Faltering takeover mired in controversy, angry fans, uninterested owner, no cash for new signings, Newcastle are the... ZOMBIE CLUB
STEEL barriers have been put up around St James’ Park to keep supporters away. Were the Saudiled takeover to fall through, such measures would not be needed.
The prospect of returning to a Mike Ashley-owned institution is hardly an enticing one. They could throw open the turnstiles for free and still there would be a weariness to those who passed through.
And that is why events off the pitch are far more significant than anything that happens on it during the coming weeks.
For many, the thought of missing out on barrels of cash and investment from Saudi Arabia is not their greatest fear, it is the realisation of being left with a club they have long since come to resent and mistrust.
The stands will be empty when Steve Bruce’s side return against Sheffield United this afternoon. Such a barren sight, however, is an apt visualisation of the football club right now, where the majority of non-football staff have been on furlough since March.
In that time the club have released their annual accounts, detailing a healthy profit of £ 34.7 million for last year. Yet Ashley continues to take the taxpayers’ pound to pay the club’s staff, leaving a bitter taste with many employees who want the owner gone as much as fans do.
Financially sound yet morally bankrupt is one description of Ashley’s Newcastle and fans who have fought in recent months for a refund on season tickets would agree. But that delay, with the club confirming this week they will repay the money, is also a symptom of an organisation paralysed by the proposed takeover, still in the hands of the Premier League.
Managing director Lee Charnley thought he would be long gone by now. Yet here he is, still heading the club, still surrounded by an absolute vacuum of f oot bal l expertise at executive level.
It is that neglect and failure to structure his club that has arguably been Ashley’s biggest mistake. For with the right people in the right positions, his hands-off approach could have run parallel to success. It just needed better care, better people and better judgment.
As it is, an already dysfunctional cl ub has become ever more debilitated i n recent months. Newcastle United, for the large part, remain on lockdown.
Bruce and his players must do what they can to ease that feeling of inertia and today’s game will go a long way to informing us of their mindset. The manager insists they cannot use the uncertainty as an excuse for failure to perform, but history tells us the team usually suffers in such a scenario.
Bruce cannot afford that to happen, not with would-be owners watching on. He has a chance to lead the team to safety with two more wins and take them into the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 2005.
He wants to stay on as boss should the takeover be approved and, in the short term at least, that will be the case. But, like much else at Newcastle right now, his future is not known.
There was a stark contrast when Bruce and this afternoon’s opposite number Chris Wilder were asked the same question during Friday’s pre-match press conferences.
Quizzed on whether transfer plans were in place for next season, Wilder gave a definitive ‘ yes’, indicating he and the club knew exactly who they wanted to take them forward.
Bruce, understandably given the bulk of his scouting team are still furloughed, used t h e wo r d ‘difficult’ three times when talking of the same subject.
And that is true of everything at Newcastle in their current state, they are kicking a can down the road but keep coming back to the crossroads at which they find themselves.
If ever a club needed a new direction, then this is it.