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The dawn of a new era or just another lurch from one crisis to
another?
That’s the question that the Toon Army, surely the longest
suffering but most loyal collection of supporters in the land, are
currently wrestling with. Will Newcastle’s next manager be
the long-term Messiah that will finally end the ludicrous 38 year
wait for a trophy on Tyneside, or will he be another that whistles
in and out of the revolving door having barely had the time to park
his bum in the managerial chair?
Since those halcyon days under Kevin Keegan, days when it looked
as if Ferdinand, Ginola, Beardsley and Asprilla might actually win
them the Premier League itself, Newcastle have become a byword for
under achievement.
And while their supporters are those who have suffered the most
from the constant failure, Newcastle’s inability to fight according
to their weight has been a dreadful loss to the wider game too.
There is no football stadium in the country to match St James’
Park for atmosphere, for noise, for passion. Everything about it
is proper, even if as an away fan you might as well be on the moon
when you take up your seats.
The place is a cauldron when the Magpies are playing the way they
should, with panache, with flair, roaring forward, pouring forward,
pushing teams further and further back into their own half, the
Gallowgate demanding goals, inspiring wins.
For all that has gone on around them, the Geordie fans are a throwback
to a greater, more glorious age of he game, an age when it was the
supporters’ game as opposed to the stockbrokers’.
More than a reminder of where the game has come from - and to where
it should be returned - Newcastle United is one of those clubs that
genuinely could break up the miserable monopoly of the “big
four”, a club that could and should be as big as Arsenal or
Liverpool, a club that could make much more interesting for those
of us who just get a bit bored with same old faces, the same old
colours sweeping the board. Seeing the black and white ribbons on
the FA Cup or the Premier League would be a great thing for the
game.
But
they haven’t given themselves much of a chance have they? Since
Kevin Keegan decided to bow out, Newcastle have been all over the
place. While the likes of Charlton and Bolton have over achieved
through the wisdom of continuity, the Toon have failed by chopping
and changing every five minutes. Look at the managerial roll call.
Kenny Dalglish - 19 months. Ruud Gullit - 12 months. Bobby Robson
got five years, had righted the ship and then was dismissed at the
end of August ‘04 after a slow start to the season. Like Bobby
Robson wouldn’t have fixed it! Graeme Souness - 16 months.
Glenn Roeder - 15 months. How can you build a team in a period of
time when you’d be pushed to build a new club shop?
Newcastle might argue that they’ve simply recognised that the
managerial appointments have been wrong and that they’ve acted
quickly before things got worse. In the case of Roeder, 13th place
in the Premier League certainly isn’t good enough, but the
man had only one summer to try and rectify the blunderings of those
who’d gone before - and they must have been blunderers given
that they all got the sack, mustn’t they?
On top of that, the season long absence of Michael Owen must have
cost something like a dozen points, the difference between going
into today’s game as mid-table nobodies and chasing a UEFA
Cup slot instead. Add to that long-term injuries to the likes of
Shay Given, Shola Ameobi and Kieron Dyer and you can see that most
of the Toon’s troubles can be traced to the treatment table.
And yes, Newcastle spent big last summer to take Martins, Duff and
Sibierski to Tyneside, but without the multi-multi-millions of a
Chelsea, you cannot reconstruct a team overnight.
Those of a more cynical bent will argue that the moment Sam Allardyce
left Bolton behind, Roeder’s footballing death warrant was
signed, and it may even be that Big Sam will be installed as the
Newcastle boss by the time you read this - there certainly don’t
appear to be any other obviously outstanding candidates, though
inevitably Sven was instantly linked with the job too.
Whoever does end up with the job will first need to check their
unemployment insurance and then look for a long term contract because
this time, surely, Newcastle have to grit their teeth and say whoever
takes over from Roeder will still be at the club in 2014, the same
kind of time span that it took Sir Alex Ferguson to turn Manchester
United into an all conquering unit. Overnight success takes a long,
long time to create.
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