Who is right? Patronising Pardew or revolting fans?As many of you will be aware, a motley collection of fan groups angered by Mike Ashley’s mismanagement, repeated dishonesty, a perceived lack of ambition and Newcastle United’s general underperformance on the pitch will be on the march before Saturday’s early kick-off against Liverpool.
On the other side, Alan Pardew in his recent interview with Sky Sports’ “Goals on Sunday” painted a picture of Newcastle United fans as small town, simple minded football obsessives who actually damage the club with overreactions like this, as well as being too financially unsophisticated to understand that Mike Ashley has put over £200 million into the club.
But who is right?
Pardew has suggested that we’re “not in a bad position” but that the fans have unrealistic expectations that the club should be competing with the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United: (more…)
The fans are revolting, but Will they be effective this time?Newcastle United fans are revolting!
However, writing as someone who used to be an protester and fundraiser myself in the past, not over Newcastle United but over causes such as civil liberties, racism and the like, from what I have read and seen of Newcastle United fans’ planned protests so far, the chances of success don’t seem to be that great at all. This isn’t because the protestors don’t have a case, more that the protagonists don’t seem to be protesters, quite simply, they don’t know how to do it properly. They’re more like brickies and plumbers who are blundering around in a field they don’t understand, a bit like Mike Ashley trying to run a large Premier League football club really!
Please don’t misunderstand, this is not to be unecessarily disparaging at all, it’s just an appeal to realism, a plea for the protestors to consult with people who know what they are doing this time before they go blundering in once again with their size 10s and misspelled bedsheets. In a David and Goliath struggle, you don’t just need all the help you can get, you need the right help to avoid falling at the first few hurdles. (more…)
City fans inspired by Lech PoznanA group of fans have hit upon a way to protest against Ashley, without damaging the team. It has garnered a fair support so far with the likes of United for Newcastle (NOT to be confused with NUSC) taking an active role in spreading the word and it may be worth considering if you’re interested in protesting against the board.
Recent events have shown that our owner and “provider”, Mike Ashley, appears to be very worried about a little known thing such as “player power”. The general gist of this is to show Ashley that his priorities are woefully wrong and that it is us, the fans, who truly hold the power.
It was the fans who kept singing despite being 0-4 down at home to Arsenal that gave the players that extra strength to kick it up a notch. It was the fans who showed up time and time again to matches in the Championship, giving us the third highest average attendance of the season in English Football and it was the fans who signaled to Mike Ashley after relegation to sell up – admittedly, there were no offers but the point remains that we got our message through to him.
The statement on the Facebook page reads as follows:
I’ve had enough, we’ve had enough. So what do we do now? Try something new: (more…)
