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’