24th January 2005
By
Jody Jamieson
As some of you know I'm in Leicester for the week with my girlfriend.
I've not done a lot of exploring around Leicester just yet, but one
strange observation I've made is there are a hell of a lot of people
walking these streets that I can't really tell if they are men or
women. It's very bizarre. I like the place though. Seems canny enough.
But something on Saturday got me thinking about Newcastle United.
Sophie took me to watch Leicester City play Gillingham and I couldn't
help but wonder what might happen to us if relegation was to become
a reality in the near future. We're pretty safe this season (famous
last words) but football is a funny old game.
We all thought West Ham United were too big to go down, but they did.
We then thought they were too big to stay down, but again they did.
And this season they're getting looking like staying down again if
they don't get their arse in gear. We also thought Leeds were too
big to go down, even with their diabolical financial state, but they
did. And there's pretty much zero chance of them coming back up this
season. And if Kenneth Bates does to Leeds what he almost did to Chelsea,
then we might see them go further down still.
But I watched Leicester on Saturday. One of the teams relegated last
season along with Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and it
reminded me what relegation from the Premiership can do to teams.
Leicester went into administration but managed to come back up, some
might say a bit too soon, but it probably helped to keep them afloat.
That said the team I was watching on Saturday was in no way good enough
to stay in the Premiership if Craig Levein takes them on a run and
gets them up through the play-offs.
Going forward they looked ok. Down the flanks they were extremely
impressive, but the two centre backs – one being our old friend Nikos
Dabizas – were not good at all. That team would leak goals for fun
in the Premiership. But the point I'm trying to make is that relegation
does that to teams. I can only wonder how many of our players we'd
lose if we were ever to make a return to that division. It's pretty
much a guarantee that Mr Bellamy would be off. I'll come back to him
a little later. Given? Kluivert? Boumsong? The list would be endless.
I walked past the place where we beat Leicester to keep our second
division status in 1992 (Filbert Street is only about 100 yards from
the Walkers Stadium) and it got me thinking about how close we were
then. And it reminded me that I never want to go back to that place
where we are scraping to stay in the division. But the way that football
has changed since then proves that relegation can be so much more
catastrophic now than back then. We'd have been gone if we'd been
relegated in 1992, but most teams who went down 10 or 15 years ago
who were in a decent financial position weren't too affected by relegation.
You would get a few who's ambition outgrew their teams current plight
and would want to leave, but generally it wouldn't be panic stations
if you went down.
Nowadays it's different. West Ham United lost the entire backbone
of their Premiership side. Kanoute, Di Canio, Defoe, Cole, Carrick,
James and more have all moved on and yet West Ham still find themselves
is a poor financial state. So poor infact that in truth they'll struggle
to find the financial backing to do what Wigan have done, and will
really have to go back to basics if they are to return to the Premiership
in the near future.
ITV Digital's deal collapsing really helped to kill the competition
from the 1st Division. Money was flying around the Division because
they thought they had it. You can't really blame the clubs, as it
probably wasn't the fault of most of them (you can guarantee there
were one or two spending cash they didn't have a la Leeds) but they
had budgeted for the massive backing from ITV Digital. And when that
collapsed it left the league in a state it still hasn't recovered
from.
Look at Sunderland when they came up to the Premiership. They stayed
up at a canter. Only terrible mismanagement from Peter Reid and then
Howard Wilkinson sent them back down. But that was the way it was
back then. Teams from the 1st Division used to come up to the Premiership,
give everyone a fright and do a decent job of establishing themselves.
Now it's completely different.
Take this season for example. Crystal Palace, Norwich City and West
Bromwich Albion are the new kids on the block this year. Yet it's
increasingly looking like it'll be 3 from 4 who go down. Those 3 and
Southampton. And with Harry Redknapp coming in and looking like getting
Southampton back on track then it could be a case that the 3 promoted
teams are the 3 who take the plunge this year. There was no chance
of that happening 5 years ago!
But more worrying from a Premiership point of view is looking at the
teams who were relegated last season and all 3 have spent the majority
of the season in the bottom half. Wolverhampton were a top half side
for the majority of the last 5 or 6 years in the 1st Division. They
went up, came back down, and they've now been left in a bit of a mess.
Teams who are relegated lose money, players, and god knows what else.
Southampton may have a nice 30,000 seater stadium and some very good
players at their disposal, but relegation would be a disaster for
them. They'd lose their best players, the stadium would empty, the
parachute payments would dry up, and they might find themselves in
a situation where staying in the 1st Division is the aim rather than
getting into the play-offs.
So it makes me wonder what effect relegation would have on Newcastle
United. Not wanting to be the eternal pessimist here, but I look at
our side right now and worry that unless we go on a quite incredible
run between now and May, there will be light years between us and
the European qualification places. And our best players will then
become restless. Shay Given doesn't deserve to be as low as he is
right now in the table. A quite superb goalkeeper (although I'll admit
this season hasn't been the best by his standards) who deserves to
be challenging for medals. I worry that unless we have a great run
in either cup then he'll want to go in the summer. Same with Laurent
Robert. Wor Larry is a constant talking point with Newcastle United,
but can we really see him staying for a relegation battle? My personal
opinion is that he'd have a bloody cheek to jump ship, but he probably
would want to move to pastures new.
And it doesn't stop with them. Patrick Kluivert needs to get his finger
out, but he's not likely to stay just to help us avoid 1st Division
football. And of course with Shearer retiring and Bellamy in the doghouse
seemingly then it could be very worrying times ahead. Ameobi and Chopra
up front? That possibility is scary. And it could become a reality
next season. And if we were relegated? Caig in goals? Robbie Elliott
as captain?!?!?
That said I've been talking hypothetically for the past few paragraphs.
Don't in any way see this as a knee-jerk reaction to yesterday. It
was perhaps the most convincing 1-0 win of the season, but if Bellamy
has had a bust up with Souness then perhaps our minds were elsewhere.
Not trying to make excuses here, but we were clearly beaten by a better
team.
But I said I'd come back to Bellamy and I will now. What's been going
on in his head? I can only hope that the bust up between him and Souness
can be fixed pronto as we need him in our side every week. Being completely
honest those two are combustible personalities and the only surprise
for me was that it didn't happen sooner. But both men have to let
it drop and get on with it as it will be to the detriment of the team
if Bellamy is either frozen out or sold. Even though he's been played
all over the pitch in some alien positions to him, he's been one of
– if not the – most consistent performers this season, and to lose
him would take away a huge part of what makes us tick. No one else
can do what he can do so effectively and to lose that would be a killer
for the club.
I look at Craig Bellamy and know that he's ready to burst with rage
every time something doesn't go his way, but with him it's a very
positive thing. I personally think that without that competitive,
almost stroppy party of him he wouldn't be half the player he is right
now. So I wouldn't say that if we sold him it would be because he
was bringing anything negative to the team. It would simply be because
Graeme Souness doesn't like him.
The worst part is I know our boss has been like this in the past.
David Dunn wasn't a bad influence on the pitch or in the dressing
room. He just wasn't Souness' cup of tea. So he sold him. And it made
a big difference to Blackburn and Birmingham's seasons. Blackburn
plummeted (also due to the sale of Duff, another who Souness wasn't
too keen on, but I doubt that's why he left) and Birmingham had their
best season for decades. My biggest worry is which side will benefit
from signing Bellamy if Souness decides to get rid. Please God, don't
let it be Spurs…
We could have really one with Bellamy yesterday. Sure it would have
been a terrible miscarriage of justice if we'd got a result, but Bellamy
can do that with his pace and snatch something from nothing on the
counter attack. Without Craig yesterday our counter attack wasn't
the best and we never really looked like scoring.
I'm purely speculating here, but if we do sell Craig Bellamy, then
perhaps relegation next season could be a possibility if things keep
sliding. We've shown signs of a revival in recent times, but I worry
more about what's going on off the pitch rather than yesterdays performance
as to what could happen in the future. This season we're pretty much
safe, and Souness is doing a decent job of shoring up the defence,
but the summer will tell us where this club is going.
I will be looking with interest for the next week and in the summer
more at who's going out rather than who's coming in. And then perhaps
my worries at the start of this article will come true.
It's never dull is it?! |
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