The Magpies host Brighton in the FA Cup, which the bookies believe Eddie Howe’s side are almost as likely to win as they are the Carabao Cup, despite the fact they’re in the final of that competition!
Howe’s reaction to that features in this week’s North East Notes, as does Millwall boss Alex Neil’s Josh Coburn revelation. But we’ll start with Sunderland.
SUNDERLAND’S TRANSFER PLANNING
Sunderland are putting two transfer plans in place for the summer so they’re ready to act regardless of what division they’re preparing to play in next season.
Regis Le Bris has been involved in the transfer discussions with sporting director Kristjaan Speakman and head of player recruitment Stuart Harvey, but the head coach is happy to take a back seat for now while he focuses on the coming games and the Championship run-in.
Sunderland are eight points adrift of the automatic promotion places after Sheffield United’s win at QPR on Saturday but look nailed on for at least a play-off campaign with the gap to seventh place currently at 13 points.
And Black Cats bosses are preparing two different lists of targets, one for if they’re promoted to the Premier League and another if they face another season in the Championship.
“We have two timelines,” said boss Le Bris,
“The timeline for the club project: Kristjaan, Stuart and myself are involved in these meetings but my main focus at the moment is the league and the next game.”
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JOSH COBURN PENALTY PRAISE
Josh Coburn scored his first Millwall goal since his return from injury when he struck a dramatic winner five minutes into stoppage time at Derby County last week.
And to the relief of the striker, it came just moments after he’d missed a penalty that Millwall boss Alex Neil has now revealed the Boro loanee was never supposed to take.
Coburn wasn’t Millwall’s designated penalty taker for the game but grabbed the ball to take the spot-kick after being fouled inside the box.
And although he missed, his boss Neil said he was pleased to see the striker take ownership of the situation on the pitch – though the Millwall boss might have felt differently had Coburn not fired a winner soon after.
“He’s a striker, just back from injury, and he won the penalty,” Neil told London News Online.
“You’ve seen with the boy (Ademola) Lookman at Atalanta where it’s kicked off (because he missed a spot-kick when not designated to take it). Where I am with it is that we don’t want players to turn into robots. There needs to be an element of decision-making on the pitch.
“We encourage our players to do that. Josh made the decision he wanted to take the penalty and his team-mates were fine with that.
“Naturally we would have liked for him to score. We all talk about leaders and say about the lack of them in the game. People can’t lead unless you allow them to make decisions. I don’t get too caught up in that.
“It might have been a talking point after the game, but we want to encourage our players to make decisions on the pitch.”
“It’s important. You’re going to get setbacks in games and you’re going to make poor decisions or not make the right actions in terms of a pass, header or penalty.
“But it’s done and there is nothing you can do about it. What you have to do is re-double your efforts and make sure the next one is a positive one.
“At both ends of the pitch, it’s opposite ends of the spectrum. If you’re the goalkeeper, you’re either going to be the hero or the villain. It’s the same if you’re a striker and if you miss that opportunity or score it.
“I’m sure Josh would have been fully aware of what the narrative would have been if he had not scored. But the fact is that when you get that goal, it flips everything around again.”
NEWCASTLE’S TROPHY CHANCES
Do Newcastle have as much chance of winning the FA Cup this season as they do the Carabao?
Sounds daft given they have just one game to play in one and would still have to negotiate four in the other.
But some bookies have Newcastle priced up at 4/1 to win the Carabao Cup and 5/1 the FA!
Such is the quality of the Liverpool side they’re facing at Wembley next month, and the relatively open field remaining in the FA Cup.
The question that was asked to start this section was put to boss Eddie Howe on Friday.
“I don’t think too much about either to be honest,” he said.
“The bookmakers will do their stuff and I fully respect that. We’ve just got to our job.
“We can’t look at odds or chances of winning, we’ve just got to try and beat Brighton.”
