Wednesday 24 September 2008

What the El?

Just finished watching Newcastle getting thrashed 2-1 by Spurs on the telly. A few words spring to mind; gutless, clueless, passionless, hopeless, spineless, leaderless, and ultimately meaningless. Here endeth the match report as Newcastle stumble out out the Carling Cup, like adolescent boys who have sipped their first bottle of cider and are pretending that they don't feel sick. All bluff, bluster and bravado that has ended in tears.

The latest round on the made up paper rumour mill is that a Nigerian consortium is preparing to buy out Ashely ( I can see the "Abuja* Mafia Out" banners around SJP in the near future). Still, if it is true then perhaps Oba Martins might hang around for longer than when the snowdrops start to come up in my back garden.

The other rumour is that Terry Venables is going to add Newcastle United to the following list
Crystal Palace, QPR, Barcelona, Spurs, England, Australia, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Leeds. The radio is reporting he will be a temporary manager for about six weeks... Great, should just about be relegated by then.


*Apparently Abuja is the capital of Nigeria and not Lagos... See, tis an educational blog as well...


7 comments:

MaryKwizMiz said...

thanx at least for the educational part.. one question less I have to research for may quiz tomorrow night
as for the entertainment part.. I'm already blue in the face..

ise_67 said...

Every day's a school day!

I have to say I found yesterday very, very sad. Not only has the instability of the club obviously affected the team (2 very bad games in a row for Coloccini) but the support was abysmal. Who can blame people though? The club is in a mess from top to bottom so is it any wonder that so many people sighed and thought 'why bother?'.

The Nigerian interest (or any other mega bucks foreign interest for that matter) worries me as I personally think such an investment will cause more problems than it solves. At least Ashley is a football fan and he seemed to have a fairly good long term business plan in place. Yes he absolutely made some daft and in some cases catastrophic errors (i.e. bringing in Keegan, not conducting due diligence and appointing Wise in a wider role than 'scout', in that order) but I would warn that mega bucks ain't necessarily going to fix things. Look at the escalating costs that ManUre and Chelsea fans have to pay now. How long before Man City goes the same way and it all becomes out of reach of the 'normal' fans?

Chucking money at big expensive signings doesn't necessarily create a team, it can create a divide too. City lost last night, remember. To Brighton.

As for El Tel, well, can't stand the man but I do want stability. Whether that can be obtained 'short term' is doubtful though. And no, I don't want Keegan back longer term either, speaking of 'stability'....

MaryKwizMiz said...

well, at least you won't have to worry about not liking El Tel as he doesn't fancy the job either.. wants "stability" and a contract that "offered a degree of security"... With Newcastle.
What was he thinking?
Looks as if we're left with O'Dreary.
Not even Glen Hoddle (?!??!!??!!?) wanted the job...
ho-hum...

Michael said...

Anything's better than nothing but Joe Kinnear? I didn't even know he was still alive.

Who's next, Willie McFaul?

ise_67 said...

Aye, Joe Kinnear eh? We'd be better off with Roy Kinnear even though he's been dead for quite some time now....

At least Venables seems to have been honest about his reasons for turning us down. No manager in his right mind is going to come in not knowing what time frame they'll be appointed for, hence Joe Kinnear!

Looks like the Nigerian bid is hotting up. Kinnear apparently let slip on R5 something about Keegan and Shearer waiting in the wings for the new owners. Please no, I can't see that double act working out, too much ego at stake.....

Will post a link to his sound bite if one appears. I missed it as a bus crashed right outside my front door when it was on. Not an omen I hope!

ise_67 said...

As promised the Kinnear interview can be found on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7637836.stm

whilst an interesting viewpoint from Phil McNulty can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2008/09/ashleys_shortterm_gamble.html

Good luck to the man; it's a short term appointment and as my mate at Glastonbury advised me about giving birth: "well, you've just gotta get on with it"!

MaryKwizMiz said...

just listened to the interview - genius Joe has identified one of our biggest problems - we can't defend set pieces!!!!! give the man a cigar for stating the bleeding obvious!
something makes me think tho that he won't be the one to change that.