genuinely believe when
we had Shepherd he
wanted the team to do
well. Yes, he was a fucking idiot with
his comments, decision making and
crazy signings, but I think he wanted
us to do well. He was just a buffoon
who was steadily taking us down.
Ashley came in as the big geezer,
splashing the cash on a load of big
signings, and trying to be the hero by
bringing in Keegan. I actually think
that could have been a masterstroke.
When Keegan came back he brought
a buzz that hadn’t been here for
years, and I think he could have
taken us back to being a regular top
6 side, even without the money to
spend. Keegan was special, and I
honestly feel ashamed when some
of our younger fans slate him. They
don’t appreciate what he did for us
in the 90s. It’s not their fault they
don’t understand, but sometimes I
find myself resenting them. How dare
they slate him? The very man who
gave us the opportunity to become
something special.
It was a sad day when he left under
such a cloud. My club and my hero
at legal loggerheads was hard to
take and that took a lot out of me
that season, so half an eye was taken
off relegation. It almost paled into
insignificance for me. Football, for
me, is about heroes. It’s about your
Gazzas, Shearers, Bobby Lee’s, Bobby
Robsons, and Keegans. Hell, even
your Laurent Roberts, Ben Arfas and
Nobby Solanos. It’s about grafting
your arse off all week so that you
have the cash to spend on going to
be entertained. It’s not only about
winning, if anyone supports NUFC
because they want us to win trophies,
then you’re supporting the wrong
team. Winning games is great. But
dont be fooled by the media bollocks
of “we’d rather lose 4-3 than win 1-0’
because we wouldn’t. It’s bollocks.
I suppose that’s where I get round
to today (We’ve just lost 1-2 at home
to Reading). If we were given that
choice of the 1-0 win i’d be delighted,
but I want us to do it in the right way.
I don’t want to be one nil up against
fucking Reading and sub off our only
two attacking midfielders and end up
with FOUR defensive midfielders on
the pitch to ‘see it out’ (granted we
now know Cabaye was injured and
we couldnt see it out). Jonas, Bigi,
Perch and Anita all on at the same
FROM...
42
THE SUMMER OF 43
OUR DISCONTENT
41
WORDS//JONATHAN ANDERSON
“
KEEGAN WAS SPECIAL, AND
I HONESTLY FEEL ASHAMED
WHEN SOME OF OUR
YOUNGER FANS SLATE HIM.
time against one of the worst teams
in the past 5 years of the PL. Bobby
would shudder. Keegan probably is.
I don’t want this to turn into a
Pardew bashing because his failings
are obvious, so don’t need to be
repeated. Similarly, Ashley’s are too.
The saddest thing of all for me is
the fact that money dominates all in
football. It’s all about seeing games
out now. 2-0 up and clubs shut up
shop. If my club ever got to the lofty
position of being 2-0 up i’d want us
to stick 4, 5, 6 past the opposition.
The thought of doing that is simply
gone in modern football. Clubs see
cups as not worth going for as they’re
not financially viable. Personally I
couldn’t give two hoots if the Europa
League isn’t financially viable. If it
takes 16 games against Scandanavian
farmers in front of sub 20k crowds in
the snow to win it, then so be it.
A lot of people say football sold its
soul when Abramovich came to Chelsea but I don’t buy that completely.
For decades it’s largely been a case
of he who has money does well. It’s
just largely more highlighted now because of the Sky era. The sad thing I
think is that because of the complete
vastness of his and the Man City’s
wealth, it means we start a season
knowing that the best that 17 out
of the 20 clubs can hope for is 4th
place… a depressing situation.
It eliminates the skill of coaches
and management, almost making it
worthless. If Allardyce got his dream
role at someone like Man U, they’d
still more than likely end up in the
top two. It’s sickening seeing people
get paid millions to be very average
and have very little input into work,
when 10k people are being made
redundant from Blockbuster, Comet,
HMV, Jessops etc…
I’m waffling now so getting away
from my original point, what is wrong
with football? The answer would
probably be ‘nothing’ if Abramovich
had bought us, or even if we’d seen
out a win against Reading today. But
he didn’t and we didn’t.
There are significant issues at our
football club both from boardroom
level down to the pitch, but it’s nothing new. What is new to us, is we now
have a club that’s sole purpose isn’t
to entertain us. It’s to be profitable.
We may benefit in this window with
a couple of panic buys so we don’t
miss out on the new TV deal, but
ultimately it’s going to leave us with a
constant feeling of a half full club.
Keep the faith.
It’s a pretty fair observation to
say that most Newcastle fans
do not hold a lot of love for
the summer transfer window.
A period that holds so much
promise and possibility for most
teams usually ends in nothing but
disappointment and frustration
for us. In fairness, we have picked
up the odd gem in recent years
like Cabaye and Ba, but overall
Mike Ashley’s relentless penny
pinching has left most pretty
pessimistic when it comes to the
transfer windows these days.
With only Cisse and Shola
as the only senior, recognised
strikers currently at the club (at
time of writing), we are woefully
short of numbers up front. This
summer we were hoping to see
the club linked with a whole host
of strikers and forwards, and to
be fair we have, problem is, none
have actually signed!
Loic Remy, Bafetimbi Gomis
and Darren Bent have all been
strongly linked, yet not have
made it “over the line” as Alan
Pardew frustratingly likes to
say. Sadly, the main reason for
the clubs failure to bring in a
recognised striker this summer
has largely been down to their
own doing; namely Joe Kinnear.
After a relatively calm couple
of years on Tyneside, Newcastle
returned to their usual ways
this summer by well and truly
imploding in spectacular fashion
once again. Nothing unusual for
a Premier League club to suffer a
tumultuous summer you may sa