|
| Home | This Season | Reserves | Academy | Womens | Squad | Stadium | History | Tickets | Gallery | Downloads | Toon Shirts | Forum |
|
 Sunday
04 December 2005 By Stephen Kelly "There is still an awful lot of the season left and still so much to play for." The words of our beloved chairman, the venerable Freddy Shepherd, after our disastrous exit from the Carling Cup at the hands of Wigan. As we stew in the wreckage of another pathetic result against Aston Villa, I can’t help but think how truer words have never been spoken. The FA Cup is still yet to begin and, despite our awful record in the league, a European place is not beyond the realms of possibility. But in order to have any chance of achieving any measure of relative success there’s one thing we urgently need. It’s not to “be united” despite the shambles being served to us weekly, not our full squad to choose from for every game either, nor Michael Owen to start winning games on his own. What we need is a new manager. I’ll be the first to admit that I have been more patient with Souness than some fans. I believe he was unlucky with injuries at the start of the season, and deserved a chance to see his team, or at least some version of it, in action. But the last week has shown, in spectacularly convincing fashion, that he just isn’t capable of putting together a successful football team. The manner of the defeat against Wigan, the disgrace that was the second half performance against Everton and the deflated response to conceding an equaliser to the might of Aston Villa show this. My patience has run out, he has to go. No excuses about door openers anymore, Emre and Solano more than fit the bill in that department. It’s not the injury list; it’s the way our players are being deployed that is the problem. Allegedly Souness brought the players in to watch a tape of the game against Wigan on Thursday morning. While watching it I wonder if anything was said about the truly unique system we appeared to be employing. Solano was played tucked inside, meaning we played with 4 central midfielders for the entire first half. Countless times our 4 midfielders seemed to be within ten or fifteen yards of each other, no space, no options, nothing. As I say, truly unique. I’d say that he should be managing the local Asda instead, but I have my doubts. Maybe if the place has a discipline problem they could bring him in to sort it out, but that’s the height of it. Every day we keep him in charge we are losing ground. We could keep him in the hope that when Michael Owen and Kieron Dyer return he will have a system that will click, and we will start playing good football, start winning games. But while it would be nice to be that optimistic, it would ultimately be truly blind optimism. We won’t start playing good football, our wins will be scattered and we will flounder between 8th and 14th position. Call me pessimistic if you like, but at least I have my eyes open. With the players at our disposal, that’s simply unacceptable. We have a manager who has openly admitted that he doesn’t believe in tactics, stating, “systems are for schoolteachers”, that he believes in hard work rather than formations. All very well and good... except for one thing; Football has evolved. That philosophy is dead and buried. It’s become more of a thinking man’s game these days, just look at the last two managers to lift the Champions League. Master tacticians. Souness has said that “good players” figure out for themselves how to affect the game and find space. Well so do good managers Mr. Souness, and that is something you clearly are not. And to our oh-so beloved chairman I have the following message. Actually it’s not my own words, rather the words of a fellow writer on this site who said last week “You have backed a loser. And you fucking well know it.” So with so much of the season left and so much still to play for do you not think it would be beneficial to part with a manager that clearly isn’t up to the job? We have two weeks until we play West Ham United. Arsenal come to St. James' Park next Saturday, any result whatsoever there will be a bonus. With Souness in charge, confidence rock bottom and our players looking lost on the pitch, defeat is as good as guaranteed, especially if we go a goal down. So sack Souness now, and then take two weeks and work your arses off and find us a manager. Not Steve Bruce, not some easily attainable Souness upgrade. A good manager, a top manager, someone who can take this team forward. And don’t tell me we can’t attract anyone better than Souness. We got Michael Owen, one of the best strikers in the world. How? Through hard work and throwing some of our significant financial clout at the situation, that’s how. So do the same with the manager. Don’t settle for second best. If it takes longer than two weeks, so be it. We’ll hardly miss Souness when we’re looking for a new manager. By his own admission our players are expected to figure it out for themselves, so what exactly does Graeme contribute? If anything his departure will lift the team (certainly the fans and the atmosphere which again, can only help the team). Morale is low in our team; you can see it in the players’ body language. We look beaten as soon as we go behind, and we invariably are. Not one come-back in the League after going a goal down, since Souness was appointed. A part of me will be sad to see him go, as much as the previous 900 words suggest otherwise. He came into a club that was a national joke, our discipline problems making front-page headlines on a bi-weekly basis and our team looking anything but cohesive. He has gotten rid of the troublemakers, and replaced them with good, honest professionals and a number of them truly top footballers thrown into the bargain. The club he would leave behind are a vastly better proposition than the one he walked into, and for that I’m thankful. We have a squad of players capable of achieving great things. Sadly for Graeme Souness, he isn’t the manager to lead them. © Stephen Kelly
 Write
In... Did you enjoy this article? Did you disagree/agree
with this article? Write in to Newcastle-Online.com and we will publish
your views.Notes: We read all e-mails but cannot promise that we will respond, however all e-mails sent in regarding NUFC related issues, get published on our pages. |
Contact
| Write
For Us | About
Us | Advertise
| Privacy
| Newsnow
| Copyright
| Site
Map | We
Support | Top
|
So Much To Play For
