Hubbard: Out of Toon and lacking in hope?

[acrossthepond 866]

Stand on or by the pitch at St James' Park and look north or west and it is easy to understand why Newcastle United think of themselves among the game's giants. As the Milburn Stand and the Sir John Hall Stand tower up into the sky, providing symbols of a vast support, the possibilities appear endless. It is just that they rarely seemed to incorporate the visits of Barnsley and Blackpool or, perhaps, Peterborough or Scunthorpe.

 

Yet when Newcastle meet Arsenal in Saturday's late match, it is entirely plausible they will kick off in the relegation zone and eminently possible they will finish the game there. As the next visitors to St James' Park are Chelsea, it is feasible their stay in the bottom three will not be brief. Their three final home games - against Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Fulham - are already assuming vast importance. Now Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City have clawed their way to positions of comparative safety, Newcastle are much the biggest club in the relegation struggle. They may also be among the worst prepared for the run-in.

 

Saturday, for instance, pits Clipboard Chris against Le Professeur. Chris Hughton would not normally be expected to best Arsene Wenger. Now, as Joe Kinnear convalesces, he has to. Newcastle began the season under a supposed messiah in Kevin Keegan; now they have one of football's natural second-in-commands at the helm. His task is still tougher as Arsenal, like Chelsea, are resurgent.

 

Newcastle, with one win in 13 games, were in decline even before Kinnear required triple heart bypass surgery. Their position is not the product of his health. Mismanagement and confused thinking date back several years. The chairman, Derek Llambias, has admitted he and owner Mike Ashley underestimated Keegan's popularity with the fans. They also misread him as a manager, not realising his brand of chequebook coaching can only prosper with particularly wealthy benefactors.

 

Keegan and Ashley's very different calls for investment went unheeded. That Newcastle failed to find a buyer, despite the division's third highest gates, is one indication of their plight. When as loyal a servant as Shay Given becomes utterly disenchanted, it is a sign that something is rotten at the club.

 

Pursuing a policy of signing cast-offs from more successful clubs has been an unmitigated failure. Michael Owen, Alan Smith and Damien Duff are returning, yet each has been sidelined for a significant period of his time on Tyneside. Owen represents the likeliest chance of salvation, yet his four-year stay, incorporating his wages, will cost around £40m. Smith is a player without a Premier League goal since November 2005, yet he was briefly granted the captaincy. Now the armband, presumably on the basis of his fame, resides with Owen.

 

Big names come at a cost. It is one which, should the worst come to the worst, Newcastle can ill afford. Birmingham City's wage bill, around £21 million, is much the biggest in the Championship. It is £52 million below Newcastle's. They have spent substantially more than their peers in the Premier League's bottom nine, and it amounts to a huge waste of money.

 

The response to their predicament seems to fit the stereotype of going down fighting. It appears a bizarre attempt to forge the Wimbledon ethos on to Newcastle's endearingly adventurous approach. Once Jackie Milburn, Keegan and Alan Shearer were the men lauded most on Tyneside. This season, the most regular subject of Kinnear's eulogies has been Joey Barton.

 

Midfield scrappers seem to be a protected species; while the popular Argentine winger Jonas Gutierrez seemed to go out of favour, Smith was parachuted back into the team at the first opportunity. The biggest signing in January was Kevin Nolan, who has caused Victor Anichebe more trouble than Cheshire police managed, but who has made rather less impact for his new employers.

 

Sadly for Arsenal players worried about their shins, Nolan is eligible to return against them. Sadly for those neutrals enchanted by Newcastle's historic fondness for progressive football, he probably will. Were such attack-minded talents as Gutierrez, Duff or Obafemi Martins to rescue Newcastle, it would at least represent an honourable end to an undistinguished season. Were they to fail with an emphasis on the wingers and the strikers, it would at least be in keeping with Newcastle's past.

 

This chaos, however, feels unprecedented, even for Newcastle. Under the deputy for an interim manager, with an owner who has veered from generous uber-fan to desperate would-be seller, where there is a traditional love for goalscorers and new-found enthusiasm for hatchet men, theirs is an identity crisis that could lead to them becoming rebranded as the Championship's biggest club.

 

It is a truism that the long-suffering support invariably deserve better, even if many of the unsavoury characters at St James' Park do not. It may be just as well for those at the top of the Milburn and Hall Stands that they are such a long way from the pitch, but distance cannot completely shield them from the pain.

 

From http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...and&cc=5901

Edited March 19, 2009 by acrossthepond

[Douggy B 0]

A bit presumptive. Forest aren't down yet and Leeds could still make it through the play offs.

[Tom 14011]

Shite article and shite wind up from Danny

[peasepud 59]

A bit presumptive. Forest aren't down yet and Leeds could still make it through the play offs.

 

[Guest Stevie]

Stopped reading when I read.....

 

. Now Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City[/size] have clawed their way to positions of comparative safety, Newcastle are much the biggest club in the relegation struggle

[Guest Stevie]

A bit presumptive. Forest aren't down yet and Leeds could still make it through the play offs.

A succesful Newcastle United is 10 times bigger than Tottenham and Leeds put together, but you know that already in your heart, you Enoch Powell prophecy fulfilling cunt.

[Fop 1]

The chairman, Derek Llambias, has admitted he and owner Mike Ashley underestimated Keegan's popularity with the fans. They also misread him as a manager, not realising his brand of chequebook coaching can only prosper with particularly wealthy benefactors.

 

[Renton 21042]

The chairman, Derek Llambias, has admitted he and owner Mike Ashley underestimated Keegan's popularity with the fans. They also misread him as a manager, not realising his brand of chequebook coaching can only prosper with particularly wealthy benefactors.

 

 

Much as it pains me I think a lot of that article is spot on and quite well written. I'd personally agree with the Keegan comment too unless someone can direct me to a time he has suceeded without money (barring his very early days as a manager here which is now irrelevant).

[Kitman 2204]

The chairman, Derek Llambias, has admitted he and owner Mike Ashley underestimated Keegan's popularity with the fans. They also misread him as a manager, not realising his brand of chequebook coaching can only prosper with particularly wealthy benefactors.

 

 

Much as it pains me I think a lot of that article is spot on and quite well written. I'd personally agree with the Keegan comment too unless someone can direct me to a time he has suceeded without money (barring his very early days as a manager here which is now irrelevant).

 

I agree with you Renton, I thought there wasn't a lot in the article to disagree with

[Park Life 71]

Thought this would be a gentle ramble about scientology and the myth of NIcky Butt.