JOHNGIBSON A reminder of past but let’s think about future
KENEDY IS A GOOD START BUT TOON NEED A STRIKER NOW
WE waited, waited, and then waited some more.
While Mike Ashley played with everyone’s emotions – will he, won’t he – the tension mounted by the day.
Finally the breakthrough came this week and, sure enough, it was a transfer originally mooted in the last transfer window, not this one, but put on ice because of a cautious holding club.
Naturally when it arrived it was a loan deal because that is the cheapest - but even then newcomer Kenedy cannot play on Sunday because he’s FA Cup tied and anyway opponents Chelsea are his parent club. Typical – a further delay. Yet it does not matter at all. Burnley at home on Wednesday is the BIG fixture because it carries three precious Premier League points and Kenedy can debut in that.
Like his old Newcastle namesake Alan Kennedy, he can motor down the left flank, providing United with genuine attacking options.
If Kenedy does half as well then, boy, we have a good ‘un.
Alan Kennedy appeared in two Wembley cup finals for Newcastle and went on to score the winners in two European Cup finals with Liverpool, where he also lifted the League title five times and the League Cup on another four occasions. That is a serial hoarder of trophies.
In many ways Kennedy was the forerunner of what Kenedy and others are today.
While his mentor Frank Clark was a typical stay-at-home left-back rigid in his movement, Kennedy used his blistering pace to pioneer the modern attacking left-sider.
There is an age similarity too – Kenedy is 21, young of course, but then Alan Kennedy was only coming up 20 when he played for Newcastle in the 1974 FA Cup final.
The Brazilian’s signing was like a drop of water on a parched tongue for Geordies but what we really want is to gulp down a long refreshing drink of hope.
Supporters have been waiting for a striker as long as they have for Kenedy – probably longer – but then aren’t many clubs at this time of year?
Getting a finisher of genuine pedigree at an affordable price is the problem, especially for a club like Newcastle who count the pennies never mind the pounds. No matter, someone had better arrive. Better than Joselu, better than Alexsandar Mitrovic. Two of the more recent buys. The difference in financial stature between United and Chelsea was underlined by the fact while the Mags were taking Kenedy on loan the Londoners were trying to negotiate a £52m double deal with Italian giants Roma for Edin Dzeko and Emerson Palmieri. Yet Dzeko is 32 in March and therefore has no sell-on value. We are undergoing a short breather from the hard grind of searching for Premier League survival to take on a bunch of Pensioners come Sunday lunch. Ought to be a stroll for one of football’s youngest topflight sides? Naw, not likely, when the Pensioners are from Chelsea, where the championship resided last season and an expensive squad has been assembled. They have lost but one of their last 13 conflicts which proves they are hardly in permanent decline, a run which includes a 3-1 home Premier League win over United at the start of December when, as at Man U earlier, Dwight Gayle gave the Black and Whites a surprise lead before they were cuffed. Chelsea had the extra physical exhaustion of playing their league cup semi-final in midweek while Newcastle rested and the mental disappointment of defeat at Arsenal only added to their woes. They almost succumbed to Championship Norwich in the last round of the FA Cup, so perhaps the domestics don’t rank high on Antonio Conte’s list of priorities. However, I am sure they don’t for Rafa Benitez either when Premier League survival is everything.