What is actually going to change here? I honestly think the culture of the club is rotten to the core. From the top down.
I'll answer that at the end of January but what we do in the next 4 weeks will either send us down... or keep us up...
Agree, what happens in January will tell us a lot. If nothing else l hope we can offload some of the dead wood, that would free up wages if nothing else.
Not sure if it will be any better this year, but it will almost certainly be less entertaining than the first few months of last year with John Carver taking every setback as proof that he's the best manager out there. Remind you of anyone?? please log in to view this image
I'm not hugely optimistic when the manager says "we need goals", the team is leaking them at the other end and our strongest rumour heading into Jan is an injury-prone winger/defensive midfielder from Bordeaux. Ashley wants to keep his SD advertising for the time being, and unfortunately runs his businesses based on his own opinions of trust, rather than any actual expertise. We're lumbered with him and, in turn, Charnley, Carr, McClaren, Moncur, with the added bonus of Keith Bishop's spin (which fools no-one). Seems to me that this mediocrity has a slim but unlikely chance of improving. Mark Douglas wrote a nice long piece about the problems of 2015 and lessons that need to be learned; starts with the core message from the club and while we have "best we can be, pound for pound" etched on the walls, so it follows we will continue to shuffle along aimlessly. In my humble opinion, I think Keegan should be approached to sit on that board to offer expertise, honesty and emotion; Ashley should change his stance to allow healthy debate and allow someone like KK to tell him the truth, and act on some of it where appropriate. Until there is a loud and experienced football voice on the "board" who is allowed to be in a position to do anything, we will get absolutely nowhere.
Hell would freeze over before Keegan went back to work for Mike Ashley. I doubt Ashley would be too keen either in fairness. I agree with the sentiment though.
Whilst Ashley owns the club, then fundamentally nothing will change. Why do people think that he will suddenly 'get it' when history has proven time and time again that he doesn't give a ****. Is it that they 'want' to believe it? Almost 'have' to believe that something better is just around the corner? Because its just not!! He will remain. His sweat shop branding will remain. Penfold, Carr and all of his other cronies will remain. 'The Structure' will remain. The clubs willingness to merely tread water will remain. Our now yearly battle with relegation will remain........................ actually something might change this year. This might just be the year that Ashley pushed the odds too far and we go down. Just think back to the '93 - '94 season. Do you remember how exciting that was? The buzz around the ground, around the city, around the club. And just look how far this ****ing leech has dragged us down. 'Punching above our weight' against the likes of the mighty Cardiff and Southampton, battling with, or at least flirting with relegation season after season. You can spin it any which way you like. This ****ing arsehole is slowly killing our club. Nothing will change. Nothing.
Relegation isn't the end for fans, but it is financially damaging to the owners of football clubs, this year especially. Hence the comparatively large expenditure of the subsequent year with all the big money wage retention and the players we brought in. Mike Ashley is a gambler, but he knows the moneyball game. We do just enough year on year to stay up. That behaviour always ends in tears, always, and Mike being a thoroughly unscrupulous business sort, knows this too well. You have to spend money to get out of that cycle/situation, hence basically all the clubs that have been promoted over the last few years seem to have massively broken FFP rules. Did he think £40 mill last summer was enough to do just that? I doubt it. Thus I predict he will have left the club by 2020. Just like the gypsy or the highstreet gadget shop getting out of dodge just before it all goes kaput. I think it highly unlikely we will spend in January, but I think we will stay up, just, regardless this year.
Ashley should go to Keegan and ask him to become part of thos board. Not as manager but as a voice of reason and as someone that will tell Charnley and Carr where to go.
The gamble with this just doing enough to scrape through by the skin of our teeth season after season is that st some point the gamble will be one to many and we will go down, it's just a matter of time. In addition the type of player we desperately need to recruit will run a mile in the opposite direction, as the writing is on the wall for even the greediest and thickest to see. We don't be able to attract anyone worth having, and thus the cycle of **** upon **** will continue. Any talent we have will leave, we will sign only those desperate enough to to come, those we really don't need. Those on good money will either go through the motions, stay permanently cricked and wait for their contracts to run down. Anyone with passion, anyone who cares will have that nonsense knocked out of them PDQ. We are a toxic environment.
Mike Ashley tells Charnley and Carr what to do..................... why would he want Keegan to do it for him? Especially when Keegan's advice would be based in football reality, rather than corporate greed bullshit. Other than us being in the bottom three, the club is going exactly the way Ashley wants it to. There seems to be a misconception that Ashley desperately wants better for the club and it is just the incompetence that surrounds him that prevents that. Fourth from bottom would suit Ashley every season FACT. He doesn't want a cup run, he doesn't want a top 6 finish, he doesn't want the club and the city to be buzzing. He wants to advertise his company as cheaply as possible to as many people as possible. Unfortunately he chose NUFC to do that. If he had chosen West Ham or Fulham or any other club, they would be in the same predicament we are in now. It is like this because Ashley wants it to be like this.
