Savage article in the Times about the club - not for the sensitive

[Benwell Lad]

Geordies need tough love not another hero

 

Matthew Syed (The Times)

 

"Newcastle United needs to be filled with people who love this club”, Alan Shearer said on Sunday and in that one, endlessly banal, hopelessly misguided sentence the latest would-be Messiah laid his finger on everything that has gone wrong with Newcastle’s football club and why it would be madness for Mike Ashley to appoint the former centre forward as full-time manager.

 

This is a club that have had far too much love: the love of the fans, the love of their various managers, the love of other supporters who, until now, have been happy to rally behind Newcastle as their second team.

 

This is a club that have basked in an orgy of self-infatuation, living on myths, dreams, brown ale and anything else that could numb the senses to the catastrophe that has been ticking like a time-bomb all season.

 

And now they want to turn to a man who has an excess of love but who has no qualifications to lead the club out of the mire into which they have jumped, feet first, except an ironed shirt and an occasional turn of phrase. A man who ticks no boxes whatsoever except possession of a Geordie accent and a legendary status on Gallowgate that is so patently irrelevant to the club’s present predicament as to be almost laughable.

 

This club do not need love; they need to be stripped clean of all sentimentality. They need a man who feels nothing but contempt for the position Newcastle now find themselves in and who is prepared to ignore the mass of fans and their hare-brained schemes.

 

They need a man who can state the truths the supporters do not want to hear; who can perform reconstructive surgery on a team that have lost all semblance of unity and coherence; a man who is hard-headed, hard-nosed and has spent hardly any time on Tyneside and is thus untainted by the delirium.

 

They need a man with a proven track record of management; a man who can finesse an understandably panicky owner; above all they need a man with the deep and long experience capable of persuading the good players to stay (and, let’s be honest, there are not many of those), who can get rid of the dross without the whole thing descending into a fire sale, and who can go into an infinitely complex global marketplace, identify a new crop of talented youngsters and persuade them that Newcastle are not a busted flush, but a club that can ride high once again.

 

And the new manager needs to do this with a close eye on the rapidly deteriorating finances, a deep awareness of the long-term contractual implications of his manoeuvrings in the transfer market and with a nose for how his string of new signings will cope with the unique demands of the Coca-Cola Championship, a league that is different in style, pace, philosophy and tempo from the Barclays Premier League.

 

Shearer, it hardly needs stating, is qualified for none of these tasks and it is symptomatic of the delusional contagion in the North East that so many supporters think he is.

 

Perhaps the most darkly comic aspect of Shearer’s initial appointment was how often we heard the phrase “the mood on Tyneside has been transformed”, as if the fans might be able to emote an awful team out of the relegation zone; as if the level of intoxication inspired by the great man’s appointment was a good thing rather than a distraction from what was, even then, a formidable challenge; as if sentiment has any bearing on success and failure when a team are plummeting towards calamity like a man in a concrete overcoat.

 

I sat in that opening press conference, heard Shearer’s repeated protestations of devotion to “the football club” (as if we doubted that), watched the fans outside taking off their shoes in an apparent show of fealty to their new saviour, and then got the train home wondering if this tedious soap opera will ever end. First Kevin Keegan, then Shearer; give it a couple of seasons of failure in the Championship and they will doubtless turn to the ghost of Jackie Milburn for managerial redemption amid yet more scenes of jubilation outside St James’ Park, yet more dreams of a return to the glory days, yet more whimsy and surrealism.

 

For the record, Shearer’s tenure has been a failure in almost every possible way, bar his ability to deflect criticism from his own inadequacies during post-match press conferences. He managed a derisory one win in eight games, executed tactical shifts and machinations that made Claudio Ranieri, the Tinkerman, seem like a rock of stability, but, most damningly of all, the St James’ Park hero failed even to inspire the passion and resolve in the players in what was the whole point of the exercise.

 

In retrospect, Newcastle needed only a point from their last two games to retain Premier League status, but failed to manage even that; their meek, passive, antiheroic surrender in the final quarter of an hour away to Aston Villa symptomatic of a club that had expended all their reserves of emotional energy on irrelevant happenings off the pitch; a club that have, in truth, spent so long navel-gazing that they no longer had the wit or the wish to look to the fights — the real fights on the pitch — that needed so dearly to be won.

 

As Alan Hansen said on Match of the Day (which is where Shearer should have stayed, firmly on the couch) on Sunday: “Even then, in the last ten to 15 minutes there was nothing, absolutely nothing. You know their life depends upon this and yet we spent 15 to 20 minutes waiting for some sort of effort [which never came].”

 

Some will point to Keegan, who as a virginal manager brought Newcastle back into the top flight 16 years ago.

 

They will dare to believe that this sets some kind of precedent. That inexperience can be some sort of blessing in club management.

 

But what about Sir Bobby Charlton, who took Preston North End down from the old second division in his first season in charge? What about the dozens of other precedents that show that experience matters in football management just as it does in every other area of life?

 

The reality is that, lumbered with Shearer, things are likely to get a lot worse for Newcastle, a club that face a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent themselves from top to bottom.

 

But has Ashley got the balls to ditch him, to make a decision based on the kind of hard corporate logic that has served him so well in amassing a fortune in the sports goods market? Would the fans even let him?

 

And with that last, rhetorical question we hit the bull’s-eye of Newcastle’s travails. Until the club have an owner who can ignore the myopic short-termism of the nation’s most capricious fans, there will be no bounce for Newcastle United. I am not saying that all supporters are burdened by overinflated expectations, but can it be seriously denied that Newcastle are weighed down by a critical mass of unrealism? That this is the underlying reason for the lack of a single major trophy in 40 years?

Shearer’s appointment would symbolise everything that is wrong at St James’ Park, past and present. Expect him to be unveiled by the end of the week.

 

Matthew Syed

 

 

 

It's over the top, but I've often had the feeling that too many decisions over the last few years have been driven by sentiment, and not by hard-nosed professionalism.

 

Time will tell, but I don't think he's right about Shearer, who I'm banking on being more Bobby Robson than Kevin Keegan. I think Shearer made a mistake when he beat the Geordie patriotic drum before the Portsmouth game, but he seems to have a shrewd, calculating mind that can deal with difficult decisions. I'd feel happier if Dowie, with his experience and knowledge of the Championship, stayed with him.

 

 

 

I agree with you Bob, but as one of those fans he is talking about, I hate to admit there is a lot of truth in the bit I've highlighted.

However as things stand I think we've painted ourselves into a corner, so right now Shearer is the only realistic option.

[Dave]

At least if Shearer fails badly we're free of the shackles of the 'local hero' being in charge for good. There will be no room for further sentimentality because we'll have exhausted every option.

 

Thinking about it though there's only been Shearer really - Keegan had a fabulous record here so why wouldn't we want to give him a chance to replicate that?

 

Still, at least it'll be over.

[ianovthetoon]

The plain and simple fact is though, like any other industry, a good manager surrounds himself with people who can do the things you can't. The buck stops with the manager, but it's generally the people who work under him who are just as important and effective. As long as Shearer does this we'll be ok.

 

Look at people like Brian Kidd, won all the plaudits as SAF's assistant at Manure, but when given the chance to go it alone he failed spectactularly. Put the right people in the important jobs and Shearer will do ok I reckon

[Guest The Libertine]

The plain and simple fact is though, like any other industry, a good manager surrounds himself with people who can do the things you can't. The buck stops with the manager, but it's generally the people who work under him who are just as important and effective. As long as Shearer does this we'll be ok.

 

Look at people like Brian Kidd, won all the plaudits as SAF's assistant at Manure, but when given the chance to go it alone he failed spectactularly. Put the right people in the important jobs and Shearer will do ok I reckon

 

thats pretty much why i dont think dowie will be of any major help to shearer/us, possibly other than coaching. how much can you learn about successful management from ian dowie?

[Dave]

The plain and simple fact is though, like any other industry, a good manager surrounds himself with people who can do the things you can't. The buck stops with the manager, but it's generally the people who work under him who are just as important and effective. As long as Shearer does this we'll be ok.

 

Look at people like Brian Kidd, won all the plaudits as SAF's assistant at Manure, but when given the chance to go it alone he failed spectactularly. Put the right people in the important jobs and Shearer will do ok I reckon

 

thats pretty much why i dont think dowie will be of any major help to shearer/us, possibly other than coaching. how much can you learn about successful management from ian dowie?

 

Well he got Palace promoted into the Premier League. That'll do.

[Benwell Lad]

The plain and simple fact is though, like any other industry, a good manager surrounds himself with people who can do the things you can't. The buck stops with the manager, but it's generally the people who work under him who are just as important and effective. As long as Shearer does this we'll be ok.

 

Look at people like Brian Kidd, won all the plaudits as SAF's assistant at Manure, but when given the chance to go it alone he failed spectactularly. Put the right people in the important jobs and Shearer will do ok I reckon

 

thats pretty much why i dont think dowie will be of any major help to shearer/us, possibly other than coaching. how much can you learn about successful management from ian dowie?

 

Well he got Palace promoted into the Premier League. That'll do.

 

Having someone who knows the league will be essential.

[merlin]

The article contains some good points - although I am from the NE and as many on here know, was part of the Magpie Group takeover, I do believe that NUFC fans tend to be more parochial than others - even Mackems & Smogs.

This is an extension of innate suspicion among quite a number of Tynesiders, about anything(and anyone) south of the Tyne ; heaven knows, we could have had a world-class stadium in Gateshead if SJH had got his way when the Leazes project foundered, but a significant number of fans howled about the sacrilege(!)of leaving the city....

Then we have the unspoken view that 'Geordie is best', the rest second-rate(which definitely exists in the minds of a large percentage of fans - some even would welcome Shepherd back despite his failings because ; 'he's a Geordie, ye knaa')....some also think that its beneficial to be relegated because ' aal the Sky fans/suits will be gone'....as if we are in a position to lose ANY fans..!!!!

 

This attitude HAS failed the club in the past and will do so again if repeated - personally, I would welcome the likes of SAF or Hiddink if the club were in a position to attract them, AND I would employ them RIGHT NOW if it were possible - Shearer or not.

We know they bring success, and that is ALL that matters.

 

Unfortunately, they(or anyone like them) are NOT available to NUFC, and the club has to get the best manager it can in the circumstances ; this may or may not be Alan Shearer, and I take the writer's point about Bobby Charlton absolutely - great players do not always make good managers.

 

Where I think the writer is wrong is in criticizing Shearer for the past 8 games - had he been given 4 months(and a Transfer window)in charge, I would have agreed that he had failed if the club had gone down. KK had 3 months and new players before he kept us up(and only just)in 1992.

 

As has been said, SBR failed to save Fulham in his first job, and had a terrible job in sorting out the rot at Ipswich before success arrived, so it is too early to judge Shearer - the damage was done long before he took over and Ashley only appointed him out of desperation.

 

If, after a season in charge, Shearer has not made some decent progress, then maybe the club need to look elsewhere ; one of the reasons I put forward Mowbray as a candidate some months back is that although he is a NE boy, he is just enough removed from all the Geordie hype to take a calculating look at the club and what it needs to put it right - although he was fighting a losing battle at WBA, he has also shown he can get a team promoted from the C'Ship playing decent football, AND he is still below 45...

 

Plenty of Southern journalists will have a malicious attack on the club - but that doesn't mean that they don't have a point with some of the criticisms ; where I DO take issue with them is when they claim the fans are 'deluded' or 'unrealistic'..this is clearly rubbish, because NUFC must be the most under-achieving club in Britain when you consider its fan base.

 

However, we still don't yet know if Shearer WILL be manager next season ; the club , as usual, will shoot itself in the foot if given the chance and we may even be looking for a manager after Bruce has joined the Mackems.....!

[BlueStar]

i think the general idea is correct but the way he gets his point across is OTT and like most in the press and most outside tyneside he also misjudges the fans. the 'mood' wasn't exactly transformed when shearer was appointed

 

People fucking suck this shit up as well, just spotted this on another board I post on and I'm afraid I had to bite.

 

I think Newcastle's supporters have to accept quite a lot of the responsibility for this relegation. From sacking Allardyce, to bringing back Keegan, a coach guaranteed to do nothing but walk out when it all gets a bit much for him, to bringing in Shearer as another doomed Geordie messiah, a lot of the most irresponsible and foolish activities of Newcastle United have been at the behest of their supporters.

 

There's going to come a point when Newcastle fans realise that the only people left for them to demand their sacking is themselves.

[Dave]

I'd take Mowbray, definitely. I have great respect for the way his team play football and the way he continued to try to play the same football despite results being poorer in the Premier League*, and I think at a bigger club with more resources he'd do really well.

 

*As it happens they only actually went down by a few points anyway.

[Dave]

i think the general idea is correct but the way he gets his point across is OTT and like most in the press and most outside tyneside he also misjudges the fans. the 'mood' wasn't exactly transformed when shearer was appointed

 

People fucking suck this shit up as well, just spotted this on another board I post on and I'm afraid I had to bite.

 

I think Newcastle's supporters have to accept quite a lot of the responsibility for this relegation. From sacking Allardyce, to bringing back Keegan, a coach guaranteed to do nothing but walk out when it all gets a bit much for him, to bringing in Shearer as another doomed Geordie messiah, a lot of the most irresponsible and foolish activities of Newcastle United have been at the behest of their supporters.

 

There's going to come a point when Newcastle fans realise that the only people left for them to demand their sacking is themselves.

 

Yep, we were crying out for a director of football, demanded that man be Dennis Wise, were delighted when our manager walked out, demanded someone like Joe Kinnear came in to steady the ship, demanded the club make profits in the transfer window, were satisfied by Chris Hughton being given the reigns as we slipped down the league and were ultimately satisfied with relegation to the Championship.

 

We really did bring this all on ourselves.

 

[BlueStar]

i think the general idea is correct but the way he gets his point across is OTT and like most in the press and most outside tyneside he also misjudges the fans. the 'mood' wasn't exactly transformed when shearer was appointed

 

People fucking suck this shit up as well, just spotted this on another board I post on and I'm afraid I had to bite.

 

I think Newcastle's supporters have to accept quite a lot of the responsibility for this relegation. From sacking Allardyce, to bringing back Keegan, a coach guaranteed to do nothing but walk out when it all gets a bit much for him, to bringing in Shearer as another doomed Geordie messiah, a lot of the most irresponsible and foolish activities of Newcastle United have been at the behest of their supporters.

 

There's going to come a point when Newcastle fans realise that the only people left for them to demand their sacking is themselves.

 

Yep, we were crying out for a director of football, demanded that man be Dennis Wise, were delighted when our manager walked out, demanded someone like Joe Kinnear came in to steady the ship, were satisfied by Chris Hughton being given the reigns as we slipped down the league and were ultimately satisfied with relegation to the Championship.

 

We really did bring this all on ourselves.

 

 

I'm robbing that post to add to my bite 

[Dave]

Edited it to add in the transfer window.

[BlueStar]

Edited it to add in the transfer window.

 

For the record the rest of my bite was

Everyone's got an opinion about Newcastle, haven't they? 

The fans didn't sack Allardyce, nor did they appoint Keegan or bring in Shearer. And in spite of what Sky Sports show, which is solely the people who can hang around outside St Jame's Park on a week day, not every Newcastle fan had the same views on all of those things, what with them not being a single entity. As for Allardyce however, as someone who watched every game he was in charge of, we were absolutely doomed under him and we were definitely heading down. Even after all that happened, at least we still had a chance to stay up on the last day of the season, a luxury I'm sure we wouldn't have had under Fat Sam - a manager who picked the team based on who the computer told him had the most optimum heart rate in training, rather than who was actually a better player and a man who set out to defend a 0-1 defeat.

 

Sorry, but it's a bugbear of mine when all I see on message boards is people with very little knowledge of the situation regurgitating the same bollocks the media puts out "The fans want this, the fans want that, the fans would rather lose 4-3 than win 1-0, the fans will only accept a geordie as manager, the fans are fickle, the fans want to win the league next season or it's not good enough"

 

We'll still be there, week in, week out supporting our team in the championship, just like we sang our hearts out for 90 minutes at Villa Park. And the entire country will keep talking about us, printing full back page spreads about us, having the Champions of England singing about us, all while telling us we're a "small club", while people sit in their armchairs watching Sky and sagely nod "You know what the problem with Newcastle is, don't you..."

 

This season I've seen Man U fans cry on the telly, Liverpool fans boo their team off for it being 0-0 at half time, Sunderland fans screaming for Roy Keane's head and fighting amongst themselves, Arsenal fans emptying out the stadium 10 minutes before the end of the game - are they to blame for any predicament they may find themselves in? If Newcastle fans can be blamed for the current situation, was it down to the fans when we were finishing second, beating Barcelona, tonking Man U 5-0 and playing over 100 games in Europe?

 

Parts of which I now regret now the edit time frame has passed.

 

However the next reply to that warmed my heart slightly...

 

You know what I saw last weekend after Newcastle lost to Villa?

The genuine fans still singing their hearts out, despite the relegation. I'm sure our BlueStar was amongst them. The same fans who will be there again next year, cheering their team on.

 

Can you tell me if the many so called fans of Arsenal who trundled out of the emirates with a third of the CL semi final game to go, or the Man U prawn sandwich brigade or the Johnny-come-latelys on the Chelsea bandwagon, would give such unswerving support and would still be around to watch their side get relegated and then visit the likes of Scunthorpe or Doncaster (no offence to either) for championship league games?

 

That the club has been badly run by a series of poor chairmen is not the fans fault.

[Dave]

Good job.

[beardsleymagic]

As i've said before in another post, it pisses me off when i hear of journalists/other teams fans harping on about how it's all our fault that the clubs in such a mess.

 

If we voice our opinons... it's our own fault.

 

If we say nothing and take all the shit that's served up to us.... it's our own fault.

 

Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

 

It seems to me as if the journo's and other sets of supporters just can't seem to stop talking about us. Not bad for a small little club that nobody but us cares about eh?

[NG32]

As i've said before in another post, it pisses me off when i hear of journalists/other teams fans harping on about how it's all our fault that the clubs in such a mess.

 

If we voice our opinons... it's our own fault.

 

If we say nothing and take all the s*** that's served up to us.... it's our own fault.

 

Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

 

It seems to me as if the journo's and other sets of supporters just can't seem to stop talking about us. Not bad for a small little club that nobody but us cares about eh?

 

Thats what i said to my good lady last night, everyone has an opinion on us but we aint a big club.

 

 

[Guest Phil K]

Just another spiteful article from a southern journalist.

Its the equivalent crap of blaming the victim for the crime.

 

Not the first time this Man U supporting tosspot has had a go at NUFC either.

Similar sh*tbags constantly have a go at us in the broadsheets.

Worded better, more intelligence involved, but no different from the Mirror's constant snide attacks.

[brummie]

I'd take Mowbray, definitely. I have great respect for the way his team play football and the way he continued to try to play the same football despite results being poorer in the Premier League*, and I think at a bigger club with more resources he'd do really well.

 

*As it happens they only actually went down by a few points anyway.

 

I like Mowbray, and think he's got potential to become a really good manager.

 

However, play good football as much as they did try to do, his refusal to adapt the way they play when even a one-eyed man on a galloping horse could spot that his players simply weren't good enough to play like that and survive suggests a bit of a weak point.

 

Stoke might be the anti-football, but - and this is horrible to admit - Pulis did a much better job than Mowbray, as he kept them up.

[KaKa]

At least if Shearer fails badly we're free of the shackles of the 'local hero' being in charge for good. There will be no room for further sentimentality because we'll have exhausted every option.

 

Thinking about it though there's only been Shearer really - Keegan had a fabulous record here so why wouldn't we want to give him a chance to replicate that?

 

Still, at least it'll be over.

 

Ketsbaia cometh ...

[quayside]

At least if Shearer fails badly we're free of the shackles of the 'local hero' being in charge for good. There will be no room for further sentimentality because we'll have exhausted every option.

 

Thinking about it though there's only been Shearer really - Keegan had a fabulous record here so why wouldn't we want to give him a chance to replicate that?

 

Still, at least it'll be over.

 

Ketsbaia cometh ...

 

Has just signed a contract to manage Olympiakos so unlikely.

[Slugsy]

I agree with a lot of that article, perhaps a bit OTT but the general message is correct.

[Guest Phil K]

I agree with a lot of that article, perhaps a bit OTT but the general message is correct.

Too many basic errors to be fair

The usual Manchestr/London rag mentality that we are the ones who wanted the likes of Wise/Kinnear/Allardyce/Roeder - even Keegan was NOT even in the top 5 of supporters choice for the job after Big Sam

But they WANT to blame us, so......

[afar]

As i've said before in another post, it pisses me off when i hear of journalists/other teams fans harping on about how it's all our fault that the clubs in such a mess.

 

If we voice our opinons... it's our own fault.

 

If we say nothing and take all the s*** that's served up to us.... it's our own fault.

 

Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

 

It seems to me as if the journo's and other sets of supporters just can't seem to stop talking about us. Not bad for a small little club that nobody but us cares about eh?

 

Spot on mate.

[Guest elbee909]

Geordies need tough love not another hero

 

Matthew Syed (The Times)

 

"Newcastle United needs to be filled with people who love this club”, Alan Shearer said on Sunday and in that one, endlessly banal, hopelessly misguided sentence the latest would-be Messiah laid his finger on everything that has gone wrong with Newcastle’s football club and why it would be madness for Mike Ashley to appoint the former centre forward as full-time manager.

 

This is a club that have had far too much love: the love of the fans, the love of their various managers, the love of other supporters who, until now, have been happy to rally behind Newcastle as their second team.

 

This is a club that have basked in an orgy of self-infatuation, living on myths, dreams, brown ale and anything else that could numb the senses to the catastrophe that has been ticking like a time-bomb all season.

 

And now they want to turn to a man who has an excess of love but who has no qualifications to lead the club out of the mire into which they have jumped, feet first, except an ironed shirt and an occasional turn of phrase. A man who ticks no boxes whatsoever except possession of a Geordie accent and a legendary status on Gallowgate that is so patently irrelevant to the club’s present predicament as to be almost laughable.

 

This club do not need love; they need to be stripped clean of all sentimentality. They need a man who feels nothing but contempt for the position Newcastle now find themselves in and who is prepared to ignore the mass of fans and their hare-brained schemes.

 

They need a man who can state the truths the supporters do not want to hear; who can perform reconstructive surgery on a team that have lost all semblance of unity and coherence; a man who is hard-headed, hard-nosed and has spent hardly any time on Tyneside and is thus untainted by the delirium.

 

They need a man with a proven track record of management; a man who can finesse an understandably panicky owner; above all they need a man with the deep and long experience capable of persuading the good players to stay (and, let’s be honest, there are not many of those), who can get rid of the dross without the whole thing descending into a fire sale, and who can go into an infinitely complex global marketplace, identify a new crop of talented youngsters and persuade them that Newcastle are not a busted flush, but a club that can ride high once again.

 

And the new manager needs to do this with a close eye on the rapidly deteriorating finances, a deep awareness of the long-term contractual implications of his manoeuvrings in the transfer market and with a nose for how his string of new signings will cope with the unique demands of the Coca-Cola Championship, a league that is different in style, pace, philosophy and tempo from the Barclays Premier League.

 

Shearer, it hardly needs stating, is qualified for none of these tasks and it is symptomatic of the delusional contagion in the North East that so many supporters think he is.

 

Perhaps the most darkly comic aspect of Shearer’s initial appointment was how often we heard the phrase “the mood on Tyneside has been transformed”, as if the fans might be able to emote an awful team out of the relegation zone; as if the level of intoxication inspired by the great man’s appointment was a good thing rather than a distraction from what was, even then, a formidable challenge; as if sentiment has any bearing on success and failure when a team are plummeting towards calamity like a man in a concrete overcoat.

 

I sat in that opening press conference, heard Shearer’s repeated protestations of devotion to “the football club” (as if we doubted that), watched the fans outside taking off their shoes in an apparent show of fealty to their new saviour, and then got the train home wondering if this tedious soap opera will ever end. First Kevin Keegan, then Shearer; give it a couple of seasons of failure in the Championship and they will doubtless turn to the ghost of Jackie Milburn for managerial redemption amid yet more scenes of jubilation outside St James’ Park, yet more dreams of a return to the glory days, yet more whimsy and surrealism.

 

For the record, Shearer’s tenure has been a failure in almost every possible way, bar his ability to deflect criticism from his own inadequacies during post-match press conferences. He managed a derisory one win in eight games, executed tactical shifts and machinations that made Claudio Ranieri, the Tinkerman, seem like a rock of stability, but, most damningly of all, the St James’ Park hero failed even to inspire the passion and resolve in the players in what was the whole point of the exercise.

 

In retrospect, Newcastle needed only a point from their last two games to retain Premier League status, but failed to manage even that; their meek, passive, antiheroic surrender in the final quarter of an hour away to Aston Villa symptomatic of a club that had expended all their reserves of emotional energy on irrelevant happenings off the pitch; a club that have, in truth, spent so long navel-gazing that they no longer had the wit or the wish to look to the fights — the real fights on the pitch — that needed so dearly to be won.

 

As Alan Hansen said on Match of the Day (which is where Shearer should have stayed, firmly on the couch) on Sunday: “Even then, in the last ten to 15 minutes there was nothing, absolutely nothing. You know their life depends upon this and yet we spent 15 to 20 minutes waiting for some sort of effort [which never came].”

 

Some will point to Keegan, who as a virginal manager brought Newcastle back into the top flight 16 years ago.

 

They will dare to believe that this sets some kind of precedent. That inexperience can be some sort of blessing in club management.

 

But what about Sir Bobby Charlton, who took Preston North End down from the old second division in his first season in charge? What about the dozens of other precedents that show that experience matters in football management just as it does in every other area of life?

 

The reality is that, lumbered with Shearer, things are likely to get a lot worse for Newcastle, a club that face a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent themselves from top to bottom.

 

But has Ashley got the balls to ditch him, to make a decision based on the kind of hard corporate logic that has served him so well in amassing a fortune in the sports goods market? Would the fans even let him?

 

And with that last, rhetorical question we hit the bull’s-eye of Newcastle’s travails. Until the club have an owner who can ignore the myopic short-termism of the nation’s most capricious fans, there will be no bounce for Newcastle United. I am not saying that all supporters are burdened by overinflated expectations, but can it be seriously denied that Newcastle are weighed down by a critical mass of unrealism? That this is the underlying reason for the lack of a single major trophy in 40 years?

 

Shearer’s appointment would symbolise everything that is wrong at St James’ Park, past and present. Expect him to be unveiled by the end of the week.

 

Matthew Syed

 

 

 

It's over the top, but I've often had the feeling that too many decisions over the last few years have been driven by sentiment, and not by hard-nosed professionalism.

 

Time will tell, but I don't think he's right about Shearer, who I'm banking on being more Bobby Robson than Kevin Keegan. I think Shearer made a mistake when he beat the Geordie patriotic drum before the Portsmouth game, but he seems to have a shrewd, calculating mind that can deal with difficult decisions. I'd feel happier if Dowie, with his experience and knowledge of the Championship, stayed with him.

 

 

 

FUCK OFF CUNT

[afar]

I agree with a lot of that article, perhaps a bit OTT but the general message is correct.

 

No it not, Like I said before complete utter garbage that some on here who've had an agenda against certain people like to pin their colours to it because it fits with their hatred of KK or Shearer.

 

This journo absolutely loathes NUFC, he's a very petty bitter little man, who's illeducated on our club, but somehow has a platform to spout his illinformed crap.  He's not printing anything for the greater good of NUFC, for whatever reason he despises us and is more than happy to stick the knife in and give us unsociliated advice on how we need to improve as fans.

 

I for one am very proud to be a fan of the club, the supporters are NUFC's biggest asset, an average crowd of 48k for a team that was relegated, ffs no one has ever got near that number, so called bigger clubs like Villa, Spuds, Man City would not even get within 10k of that mark if they had to put up with the s*** we have had to this year. It's a shame that some on here like vent their anger at totally the wrong area, that's the problem at the club not the f***ing supporters.