One in one out….

Two things struck me about our good friends up at SJP today, firstly the following statement by Pardew at his pre-Liverpool press conference.

“I don’t think we will be bringing a striker in this window after the collapse of Maiga, which we had put a lot of work into, as far as we are concerned, we will go with what we have got.”

This begs the question, now many would argue that we have replaced Carroll with Demba Ba and I for one, wouldnt argue against that logic however we needed a new striker when we had Andy C and we’re even more desperate for him now. Imagine seeing Ba paired with a proven Premiership striker, how much damage could they do together? Now instead imagine a strike force for January at least that comprises Shola, Lovenkrands, Best and possibly Ben Afra (assuming he gets a game).

Where would we be without Ba’s 14 goals so far this season? I make it 16th and 6 points above the relegation spots.

Surprisingly (not) that statement contradicts the following by good old Derek L back in November

“We have had an exceptional year, and long may it continue but the fans want us to buy more players.”

“We need to bring in a striker in January, we will need replacements in the summer and we need to give ourselves as much as possible”

So what changed? well Steven Taylors injury was a couple of weeks after that statement which leads you to believe that we have a simple “one player in” policy, regardless of need or whatever else is happening it appears to be a case of

“what do you need Alan?”…”ahh right so you need a Defender and a Striker?”…..”ok, which one?”

Thats not how you run a successful football club, frankly its not how you even run a Sports Shop…..

 

 

 

 

Demonisation of Joey Barton

St Joeys halo slips

First let me say that I’m not Joey Bartons biggest fan but he is good value for money both on the pitch and on twitter!

Recently however a veritable shit storm has kicked up over a comment Joey made following the tragic death of Gary Speed, “Suicide is a mix of the most tragic, most selfish, most terrible (and I want to believe preventable) acts out there.” was the offending tweet.

Many took offence to this, claiming Joey was insensitive, uncaring and simply looking to court controversy. I however think he was simply making a statement on the futility of suicide. How its seen by the person as their last resort and something which would solve everything. In reality it is simply the start of other peoples pain.

That however is just my personal view and (as I believe) like Joey is not meant as a slur on Gary or anyone else that takes their own life, simply pointing out a fact. Anyone who doesnt agree that suicide is a selfish act has clearly never seen the fallout.

My experiences are, thankfully, limited to the “bystander” category but still they haunt me. 20 years ago I was on the top deck of a bus heading to work along the West Road in Newcastle, glancing across the road I see a man stood under a tree however he wasnt stood he was hanging. That image to this day is etched on my brain. As is the bloated image of a man who jumped off the Tyne Bridge one Saturday only to be fished out 10 hours later while Im taking a Sunday morning stroll.

Now imagine being a wife, kid or friend and seeing these things in your own home and tell me its not a selfish act. Again, thats not me calling anyone selfish for committing it, what Im saying is that in doing it you are starting other peoples pain.

Joey Bartons problem (or one of them) appears to be his inability to see when he may have been wrong and counter it, once people started to kick off he simply had to drop a quick tweet in saying “apologies if Ive offended anyone that was never the intention…blahdeblah etc etc”

Bartons week then got worse when our own beloved Derek Llambias decided to wade in with his size 3 built up Pradas and threaten legal action due to comparisons Joey made between NUFC players and Sports Direct staff. Looking to defend the good name of our club by denying the rumours? Strangely, no it appears not.

“In a week when one of Newcastle United’s most beloved footballers passed away, it is disappointing that once again Joey Barton makes the headlines.

It is also unfortunate that Joey chose to draw such a disparaging comparison between himself and the employees of Sports Direct, who through hard work and dedication are the recipients of one of the most generous bonus schemes in UK retailing.

‘It may not be a lot of money to Joey, but over 2,000 Sports Direct employees earning £20,000 will receive shares worth over £44,000 over the next two years.” Derek Llambias November 2011

Well thanks Derek, that more of our cash disappearing for a fight we couldnt really care about. Chances are this legal action will be as successful as the Ashley v The Sun one was. Remember that? thought not because it didnt appear to happen even though Mikey was “furious at the allegation he partied while we were relegated” and said he’d prove it was a lie in court. Unless Ive missed it that day still hasnt come.

In summary though, there have been times during his career that Ive thought “wow, what a talent” and others when Ive simply shaken my head in disbelief but I dont feel that ripping the man apart for a mistimed comment on social media is called for. Over his time at NUFC I heard many a tale about JB, the bad ones you’d read in the papers, the good ones were word of mouth. How true they are we may never know but there was many a statement made about how he would turn up for games when he wasnt playing to support the lads, went to reserve games both home and away and worked with the junior teams supporting the young ‘uns. Sometimes its only the juicy stuff that gets reported.

Final word has to go to a Mr Sammy Ameobi who seems to be the twitter Ying to Joey’s Yang

@Sammy_Ameobi : Thinking about Gary Speeds family…just puts things into perspective. Money & success isn’t everything and doesn’t alone bring happiness x

Wise words for such a young talent.

Shades of Black

Gary Speed 1969 -
2011

I was all set to write a different post today, one about Sports Direct, Ashley, Llambias and a certain contradiction in statements however all that paled into insignificance following the news of yesterday for today is a very dark day.

Just on the off chance you hadnt heard, Gary Speed, arguably one of the most professional, hard working and talented players ever to pull on the black & white stripes committed suicide yesterday.

What drove him to it isnt clear however as always theres rumours, slurs and general tittle tattle going round the likes of Facebook (does anyone use that anymore?) and twitter.

I don’t want to get dragged into the repeating of rumours or the further spreading of malicious gossip but what has to be said is that if the rumour is true and one of footballs gentlemen died because of some tabloid journalists hunt for a story then this country needs to take a good, hard look at itself.

If one good thing can come from Garys final act then hopefully it does something to change the way this country accepts, craves and feeds the sleazy monster that is tabloid journalism.

For the record, other than his immediate family I cant imagine that the “revelation” would have caused much of a stir, it definitely wouldn’t make me think any differently of a player who clocked up over 200 appearances for us and scored a number of important goals (some of them absolute corkers).

I’ll remember him as a man who always appeared dignified, always acted the model professional and gave our football club some fantastic memories, I hope others will too. My thoughts, and those of every football fan go out to his family and friends.

RIP Gary, Sir Bobby’s NUFC XI has just made its latest and arguably greatest signing.

the transition from Black & White to Blue & Red

Shearers soon?

Since my last (and first) blog nothing much has happened well I say nothing much only rumours that arguably the worlds second largest sportswear company were about to take over the naming rights of SJP.

The big worry that emerged from the whole thing was how it was greeted by a good number of our fans. “whey its not as bad as Sports Direct” or “quality, they might start selling Air Max’s in the club shop” were just two of the comments I heard. The 1st was the worrying one, that the threat of Sports Direct was enough to make many fans accept losing heritage. This got me worrying, was I wrong in the belief that he had no intention of selling the rights? was it all just a smoke screen to get fans accepting a sale of name to Nike? it definitely looked possible.

On reflection though, was it bollocks.

It was, no doubt the start of many false stories put about by the club to try and silence the critics, it wouldnt surprise me if within a few weeks we get a statement along the lines of “<insert name of random company here> were put off investing due to the way the fans reacted”.

Its not until you look at the setup of Sports Direct that you realise just why the Nike story was rubbish. Sports Direct headquarters contains a “Nike academy” and the 2010 Annual Report states “We are delighted to be creating a unique Nike Training Academy at our Shirebrook headquarters in partnership with Nike where Sports Direct staff will benefit from extensive, specialist training in the current Nike range as well as likely future developments. This is the first time Nike has joined with a retail partner in such a facility anywhere in the world. “

Add to that the fact that Puma would have been a little put out to say the least that their shirts were going to start carrying the Nike Swoosh and alternately, the Nike arena adorned with Puma cats? errrr no.

Sure enough within a couple of days the Sun’s Steve Brenner was reporting that there was “no truth in the rumour” and yet another story bit the dust. In the style of our esteemed Derek Llambias “Just do one”

Sports Direct will no doubt continue their relentless march across all things NUFC, Im going to make a prediction here so bear with me (hopefully Im as wrong with these as I was on NUFCs start to the season). Our club shops will slowly but surely disappear to be replaced by Sports Direct stores. When that happens we will have lost a major earner of our finances while SD will simply get bigger. Its already started, is it any coincidence that the first store to close is situated in direct competition to the biggest SD store in Newcastle? Whether that closure was purposeful or simply that the location could not compete when the next floor up was flogging our tops, shirts and socks at a 30% or so lower price remains to be seen.

The grounds club shop will be next, within a year Derek will annouce that “in these hard times it makes prudent business sense to share premises and therefore SD will be be taking over the lease” and allowing us to use a corner of it to sell nufc merchandise.

Its not a Megastore its our Mecca

Well what do you know, I’ve now got a blog. Some may think that’s a good thing, others will know that my inane thoughts, rants and general diatribe should be kept in the pub or limited to snippets posted on toontastic.net. So why did I feel the need to blog? Three words Direct, Arena & Sports. Two of those words have brought me a feeling of nausea for the last 3 years of so. Add the word Arena on the end and you’ve lit the blue touchpaper as far as I’m concerned.

I grew up with St James’ Park, so did my dad, his dad & grandfather. In fact on checking the family tree 6 generations of my family name have been alive during it’s existence (7 if you count my 22 month old). 4 of those are no longer with us, maybe death has saved them the horror the rest of us are set to witness.

St James’ has seen and survived it all, 2 world wars, German bombers, Thatcher even lord Westwood. None of them ever managed to destroy it. The previous owners even managed to turn it from a fairly ramshackle stadium into one of the 6th largest in the country. Along comes a tubby market stall owner who decides that history is irrelevant when in search of the next profit.

Profit, turnover, whatever way you want to look at it. The answer is still the same, our chairman, the honourary Mr Llambias is quoting an expectation of £8-£10m per season being paid for this. Now I can go with the logic that everything has its price, although at the time I got worked up about it, on reflection the sale of Carroll was an amazing piece of business, £35m for such an unknown quantity was frankly taking the piss out of the mourners. Its just a shame that we’ve not seen much (if any) of that figure being invested in the team.

When it comes to heritage, history and identity then that’s a different matter. Players come, players go, managers, chairmen, owners too but three things at any football club should remain static while the actual physical items exist. The clubs name, team colours and stadium. Maybe you could tempt me with an offer of £150m to be invested in the team, maybe then Id say “ahhh bollocks to it, I’m happy to see Messi play at the Bodyform bowl” when however you’re quoting me the equivalent worth of Andy Carrolls right arm it’s a different matter.

I’m not going to go over the same arguments many of us will have had or witnessed over the last week or so, suffice to say this is not the same as Arsenal, Wigan, Sunderland etc. We have not built a new stadium and we’re not going anywhere.

£10m therefore to wipe out history, £10m sees us disrespect those whos dying wish was to be scattered across its turf, would they have been as happy to say “I want me ashes scattered across the Donnay aisle of Sports Direct in Eldon Square son”? £10m to make those heritage stones irrelevant, respect by the way to those that were involved in reclaiming Harrys brick. Some have said doing so is disrespectful to those whos stones were nearby. I can see that argument however if another stone had been damaged then it could simply be replaced or fixed, these arent headstones in a graveyard. The removal of Harrys brick was a symbolic thing, its saying “I don’t care what happens to me, my dads good name is not being associated with this”

Most importantly though £10m to start erasing the history of our greats? Milburn, Gazza, Gallacher, Moncur, Keegan, Ginola, Cole and Shearer to name just a few. All scored in front of the Gallowgate within St James’ Park. Slowly but surely Ashley will erase the official records. If you dont believe me, do the following 2 google searches:

“sports direct” site:nufc.co.uk

“james park” site:nufc.co.uk

For the record I don’t believe a word of it, I don’t believe there are companies out there knocking on our door to take over the sponsorship, if there were then why would we need to “showcase the brand”? Call me cynical, call me a pessimist, in fact fuck it call me a cynical pessimistic bastard but I believe this name is here to stay. Ask yourself this, if you were Tesco, Nike, Franks Hardware would you not be asking Mike Ashley one simple question. “If this is such a good advertising chance, how come Sports Direct havent officially bought it and ensured they reap the rewards? Rather than letting a competitor do so”

Nope my view is that we will never tempt anyone to buy it, either the price will put them off or the club will turn them down with the statement “theyre not right for this club” thereby serving two purposes, first keeping the name for themselves and secondly, making the gullible fans among us believe that they actually have our best interests at heart “oh no, we werent going to sell the name to Morrisons, imagine it, a historic massive club like this one being linked with a cheap shop, oh no, not us, we’re holding on for the right brand to fit, in the meantime this charver discount store will showcase it”.

By lumping the upcoming shirt deal with the stadium name then they’ve tied that one upto Sports Direct as well. No doubt come January we’ll be announcing that nobody has come in for it so Mikes graciouslly allowed us to use the SD brand on the shirts. What a hero that man is.

Total pisstake.

SD is encroaching more and more on the business of NUFC and for no foreseeable gain to the football club, previous accounts have shown that we have actually paid SD for services yet at the same time more than 50% of our advertising space is taken up by the company (and I’m not even counting that monstrosity on the Gallowgate roof!)

Mike Ashley and co are slowly but surely taking our football club away from us, its rightful owners, we need to reclaim what is ours before he does irrepairable damage to the very fabric of the club. I cant stress this enough (and I’ll probably be slated for it but its true) if this afternoon Ashley announced that he was reverting the name back but in return was selling enough players to recoup £50m thenI’d cheer aloud. Relegation would be a worry but frankly Id take relegation and a couple of years in the Championship rather than lose something so dear to us.

For those of you that don’t agree with this view, those that say “Its still SJP to me” or “I’ll still call it SJP whats the problem?” then I ask you this, what is your break point? What will the man have to do to our club before you’ll flip as I (and many others) have done this last week.

Club name? What if we were to sell that? Sports Direct United? Ashleys Giants?
Colours? Would you roll over if he binned the stripes in favour of a nice red and blue number?

Maybe he’ll leave all those things as they are and simply remove all reference to anything pre-2007, rename the stands, Shearers, Harveys, etc after family members or brands hes associated with. “The Kappa suite”, “Donnay bar”, “tracky-bottom stand”. Heaven help anyone in the “wor Maureen corner”. As for my thoughts on Shearers and the Club shops, I’ll leave them to another post as no doubt I’ll ramble on for a while.

As a father of a young son, Ive dreamed from the day he was born of watching him step out and make his debut on the hallowed turf of St James’s. “George Whitfield made his Sports Direct Arena debut” doesnt really have the same ring to it.

As an addition, while were on the subject of history whats with the whole rewriting of our history and linking it to a clothing range? 1881? What does that have to do with Newcastle United? We were formed in 1892, 11 years after Newcastle East End were (technically Newcastle East end didn’t exist until October 1882, before that they were called Stanley Cricket Club or something equally unrelated), Newcastle United were formed in 1892, not 1881, not 1893 or 1992 (as some of our fans seem to think).

Creating a whole new piece of hitory that frankly doesnt exist and then launching a clothing range on the back of it is pure tackyness. The word United should give it away, the year we became that was 1892.

So in short Mr Ashley you can take your Arena and your fake formation year and shove both of them up your extremely rotund arse, actually hoy Derek up there with them n’all.