Following our article regarding teams that are supposedly too good to go down, Newcastle fan Simon Harris has provided TF90M with this controversial insight examining why The Toon Army are in such a dire mess.
When Mike Ashley took over as chairman, things could have been so different. With all the money being put into the club, there was the potential for a few really good signings that could enhance the squad and push them up the Premier League. Unfortunately, the man who was given the duty of spending this money was Sam Allardyce. Allardyce was of course delighted to receive all these funds, as he was determined to convert what was an entertaining team into a dull, boring Bolton-like side. Hence, instead of investing in creative and gifted players, he went for the big, tough players who love to foul, like Joey Barton. Why someone would waste £5.5m on a player who had a prison sentence pending is beyond me.
Unsurprisingly, Newcastle and their fans could not adjust to this horrid Bolton-like approach, and they slowly drifted down the table. Ashley realised what Allardyce was doing to the team, and hence employed Dennis Wise to make some better signings. Of course, this could make no immediate difference to the club's fortunes, and their terribly boring and unsuccessful football was taking the club towards the Championship, so Ashley did the only thing he could do and sack Big Sam.
Ashley then brought in Keegan to save us from relegation. When Keegan arrived the club was in big trouble, but he somehow managed to give them a lift, employed some more entertaining tactics with a 4-3-3 system, and Newcastle ended up avoiding relegation comfortably.
Things were looking much better in the Summer, with the prospect of Keegan in charge from the start of the season, things should have turned out well. Unfortunately, Mike Ashley was stupid enough to still give control of transfers to Dennis Wise, when clearly Keegan had proved himself to be a fine manager at the end of last season. This obviously enraged Keegan, and meant the club signed people like Coloccini when £10m could have been spent on talent. Moreover, this angered the Messiah so much, that he left the club in a rage despite drawing at Old Trafford and beating Bolton in the first two games.
The club was in a mess now, no respected manager would want the job whilst it was clear that it was being run so badly. Moreover, Ashley had lost the faith of the fans, and this mood was transferred to the players, who ended up sliding down the table with embarrassing results including a 2-1 home defeat to Hull.
Interim managers Joe Kinnear and Chris Hughton had a near impossible job, and did well to scrape as many points as they did with the players on such a low. But no matter how much they endeavoured, it was clear that the players didn't believe in their ability, and slowly Newcastle's position worsened. It was only until late February when the whole media realised that relegation was a huge possibility- in truth, the fans had been seeing it since September.
Ashley had to act. There was no escape unless he took a gamble. Alan Shearer was appointed to give the side a lift. Shearer is a hero, we all know this. But as much of a lift as Shearer can give the players, he cannot make bad players become good overnight, a fact shown when Coloccini made his millionth huge error of the season in a loss to Chelsea. Shearer's games have been tough, and indeed the only game where the side has underachieved under him was at home to Portsmouth.
Alas, the damage was done far before Shearer arrived, as explained earlier. I have no doubts that Alan Shearer will make a fine manager in the future, but asking him to turn an average set of players into a winning side is near-on impossible. You cannot come in and just cut out Coloccini's errors with a click of the fingers. He could drop Coloccini, but alas, Steven Taylor is injured, along with half our squad.
Amazingly, despite all of this, there is still hope. If Shearer can come out of retirement and bag the goals to beat Boro and Fulham, they may just stay up. If he manages it, it will be a miracle. But if the club does go down, it is through no fault of Shearer's. The three to blame are Allardyce, Ashley and Coloccini.
Bookmark with:
