Are Liverpool the new Newcastle?
Posted on April 3rd, 2012 | 25 Comments |
Liverpool seemed in turmoil on Sunday. We beat them fairly comfortably, their goalkeeper was sent off and Andy Carroll looks like he’s heading for a bust-up with Kenny Dalglish after allegedly voicing his distaste at being substituted with a word rhyming with ‘luck’, of which they had little, followed by ‘off’, which Carroll certainly was.
But I feel just a little for Liverpool because they are currently ‘doing a Newcastle’. We’ve been in their situation in the not too distant past. They’ve brought back a ‘messiah’, spent a fortune on players not living up to their price tag, have an unsettled fan-base and they seem to be plagued by controversy, the Suarez incident being perhaps the most notable example.
Granted they haven’t imploded like we did and got themselves relegated yet, and they are one trophy to the good this season and in with a chance of the second. If truth be told, I think Liverpool will turn out to be a bit more resilient than us and will bounce back, although whether that’s under the leadership of King Kenny and with Andy Carroll leading the line remains to be seen. But it struck me that there are certain parallels between our past and what they’re going through though.
As regular readers of my mellow missives will know I’m a bit of fence-sitter on lots of things, preferring to deal with individual issues as they occur rather than taking a long-term stance on the people involved. Yet I can’t help but feel optimistic about things in general at Newcastle. I think Ashley’s recruitment policy is the right one and, so far, I believe it has worked. We can draw comparisons with Liverpool to test that too: if you add up what we paid for Cisse, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Santon and Cabaye it’s still not as much as Liverpool paid for Andy Carroll, and the way Carroll is playing lately I’d take any one of those players over him.
Pardew too seems to have grown into the job and I doubt many would argue that he’s done well this season, particularly in the recent matches where he’s unleashed a front three who can entertain as well as score goals. How far he can take us is another question of course, but he’s certainly earned the right to have a try.
There are still some thorny issues, such as the St James’ Park renaming fiasco. I think that was ill-advised whichever way you look at it. If Ashley really does intend to find a sponsor then he has not proceeded in the best way according to many marketing professionals. If it has always been his intention to advertise his T-shirt business – and the publicity about ‘finding a sponsor’ is some sort of ruse – then there’s a clear conflict of interest. I do wonder if Ashley thinks his advertising is ‘due’ for him providing the £100m+ the club owes him interest-free. Time will tell whether we get a sponsor or not of course. If we do then at least the club is getting some payback for losing the ground’s name and the history associated with it. That might not make it right but I think it would make it more bearable in the eyes of many fans.
But, that issue aside, I wonder if the club is turning itself slowly around. Perhaps hard lessons have been learnt from previous mistakes and we’re now finding our way. If what’s happening on the pitch is anything to go by it would certainly seem as if that’s the case.
Going back to the comparison with Liverpool – as I said, despite turbulent times, they have a trophy this season and my gut feeling is that they’ll rectify the problems without hitting the lows we did, but I’d rather be in the position we are today – and I mean in terms of the stage of development of the club as well as 2 places and 11 points above them in the league – than be in their position.
So I’m optimistic. Oddly though, I’m still not what you might call ‘confident’ though. The club has shot itself in the foot so many times that I think I’ll be wary for a few years yet!
Note on the Prediction Competition
Please note that Easter has stuck its gory finger into the prediction competition schedules.
Next weekend’s predictions (week 12) need to be completed by Friday 6th April at 16:00, which and covers the games on the 6th, 7th and 8th of April.
Then it’s a fast turnaround for week 13, covering the games on the 9th, 10th and 11th April – those predictions need to be made by Monday 9th April at 15:00.
It’s back to normal after that.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
“But I feel just a little for Liverpool because they are currently ‘doing a Newcastle’.”
More like doing a Spurs with them bringing Damien Comolli in to bugger everything up, as he did at Tottenham.