Newcastle-Online comment: 18th August 2004
Ridiculous,
he's the one who has failed NUFC you will be thinking. And you are
right. He has failed the Toon. However I believe NUFC have also failed
Kieron Dyer and will continue to fail yet more promising young players
with the world at their feet and ultimately
fail as a football club unless we foster higher standards, get tougher
and start demanding more.
Dyer's shocking attitude has seen his lifestyle take precedence over
the very thing that gives him the flash cars, the 'bling', his partying
ways. Of that there can be no doubt. His attitude has cost him 5 years
of what should have been the emergence of a truly special player for
both Newcastle and England. His attitude has alienated the very people
who subsidise his lifestyle - you and I. His attitude has finally
brought the sharks of the media out into the shallow waters for a
feeding frenzy.
When the Chronicle pen the words: "Dyer should not be allowed
to wear the black-and-white shirt again." you are usually
on thin ice, especially when thousands of Toon supporters share the
same sentiment. And if reports are to be believed that ice will soon
break from underneath his feet and see him sink into murky waters
away from the Tyne.
By not being strong enough, by not being demanding enough, by allowing
him to develop his shocking attitude and actually allowing him to
get away with it NUFC have created Dyer.
We paid a lot of money for Dyer who was only 20 when he moved from
Ipswich Town - a small family orientated club. A big move to a small,
but vibrant happy-go-lucky City would have been somewhat of a culture
shock to him. Out of the goldfish bowl into the frying pan of Newcastle
United where we live, breathe and sleep the Toon 24-7. With such a
big move comes Premiership wages and temptations.
Fast-tracked into the first-team, Dyer quickly become the bright new
star in our otherwise dark sky as first Gullit attempted to put us
back on track and then Sir Bobby, after the former's attempt failed.
Dyer wasn't exactly setting the League alight back then but he sure
made going to the match that little bit more exciting with his pace,
running and energy and when Leeds United started sniffing, the Toon
Army were demanding that the club did everything that they could do
to keep him out of their clutches. Which they did by increasing his
wages. Then the off-field trouble that has blighted his Toon career
(as well as our club) started kicking in and it hasn't stopped since.
Culminating in an apparent bust-up with the man he claims to be like
a second father and a show of public dissent at the Riverside on Saturday.
During that period of becoming the bright young hope and signing an
improved contract it is then that NUFC failed Kieron Dyer and now
that failure is coming to a head in the ugly manner that seems to
follow our club like a curse - in typical "Toon at war"
fashion. Back then NUFC should have laid down the law to Dyer and
even dropped him. His increased wages and the knowledge that the Toon
Army had made it known that we didn't want to lose our young hope,
all served to inflate his ego, to make him feel he had already arrived.
That he was indeed the big star who we couldn't do without. As a result
he had no standards - standards that should have been drummed into
him by the club, but which never were.
That's because as a club we don't have high enough standards of our
own. As a club we were all happy with Dyer's performances and his
input despite it being less than impressive. Certainly not enough
to warrant the status of 'star player' nor the faith shown in him
by Sir Bobby.
Being played no matter how poor his form was and actually creating
positions in the team just so he could play didn't help either. What
Dyer needed was a big hard kick up the arse, not an ego massage. He
needed dropped, a stint in the reserves or shipped on - not allowed
to fester in the first-team.
Don't get me wrong, Dyer is an individual and it's up to him, and
down to him first and foremost to act in a professional manner off
the field and to raise his own standards, however some players have
to have their lives lived and controlled for them. Dyer is one of
these players. At the opposite end of the scale is an Alan Shearer
who is his own man, who makes his own decisions. Imagine telling Shearer
how to live his life?
With players like Dyer you have to be tough and controlling because
they are mentally weak. Tough love I think they call it. I will use
two examples of managers and clubs who are experts in this now vital
exponent of managing a modern day footballer.
Arsene Wenger of Arsenal and Alex Ferguson of Man United. Two managers
with very high standards who don't stand for no shit - who will not
tolerate their own standards being abused by anyone. Two managers
who go to extraordinary lengths to develop their young players, to
keep them on the straight and narrow. It pains me to say this but
had either of those clubs signed Dyer instead of us, Dyer would be
the player we all hoped he would be, the player his ability promised
to make him.
As a football club NUFC can't afford to fail young players like Dyer,
to allow none footballing influences to pilfer away at talent. Talent
that cost us £6m in Dyer's case. To compete with the likes of
Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea etc. we have to bring in potential and
then develop that potential. We can't afford nor attract the world-class
finished article that those teams can and do.
If we are to be successful in the near future we will have to turn
young players with potential into world beaters, into winners who
will create their very own high standards. Standards that the next
generation and so on will live by. Standards that will underpin our
whole club in the future. Like how the Man Utd treble winning team
of '99 will always be the benchmark for that club or how the unbeaten
Arsenal side of 2004 will always be the benchmark for the Gunners.
What do we have?
At the moment our benchmark is Kieron Dyer. And as we have already
seen, some of our other young hopes have already started to follow
in his footsteps. It remains to bee seen just how many more will walk
the same treadmill. There's certainly enough of them at our club.
Dyer is a player with bags of potential yet he hasn't fulfilled it.
Dyer is, in essence, the very fabric of NUFC because as a club we
too have bags of potential yet we haven't fulfilled it neither. It's
time to cut a different cloth. Otherwise we will always be a club
with potential.
A football club is only as good as the players it develops... |
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