Freddy Shepherd, Face to Face With John Gibson of the Evening Chronicle.
By John Gibson, The Chronicle, July 13, 2005
Shepherd on criticism, the club's transfer plans and why the squad carry a huge responsibility to avoid more failure. Freddy Shepherd has been relentlessly targeted for a full-frontal attack from disgruntled fans angry and dismayed at Newcastle United's spectacular fall from grace last season.
He and manager Graeme Souness have been put in the Gallowgate stocks after a 14th-place finish in the Premier League swept away European ambitions and self-respect.
Letters by the sackload have arrived at the Chronicle offices demanding action and explanations and local radio has been feasting itself nightly on United's carcass. It was in this climate of unrest and threatened rebellion United's chairman agreed to an in-depth explanation of his policies.
However, rather than being a hounded man on the defensive, Shepherd came out guns blazing. He demanded players paid "Hollywood money" take the full flak of failure because they have a responsibility to go out and justify their vast wages.
Shepherd also warned that Souness, who ought to be judged on this season not last according to his chairman, has to finish in the elite top six of the Premiership this time round the block.
"I know all about the flak which has been flying about," Shepherd told me. "I know where it has been aimed and I am not about to run away.
I come from a tough area of Newcastle in Byker and not many whingers live there. I am a fighter and I will fight on and get it right.
"No-one likes to be criticised. If they do they have a problem. Of course it hurts. But I have broad shoulders and accusations go with the territory. The buck has to stop somewhere and it stops at the top.
"I hate whingers in football and I am not going to become one of them.
However, a sense of proportion has to be kept. "I can understand fans gunning for the chairman and the manager because they always do, but what about the players?
"We pay them Hollywood money and for that they have a responsibility to go out and perform like a Rolls Royce. We have paid the huge transfer fees and the huge wages, given them one of the best stadia in the world, marvellous training facilities, and a terrific, loyal crowd.
"For that they should produce the goods. After we have done our bit it is down to the manager and the players to fulfil their side of the bargain. "Some players are in a no-lose situation. If they win something or qualify for Europe they get the glory but if they fail the manager is the one who gets the sack and the chairman the flak. "However, those types who do not care are found out eventually and the gravy train stops running for them. No-one is underpaid at St James' Park. From the goalkeeper through to the centre-forward we pay quality money looking for a quality job."
When I asked Shepherd if he understood the fears of the ordinary man in the street, he replied: "Of course I do. But last season's 14th placing was the only failure in the last 10 years since John Hall moved in. "The rest of the time we have finished runners-up twice, third, fourth and fifth, played in the Champions League, in two FA Cup finals and a UEFA Cup semi-final. I know we have not won anything despite being so close but we will. We will get there. "Yes, we failed last season but we played something like 54 games because we did so well in two cups and that caught up with us. That is not an excuse, it is a fact. "We all made mistakes through good intentions but I refuse to keep looking back. If you live in the past you die in the past. We are out to put things right this season and I believe we will. I believe we will get it right."
What has concerned the Toon Army is the fact a squad which was so thin last season Souness could hardly put out a team at all during the depressing finale has been further weakened by the departure of six players, no less, while so far only two - Scott Parker and Emre yesterday - have arrived.
Patrick Kluivert, Craig Bellamy, Laurent Robert, Andy O'Brien, Aaron Hughes and Darren Ambrose have already been thrown out of the plane without a parachute and Lee Bowyer is still waiting in the departure lounge.
Surely that has left Newcastle, temporarily or not, with a massively unbalanced squad shorn of natural wingers, two strikers and cover defenders as they prepare for Intertoto Cup action on Sunday.
There is nobody who plays automatically wide right or left, with Shearer's suppliers when United finished third, Nobby Solano and Robert, gone and not replaced.
There is no new striker and precious little defensive cover. Hughes was the perfect sub, being able to play right across the back line and as a midfield anchor, but he has gone along with O'Brien.
Good enough sales maybe but only if better players come in.
However, Shepherd guaranteed those who are panicking that United will plunge back into the transfer market with new gusto.
Time is still on their side. He explained: "The whole point is we have had to sort out the squad. We had to get rid of some and bring in others.
"Bellamy and Robert had to go for obvious, well-documented reasons. The two centre-backs O'Brien and Hughes are good lads but it was best for them and us if they moved on because they could not take this club any further."
"I have found it is always easier to sign players than sell them - mainly because of the wages we have paid, which gets back to my original point. We got in Scott Parker and Emre had his medical yesterday. "They are out of the top drawer and are proof quality players still want to come to Newcastle United. Others will follow. We will be signing again and perhaps selling one more (Bowyer I believe)."
"Remember there are still seven weeks to go before the transfer window closes. We have until the end of August. We will sign a striker, cover at centre-back and probably a wide-left player. "Everyone wants a striker who can score goals and we are no exception - but I believe we will get one. As for a central defender, we could buy but we also hope Steven Taylor will come through this season. "We have taken our time buying players because I have learned the hard way if you act in a hurry you repent at leisure."
What of Souness, seen as confrontational rather than a disciplinarian and facing a season of fierce examination from a doubting public?
"He always said he should be judged at the end of the coming season and I agree with that," said United's chairman.
"This season it will be his team. Including January when he brought in Jean Alain Boumsong, Amdy Faye and Celestine Babayaro, he has five new players - with the probability of more - and six have gone. That's half a team one way and the other. Now we must finish in the top six in the league. That is absolutely imperative. We must qualify for Europe and not rely on the Intertoto Cup again."
"The manager has insisted on us buying quality this summer and we have. Everyone knows how good Parker is and Emre is a massive star - the Prime Minister of Turkey begged him to go back home from Inter Milan. How often does a Prime Minister do that?
"Perhaps the squad does look lopsided but perhaps Graeme is going to use a different formation (4-3-3 rather than 4-4-2). "We have continued to back the manager, as we always have. We have spent more money in the transfer market this year than any other club and that includes Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. We forked out £11m in January and £11m again now."
"In the last 10 years we have splashed more than £200m on players. That is staggering. Think of it - £200m. The board cannot be blamed on that score. What more could we do? If the teams have failed, that is down to the players and perhaps in some cases the managers as well. We can only supply the ammunition."
Shepherd was bullish throughout our two-hour conversation. He knows he stands in a shooting gallery because he is steering a club backed by 50,000 fanatical Geordies every home game who have a right to demand a certain level of success given their undivided loyalty.
Thirty-six barren years without a trophy, half a century without domestic success, have created a climate like no other in quite a while but Shepherd appears to realise it. If he turns things round, all well and good. The sigh of relief will be heard 100 miles away. If not, there is bound to be blood-letting and heads will roll.
Exactly whose is open to conjecture - but the players, and the manager as well, have been warned. They must make up at least eight places in a congested Premier League or else. Summer signings show that we don't want to handle any more baggage, says Freddy Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd has admitted he has embarked upon a deliberate policy of clearing trouble-makers out of the dressing-room.
Sir Bobby Robson may have looked like everyone's favourite uncle with his white thatch and twinkling eyes - but he bought a lot of players with extra baggage and United have paid a heavy price both in bad publicity and a fractured team spirit.
"We have deliberately looked for the right sort of character when we have signed this summer because we must admit to buying players with an awful lot of baggage in the past," said Shepherd.
"Even Bobby himself would admit to that. He had big trouble with Laurent Robert and Kieron Dyer." When I mention the shocking fist-fight on the field between Lee Bowyer and Dyer last season - for which Bowyer was found the guilty party - Shepherd admitted: "It was my lowest point personally and the lowest point for the club. That sort of thing cannot be accepted. It has to be put right."
The public have been highly critical of Newcastle becoming a club which apparently willingly harbours trouble within its walls - locally it has brought embarrassment and anger, nationally it has been a source of great amusement.
Robert, who frequently criticised team-mates and manager in public, has been unloaded on Portsmouth with the fervent hope of a permanent deal and has continued his long-range sniping, Craig Bellamy has gone to Blackburn Rovers after publicly labelling his manager "a liar" and Bowyer will be sold after his fisticuffs. However, Dyer, now perceived as a reformed character, is to stay and be a key performer in a new-look United. His rehabilitation is such he will sign an improved four-year contract very shortly.
Shepherd said: "It is all agreed between the player and ourselves and it is just a matter of straightening out a few minor legal points."
Another player with a past history off the field, Jonathan Woodgate, would be welcomed back to St James' Park.
Shepherd added: "I sincerely hope Jonathan, who has not played for about a year and a half, goes on to have a good career at Real Madrid. "He was not a moment's problem to us apart from his injuries and I have always felt some day he will come back here."
Graeme Souness was brought in as a disciplinarian to sort out the dressing-room, in much the same way as Bill McGarry was used on the departure of Richard Dinnis in the 70s - but he is seen by some as more confrontational than anything else. His spat with Bellamy and his freezing-out of Robert last season are given as perfect examples of meeting a problem head-on with little room for manoeuvre.
"I can only speak as I find," replied United's chairman when I asked him about his manager. "He is a footballing man who sees in players their good points and wants to bring them out. I have never heard him run down a player technically. "He can always see something on which to work. He's always an optimist. "He has been criticised, we all have, but he knows what he wants and he is going after it. "Now he knows it is time to produce. The bar on the high jump has been raised considerably because we have been a top-six club for so long and that is why last season was such a major disappointment. "We know it takes time for a new manager who wants to either change the players or the way the team play. Graeme wanted to alter both."
Nufcmismanagement view:
Oh dear, Mr Shepherd, you're not a Byker lad, you're a Cumbrian lad, don't try to change history.
Also, you blame everybody for the negatives but yourself, you seem to think that you are above criticism for the lack of performance.
You point out that we've had one season of failure under you which is not true.
You've only had three seasons where the performance has matched the fans expectations, the other years are failures.
You became chairman on 1st December 1997, your first season was some highlight, 13th and that after you were handed the 2nd best team in the country.
Season number 2 with you at the helm resulted in in a repeat of your first season, 13th.
Season 3 returned a lofty position of 11th, did you suffer from Vertigo?
Season 4, yes you've guessed, another 11th in the final league table for that year.
Season 5 took us close to where we were before Shepherd too control, we finished in 4th position, followed a year later and 3rd position, the highest league finish that we've achieved under Shepherd and still short of the two years before he became chairman.
Season 7 and once again under Shepherd we're on the slide, not by much so no great panic you'd think, wrong, and the results were to prove catastrophic.
In came Souness and season 8 brought us our lowest ever finish since returning to the top flight. Under Sir John we'd suffered a worst finish of 6th, under Shepherd 6th looked very respectful, we finished 14th.
Season 9 saw us climb to 7th, the 4th best finish ever under Shepherd yet this was still worse than anything Sir John Hall gave us.
You seem to forget that you yourself are also paid like a Hollywood star with Rolls Royce wages, when are you going to deliver?
You say we are getting rid of the troublemakers, those who bring bad publicity to the club, does that include you?