This week in Newcastle: Toon fury at sponsorship deal

Newcastle United fans can get off their life-support systems, after it was declared that the Sports Direct Arena won’t be renamed as Wonga.

Instead the new sponsors (Wonga) will revert to its original name, St James park, like it had been called since 1880 until 2009.

The club signed a four-year contract worth £24m with Wonga, which also included naming rights for the stadium.

The deal was met with stiff opposition from the clubs fans and Newcastle’s MP, Chi Onwurah.

She is dead set against legal “loan sharks”.

“Many #nufc fans’ finances stretched to the limit by cuts, unemployment, fuel costs… Its like Ba saying ‘get a payday loan’,” Chi Onwurah tweeted.

The joke doing rounds on twitter, which appears to be aimed at Wonga’s lending rate of 4,214%, has received over 100 retweets.

“Alan Pardew told Newcastle players not to worry about the Wonga deal. Just go out there & give it 4,214%.”

Newcastle players - Demba Ba, Papiss Cissé, Cheick Tioté and Hatem Ben Arfa - who practice Islam were warned by the Muslim council of Britain about breaking a Sharia law, if they wear the shirts sponsored by Wonga.

Sharia law prevents a Muslim from profiting by lending or receiving money from someone.

Frederic Kanoute in the past refused to wear the Seville jersey because it was sponsored by 888.com, a betting website.

Three nil drubbing against Manchester United

Newcastle United’s form has been something similar to Alan Pardew trying his luck at the slot machines. They hit the jackpot against Bordeaux last week, but lost all their winnings against Manchester United in the same week.

Alan Pardew gambled on a 4-4-2 formation after using 4-3-3 midweek and the battle was lost in the opening 20 minutes.

Manchester United opened the scoring through an Evans header from a corner-kick. The assist from Robin van Persie was of such perfect parabolic trajectory that even a high school physics teacher would fail to draw on a blackboard.

Things got worse when a pint-sized Patrice Evra beat a six foot Demba Ba to score from another corner within seven minutes from the first goal.

Pardew shuffled the team to play in a 4-5-1 formation with Ba on top. Newcastle improved their game and United’s midfield domination was contained.

However, Cleverley doused any hopes of a Newcastle comeback when his kick from outside the box swirled into the top right corner of the net.

This 3-0 drubbing at Newcastle’s home ground proved to be a riposte to United’s loss last season by the similar scoreline.

Robin van Persie was suspected to have elbowed Yohan Cabaye just before full-time, and Howard Webb said he it wouldn’t attract a violent conduct charge after viewing the video evidence.

The international break this week will act as a breather to aid in Newcastle’s north-east derby preparations against Sunderland next week.