A bit about you:
Name: Colin Whittle
Current home town: Newcastle
Birthplace: Hebburn….of the BBC 2 television series fame!!
How long have you supported your team? I followed the family tradition by supporting Newcastle United and I’ve been going since I was a young lad in the 70’s.Apart from the Kevin Keegan years (playing and managing) and the brief Bobby Robson era there’s not been much to shout home about. My motto is ‘there’s always next season’ but as I grow older I seem to look forward to ‘next season’ less and less…especially under Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United.
Overview of your club:
Favourite thing about your home ground: It’s City centre location is the key…..close to many pubs!
Favourite match played by your team & why: As a young lad the game that will always stick in my mind is when my dad took me to Wembley to witness our 2-1 League Cup final defeat against Man City in 1976.Unbelievable occasion to witness as a youngster and one I’ve never forgot. In more recent times it had to be beating Barcelona 3-2 …how the might have fallen!
Favourite player of all time who played for your club: Malcolm ‘Supermac’ Macdonald-a proper 1970’s centre forward…followed by our modern day hero Alan Shearer a Geordie No 9 sticking the ball in the back of the opposition net ,what more can you want!
About our forthcoming match against you:
Your favourite current player in your squad and why? I’m not sure I like any modern day footballers but if pushed I’d have to say my current favourite is Ayoze Perez who was bought as one for the future but has proved to be a quality player. Rumour has it that he is on the radar of the ‘big boys’. Goerginio Wijnaldum already looks to be a top player in the short time he has been with us.
Player in your squad we should most fear and why? Perez and Wijnaldum would be the ones to watch from a goalscoring point of view…but centre forward Mitrovic can be a handful. Watch for overlapping full back Janmaat who provides good attacking options at time.
Player in our squad you most fear and why? All of them…good or bad they’ve all got a chance of a good game against us. Seriously… it has to be Vardy for obvious reasons. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he is unfit.
Up and coming prospect in your squad? It has to be Perez….not a name on the lips of everyone but a great prospect. From a long term perspective it is young centre forward Adam Armstrong who is presently on loan at Coventry and hitting the back of the net with regularity. He’ll obviously not be playing this weekend.
Where do you think you’ll finish this season? I think we’ll avoid relegation but probably do little better it’s sad to say.
How do you think you’ll do against us? Whilst we are at home I’d take a draw given your current form.
General Questions:
What do you think of the summer transfer activity both in and out of your club? To be fair we invested in some potentially good players, the likes of Wijnaldum was great buy. However, I think we have fallen so far behind on our recruitment that we are still playing catch up. Realistically we need to spend the same again in January. An experienced quality centre back would be my starting point.
Which three teams do you think will go down? Bournemouth, Villa and Sunderland…as long as it’s not us I’m not fussed to be honest.
Who do you think will win the league? I’d have to go with Man City .Chelsea are already too far behind and I don’t think Man U have enough about them to win it. As an alternative I’d like to see Arsenal who I think, on their day, are as attractive as anyone to watch
Any other comments? You’ve not caught us at a particularly good time on the pitch although we have showed improvement of late. Off the pitch, as a club we’ve been turned into an advertisement for Sport Direct and there’s a massive ‘disconnect’ between the club and its fans. I think our close season buys have come a little too late to stop a lot of dissatisfied fans walking away. The potential of our club is massive and that’s why it’s so disappointing.
Colin Whittle is a board member of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST), you can read the latest from their Trust via this link http://www.nust.org.uk/