Newcastle the focus of football media again

This piece in the times today by George Culkin will strike all football supporters contemplating the forthcoming season. Newcastle are a particular focus for football writers because of the outstanding season they had in 2011/12 season where they finished 5th followed by last sessions where they just avoided relegation.

What will the 13/14 season bring. We will soon know.

Newcastle are teetering on a precipice George Caulkin July 18 2013 10:07AM     Here they go again. Here they go; back into Europe, back to prominence, back to a dark past they had just about scraped from the memory and forward into a strange form of limbo. Newcastle United are in Portugal for a week and The Times are there with them (for a bit of it, anyway), attempting to gauge that pre-season no-man’s land where fresh hope wrestles with old cynicism, at a club which defies easy definition.  It is the time of year when supporters veer between excitement and fretting when, for good or ill, the previous season is put to bed and the onset of the next one is peppered with newness. New players, new eras, new beginnings. Except at St James’ Park there has been little in the way of new and much in the way of fretting and, in the case of Joe Kinnear’s appointment as director of football, something familiar and troubling.  This should not be read as an immediate slide into negativity. It can be reported with some certainty – more of that to come – that Alan Pardew has returned to Tyneside in bullish form, having ridden out the maelstrom which came to a head at the end of a challenging campaign which tested him, his squad and the patience of many. Buffeted, perhaps, by Kinnear’s arrival, the manager remains determined to manage his way.  He has a good squad, does Pardew. Or, rather, he has some fine players. If the true worth of his resources lies somewhere between what happened last season and their previous, excellent, fifth-place finish, the top-10 of the Barclays Premier League is a realistic goal, but Pardew needs help and Newcastle require strikers. Two of them, certainly, and another, surely, if Papiss Demba Cisse’s relationship with the club disintegrates further.  Here, of course, is the heart of matters. Unlike every other club in the division, Newcastle have not signed a senior player. As good people on Gallowgate (and there are loads of them), struggle to make sense of the altered reality and perplexing hierarchy Mike Ashley has thrown at them, with Kinnear joining and then sharpish leaving on holiday, decisions have not been taken and buttons are unpressed.  Pardew (who is 52 today) recognises his own scope for improvement. His employers failed him a year ago when they pulled away from too many transfers, leading to a skinny squad and a scramble in January, and there were moments when some senior players shirked responsibility, but he knows he can do better, too. In a different way, he also knows that he must.  Because of the Europa League, the demand of Thursday, Sunday, Thursday matches, Pardew may have over-complicated things last year, thinking in terms of equations and preparation when he might have let the football breathe. He has studied other sports, consulted Faye Downey, the strength and conditioning coach, and revamped set-pieces, but his message will be a simpler one. He promises this summer will be Newcastle’s toughest ever.  This eagerness, this approach, this desire to rebuild things with fans, this willingness to let the Kinnear situation play out, the similar enthusiasm he sees in his players, is encouraging and it will be interesting to have a little insight into that in Braga. When the sun shines and ball thuds on boot you remember that there is nothing quite like football. Back so soon? What took you so long?  Yet there are concerns, too (and they run deep). Cisse’s reluctance to wear Newcastle’s Wonga-branded strip is a matter which should have been concluded much earlier than this. It takes us into an area of difficulty, an area of religious and ethical delicacy which is not easy to blag through (blagging is the founding principle of my career), but in basic sporting terms it leaves Pardew with a significant hole in his side.  Cisse’s absence from Portugal ensures another week will go by without him or any other out-and-out, experienced, frontline striker – ignoring Shola Ameobi, who is present but being pursued by Middlesbrough – participating in first-team training. Nor will he play in friendly matches against Rio Ave and Pacos de Ferreira and with the start of the season now a month away, this can hardly be described as ideal preparation.  Meanwhile, Darren Bent is sweating and waiting on his own at Aston Villa, a club who have exhibited their own peculiarities. Villa want some value for a player they have treated as anything but an asset, who returned to pre-season to find his dressing-room locker locked and who is now training with youth players and a few other exiles. He is Pardew’s choice (they worked together at Charlton Athletic) and has been for some time.  This is a personal observation, but Newcastle have one significant advantage in one particular battle. Rivals for Bent’s signature include Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace and if the competition is one which features attendances, passion and potential then, all other things being more or less equal, the England international, once of Sunderland, would return to the North East.  Bent is keen to talk to Newcastle, Pardew has spoken publicly about his wish to sign him and Villa want rid. There has been optimism in recent days because the will is there – completion by next week has been mooted – but, at some point soon, something has to happen and, presumably, Kinnear is the man who must make it or derail it. They have another, French target (they have been linked with him before), but need to move.  Kinnear changes things; there are fears and theories, but we just do not yet know how. So while Newcastle are in Portugal, a country Pardew knows well and has always admired, his players perspiring and plotting, building up muscles which previously proved too susceptible, honing tactics and formations, they simultaneously teeter on a precipice. Let us be honest, they have been here before.

The Terry and Cole saga – ‘improbable, implausible and contrived’

When asked, at a Chelsea F.C. press conference yesterday, if Chelsea had effectively lost the plot, De Matteo gave an honest answer but it was lame! He suggested that this was an isolated incident and had been dealt with. The Chelsea press officer had been asked just beforehand, if it was appropriate that Ashley Cole was Tweeting from the training ground derogatory remarks about the FA’s judgement on John Terry and of course, himself. At least the Press officer was able to muster a response which was honest in that he thought the Cole intervention was inappropriate. When will Terry and Cole learn that they are products of the rich spoilt prima donors club called Premier League football and should act like ambassadors? Most players in the PL do not act like Terry and Cole but  the high profile nature of their team means they are seen as ‘role models’ whether they like it or not. I wonder if they would teach this type of behavior to their own children. If their kids uttered the words ‘fucking black cunt’ to their class mates would these two think this was acceptable?  If you read the full text of the Regulatory Commission it is plain to see that the Commission were not convinced by the flimsy defense of Terry and the ‘supporting’ evidence from Cole. Cole has made himself look like a sycophantic mug who was ‘looking after’ his team mate and buddy offering pathetic comments like, ‘you can’t talk to JT like that’ like JT was the Pope or a Head of State visiting the Country.

Neither of these guys have great reputations within football but their latest escapade will ‘nail them’ in most impartial observers eyes. The Chelsea faithful will embrace them as if they had been members of the conquering Ryder Cup team returning from Chicago. However, the rest us will view this as another example of the egotistic hedonism which is the worst aspect of the amount of money these guys earn.

The BBC Reporter Dan Roan today summed up the case like this. “Terry can insist he’s innocent, he can appeal, he can play on, he can refer to his court acquittal, but, for many, this written judgement ensures his reputation will always be stained beyond repair.”

It can only be imagined, as a result of this fiasco, how many people will be describing Terry and Cole in a similar fashion to that which he subjected Ferdinand to?

John Terry and the FA’s case

John Terry has been charged by the FA using the same charge levelled against Luis Suárez after his confrontation with Patrice Evra. Terry has already stated in the media that he feels he has already been cleared of the charge in a Court of Law so why should he face another judgement by the FA rule-makers? Terry is clearly offended by the fact he must answer once again to the charge as demonstrated by his comments made after he announced his resignation as the England captain. Terry was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence. JT admitted to using words “fucking black cunt” to Ferdinand but weakly suggested he was repeating words that Ferdinand had himself used.

Given that the FA require a lower burden of proof than did Westminster magistrates court, it is highly likely that John Terry will face a heavy sanction. In 2011 there were 473 FA disciplinary cases with a conviction rate of 99.5%. In the Suárez-Evra case, Suárez was found guilty on the “balance of probability”, a lower standard than the criminal standard of “beyond all reasonable doubt”

It would seem that JT ‘walked before he was pushed’ in announcing his resignation form the England Captaincy. This should not come as any surprise to supporters out side of the ‘Chelsea village’ as he has behaved in questionable ways on other occasions.

Past Controversies

In September 2001, Terry and three teammates were fined two weeks’ wages by Chelsea for an incident involving players and American tourists at a Heathrow airport bar in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September attacks.In January 2002 Terry, Chelsea team mate Jody Morris and Des Byrne of Wimbledon were charged with assault and affray after a confrontation with a nightclub bouncer. Terry was banned from selection for the England team for the duration of the case, though he was ultimately cleared of all charges. In the same month, Terry was fined £60 for parking his Bentley in a disabled bay. In 2009, Terry was investigated by Chelsea and the FA for allegedly taking money from an undercover reporter for a private tour of Chelsea’s training ground. The club responded that it was “confident that at no time did Terry ask for or accept money in relation to visits to the training ground.”  In January 2010, a super-injunction was imposed by a High Court judge preventing the media from reporting allegations that Terry had had a four-month affair in late 2009 with Vanessa Perroncel, the former girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, his former Chelsea and England teammate. The injunction was lifted a week later,and the British media – especially the tabloid press – covered the rumours in great detail in the days following. The News of the World and the Mail on Sunday subsequently printed apologies to Perroncel for breaching her privacy and stated that the story was “untrue in any case”.^[86] Perroncel maintains that the alleged affair never took place. The allegations led to then-England manager Fabio Capello removing Terry from the captaincy on 5 February 2010, replacing him with Rio Ferdinand. Terry was reinstated as captain the following year. 

It seems that controversy follows John Terry around which, some might say, goes with the territory given his high-profile occupation. However his expensive Lawyers ‘spin’ the FA case against him, it seems he will take a big ‘professional hit’ out of his Anton Ferdinand comments. This is the likely reason he walked away from his England responsibility as he would most likely have had it taken from him once again with no prospect t of another Lazarus like third coming.

Shearer to re enter premier league management?

Writing in the Times today, Gary Jacobs identifies Blackburn Rivers have designs on making Alan Shearer their new manager if Steve Kean is sacked. ‘If Steve Kean is sacked’! Surely its only as matter of time before this becomes a reality.

It seems that every Blackburn Rovers fans who cares to make a comment, comes out with the same line, he must go. To a neutral on this matter like me, this seems odd. Steve Kean may not be the most charismatic of managers but he seems to have done a decent job. Who else did Blackburn think they could get? The ‘minor league’ of Premier League management stock in the form of the likes of, Steve Bruce, Mick McCarthy and Owen Coyle may be possibilities but none of these have really done anything remarkable so far.

Kean’s fate is expected to be decided as early as tomorrow after talks with the club owners, despite the club being second in the npower Championship after seven games.

Shearer was part of the Blackburn side that won the Premier League title in 1995, scoring a record 34 goals, and he turned down a previous approach to return to his former club when Sam Allardyce was dismissed as manager in 2010.

Shearer was in charge of Newcastle United for eight games, picking up five points and failing to save them from relegation, in his only previous experience as a manager of a club in 2009. He left Newcastle at the end of that season and held what he described as “unsuccessful” talks about becoming Cardiff City manager last year.

The BBC pundit has previously blamed the Blackburn owners, the Venky’s, for the club’s malaise and has expressed sympathy for Kean in the summer. “There is only the owners you can blame really – they are the only guys you can look at and what disappoints me is that nobody really hears from them,” he said.

Kean, 44, has been under pressure from large sections of fans calling for his dismissal throughout his tenure since he replaced Allardyce. Blackburn were relegated from the Premier League last season and the fans continued their abuse of the Scot after the 2-1 home defeat by Middlesbrough on Friday.

Blackburn are also considering Tim Sherwood, the Tottenham technical co-ordinater, who looks after the development side at the club.

Will this move make Blackburn Rovers a force once again? Share your view.