Early Summer Wheelings

After just a couple weeks after the end of the disappointing Premiership season there have been plenty of movers featured on the back pages of papers throughout the Northeast - but unfortunately no shakers have shown yet. Here's a quick update of some of those mentioned.

Bafetimbi Gomis - Currently a member of St. Etienne of French League. People have called this kid a young Didier Drogba. I don't know how many times I've heard that, but as far as I can tell, there's still only one Drogba. So yes, he's big and tall, yes he's got a great YouTube video, but I never really saw much in this one until yesterday when he came on for the France national team and won the game single-handedly. Two SUPERB strikes are documented here.


Achille Emana - Another member of the French League, this time with Toulouse, and this time, a Cameroon international. This means another one gone during the ACN, which happens every other January. I don't know much about this player except that he's also big, strong, and young. A central mid, it would be nice to have cover (and a future replacement) for either Nicky Butt or Joey Barton. But I think this one's yet another in a long line of baseless rumours.


Amara Diane - Wow - big surprise - another African international playing in the French League. This one is from the Ivory Coast, currently at Paris St. Germain. The kid's got a good scoring record playing at a halfway decent club. Rumour has it he's a fan of Kevin Keegan and has come out and said he'd like a move to Newcastle.


Shawn Wright-Phillips - I still like this guy. It seems like when he gets a chance at Chelsea (which happens once in a blue moon) he plays a solid game, but makes one big blunder which continuously hurts his reputation. You can mark that up to the weight of Chelsea. His pace is his greatest asset, and it's the one thing we need if we want to play with true wingers.

Carlos Cuellar - Signed by Rangers a year ago from Ossasuna for $2m, now they want $7m for him. And he's worth it. The man won player of the year in the SPL this year and that 7m pricetag is PENNIES for the mega-clubs that are going to want to buy him.



Arda Turan - After losing out to Spurs a couple weeks ago on Luca Modric, spirits among the Toon transfer groupies were at an all time low. Not only was Luca in the palm of our hands (reportedly) and we lost him - but we lost him to SPURS. The same guys we seem to lose every player to. But the news of us being interested in another young playmaker, this time Turkish, and a good friend of Emre, raised all of our spirits. Check him out. And please forgive the awful music. I didn't make the video.

Put a Fork in her

i am writing this from my ipod touch!!! This horrible, seemingly never-ending train wreck of a season has finally come to an end. My congrats to Manchester United for taking the season as they justifiably deserve. Newcastles was that of a bit of a roller coaster - and honestly - if it was a rollercoaster it would have been a DAMN good one - almost all downwards at terrifying speeds.

Here's a bit of a recap:

August wasn't too bad for us a great first win at Bolton under Sam Allardyce for his first match. Oba scored a thrilling overhead kick and all seemed great. A couple bore draws followed, then an easy 2-0 win over Barnsley. Clearly we were on to both a Premiership title AND the Carling Cup championship.

September, however, was a different story. We were able to continue our points rise by barely beating Wigan 1-0. But the next match could have marked the beginning of the very early end. a 1-0 loss to Derby. DERBY. This will have been Derby's ONLY victory this ENTIRE season. After a quick 3-1 victory over the Hammers, we continued our slide with two bad losses against Arsenal and Man City.

The next two matches were better - home victories over Everton and Tottenham. Where's the consistency?? They're both great teams and we can't beat Derby? But after that fleeting moment of hope, here is where it started to get really really bad. Loss to Reading. Bad loss to Portsmouth. (I remember this one well - my buddy Paul came over to watch the match. He got to my place a bit late - in the 15th minute. We were already 3-0 down.) A VERY lucky draw to the scum of Sunderland. 3-0 loss to Liverpool at home. 3-1 loss to Blackburn. That was December 1.

At this point, knives were out. The next match was against Arsenal, we're in a free fall, fans are SERIOUSLY up in arms about Allardyce's continuous lack of ambition to go forward. So when we drew 1-1 v Arsenal, I was on top of the world. Then we WIN 2 matches in a row!! So the next week we have Derby at home. I think - heck yes this is an easy 3. I convince Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood to come to the pub for a nice match and Irish breakfast - telling her - hey, we're playing Derby at home. You'll get to see a win today. Nope. 2-2 draw and a lucky one at that. We actually left before we scored the tying goal,a nd I was in a sour mood for the rest of the day. Thanks, NUFC.

Oh boy - then it gets even better. Loss to Wigan. Loss to Chelsea. Loss to Man City. Draw to Championship side Stoke City. Then - on Wednesday January 9th, Big Sam got the Sack. Initially I took this negatively, then slowly realized that it was the right move at the right time, no matter what the papers from London said. What did they know, anyway?

Well, Nigel Pierson took over for us and didn't help much - a 6-0 drubbing at Man United. But then - on Wednesday the 16th, exactly one week after Sam's departure, on the same day as the Stoke replay, we announce Kevin Keegan as our new manager. We go on to win that match at home vs. Stoke 4-1 and EVERY member of the Toon Army was grinning and looking upwards. Until reality set in.

Scoreless bore draw to Bolton. Two CONSECUTIVE 3-0 losses to Arsenal. Middlesborough draw. Villa 4-1 loss. Another HUGE Man United loss. Blackburn loss. Liverpool Loss.

This brings us to Monday, March 17th. Can you believe this? Basically from middle September to Middle March, the season has been RIPE SHITE. But at Birmingham this night, with even MORE rumors of sacking the manager around, we went down 1-0 in the first half, came out the second half and FINALLY put on a display. We got all our African players back, we got players back from injury, King Kev had a full squad to choose from and he went with his new, genius formation - the 4-3-3 with new captain Michael Owen in a pulled back striker position. This is when the floodgates opened. VICTORY to Fulham. VICTORY at Tottenham. VICTORY to Reading. Draw AT Portsmouth. Easy 2-0 victory over rivals Sunderland. All of the sudden, due to Keegan taking control of HIS team, now we put a great run of victories together. We then drew at West Ham, lost a hard match to Chelsea, and finished the season with a poor 3-1 loss at Everton.

So there's your season. Basically a high at the beginning, a HUGE run of poor results, and then a nice patch at the end to save our butts.

Good Season went to:

Nicky Butt, Steve Harper, Steven Taylor, Habib Beye, Abdulaye Faye, Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins, Kevin Keegan, Chris Mort, Mike Ashley

Bad Season went to:

Sam Allardyce (obviously), Alan Smith, Geremi, Joey Barton, Mark Viduka, Sanchez Jose Enrique, David Rozehnal, Damien Duff

Next season we're going to need a LOT more dedication from players, a better game plan from the coaches, and more monetary dedication from the owner. Let's get back into Europe, okay?

Failure and Wildfire Steakhouse

Well, as most of us predicted (in our heart of hearts), Newcastle couldn't pull out a victory or draw today against Chelsea - we lost pretty handily to one of the two best teams in Europe. So obviously no big surprises there - they're in the CL final for a reason. If we could use Newcastle's performances against the two Champions League finalists as a springboard for a fairly accurate prediction of the final game (which will be held on my BIRTHDAY this year - have I mentioned that??)....
NUFC vs. MUFC: 0-6 at SJP, 5-1 at Old Trafford. Grand Total: 11-1 MUFC
NUFC vs. Chelsea: 2-1 at the Bridge, 0-2 at SJP. Grand Total: 4-1 Chelsea

So, uh yeah. that's a 7-goal swing for MUFC so based on these numbers they should take the CL final easily...usually it's not that direct though. This IS a direct relationship to how much disdain and disrespect I show Man United, so now you can see why then rarely see any plaudits from this poor NUFC supporter!!

Anyway, today's match assures that the title will go down to the last day of the season for the first time since 1999 and that's exciting stuff, no matter who you root for.



Wildfire Steakhouse
....Another blog entry about beef? You got that right.
This is a totally different place from Fogo de Chao. This is a very traditional steakhouse - you walk in, you order a drink, you order a cut of meet, you order sides, they come out, you eat them, you pay, you leave. This is another Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, so any real surprises are few and far between. They've got money to make, damnit. But the quality is high, the service is GREAT (my buddy's wife works there) and the atmosphere is always condusive to a good time.
This time, we ordered a nice pinot noir and it was wonderful. I wish I could remember what it was. I do remember, however, the meal I ordered: ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY BEEF WELLINGTON!! Ever since I started watching "Hell's Kitchen" I wanted to try one of these(they make these things every bloody night on that show). It sounded as close to perfection as you could get - a filet mignon drenched in something close to french onion soup, wrapped in pastry, baked, and then served in another bath of french onion soup. All my favorite things all wrapped up into one handy dish. And I'll tell you what - I was absolutely right. This thing was legendary. I feel lucky to have been there because it was the special that night and they only serve it one night a week (Saturdays). Not only was this great for the obvious reason of having simply delectable ingredients throughout, but the way it's constructed helps its cause immensely. You see, by drenching the beef in onion sauce then wrapping it, you keep all that moisture inside while it's cooking in the oven. So what comes out when you cut into it is a perfectly cooked, medium-well steak that doesn't have even a hint of being over done. It could be the best-prepared steak I've ever had - and I've had a lot of good ones. And while I would like to give the staff at Wildfire all the credit for this - I think the real praise goes to it's namesake, the Duke of Wellington (his name was actually Arthur Wellesley).
So while I give Wildfire a very strong 3.5/5 stars, I give the Wellington a 4.5. The 0.5 point its missing is due to presentation - because honestly, how nice can you make one of those things look? But the taste makes up for it. EAT BEEF!

It's been a while

I have to stop sporadically falling off the face of the Blog-Earth like this.

You see....what had happened was......Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood's parents came in to town for about 17 days, and stayed in our second bedroom, which happens to be the same room my computer resides. Therefore, I had limited access to that room, especially at night, when I typically create these glorious posts. So I have to apologize - I did not get sufficient time to add new ones at appropriate times. But there will be a lot to cover....let's see what happened....

-Newcastle MATHEMATICALLY saved themselves from relegation

-Manchester United has tried increasingly hard to give the Premiership title away to Chelsea and now they're in a dead heat with the Red Devils relying on my beloved NUFC to pull out a result.

-CL finals are upon us, and the match is being held on my birthday this year - May 21

-I went to some fantastic restaurants, most of which I've been to before (Wildfire, Ai Sushi) but one new one (Alinea).


Monday, Newcastle take on Chelsea (at 10am on a Monday - come on!) and Chelsea haven't had all that much luck at Saint James Park over recent years. In fact - even TITUS SHAMBLES scored in the match against Chelsk a couple years ago - which shows just how much trouble they have there. If we win vs. Chelsea, the race is over and Manchester take the crown. If we tie, there's only the SLIGHTEST of chances for Chelsea to take it, and if we lose(heaven forbid for us all) it'll go neck and neck until the end. Watch this space.

With NUFC being mathematically safe from relegation, the supporters and club now look to moves we can make in the offseason to improve our massively underachieving club. The common thought is that we're pretty strong up front, we need some creativity and maybe a right winger in midfield, definitely a left back and most definitely a strong CB, and we're (as always) all set at keeper. There are rumbles we've already got a deal tied up for the up and down, unwanted Liverpool right back John Arne Riise. My personaly opinion is that, once again, we're going for someone who's past his prime, but truth be told, he's better than we've got now, so for 4 million pounds and 30,000 per week, it's not that bad a deal. I mean, he's only 27, so he's got a good 3 more years left in him. Other rumors include Gomis up front, Defensive midfielder Sessegnon from france, Darren Bent up front (no!), Eren Derdiyok from Sweden, Deco from Barcelona, and many, many others. Newcastle, being long-known overpayers, are typically linked with every available player out there, except for the really good ones, who only get linked with Man U and Arsenal. So I usually don't pay too much mind to these, but it's always exciting.

The CL finals are next Wednesday, between Manchester United and Chelsea. This is the first time in a long time (maybe ever??) that there are two English clubs in the final. It'll be held in Moscow. I am quite disappointed that two English clubs are in the final, not only because it'll be personally more boring since I watch these clubs all the time and I usually like watching CL football to see OTHER clubs stack up AGAINST English ones, but also because it shows the growing gulf between the English league and the rest of the world, while the English national team continues to struggle. While I'm happy that I get to watch the best league in the world every weekend, I wish it was more due to local English players rather than billionaire internationals (including far too many uneducated and laughable American owners) buying up all the talent throughout the world. But that's just me. Back to the game.
I believe on a neutral pitch, Manchester will Beat Chelsea around 8 times out of 10. They've got more fluidity, more natural talent, and don't need as many tactics to win. Chelsea DO, in fact, need brilliant tactics to win, and lucky for them, I believe they have them. Don't let that sound like they haven't got the talent though, because Drogba, Lampard, Terry et all are some of the best in the business. But at this moment in the history of football, no one on the planet - and I'm not exagerating - no one on THE PLANET can touch Christiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro. He, combined with Nani, Anderson, and the rest can create the type of football that fans like myself only dream that every club could produce. So if you have any chance to watch this match on the 21st of May - you might want to pay attention.

Restaurant reviews are to follow shortly.