Good piece from The Times.

[Guest toonlass]

Newcastle need their supporters more than ever - George Caulkin, The Times

 

I was in conversation with a football club director (no prizes for guessing that it wasn't anybody connected with Newcastle United) this week. He is a knowledgeable man, a man who has endured hardship as well as enjoyed success, who has coped with relegation battles, mid-table security, nervous run-ins and all the cliches that lie in between. He understands the pressure of making unpleasant decisions at frenetic times and has tended to get them right.

It was a general, informal chat and eventually it turned, as they often do, to the maelstrom that swirls around St James' Park. What would you do, he was asked? The club’s manager is in hospital recovering from heart surgery, but you want him to return - or at least you claim you do - but your league position is a source of huge concern. Bring someone in or leave it to the coaches? Stick or twist?

 

Difficult to say, the director replied. You look at the madness of Newcastle and it's impossible to think in rational terms like that. But one thing I would say is this: my experience has told me that at no time of the season is a manager less influential than now. Yes, I know this is when everything substantial happens, when clubs stay up or go down, win things or lose things, but even so.

 

Think about it, he said. Pre-season training, when a manager and his staff spend weeks honing the fitness of their players, getting used to tactics and systems, integrating new signings, is a distant memory. Footballers should be on auto-pilot in March; if they don't know it now, they never will. The transfer window has gone, too, so managers can’t buy any more and they can’t threaten to sell either.

 

Of course, he said, there are exceptions that prove the rule. There are moments when a manager has become so corrosive to a club, if he has lost the dressing-room, for example, that a fresh voice may be needed. And yes, granted, with an inspiring team-talk or crucial substitution, an individual match can be won (or lost), but in overall terms, this time of year is all about players. They've been bombarded with ideas and advice and orders all season, but now is when we find out if they’ve been listening. It's down to them.

 

In the context of recent events - and possibly future ones - on Gallowgate, it was an interesting argument. Is it relevant? That’s the thing about players, the director said. They love excuses. It’s never their fault. You build a nice stadium, they complain about the training ground. You build a great training ground, they blame the manager. They let a goal in, they blame the pitch. You lay a new pitch, they tell you that their family is unsettled. You look after their family and finally they say thank you. And the next day their agent is on the phone asking about a new contract to re-pay his loyalty. But, anyway, that’s what you try to do - build a culture where excuses wither.

 

At Newcastle there have been a myriad of distractions, a host of excuses. Most of them are pretty good. A manager they loved and believed in left the club when the season was still fresh. Rumours circulated that many of them had been put up for sale. The club was. And then it wasn’t. For those players whose contracts were due to expire, offers were slow to materialize and when they did, it came with a pay-cut. Morale slumped further. A caretaker manager was replaced by an interim manager. When the interim manager became the permanent manager - albeit one who is not committed to the club beyond the summer - he took ill. Now the caretaker manager is back. Too much confusion, not enough clarity.

 

Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, and Derek Llambias, the managing director, are now both regular visitors at the club’s training ground and it is easy to see why. Ashley’s £250m investment is in the hands of his employees. To borrow somebody else’s joke, the £8m profit he made on signings in January can’t play up front. A pile of £50 notes won’t tear up the wing. Ashley may be a billionaire but he is now just as impotent as everybody else; bringing in a firefighter, a short-term manager, is his only substantive option, although he will not need reminding that after a number of rejections, that was precisely where Joe Kinnear stepped in.

 

Eventually, it will be reduced to what’s in the dressing-room. Managers can only deal with what they have. If circumstances were different, would Sir Alex Ferguson keep West Bromwich Albion up? As things stand, would the influence of Tony Pulis undermine Manchester United’s chances of becoming champions? Unlikely. In the likes of Steve Harper, Nicky Butt, Ryan Taylor and Steven Taylor, Newcastle have a core of decency, people who know what football means to Newcastle. In Harper, Sebastien Bassong, Jonas Gutierrez, Obafemi Martins and, when fit, Michael Owen, they have players who can win matches. They need to start.

 

One more thing, the director said. What gets your victories? Goals? Yup. But energy, too. He talked about a recent game at his club, where the atmosphere in the ground changed the flow of the match, where it visibly made the opposition shrink. You need your supporters, he said, now more than any at other time. This is where one or two percentage points make all the difference.

 

Newcastle fans scarcely need the reminder. If it wasn’t so obvious, if the irony was not so scarring, it would be funny. Their loyalty has been stretched far beyond breaking point, they have been ignored, squeezed financially and utterly mistreated by successive regimes, they have been mocked unfairly in the media and they have done nothing to deserve it. And yet, and yet. It comes back to what it always has done. Eleven black and white shirts and singing themselves hoarse. It is what they do. Hopefully it will be enough.

 

 

 

 

 

[SUPERTOON]

Good read and he is right, especially in our winnable games. But the atmosphere will not make any difference in tonights match.

[ChezGiven]

What a lush article and what a cunt of a 2nd post.

[Guest toonlass]

Good read and he is right, especially in our winnable games. But the atmosphere will not make any difference in tonights match.

 

Anyone remember the Arsenal home match last season. The atmosphere was blistering, and we came out and played like something unreal. The atmosphere at the ground can certainly make a difference.

[SUPERTOON]

What a lush article and what a c*** of a 2nd post.

 

[SUPERTOON]

Good read and he is right, especially in our winnable games. But the atmosphere will not make any difference in tonights match.

 

Anyone remember the Arsenal home match last season. The atmosphere was blistering, and we came out and played like something unreal. The atmosphere at the ground can certainly make a difference.

 

 

Yeah but this Man Utd team is different, maybe if they rest a few players but if they come out all guns blazing it wont.

[Tooj]

Good read and he is right, especially in our winnable games. But the atmosphere will not make any difference in tonights match.

 

Anyone remember the Arsenal home match last season. The atmosphere was blistering, and we came out and played like something unreal. The atmosphere at the ground can certainly make a difference.

 

Chelsea at home when Bramble scored springs to mind.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Good read and he is right, especially in our winnable games. But the atmosphere will not make any difference in tonights match.

 

Anyone remember the Arsenal home match last season. The atmosphere was blistering, and we came out and played like something unreal. The atmosphere at the ground can certainly make a difference.

 

 

Yeah but this Man Utd team is different, maybe if they rest a few players but if they come out all guns blazing it wont.

 

Nobody is immune to a hostile atmosphere, not even Man Utd.

 

Not sure if we have the spirit left to create one though, but I hope we can find it.

[Guest toonlass]

To be honest though, its not just tonight's game is it? If we can create a blinding atmosphere for all of the remaining home games then that should lift our players.

[Yorkie]

Good article, again by George Caulkin. Is he a Geordie?

 

It is pretty much all down to the players at that stage of the season... it is for us anyway. For a normal club with an actual manager, the boss is still the most influential person there imo. He's still the one making the decisions and he's still the one who's motivating them, coaching them. For us though, pfft. For one thing; we've had a woeful excuse for a manager all season, and now we haven't even got a proper one. So it is all up to them really. In the Bolton game, it looked like the centre-backs were making up the tactics as they went along. So aye, it's down to our players now.

 

That said... if they have to put up with bollocks decisions like having a left-footed striker on the right-wing, then you've got to feel for the ladss. What hope have they got like? Give them a chance ffs.

[kingkerouac]

I think I knew Goerge Caulkin about 15 years ago in Newcastle. If I'm right he played for an indie band called Hug.

I think he was a Poly (as it was then) student, so not sure if he's from Newcastle. Though he is obviously now a true Mag.

[Gallowgate End]

<b>Good article, again by George Caulkin. Is he a Geordie?</b>

 

It is pretty much all down to the players at that stage of the season... it is for us anyway. For a normal club with an actual manager, the boss is still the most influential person there imo. He's still the one making the decisions and he's still the one who's motivating them, coaching them. For us though, pfft. For one thing; we've had a woeful excuse for a manager all season, and now we haven't even got a proper one. So it is all up to them really. In the Bolton game, it looked like the centre-backs were making up the tactics as they went along. So aye, it's down to our players now.

 

That said... if they have to put up with bollocks decisions like having a left-footed striker on the right-wing, then you've got to feel for the ladss. What hope have they got like? Give them a chance ffs.

 

He's from the North East one of the better writers co-wrote Sir Bobby's recent 'My Kind Of Toon'.

[TRon]

I like Caulkin, he always writes with a real feel for the club, although usually from a fan's perspective. What makes this article good though is the comments from the un-named club chairman who nails the situation perfectly when he pins the responsibilty at this stage of the season on the players. Despite all the "asset stripping" supposedly done by Ashley we've stll got a squad worth far more than most clubs in this division, it's just a case of getting them to perform like it. Maybe now the injuries are clearing up the can do it.

[bulivye]

if Caulkin is right, and everyone, fans & players give their heart & soul 100% tonight---do we win?      not a pisstake, i want to know, do we have enough to do it?

[Guest toonlass]

Probably not. BUT if everyone gave 100%, we the fans could see the players doing that, the players hearing the fans being right behind them, that would be better than booing them off at the end or groaning with every touch, no?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

if Caulkin is right, and everyone, fans & players give their heart & soul 100% tonight---do we win?       not a pisstake, i want to know, do we have enough to do it?

 

No, but the benefits to morale and future performances would be well worth it.

[bulivye]

Probably not. BUT if everyone gave 100%, we the fans could see the players doing that, the players hearing the fans being right behind them, that would be better than booing them off at the end or groaning with every touch, no?

  yes, of course...would set us up nicely for the next match as well...

[ChezGiven]

No one thought we'd get a result at OT in August.

[bulivye]

if Caulkin is right, and everyone, fans & players give their heart & soul 100% tonight---do we win?       not a pisstake, i want to know, do we have enough to do it?

 

No, but the benefits to morale and future performances would be well worth it.

  agreed.  i just type sloooow...   

 

so, we'll need some luck too.

[Guest Sniffer]

It's been a long time since I saw every Newcastle player show 100% comittment for an entire match.

[dilligaf]

If the manager was to get his selections,tactics and substitutions correct or at least understandable.

the players actually did give 100%

Then the support would be 100%

Unfortunatly the current regime has now got us to the stage where we are looking for fault in everything

[Dr Venkman]

I think I knew Goerge Caulkin about 15 years ago in Newcastle. If I'm right he played for an indie band called Hug.

I think he was a Poly (as it was then) student, so not sure if he's from Newcastle. Though he is obviously now a true Mag.

 

i know someone who was in that band i'll ask him

[Guest firetotheworks]

Excellent article, so well written and unbiased. You can tell he's done his homework on us.