Souness? It's Shepherd who should be run out of Toon - Reade On Sport
AND so the saviour of the Geordie Nation has once again come down from on high to spread peace and stability throughout his land. Just as he did with Ruud Gullit, Kenny Dalglish and Bobby Robson, Freddy Shepherd has despatched Graeme Souness for crimes against the people, and replaced him with Glenn Roeder and Alan Shearer who he feels will "steady the ship" because "they're Newcastle through and through".
Makes you wonder why he didn't just ring up Ant and Dec. They are higherprofile with as many coaching badges and they have as much chance of steadying the sinking ship as Freddy Shepherd. The man whose pay packet is almost as big an insult as his motto: The buck stops one stop below me.
If Souness was a midtable manager put in charge of a top six club, here is a chairman with a Champions League ego and a Unibond League brain.
If Souness was sacked for lacking the judgment to build a decent side, how does Shepherd survive when his judgment of managers, and his ability to handle them, is far more lamentable?
The reason Souness was packing his bags this week is quite simple. Had he been allowed to struggle on any longer those "Souness Out" calls would have changed to "Sack The Board". And Shepherd is not man enough to take on popular opinion. He'd rather hide behind it.
Before Newcastle fans get too carried away with Souness's exit they should look at the decision that surrounded his arrival, and they may get a better insight into why their beloved club has become a laughing stock - trophyless for decades, in a relegation battle and hurtling towards debts of £90million.
Why, at a time when Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United were in a different league to the rest, was Souness's predecessor Bobby Robson sacked after finishes of fourth, third and fifth?
Why was he so recklessly undermined by Shepherd announcing he had one season left. Then sacking him a few weeks into that season? Hadn't he learned anything about dismissing bosses at such an illogical juncture, after Dalglish and Gullit were shown the door under a similar cloud of early-season panic?
Why did Shepherd settle for Souness, his fifth choice, whose Blackburn side were 18th in the Premiership and sliding? And why hand him a £2.2m-a-year contract?
Why was a manager the fans never wanted, whose only selling point was an ability to face-down Big Time Charlies allowed to squander £50m?
Why was he sacked two days after the January transfer window closed, meaning the only outlay Newcastle have done over the past few weeks is the £5m severance package for him and his coaching staff, and a new manager has no option but to work with his failures?
If Peter Ridsdale was forced out for turning Leeds into a financially strickened joke-shop, why not Shepherd for driving Newcastle down that route?
Successful management is about judging the talent and character of people you appoint. How has Shepherd been allowed to survive when the four managers he's appointed were unable to win more than 46 per cent of their games?
What credentials has Shepherd for running Newcastle, other than the fact he's a mate of the family that took it over?
Why wasn't he run out of town the second his fake sheikh brothel encounter exposed him as a gluttonous hypocrite with nothing but contempt for the ordinary fan. Surely here was glaring proof that the man's lack of judgment was bordering on the criminal?
Newcastle fans may have got sick of hearing Souness trot out the lame excuse of injuries being responsible for his woeful underperforming. But at least he's got one. Where's Freddy Shepherd's?
Nufcmismanagement view:
I think this article just about sums up Freddy Shepherd; I've got nothing to add that would come across any better than the original article.
The second from last paragraph mentions the Spanish brothel, was this the catalyst and start of the loutish behaviour from the younger members of our playing staff?
Did the players see this and think that they were being set an example to follow?