Lord of the pies bites back

[Skirge]

he really does ee himself as NUFC God, there has been plenty of interest from people wanting his shares and to take over for eyars now but he will not let go.

We need a public offer done on TV made by one of the consortiums offering to buy Fred and to take the club forward. He would shite hmself, makes me even more furious when he tries to play the martre.  :wullie: :wullie: :wullie: :wullie: :wullie: :wullie: :wullie:

[BottledDog]

True Faith keep on keeping on with another decent take on the weekends happenings.

 

 

COMFORTABLY NUMB

Tuesday 7th November 2006

 

Settle down lads and lasses, everything is going to be alright. Shepherd is back from his jollies, he's got his gob on the back of the Ronnie Gill with a mobile pressed to his lug looking like he really means business and his first job on getting back behind his desk at the House of Pain will be to get the players together and shout at them (aka "remind them who they are playing for"). Well, that should do the trick then eh? We've been here before haven't we? It's enough to make you weep!

 

Can you imagine Sir Alex, Arsene, Jose, Martin O or well, even Roy Keane putting up with this shite? The Chairman laying into the players at this mad-house football club? Just what is all this about?

 

Standby for some worthless, patronising shit about being a fan, being a Geordie, Rolls Royce wages yap, yap, yap! Is anyone convinced by this garbage?

 

Those of you who watch the activities of the local press with a mixture of rage, resignation and amusement will have been intrigued by the back page of The Chronicle on Monday night. It was only a fortnight ago the supremely entertaining Alan Oliver was telling us it was only a minority of supporters at The Beasts chanting against Shepherd for a short time. We're also hearing the Bob Murray-esque - if there is someone out there ready to take-over the club, I'll sell up type stuff.

 

This is a new one. Not so long ago the local media was letting on Shepherd wanted to keep the club and has been acquiring as many shares as he possibly could to strengthen his ownership of the club and get onto parity with the Halls (who are every bit as culpable as Shepherd).

 

Bit of an about turn today. Call me cynical but ....

 

I have to say my afternoon cuppa was sprayed up the wall of the tf bunker when I read the line Shepherd has the "best interests of the club at heart". I'm trying to square that with the unending series of bollocks the man has dropped, his musings in a Spanish house of ill repute and massive amounts of money he and others have taken out of Newcastle United down the years. Please. It's all piss and wind. Enough. Tyneside's bull-shit detectors are buzzing into over-drive.

 

I'm trying my best to be a bit "up" but its just rolling out like gallows (or rather Gallowgate) humour. Saturday night was as bad as anything many of us have ever seen on that pitch on Barrack Road. We've been beaten, we've been outclassed many times before and we will be again but when players stop playing, when internationals pack in putting tackles in and jumping out of challenges, I'm sorry that is straightforward cowardice. Its cheating the public. Its short-changing us. The spats between players and supporters is the strongest indication that this nut-job club of ours could very well be on the point of implosion if we haven't gone beyond that point already. People have every right to get angry and I'm not too upset about players showing their frustrations but supporters who get sanctimonious and write letters of complaint to the club and run to the papers are doing no-one any favours. Let it drop for fuck's sake!

 

Shite players and clueless coaches aren't the major problem at Newcastle United. They are the symptom of a deeper malaise. All clubs occasionally get stung in the transfer market but I can't see another club do as much bad business as us so consistently. Are any of the nuggets we bring to the club subject to any kind of scouting, character evaluation whatsoever?

 

What scouting network do we have in place at home and abroad? Why can't we sign the occasional unknown for a modest fee who will go onto be another Darren Bent or Dean Ashton?

 

Who thinks its great business to sign players with appalling injury records and put them on massive deals?

 

That just can't stop with the manager acting alone. Can it?

 

Our Magpie malaise is attracting the attentions of the national media but I have to say some of them are still getting it completely wrong. I had to laugh at Alan Hansen writing in The Telegraph on Monday putting out the cliché we supporters only want to see high-scoring, attacking football a la Kevin Keegan. I don't think there's anything unique in our liking for decent entertaining football but KK left this club almost a decade ago and Hansen is dealing in out-dated clichéd nonsense.

 

If Hansen cared to take a pew in the Leazes or the Gallowgate he'd learn very quickly that we all want proper defenders. It's fanciful nonsense we don't though I suspect Hansen's theories are rooted in some kind of loyalty to his Liverpool mates - Dalglish and Souness who both did abysmal jobs at Newcastle United. £8:5M for Boumsong? Ever mentioned that to Graeme over a Glenmorangie at Southport Golf Club, pal?

 

Whilst Roeder's position is obviously and rightly under severe scrutiny, I'd like to ask what Douglas Hall, a director of the club and on the payroll actually does for Newcastle United? I honestly don't know and I really truthfully would like to be enlightened. He's been conspicuous by his silence in these last few difficult weeks and I just wonder if he needs to remember what club he's at (ahem).

 

Where the club goes from here is unknown. Relegation is a realistic prospect. I don't believe Roeder wanted to start this season with the piss-poor threadbare squad he is at his disposal and I don't really think he wanted to sign Martins, Bernard (what is up with him by the way?), Rossi on-loan and Man City reserve Sibierski to supplement what we thought was a good signing in Duff. But Roeder has what he at his disposal and no change in manager can change that until January when the club must make the correct investments in central defenders, full-backs and a muscular centre-forward with something in the air and a bit of presence to bolster the most light-weight side we've had since we were relegated in '89.

 

One thing is inescapable. Shepherd has had almost ten years in the Chairman's job - he has worked with Dalglish, Gullit, Robson, Souness and Roeder over that time. A lot of mistakes, a lot of bluster, blunders and our money wasted. He isn't up to the job, he has had more opportunities to fail than he ever should have been allowed. Our Chairman is a liability in my opinion.

 

Shepherd Out!

 

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