Here to save the world!With the air thick with takeover talk, real or imaginary, now feels like a good time to throw in a spanner, or two. It is widely acknowledged that, under impossible circumstances, Chris Hughton and his staff have done an astounding job thus far managing Newcastle United. With a pre-season filled with doom-laden mutterings of “Doing a Leeds”, crashing though the divisions and into financial meltdown….while nothing of the sort has transpired. There’s still time yet, of course, but to the untrained eye all in the garden looks rosey.
Let’s make an assumption. Let’s assume that Barry Moat’s bid goes sailing through and, within minutes, we have the mighty Alan Shearer at the helm. How do the collective feel about that? Is he a white knight riding in to save us or an egomaniac sating his need for attention, and doing us more harm in the process? As Stardust (and David Frost on ‘Through the Keyhole’ ) would say….”Let’s look at the facts”.
His managerial record:
Played 8, Won 1, Drew 2, Lost 5.
….it’s not great, it’s not even mediocre. But, is he really to be judged on eight, end-of-season, scrambled bunfights with a dispirited squad, and a ton of behind-the-scenes pressure? Arsene Wenger said, at the time of Shearer’s appointment, that any manager coming in, with 8 games left, and expected to turn things around. Well that man wouldn’t be a manager, he’d be a magician. (more…)
Both good and bad?When Mike Ashley rode into toon he took the Freddy Shepherd Gang by surprise. Shepherd claims he was ambushed while he lay incapacitated on a hospital bed and before we knew it rumour quickly became fact and Ashley had bought Newcastle United, not exactly with a suitcase full of money but without any of the this due diligence nonsense that troubles most businessmen.
Thus began a new era in the club’s history and it’s one that has managed to divide fans almost throughout. The partisan divisions – often drawn along the lines of Ashley v Keegan – are, in my opinion, unnecessary. I believe it’s perfectly possible for a person to do some good things and some bad things and I don’t believe Mike Ashley is any different in that respect. With rumours once more circulating about the sale saga nearing a close I wanted to try and take a balanced view of Ashley’s time at Newcastle.
One of the main things I thank Mike Ashley for is prising the club away from Freddy Shepherd. I’ve heard arguments suggesting that we wouldn’t have been relegated if Shepherd had remained in charge and maybe that’s true, but I believe the club would have been in dire straits financially. (more…)
Will Toon be walking in a Kinnear wonderland once again?In an interview with the BBC’s ‘Radio Five Live’, Joe Kinnear has sensationally claimed that Mike Ashley has offered him another two year contract at the club, and added that he is “mulling it over”. He also added that it would still take another three months to fully recover from his triple heart bypass, performed after he complained of severe hypertensive symptoms during last season’s visit to West Bromwich Albion. Joe said:
“I have been offered a two-year contract and it is something I am mulling over at the present time.
“I have told Mike I am not going to go back to football for at least another three months and we will look at the situation then.
“I told him I would refuse to go back for pre-season friendlies as I was not up to it for medical reasons.
“I needed to take time out and re-assess the situation and take it from there. But obviously in another three months the picture might be completely different.
“In the meantime if Newcastle feel the need to go and get another manager then so be it.” (more…)
Joe relaxing as usualNewcastle United have released a statement on the official website to quash rumours in the media about the return of Joe Kinnear as manager at the club.
The Daily Mail (shudders) had suggested an announcement could be made today but the club has been swift to refute this with the following statement:
“Reports in the press this morning that Joe Kinnear is to be appointed as Newcastle United manager are not true.
The position remains that the Club is still in the market to be sold and is still negotiating with prospective buyers.”
It’s particular behaviour really, all things considered. It’s difficult to know what to read into it but why would the club feel inclined to refute spurious rumours all of a sudden? They undoubtedly realise what the reaction would be to such an appointment but then so much cr*p has been written recently they’d have to keep coming out with these statements on a regular basis. And do they really care how the fans feel or what we’re thinking? Surely, they’re just trying to get out of dodge asap? (more…)
Is Joe to return?The Daily Mail is reporting that Joe Kinnear is to return as Newcastle manager and that a takeover is not imminent.
The Mail claims this ‘exclusive’ but doesn’t reveal any source of their information and has no direct quotes from anyone about this, so it’s probably worth treating this report extremely cautiously.
The Mail suggests that an announcement will be made today, so we should know soon enough if there’s any truth in this or if it’s the usual garbage from bored reporters.
There are many rumours circulating about potential announcements today and for all I know some of them may be true. But beware rumour-mongers. They are much more often wrong than right and bear in mind that Ashley’s abysmal communication skills probably means he’s good at keeping a secret and ‘leaks’ to junior members of the SJP hierarchy – which is often where the rumour is said to originate – are unlikely.
The Chronicle reports that another Newcastle player – Jose Enrique this time – has decided to vent his spleen at the current disharmony at the club. It’s the standard sort of stuff, so I’ll just pick one quote from Jose: (more…)
