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The True Faith opinion


Wullie

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http://www.true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

 

You know we didn't play particularly badly at The Beasts. We probably played as well as we can. And that is probably the saddest thing I can say about the trip to the toxic tip. We could and should have won the game at a canter because we had plenty of chances but if your players don't have the ability to take those chances then, you aren't going to win football matches.

 

More of us are asking serious questions of almost everything at NUFC. On every level there is dissatisfaction with the running of our club and the view that the current regime is a busted flush has taken alight. As far as I can see there is very little at the club's disposal to put out that fire. Should the club fail to beat Portsmouth at home on Wednesday night, then Freddie Shepherd and the football geniuses in the boardroom will be directly in the line of fire and there will be plenty bullets and poisoned arrows heading in his direction.

 

But Shepherd and the others who allegedly run our football club should take succour from the fact supporters are angry, piss-boiling angry. That shows we care, that we love the club, though tolerate the bufonery that characterises much of what happens at SJP less and less.

 

The time for Shepherd and his merry men to truly worry is when apathy sets in. The hardcore will always be there. The people whose lives revolve around the club - they will always keep on, keepin' on. But for those who see NUFC as something of a leisure pursuit rather than a calling, then I am fraid those people are going to abandon their seats for the golf courses, shopping malls and whatever it is people do when there's a match on and they aren't there. Who knows what the attendance will be on Wednesday night - the club may be saved by school half term and a parental "treat" to take the bairns to the match. Don't laugh. When the club is in something approaching meltdown that can't be much of a treat to be honest.

 

After the club binned Kevin Bond, Roeder has brought in relegation specialist, Nigel Pearson, whose track record and credentials are hardly impressive. More and more of us are looking at Roeder seriously but coming to the conclusion that he is symptom rather than cause of the problems at our beloved Newcastle United. The cause of the problems rests in the boardroom and shit decision making, the absence of a real plan to develop Newcastle United as a serious football club that will punch its weight rather than make the occassional trophy signing to stroke our collective ego that Newcastle United is "big". Newcastle United isn't a big club. Newcastle United is just a club with lots of supporters who care about the club. Big clubs win things and we don't do that.

 

Let's get on the record what we are unhappy about. This squad is woefully short. We may have spunked money here and there (though that is hugely debatable and a subject of close analysis in itself) but we are left with a pool of misfits, rejects and those who are just not up to the standard required of a club with our potential and aspirations.

 

Much of our current malaise goes back to Shepherd's complete inability to plan a succession for the end of Sir Bobby Robson's time at NUFC. His time was up but Shepherd, dithered, talked shite about not being the man who shot Bambi! We had a close season of discord and intrigue. Robson, who had lost the plot started the season badly and Shepherd sacked Robson with no Plan B. Coming in at Plan X was Souness who proceeded to grotesquely mis-manage the club as well thought he would, spend fortunes on rubbish and be prompty dismissed, again with no Plan B to be executed. Souness was Shepherd's man, just as Roeder is Shepherd's man. These are the decisions Shepherd is more than richly rewarded to make. He isn't giving the supporters what they want as his sycophants in the local media would have us believe. That is his decision and it is patronising nonsense to suggest anything else. How many more appointments will Shepherd be allowed to make? How many piss poor players on top dollar wages bought for ludicrously inflated fees come into our club, fail and then move on with their pckets filled for having achieved the sum total of fuck all?

 

The club appears to lack strategy, vision and the current regime has taken far too much money out of the club over the last ten years whilst achieving little. Shepherd and Hall have failed us.

 

Their defence will be they have provided managers with plenty money to invest in players. Well, they should add that it is our money. By and large the cash that has haemoraged out of NUFC over the last decade has been wasted on poorly researched players and by and large we now have a squad which is low in quality and light years from the top four but not that far from the bottom three.

 

It is early days and perhaps I am premature but our big close signing Obafemi Martins looks nothing like a £10M player. A panic buy, a player from the c-list of preferred players Roeder asked Shepherd to go out and get for the club. Nice company for Luque on the bench whilst a limping and willing Shola with a clear injury, threatens his fitness further playing at 50% of his capacity, I'd guess. Two years to replace Shearer and the club fail miserably. It's shambolic.

 

And there is nothing coming through. No names from the youth team to quicken the pulses. Millions has been invested in training facilities etc but there's nothing coming through that can set a new agenda for the club. Why?

 

Things could get a whole lot worse before they start getting better.

 

In the words of our new anthem - "We Want Shepherd Out, We Want Shepherd Out!

 

Keep On, Keepin' On ....

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Prefer TF's assessmants to the once great  nufc.com which has now become too opinionated.

 

Agree to a point, but what amazes me is how these opinions of where we went wrong gloss over the role our club captain played at the time.

Once the greatest CF in the world he was allowed to become bigger than the club, and that should never happen and could not happen at a serious football club such as Arsenal, Man.Utd, Bayern Munich or others.

Shearer was instrumental in getting rid of both SBR and our best player Bellamy. A friend of his, Souness took over. Another buddy MacDermott was brought in, and frankly it all started going down hill.

Ultimately Shepherd must take the blame for allowing it to happen, lets face it he thought aligning himself to the big man would ensure his own popularity and survival. Time will probably prove this to be his biggest mistake.

 

Also disagree with assessment of Martins. Give him service and he will score goals.

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If Martins didn't choose the wrong decision every time then perhaps he'd look quality, shame his decision making is terrible.

 

Also, if he was allowed to run onto balls instead of holding it up he might look decent also.

 

Shame.

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Guest Invicta_Toon

You call it whinging, I call it an honest observation of the current situation.

 

when you offer no alternative, it's whinging

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I agree it is kind of whinging, and we have heard it all before. But this time the protests are getting media attention and the attendances are down. These things will make Fatty shit himself more than a true faith article.

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Agree to a point, but what amazes me is how these opinions of where we went wrong gloss over the role our club captain played at the time.

Once the greatest CF in the world he was allowed to become bigger than the club, and that should never happen and could not happen at a serious football club such as Arsenal, Man.Utd, Bayern Munich or others.

Shearer was instrumental in getting rid of both SBR and our best player Bellamy. A friend of his, Souness took over. Another buddy MacDermott was brought in, and frankly it all started going down hill.

Ultimately Shepherd must take the blame for allowing it to happen, lets face it he thought aligning himself to the big man would ensure his own popularity and survival. Time will probably prove this to be his biggest mistake.

 

 

I agree. The article talks about Shepherd's inability to appoint and keep a decent manager, but ignores the prime reason behind it. It seems to me that no reporter or fanzine will dare question Shearer's part in all of this.

 

The only people that have piped up about this - Gullit and Kluivert - are safely away on the continent. The guy must be incredibly hard!

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Agree to a point, but what amazes me is how these opinions of where we went wrong gloss over the role our club captain played at the time.

Once the greatest CF in the world he was allowed to become bigger than the club, and that should never happen and could not happen at a serious football club such as Arsenal, Man.Utd, Bayern Munich or others.

Shearer was instrumental in getting rid of both SBR and our best player Bellamy. A friend of his, Souness took over. Another buddy MacDermott was brought in, and frankly it all started going down hill.

Ultimately Shepherd must take the blame for allowing it to happen, lets face it he thought aligning himself to the big man would ensure his own popularity and survival. Time will probably prove this to be his biggest mistake.

 

[/quo

 

I agree. The article talks about Shepherd's inability to appoint and keep a decent manager, but ignores the prime reason behind it. It seems to me that no reporter or fanzine will dare question Shearer's part in all of this.

 

The only people that have piped up about this - Gullit and Kluivert - are safely away on the continent. The guy must be incredibly hard!

 

Yeah I think the fact that no local rag, fanzine, radio broadcaster or website has ever raised this, somehow reinforces the point.

Some people are so big you just don't question them.

Gullit and Kluivert were people of similar stature (perhaps greater stature) than our big fella on the world stage, but they were never going to take him on in his own back yard.

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http://true-faith.co.uk/html/tbawe.htm

 

It's worth a read.

 

We're in the shit! You know it, I know it and no amount of spin from elements of the Freddie Friendly local press and their laughable happy-talk can disguise it. We are in a relegation scrap and that is what faces us this season. That is the reality of our situation.

 

How did we get here? Well, at the risk of boring the bollocks (and tits) off you all, its because of an abysmal level of decision-making at the very top of the club, a complete absence of planning and strategy, appalling managerial appointments and a completely reckless investment of club money on so many players who have proven to be utterly and completely shite! I struggle to think of one club who has squandered so much money on so much over-paid garbage in recent seasons as NUFC yet have a board of directors who try and pass this off as a badge of honour and evidence of their commitment to Newcastle United. Its enough to make you fucking sob!

 

We've done the explanation for the club's alarming decline to death and there are those in the tf bunker who can pin-point almost to the exact minute when our club started to implode - clue - Partizan Belgarde penalty shoot-out. But whilst there are those of you in the tf congregation of angst-ridden Mags who are seriously worried and depressed about the state of the club, the time has come for some-one at the club in some position of executive authority (i.e. not the manager) to stand up, take responsibility and show some genuine and strong leadership.

 

This means more than wheeling out Sir John Hall for the benefit of the back page of The Chronicle to spout some shite about being "just a fan". Sir John isn't in any position of responsibility at the club at the moment on a day to day basis. And he's nothing like being "just a fan" as I would understand the term. Please spare us the patronising horse kak!

 

His son, Douglas is a director of the club but we have heard nothing from him in this last week. Hmm. Likewise Shepherd. According to he Chronicle, Shepherd's wife has been ill (but he doesn't want the sympathy vote - right!). According to the Sunday Sun, Freddie Shepherd was in Majorca on holiday whilst we played Charlton and Douglas Hall, so I believe, was not at SJP on Saturday either. Leadership?

 

So then, at a time when Newcastle United is facing possibly the biggest challenge as a Premiership outfit, the club had no main directors at SJP for one of its most vital encounters of the season. I will apologise unreserverdly if that was not the case and publish a retraction if that statement is incorrect.

 

true faith has made it plain we regard the current hierarchy of the club as a busted flush.

 

Shepherd has had nigh on a decade as Chairman, has had huge resources at his disposal and free-reign to hire and fire but NUFC has gone backwards on his watch. He and neither can the Halls can absolve themselves of responsibility no matter how much they wish to do so. Its time for a new energy, direction and new ideas at NUFC. The current mob have got nowt to offer in my opinion!

 

Like every other supporter out there, we are keen to find out what Belgravia has to say, what their plans are and how they will involve and effect us.

 

We know they aren't Geordies but as the likes of Lord Westwood-Gordon McKeag-Stan Seymour-Sir John Hall-Freddie Shepherd et al have all been sons of the Tyne it doesn't appear that having the right bona-fide Tyneside birth certificate necessarily imbues the occupants of the boardroom with a knack for running our football club correctly.

 

As for having a manager "with a feel for the club", well, Jack Charlton and Willie McFaul certainly had that but bombed badly as well as Roeder increasingly looks like he's doing.

 

We want to know what Belgravia are thinking about and we'd happily meet them (sometimes we get a bit above ourselves at tf you know) and listen to them off the record and have something of an idea about what's going on, if they really want the club and what their aspirations are and why they want in at the House of Pain! We've had no contact whatsoever. We've been asked in e-mails from the Tyneside tifosi, so let's have that on the record, no-one from Belgravia has contacted anyone at true faith and what we know about what is going on with the take-over we pick up second hand from the press. 

 

So then, for the time being we're stuck with Shepherd and Hall.

 

They need to sort themselves out sharpish and start displaying some leadership qualities, start getting behind the manager (and not with daggers drawn to stick in his back) and pull out all of the stops to keep our club afloat.

 

We are in a relegation dog-fight. There are some of you who think we are too good to go down. That's bollocks. If we don't win football matches and get points on the board, we will go down and no amount of squealing about it will prevent that.

 

Newcastle United has no pre-ordained right to be in this division. Just because we have loads of supporters and a big shiny stadium and players paid a fortune does not mean we have the right to stay in The Premiership. We have to score goals, win football matches - all of that stuff. We have to earn our status!

 

Have a look at Leeds, Sheff Wed, Wolves and The Mackems - all of those clubs have a self perception of themselves as part of English football's gliteratti yet all of them are in a lower division to Reading, Wigan, The Beasts, Watford, Fulham, Charlton, Bolton and Blackburn who have made up for what they lack in prestige and profile with sound investment, good management and the correct decison-making. 

 

Newcastle United is crying out for strong leadership at every level of the club's activities from the Chairman down to the tea-lady (who we hear will do her bit anyway).

 

No-one can hide. Everyone needs to stand up to be counted. Shepherd can start the ball rolling by sorting the players we need to keep this club afloat when the transfer window opens in January (what he should have done in the summer), the players need to give fucking everything on the park and some of them need to start acting like proper athletes outside the game as well if rumours we have had passed to us are correct. Glenn Roeder is facing his sternest examination of his career as a manager. He will know if he gets this wrong he'll never manage at this level again.

 

There is no place for bottle-merchants at Newcastle United from now until May.

 

Its going to be shit, we're scrapping for every point and the football will not be what we think it should be from a Newcastle United side. The ascetics of our performances have to be forgotten about. We just have to fight for our just and righteous cause! We have to play our part by getting behind the players in every game we play. But at the same time we can agitate for those men who have brought us to this position to fuck off out of Newcastle United.

 

They have let us down badly and they have no right to continue to have the responsibilty for the stewardship of our club, regardless of what it says on their share-owning, because frankly, if supporters walk away from Newcastle United, there is no club.

 

    Keep On, Keepin' On...

 

 

Edited to add content

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Shepherd can start the ball rolling by sorting the players we need to keep this club afloat when the transfer window opens in January (what he should have done in the summer),

 

So, after spending months slating the board for meddling in the managers transfer dealings.....they are now endorsing it !!!

 

Good stuff. Not surprised not many people noticed that though.

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This bit deserves highlighting:

 

I struggle to think of one club who has squandered so much money on so much over-paid garbage in recent seasons as NUFC yet have a board of directors who try and pass this off as a badge of honour and evidence of their commitment to Newcastle United. Its enough to make you fucking sob!
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Guest Invicta_Toon

yet more whinging with no proper suggestions for action tbh.

 

hardly worth buying that predictable shite anymore

 

You used to be able to rely on there being some new angle that nobody had written about before,

 

now it's just pure boring shite, much like the football atm

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Guest thaitoon

same old shit from TF though

 

all whinging and no suggestions for action

 

 

 

 

id be interested to hear what your plan of action entails.....now is the time

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