A year in the life of Newcastle United, and NUFC Blog III.
Posted on June 3rd, 2010 | 32 Comments |
Moving on from the last chapter in out one year retrospective, we come to the end of October. With the club still in a state of flux, now departed midfielder, Nicky Butt, was calling for the permanent appointment of the then caretaker mananger, Chris Hughton. Of course though, back in those days there was still one giant figure in Newcastle’s history looming over the position, despite having it already at the time of our relegation and things not working out. I am of course referring to Alan Shearer, who many still presumed would be the choice of a new owner, an owner who never came. So we come to another story by Hugh de Payen which tackled the issue of our next permanent manager. It was titled “Next Toon manager: Shearer v Hughton.“. Despite the title though, he also looks at other options for the position. It’s an interesting read for many reasons, not least to see how much things have changed since those days.
Our next stop on this trip down memory lane is, erm, a trip down memory lane from Geordie Deb. She wrote a wonderful and evocative little piece shortly before our away trip to Nottingham Forest, one of the few Championship games which we actually lost last season (1-0 to a Dexter Blackstock goal). It looks back to the infamous FA Cup tie with Forest in 1974 when Magpie fans invaded the pitch, and we were made to play all our FA Cup ties in the next year as away fixtures. This was especially poigniant for myself, as this was the year when, as a very young bairn, I really started to get into supporting the lads, and I remember being heartbroken when my Brother in Law, who wasn’t a football fan at all, turned down tickets from ‘Supermac’ himself for our appearence in the Wembley final of that year. Decades later, the scars have yet to heal. Deb’s piece was entitled “The Forest controversy of 1974“.
Next comes another superb piece from Hugh de Payen, posted on 28th October last year. Entitled “Here we go again – the next episode in the Toon soap opera begins“. Like a true professional, Hugh perfectly encapsulates the big news of the time, and the main theme of the story, in the first sentence:
“Mike Ashley has taken Newcastle United off the market after 5 months and appointed Chris Hughton as permanent manager until the end of the 2010/2011 season”.
Though many fans recoiled with horror at the thought of Ashley staying at the time, the two ill fated attempts at a sale, both of which dragged on and on were arguably destroying the club more than the rumpus which inspired Ashley’s attempts to ‘get out of Dodge City’ in the first place. Ashley or no Ashley, with the ending of the destructive sale process, and the permanent appointment of Chris Hughton, some kind of stability was with us at last. Before we leave this particular story though, it also touched on the latest Ashley decision to get fans rabidly foaming at the mouth with undisguised rage, the announcement that he was planning to rename the temple of St James’s Park to incoporate sponsorship. Even I got a bit ‘radged up’ about this one!
More retropection tomorrow…
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1093 articles on this blog.
Yes, looking at things with the benefit of time and having more information tends to give different perspectives to what actually took place.
Of course there are those who`s minds set as they are will never change.
All in all there`s enough blame to go around, fans ,owner, players, management, all bear a certain responsibility.
I have to admit the greatest surprise to me was how Hughton took over a side in Chaos, a despondent side with many wanting out, then molded them into a cohesive group.
I know some will disagree, believing the senior players were responsible for the transformation and sure they may have played a part.
But whatever you may think about him, Chris Hughton IMO has been the driving force behind the teams success.
He took what many regarded at the seasons start as relegation fodder and made them into a side that believed in themselves, who only lost four games, in that long season, comfortably re-gaining entry to the EPL.