Right, that’s it from me. Stick around on site for all the reports and reaction from around the grounds on the final day of the Premier League season.
West Ham have dispensed with Sam Allardyce
West Ham have just released a statement confirming Allardyce’s departure from the club:
West Ham United will begin the search for a new manager after the Club decided not to renew the contract of Sam Allardyce following the conclusion of the 2014/15 season.
Joint-Chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold will now oversee the recruitment process for a new manager to lead the Club into one of the most exciting eras in its history. The Hammers will bid an emotional farewell to the Boleyn Ground, their home of more than 110 years, next season before the Club moves to London’s premier state-of-the-art 54,000 seater stadium on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in August 2016.
The Board has already compiled a shortlist of replacements for Allardyce and will be making significant transfer funds available for the successful candidate.
That didn’t take long.
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A chant of “WE WANT ASHLEY OUT!” rumbles around the ground.
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Hugs all round on the pitch. Here’s Jonas: “Newcastle is bigger than this. We have to look forward.
“A few months ago I didn’t know if I was going to able to play football again. I’m so proud to be here”
Peep! PEEEEP!! PEEEEEEEEEP!!! That’s it! Newcastle stay up. And a real high note for the season to end on courtesy of Jonas Gutierrez.
90+2 min: The Toon Army engage Party Mode.
90 min: Seven added minutes at Hull and just three added minutes at St James’. It’s not going to matter – Newcastle are staying up.
88 min: Anita, who might have been the villain had things gone differently, comes off to be replaced by Gouffran.
87 min: Both Newcastle’s goals have come about a minute after they missed gilt-edged chances.
GOAL! Newcastle 2-0 West Ham (Gutierrez 85)
That’s it! Newcastle are surely safe now. And what a man to score it. As Sky’s commentator points out Gutierrez knows more about survival than most. He crunches a low shot past Adrian from 25 yards to send St James’ Park into raptures.
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84 min: Reid nods on to the roof of the net. West Ham are sending plenty of men forward but they’re so open at the back now.
83 min: Oh my word! West Ham make a right mess of a free-kick and Anita races through into the Hammers half unchallenged. It’s three on one … and the one is goalkeeper Adrian. Anita, probably rightly, looks to play the ball across to one of his team-mates burt the keeper cuts out the pass. Unbelievable.
81 min: Manchester United are down to 10 men at the KC Stadium after a red card for Fellaini. And it has caused a bit of a delay. The full-time whistle is likely to blow at St James’ before the one at Hull.
80 min: Amalfitano goes into the book for a late lunge on Anita.
80 min: West Ham’s best chance of the half drops to Kevin Nolan, who swipes wide from the edge of the box. A bit of an escape for Newcastle, that.
79 min: Riviere and Cisse conspire to waste a decent three-on-three break.
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78 min: Elliott Lee, son of Rob Lee, replaces Kouyate.
77 min: … worked short to Janmaat, whose whipped cross finds Coloccini. The captain’s volley flies over.
76 min: Anita nips in ahead of Nolan and sees his cross deflected out for a corner …
74 min: Hull have gone close once more but even if the Tigers score it won’t be enough as it stands.
72 min: It’s been pretty much one-way traffic since the break. West Ham don’t look remotely like scoring an equaliser.
71 min: Cole rises highest to meet Jenkinson’s cross but he’s on the penalty spot and always stretching. The header loops harmlessly over.
68 min: Another West Ham change: James Tomkins replaces Reece Burke.
67 min: More roars as Anita goes thundering into a challenge.
65 min: A chant of “sacked in the morning” echoes quietly echoes from some corner of the stadium. It’s not entirely clear as to which manager it’s being directed at.
64 min: A couple of balls slung into the West Ham area meet the heads of defenders.
62 min: Amalfitano replaces Valencia for West Ham.
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61 min: Roars from the terraces as Newcastle hassle and harry West Ham all over the pitch, eventually forcing them all the way back to Adrian.
59 min: West Ham have responded pretty well to the goal without creating a great deal. Set pieces look their best chance of upsetting Newcastle’s survival bid at the moment.
57 min: West Ham briefly threaten in the Newcastle box as a deep free-kick drops loose. Nolan thinks he should have a corner but the officials award a goal-kick.
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56 min: West Ham haven’t got going this half.
55 min: Sissoko goes into the book for removing his shirt during his celebration, but he probably won’t mind too much.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-0 West Ham (Sissoko 54)
Newcastle take the lead! Sissoko buries his header past Adrian from six yards after Gutierrez whips in the perfect cross. Superb cross, great leap from the goalscorer.
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52 min: That miss gets worse and worse on the replays. It was beautifully created by Janmaat and his cross was absolutely perfect. It was just a dismal effort from the Frenchman.
51 min: What a chance! Brilliant work from Janmaat on the right, who does Cresswell and rolls the ball into Riviere’s path. He airkicks from six yards out. Comfortably Newcastle’s best chance of the game.
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49 min: Hull and Manchester United exchange missed chances at the KC. Nothing clear cut has been created at St James’ since the break.
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48 min: … Williamson gets on the end of it but can’t direct his near-post header anywhere useful.
47 min: Scrappy start to the half, with both West Ham full-backs sloppily putting out for Newcastle throws. Meanwhile, Cissé has won a corner for his side …
46 min: Song muscles Cissé off the ball with ease. The Newcastle striker has struggled to get into the game thus far.
PEEP! We have a long wait at St James’s Park as Hull and Manchester United aren’t quite ready for the restart. Eventually, though, both matches kick off at the same time.
The players are back out and ready to go again. Forty-five minutes of the Premier League season remain.
Some half-time reading: here’s Louise Taylor on Mike Ashley’s interview earlier today.
Peep! PEEEP!! Half-time. And as it stands Newcastle are safe.
45+1 min: Janmaat, Newcastle’s best player this half and surely a shoo-in to stay in the Premier League even if Newcastle do not, cuts inside from the right once more but his left-footed shot is wide.
45 min: There’ll be a minimum of one minute of injury time.
43 min: Burke muscles Cisse off the ball and sends an optimistic shot in the vague direction of goal from about 40 yards. It hits a defender and bobbles apologetically through to Krul.
42 min: A lull.
40 min: Nicely worked by Newcastle down the left. Colback looks to have overcooked his cross but Janmaat is flying in on the right. He plants his header yards over the bar.
38 min: West Ham have lost a bit of zip. Could be a decent moment for Newcastle to go up a gear …
36 min: … dinked in pretty pathetically by Colback but West Ham can’t clear and in the end the ball breaks to Gutierrez, who curls over from distance.
35 min: Cisse is chopped down from behind 30-odd yards from goal. Free-kick. A decent chance this …
33 min: Chance for Riviere as Janmaat’s cross breaks to him in the area. The French forward attempts a Karate Kid-style crane kick but can only miscue softly straight at Adrian. Nice try, Emmanuel-san.
32 min: Kouyate scuffs in a cross as West Ham threaten once more.
30 min: Reid makes a vital block as West Ham take their turn to fail to clean their lines. Cissé was loitering with intent but the defender managed to get his body in the way of Sissoko’s pass.
29 min: … a Newcastle head meets the ball but it’s loose inside the area. Nolan almost grabs the chance but eventually Newcastle scramble clear.
28 min: Another dangerous West Ham free-kick …
27 min: West Ham are beginning to boss the midfield but it’s all a little directionless at the moment.
25 min: Replays show Downing was narrowly offside there. Nevertheless, the visitors are on top at the moment.
24 min: What a chance for West Ham! The Newcastle defence were picked apart, with Downing gliding clean through as defenders looked for offside. His angle is a little narrow, though, and Krul is able to slide out to block with his knee.
23 min: … Cresswell rather optimistically looks to slide the ball in low down the side of the area, but Newcastle are alive to the danger and clear.
22 min: Valencia wins a cheap free-kick off Colback 50-odd yards from goal. West Ham send the heavy artillery up from the back …
21 min: Valencia needs treatment after taking a whack on the head in an aerial challenge.
19 min: Hull have just had two goals disallowed in the space of two minutes. You can follow all the action from the KC Stadium with Brooklyn’s Tom Lutz right here.
18 min: Gutierrez sees his shot from the edge of the box blocked by Reid. Janmaat, who has spent more time in the West Ham area than his own, smashes the loose ball wide.
St. James' Park unites in applause in memory of John Alder and Liam Sweeney. #NUFC
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) May 24, 2015
17 min: Downing looks to thread a pass through to the onrushing Kouyate but the ball is a little too heavy.
15 min: Song makes a bit of a rick inside the centre circle and Newcastle are able to break onto the West Ham back four. Janmaat heads over to take a throw-in and tries to whip up the crowd.
13 min: Cole chases a long ball down the right channel and Williamson tidies up, playing the ball back to Krul. Krul, though, plays the riskiest of short passes out and the ball evades Valencia’s toes by a whisker. A few hearts skipped a beat there.
12 min: Janmaat surges forward on the right and cuts inside but his shot is a weak one, bobbling straight through to Adrian.
11 min: Dummett forces his way down the Newcastle left but his cross pinballs between himself and a defender and goes out for a goal kick.
10 min: It’s still 0-0 in the other game that matters at the bottom.
Hull started sharp and at it..
— jamie jackson (@JamieJackson___) May 24, 2015
9 min: Sissoko plops a cross straight into the hands of Adrian.
8 min: The atmosphere inside SJP really is rocking and both sets of players have responded to it thus far.
A bold new strategy from Newcastle today. They appear to have decided to give a shit. And it’s working.
— Iain Macintosh (@iainmacintosh) May 24, 2015
6 min: This has been a 100mph start. Riviere attempts a spectacular overhead kick at the back post and connects reasonably well. The effort scuds into the side-netting.
5 min: Downing swirls in a corner and Krul tumbles under pressure in the box. Atkinson sees enough contact on this occasion to award the foul.
4 min: I think that fell into the section marked You’ve Seen Them Given.
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3 min: Is this a penalty? Well, no, but should it have been? Valencia turns past Williamson in the box, the Newcastle defender dangling a leg awkwardly towards the forward. He goes down but referee Atkinson, who was well placed, isn’t interested.
1 min: CLOSE TO THE PERFECT START FOR NEWCASTLE! They break down the right, get a couple of favourable bobbles as the ball is sent low into the area by Sissoko from over on the right. Both Cisse and Riviere are closing in and the ball breaks to the latter, who lashes across goal.
Peep! Off we go then. Newcastle have 90 minutes to save themselves.
St James’ Park is noisy as the players line up pre-kick-off. A cauldron, if you will. Though quite why large pots are considered noisy I’m not entirely sure.
The players are in the tunnel. Even the Newcastle mascots look nervous.
“From this day forward we will be making our own luck”? I’m not sure luck works like that, Mike old bean.
Mike Ashley not selling Newcastle - 2016-19 TV deals likely to be £8.5bn; now not the time to sell a cash cow. #nufc https://t.co/YM07ORyOmu
— David Conn (@david_conn) May 24, 2015
Ashley’s interview on Sky Sports has just aired. A quick summary (courtesy of Newcastle’s official website):
Where does the blame lie? My door. I didn’t envisage us being in this position at Christmas. Obviously, after the last couple of weeks I’m still a little bit shocked at where we find ourselves today.
I will continue the policy of investing in the football club.
We have got the club on a very sound financial footing, so we are able to spend and punch above our weight thanks to the current financial situation the club finds itself in.
What’s your plan now? To definitely win something and, by the way, I won’t be selling until I do.
[The club is not for sale] at any price. And when I say ‘win something’, if we ever get into a position of being in a Champions League place, that also counts as winning something.
From this day forward we will be making our own luck.
WHAT’S YOU PLAN MIKE?! “We have the financial cart, we now have to bolt the horse on.” Erm, OK.
Mike Ashley has apparently just told broadcast journalists that he has no plans to leave the club until they’ve won something. League One title in 2016-17?
Hard to see Mike Ashley sell Newcastle. Stay up: TV cheque £60m+. Go down, £65m parachute. Easier money than flogging cheap sportswear #nufc
— David Conn (@david_conn) May 24, 2015
The fans' view
The Observer hunted down fans of every Premier League team to get their reviews of the season. Here’s what the fans of these clubs thought:
Newcastle – Richard & David Holmes
2/10 Applying the business model of a downmarket sports retailer (degrade the brand, maximise profits) to a football club has, unsurprisingly, had disastrous consequences. By limiting ambition to staying in the Premier Leagueand treating cups with contempt, Mike Ashley has created a soulless entity and shattered the hopes of generations of fans. Alan Pardew performed as well as he could as an apologist for Ashley, while John Carver has proved completely out of his depth. He might “bleed black and white” but he’s proved to be inept at both man management and tactics … and couldn’t even inspire his players to put up a fight in a derby. The owner, management, coaching staff and most of the players deserve to go down – the fans don’t.
The stars Ayoze Pérez has been a bright spark in a dark season, Daryl Janmaat has had us wondering why we were so upset about Mathieu Debuchy leaving and Jack Colback has been consistent. And Jonás Gutiérrez deserves credit, for obvious reasons. The flops Everyone else, more or less.
Summer targets This clearly depends on what division we’re in. But players with guts, determination and experience wouldn’t go amiss. We hear Joey Barton might be available on a free …
Best and worst away fans Burnley were best; Manchester United worst. They were arrogant without having much to be arrogant about.
Highlights montage music Tom Petty – Free Fallin’
West Ham – Pete May – HammersInTheHeart.blogspot.co.uk
6/10 A bizarre season: great before Christmas and then relegation form after. On the positive side we were safe in March. Injuries haven’t helped – including Enner Valencia being crocked by crockery – and numerous points thrown away in added time suggest a concentration problem. Big Sam delivered what he was asked to early on with good signings, more attacking football and great wins over Man City and Liverpool. But the board dithering over his position has left gaffer and team looking demotivated. A large section of the crowd will never like him, but, unless we get an A-list replacement, letting Allardyce go is a high-risk strategy.
The stars Aaron Cresswell, Diafra Sakho, Adrián, Kouyaté and Jenkinson – a big improvement at right-back. The flops The ageing Kevin Nolan doesn’t have a goal threat any more. Valencia looks skilful but hasn’t scored the goals his price tag demands. And Andy Carroll was the season’s fitness flop.
Summer targets We need to sign Jenkinson permanently from Arsenal, plus a fit striker and a leader to replace Nolan.
Best and worst away fans Crystal Palace were noisy. Worst were Chelsea for celebrating like they’d won the league, as if…
Highlights montage music Stealers Wheel – Stuck in the Middle with You.
Mike Ashley is in attendance at St James’s Park today, where he is sure to be showered in gifts, bombarded with flowers and have his name to sung to the rafters. Well-wishers will queue up around the ground to shake his hand and congratulate him on a job well done.
Or maybe not.
So Papiss Cissé makes his first start for Newcastle since that fateful saliva-filled afternoon at Old Trafford back on 4 March. What we expect to be Sam Allardyce’s final West Ham XI is pretty much as expected.
The teams
Newcastle (4-2-3-1): Krul, Janmaat, Coloccini (c), Williamson, Dummett; Anita, Colback; Gutierrez, Sissoko, Rivière; Cissé. Subs: Woodman, R.Taylor, Gouffran, Ameobi, Cabella, de Jong, Perez.
West Ham (4-5-1): Adrian; Jenkinson, Burke, Reid, Cresswell; Downing, Song, Nolan (c), Kouyate, Valencia; Cole. Subs: Jaaskelainen, O’Brien, Tomkins, Amalfitano, Jarvis, Lee, Nene.
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Preamble
Cheese with fruit in it. Mrs Brown’s Boys. Paper cuts. Own-brand tomato ketchup … some things are just rubbish. But nothing has been quite as rubbish as the 2015 version of Newcastle United. Remember when the season was almost a third over and Newcastle were fifth? Since then …
LDWLLLWDLLWDDLWLLLLLLLLDL
Almost half the points they’ve mustered this season were earned in a four-week spell in late October and early November. That, though, has proved an island of success in an ocean of uselessness. So useless have they been since the champagne corks stopped popping on New Year’s Eve that they go into the final day knowing that anything other than a victory over that West Ham could see them relegated.
If John Carver’s team (and at the moment you feel that word should be surrounded by inverted commas) can find a win against the Hammers then everything’s gravy. Anything other than a win and it’s up to Hull, who face Manchester United on the final day knowing that only a victory can save them. Beating Manchester United on the final day to survive? That would never happen, would it?
