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Steven Taylor has his say (again)

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Guest sicko2ndbest

Guest sicko2ndbest

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article6787862.ece

August 8, 2009

‘It’s a joke that Alan Shearer hasn’t got the job’

 

George Caulkin

 

St James’ Park has become a haven for half-truths and contradiction, complexity and denial, but some words do not require interpretation. So here, without delay — delay being another lingering theme at Newcastle United — are the thoughts of Steven Taylor, defender, England Under-21 captain and boyhood supporter of the club.

 

“I’ve read every week that Alan Shearer is going to be named manager,” he said. “Then Joe Kinnear is going to get the job, then Kevin Keegan and then Alan again. I don’t get it. It’s a joke. The players are very frustrated because all we want to do is have a manager and a bit of stability. That’s all we ask for.

 

“The new manager should be given time to do things his way and, if he wants something, just give it to him. The chairman, if he loves the football club — not as a business, but as a club — would do that. I’m devastated that Alan hasn’t got the job. We haven’t got a clue what’s going on.”

 

Finally. Finally, a representative of Newcastle articulates the frustration and impotence of a summer beset by idling turmoil. For the record, the club do not have a chairman — they have an owner in Mike Ashley and a managing director in Derek Llambias — but Taylor cannot be accused of dissembling. He has bulldozed a path through a mountain range of rubbish.

 

Saturday has arrived and it has reached a point that still feels implausible. Newcastle have no manager. They have signed no players.

 

Three months after putting the relegated club on the market and after reported bids from Malaysians, Iranians, Irishmen, South Africans and Americans, Ashley is negotiating with Barry Moat, a Tyneside businessman.

 

There is only one kind of sense to be made of it: nonsense. Yet there are also some brutal truths to confront. Newcastle play their first match in the Coca-Cola Championship away to West Bromwich Albion this evening and the unreality of recent events will soon become . . . well, reality. Players have been left to rot or organise themselves.

 

“We’re taking responsibility,” Taylor said. “Who is going to help us? Relegation has brought us closer together. Last year, we probably thought we were too good to good to go down. It was boring around the place. It just felt dead. There was no life until people realised we could get relegated.

 

“Until Alan took charge, we didn’t have meetings. People would walk into the changing rooms and out on to the training pitch and I wouldn’t see some lads until we were out there. Now we mix for an hour or so before we go out. We feel more humble and we didn’t have that last year.

 

“Now, if set-pieces aren’t right, we practise until they are. Last season, it was almost a case of thinking ‘they’ll be okay on Saturday’ . They weren’t. Maybe it was a lack of leadership. We have to hold our hands up, admit our mistakes and put them right.

 

“There’s no big ‘I am’. We are Championship players. It feels like us against the world.”

 

For Taylor, demotion was excruciating. “It has been the lowest point of my career,” he said. “Devastating. As a professional footballer, relegation is the worst thing to have on your CV and it’s horrible knowing that you were part of a team that went down. Worse than a kick in the crown jewels.

 

“People on the street don’t let you forget. I remember the whistle going at Villa Park and putting my head in my hands. I couldn’t believe it. I looked across to the fans and I saw six hard nuts — skinheads — and they were crying their eyes out.”

 

The overwhelming annoyance is that, for all of his inexperience, Shearer had a plan to lead Newcastle out of the morass as well as a resonance with supporters. Having been described by Llambias as the “perfect appointment”, the former England captain will be at The Hawthorns, but only as a representative of the BBC.

 

“You try to look forward and think, ‘It’s going to get better — a new manager, the club will be sold and we’ll get an owner who cares about the club,’ ” Taylor said. “When Alan came in with Iain Dowie, he got us playing with a smile on our faces again. We had a bit of fun, but when it came to the serious stuff, we did it.

 

“Alan has an aura. When he speaks you listen, whatever he says, you do it. In the past, a lot of players might not have respected managers for various reasons — but you would never kick up a fuss with Alan Shearer.

 

“This club needs something like that — someone who cares, who knows what it means, especially to the fans. But you need the backing of the chairman as well. If Alan says he needs this or needs that, it’s because he does. He knows what’s right.” At present, far too much is wrong.

 

:clap:

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Dave

Dave

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Until Alan took charge, we didn’t have meetings. People would walk into the changing rooms and out on to the training pitch and I wouldn’t see some lads until we were out there. Now we mix for an hour or so before we go out. We feel more humble and we didn’t have that last year.

 

Now, if set-pieces aren’t right, we practise until they are. Last season, it was almost a case of thinking ‘they’ll be okay on Saturday’ . They weren’t. Maybe it was a lack of leadership. We have to hold our hands up, admit our mistakes and put them right.

 

:jesuswept:

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ikri

ikri

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Until Alan took charge, we didn’t have meetings. People would walk into the changing rooms and out on to the training pitch and I wouldn’t see some lads until we were out there. Now we mix for an hour or so before we go out. We feel more humble and we didn’t have that last year.

 

Now, if set-pieces aren’t right, we practise until they are. Last season, it was almost a case of thinking ‘they’ll be okay on Saturday’ . They weren’t. Maybe it was a lack of leadership. We have to hold our hands up, admit our mistakes and put them right.

 

Fucking disgusting.

 

Senior players at the club with 10 years+ playing professional football, players with dozens of international caps, players who have played at the highest levels for club and country and they couldn't be arsed.

 

I have nothing but contempt for them, I hope they lose all their career earnings to dodgy agents since cash is the only thing they appear to understand.

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TRon

TRon

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It's nothing I didn't know already tbh. Shearer walked into a shambles so now he's left I can't imagine it's any different. I suppose at this level it shouldn't make as much difference though, most clubs are run on a budget aqnd it's just a case of get stuck in and give it 100%.

 

 

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Mike

Mike

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I would love to see what training looked like under Kinnear.

 

I'd bet it involved bacon butties

 

It's crazy. Telling Xisco to hang about and then go home, neglecting in depth training...what were they doing?

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Dinho lad

Dinho lad

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Until Alan took charge, we didn’t have meetings. People would walk into the changing rooms and out on to the training pitch and I wouldn’t see some lads until we were out there. Now we mix for an hour or so before we go out. We feel more humble and we didn’t have that last year.

 

Now, if set-pieces aren’t right, we practise until they are. Last season, it was almost a case of thinking ‘they’ll be okay on Saturday’ . They weren’t. Maybe it was a lack of leadership. We have to hold our hands up, admit our mistakes and put them right.

 

:jesuswept:

 

those bits just boil my piss, they do! :dave: :dave: Especially the set pieces part.... just shows how little they cared. :dave: :dave: :dave:

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Guest geordienorway

Guest geordienorway

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Taylor is a legend. By no means a world beater, but his attitude is spot on. He is the only player I will be gutted to see leave. Had the other fuckers in our squad had the same attitude last year, we would still be in the Premiership.

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Guest Mantis

Guest Mantis

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Good on him. Apart from calling the fat one a cnut, he got his point across.  Not that it matters though as the Managerless ship continues heading for the rocks.

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Guest Mantis

Guest Mantis

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It's time they bloody stopped moaning to the papers and started knocking on Ashley's and Lambesi's door.

 

You want them to pop down south after training do you?

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Dave

Dave

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Needs to do his talking on the park rather than to the Times. Admire his honesty but think he should have kept schtum until something happens.

 

Interviewed at a FIFA 10 press event I think, it's not like he's come out looking for this.

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