If, on Saturday, Sunderland are able to complete their first ‘double’ of the Premier League era over bitter rivals Newcastle United, their achievement is unlikely to be met by any widespread surprise. When the Black Cats were winning the season’s first north-east derby back in October, that eventuality would have been considered distinctly unlikely.
Fabio Borini’s late winner at the Stadium of Light secured his team’s first win of the campaign – on their ninth outing. Newcastle, after an opening day horror show at Manchester City, looked to be developing into a settled unit. There were still mishaps along the way, but solid wins at Aston Villa and Cardiff City, and a well merited point earned at home against Liverpool, had inspired belief around the club that this season would show a marked improvement on last year’s 16th placed finish.
The reverse at City came with the Magpies in some turmoil, their terrific midfielder Yohan Cabaye being left out of the squad after Newcastle had turned down Arsenal’s £10m offer for the player. Cabaye subsequently refused to line-up in his side’s next match at St. James’ Park against West Ham United. The Frenchman’s return to black and white colours, as a substitute against Fulham, coincided with Alan Pardew’s men going on to take their first three point haul of the season.
Cabaye’s impact upon Newcastle United since that day has been immense. Statistics reveal the 28 year-old to have scored seven Premier League goals thus far – three more than he managed during the entire 2011/2012 term, his first on Tyneside, when he wielded huge creative influence on the Magpies’ charge to a European football clinching fifth spot.
Simple numbers don’t do justice to Cabaye’s contribution to the Newcastle cause. He is the heartbeat of their team; the player that lifts them from a well organised, workmanlike outfit with a sprinkling of mercurial talent, into a side that need fear nobody. The former Lille man’s presence allows Pardew’s men to operate on the front foot, with his colleagues knowing that their intelligent running will be rewarded by the playmaker’s fantastic vision and execution of pass.
The effect that Cabaye has on his team’s attitude and performance was best demonstrated this season at Everton’s Goodison Park. A rampant home side completely overwhelmed the Tynesiders, racing into a three-goal half-time lead which, in truth, could have been double that.
Enter Cabaye, having started the night on the bench owing to a minor niggle, and the flow of the contest turned on its head. From his striking a scorching 25-yard 51st minute goal into Tim Howard’s top left corner, the midfielder proceeded to dominate an encounter that had, until his arrival, been wholly one-sided.
Suddenly, Everton were being asked questions. Their free-willed, expansive football was suppressed by an acute need to stifle their imaginative, fast-thinking opponent. Cabaye’s presence introduced attacking team-mates, who had hitherto barely laid a foot on the ball, into the action. Newcastle fell short of completing their comeback on that Monday night, but a spark had been lit.
Ten weeks after that September date, the 26 time capped international supplied the only goal as Newcastle won a league match at Manchester United for the first time in 41 years. Cabaye has been instrumental in the club’s unexpected rise to 8th position in the table and, in his last outing, delivered a masterclass as the Magpies cantered to a 3-1 victory at West Ham.
All of which makes the player’s imminent departure a monstrous blow to anybody with Newcastle United affiliations. It is Cabaye’s absence, as much as the gradual revival that Gus Poyet is overseeing at Sunderland, which makes the impending Tyne-Wear clash too tight to call. Certainly, despite being the home team, Newcastle can make no claim to being outright favourites, particularly in light of their infamous 3-0 defeat at the hands of a Paolo Di Canio inspired opposition in the same fixture last season.
As much as Cabaye’s loss will be felt on Tyneside, it is also an unwelcome move for the Premier League. It is understandable that the player has been lured away by the extravagant Qatari wealth and guaranteed Champions League football offered by Paris St Germain.
Nevertheless, the English game will be losing one of its finest performers. Possibly even more damaging, is that Cabaye is leaving a club that has pretensions towards challenging in the upper reaches of the table. In what is unfolding into one of the most thrilling Premier League seasons that many observers can recall, of chief fascination has been the bunching together of the top seven sides.
Key to that expanding competition is the increasingly strong arm applied by clubs to keeping their prime assets out of the hands of illustrious pursuers.
Liverpool, across the past decade, have seen stars such as Michael Owen, Xabi Alonso and, most tellingly, Fernando Torres, decide they would be best served by re-locating to pastures new. Last summer they clung onto the otherworldly Luis Suarez in the face of Arsenal’s very public interest in the Uruguyan.
Leighton Baines, this week, committed the next four years of his career to Everton, a club that has all too routinely in recent times seen its prized assets picked off by the Premier League’s big spenders.
Tottenham Hotspur did lose Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, albeit for a remarkable sum of money. The Londoners, though, were quick to re-invest their reputed £85.3m windfall on a string of recruits to bolster an already strong squad. The fortunes of Spurs’ seven summer buys have been mixed but, with Tim Sherwood’s leadership still in its infacy, no final verdict can be cast on any of their ultimate success. Notwithstanding that, the Dutch Number 10 Christian Eriksen and Brazilian midfield powerhouse Paulinho appear destined to forge prosperous careers at White Hart Lane.
While Bale left these shores, Tottenham’s north London adversaries, Arsenal, addressed what had become a growing trend for the world’s pre-eminent footballers choosing to operate outside of England. Mesut Ozil’s capture, at once, brought welcome cache to the Premier League, and imbued the Gunners with renewed faith as they look to re-establish themselves as a trophy winning force.
The exceptional Spaniard Juan Mata, surplus to requirements at Chelsea, preferred to stay in this country with Manchester United, rather than return to his homeland. The financial might of both Mata’s former club and Manchester City ensures that those clubs will remain contenders for all of Europe’s major prizes.
So where does this leave Newcastle United? A long way removed from the outfit that broke the global transfer record when, in 1996, they paid £15m for the signature of Alan Shearer. That ground-breaking purchase was sandwiched between seasons in which the Magpies were runners-up in the English top flight. In 1998 and 1999 the club were beaten FA Cup finalists.
The last fourteen years have contained everything from a 4th placed berth, to mid-table mediocrity and a campaign in the Championship. Last year’s fall from grace, after such a notable second term back in the Premier League in 2011/2012, came as a shock. A troubling slide was, on that occasion, halted by a busy January recruitment drive.
Essential to Newcastle’s improvement this season have been the eleven goals of Loic Remy. The striker, however, is showing little inclination towards wanting to extend his year -long stay from Queens Park Rangers. Watching his countryman walk out of the door, and with him the Magpies’ hopes of breaking into the top six, will do nothing to persuade Remy he would be better served by staying put.
If Newcastle are to step up and compete with Everton, Liverpool and Spurs, let alone the elite bracket of English clubs, Cabaye must be the last in a line, that goes back to Jonathan Woodgate and James Milner, and latterly includes, Andy Carroll, Jose Enrique and Demba Ba, of players to leave St James’ Park in their peak years.
Short-term, all the Toon Army will care for is putting one over the local enemy this weekend. If a hero emerges to win the day, and perhaps even takes on Cabaye’s talismanic mantle over the coming months, will they be the next Newcastle player to be prized from Pardew’s grasp? If the Magpies’ owner, Mike Ashley, wants his club to fight on an even footing with the Champions League aspirants the drip-drip of talent must stop.
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