Murphy: Allardyce pays price for turgid tactics.

[acrossthepond 901]

Usually, it is very hard to have sympathy with Sam Allardyce.

The 53-year-old is renowned for his arrogance and unflinching character.

 

But it's difficult not to feel the slightest pang of pity for a man who was only eight months into a task to overhaul one of football's most famous clubs - a job he calculated would take three to five years.

 

Freddy Shepherd installed Allardyce as manager on May 16th last year and hailed the supposed savior he'd been courting for three years.

 

But exactly a week later came a move that stunned the football world - the launch of then-reclusive entrepreneur Mike Ashley's career as Premier League club owner.

 

Ashley swooped to acquire 41 per cent of the club and quickly snapped up Shepherd's shares too.

 

From that point on, the die was cast for Allardyce.

 

What could billionaire Mike Ashley possibly want with a football club?

 

Quite simply, entertainment.

 

When one of Britain's richest men, who can have whatever he wants whenever he wants, chooses to slap a big chunk of his fortune into a football club with a supremely fervent following it can mean only that.

 

Ashley celebrated the end of his self-imposed exile from public life by taking to the stands with away fans clad in a black-and-white shirt with Alan Smith's name on the back, one of the players his money enabled the club to sign.

 

Things began well, with an opening day win on Allardyce's old Bolton stomping ground and home form also started promisingly.

 

But with Allardyce employing the same kind of dogged and uninspiring football that established Bolton as a top eight club, fans were quickly on his back when results and form dipped.

 

The wheels began to come loose in early November as Portsmouth ravaged a teetering back line that included three Big Sam signings to go 3-0 up at St James' Park within 12 minutes.

 

Open revolt was to follow against Liverpool when a negative and muddled formation ended in a meek surrender and a 3-0 reverse with fans chanting 'You don't know what you're doing,' at a bewildered Allardyce.

 

An improved performance and point at home to table-topping Arsenal provided mild cause for encouragement and late wins against Fulham and Birmingham seemed to have eased the mounting pressure.

 

But a disastrous run over Christmas saw the Toon scrape a home draw against Derby before another woeful capitulation at Wigan. And perhaps it was then that Ashley opted to pull the trigger.

 

In the months preceding the game Ashley had reveled in his new found celebrity status on Tyneside, socialising with fans and famously buying a round for some 400 people in a Bigg Market nightclub.

 

It was becoming clear this man would do anything to please the devoted fans of his new club.

 

In the last third of a game in which Newcastle never looked like scoring fans began to let their feelings be known chanting 'we're sh*t and we're sick of it,' as well as Alan Shearer's name.

 

Again Ashley was in the stands and he wore an expression as glum as any of the 5,000 fans who filled Newcastle's allocation that day.

 

At one point during a turgid second half he was surrounded with fans calling for Allardyce's head.

 

While the Toon Army were asking themselves why they had bothered paying £35 for the privilege Ashley must have been more concerned at receiving such dire football in return for a far heftier investment of £134m.

 

Knowing he had the perfect 'he wasn't our appointment' excuse tucked firmly into his XXL jeans, he probably decided there and then that Allardyce had to go. But if that was the case, why not sack him immediately?

 

Turfing him out after a wretched performance against a club fighting relegation would have made sense rather than affording him three more games.

 

Ashley's time between then and now has been spent on holiday, ruminating over Sam's successor in all probability.

 

He was back in the country in time to take his place in the stands at Stoke where United served up only a moderately more palatable display than at the JJB.

 

The Toon Army provided reliably vocal support but by that stage many loyal fans had concluded the end product on the pitch wasn't worth traveling hundreds of miles for or spending hundreds of pounds on.

 

It was that burgeoning indifference from hardened followers that troubled the club's hierarchy.

 

How long would the fans have to wait before results or performances improved, and how many would be left if and when they did?

 

The ever-belligerent Allardyce will insist his methods would have ultimately proved successful on Tyneside given time but the honest truth is that he didn't fully appreciate what was required at Newcastle.

 

Don't forget Sir Bobby Robson was given two transitional seasons to build his empire, finishing 11th twice, but during those campaigns he at least sowed the seeds of attacking intent by adopting a positive approach, especially at home.

 

Allardyce's philosophy was built entirely on stifling the opposition, cutting off their supply lines and trying to nick a goal from a set-piece or long throw in. Flair was shunned, trickery ignored.

 

For Allardyce to persist with this defiantly negative game plan against a struggling side like Birmingham displayed impervious arrogance and provoked nothing but vitriol from the fans.

 

Supporters could understand fielding a team designed to contain the likes of Arsenal or Chelsea but not Wigan or Derby.

 

Newcastle fans are split - many glad to see the back of Allardyce and his primeval style of football but just as many questioning the wisdom of sacking a manager who barely had time to wipe his feet on the mat before having the door slammed in his face.

 

The demise of Shepherd and an injection of new money and new ideas enlivened many in the region but those same fans will feel this move carries the shadow of a shotgun sacking more in keeping with the previous realm's modus operandi.

 

And it will set the alarm bells ringing about Ashley and his impulsive nature, echoing rumors emanating from the City upon his takeover that he was prone to making curious and wildly unpredictable decisions.

 

Ashley now needs to demonstrate he can't be turned on a whim by supporters and spend more time in the boardroom, not on the terraces.

 

Every club's supporters crave a chairman who will listen but few want a man who reacts instantaneously to every hysterical denouncement.

 

He also has to exhibit resolve and determination to make changes that will transform Newcastle into a stable, forward thinking club on the pitch to complement some welcome changes already made off it.

 

It appears Tyneside's prodigal son, Alan Shearer, has ruled himself out of the running while a late rush of betting after news of the sacking emerged installed Harry Redknapp as firm favourite with the bookies.

 

This would seem to fit the nuggets of information trickling out of St James' Park; that the new man will be 'British' and the club will go through the 'proper channels' to get him.

 

Ashley is known to be big pals with former Spurs vice-chairman Paul Kemsley who is believed to have suggested Redknapp for the Tottenham job before the board plumped for Juande Ramos.

 

Whoever the Newcastle owner appoints, only time will tell how patient he is willing to be in restoring one of the country's great club's to its former glory.

 

Perhaps then we will discover if Ashley is in it for the long-haul or just a quick buck.

 

Takes a fairly critical view of Ashley's tenure so far but Murphy has always shown fairness towards us and you notice there is little nonsense about "leaky defence" "fickle Toon Army" "toxic environment" etc in here.

 

Decent read.

[Gemmill 47144]

Murphy who?

[maggiespaws 0]

Regardless of who he is, he raises some good points imo. Particularly those about Ashley in the stands. A fair read.

[@yourservice 67]

Regardless of who he is, he raises some good points imo. Particularly those about Ashley in the stands. A fair read.

 

 

It is, i for one am not fooled into this kind of embrace