The lesser of two evils?
Posted on September 7th, 2011 | 92 Comments |
Before I even begin I will clarify, this is not a pro-Ashley post, I have little time for him personally. Yet I am still firm in the belief that I would rather have Ashley and his crew in charge than a certain Fat Owner we all seem to remember.
Yes he’s broken up level 7, sacked the king, got us relegated and hired a man who looks like a Badger (Llambias) But he has also set us on a sound financial footing for hopefully many years to come. OK he’s setting us up to sell for a profit as soon as he has the chance, but at least NUFC will still be around in a few years time.
Look at Everton, can you imagine the summer of discontent that they have had, not buying anyone, let alone loaning someone as their wage structure and stadium demands are slowly killing the club? To top all that off they sold their best player on deadline day without time for a replacement (Sounds all too familiar)
We are in the Premier League, with some damn good players having been recruited over the summer, and again regardless of how frustrating it is to miss out on Zoggy, Erik Peters and a number 9, at least we are setting our stall out for the rest of Europe to see, we will no longer be held to ransom over transfer fees and sky high wages.
Speaking of the number 9 situation, it’s too easy to blame the board. To an outsider it looks like we had 3 top transfer targets, all of whom turned us down. NUFC need to rebuild, get back into Europe slowly and most importantly stably to entice the big guns back. That being said there is no excuse for undermining Pardew in that way, he made it clear he wanted a striker, the board had cash and they let him down, in public, badly.
Finally the real future of NUFC is Graham Carr, who is doing a fantastic job of building the French Foreign Legion at NUFC, and for good reason. Skilled, technically gifted players who regardless of if they are sold in the future represent a sound investment for the club.
In closing I think the classic saying, “You don’t demand respect, you earn it”, rings very true with NUFC. The club have fallen so publicly from grace, and yet I feel extremely positive for the future of our club. Pompey fans will agree here.
I’d rather have the gremlins of the club where I can see them, than offshore milking the club dry.
NUFCBlog Author: Mick toons
Mick toons is a proud nufc fan hailing from Durham. He now lives in Yorkshire with another group of hard done by fans... Leeds United
Mick toons has written 13 articles on this blog.
Welcome aboard Micky, and good ‘blog!
Personally though, I think the “well at least Ashley isn’t quite as bad as Shepherd” argument is a something of false one which could be used to crush any crirticism of the current regime. It’s a bit like telling a parent that Gary Glitter isn’t such a bad person to babysit their children as it used to be Sidney Cooke.
Perhaps the fact that we are discussing the chief scout as the club’s future is a testament of how effective the club’s PR department have been in marginalising the role of the manager with the fans after the Keegan fiasco. The fans of almost every other club hardly have a clue who their chief scouts are, but ironically, Carr was originally thrust into the limelight by the club in an attempt make the man who appointed him, Chris Hughton, look like a peripheral figure, a mere cipher, to fans who were upset with his sacking. Incidentally, while Carr may be a good scout, he was a pretty dreadful manager himself.