Carver cannot be given Newcastle’s head coach job next season
John Carver wants to become Newcastle’s head coach on a permanent basis, but surely that cannot happen unless owner Mike Ashley really does enjoy upsetting supporters.
Carver was hardly a popular choice before Newcastle crashed to a fifth successive defeat to their bitter rivals– Alan Pardew’s former assistant has been in the dugout for all of them – but this appears to confirm he is part of an old problem rather than a solution to the team’s many ills.
Carver has been given a platform to show what he can do and has won just two games out of 13 as Newcastle continue to slide down the table. He’s had a go, he tried his best, but Carver has failed his audition.
Let him return to a coaching role and hopefully a proud Geordie will not be demonised by his own people for too long. This was Newcastle biggest game of the season and they were dreadful, again. The buck stops with him.
The gamble on Defoe looks like paying off
Sunderland knew they were taking a gamble on Jermain Defoe, but it always looked like one worth taking. At the age of 32, and on the back of a less than spectacular spell in the lucrative retirement home otherwise known as the MLS, Defoe’s best years are behind him.
Jermain Defoe was worth every penny of the deal that took him to Sunderland
However, Defoe is the closest thing you get to guaranteeing goals in football, even in the twilight of his career. He has scored a goal roughly every two games throughout his career and, even when the legs are slowing and the body aches for longer after every match, players like Defoe never forget how to put the ball in the back of the net.
The length and size of his contract – three and a half years on £80,000-a-week - mean the Defoe deal raised eyebrows, but if his goals keep Sunderland up, it’s a bargain. Not that he’ll score a better one than the dipping volley from 25-yards that nestled in the top corner just before half time. It was one of the best scored in this fixture’s long history.
If only all Newcastle United’s players cared as much as Gutierrez
There has not been a more heart-warming sight this season for Newcastle supporters than Jonas Gutierrez returning to the team just a few months after finishing an intense course of chemotherapy to rid his body of cancer. He is an example to all of us, but he should also be a role model for all foreign imports to the club.
Some of the Newcastle players could learn much from Jonas Gutierrez
From the moment he arrived from Real Mallorca in 2008, Jonas has given everything he has to the team’s cause. Even after relegation to the Championship in 2009, Jonas stayed and fought for the club.
There have been better Newcastle players over the last few years, but none have grasped so well what fans want from those who wear the club’s crest next to their heart. Jonas has never shirked, hid, demanded a move or even flirted with another club. If only more Newcastle players were like him.
Cattermole is a lot better than you think he is
The popular national view of Lee Cattermole is that he is a dinosaur footballer from a previous football age. Those who don’t see him play often say Cattermole is a liability, a midfielder constantly on the brink of being sent off, who does not have the technical ability to play at the highest level. He is, at best, an honest, but limited defensive midfielder who gets by on willpower and determination alone. He is far better than that.
Lee Cattermole (left) deserves a chance in Roy Hodgson's England set-up
Former Sunderland manager Gus Poyet knew he was Sunderland’s most important player and pointed out he would start every game for the Uruguay national team, who beat England at last summer’s World Cup.
Dick Advocaat has labelled him Sunderland’s “controller” after just two weeks on Wearside. The bottom line is, Sunderland are a far better player with him than without. Cattermole is a much better player than people give him credit for and Roy Hodgson should take a closer look at him.
Sunderland should just about survive
It took a wonder goal from Jermain Defoe to turn their dominance of possession and territory into a first-half lead and they will probably be looking nervously over their shoulders for several weeks, but Sunderland had to win this game and did so under immense pressure.
Their final two games are against Arsenal and Chelsea and they remain just three points above the relegation zone, but Sunderland have not been in the bottom three at all this season and they should just about have enough quality to make sure it stays that way.
New manager Dick Advocaat’s arrival has given the team a battle-hardened manager, with vast experience, and has stopped the sense of drift that accompanied Gus Poyet’s last few weeks as manager.
It will be tight but not only have Sunderland done the double over Newcastle for the second year running, they have given their survival hopes an almighty boost.
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