English players were playing in the Premier League. It would be brilliant to be writing about a Newcastle United team brimming with local talent and several English players on the verge of the national team.

But for various reasons that Neville ignored - not least the skewering effect of the Sky money that he now gratefully banks every week - bona fide English talent is no longer available to Newcastle at a decent price.

When it is, there is no guarantee that it will serve United particularly well. The last time I checked, Nile Ranger's birthplace was Wood Green not Walbourg. He was young and English - and the most unprofessional footballer in Newcastle's squad until patience finally snapped. Neville advocates United being underpinned by English talent but maybe the problem is that too many of our native footballers lack the discipline to make the jump Moussa Sissoko and Massaido Haidara have made. Those that do make it allow themselves to be swallowed up by hangers-on who make it financially impossible for clubs like Newcastle to sign them - or are hampered by English clubs desperate to wring every last penny out of them (think Adrian Mariappa).

If Newcastle are being let down by individual agitators in the dressing room it is a matter of mental fortitude rather than flags. Yohan Cabaye is not proving to be a poor captain because he's from France, it's because he's not got the necessary tools to lead men.
It looks to me like Newcastle's new arrivals - who were always going to need time to settle - have simply run out of steam. United needed to stretch their honeymoon period - which yielded wins over Chelsea and Aston Villa - for a bit longer but failed for some reason.

All roads lead to the manager's office here. This is a team and collection of players good enough to beat Chelsea, Anzhi and Metallist since the turn of the year, so it should have four more points in it. They've also got the manager of the year in their dug-out - we must hope that while the rest of us have been feasting on the easy meat of gossip and scandal, he's been proving just why he won that honour on the training ground. The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

Di Canio's right to reply... And the questions he must answer

2013-04-01T15:12:18Z

SO here is one of the problems with covering Premier League football.

]]> Demand for words to fill a mushrooming number of web pages, newspapers, rolling news TV stations and radio channels has never been greater. Access to the subject, however, dwindles with every passing year.

The result is often plenty of heat with precious little light. Take Sunderland's appointment of Paolo Di Canio, for example. Everyone is an expert at deciphering Di Canio's deeply-held political beliefs before the man himself has even had the chance to open his mouth on the subject.

Now you could argue that the club have hardly helped their new man by choosing to delay his press conference until his second working day at the Stadium of Light. The club's argument will be that they want to give him time to address the squad before he talks to journalists, no doubt.

But whether you agree or don't, it has allowed the debate about Di Canio to veer sharply out of Sunderland's control. David Milliband's resignation kick-started discussions about the suitability of the new Black Cats' boss to hold the position and as of 11.30am this morning, the Press Association wire carried three stories focused not on Di Canio's ability to lead Sunderland out of the mire but instead on fans opinions of his political sympathies.

It is a valid debate. Di Canio has questions to answer and so does Ellis Short, who has been the driving force behind one of the most surprising appointments in Sunderland's history.

The statement released by the club this afternoon attempted to clarify the situation and then added a bit at the bottom saying Di Canio will not talk again on the subject. If that is the case, he is doing himself no favours. Sunderland aren't helping him either, for this is a boil that needs to be addressed. When it is, everyone will move on.

So here's where I'd start. Does Di Canio stick by his 2005 assertion that he is a fascist? Can he expand on previous quotes which expressed admiration for Benito Mussolini, a violent murderer who oversaw the creation of a brutal dictatorship that allied Hitler in the Second World War? How does he feel when he hears that members of Sunderland's mostly left-leaning population threatening to tear up their season tickets?

And for Ellis: how does his new appointment stack up with the club's adoption of the Nelson Mandela foundation? Had he done his homework on the new man's political philosophy before he appointed him?

For those who say Di Canio's politics are immaterial I say poppycock. By openly discussing them, he has made them fair game. It is part of the Di Canio package and while Sunderland hope to get the rub from their new manager's inspirational approach, they must also share the burden of his baggage. That's modern football.

However some of the rush to condemn him strikes a bum note with me too. There is an interview with Di Canio that was published in the Independent less than a year ago that fills in some of the ideological gaps with the Italian and it bridles that he hasn't been given a right to reply to some of the colder criticisms.

In that piece he talks of his admiration for the Samurai of Japan, his previous panic attack episodes and even the startling admission that he used to wet the bed until the age of 11. The author says in the piece that there is no a racist bone in his subject's body, and includes a quote condemning the sectarianism of the Old Firm.

He comes over as a deep thinker and as a fascinating character. Most of all there is the impression of someone who will be capable of expanding on the quotes that have caused the furore. When he gets the chance to do that (and he should), I will revisit this piece and give a verdict - as everyone should.

There will be other subjects to talk about, though. The topics I'd like to hear Di Canio on are how he intends to tackle Sunderland's endemic culture of malaise - about how he will correct the club's awful recruitment record when his agent was appointed head of recruitment at Swindon. And most importantly, how he intends to get Sunderland out of the mess Martin O'Neill left them in.

After all the conjecture, most of all I'm just looking forward to hearing him speak.

Requiem for a dream: how the Martin O'Neill revolution went horribly wrong at the Stadium of Light

2013-03-30T23:26:02Z

AN old friend from the Midlands told me about the day Martin O'Neill invited all of the Second City press pack to an end of season dinner.

]]> It was in 2009 - just after he had been roundly criticised for deciding to prioritise the chase for the top four by sending a weakened team to Moscow in the latter stages of the UEFA Cup. Relations had grown icy with supporters and his local media.

Yet he was charm personified right up until he stood up from the table and thanked everyone for their attendance. Then came the pay-off: "And don't ever, ever doubt me again."

We waited and waited to see that sort of snarling determination but it never got to that round here. In truth, O'Neill worried, fretted and squirmed his way through an anxious 15 months at the Stadium of Light. It is a great frustration for me - and probably for the Sunderland fans - that the whole darn thing has felt so flat for so long.

Perhaps that is being kind of a man who leaves behind little legacy at the Stadium of Light. After the first four months, it has been pretty awful.

There were moments: a stirring win at Wigan, his first game against Blackburn. The fact that the supporters had a man they truly believed in for a while. He discovered James McClean too, and took the club into the latter stages of the FA Cup.

But so much of it was unsatisfactory considering the pedigree of the manager who replaced Steve Bruce. Tactics, PR, lamentable recruitment (he never did pluck up the courage to pick Kader Mangane, who has been so poor in training that eyebrows have been raised), press conference performances... None of them were right. Something was rotten in the court of O'Neill and it was clear change was required.

No-one for a minute suspected that change would be the manager - and certainly not before April. Yet this decision reveals plenty about Ellis Short, who has wielded the axe for the second time in 13 months as chairman, owner and omnipotent red and white leader.

He keeps his counsel, does Mr Short, but he is clearly not someone to be messed with. Over a year since Niall Quinn's exit, the club's hierarchy has changed beyond all recognition - with O'Neill following the long-serving Lesley Callaghan and Steve Walton out of the door.

Given his low opinion of the recruitment - a huge bugbear on O'Neill's part - I suspect that Pop Robson's position might be under similar scrutiny. He is not a man who has much time for failure.

But this decision seems extraordinarily daring. Sunderland have seven games left and today's defeat - while gnawing and frustrating - was to be expected, along with the resilience of their relegation rivals. We knew it would get worse before it got better.

A new man must inject instant impetus into the club, and must work with the same pool of underperforming players that O'Neill did. There are not many candidates out there who will take the supporters with them instantly and Steve McClaren - the bookies favourite - would encounter some hostility from Sunderland supporters. It is a difficult job and to assume that a change means improvement is ignoring Newcastle's experience with Alan Shearer in 2008 - and that of Hull with Iain Dowie and any number of others.

I suspect it will be an interim appointment for a Red Adair-style figure. That leaves me feeling uneasy. Where is the planning, where is the thought for the long-term? We always assumed these were important to Short, the man who plunged money into the Academy and spoke so warmly of O'Neill in the close season. Perhaps not as important as the £60million TV money that Sunderland stand to lose out on.

Whatever happens, there will have to be an almighty inquest on Wearside this summer. However uncertain Sunderland fans might have felt about the future at 3pm, you can bet it feels a heck of lot more fragile now.

Even if Sunderland win their relegation fight, questions must be asked

2013-03-15T16:59:07Z

IT goes without saying that Sunday's game is of huge significance to a Sunderland side in danger of being sucked into a bitter relegation fight.

]]> The most important of Martin O'Neill's time at the club? Probably. As critical as any game since 2009's last day decider? Quite possibly. With the proceeds of a bumper TV deal set to filter into Premier League bank accounts over the summer, it has never been more important to preserve top flight status than it is this season. It has the ability to change the destiny of every elite club, and so much of Sunderland's future planning has been done with that massive pay day in mind.

Black Cats know this. They will report for duty on Sunday, shelve the aching disappointment of a desperate campaign and seek to shake the inertia out of their squad in time to secure a critical three points against poor travellers Norwich.

But if we are to be brutally honest, it must not end there. Even if the Canaries have their wings clipped and Sunderland go on to secure their Premier League status with something to spare there has to be a reckoning at the end of this season. Wherever the Wearsiders finish bruising questions need to be raised and, quite possibly, the culture of the club needs to dissected.

It is not that Sunderland fans do not have anything to cheer them. Compared to the craziness unfolding at crisis clubs like Blackburn, Chelsea, Rangers or Portsmouth they are a model Premier League pupil with an ever-patient owner seemingly sent from the Gods. Texan Ellis Short manages to pull off the glory double of throwing money at the club while nurturing its soul: supporting the club's superlative Academy and their fantastic Foundation, which continues to go from strength-to-strength. Add to that the fact they have one of the top five managers in Premier League history in the studious Martin O'Neill, who has a CV brimming with achievement and excellence. As a Sunderland supporter with a keen sense of history, he also 'gets it'.

None of this should blur the fact that Sunderland's season has been miserable, however. None of this should encourage us to ignore the slow and agonising slog that this campaign has become - or to question why the Black Cats are involved in another relegation battle when the summer promised better.

O'Neill talks of patience and of things not happening overnight but we know that ambition burns beneath that furrowed brow. He is not a man who settles for second best otherwise he would have taken any number of jobs that became available to him during his managerial hiatus, yet something is not right at the Stadium of Light. We have spent the season wondering precisely what that is.

Has O'Neill been affected by that phrase that Roy Keane once spat out in disdain, that idea of this mediocrity being "Typical Sunderland"? Is it a mind-set among the players that excuses them when they bob along in about 12th place, winning one, drawing one and losing a couple?

Steve Bruce used to trot out that stat about leading Sunderland to only their third top ten finish in 59 years but it was nothing to be proud of. Turn that fact on its head and wonder why a club with such a proud tradition and such fantastic backing (on and off the pitch of late) has not achieved more? In recent years their Cup record has been particularly galling. In the nine years since their last FA Cup semi-final Bradford, Wigan, Cardiff, Birmingham and Millwall have managed to make a run into a major final - is it asking too much for Sunderland to construct a similar Cup run? It feels like underachievement for a club of their size.

Should the current manager shoulder some of the blame? I declare now that I am an O'Neill believer who is certain that he is the right man for the job but I will acknowledge to being baffled by one or two recent calls. Why Connor Wickham was allowed to leave, for example - or why the apparently unfit Kader Mangane was signed when Sunderland needed players who can make an immediate improvement. Was there no money there or - as has been suggested by the club - did O'Neill decide against investing despite having money available? Whatever happened, Sunderland seem to have ended January with a weaker squad than they had before the crucial transfer window.

There have been changes of system and personnel but none appear to address the real issue of getting their best player more involved. When Stephane Sessegnon clicks, so do Sunderland so why not look to him rather than the disappointing Adam Johnson or James McClean for their creative catalyst?

No wonder Black Cats supporters feel so uninspired at the moment. Even if they can raise themselves for the serious business of winning the huge games ahead, another summer of change beckons. Sunderland need five or six senior additions - two full-backs at least and please can we have a creative midfielder - but it has been this way since Keane departed and they've always ended up disappointed. Can supporters really get excited about another summer where much-needed recruitment promises to be a tortuous waiting game?

If Sunderland supporters are ready for a relegation battle, it must be said that there appears to be little appetite for what's ahead. They need something to cling on to - be it a run of results, one or two new signings or even a different voice like Ellis Short to reassure them.

At the moment there are only difficult questions that need to be tackled head-on. The sense of drift is impossible to escape at the moment. Something needs to change: let's just hope it isn't their much-cherished Premier League status.

WSBK: Laverty wins to take joint lead in championship

2013-02-24T05:27:45Z

EUGENE Laverty got his own back in Race Two at Phillip Island when he stole the win from team-mate Sylvain Guintoli.

After finishing second behind Guintoli in the opening FIM World Superbike Championship race, Laverty turned the tables as he led his team-mate over the line.

Third man home was GoldBet BMW's Marco Melandri, with the Red Devils Roma Aprilia of Michel Fabrizio fourth.

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After today's earlier race, the Australian track's second of the day proved to be much less eventful.

With Checa missing from the grid after his crash in Race One, Laverty inherited pole ahead of Fabrizio and Kawasaki's Tom Sykes.

At the green light it was Sykes who made the best start, taking the lead ahead of Melandri and Laverty. Behind, Guintoli was storming through and was up to P2 by the end of the lap.

As the pack crossed the line to start Lap Two, Laverty took the lead as Guintoli settled in to second behind him, and Melandri soon settled into third.

From here the top three remained the same all the way to the flag, with just a couple of switches between them.

Guintoli seared past Laverty on the fourth lap but was unable to pull out a gap as the other two stuck with him.

The three stayed as they were until Lap 16 when Melandri finally made a move on Laverty to take second.

But Laverty was far from finished, and on Lap 20 he took the spot back and quickly closed up on Guintoli, passing him a lap later and leading into the final lap.

Guintoli looked close as the pair rounded the track for the last time, but never got near enough and Laverty was able to take the win without a final challenge.

As a result of today's races, Laverty and Guintoli are tied at the top of the championship on 45 points each.

FIM World Superbike Championship Phillip Island Race Two result:

1. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 33'45.938
2. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 33'46.356
3. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 33'47.320
4. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 33'48.220
5. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 33'57.483
6. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 33'58.446
7. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 34'03.268
8. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 34'03.277
9. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 34'05.824
10. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 34'05.934
11. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati Panigale 1199 34'13.567
12. Glen Allerton (Next Gen Motorsports) BMW S1000 RR 34'28.747
13. Jamie Stauffer (Team Honda Racing) Honda CBR1000RR 34'28.831
14. Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 34'30.837
15. Alexander Lundh (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 34'43.762
16. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR 35'08.512
17. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 34'08.663
RT. Ivan Clementi (HTM Racing) BMW S1000 RR 17'14.862
RT. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R

Guintoli wins while Checa crashes out

2013-02-24T02:30:04Z

SYLVAIN Guintoli announced his arrival in the Aprilia Racing Team by winning the first race of the 2013 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island.

The UK-based Frenchman led an Aprilia 1-2-3 over the line in today's opening race from the Australian track, with team-mate Eugene Laverty beating the Red Devils Roma Aprilia of Michel Fabrizio in a photo-finish for second.

But the race was marred by a heavy crash involving polesitter Carlos Checa and Marco Melandri on Lap 13. The Spaniard is believed to have been knocked unconscious and latest reports say he has been taken to Melbourne Hospital for further checks.

]]> At the green light it was Laverty who got the best start, leading the pack into the opening corner as Checa dropped backwards and found himself jostling for position with Melandri's GoldBet BMW and the PATA Honda of Leon Haslam.

Laverty set about edging himself a bit of a gap over the first few laps while behind most of the pack were swapping spots.

He led the Tom Sykes until Lap Six when the battling Checa, Haslam and Guintoli all caught and passed the Kawasaki with another battle between BMW team-mates Melandri and Chaz Davies and Loris Baz heating up close behind.

Checa had settled himself into second place, but by the ninth lap he was under pressure from a flying Guintoli, who made the move a lap later.

Behind, Melandri was on a charge, moving passed Haslam into fourth on Lap 12, and passing Checa at the start of Lap 13.

But moments later Checa's Alstare Ducati clipped the rear of Melandri's BMW as the pair headed into Honda Corner, sending them both crashing out.

Up at the front, Guintoli was right on the back of Laverty, making the inevitable move a lap later. The departure of Checa and Melandri had played particularly well into the hands of Fabrizio, who had been flying up the order and soon found himself in third.

As Guintoli cleared-off into the distance, the final battle was to be between Laverty and Fabrizio. The pair traded places for a couple of laps, leading to a last lap scrap.

It was Fabrizio who had the place as they started their final lap, but Laverty was close behind. Laverty made a move and took the spot back, leaving Fabrizio with nothing left but to try a pass over the line, resulting in a near photo-finish which was won by Laverty.

A delighted Guintoli took the win, and said it was the perfect way to start a season with a new team. "I feel great, this is my first in full dry conditions which for me is very important," he said.

"This bike is so fast around here, it's incredible. I really enjoyed it. I had a terrible start but then picked it up and it was really good. I'm going to do it again in the second race."

FIM World Superbike Championship Phillip Island Race One result:

1. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 33'47.109
2. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 33'48.461
3. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 33'48.468
4. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 33'52.811
5. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 33'52.862
6. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 33'53.878
7. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 33'53.939
8. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 34'05.053
9. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 34'06.261
10. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati Panigale 1199 34'13.666
11. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 34'17.414
12. Ivan Clementi (HTM Racing) BMW S1000 RR 34'17.520
13. Alexander Lundh (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 34'32.294
14. Glen Allerton (Next Gen Motorsports) BMW S1000 RR 34'35.741
15. Jamie Stauffer (Team Honda Racing) Honda CBR1000RR 34'40.562
16. Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 35'09.839
17. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR 35'20.483
RT. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati Panigale 1199 18'28.459
RT. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 18'28.468
RT. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 3'10.979

Carlos keeps the rest in check with Superpole in Australia

2013-02-23T13:01:31Z

CARLOS Checa was back at the top this morning after winning the first Tissot-Superpole of the 2013 season at Phillip Island.

As the FIM World Superbike Championship fired up for the new season, it was the Spaniard who emerged man to beat as he took the new Ducati Team Alstare Panigale to the top of the timesheets with a hot lap of 1.30:234.

Eugene Laverty was second fastest as he kicked off his second season with Aprilia factory squad, while third on the grid for Sunday's races is Michel Fabrizio on the Red Devils Roma Aprilia.

]]> The opening Superpole of the season brought with it a host of changes to the format. Under the new regulations 15 machines now take part in Superpole One, with three dropping out at the end of the session and 12 going into SP2.

From SP2 the top nine now go through to fight it out for the top spot, and as of this season the races will follow their MotoGP counterparts with grids of three bikes on each row instead of the traditional four.

With the final nine all desperate to land one of the three coveted front row spots, it was to be a last minute dash as Checa headed out with just a few minutes to run on a new Superpole tyre.

Putting a massive Friday crash behind him, Checa's fast lap took him straight to pole, and it was time to play the waiting game to see if anyone else could better it as the flag fell.

With most of the big names still on track, each one crossed the line well under Checa's time, and it was only last man home Laverty who got within shouting distance as he clocked the second fastest lap, just 0.195 seconds adrift of the Spaniard's time.

"Winning Superpole was a great surprise for me and is down to all the hard work put in by
my mechanics, the physiotherapists and the rest of the Clinica Mobile medical staff," he said.

"This morning, I felt pain in both my shoulder and foot and I really didn't think I'd be competitive in qualifying and Superpole. The mechanics did a great job and made the bike easier for me to ride and by the time Superpole started this afternoon, I felt pretty good really - better than I thought I would!

"Today was good, but we'll have to see how the bike is in race conditions and also how the tyres perform after a lot of laps. Hopefully we'll be competitive tomorrow and can be in the mix at the end of the race."

Meanwhile in World Supersport qualifying, it was Brit Sam Lowes who powered himself to the top spot.

The Lincolnshire rider clocked a 1.32: 545 on his Yakhnich Motorsport Yamaha to take the top spot.

He will be joined on the front row by the Mahi Racing Team India Kawasaki duo of Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret.

Silverstone MotoGP pit move best news for a long time

2013-02-16T11:52:48Z

THE news this week that MotoGP at Silverstone is to revert to the old pits has raised a few eyebrows.

Not two years on since the Wing opened its doors, motorcycle racing's premier series will abandon it this year and instead head back to the National paddock for the British Grand Prix in August.

According to Silverstone, the reason for the move is that customer feedback has revealed two-wheel fans prefer to get closer to the action while also being able to experience the entertainment, retail stands and manufacturer displays.

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And Dorna Sports, commercial rights holder for MotoGP is supportive of the move

The fans appear to be split - let's face it, the dyed-in-the-wool two-wheel lovers have never really liked Silverstone anyway, they've always deemed it 'a boring car racing track' so this news probably hasn't gone down too well.

However for me personally, I couldn't be happier.

Now, don't get me wrong, the Wing is pretty impressive. I remember watching it being built and thinking this was going to be something pretty special, and yes, when it opened it was.

In 2011, MotoGP was one of the first events to run from the new complex, and this was my first taste of it.

And I hated it.

Let me explain. The Wing is fantastic. It looks amazing and the pit complex is by far and away much better than anything we've seen so far here in the UK.

The media centre is huge (if not a bit clinical) there's a fantastic cafe with incredible food and it is like being at any of the newer, larger international circuits.

But, and it's a big but for me, getting to it is a complete and utter nightmare. Due to its location, there's no room near it for anything more than the main paddock.

This means there are no car parks so the only way in and out is by bus.

Many of you are thinking 'so?' at this point, but for a small girl (5ft and three quarters of an inch) carrying laptops, cameras and other equipment this is a nightmare, particularly given that as national media at MotoGP, I have to park outside the circuit opposite the old pit complex and walk in.

This is much harder and longer than it was when the old bridge was there. Now you have to hoof it up to the Copse tunnel to get into the infield, and once there, you have to wait for a bus (you've got to find the bus stop first)

My first visit was almost my last after I waited by the designated bus stop only to watch four buses come nowhere near, and was forced to trek even further to find a place to board. Had I not just done a four hour drive I'd have turned around and gone home.

The result is, by the time I get to the wing I'm knackered. I arrive tired and grumpy and then have two more flights of stairs to reach the media centre and by then, I find myself wondering why I do this job!

In fact, it's the only time I don't like motor racing.

Twice a year I do return to the old National pits for British Superbikes and BTCC and yes, it is tired and in need of a few coats of paint here and there but there's something warm and welcoming about it.

And best of all, I'm not ready for a sleep when I get there.

I'm also pretty excited that Copse corner will once again be the first corner of the race.

Perhaps I'm in the minority - but for me fancy media centres and gorgeous grub are all well and good, but the ability to turn up to work and do my job without extra hassles of buses and long, long walks is far more important.

Let's hope the fans think the same when they get there in August.

The news no-one wanted to read. Gazza is in a familiar place again: staring into the abyss

2013-02-04T12:34:05Z

EVERY week, football is full of catastrophe, disaster and tragedy.

]]> It is the nature of the sport that events that unfold over 90 minutes on a patch of grass are framed in those kind of terms. Some times, though, things happen in the football world that jar all of us connected with the game out of the trance and bring us back to reality.

The greatest anxiety that the North East football scene has is that the next time that will happen for us is the death of Paul Gascoigne.

The latest pictures of Gascoigne from a charity talk-in were harrowing: the portrait of a man in a desperate state. His anecdotes were all present and correct but the banshee laughter coming from the audience is that of pity. He looks in trouble and the admission of his agent Terry Baker that he is in need of help and his life is in danger is worrying.

It is surprising, too, for the last time Gascoigne was in the public eye he seemed to be getting better. His message was hope - a hope underlined by the usual brand of Gazza chaos, in all fairness - and it felt like he was approaching the foot hills of salvation at last.

It would be a lie to say that interviewing Paul Gascoigne for the Journal last year was an entirely edifying experience.

The idea was put to me and a colleague from another regional title to promote a forthcoming charity talk-in appearance that the promoter was desperate to shift tickets for. Although sales for Gazza's events in the rest of the country were brisk, the North East seemed less ready to flock to see one of their most famous sons.

The theory was that many didn't want to book tickets because they thought he wouldn't turn up, so it was arranged that Gascoigne would ring and chat - frankly - about his alcoholism, football and any other issue to prove that he could be trusted.

Only Gascoigne didn't ring either of us for weeks. I didn't push it in case something had happened but eventually a call to one of the promoters saw a message relayed to Gascoigne and the phone rang.

"It's Gazza," he said. There followed 40 minutes of a pretty chaotic interview which saw the phone passed around the car he was driving in once, a pretty liberal sprinkling of swear-words, a smattering of unprintable stuff and a whole heap of anecdotes.

But underneath it all, Gascoigne remained absolutely riveting. He does not possess much eloquence but his story was affecting - as was his brutal and at times withering critique of those ready to write him off.

"I'm nearly 45 years of age. For 42 of those years I've had a brilliant life. I am better than I've ever been," he said. But then came the kicker.

"Can I promise I won't drink again? I can't make that promise because none of us know what's going to happen in the future."

This weekend saw football's wider family once again question whether there is more we can do for him. The problem is that many don't seem to realise is that, by his own admission, he is a man with serious and complex mental health issues that lie behind the alcoholism.

They cannot be easily salved, and it appears to be a problem with Gascoigne's strategies when he is at a low that are bringing him so many set-backs. Unless football assigns him someone to look over him 24/7, it is impossible for him to be saved without the man himself finding inner peace.

In the meantime, his thousands of well-wishers in the North East can only hope. The Gascoigne I spoke to was full of life, dreams and blustering defiance - and as he candidly admitted he'd drawn himself back from the edge of the abyss.

That is the only message of hope you can deliver when you see someone in that state: that if he has done it once, he can summon the energy and courage to do so again.

Don't say we didn't warn you... How QPR's window madness raised eyebrows in the North East

2013-02-02T10:42:53Z

THERE were 10,276 people at Fratton Park on Tuesday to see the latest act in the tragic comedy unfolding on the South Coast.

]]> Desperation has long given way to defiance at Portsmouth FC, the club that won the FA Cup in 2008. Their team, made up of a rag tag bunch of desperado free transfers and greenhorn kids, lost 2-0 to Notts County and seem destined to start next season alongside Hartlepool United in the bottom tier.

If you consider this shell of a football club to be anything like the Pompey that have been around for more than a century, that is. To the few faithful fans still dutifully turning up in spite of everything, it probably doesn't feel much like that at all.

48 hours later Harry Redknapp leant out of a car window, blinking into the sun, to announce that Christopher Samba had signed for QPR in a deal that will see him bank an estimated £100,000-a-week. Samba, whose release clause was £12.5million, is 28 years old.

Samba joins Loic Remy, lured by a contract offer that Newcastle insiders feared would distort the entire transfer market for years to come, on a wage bill that apparently accounts for some 175 per cent of the club's weekly turnover.

Whichever way you spin them, the numbers simply don't stack up. Loftus Road is the poorest stadium in the Premier League, with an capacity of less than most in the Championship. It would take an extended run in the Champions League to redress the wage/turnover balance and even that might not be enough with their limited potential for expansion.

The Portsmouth parallels are alarming, right down to the presence of Redknapp running the ship. When it was put to the then Tottenham boss in 2010 that he might have had a role to play in Pompey's demise, he said he was just an employee. It was, he asserted, nothing to do with him that Portsmouth were haemeorraghing money having signed players that he had recommended on long, lucrative contracts.

"I had no control over the financial well being there and how it was run. I was an employee and it was my job to manage the team and make it a success," he said.
Even allowing for this abdication of responsibility - and to be fair to Redknapp, he was incredibly successful with the players expensively hired - it seems strange that at a club of similar size, he is allowing it all to happen again.

What seems even more bizarre is that the wider football community is completely complicit in it. On Sky Sports News, where the transfer window lives these days, they wheeled out Iain Dowie and Alan Smith to praise Redknapp for pulling off a coup by signing Samba.

"They needed players," Smith said. Perhaps they did, but why is no-one inside the game questioning the financial logic that underpins the desperate recruitment of the last couple of years at Loftus Road?

The sport's authorities have swept Portsmouth under the carpet. Their demise was met by some mealy mouthed talk of financial sustainability but everyone can see the mess that is about to engulf QPR if they do go down. Hell, even that might be enough. Pompey won the FA Cup and played in Europe but it wasn't enough to save them.

Rangers' business plan - if there is one - makes no sense. In these pages on Tuesday, Newcastle Eagles owner Paul Blake talked of limiting wages to turnover ratio to around 50 per cent, saying it was the only way a club could remain viable going forward. Why is Blake's model considered so unfashionable for Premier League clubs?

The January transfer window doesn't help. The sport spends the month allowing shady agents, desperate clubs and self-interested players to lead the agenda: contorting the truth and flagrantly bending the rules in a mad dash to try and alter the course of a season of mismanagement.

Redknapp likened it to the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars in a move of breathtaking hypocrisy. His insistence on going 'on-the-record' with his interest in players is a clear breach of Premier League rules yet it constantly goes unpunished.

To be fair, he's hardly alone in bending the regulations. Most agents are decent professionals trying to make a living but some operate as close to the edge of the rules as they can, and it is unedifying - especially when supporters are smarting at paying up to £62 for away games.

In the North East, disquiet will be muted by the way both clubs have come away from the window in credit. They recruited sensibly and to a budget, so more power to their elbow.
Just because Newcastle and Sunderland have cracked it, it shouldn't dilute opposition to this lunacy. It is time this unproductive window - and everything it stands for - is smashed.

Why arming the police is a bad idea

2012-09-20T09:48:08Z

One of the most enduring news images on television recently was at the G2 protests.

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Innocent passer-by Ian Tomlinson died after he was hit by PC Simon Harwood.

Harwood was sacked for gross misconduct after he was found to have used unreasonable force.

What would have happened if Harwood had been armed?

There have been calls for police to be given guns as a matter of routine following the deaths of women PCs Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone.

The Americans do it, the argument goes, so why can't we?

I tell you why: Guns, in the hands of the wrong people, cause many more problems than they solve.

Harwood should never have been allowed a truncheon. Much less a gun.

There are other potential Harwoods out there, in uniform, patrolling the streets, right now.

To arm police more often would be the first step to another Ian Tomlinson.