Is he injured or just horrendously out of favour? Neither NUFC.com or physio room have him listed as injured but I can't believe he wouldn't have at least been on the bench last night if he's fit?!
I generally believe MA is trying to get rid of all the senior players that speak against him....barton, nolan, enrique...etc...and am sure they have some players union which had all them + harper in...so my guess is MA is getting rid of that so all players say 'yes' to him
Aye. On a similar theme, maybe they think he's on too big a wage to be a no.2 and MA wants him gone for that reason. At a guess he might be on say 30-35k whereas Rob Elliot might be on say 5-10k
Alan Pardew had a words with him before last night's match, said that it's important for a new GK to get a game early on to help them settle in. Harper said he was fine with that, Elliot is still third choice.
I hope he never leaves the club and stays untill he retires. I wouldn't want him going to a lower league club as he's better than that. He's the definition of loyalty and you rarely see players like him in todays game, the fact he didn't mind another keeper getting the nod over him speaks volumes as most would've sulked. Steve Harper = Legend
Harper isn't out of favour at all, Pardew has said that he is very important to the team several times and with regards to last night he just said he wanted to give the new lad some game time, which is very fair enough. Okay he didn't seem to have the best of games but if we don't play the former League 1 keeper against a Championship side now when the cup still has them, when else will he get games?
If anybody ever deserved a Testimonial game it's Harps for all the years he's been a loyal servant to the club. He deserves nothing less than a great send off and I'm sure the fans will turn up in droves.
think just out of favour unfortunatly too old for the ashley reigime but elliot didnt fill me with confidence last night but we should be fine as super timmy stays fit
"Rob Elliot will play. I have spoken to Steve Harper and told him that I think it is important when you come into a new club it is important that you play early. He's got Tim and Harps in front of him and he needs to get a game in early and get one under his belt. It's better than sitting there for a long, long time without actually having a game - it's not healthy. I think Harps understands that." - Alan Pardew speaking to the Chronicle prior to the match Managed to find the quote to back up my post. Krul=1st, Harper=2nd, Elliot=3rd.
That's one of the quotes I was on about too thanks for finding, makes me even more confident for good old Harper.
Mind you, "I think Harper understands that" doesn't sound too hot, surely he could have said "Harper understands that" or "Harper has told me he understands", very vague, as if he left him a post-it note on the fridge and hopes he read it.
Believe me, Harper is definitely out of favour with the hierarchy. He was one of the "vocal four". The other three have gone. Can't see him playing again to be honest. Gutted for the lad. Never moaned at all when he was pushed out for Given when he returned from injury. Should have been an England regular in my eyes.
