Allardyce sacking pushed Newcastle United closer to obscurity

[Jimbo 175]

ALMOST exactly a year ago, Newcastle United were 11th. And, in one of the most shameful episodes in Premier League history, Sam Allardyce got the sack.

 

One might deduce that the discarding of Allardyce after just 24 games in charge got Newcastle precisely nowhere, for tomorrow they visit Ewood to take on Big Sam’s Blackburn Rovers and guess what? They’re 11th.

 

But, in fact, it is worse than that.

 

Newcastle, once the heart and soul of the Premier League, are the club that no-one cares about any more.

 

St James’ Park, despite its magnificence as a structural entity, no longer generates the atmosphere that once made it one of the most vibrant grounds in the country.

 

No wonder perhaps, when home support is dwindling and travelling fans, still panting for breath after scaling the north face of the Leazes End to reach their seats, are left squinting through the Tyneside stratosphere to determine what might be going on below them on the pitch.

 

Newcastle pooped their own party years ago, and under Mike Ashley are fast becoming what Aston Villa were in the latter days under Doug Ellis. Unexciting, uninspiring and a waste of a place in the top flight.

 

Even their attempts to liven things up by appointing the world’s most sweary manager, Joe Kinnear, have failed to make things any better on the field.

 

Admittedly, Big Sam had not exactly endeared himself to the locals on Tyneside, even if much of that was to do with the long-ball reputation first whipped up by Graeme Souness to explain away a defeat at Bolton during his Newcastle days.

 

But Newcastle were not as far behind the elite 12 months ago as they are now and far less vulnerable to the drop.

 

And, if they’d bothered to let him hang around and prove it, they actually had a capable manager on their hands who could have taken the club forward.

 

He’s needed less than a month to prove that at Ewood.

 

Rovers, of course, got the same criticism for sacking Paul Ince last month but their risk of relegation was much more immediate, such was the worrying nature in which they had been cast adrift.

 

Newcastle had time to build, but Ashley opted not to do so with Allardyce.

 

Instead, he chose to chase the hopelessly impossible dream under Kevin Keegan.

 

He ended up with the seemingly confused Kinnear, a man who insisted he couldn’t possibly be linked to Newcastle’s supposed ‘Cockney mafia’ because he was born in Ireland but then days later put his iridescent language down to a tough upbringing in, er, Watford.

 

That Ashley has remained at the helm, first declaring his intention to sell and then taking the club off the market once the heat had died down, is his most impressive feat yet.

 

But if Rovers leave Ashley crying into his beer in the directors’ box tomorrow, not too much sympathy will be spared for him.

 

 

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport...r_to_obscurity/

[Tom 14021]

Newcastle pooped their own party years ago, and under Mike Ashley are fast becoming what Aston Villa were in the latter days under Doug Ellis. Unexciting, uninspiring and a waste of a place in the top flight.

 

Pretty much the worst fate ever.

[TheMoog 0]

Errr... ar ethey saying that Allardyce should have stayed and that he's doing a great job at Blackburn? That really is shit journalism, the bit about Ashley being clueless though is about right.

[Andrew 4882]

stopped reading after the first line to be honest

[Ketsbaia 0]

Even Louise Taylor couldn't bring herself to say that Allardyce was a good manager. Nee idea what that fucker is on.

[Happy Face 29]

they actually had a capable manager on their hands who could have taken the club forward.

 

He’s needed less than a month to prove that at Ewood.

 

 

What a div.

 

Allardyce has managed them for 3 games against fellow strugglers Sunderland, Man City and us.

 

He's had the same start he had at Newcastle, just one win, two draws.

 

Hardly setting the world alight.

[ewerk 31238]

Unexciting, uninspiring and a waste of a place in the top flight.

 

This coming from someone who I assume is a Blackburn fan.

[snakehips 0]

Lancashire Telegraph. Nuff said.

[David Kelly 1260]

While the bits about fat sam are complete shite, the rest of what it says about us is pretty much spot on.

[Kitman 2207]

If Allardyce hadn't been sacked we'd have been in the Championship a season earlier. Let's see what this chugger of a journo has to say when he's been subjected to Allardyce's ambitionless neanderthal football on a regular basis.

[Guest alex]

I think it's an exaggeration to say we'd have gone down last season under Allardyce like. And I'm far from being a fan of his.

[Kitman 2207]

I think it's an exaggeration to say we'd have gone down last season under Allardyce like. And I'm far from being a fan of his.

 

Perhaps but we were deteriorating at an alarming rate under his "stewardship". Much like we are now of course.

[TheInspiration 1]

ALMOST exactly a year ago, Newcastle United were 11th. And, in one of the most shameful episodes in Premier League history, Sam Allardyce got the sack.

Funniest bit imo. How dreadful it was sacking managerial mastermind Big Sam Allardyce when Newcastle were in a stunning 11th place!!!!!

[Guest alex]

Aye, there's hyperbole, then there's just plain bollocks. It's not even close to being the most shameful episode in the last 10 years or so at NUFC.

[Fop 1]

A some of it is right, apart from anything to do with Allardyce - pure wishful thinking for Blackburn. (and the Keegan bollocks, of course )

Edited January 22, 2009 by Fop

[Kid Dynamite 7199]

Keegan saved us 2nd half of last season. The football we were playing under SA would have seen us in a similar predicament to where we are now, just a year earlier.

[Guest alex]

Keegan saved us 2nd half of last season. The football we were playing under SA would have seen us in a similar predicament to where we are now, just a year earlier.

Debatable tbf. We were in a better league position under Allardyce when he left than we were under KK at the end of the season. I'd much rather have KK as a manager btw but we were, imo, in very little danger of going down.

[Fop 1]

Keegan saved us 2nd half of last season. The football we were playing under SA would have seen us in a similar predicament to where we are now, just a year earlier.

Debatable tbf. We were in a better league position under Allardyce when he left than we were under KK at the end of the season. I'd much rather have KK as a manager btw but we were, imo, in very little danger of going down.

Morale was diving under Allardyce though, as well as organisation for want of a better word (both of which accounted for some of Keegan's early issues).

 

I don't think we'd have been relegated, but we'd probably have finished lower.

[Kid Dynamite 7199]

Keegan saved us 2nd half of last season. The football we were playing under SA would have seen us in a similar predicament to where we are now, just a year earlier.

Debatable tbf. We were in a better league position under Allardyce when he left than we were under KK at the end of the season. I'd much rather have KK as a manager btw but we were, imo, in very little danger of going down.

 

I think thats because SA already had us on the slippery slope with Butt, Geremi and Smith across the middle every game. KKs Viduka, Owen, Martins front 3 made the difference and got us winning points again

[Guest alex]

I don't want to sound like I'm defending the bloke. I can't stand him and he seemingly has an ego inversely proportional to his talent. It was merely the relegation thing. He'd have needed 7 points (maybe only 6) in the last 14 games to stay up.

[Kid Dynamite 7199]

Im not necessarily saying wed have gone down, just that the team was on the slope to shitness. Publicly stating we were going to Wigan and Shef Utd for draws was a joke, as were some of the players he was after. Nolan for example. He might have consolodated us as a bottom half team but that was never goign to be accepted

[Guest alex]

Im not necessarily saying wed have gone down, just that the team was on the slope to shitness. Publicly stating we were going to Wigan and Shef Utd for draws was a joke, as were some of the players he was after. Nolan for example. He might have consolodated us as a bottom half team but that was never goign to be accepted

I think we're actually in complete agreement to be honest. He went to Derby for a draw as well man!

[Park Life 71]

Doesn#t reallz matter who the magager is if half the team are shit.

[NJS 4418]

I don't want to sound like I'm defending the bloke. I can't stand him and he seemingly has an ego inversely proportional to his talent. It was merely the relegation thing. He'd have needed 7 points (maybe only 6) in the last 14 games to stay up.

 

I could never see where those points would have come from tbh - I think comparing positions simplistically takes no account of the fixture list.

 

We certainly wouldn't have been able to play with any freedom at Spurs and would have lost imo - I also think he would have been too negative in the derby and we may not have won it. Also as the end of the season approached I can't even begin to contemplate how much more negative the twat would have made us.

[OTF 7583]

As much fun as it can be to theorise about what could have been, it's all in the past and so there is no point in doing so.

 

I'm personally glad that Allardyce is gone, though it sickens me to think that for his troubles he walked away with a large chunk of 4.7 million pounds.