United making same old mistakes
ASHLEY AND CHARNLEY GAMBLING WITH MAGPIES’ FUTURE ONCE AGAIN AND UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES, IT COULD ALL SOON END IN TEARS
SO it turns out Newcastle fans might have been right about their “lucky escape”, after all.
A summer when everyone had a take on United’s Saudi-powered takeover has given way to the coldest of winters on Tyneside – just as the overwhelming majority of Newcastle fans who welcomed the takeover predicted it would when the deal collapsed.
It wasn’t that Newcastle fans weren’t acutely aware of the issues surrounding PIF involvement, just that they’d computed them, factored in how little ethics matter for everyone else in sport and worked out it was better than the alternative. Predictably, the people lecturing Magpies in the close season don’t seem quite so exercised by the continued, inexorable decline of a community institution that continues to shed credibility under Mike Ashley’s ownership.
Gazing at the wreckage of another wasted season – one that may yet become disastrous as United once again flirt with relegation – it feels like even the current custodians have given up the pretence that they have a plan to take the club forward any more.
Lee Charnley – managing director since 2014 – hasn’t given an interview since the summer of 2019. His silence has encompassed: a takeover which the Premier League, under pressure from fans, pointedly said Newcastle could have kept their supporters informed about, furloughing staff, a season ticket refund fiasco, a revenue crunch that left United unable or unwilling to refresh their squad under relegation pressure and intense pressure on an unpopular head coach. At any other club it would be inexcusable but at Newcastle, it has become the tired norm. Fans don’t expect anything else.
At one point Charnley – the man who coined the phrase that United would try to be the best they could “pound for pound” – would at least try to present ‘the plan.’ But an abandoned buy out last summer has been the smokescreen for those in charge to leave us all in the dark.
The club will say they are responding to negativity of those covering the club but the truth is, the real enemy they should be concentrating on is the growing threat of a relegation which would be ruinous for any hopes of escaping the ‘yo-yo club’ tag which has stalked them on
Charnley’s watch. At no other club would a run of 12 defeats in 16 games warrant so little reflection on the position of the manager. Having gambled on sticking with John Carver (and survived – just) and then Steve McClaren (an almighty failure), Charnley has – apparently – seen enough from Steve Bruce to convince him he secure a revival.
No doubt he will be throwing other factors into the mix: the difficulty getting a replacement, Ashley’s orders to run a tight financial ship, the owner himself and his high personal regard for Bruce, the manager’s willingness to continue without complaint no matter what is thrown at him and the impending arbitration on a takeover which will turn the club upside down.
Since an average start to the season dissolved since Brentford, Bruce has overseen one misstep after another. Appointed with the remit to take the Magpies forward after Rafa Benitez, it has been clear all season that’s a challenge beyond him. But will he fulfil the survival mission that he insists was always the remit this season?
There was always a response to the subterranean lows and while United were dreadful on the eye they picked up enough points to justify it. Low possession, standing off and a failure to take the initiative suddenly became a pressing problem when it meant defeats to Sheffield United and Brentford and a road to Damascus moment in January saw a change of formation as “the gloves came off”.
It feels like the current custodians have given up the pretence that they have a plan to take the club forward any more
But Bruce’s conviction that Allan Saint-Maximin’s return would give Newcastle the edge hasn’t been borne out by results – yet. The loss to Crystal Palace was devastating. The injury to Callum Wilson leaves United in real trouble.
Bruce talks up a change in style but it is staggering it has taken 19 months to realise Newcastle can play another way. Baffling tactics, questionable substitutions and a string of incredible PR blunders have turned supporters against him and raised real questions about whether he, the dressing room or the boardroom realise how serious the problems are. The last relegation set the club back 10 years financially. In the pandemic era, it will be even more pronounced – and that’s before we consider the prospect of trying to sell a Championship club for £300 million.
These problems are tediously predictable. A second relegation of the Charnley era has never felt far away and Newcastle had to hand over 10,000 season tickets last season after supporters turned away after Benitez (inset) left.
If Ashley cared, he’d do something: install proper leadership; hold those who have brought it to this point accountable and bring in people who could impact things now. But he won’t.
Maybe now those critics of the summer takeover realise why the collapse of a Saudi buy out didn’t feel like a “lucky escape”.