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Your Shout: Toon Problems Run Much Deeper Than Souness
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Newcastle-Online.com reader 'The Outsider' who wishes to remain
anonymous, writes in with rather scathing criticism of the local media
and in particular, Newcastle United Chairman Freddy Shepherd.
So. Here we are again. No surprise there then. Souness was appointed
to do a specific job, everyone knew that, and I think most people
would accept he's done it. We had a squad of characters who had imploded
under SBR and we needed drastic change to try and recapture our form
of a few seasons ago.
Regardless of where we are now, chants of 'there's only one Bobby
Robson' are ridiculous; let's not rewrite history and forget the mess
we were in when he left.
The presence of Bowyer and Dyer is still galling, but no-one should
really lament the loss of Robert, Bellamy etc. Bellamy is a good footballer,
but the fact he ended up at Blackburn tells you everything you need
to know about what people in football think of him.
The problem for Souness was always going to come after the clear out.
The simple fact is, whilst he's strong enough to stand up and take
on the likes of Bellamy, as a manager he is incapable of moulding
the current bunch of players into a productive team.
The basics are all missing: no plan, no tempo, no organisation. Tony
Cascarino may be an arsehole but he hit the nail on the head when
he said all that will change with the return of our better players
as we'll scrape more wins based purely on their ability to get us
out of jail.
If Souness can't mould the current available players into an organised
team, defending, passing and creating chances why will that suddenly
change just because the players improve? We're still fielding millions
of pounds worth of players every week - the likes of Wigan are achieving
far more with players no better than those who are putting in such
limp performances for us.
For the aimless, insipid, characterless performances we've consistently
put in this season Souness has to go. But let's not fool ourselves
into believing our problems will end there. The problems with our
club go much deeper and no one is above criticism.
We are a hysterical, unmanageable beast of a club. The fans are part
of that problem, but ultimately they're led into that state by the
likes of Freddy Shepherd and Alan Oliver. Take the example of Albert
Luque. We've seen it often enough before. An experienced international
player, with a fair few seasons of good performances in La Liga behind
him and yet a few games into his career with us and he's scapegoated
and slaughtered.
According to one website he 'cannot take a man on to save his life'.
He didn't seem to have too many problems when he was waltzing through
Real Madrid's defence to score one of the goals of the season in Spain
last year. Nor when he was a part of many an excellent performance
for Deportivo in Spain and Europe over recent seasons.
£9.5m was probably too much, but here's a player who given time and
support could be an excellent signing if he can recreate his form
in Spain. Or maybe he is a lame duck, maybe he doesn't have the attitude
to play for us, maybe he wont adapt. The point is, he'll never even
get the chance.
A few games in and we've seen enough to make our decisions. It's going
to be a long way back for Luque from here. In a foreign country, not
speaking the language, and not knowing the football, he's already
been abandoned by many fans. It's happened before, it will happen
again.
Hugo Viana saw both sides. A few games in he was a hero, we were chanting
his name on the basis of a few decent substitute appearances. But,
again, he wasn't given the games, wasn't given a substantial period
of play in his preferred position and before long it was accepted
knowledge that he couldn't adapt to English football. Ship him out,
move on, get the next one in.
Jon Dahl Tomasson has had one real failed season in his career. It
was with us. We can laugh it up, talk of a curse and bollocks like
that or we can accept there's a deeper problem. We'll never succeed
until we give ourselves the chance to do so, and have men in charge
who are big enough and good enough to rise above the madness to put
the right plan in place and see it through.
It's appropriate that we play in black and white because there are
no shades of grey with us. We're always desperate for new heroes.
And our desperation drives us to countless mindless, knee jerk reactions
just like the almost instantaneous speed with which the fans have
decided Luque's no good and an appropriate target for abuse.
Like Keegan and the "I'd love it" speech, we want it too much. There's
no calm, consistency or patience with us. You can't really blame the
fans though. Those who support the club, whether it's buying tickets,
strips or various other merchandise are paying huge amounts of money,
in many cases more than they can really afford.
They do this first because they love the club, but second because
Shepherd is always telling us glory is only one step away. We're always
one signing, one appointment, one win away from the run that's going
to send us charging up the table. There's no plan however, no thought.
It's all reaction.
People from the outside criticise the fans, saying we're not a big
club historically, we're signing Michael Owen, what right do we have
to moan? At times we are self-defeating, too quick to judge, too desperate
for instant success. But Shepherd has created the expectation, sold
the dream without any idea of how to back it up. In that situation,
it's no surprise that the fans are pissed off and ever ready to criticise.
Of course if they're in any doubt when a certain local reporter is
always there ready to stir it up.
This man has to be one of the most small-minded, petty, objectionable
reporters known to man! Even by the standards of sports journalism
he is a persuasive argument for post-natal abortion. Every article,
every opinion, every word he writes is driven by his own small time,
Shepherd arse licking agenda.
He's so transparent it's embarrassing. Yet he has influence. He's
the main local journalist and fans, desperate for news of the club
they love, still turn regularly to the Chronicle. It's always the
same. He has his small band of favourites - usually whichever small
group of players is willing to talk to him - who are utterly untouchable.
No matter how abject their performances, they're above criticism.
But the rest are in trouble. Every loss is a disaster, every bad loss
heaps shame on the black and white shirts, and regularly enough he
claims player x, y or z should never wear the shirt again.
What is the point in that? What are we ever going to learn with those
attitudes? We get the worst of both world's with this guy. On the
one hand club driven propaganda about what a great guy Shepherd is,
how much money he's spent, how much he loves the club and all that
rubbish. On the other, constant attacks undermining the team.
The local press should be able to criticise when things are bad, but
the regularity and tone of this reporter's attacks are ridiculous.
The man is an arse, and symptomatic of our club's problems.
So where do we begin to change things. This is the most depressing
part of all. Souness will go. But Shepherd will remain. As such, our
chances of real, lasting success are slim to none. All this talk of
a Geordie Nation, Newcastle being a 'unique' club which only locals
understand is a nice soundbite. The problem is we've got a dunderheed
in charge who's using it as a fucking policy on which to run a massive
football club and multi-million pound business.
When it comes to appoint a new manager, all foreign managers are instantly
ruled out as a consequence of Ardiles and Gullit. Well isn't that
nice. Ardiles and Gullit's failure had nothing to do with their nationality
and everything to do with them being incompetent. Are we saying no
more Scottish managers because of Dalglish and Souness? No one's saying
no more Geordies because SBR ultimately blew it.
Shepherd is so visionless, so braindead you could pan his head in
with a spade. It's infuriating. Do you reckon Shepherd could EVER
find and appoint a manager like Wenger? Whey no man, he looks funny
and he's got a daft accent anarl.
Shepherd wants a muppet who wont rock the boat by trying to change
the club too much from his utopian vision of Geordie unity and stotties
for all. Some journalists are claiming he wouldn't appoint Sam Allardyce
because he turned the job down before. Aw diddums, did he hurt your
feelings Freddie?
I don't care if the right man is English or foreign, Black or White,
or what. They could be a ginger mackem for all I care. But it's all
agenda with Shepherd, and he wont have the brains or the vision to
look outside his own pathetically small world view.
As a consequence, unless he happens to fluke upon someone who's actually
competent AND acceptable in his own little world we're fucked. This
talk about Martin O'Neill is interesting, but surely even O'Neill's
not that mental. Allardyce has done a good job at Bolton and at least
looks like he knows how to organise a team, appoints talented coaches
and isn't afraid of new methods.
But he'd probably have to win over fans sceptical about his style
of football. We're then down to Steve Bruce, or the longest punt of
all: Shearer. Forgive me, but that just seems too perfect for it to
work out. Are we not better off getting someone with a proven record
of managing players, playing decent football and being able to organise
a defence and sound tactics?
We're no Liverpool or Chelsea at this moment in time, but we ought
to look to their methods in appointing Mourinho and Benitez. It's
going to take a big character, who understands what needs to be changed
and is big enough to stand up and do it even when the pressure is
on from our fans and press.
As it's down to Shepherd to find such a character and convince him
to manage us, I don't hold out much hope. So we'll keep on going,
keep on hoping, keep on supporting the lads and praying that our dreams
come true. Because as fans, ultimately that's all we can do.
By 'The Outsider'
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