Is Andy Carroll leaving? And does it matter?
Posted on November 24th, 2010 | 57 Comments |
I have not written for quite a while on this ‘blog, so this post is just a gentle reintroduction from me without much substance, but I feel I can get away with it just this once to ease myself back into things.
It gets worse because I’m about to do some dreaded hearsay Daily Mail style reporting.
I had reason to hire a ‘Man With A Van’ recently to help clear out a house after a bereavement. This ‘Man With A Van’ happened to be a Geordie and came accompanied by a son at no extra charge. I’m not entirely sure of the son’s purpose in the whole house clearing thing I had to do as he seemed reluctant to lift anything and merely ate all my biscuits. However, this son apparently dates a girl who worked in the press office at SJP and we got onto the subject of whether or not Andy Carroll is for sale because, obviously, there has been much speculation about that recently. According to my ‘source’ (hey, I feel like a real reporter now!) Andy Carroll is for sale, but so is everyone else at Newcastle United.
Now of course, I am not silly enough to put any faith in what is essentially gossip, particularly as it came from someone who ate all my biscuits. I am however getting to a point, the point being: Does it matter anyway?
I have been absent from NUFCBlog for a year and thought that one thing I might have a particular perspective on is how things have changed in that year. I have read this blog most days but when it actually comes down to writing an article you tend to sort of ‘dig around’ in strange bits of news and whilst I was doing that it occurred to me that Newcastle United is a very different club to the one whose news I was ‘digging around’ in a year ago. I notice now, for example, that when we get ‘bad press’, it is handled discretely by the club. The newspapers huff and puff and try to create a scandal but it does not really gain the ground it did a year ago. A year ago I would have been asking for ‘more communication’ from Mike Ashley on anything to do with the club. Now, though, I think he’s correct to keep his mouth shut (and that certainly helps prevent him putting his foot in it, which he was rather inclined to do).
On the financial level too, there is more restraint than there was a year ago. As fans we often want huge transfer fees and lavish spending but the reality of football clubs is changing. I don’t like to see my football club as a ‘business’ because that lacks the passion I want for Newcastle United, but it is a business and I think we have to accept that and work within it.
On the pitch we are inconsistent, which is troubling, but better than being consistently bad. However I really don’t think we are relegation material. I’ll eat my hat, publicly on Youtube, if we get relegated. I’d rather not as I’m quite fond of my green Fedora.
What I’m saying is that we have gone from the depths of being relegated to winning the Fizzy Pop and now holding our own in the Premiership in a little over a year.
I think we should give the club a break and a chance to continue its on and off pitch progress. When I went to my first Toon game with my father and my Uncle Stan – back in the days when cars had macho names and the drivers wore Hai Karate – you never booed your own team. Of course part of being a football fan is post-match analysis and we’re within our rights to criticise our team. But not on match day. I believe we should just get behind them when they’re on the pitch.
So, to get back to my original point. I wouldn’t actually care even if Andy Carrol is going. I have given up ‘transfer market panic’. Players come and go, budgets must be observed but I think Newcastle United is heading in the right direction and if Andy Carrol goes, someone will fill the gap.
I’m guessing many will disagree with my thoughts and that’s fine, but I shall leave you with this thought on clear thinking. They say that when a butterfly flaps it wings in the Amazon, it can cause a hurricane in China. Now, boffins will wrap this up in all sorts of equations on chaos theory but, personally, I’d just take a slipper to the butterfly. Problem solved.
Carroll for sale – whey aye, if the money is daft, everyone is for sale.
On Carroll leaving – don’t want him to, however for every Cole sold, there’s a Shearer and a Firdinand round the corner ;)