Gutierrez stays grounded

Jonas Gutierrez has urged his colleagues to forget about Europe for the time being and take each game as it comes.

It's hard not to get too carried away with thinking about European qualification given that we are 5th in the league, but Spidermag is keeping his feet on the ground and believes that talk of Champions League qualification is potentially destabilising and dangerous to Newcastle United's season.

Press, pundits and presenters have started to take a bit more notice of us in recent weeks, which I'm not too happy about. I know a few people whine on about us not getting any credit, but I quite like us going about our business quietly as the underdog. I do believe we don't get enough credit for something, but I'll leave that for another article...

Back to Jonas now, and this is what he told the Journal today:

“We are not thinking about the Champions League. We are just thinking about the next game,” he said.

“We are in a good position, but I think the team and all of the players, we don't think about what the fans and the press are saying. We are trying to focus on the games that we have left. That is what has brought us success so far and that is what we must continue to do."

"We know we are having a great season but we have to focus game-by-game and that means no thinking ahead of ourselves. We are thinking about Tottenham only – no one and nothing else.”

I like these comments. Focus, determination. It's fine for fans to start getting a bit carried, but it's good that the players are remaining grounded and are just looking to win each game as it comes.

There is still an awful lot of football to be played and things can go either way. If we get to say, the last five games, and we're still in roughly the same position then perhaps we can take a look around us and see what the lay of lands is. It's what I'll be doing anyway. Until then, keep calm and carry on.

Keep it up boys!