The Sorry State of Newcastle Utd
I live around twenty minutes from Newcastle, the former powerhouse of attacking football. Under Kevin Keegan in the 1990’s they came so close on two occasions to winning the Premiership title only to be pipped at the post by the Manchester United side that went on to dominate English football for the next fifteen years. Not having won a major competition in 40 years since the 1969 European Fairs Cup victory, the loyal fans that fill the 52,000 seater stadium every week are starved of some much due success. Unfortunately, however, things have gone from bad to worse for Newcastle in the last year.
On the 31st July 2009 Newcastle and the rest of the world mourned the passing of Sir Bobby Robson, a local boy from Langley Park, Durham that went on to manage England, Barcelona and Newcastle United in a successful life-long love affair with football. He expressed a wish that Newcastle sort out their problems and get back to the top; we can only hope his plea does not fall on deaf ears, but his passing is yet another sad day in a catalogue of problems for the club recently.
Newcastle has more than ten players earning £50,000 per week or more on their books. As Newcastle were an established side with stars abundant in their squad like Obafemi Martins, Damien Duff and Michael Owen there were no relegation wage reduction clauses in any of their playing contracts. Relegation was never considered making it a more harrowing prospect when it came to fruition after a dismal season in 2008/2009. The signings made last season were questionable also; Xisco was signed for £5 million and reported to be on a six year contract worth £65,000 a week having little to no reputation in football prior to joining Newcastle.
A fire sale of their high earners was required after being relegated, a massive cull of players to avoid the possible threat of administration. Unfortunately behind the scenes owner Mike Ashley, who owns the Sports Direct empire, was frantically trying to sell a club which he had bought for £235 million for a mere £100 million. Alan Shearer, who was temporary manager at the end of last season, now finds himself in limbo whilst the club are under offer by a number of investors.
The sorry state of the club was highlighted when Ashley placed an advert in a London newspaper giving an email address for people interested in buying the club for £100 million to write to. Immediately it was besieged by stupid offers from the public, apparently people offered things like a Curly Wurly chocolate bar and a single sheep for the club. One local Sunderland fan made national headlines when he contacted the club as a joke to offer to buy it and the club leaked this to the press. How embarrassing when it was revealed he had contacted the club as a joke. Things were descending into farce at an alarming rate.
High earning players like Oba Martins and Michael Owen have left the club but as Alan Shearer managerial reign is on hold he has missed out on signing players over the summer and the high earners remain at the club. Yet another season of inactivity and procrastination in the transfer window has meant that rather than be favourites for promotion, the club could be headed into yet another relegation battle. Players such as Habib Beye, Geremi, Joey Barton and Alan Smith are all said to be heading for the exit door in the coming weeks but all players are now in pre-season training with most clubs having already almost completed their transfer dealings this summer. Such is the turmoil at the club they are becoming a laughing stock of football.
Because of all these problems fans have been vocal in their discontent at the running of the club. Rather than the 52,000 sell-outs common in the Premiership, Newcastle is expected to get attendances of around 35,000 for home games during this coming season in the Championship. This is a good attendance for this level, but the finances of the club could be crippled if the other high earning players are not dispatched to other clubs and turnover drops because fans stay away from the matches. As the manager is not in place permanently to sign replacements at a lower wage rate, reserve players may be required to fill in. We can only hope that youth players like Tomas Kadar, Ben Tozer, Ryan Donaldson, Kazenga Lua-Lua and Andy Carroll are able to step up to first team duty. This certainly paints a gloomy picture for the club and their loyal supporters.
Loyal fans hope that things will turn around soon if the club is sold, Alan Shearer is brought in as permanent manager and this unfortunate chapter can be put firmly in the past. It has certainly been a lesson to any club that if the club is managed poorly then the chaos off the field is often reflected in chaos on it.
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By Malcolm Clarke
