Are the dark days over?

Newcastle United- a club known throughout the football world. Well, that’s what Newcastle United fans think! A lot of clubs and fans alike have heard of this football club but would find it difficult naming a player or what they have done over the last 50 years. And that’s exactly the point, Newcastle United haven’t done anything for the last 50 years, well since 1969 anyway… To truly appreciate how long ago that is, think of the first moon landing! And look at how old Neil Armstrong looks now! If Newcastle has to wait until the Americans reach the moon again before we lift another significant trophy- we might only have to wait till 2018 if G Bush gets his way!

I read a 1952 match report, I forget who Newcastle was facing but we lost 3-2 or 4-2. It talked about how fantastic Newcastle were driving forward, the attacking play was excellent but fragilities at the back cost Newcastle once again… have we been in groundhog day for the last 50 odd years? Surely a Manager over that time period has realised or said ‘wait a minute, in football you need to defend as well as attack’. I have even had thoughts about 1996- instead of signing Alan Shearer for 15 million, a world record fee at the time… signing Tony Adams and another world class defender. After all we were not short of fire power before Shearer arrived! Could the last decade of turned out differently, with Newcastle winning the league or even a cup. I don’t think we can emphasis the importance for Newcastle to win a trophy of some kind and it has been well documented in the media that Newcastle fans are becoming restless. This restlessness however has been the catalyst that has prevented Newcastle from winning a trophy or even maintaining success like we did under Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson. Our previous Chairman, Freddy Shepard was a fan of Newcastle United. He owned a 28.8% stake in the club and because of this, he allowed local media and thus local opinion to drive his decisions making on behalf of the club, even though they might have been the incorrect decisions for the long term prosperity. This can been seen throughout his tenure, and was at its peak during the short but most bleak time in recent history called the Souness Era. Freddy Shepard's lack of foresight has continued to show even under the new era, with the club stacking up 80 million of debts, clearly an unsustainable amount for any club that isn’t guaranteed UEFA cup football each season.

All this gloom and mismanagement maybe coming to an end at last, finally Newcastle United fans, who are some of the loyalist in English football, may have something to really shout about. Probably not this year, or the next but over the next 3-5 years with a completely new approach to the transfer market, treatment of local media and handling of clubs resources Newcastle could finally meet its potential.

Chris Mort Newcastle’s new chairman was a top lawyer in London, he has already embraced the media and regularly talks about how he wants to bring success to the club. However it is important to point out that he has never made specific targets or budgets that Freddy Shepard continued to do. After all, Freddy said Champions League was minimum requirement and he sacked Sir Bobby a year later after finishing 5th. Souness finished 14th and he then said UEFA cup was minimum requirements, with the goals continuing to move how Shepard expected Newcastle to move forward... nobody knows! ‘Don’t try to run before you can walk’


Chris Mort realises with continued progress on our previous results are more important than league finishes, but this would continue to improve as long as the squad, and points total increase.
Mort has said he would back the manager in the market, without setting specific goals Newcastle has moved particularly effective in the market, especially compared to other clubs that have recently been taken over by Billionaires, especially West Ham, Manchester City and Liverpool. By having a conservative approach in the market, it ensures Newcastle United gets the right type of player at the club- not just players that are motivated by the big salaries that they were famous for under the previous stewardship. Chris Mort also seems to have the crucial factor that can allow Newcastle to develop under our new manager… patients! He seems to understand the importance of giving a manager time to develop a squad and implement new ideas. We all know stability is key for success, and this hasn’t occurred for along time at Newcastle!

Our New manager is probably the only good thing Freddy left Newcastle with, and he is clearly a high calibre manager that understands all aspects of modern day football, from the media to man management. Unlike previous managers, Sam Allardyce understands the importance of defending as well as attacking football. With all the changes at Newcastle, from doom and gloom of the past 5 years- the future looks an awfully lot more bright…