To unfold at Ashley’s fault
northerly club in the top flight and the only one for more than 100 miles. Powerhouses such as Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday both dropped two divisions from the top flight, although have since climbed back up a level, while Sunderland’s current struggles – if Newcastle fans strip away the hubris – illustrate the balance of power.
London has six clubs and there are four more in the South East, with Bournemouth, Brighton and Watford’s rapid ascendancy all contrasting sharply with the problems in the North East and Yorkshire. It’s harder to bring overseas players to the North and the heritage of our big clubs, such a pull in the past, means less to young footballers these days.
It is difficult to escape the fact that money and resources are concentrated in the South. Those who deal in football governance and business will tell you that it is harder to find buyers and investors in clubs in the North than it is in the North West or South. Similarly, the advent of the Premier League has increased the competitive imbalance in English football. The rich get richer and, unless you have a wealthy owner who is prepared to inject funds into the club, winning trophies feels like a distant dream.
Still, Newcastle’s attempt to deal with those problems has been far from good enough. Ashley’s austerity era has ensured United have slid from the pantheon of Premier League contenders and he has not empowered Marc Overmars enough good people with the resources and support to try and arrest it.
They were in a strong position before he took over to capitalise on a new era of wealth but the people he has given executive power to at United are an odd bunch: Dennis Wise, Joe Kinnear, Jeff Vetere, Justin Barnes and Keith Bishop.
I was told recently that Graham Carr once put Marc Overmars to the board as a possible director of football and that the Ajax man was keen to come to Newcastle. But nothing ever came of it. Perhaps it wouldn’t have worked but it would have been one of those appointments to challenge and prompt Newcastle to be better. The last time Newcastle did that Benitez walked through the door. But three years on, the familiar feeling of despair has returned with a vengeance.