Newcastle strike an early blow over their rivals
Newcastle United completed a huge coup over their bitter rivals Sunderland by winning the race to sign Sol Campbell from Arsenal. Campbell put pen to paper on a one year contract with the Magpies and will be looking to contribute right from the off as Newcastle look to re-establish themselves as a Premier League mainstay.
The signing of Sol Campbell by Chris Hughton looks to be a sensible one. Campbell turned in a number of impressive performances last season at the heart of Arsenal’s defence following injuries to William Gallas and Thomas Vermaelen. In spite of his advancing years, Campbell has maintained many of the qualities that his reputation was built on. He still possesses a decent turn of pace along with an acute positional understanding which has served him so well in his career so far.
Campbell also brings vast experience to St. James’s Park, having played in every season of the Premier League since its inception and in a Champions League final where he also managed to score the only Arsenal goal in their defeat to Barcelona. With a relatively young squad, Campbell’s experience could prove to be a vital asset in helping the younger players adapt to the rigours of top flight football.
With talismanic Steven Taylor out of action for the foreseeable future, Hughton will be calling on Campbell to display some of the leadership skills that resulted in him being named Portsmouth captain and to help guide Newcastle in the absence of Taylor.
Reeling from Campbell’s snub, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce looked to his previous club Wigan to snap up the oft-derided figure of Titus Bramble. While Bramble doesn’t possess anywhere near the reputation of Campbell, his transfer could prove to be a shrewd piece of business by the Sunderland boss.
While playing for Ipswich, the then Newcastle manager Sir Bobby Robson identified a young Bramble as a potential star in the making and brought him to Newcastle. However, Bramble’s time at Newcastle was marred by a number of mistakes which were met with ridicule from fans and the media alike. Bramble’s errors were not mainly due to a lack of ability but rather a lack of concentration, which unluckily for Bramble usually cost the club dear.
Despite his error-prone reputation, Bramble has produced glimpses of his talent. Since moving from Newcastle to Wigan, Bramble has slowly managed to cut out most of the errors in his game, becoming a first-team regular under Steve Bruce during his time at the DW Stadium and more recently Roberto Martinez.
Bruce brought Bramble from Newcastle to Wigan and has first hand experience of what he can offer. In signing Bramble for Sunderland, he is placing a huge amount of confidence in a player that is not matched by public opinion. Sol Campbell seems to be a relatively safe bet to succeed at Newcastle. Titus Bramble however represents a huge gamble on the part of Steve Bruce.
Like my article? Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my RSS feed.
Click on image to see a gallery of the BEST BABES at the World Cup this summer
Football News 24/7
Early blow I don’t think so you must be a deluded mag who call themselves town not realising they are the 2nd biggest city in the North East
Reply
Stephen should be Steven, and he isn’t captain, let alone a talismanic one!
Reply
I cannot believe the rubbish coming out of here – Steve Bruce told Sol Campbell over a week ago that we were pulling out of the deal – he did not turn us down we turned him down
Whilst I thin k Campbell is a good signing for Newcastle I think some of the articles written are so unresearched it is crazy (including this one)
Reply
Dross article. Chronologically and factually inaccurate – it was indeed well reported earlier this week that, whether you agree with Brucie’s choice or not, he chose Bramble when he knew he was available and told Campbell SAFC were no longer interested.
Reply
Dont forget..Sol Campbell looked good last season in a good Arsenal team..next season in an average ex championship team it will be different
Reply
Good article, don’t listen to those bitter mackems they’re just sick of living in our shadows. Big Sol turned you’s down so he could play at a big club as did Gosling. You’re wrong Newcastle is by far the biggest city in the north-east, just because sunderland annexed washington and houghton etc doesn’t make it any larger. It’s just government districts. Newcastle’ borders were trimmed right back at the same time but there are still over 1 million geordies and only 170,000 mackems. Boro is way more of a city than your pitiful and disgusting little dump but still classed as a town.
Reply
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE:It is interesting to note that when Sunderland won the League Championship in 1901/02 and 1912/13, Newcastle had the higher average gates. In the latter case United only finished 14th yet their average gates were 7,000 higher than Sunderland’s.
- Newcastle have finished as the Football League’s best supported club on no fewer than 10 occasions, whereas Sunderland have never finished as the League’s best supported club:
Man Utd 34;
Everton 13;
Arsenal 12;
Newcastle/Chelsea 10;
Aston Villa/Liverpool 7;
Spurs 6;
Man City 3.
- Between 1895 and 1934, a total of 39 years, Newcastle were the better supported club, compared to Sunderland’s best sequence of 5 years between 1961 and 1966.
From a reader: “Premier League AFTER the footy boom 96-97. Could they fill 22,500 capacity Roker? Could they sh*te. New ground new fans. [They had five sub-20,000 league attendances that season. The previous season when they won the First Division 17 of the 22 attendances were sub 20,000.]. Oh, and some of the 86-87 season gates are well worth a look.” [See above]
……a letter from an edition of True Faith: “I’ve long taken the piss out of an SMB I work with on account of the Mackems giving away thousands of tickets for their games. Now I have definite proof. The Metro’s free paper (17/8/00) carried a competition for 2 free tickets. Because the papers are free I blagged 10 copies of them and the Mags at work all filled in the competition (dead hard question – who did the SMB sign from Everton in the close season?) Guess what? The very next day we ALL got phone calls from some bint at the SoS telling us we’d won tickets. The Mackem I work with (who has always denied the free ticket crap) was gutted. Top dogs, eh? Mebbee not. Frankie, Chester-le-Street.”
These figures are from the Sunday Sun 1993-94
Best ever season
Newcastle 56,299 47/48
mackems 47,785 49/50
smoggies 36,123 50/51
Worst
Newcastle 16,835 90/91
mackems 13,600 86/87
smoggies 5,135 84/85
Post war average
Newcastle 33,133
mackems 28,357
smoggies 19,672
Top flight average
Newcastle 35,574
mackems 32,891
smoggies 25,165
Second flight average
Newcastle 28,252
mackems 23,701
smoggies 16,555
It is interesting to note that when Sunderland won the League Championship in 1901/02 and 1912/13, Newcastle had the higher average gates. In the latter case United only finished 14th yet their average gates were 7,000 higher than Sunderland’s.
- Newcastle have finished as the Football League’s best supported club on no fewer than 10 occasions, whereas Sunderland have never finished as the League’s best supported club:
Man Utd 34;
Everton 13;
Arsenal 12;
Newcastle/Chelsea 10;
Aston Villa/Liverpool 7;
Spurs 6;
Man City 3.
- Between 1895 and 1934, a total of 39 years, Newcastle were the better supported club, compared to Sunderland’s best sequence of 5 years between 1961 and 1966.
From a reader: “Premier League AFTER the footy boom 96-97. Could they fill 22,500 capacity Roker? Could they sh*te. New ground new fans. [They had five sub-20,000 league attendances that season. The previous season when they won the First Division 17 of the 22 attendances were sub 20,000.]. Oh, and some of the 86-87 season gates are well worth a look.” [See above]
……a letter from an edition of True Faith: “I’ve long taken the piss out of an SMB I work with on account of the Mackems giving away thousands of tickets for their games. Now I have definite proof. The Metro’s free paper (17/8/00) carried a competition for 2 free tickets. Because the papers are free I blagged 10 copies of them and the Mags at work all filled in the competition (dead hard question – who did the SMB sign from Everton in the close season?) Guess what? The very next day we ALL got phone calls from some bint at the SoS telling us we’d won tickets. The Mackem I work with (who has always denied the free ticket crap) was gutted. Top dogs, eh? Mebbee not. Frankie, Chester-le-Street.”
These figures are from the Sunday Sun 1993-94
Best ever season
Newcastle 56,299 47/48
mackems 47,785 49/50
smoggies 36,123 50/51
Worst
Newcastle 16,835 90/91
mackems 13,600 86/87
smoggies 5,135 84/85
Post war average
Newcastle 33,133
mackems 28,357
smoggies 19,672
Top flight average
Newcastle 35,574
mackems 32,891
smoggies 25,165
Second flight average
Newcastle 28,252
mackems 23,701
smoggies 16,555
——————————————————————————–
Page last updated 24 June, 2
——————————————————————————–
Page last updated 24 June, 2
Reply
Well George, yr obviously some sort of degenerate mackem or you would know that the reference to :the toon: opposed to a city,is one of coloquialism , whereas, sunderland will never be half the city the TOON is.
Reply
re: Adam, typical thick geordie. I bet you were one of those who sang for Raoul Moat at Carlisle. Like I say Sunderland is the biggest City between Leeds and Edinburgh.And the number one team
Reply
Re: Message to Adam add Porciestreet. I just love I just love it. You hate it when you are actually in Sunderland’s shadow go one admit it.
Reply