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From Ian Dale’s Blog…
q) What’s the difference between Alan Shearer and newcastle United?
a) Alan Shearer will be on "Match of The Day" next season.
What a lovely thing it is to see Newcastle down at the bottom end of the table.
Still with Iain Dowie helping a manager with no experiece its the perfect combinantion to help keep you in the Prem.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Newcastle, but can’t help but feel that they’re bringing this on themselves a bit. They’re surely the
only
club in the Premiership that would have even dreamt up the notion of draughting in a complete rookie manager to try and save them from relegation in the space of 8 games.
Newcastle United have a propensity for shooting themselves in the foot. Shearer’s appointment as temporary manager was, like Kevin Keegan’s return, born out of desperation. They have a chairman who is easily led by the fans and acts out of impulse.
No direction, no desire and no fight left in them
They’re going down.
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Article by Tom Humphries on Newcastle (of sorts)!
We have been ruined by an owner who simply, hasn’t a clue how to run a football club.
All he has done is tried to make a profit wherever possible, even when it comes at the expense of the team doing well in the league.
He hasn’t a clue.
I’m watching events at Newcastle with a particular fascination as I backed them for relegation on the first day of the season. Apologies for the aftertiming, but it wasn’t a bet I really expected to collect on, simply that the price was big enough to make me think there’d be a chance at some point in the season to hedge and secure a small profit either way.
I could see an owner that might go bust (posible points deduction), a manager with zero tactical nous, injury prone strikers, a midfield of plodders and cloggers and a porous defence, with no sign of any new players coming in to improve the squad. The run of home fixtures in Feb/March looked as if that might be the stage where they’d flirt with the bottom three before making their escape.
It all blew up much sooner than I’d anticipated with the Keegan departure and I’ve been able to lay off the bet at much shorter prices than anticipated in recent weeks.
I feel for genuine fans of the club – I know how I’d react if Spurs had recruited Glen Hoddle again, then he’d walked out to be replaced by Joe Kinnear, before finally bringing back Gazza for an eight game rescue plan!
But equally it’s hard to avoid laughing at the sheer lunacy of a club that sells it’s number one asset (Shay Given) in mid crisis and believes that noted pie eaters like Kevin Nolan and Mark Viduka are the answer to their prayers. Let alone the faith placed in the obviously knackered Owen, who looks about as slow nowadays as most of the horses he owns.
Despite the bet, I rather hope they get away with it – Hull were entertaining for the first few weeks, but Phil Brown makes even Mike Ashley look good!
I remember reading an article in the Guardian about Mike Ashley long before he bought Newcastle. Of interest was the fact that despite being a hugely successful self made multi millionaire (basic business plan stack ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap) he was at the time a near recluse. He had never given an interview to the press and there was no known photo of him held by any of the media organisations.
I’m wondering whether following his divorce and based on his ‘unusual’ behaviour for a Club Chairman (wearing the Kit, sitting with the fans, downing pints etc) he hasn’t gone through some sort of mid-life crisis and succumb to the folly of vanity.
Alan, you are correct in what you say about the players that we have brought into the club.
If you look at the quality that has gone out –
Given
N’Zogbia
Milner.2 internationals there, with N’Zogbia also a possible for French honours in the future.
We have replaced them with –
Ryan Taylor
Kevin Nolan
Peter Lovenkrands.Nolan is passed it, Bolton have done some excellent business in selling him for £4million, as for Ryan Taylor, he is a good utility player, but he is nothing more than that. Lovenkrands on a free transfer shows just how Ashley is trying to run the club on a shoe-string, and as a result, the team has suffered.
Then he had Wise bringing signings in for the manager, Coloccini and Gutierrez, namely. Coloccini has looked absolutely awful and not up to the job apart from 3-4 games this season. I do like Gutierrez, however, i think we should expect more from him, especially in the goals department.
Then you look at Xisco, who Wise also brought in and Ignacio Gonzalez. 2 players we haven’t seen, yet were meant to be ‘brilliant’ signings by Wise. Xisco must wonder what he has done wrong, when he cannot get a game ahead of Shola Ameobi, who, i cannot see why he has been a Premiership footballer for so long. Ignacio Gonzalez has been injured which isn’t his fault, however, is another one that hasn’t been seen.
Yet you look at 2 of Kevin Keegan’s actual signings, Sebastien Bassong and Danny Guthrie. 2 players who cost about £2million in combined fees, yet who have been the better players out of the 2 signings, Bassong especially.
Makes you wonder why Ashley didn’t let Keegan get on with his job, and let Wise interfere. It is completely obvious Shearer also saw Wise as a hinderance, as why would Wise be shown the door at the same time as Shearer was becoming manager for the last 8 games.
Ashley hasn’t a clue, he has lied to the fans, treated them like idiots, employed a puppet manager in Kinnear and has to get Derek Llambias to do all his covering for him. I stated in December there is only 1 way we were/are going to go with Ashley in charge, and that is down. Unfortuately for the welfare of the club, so far, i have been correct.
Gaz,
Having, for obvious reasons, watched many of their live games, I’ve seen quite a bit of Gutierrez and had concluded that ‘Gutierrez’ was Spanish for ‘headless chicken’.
Agree about Bassong – I read somewhere that he was the lowest paid player in the first team squad on £5,000 per week! He’s the only player I can imagine any other Premiership side wanting to take over in the close season.
I used to have a soft spot for Newcastle many years ago and I think that many neutral soccer supporters respected them because of their style of football and the dedication and sportsmanship of their supporters.
Then Freddie Shepherd took over at the club and it’s been downhill for them since. Firstly he sacked the respected manager Sir Bobby Robson after only four games in to the new season in 2004. We then had the sight of two Newcastle players fighting each other on the pitch and Newcastle have employed some of the least liked and least respected football names such as Dennis Wise, Lee Bowyer and Joey Barton.
All this has turned Newcastle from a respected football club into into the laughing stock of the Premiership.
Of course I have sympathy for the majority of their supporters but unfortunately their present Chairman does not seem to have a clue how to run a soccer club and if they get relegated then it will be what the club deserves in my opinion.
Pete
Alan, you are correct, Bassong has been excellent, it is no suprise that Arsenal and a few French clubs have been keeping an eye on him, he has been head and shoulders above Coloccini who is probably on a very decent wage, and who cost in excess of £10million.
Pete, i dont think the fans deserve it to be honest, the current owner and board haven’t a clue, they probably don’t deserve anything other than what they get, relegation, but i think it will be very harsh on the fans if we go down.
I too feel sorry for the fans, they’ve had a lot to put up with. But so what? They are no more deserving, worthy, genuine, sportsmanlike or whatever lauditory term you wish to use, than the fans of most clubs. Don’t cry over Newcastle’s demise simply because of their fans. It’s a damn sight harder being a regular, loyal supporter, of – well, say Chester for a start. or Norwich or Hartlepool or Carlisle or Rochdale, or Darlington or Torquay, Lincoln City or Mansfield, or Bury or Tranmere, or Crewe Alex. or Chesterfield or Port Vale or Colchester etc. etc.
Clubs like this have "regular" fans too and they have to endure a lot more than Newcastle’s ever have.
All regular fans deserve sympathy when their team goes down, but in comparison to 90% of league sides, Newcastle fans have had a really easy ride.A good point Insomniac.
I quite like Newcastle, they were so exciting to watch a few years back.
However during the 1980’s the ‘loyal’ fans were largely noticeable in their absence when the club was in the second division.
I hope they don’t go down but no – the fans do not deserve it any less than fans of the majority of clubs that are relegated.
Lee
Listening to that fat guy singing "Blaydon Races" before tonight’s game is enough to make any neutral want the buggars relegated. Excruciating. Worse even than Everton’s dire dirge "the Everton boys are here." vomit all round.
Watched the whole game and there’s no disguising the fact that Shearer has nothing to work with – there’s no spirit, no skill, no pace and no goal threat.
Two chances in 90 minutes, both from scrambles, and neither Martins nor Owen looked like converting them.
Probably significant that Shearer has now used 20 players in his starting line-up for four games. Some of that is down to injuries, but mostly it’s a sign that he can’t find a combination that even looks like working.
The Newcastle v Middlesborough game two weeks tonight looks like the last chance saloon for both teams.
I agree Alan. There was no urgency last night.
Owen should have scored, and Martins should have scored. However, we never looked like scoring.
There is no creativity in the side at all, our midfield is just full of grafters. Smith, Butt, etc… they will all be committed, but there is no creativity.
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