Your Newcastle United evening headlines for Wednesday, February 15.
PGMOL clarify Coote allegiance
An image purporting to show Carabao Cup final referee David Coote as a Manchester United fan is fake, ChronicleLive understands. The Premier League official will take charge of his first Wembley final this month after his appointment sparked concern among the Newcastle United fan base.
The fake image, shared widely on social media in recent days, shows Coote's alleged Facebook page with a generic photo of Old Trafford as his cover photo. A host of Newcastle fans took to Twitter to bemoan the Professional Game Match Officials Limited's (PGMOL) decision to appoint Coote as referee once the image had gone viral.
READ MORE: Liverpool 'ignite Newcastle fires', coach's apology dig and Eddie Howe 'very demanding' of staff
Coote was born in Nottinghamshire and qualified with his local Football Association, working as a referee development officer with the Notts FA between 2004 and 2012. The PGMOL have confirmed to ChronicleLive he is a Notts County fan.
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Henderson on Liverpool test
Liverpool captain and England international Jordan Henderson has said that their clash against Newcastle will be a "big test" for his side when the Magpies host them at St. James' Park this weekend.
"The next game is a big test," he told LFC TV after the 2-0 win over Everton. "Newcastle are flying this season. I think they are unbeaten in 11 (actually 17), something like that. So it’s really, really tough place to go and play but if we can perform like we did and more than you never know what can happen."
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Gordon price tag slammed
Former Premier League striker Robbie Fowler has slammed the "ridiculous" decision to spend £45million to bring in Anthony Gordon who has 'hardly done anything' to prove his worth.
"Look at Anthony Gordon’s price," Fowler told the Sunday Mirror over the weekend. "It’s ridiculous for someone who’s hardly done anything and is yet to show any end product going for £45 million. But that’s the market for homegrown players today."
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Hearts boss talks Kuol
Hearts boss Robbie Neilson insists he will not rush Garang Kuol's development and admits it will 'take time' for the Toon loanee to become a regular starter. The former A-League wonderkid has so far made just one start for the Scottish Premiership since joining on loan in January.
He told Edinburgh Evening News: “He (Oda) is in a different continent in a different culture playing a different style of football. We have an interpreter getting the language across to him so that he understands what we are trying to do.
"It's going to take time. He just needs to take his 20 minutes here and 30 minutes there. It's the same with Garang. He is a young kid so there are certain games he will start and others when he will come on. It's about development for both of them.”
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Neville on Toon blip
Gary Neville has claimed that Liverpool aren't out of the top-four race because of Newcastle United's 'blip' they're currently going through.
"Everyone has talked about their (Liverpool's) form, their poor defending but they have missed players," Neville told Sky Sports.
"You put Van Dijk in that team, Jota on the bench along with Diaz potentially coming back, Firmino as well then it’s a completely different story. All of a sudden when you look at that league table it doesn’t look like they’re out of that reckoning for the top four.
"I never thought they were out of it. I think at this moment in time Newcastle are having a little blip they’ve only won one in six and if they were to win that game on Saturday against Newcastle they’d be in a very strong position. They’d feel very confident and be difficult to stop."
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