Newcastle United FC, A History of Mismanagement
How To Shoot Yourself in the Foot For Dummies Part 4
This is becoming farcical now, according to Brian McNally of the Sunday Mirror our esteemed Managing Director has been bad mouthing Keegan, Shearer and Chris Hughton.
Llambias is reported to have said that “Kevin Keegan can’t take pressure. His f****** head is all over the place.”
As for the bile directed at Shearer, Llambias is quoted saying “It would never be the right time. Shearer? There would never be a right time in football.”
The manager who successfully gained promotion at the first attempt wasn’t spared either. “He would never have taken us where we want to be. “That’s my decision by the way. “Chris can’t make decisions. If I am asking about a player, Ben Arfa? He says ‘I’m not sure, blah blah’. “With Chris, he couldn’t cope with where we are ¬mentally. We are -aggressive. “You need to be aggressive. I don’t want a manager below me who can’t argue.”
And a warning to the fans, “You guys don’t understand how f****** horrible we can be.” We can Derek, you’ve just erased 119 years of the club and cities history.
Somebody can't take his drink.
How To Shoot Yourself in the Foot For Dummies Part 3
St James’ Park has been the home of Newcastle United since 3rd September 1892 when 6,000 people turned up to see Newcastle East End lose0-1 in a game against Celtic. Newcastle East End would become Newcastle United 3 months later when the name was changed because it was felt that the name was preventing the club from attracting people from other areas of Newcastle.
St James’ Park seems to be more of an advert for a tacky brand than a football ground. You can’t look anywhere at any time during a match without seeing his business name somewhere. First it turned up as signs around the ground, next came front of the Gallowgate roof. Next it was on top of the Gallowgate roof and that stand now looks like a scrapyard with its tacky paint job. During 2011 the Newcastle Unites sign was removed from the East Stand and replaced with a smaller version surrounded by the now familiar shite which dwarfed the club name. Most people probably thought that would be the end of it, not at all.
The ground had been renamed SD@St James’ park, a horrible name and this was just the start. As of 10th November 2011, St James’ Park is to be known as the SD Arena, 119 years of history wiped out by a couple of people who care nothing about Newcastle United and what it means to fans of the club.
People may think that changing the name and excessive adverting would bring additional income into the club. Not at all, in fact Newcastle United has paid £40,000 for the privilege of advertising SD to a point which goes far beyond saturation point.
How To Shoot Yourself in the Foot For Dummies Part 2
Just when you think the club is heading in the right direction Llambias and Ashley pull off a new low. The Laurel and Hardy of football sack the manager who has stabilised a club that could have been in free-fall.
Things were going too well until these two decided it was time to take the club forward by appointing a manager who is allegedly a mate from the Casino. Rumours have being going around for over a month that Hughton was going and that he would be replaced by Pardew. The rumours were too stupid to repeat, reality is no less stupid.
Ashley and Llambias have had a rollercoaster ride since coming to Newcastle and may now think that they can get over anything and that the sheep will keep turning out, we'll have to wait and see. At this time it doesn't look good for future season ticket sales and crowds below 40,000 look like becoming the norm while these clowns are running the club. Following the club is getting no easier, why pay somebody when they keep kicking you in the balls at every opportunity?
Once again the fans are up in arms and once again protestors will be on the street and inside of the ground, Ashley and Llambias, you've brought it on yourselves, enjoy.
How To Shoot Yourself in the Foot For Dummies
Just when fans had started to feel that the club was moving forwards we get something from within the club which makes you cringe. Read the latest club statement and make up your own mind:
NEWCASTLE UNITED FOOTBALL, MAY 2010
Introduction
The Board of Newcastle United Football Club whilst celebrating winning the Football League Championship 2009-2010 are aware that the next season in the Barclays Premier League presents a challenge to all at the Club. The Board recognises that one of the greater elements of this challenge is to promote stability throughout the organisation. This great club has not won a major trophy since the 1969 victory in the European Fairs Cup.
The first challenge is to maintain Premier League status. Given the situation, and the fact that Newcastle United have continually been misrepresented by the national media over the past decade, the club now feels that it is the correct time to send a clear message to its magnificent supporters who have kept faith with the club over the past forty years and also to send out a clear message to all branches of the media about the club's plans for the next five years both on and off the field of play.
Finances
The Club presented its financial report to Companies House this April for the year 2008/2009. The financial report shows that there was an operating loss of £37.7 million for that year and an estimated loss for 2009/2010 of £32.5 million. Newcastle United also has an overdraft of £20 million that is fully committed. It is clear to the Board that no organisation can be successful, until the financial position is stabilised.
The Board have therefore structured a five year plan in which the ultimate goal will be to ensure that the club is run at a "break even" manner by the year 2015/2016. The club also wishes it to be known; in an effort to stop the untrue rumours and stories that emanate from outside Newcastle United that:
The Board have set a five year plan to promote core values of credibility, viability and sustainability both on and off the field of play at Newcastle United.
The Board will concentrate on Newcastle United's stability by promoting from within where possible.
Football
a) Manager
Chris Hughton is the Manager of Newcastle United Football Club and has a contract in place until the end of the 2010/2011 season.
All media articles and interviews regarding footballing matters will come through the Newcastle United Media Officer, and be answered by the Manager and/or coaching staff with the Manager's authority. The Manager can give interviews in respect of footballing issues and any other sporting issues that the press may be interested in around Newcastle United Football Club.
No interviews will be given by any members of the Board in respect of any footballing issues.
(b) Players
The first team squad that won the Championship this year will form the basis of the team for next season in the Premier League. There is no plan for new capital outlay on players.
The only individuals who will talk about player issues will be those connected with the football administration of the Club i.e. the Manager/Assistant Manager by way of either direct interview or through prepared statements via Newcastle United Football Club's Media Officer.
There will be no comment from the Board regarding the purchase of players.
There will be no comment from the Board regarding the sale of players.
There will be no comment from the Board regarding ongoing contract talks with players presently at Newcastle United Football Club or with those that the club may enter into negotiation with.
There will be no comment from the Board regarding current pay structures at Newcastle United.
There will be no comment from the Board regarding players at other clubs in respect of their "interest" at playing for Newcastle United.
There will be no comment from the Board to players' agents regarding any of the above whether those agents are acting for their clients in a buying or selling capacity.
Player Agents:
a) Buying Agents:
The Board will not make any comment to the media regarding any players that they are seeking to purchase. The Board will deal with agents on their fixed terms of business and part of those terms will include clauses relating to privacy.
Selling Agents:
The Board will not comment to the media regarding any players being sold by Newcastle United and the Board will deal with agents on the usual terms of business including explicit terms of privacy.
Promoting regional football
The Board and supporters are aware that Newcastle United currently has a footballing academy brimming with talent, skill and dedication. As part of Newcastle United's quest for a team that truly represents the values of the Geordie nation the club will look to promote, where it can, from within and for the academy to become a leading light as one of the best if not the best in the UK.
The days when players such as Alan Shearer, Steve Bruce, Peter Beardsley and Michael Carrick had to leave Newcastle to begin their illustrious football careers elsewhere are over. Newcastle United is more than aware of the great passion for the game of football that exists locally and is intent on ensuring that every great Geordie footballer has the opportunity to play for his home team club.
Media
The Board at Newcastle United wish to reiterate the points made above that there will not be at any stage in the future any comments coming from the Board regarding any issues surrounding Newcastle United save for prepared statements that are issued by the Newcastle United Media Officer.
Once again, for the sake of clarity, this does not affect the Manager and coaching staff talking to the press/media about footballing matters on an everyday basis. The Board are being absolutely transparent in respect of this policy and would ask that the press/media direct any future questions that they may have regarding Newcastle United to our media officer.
The Future
In simple terms this is a transparent policy that will feed through and inform all aspects of the running of Newcastle United Football Club's first team. There will be no comments from any member of Newcastle United's Board in the future regarding any issues surrounding Newcastle United to the press/media at large.
The only persons dealing with such information to the media will be, as has been stated before, the Manager/coaching staff talking about footballing matters and issues or from prepared statements from Newcastle United's Media Officer.
The Board at Newcastle United have issued this statement to the public to set out clearly to one and all the current financial situation and to state clearly that every effort will be made by the Board to achieve a "break even" financial situation by 2015.
Newcastle United Football Club is an organisation that holds a special place in the hearts of Geordies worldwide and the Board understands that it is they who are the spiritual torch holders of Newcastle United Football Club.
The Board has made this statement so that all those involved with Newcastle United be they supporter, member of the media or an individual with an interest in football can be aware of what the Board will strive to achieve over the next five years.
Nufcmismanagement view:
Just when it had appeared that the club had taken a step forwards they take another 2 backwards. Who this is aimed at anyway isn't clear at all, what is clear is that those who run the football club have no idea what good PR is and once again the fans are left wondering what is going on. Once again, those that run the club prove that they will never learn from previous mistakes, they'll repeat them time after time.
To see the "Geordie Nation" bollocks wheeled out again is nothing short of incredible, it is something which most fans had hoped had been resigned to history. Apart from that nothing from this is clear and it has done nothing but fan the flames of discontent and play into the hands of those who oppose Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias.
Again, those who are anti-Ashley and Llambias look as if they have them sussed.
Time to Move on
In less than 12 months Newcastle United have been relegated from the Premiership and promoted again, few would have predicted a happy ending. This isn't the end, it's a new beginning for the football club and the fans but will we build on it?
One season out of the top league hasn't been as bad as a lot of people had imagined on the day that we were relegated against Aston Villa, at least not for the fans. We have once again learned what it is like to win games both at home and away. The football may not have been the best in the world but it certainly has been effective. With one home game remaining we have the only unbeaten home record in English professional football and we've learned to win away from home, even if it hasn't always been pretty.
No doubt hte financial costs for the club and Mike Ashley have been on a massive scale, we can't do anything about that. Well we can, we can do everything possible to make sure that it never happens again. We all need to learn lessons and not repeat the mistakes which have been made and we all know that they have been made. A lot of people have questions about what went wrong, maybe it's time to forget about them and just move on and learn from them.
What we have to do now is build on what we have and build on solid foundations. Mike Ashley has put his hand into his pocket on a number of occasions to pay bills and he's also brought in players to ensure our promotion hopes were given a boost during the January transfer window.
The spending shouldn't end now that we are promoted; we need to ensure that the hard work is built on and that our season in the Premiership isn't our last. Nobody expects the club to spend the sums of money which have been mentioned recently in the press, other than the journalists who seem to pluck numbers from anywhere, sound investment in the squad is a must.
As fans, we need to put aside and grievances that we think we have with the club. The players who have remained at the club since relegation are the same players who were not good enough to keep us up. The instability of our relegation should not be underestimated. If we avoid the turmoil and bring in 3 or 4 players who can perform at the top level then we should be good enough to stay up. As fans we need to ensure that the players who don’t like walking out at St James’ Park are the opposition. We’ve done that this season and with the renewed feel-good factor we should be able to do the same again.
Everybody associated with Newcastle United Football Club needs to be singing from the same hymn sheet and that doesn’t include the one about the owner as like it or not, we need him as much as he needs us and our fate is inter twined. One can’t do well without the other, at least not when it comes to the football club.
It would be good to hear about what plans both Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias have for the club, we can’t expect to slag them off at every opportunity and then expect them to engage so it’s time to bury the hatchet and move on. Most fans will buy into what they are trying to do as long as they understand what that is.
The foundations are being put down, the club has just gone out of the FA Youth Cup at the semi-final stage. We played some really good football and were by far the best team over 2 legs. Some of the football played at St James Park in the 2nd leg was of a really high standard. It would come as no surprise to see a good proportion of this team playing first team footbqll withn the next 4 years.
Our under 15's have won the Manchester United Premier Cup and were crowned Champions after beating Chelsea in the final. The kids will now go on to represent the UK at the MUPC World Finals this summer where 20 of the best under 15 teams from around the world will compete.
It would appear that good things are happening at the club on the quiet, long may that continue.
1,080 Minutes Away From Premiership Football
Few fans, if any would have expected Newcastle United to be top of the league at any time during this season yet here we are in the early days of Spring and we're looking as if we'll gain promotion at the first attempt if we can maintain our form.
Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias have both received a lot of criticism for the way that they have run the club; some of it has been deserved. Some of it is nothing short of pathetic. It’s quite ironic that most of the stick they receive comes from the part of the ground which Mort created at the request of fans and subsidised to allow younger supporters access. It's hard to comprehend why a small section of the crowd think they should be slagging off the owner when we're 6-0 up at home, he knows what you think of him and you just look stupid repeating the songs even during our biggest win of the season when the club owner is the last person on most peoples minds. This site has highlighted some of the mistakes and we’ll do so in future if and when they occur. For now though the club is moving in the right direction and everybody within the club deserves a massive pat on the back. Mike Ashley has done what he has always been good at; he’s kept dipping into his vast pockets and financed what looks like being a season to remember for the right reasons. Nobody has ever put as much personal finance into our club. Some people laugh at this and put it down to our relegation which they blame him for.
The same people seem to forget that even the next set of accounts to be revealed will only cover a period when we played Premiership football. We’re not just losing money because we’re in the Championship, we’ve lost money for years and people who think we’re only losing money because of his mistakes are not thinking clearly.
The first set of accounts which were released after the takeover were horrendous and while the loss of over £30 million was a paper loss, it was a sign of things to come and an indication of the sorry state of the clubs finances. The club wasn’t in a position to pay one player over £107,000 per week yet that’s what we were doing.
Mike Ashley bought a club that was struggling badly both on and off the pitch and we had been in that position since the day we sacked Bobby Robson, Ashley can’t be blamed for that. We had just finished 13th in the Premiership when Ashley bought the club and we had looked like relegation was a possibility a few times before he arrived.
Ashley came to a club which only had two things going for it, the fan base and the stadium, Ashley ended up paying for the stadium improvements which had been made years earlier and financed with debt. We had a new manager at the club and we had no money to use to spend ourselves out of trouble if things went wrong. As it turned out the new manager didn’t make any improvements and we were once again struggling, this after the takeover and an improved transfer budget. Allardyce was sacked because of results but that doesn’t tell the whole story as we were playing terrible uninspired losing football. We had a squad who didn’t look as if they were playing for the manager, it looked as if he had already lost the dressing room and was unable to motivate the players. Does nobody remember going away to Wigan and getting beat and singing "We're shit and we're sick of it?" We had a series of games which we didn’t look like winning and I doubt for one minute that he’d have been sacked if Shepherd was still at the club. Without Ashley or Mort, we would have probably been relegated a year earlier than we actually were and we wouldn’t have been in a position to carry a squad which was taking £40 million in wages while playing in the Championship.
Yes, Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias have made mistakes and they've admitted to them, they’ve even apologised for them and I can’t ever remember that from our club before. No matter what they do they will never be able to go back in history and reverse them. They've made mistakes and we all make them but not all of us are under the scrutiny that these two have to work under. The mistakes have been made and it's time to move on, it does nobody any good to keep bringing up the past as we can’t do anything about what has already happened. What we can do it look to the future and try to change that and that’s what we will do with this site. We’ll point out mistakes but move on from them and try to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.
Back to the present, we've been told once again about how much money Ashley has had to put in to the club to keep it going yet some people still seems to think he's taking money out of the club. He has always said that he’s prepared to put in £20 million per season and he’s always said that he doesn’t want to take anything out. Some people ask us “why doesn’t he cancel the loans?” We can’t speak for Mike Ashley and he might not want to say it anyway but here comes a theory. Mike Ashley is currently our largest creditor because of these loans. If the club did a Portsmouth and went into administration then Ashley would at least get something back. That isn’t an indication of where we are heading, it’s a sensible move than anybody in his position would make and offers him a little security. We’re not going to go into administration and the main reason for that is Mike Ashley whether you like that or not, it’s true and something he should be applauded for.
Everything which has been said in the past about Ashley putting money into the club has been proven once the accounts have been released and we are due another release at anytime which should once again prove that without Mike Ashley we would be in trouble. Nobody knows if we would be having the same problems as Portsmouth, nothing suggests that we wouldn't be having the same problems. It doesn't matter how much money comes into the club if more money is going out and that's been the reality at our club for years.
Derek Llambias has come out of his shell recently and had made a big thing of the way Mike Ashley has financially run the club and to be fair to them both, why shouldn’t he? We’ve had no communication from Llambias for a long time and the reason for that seems to be that he doesn’t want to be what people are talking about, he would rather the talk was about the team and manager yet he is criticised for not saying more. How many times in our recent history have we wished that was the case? I know from a personal point of view that I would often which that those in charge would just go away and shut up and let the football do the talking.
We've heard in the past that they have had a 5 year plan but nobody knew what was included in the plan. For the first time we've been given some insight into what are the season by season goals. This season it is to gain promotion, next season we'll be going all out to stay in the Premiership and anything better than that would be a bonus. The year after that we will be setting out sights on mid-table or better and then breaking into the top 10 the season after that and then it's back to European football. These targets aren't very high but they are realistic and if they are achieved then we'll be heading in the right direction and improving year on year and we haven't done that since appointing Bobby Robson. We've had seasons which were better than the season before but we haven't built on any of those and that's what we need to do. We need to build season after season and build something which can be sustained and not build our castle on sand, again.
Another unfair criticism of Ashley and Llambias is the possible re-branding of St James’ Park. Nobody seemed to complain when the Gallowgate became the Exhibition Stand when we took sponsorship for that part of the ground and the Gallowgate was just as traditional as St James’ Park. To most people it still is and always will be the Gallowgate and kids who never knew the Gallowgate still call it by that name, nothing has changed. The Leazes was traditional before it became the Sir John Hall stand, that end had its name changed out of vanity yet nobody complained and we still call it the Leazes and again, that will never change so why all the fuss about calling the ground something other than St James’ Park. As far as I’m concerned it always has and always will be St James’ Park. If some company is willing to pay to have the name changed and the money raised goes into the club then I’m all for it because every penny raised by the club is another penny which can be spent to benefit the club. A lot of people have used Abramovich as the model of which to judge all club owners by. Well, a week after our announcement Chelsea did the same because they also realise the need for increasing income as even Chelsea can’t spend what they don’t have.
Premier League Arbitration Panel Verdict
It has taken a Premier League Arbitration Panel to confirm what many Newcastle fans have thought for a long time.
It has been confirmed that those in charge at St James' Park have lied to the fans and they are quite happy for everyone to know this, Gerald Ratner, you have competition.
The panel also found that "Kevin Keegan was constructively dismissed by Newcastle United Football Club." Oh how times have changed since some moron at the club thought that it would be a good idea to make the "Fact" statement on the club website in an attempt to blacken the name of Kevin Keegan.
Wise seemed to go to great lengths to make it look like Keegan had no say in transfers while being reported as saying the complete opposite, days after joining the club, Wise you're a liar.
Chris Mort held a meeting with fanzines and websites and claimed that Keegan had final say. Mort later claimed that this was "nothing more than an exercise in public relations carried out so as not to undermine Mr Keegan’s position and made necessary, in the first place, by statements made by Mr Keegan himself to the press." Chris, this also makes you a liar but I guess the 10 pieces of silver which crossed your palm makes it all worth while.
Read the full transcript here.
We also now know that the highly (self) acclaimed transfer team used such technology as Youtube to scout players. Youtube was to be used to bring in players for a manager who had a record which was second to none when it came to bringing in players to this club. Instead of relying on Keegan the club allowed Dennis Wise to do a “favour” to two influential South American agents who would look favourably on the Club in the future.
Is Mike Ashley Clueless?
The big day has finally arrived, we've managed to get to the start of the new football season managerless and our fate may have already been decided. What is plain to see is that those in power at St James' have not learned from past mistakes as we go into a season with the same failed structure that ultimately cost us our Premiership status.
To make a mistake once is unfortunate, to repeat that same mistake is nothing short of reckless abandonment.
His first 12 months as owner looked promising but things started going down hill the day he appointed Derek Llambias to run the football club. Was Llambias just unlucky and in the wrong place at the wrong time? We'll never know but a lot of people have come to the conclusion that the timing is no coincidence.
Has any man ever been in a position of power that made the wrong decision so often? Is Llambias or Ashley running the club? Chris Mort seemed to be able to run the club and only had to run things past Ashley who rubber stamped them. I don't see why it should be too different now that Llambias is in charge so it looks like the mistakes are his.
Llambias isn’t the major problem as he's doing a job which he was asked to do; his boss is the main problem. The person who must take the ultimate blame is Ashley as he has had every chance to do something about it and to turn the club around. He did purchase a club with problems but he has done nothing to put most of them right. Worse, the main problems have been created while he has owned the club.
Ashley employed Llambias and his inaction endorses everything which has happened, regardless of his actual input. Ashley and Llambias can make as many apologies as they want but even now they seem to be lining up another mistake if the media are correct. The latest in a long line of rumours is that Ashley might take the club off the market and employ David O’Leary as manager. This action would fit in with the long line of poor decisions made to date as the natural appointment would seem to be Alan Shearer. Shearer would take the heat off Ashley and Llambias straight away and would almost certainly put 1000’s on the home gates, it would probably be a self financing appointment which would actually save the club money as any other appointment will have to be paid.
Alan Shearer reckons that he hasn’t spoken to Mike Ashley since they met just after the Villa game. It appears that whatever Shearer was planning was enough to scare off Ashley. Ashley doesn’t appear to want to spend any more money than he has to but he always ends up throwing good money after bad as he ends up paying for mistakes made. He paid an initial figure of around £134million when buying a Premiership club which was loaded with debt. How come a team playing in the second tier of football become worth only £34 million less when the revenue has become drastically reduced? Simply put, it isn’t worth that much an its unlikely that he’ll get anywhere close to his asking price for the club, it’s not worth is. The football club has lost most of the Sky TV money, gate receipts are going to be down to around 2/3’s of last seasons gates because nobody trusts either Ashley or Llambias. Rightly or wrongly, they are both seen as liars by many fans, nobody trusts them because in the past they have said one thing and done something completely different, usually the opposite.
OK, we needed his money, that can’t be doubted but he’s allowed poor performing players to remain while selling players who could have made a difference, that is mismanagement. He allowed Keegan to walk because he kept faith in Dennis Wise, that is mismanagement. He allowed anybody to pick the team, that is mismanagement. He thought Joe Kinnear was fit to manage a football club while he had a history of heart problems, that is mismanagement. He allowed his best managerial candidate to leave the club, that is mismanagement.
So many mistakes have been made but the worst of them all is our current plight. To leave the club floundering is unforgivable and could turn out to be worse than anybody had thought.
Mike, you’ve redefined mismanagement but you can still turn things around as long as you're the owner but to do that you need to change.
Do us all a favour, either go back to London or grow some nuts and turn the clubs fortunes around. Appoint a manager who the fans can put some faith in, a manager who isn't seen as a puppet or stooge. Get rid of the players who are not fit to wear the black and white shirt, or are not worth the wages which is putting such a drain on the clubs resources. Invest in something positive instead of throwing more good money away. You're public enemy number 1 on Tyneside because you've made a mess of running a football club. You took over a club at a time when the fans were looking for change and you've done the impossible. You've ended up looking worse than what you took over from, amazing!!!
The Championship is a poor league, it's not as tough as some people try to make out, they're just talking it up. It wouldn't need a great deal of investment to get out of it and that could be partially funded by losing some of the players who helped create our current situation. Even if these players are good enough to take the club back up to the Premiership, the're not good enough to keep us up and the investment that would be required at a later date would be massive. Ditch some of them now and bring in some players who are hungry and have something to proove. They must also have skill as well as other atributes, pace would be welcome as we're devoid of any at this time.
Mike, you have turned so many people against you and it must be having some effect on your core business. If you leave in the near future then your legacy is one of failure on a major scale and it will take a long time for that perception to change. Lord Westwood, Gordon McKeag and others still carry that stigma many years after there deaths.
Derek, if you are to remain at the club then you have to change the way that you run it, if that's at all possible, I'm not sure that it is possible. You've admitted making mistakes but they are more like crocodile tears than the real thing. Your time here has been nothing short of a disaster. I have no idea how you make decisions but it’s either you don’t know what you’re doing or you’re getting bad advice. Either way, you decided to go along with the wrong decisions and have made massive mistakes, these need to stop.
You have both admitted to have made mistakes, learn from them. You can either stay and fight to put things right or you can run away like a couple of cowards who have created a major problem and don’t have the balls to put it right.
I'm not one of the idiots who thinks you have set out to ruin the club. I'm one of those idiots who thought that you would make us a better club and give us a better team. I just wish I was one of those who did think you'd set out to ruin us, it would give me an easier case to argue by using evidence.
Ashley Rivals Worst Owners Ever
Newcastle United has been run by some poor people throughout its history but Mike Ashley rivals the worst. It's true that he didn't inherit the best run football club in the world; it wasn't the worst run either. He inherited a club that had been used as a "Cash Cow" and one that was in need of some love and attention. The club was haemorrhaging money like it was going out of fashion but it was bringing money in. The income stream was consistent and high, the problem was the amount of money going out.
The club needed stability from the top down, the club needed a cull of overpaid underachieving players who along with the former major shareholders were bleeding the club dry. We needed somebody at the top who could make more right decisions than wrong. What we got was a billionaire who was about to make just about every wrong decision that was possible. We got a billionaire that was about to lose the type of money that most people could dream of. We got a billionaire who made fewer correct decisions than he made friends on Tyneside; he must have set a new world record for cock-ups. The biggest cock-up of them all and the least forgivable one was and still is leaving the club to flounder like a rudderless ship. The longer the club remains in limbo the worse if will work out for all concerned. Even now that the "For Sale" signs have once again been removed, it's almost certain that an acceptable bid will mean a change of ownership.
We’re not back to where we were in the last 80’s and early 90’s but that’s where we are heading. Ashley has been appalling and Newcastle United may not have seen the worst of Ashley’s ruining of the club yet. Knowing our luck he’ll sell the club to Shepherd. That would be poetic justice, Ashley knowing that Shepherd had cost him so much money.
Ashley deserves that, the fans don’t, Ashley owes the fans a good new owner. He might not get his money back but at least he has the change of making one last correct decision, better late than never. Selling is now his only option, that's the situation Ashley has created since relegation, he's created it because of his inactivity when action was needed.
The only positive for Ashley is that if he's ever pennyless he will still have a career, nobody is more qualified to write "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ruining a Football Club" than he is.
Congratulations Mike.
After years of mismanagement, who do we, or should we blame for relegation?
It depends how far you want to go back, the seeds of our relegation were sown years ago, they were sown the day Freddy Shepherd undermined Sir Bobby Robson during the 2004-05 summer break.
At that point Newcastle had just finished 5th in the league and had reached the UEFA Cup semi-final.
Just before the start of season 2004/05 our then Chairman came out and announced that the 12 month Roll-on contract of Bobby Robson would not be renewed. What followed that announcement was so predictable to everybody except Shepherd. The players knew that they would probably be at the club long after the manager. With that knowledge the players knew that if something kicked off then the manager would probably be the one to lose out. Sir Alex Ferguson had announced that he was going to retire and had to publicly change his mind because players were no longer performing for him. Ferguson himself admitted that the decision to pre-announce his retirement had resulted in a negative effect on the players and on his ability to impose discipline. The same thing happened at Newcastle and that is down to nobody other than Shepherd and possibly Douglas Hall.
Robson had a terrible time after that announcement and before the start of the new season, the club was in turmoil as the manager denied any knowledge that this was to be his last season, while Shepherd told the press that Robson knew that it was to be his last season. Kieron Dyer was dropped to the bench for refusing to play on the right wing although this was first denied and described as "utter rubbish" by Sir Bobby Robson. The players were also hit by a bout of conjunctivitis that had taken out every fit central defender at the club, Woodgate had recently been sold and his replacement was still to arrive. Robson had actually been called into see Shepherd thinking that a central defender had been signed, little was he to know that this would be the last time he would go to St James’ Park as manager of Newcastle United. Robson has said that he would have liked to have been involved in identifying his successor but that wasn’t to be. Identifying his successor was down to Shepherd and again, possibly Douglas Hall as Sir John was no longer involved with the running of the club and what a spectacular failure the appointment turned out to be.
Newcastle United was near the bottom of the league when Robson was relieved of his duties. The team had drawn against Middlesborough, lost at home to Tottenham, drawn at home to Norwich and lost away to Aston Villa and were 16th in the league. Newcastle having a poor start to a league campaign wasn’t anything new; in fact it had already become normal. 12 months earlier after 4 games Newcastle were sitting one place lower than when Robson were sacked, we were 17th and still went on to finish 5th by the end of the season. The season before that was even worse, after 4 games we were 19th yet went on to finish 3rd. Sacking Robson was knee-jerk and would prove to have been a costly mistake which the club would fail to get over for years; we’re still waiting to get over it today.
Robson was replaced by one of only 4 managers who were below him in the league when he was sacked. Souness was appointed and we actually paid compensation to Blackburn who were rumored to be close to sacking him, that would be seriously funny if it had of happened to another club but it didn’t happen to another club, it happened to ours.
Souness came with a reputation of falling out with players on a fairly regular basis. He also came with the reputation of having taken over a Liverpool team who produced trophies as quickly as they could be manufactured, they produced trophies as if they were coming off a conveyor belt, at least they did until they appointed Souness who to be fair had done well in Scotland.
Souness delivered what most fans had expected, for some strange reason Bellamy was substituted against Charlton when he looked to be the best player for Newcastle on the pitch, Bellamy was seen to utter something while leaving the pitch. Souness was then said to have grabbed Bellamy by the throat during training. If this is true then Souness wasn’t only a verbal bully, he was also a physical bully as anybody doing that anywhere else would probably result in an assault charge. A manager who assaults an employee in industry would be a manager out of a job within days and rightly so. This happened on 17th October 2004 and was soon to be followed by Souness and Bellamy publicly slagging each other off on Sky Sports after playing away to Arsenal on 23rd January 2005. Souness claimed that Bellamy had feigned injury while Bellamy claimed that Souness was a liar. Bellamy was eventually loaned out to Celtic before being sold for a fee that was around £3 million, the fee was used by Bellamy to have a go at Souness later via a newspaper article.
Newcastle didn’t only have a discipline problem with Bellamy; on April 2nd 2005 we finished a home game against Aston Villa on the wrong end of a 0-3 score line. That doesn’t tell the whole story, we lost the game and finished it with 8 players on the field after Stave Taylor was sent off for handling the ball, and both Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer were also sent off, this time for fighting with each other after Dyer had failed to pass the ball to Lee Bowyer.
Shepherd was later to defend Souness when he claimed “But the seeds of the Craig Bellamy situation were sown before he arrived at the club. “Many of the problems Graeme is having to deal with are down to the way the previous manager handled discipline.”
Souness was allegedly been brought to the club to install some discipline, on that score he failed miserably. He was also brought to the club to turn around a team which had previously finished 5th in the league. Again, he failed because he was sacked after taking the club to 14th at the end of his first season and at the time of his sacking, 15th in the league. He has spent close to £50 million to take the 5th placed team to 14th and was sacked after a defeat away to Manchester City. Amazingly Shepherd used the excuse of two players colliding during the game as reason for the dismissal, so we are to believe that it had nothing to do with the fact that we were 15th in the league at this time?
Shepherd installed Glenn Roeder as caretaker manager and boasted that the Newcastle manager’s job was one of the top jobs in world football. If that was the case then why did we end up appointing Roeder who had a poor record as a manager at his previous clubs? Roeder did lift the players in his first season with the team eventually finishing in 7th place and qualifying for the Intertoto Cup. Roeder didn’t last long, he was appointed as caretaker in February 2006 and resigned in May 2007 although future accounts highlighted that Roeder walked away from the club with a lot of money so for resigned, use sacked. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Roeder was the fans choice so Shepherd probably thought that the fans were to blame for this failure. Within days of Roeder becoming manager Shepherd claimed “The amount of text messages and emails we have had in support of Glenn run into their thousands. “The supporters have identified Glenn as the man they want. We have listened to them.” Where would anybody get a hold of Shepherd’s mobile number to allow them to send him texts? How would thousands of fans been able to get a hold of his e-mail address?
Shepherd then appointed Sam Allardyce as soon as the season had finished. On the face of it this looked like a good move by the club. The first team was struggling on the pitch and the club was in debt so had very little, if anything to spend. Allardyce was known as a manager who played direct football but he’d worked on a low budget and had been relatively successful dealing in this way, he was out of work and looking for a fresh challenge.
Allardyce never had the chance to field a team under the man who had appointed him as during the summer Sir John Hall went down to London to watch the FA Cup final. By chance Hall had bumped into a billionaire who was unknown to the majority of Newcastle fans, Mike Ashley. Sir John and Ashley got talking and Hall offered to sell his shares to Ashley. Sir John told Ashley that he would be leaving London that night by train and that if Ashley was interested then he had to agree to buy them before Sir John had boarded his train at Kings Cross. Sir John claimed that he was looking for a quick sale so that the club wasn’t destabilised by rumours and Ashley took the bait.
Ashley had his advisors look through the clubs accounts but they didn’t complete Due Diligence as they were never given enough time and Ashley was known to have bought a business in this manner before.
Ashley appointed Chris Mort as Deputy Chairman to work under Shepherd who was in hospital suffering from pneumonia. Shepherd was later relieved of his duties and Mort took over as Chairman on a years secondment from law firm Freshfields. Mort had been brought in to look at all levels of the club and soon had a surprise when he found out that the club had a loan agreement which carried a clause which forced the repayment after the club was sold. Ashley had no other option but to dig deep and pay off £44 million within weeks of buying the club. Other loans of around £30 million were paid off by Ashley who loaned the money to the club. To this day he doesn’t appear to have taken a penny out of the club in interest for these loans.
Allardyce was given money to spend, he would later thank Ashley for allowing him to spend the most money he’d ever spent at a club but he was also complaining that the new people at the club were not acting quickly enough and that we were losing players because of this. Allardyce was still allowed to bring in players like Joey Barton and Alan Smith while letting go players like Dyer and Solano. Very few people complained about the loss of Solano or Dyer but the replacements brought to the club turned out to be terrible buys.
Smith has still to score for the club and Barton has hardly played for the club and has spent more minutes in prison than on the pitch and that is almost 2 years after he joined the club.
Allardyce was sacked for poor performance; he was the only manager to lose in the league to Derby County who were eventually relegated with the fewest number of points in a Premiership campaign. They still managed to take 4 of the 11 points they managed to muster during the full league season off Allardyce and Newcastle.
Ashley was about to either make or allow the first of his mistakes to be made. He appointed or allowed the appointment of Keegan who had a record of walking out of clubs when he wasn’t getting his own way. He also appointed or allowed what would eventually turn out to be the reason for Keegan walking out of the club for the second time as manager, Dennis Wise.
Keegan was constantly alleged to have been complaining to the press off the record about what he didn’t like to see happening at the club. A meeting was hastily arranged after Keegan had spoken in front of TV cameras after a defeat to Chelsea. Within days stories were put out that the meeting was positive and that everybody had left the meeting satisfied with what had been said and agreed upon.
Keegan must also take his share of the blame, he alleges that he was forced out of the club but it can't be forgotten that Keegan wasn't escorted to the door. He made the decision to walk for whatever reason and he walked because he wanted to. Keegan came to the club knowing that Dennis Wise could be following him through the door. Keegan was also asked about the first time he walked out citing that the job was no longer what is said on the tin. He was asked if he would walk out this time and his reply was along the lines of not having been given any assurances this time.
The season came to an end and everybody went off on holiday but we knew that Chris Mort would probably be leaving the club when we received an e-mail from somebody at the club at the end of April although we didn’t make that public because we had been trusted with that information.
Mort was with the club for 12 months and in that time had stabilised things, he’d overseen the buyout, he’d had to contend with the City of London Police knocking on the doors at St James’ Park, he’d replaced a manager and managed to steer the club to one position higher up the league than the season before. He’d gone through the club from top to bottom to identify where things were in need of improvement and he’d got the fans onboard. Mort had set the foundation in place to allow the football club to move forwards both on and off the field and then he’d been sent packing so that Ashley could employ another of his mates. Ashley appointed a one of his mates to become Deputy Chairman at first. Llambias had been running casinos in London and was said to be a West Ham fan who was supposed to be good at the corporate side of things.
The summer didn’t go well with whispers in the media that all was not too well and that Keegan wasn’t too happy with the pace of team building. The club sold James Milner to Villa just before the transfer window came to an end and had only brought in Xisco and Gonzalez at the last minute. These transfers appear to be what was to send Keegan running for home while Ashley was getting pissed in a New York night club if the press are to be believed.
Once again the club was in turmoil and Ashley’s new MD as he had become was involved in a baptism of fire. The press also made it known that during a meeting between Keegan and Llambias that Llambias had wanted to slap Keegan. All hell broke loose amongst the fans that were mostly in a state of uproar.
Stories were coming out that Keegan has resigned then it was alleged that he’d not resigned but was sacked. It’s hard trying to think back at what was happening and when it was happening. Ashley flew back to England and held a meeting with Keegan in London but Keegan didn’t get what he wanted to make his return possible so he walked away from the club, this time probably forever.
Newcastle played Hull at home and the atmosphere was terrible. Fans protested before during and after the game which ended in a home defeat. The club was then put up for sale and a protest group/supporters club was then formed by a group of fans who were not happy with what was going on. It appeared that Ashley and Llambias had preferred to take the side of Dennis Wise in his power struggle with Keegan. Keegan had done so much for the club and fans in the past and Wise had not been seen to have done anything of note. Ashley and Llambias had misjudged what was going on and made some fatal errors, none more so than an ill-advised “Fact” statement which was put out on the official clubs website. Everything which the club seemed to do was just adding to the furore which the fans were feeling.
Newcastle played 3 games without a manager, 4 if you include the Blackburn game the day after Joe Kinnear was appointed as interim manager and all 4 games ended in defeat when Chris Hughton was picking the team. His record as caretaker was played 4, lost 4, 100% failure.
Kinnear was brought in on a month to month contract while Ashley tried to sell the club as nobody else seemed prepared to work under these conditions. Joe had been out of management for almost 4 years after resigning at Nottingham Forrest who were in danger of being relegated, which they were at the end of that season. At the end of November 2008 Joe Kinnear was appointed to take the club to the end of the season and the club was taken off the market because nobody could find a buyer. Joe does come here having experience of working at clubs who had a manager working for a Director of Football while at Oxford and at Luton. Joe was that DoF at Luton and he demoted the manager and took over the job of managing the team himself, he guided them to relegation but to be fair, they were in danger long before he became manager.
Kinnear has a record at Newcastle of having managed the club for 18 games in the league; he was in hospital when we played West Brom in the Midlands. His record in that time is one of played 19, won 4, drawn 8 and lost 7 which is a pathetic reason to wait for his return from illness. Kinnear was taken into hospital for what was said to have been heart problems, we later found out that he would require a triple heart bypass and would be out of the game for months.
Most people would think that a manager with such a poor record of results and who was predicted to be out of the game until almost the end of his contract would have been replaced. Well that didn’t happen, we were put back under the control of Chris Hughton, remember played 4 lost 4? At this time the record of Hughton now stands at played 10 (we’re giving him West Brom as Kinnear was in hospital) won 1, drawn 2 and lost 7. He’s got that record, we’re near the bottom of the league and the club is being allowed to flounder without direction in the hope that Joe Kinnear can come back and be a better manager than he was before his operation. It’s undoubted that he’ll eventually be in better health but that will not make any difference, why should it? Kinnear doesn’t run around the pitch so physical fitness shouldn’t be an issue. We’ve got an owner who should be making decisions if his MD isn’t willing to do so.
Ashley is not totally to blame for our current position but he’s had more than enough opportunities to change our direction and he’s mostly got those wrong or allowed his employee’s to do that without recourse. If we go down this season then Ashley has to carry the can for that although he has been ably assisted by the people who sold shares to him almost 2 years ago because they left a mountain of debt which had to be sorted as it was crippling the club during a financial melt-down. It shouldn’t be forgotten either that we had finished 13th 2 years ago and 14th a couple of years earlier so our current position haven’t come out of the blue. It was probably coming anyway and hasn’t been helped by the money which has had to be used by Ashley to allow the club to pay the bills. Some people blame Ashley for not checking the books properly but that doesn’t really make the slightest bit of difference to our current situation because we would arguably be in a worse position without him as none of our previous major shareholders had the kind of money needed to turn us around. Without Ashley being daft enough to buy a club without Due Diligence and none of us could possibly know where we would be now. After having said that, his mistakes will be the ones that might take us down, because if he’d gotten it right then we wouldn’t be in this position.
It’s over to you Ashley, why have you left the destiny of this club to luck?
Why is this club run like a rudderless ship?
What are YOU going to do about it?
So back to the original question, now that relegation has become reality, who do we, or should we blame?
The honest answer is all of the above (excluding Sir Bobby) and probably a few others. The players don't get out of this without any of the blame but they didn't force anybody to buy or play them. Sir John Hall, Freddy Shepherd, Graeme Souness, Glenn Roeder and Sam Allardyce to a lesser extent. Mike Ashley, Derek Llambias, Dennis Wise, Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear and Chris Hughton can all take a bow. You should all hold your heads in shame while taking the club to where we now find ourselves, the second teir of English football, and the next couple of months could be a lot worse than they are now.
The next time you all look in the mirror you can safely say to yourself, "I've helped make Newcastle United Football Club into what it is today."
Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias have a responsibility to this club and it'e employee's, a lot of whom will be out of work through the actions, or inactions of others. A lot of good people will be looking for work while so many people have made a lot of good money for failure. If Ashley is to sell up then he has to look to get out as soon as possible. If he is to stay and fight on then he's got to learn from the mistakes made by him and others. Mr Ashley, you made your own bed, now you have to lie in it.
We can be contacted be email Contact Us
