Mort Relishing Challenge.
By Luke Edwards, The Journal, 15th November 2007
HE has taken a less high-profile approach to his new job than owner Mike Ashley in recent weeks, but Newcastle United chairman Chris Mort is relishing the challenge of trying to turn the club into a European force again.
While Ashley was attracting plenty of headlines and photographers at the weekend following his decision to watch the Wear-Tyne derby with Newcastle’s supporters so that he could wear his replica shirt, Mort was in a suit in the directors’ box as usual. But, after years carving out a successful career for himself as a lawyer in London, Mort is thrilled by the new challenge at St James’s Park as he outlined plans to shake up the club’s management structure to allow him to spend more time defining United’s long-term strategy and goals.
He said: “It’s a fabulous way to spend one’s time, running a football club. It didn’t take long for me to accept Mike’s offer to come and run the club and I have absolutely no problems having done so. I’m enjoying it. I’m working hard, but I worked hard in my London life, so that aspect is nothing new. My mindset is not ‘this is only a game’, It’s that there’s a city full of passionate people who care very much about what happens here on a Saturday afternoon. I know they look to the club to determine how their lives work out to a great extent. It’s part of our responsibility. “I don’t come into work thinking ‘oh, won this week, lost last week’, but I’ve grown up enjoying football, so I don’t treat it in a way that perhaps we should, which is that it’s only a game. There’s more passion to it than that.”
Former chairman Freddie Shepherd would argue he shared such a passion for the job, but Mort also combines his enjoyment of running the club with the desire to ensure there are long-term strategies put in place to try to ensure sustainable success is finally brought to Tyneside.
It is an objective, though, which has already encountered some problems as supporters continue to demand an instant improvement in the club’s performances on the pitch. As a newcomer to the city, Mort admits he has still not got used to the knee-jerk nature of football opinion in the North-East. Mort explained: “In my role I have to be determined to take a medium-to-long-term view and not be the guy texting in to the Press on a Monday morning saying everything’s gone horribly wrong. I have to look at it more long term than that. “It struck me, even after drawing at Boro and winning at Bolton for the first time for ages, that there is lots of negativity around. Lots of people are clearly waiting to see where this club is going. Having been through last season and lots of people been unsatisfied, a lot of people have gone into this season wondering where the club’s going to go. “Is it going to continue as it is, is it going to go to a higher level. People are perhaps looking to judge it even quicker this season because they’re trying to work out where it’s going. But it would be wrong for me to join the element that swings both ways, because I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if that’s the way my mind went.”
After less than six months in the job, though, Mort is also planning to recruit a new management team to help him deal with the wide range of issues which require his day-to-day attention.
Mort explained: “I’m not looking to bring in a new chairman or anything. There’s a couple of senior people I think we need to add to help the management of the club, which will make life a little easier. “It would enable me to move up to a slightly higher level in terms of strategy, but at the moment I’m getting down into the detail of lots of things, which is a healthy thing for me to do, to understand what needs to be done. Because over time I’d hope to be able to get a bit more management in there as well.”
Nufcmismanagement view:
I can't think of any time in my life as a Newcastle supporter when we have been better off than we are now. Sir John, with the help of Shepherd and an often forgotten Freddy Fletcher, transformed this club. They did it but it took time and it will take Mike Ashley and Chris Mort time to sort the club out. 5 months ago we were in a really bad state both on and off the field, personally I couldn't see it changing for the better but it has.
Ashley didn't buy a club that was in as poor a state as the one Sir John took over but it was heading that way. Sir John got the club at the right time, he got it at a time when money was flowing into the game through increased TV revenue so as long as he took the gamble and got to a level where he could grab some of that cash he was always going to be financially safe. He invested in the club at the right time to allow him to do it on the cheap compared to what it costs to compete today. Sir John was one of a few rich men in the game those days that could spend the amount of money that was required to make a difference. Today it costs much more to run a top club, you only have to look at how promoted teams struggle when they first get into the Premiership, they are yoyo clubs and rely on parachute payments to build up enough of a financial resource to enable them to stay up.
We have gone from being potentially the next Leeds to once again being a club that can look forwards with a bit of promise; we look like we are planning to build the club on solid foundations, something which must be a priority, no more boom and bust.
Chris Mort has to stand back from this and take no notice of the fans because most of us want instant success, I don’t think the fans should apologise for wanting that, most people want to see the best players running out on a Saturday, or more often a Sunday. I think we have every right to aspire to that but in reality it’s not going to happen without a lot of very hard work. It’s going to take a lot of hard work from everybody and that includes us, the fans. While we might knee-jerk we’ve also got to keep a perspective. In reality we’re not just going to be taken over one day and start winning the next.
Do I want success? Yes, of course I do. Do I want it instantly? Yes, I want that success and I wanted it yesterday, in fact I've wanted that success for almost 14,000 yesterdays, work it out if you don't believe me. Do I want to see the club built on foundations of sand? Not a chance, I’d rather wait and see something built which is sustainable and not relying on the hand outs of a very rich man, no matter how well intentioned that he is.
I’d rather wait 5 years for two trophies than get one tomorrow then have to wait another 38 years for the next one.
I would just like to add that I like to see some half decent football while we’re heading in the right direction, something to look at and think that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer as time goes on.
