Shepherd: “Maybe Ashley is right in his policy and I was wrong”
Posted on October 30th, 2011 | 25 Comments |
Freddie Shepherd celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday and in his after-dinner speech he actually heaped a load of praise on Mike Ashley which, given some of the criticism Shepherd has slung Ashley’s way in the past, is a bit of a surprise.
Shepherd said:
“I am still a massive Newcastle fan. True to say Mike and I have not always seen eye to eye but you’ve got to give him some of the credit for what is happening this season.
“I think it’s time for the fans to get fully behind him and give him a chance. After all, no one really owns Newcastle because it’s simply a football institution.
“Maybe he is right in his policy and I was wrong. Maybe we gave our managers too much money to spend in the transfer market. I reckon we spent around £300m on players like Alan Shearer, David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Tino Asprilla and Michael Owen.
“Though we never won anything, it was still a great adventure for everyone connected with Newcastle. We were known all over the world. I have a photo of the day they pulled down Saddam Hussein’s statue in Iraq – there was a guy with a Toon shirt beside it.
“The fans are now clearly behind Alan Pardew and the team, and if they get behind the directors the only way they can go is up.”
Well, quite. Mike Ashley has always has the right general idea about how the club should operate financially and the principles of his transfer policy are, I believe, good. Where Ashley has messed up is in the implementation of those policies, which led to a series of unmitigated disasters culminating in our relegation and a hell of a lot of anger towards Ashley from the fans.
Maybe all that was part of a learning curve for Ashley. He confessed he didn’t have a clue about how to run a football club a few years back and I’ve long argued his biggest mistake was employing Derek Llambias as the general manager rather than someone with a bit of football suss.
But maybe things will be rosy from now on. Or maybe Ashley still has some unpleasant surprises for us – who knows?
Anyway, apparently Shepherd has been offered a number of clubs to buy since selling Newcastle United but he said:
“I am a Geordie. You can change your bank, your accountant, your wife, but you can’t change your football team.”
Presumably he then shut up and they got around to dishing out those after-dinner mints everyone seems to like.
There still seems to be something of a divide between the fans over Ashley. There are some that will simply never forgive him for the Keegan debacle and a lot of the nonsense that followed it, and there are others that have always thought it a blessed relief that Ashley took over and that he’s a far better owner than Shepherd ever was. There are also a lot in the middle of the two extremes who are just waiting to see how things pan out from here.
I’m in that latter group for what it’s worth. I’ve been encouraged by what I’ve seen this season but there’s still a long way to go.
Hope you all remembered to put your clocks back!
You can say the “trophy” signings of Hall & Shepherd were a waste of money as they won nothing, but it was an amazing time.
Thanks for that.
Ashley’s on a different course.
9 games into the season it looks good.
But they’ve taken a massive gamble with the defence.
There is no cover, quality or depth there.
Lucky so far.
Hopefully the cover will come in January and the quality added over the next two seasons.
Judge Ashley in three years time.
Will HBA, Cabaye, Tiote … still be wearing b&w shirts?