True - Faith Article

[NG32]

So that’s it then from Ashley – he wants out! Again! The feeling is mutual. Our ex-billionaire tailor to the Jeremy Kyle Show has taken to walking around with an “I AM AN IDIOT!” sign draped around his neck and looks like the star casting in “I’m an incompetent buffoon, get me out of here” reality TV show! It can’t come a moment too soon. The bizarre apology-cum-announcement on Saturday night just about puts the tin hat on two dreadful seasons of incompetence, bad decisions and embarrassment since he bought the club, it seems, on impulse or without a clue as to how to run it or even be able to appoint the right people to do it for him.

 

Mort may have been affable, polished and certainly it is difficult to imagine him allowing the KK-Wise situation to unravel so completely as Llambias did, but let’s be honest, his major achievement at the club was a bit of schmoozing before looking at the books left by Shepherd-Hall and then running to Ashley screeching – “what the fuck have you done buying this basket case?” Mort’s standing has increased every day Derek Llambias has been in the job. This clueless, charmless prick has no connection to the club and his comments towards Ashley when the relegation he helped cement was confirmed last week hints at a mindset which is well, confused to say the least. When this graceless pillock exits NE1 he’ll not be missed. No clue, no class!

 

 

After the denial last week that Keith Harris fro the bankers Seymour Pierce was not in the NE as part of an effort to sell the club, it seems, well, Keith Harris from Seymour Pierce is in the NE as part of an effort to sell NUFC.

 

 

If press reports are to be believed there is an interested buyer in the wings. It would appear Ashley is desperate to get shot of NUFC and is asking for £100m - £35m less than he paid for it but also ready to write off a further £140m he has put in to clear the debts – aka the mess left by Shepherd-Hall who paid themselves for virtually running the club into the ground.

 

 

It’s very difficult to have any sympathy for Ashley but we should remember clearly that it was Hall-Shepherd who brought the club to it’s knees but rewarded themselves handsomely despite a litany of failure. It is likely Ashley will do one for £80m.

 

 

At £80m Newcastle United is a strong going concern. No debt, one of the best stadiums in the country, a fully operational Academy, a vast support and based in a major regional capital with a recent European pedigree the club, even now, is one of the most prominent in the country. It is, to coin a phrase one of the gems of English football. Providing the people who take over the club know what they are doing and have some decent money to back the manager to get us back into the PL, then Newcastle United has a future.

 

 

That said, any Mag who has been paying attention over the last decade and more should have serious misgivings about Freddie Shepherd making any kind of return to the club. He is the man who could switch off the light at the end of the tunnel. We should not allow our dismay and desperation to cloud our judgement on this one. Shepherd was Chairman for a decade and made one disastrous decision after another – as bad as those made by Ashley, whilst lining his own pockets at the same time. Dalglish, Gullit, Souness, Roeder, Allardyce – all Freddie’s appointments and all disasters. The alleged interference (by SBR no less) in players coming and going and the never adequately explained position of his son, Kenny as some kind of football agent, operating in the shadows always mystified me. Similarly, the lack of attention paid to the development of the club’s coaching and youth development infrastructure has meant we have had virtually no graduates from the ranks to the first team and I don’t need to remind you of the series of appalling signings made on Shepherd’s watch as Freddie appeared overly reliant upon recommendations from Willie McKay and Paul Stretford et al.

 

 

The governance of all football clubs leaves a lot to be desired but surely a relationship between any new owner and the NUSC would be a radical and welcome move in the right direction. It would help heal the fracture there has occurred under the Shepherd-Hall and Ashley regimes at NUFC and allow the whole club – owners, directors, managers, coaches, players and supporters to move forward together. Why not give/sell supporters a meaningful 10% stake in the club and allow the authority of that stake to be exercised by a fully elected and accountable NUSC? This is a huge opportunity to build meaningful trust beyond the platitudes we usually get. Will a new owner be bold enough to take it?

 

 

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It seems inconceivable anyone other than Alan Shearer will be manager of Newcastle United FC in the near future. On the football side it seems everything Shearer is asking for is designed around putting firm foundations into the club for the long term but also getting us back into the Premier League at the first time of asking. The “business case” Ashley is looking at, I only hope factors in the consequences of us NOT getting promoted this coming season. If we don’t get promotion at the first time of asking then we are seriously in the shit.

 

 

But before we even think about moving forward, we have to be certain we have reached the bottom. We can only be certain of that when the club is sold and a manager is appointed. We desperately need to move quickly and start getting down to the serious business of being a well-run, professional football club. I know, I know!

 

 

Relegation is a disaster for the club but provided we do the right things now with the right people in place, then Newcastle United can go back to the Premier League stronger than before and with a greater sense of purpose and unity. That is a massive “IF”.

 

 

If we fail to get things right now then we could be looking at a future marked Southampton FC!

 

 

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On behalf of everyone involved in true faith can I express my sincerest sympathies to those 120 members of NUFC staff who have lost their jobs this last week and hope its not to long before they are earning again in jobs they want to be doing. Best wishes.

 

 

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As expected our dear neighbours have been getting a bit giddy all this last week. I don’t begrudge them their fun. Jesus, we’ve had enough good days at their expense and given Gobshite Quinn’s yap allied to his proven cluelessness (Keane and his signings and then the recently departed cock-eyed “job for life” Ricky Sbragia) so we can’t complain. But it is all a bit like being savaged by a dead sheep © Dennis Healey isn’t it? They will really have to try harder if they are going to get under the skin of the collective Mag consciousness. And they have waited so long as well - only to fluff their lines. Tsk.

 

 

Even more curious has been the reaction to our relegation from followers of the likes of Villa, Everton and of course Man Utd. These whoppers seem to have soiled themselves in the last week by singing about Alan Shearer at games that have fuck all to do with us, typing shite onto message-boards (the home of the lonely), phoning football phone-ins and all the rest of it to talk about what a “not-big” football club NUFC is, how happy they are we have been relegated etc. I think coming away from Villa last Sunday and observing the daft bastards jumping around as though they had won the Champions League I can’t have been the only one to reflect that had the shoe been on the other foot, we wouldn’t have given a toss if they were stopping up, going down or fuck all else because aside from two fixtures a season, like Everton and Man Utd, they are fuck all to us. Did I say curious? I meant amusing.

 

 

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This is (deep breath) another massive week in the history of our club. If we start to get everything right this week after getting everything so wrong, for so long, then we can start thinking about the new season with a sense of relish rather than foreboding. Prayer mats, rosary beads – whatever your fancy – just get them out and hope they work.

 

 

 

[J7]

Good article. Although I have to laugh at someone who spends time writing for a fanzine calling message boards the 'home of the lonely'.

[Cronky]

Good article. Although I have to laugh at someone who spends time writing for a fanzine calling message boards the 'home of the lonely'.

 

It's a cheek, isn't it. The guy isn't actually any better informed or insightful than the rest of us.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

A decent read apart from the usual bollocks about the fans being given a 10% stake in the club.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Decent read, although I don't agree with the fans stake/NUSC stuff either really.

 

Good to see him mentioning the state the club was left in before Ashley arrived, a lot of people forget that.

[afar]

A decent read apart from the usual bollocks about the fans being given a 10% stake in the club.

 

Fucking hell I agree with something this guys says. Really what was the point in adding that crap about NUSC, sullied a pretty damn good read.

[Liam Liam Liam O]

A decent read apart from the usual bollocks about the fans being given a 10% stake in the club.

 

Fucking hell I agree with something this guys says. Really what was the point in adding that crap about NUSC, sullied a pretty damn good read.

 

*changes mind*

[Guest wshmag]

TF's only good contribution were the wallpapers they once had on their site