Newcastle in freefall, Are they the next Leeds ?

[Jimbo 133]

The signs outside the Newcastle United club shop shout 'Sale, 50 per cent off' alongside a poster of Michael Owen with a Northern Rock logo plastered across his chest.

And so a football club's plight is neatly encapsulated in one window; cut-price offerings, crocked players and a looming reminder of financial catastrophe. This is a club teetering on the edge of disaster, having collected only one point since Christmas. If they cannot escape relegation, the likelihood is that they would fall a long, long way. They are Leeds United Mk II.

Looming reminder of financial catastrophe: cut-price offerings and crocked players

 

 

 

Popping your head above the parapet in a north-east derby against Sunderland might not be the wisest decision, but he has not exactly been known for his clarity of thought during his tenure at Newcastle. Amid all this chaos, manager Joe Kinnear was surprisingly upbeat yesterday, in a tin hat, Dunkirk spirit sort of way. And he launched a staunch defence of Ashley's right to be at the game.

'A minority of the crowd are against him, but it's a small section,' he said. 'I get plenty of feedback around the place and there are plenty of people who realise what's he's done. He bought the club when it was in a mess and he cleared the debts.'

 

When challenged that more than a minority might challenge that view, Kinnear added: 'We'll see Sunday, won't we? But he's entitled to be given a chance to be at the game. He writes the cheques out every week to pay the wages.'

Is that enough? St James' Park stadium still glowers over this one-club city, a symbol of Newcastle's aspirations and obsession. But these days it has also become a gigantic monument to Geordie embarrassment thanks to Ashley's bungled purchase, his botched attempt to sell the club and the subsequent months of stagnation.

 

The owner's 'strategy', such as it has been, has amounted to nothing more than muddling through. He spent as little as possible, in the hope of offloading to a buyer.

Official crisis: Newcastle United is teetering on the edge of disaster, having collected only one point since Christmas. If they cannot escape relegation

Now he invests just enough to give Newcastle a chance of clinging on in the top flight until someone hands him the £300million or so he wants to walk away. In the meantime, experienced goal- keeper Shay Given has handed in a transfer request and appears bound for Manchester City; fights have broken out between players at the training ground and Charles N'Zogbia says he will never play for the side again while Kinnear is in charge.

 

The Frenchman says he was insulted when Kinnear called him Charlie 'Insomnia' during a televison interview on Wednesday night. But it's the club that is really sleepwalking to disaster. If they do drop, which is a serious prospect, they may never recover. One look at the numbers is enough to give anyone insomnia.

Ashley splashed out £134m to buy the club only to discover a £100m black hole of debt because, despite being a 'successful businessman', he failed to put the books through due diligence before his purchase.

 

The sportswear boss then paid a further £4.6m to get rid of Sam Allardyce and his staff and install Kevin Keegan as manager. He now faces another £8m court claim for wrongful dismissal from the ex- England coach after he walked out in disgust at being undermined.

 

Asked whether Ashley ever admitted to making mistakes, Kinnear said: 'You'd have to ask him that, but I think Mike cares. He knows the situation that we're in.

'He's been disillusioned and badly hurt by what's happened, but he will be here for the Sunderland match. He won't be a distraction either. The crowd will be on the team's side whatever they think of Mike Ashley or me and we need them.'

The trouble is, supporters have begun voting with their wallets, too. Hundreds of tickets, some costing £65, were still available yesterday for the derby, an unthinkable prospect in seasons past. It is a glimpse through the fog of disillusionment hanging over the Tyne.

Turnover at Newcastle is £100m, thanks to the new television deal, but an incredible 73 per cent of that immediately evaporates away in wages. There are 168 employees in the commercial department, plus 139 administration staff. The most terrifying figures of all relate to the 118 players and coaches on the club books. And yet Kinnear is still struggling to put out a passable first team.

 

He has an injury list that would do an emergency ward proud, writing off £120,000-a-week Owen for more than a month with ankle ligament damage, plus Joey Barton, who is missing for up to two months with a broken metatarsal at £65,000 a week. 'We're cursed, really,' said Kinnear.

'The only time I've been able to put out anything like my best team was against Aston Villa. The side has been shredded since then.'

 

Ashley turned up for the midweek defeat against Manchester City to witness the state of the depleted squad and sat up until the early hours discussing a way out of the mess with Kinnear. 'It helped him being there to see it with his own eyes,' admitted Kinnear.

At least Kevin Nolan has bolstered the side, having been bought from Bolton for £4.5m. As panic buys go, the hard-working, honest and experienced pro is about as sensible as they get.

Who did the deal? Nobody really knew, and if they did they weren't saying. Dennis Wise is supposed to be running the transfer arm of the Newcastle business from London on a salary of £1.2m a season.

 

It all adds up to a potential disaster. Newcastle could collapse like the bank on their shirts, only there will be no Government bailout, no economic rescue plan. It is a rotting mess, one that is disintegrating before our very eyes and a million miles from the memories of Newcastle's Champions League glory nights.

Amid it all stands Kinnear. Newcastle have had eight managers in 10-and-a-half years, but none of them landed in the predicament he has taken on. Yet, he remains defiant.

'I've always been in the s***,' he said. 'That's what I do. I was at Wimbledon and had to generate my own money for transfers. It was the same at Nottingham Forest.

'This is the biggest job I've ever had. There's no comparison with anything else because of the pressure seven days a week.'

This is a boss who is only in the chair because, as he admitted himself this week: 'Some big names bottled it. Nobody else had the a***hole to take on this job - and I can see why now.'

So was there any sign of a plan when Kinnear had that late night chat with Ashley? Is there any path mapped out to take the club out of its current mess?

'Right now we're planning for survival, nothing else,' said Kinnear

[Kitman 2188]

Melodramatic shizzle. I think we're undoubtedly in a mess and people are disillusioned but there's no prospect of us 'doing a Leeds' imo. I'm hoping a flurry of late signings and we can turn the corner starting on Sunday. I don't know why but I'm starting to feel optimistic again. No doubt that'll get knocked out of me soon enough, it's the Newcastle way

[Del Pede 0]

Dennis Wise is supposed to be running the transfer arm of the Newcastle business from London on a salary of £1.2m a season.

 

Now I am indeed baffled. Between all the lies, and misinformation this comes out. If Ashley really where concerned about the wage bill, why in the hell, would he stik Dennis Wise on 1.2 million a fucking season. I don't even dare to think about Llambias salary

[Del Pede 0]

Good news. Newcastle is NOT the next Leeds. Apparently they're the next Sheffield Wednesday

http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/200...ewcastle-u.html

 

That piece is more horrendous, than the first. More stereotypes, and more bullshit

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3284]

Lazy journalism of the worst sort. There is no next leeds. They were operating way beyotheir means. We are not. They also did not own their most valuable assets. We dont have any valuable assets lol. Seriously we might get relegated but we have a huge stadium and relatively little debt in comparison to thers. A real leeds type scenario could await Arsenal if they dont make the champions league this season. or man utd when Sir Alex does retire with their debt if they get someone in who takes a while to settle in they could be fucked.

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3284]

Lazy journalism of the worst sort. There is no next leeds. They were operating way beyotheir means. We are not. They also did not own their most valuable assets. We dont have any valuable assets lol. Seriously we might get relegated but we have a huge stadium and relatively little debt in comparison to thers. A real leeds type scenario could await Arsenal if they dont make the champions league this season. or man utd when Sir Alex does retire with their debt if they get someone in who takes a while to settle in they could be fucked.

[peasepud 59]

Lazy journalism of the worst sort. There is no next leeds. They were operating way beyotheir means. We are not. They also did not own their most valuable assets. We dont have any valuable assets lol. Seriously we might get relegated but we have a huge stadium and relatively little debt in comparison to thers. A real leeds type scenario could await Arsenal if they dont make the champions league this season. or man utd when Sir Alex does retire with their debt if they get someone in who takes a while to settle in they could be fucked.

 

Oh you're right, every morning I wake up and think...."thank fuck Im not a Gooner" then I look at the league table and chuckle to myself at the poor deluded fools that follow Man U. Little do they know what shit lies ahead for them....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chaser 1079]

I think they have skewed the article in saying that we're in financial difficulty. We are no-where near the overspend of some of the top 4 clubs. However, if you look at it from another perspective, "doing a Leeds/Wednesday/City/Forest/Coventry" is the situation of a big club being relegated from the top flight, losing a host of players and having to rebuild over a period of years and in the wake of it all, possibly suffering a further relegation from the Championship. I think if we did go down, unless new owners with cash came in, we could be in freefall. The first team would be made up of the reserves and players from the Championship and we would be struggling to get back up the following season.

[stevietoon 0]

I think they have skewed the article in saying that we're in financial difficulty. We are no-where near the overspend of some of the top 4 clubs. However, if you look at it from another perspective, "doing a Leeds/Wednesday/City/Forest/Coventry" is the situation of a big club being relegated from the top flight, losing a host of players and having to rebuild over a period of years and in the wake of it all, possibly suffering a further relegation from the Championship. I think if we did go down, unless new owners with cash came in, we could be in freefall. The first team would be made up of the reserves and players from the Championship and we would be struggling to get back up the following season.

 

there is every possibility we turn into a leeds i or a sheff wed if we get relegated. by that i mean that we dont come straight back up. we then start to reduce costs on the playimng side and find that other clubs in that division and leaner and meaner than us or that they use their parachute payments better because their financial position allows them to. i agree with what your saying; enscewd article but still possble - the R word

[scotty84 0]

Lazy journalism of the worst sort. There is no next leeds. They were operating way beyotheir means. We are not. They also did not own their most valuable assets. We dont have any valuable assets lol. Seriously we might get relegated but we have a huge stadium and relatively little debt in comparison to thers. A real leeds type scenario could await Arsenal if they dont make the champions league this season. or man utd when Sir Alex does retire with their debt if they get someone in who takes a while to settle in they could be fucked.

 

Oh you're right, every morning I wake up and think...."thank fuck Im not a Gooner" then I look at the league table and chuckle to myself at the poor deluded fools that follow Man U. Little do they know what shit lies ahead for them....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i agree with the arsenal statement, if they don't make the champions league there going to be in a fiar bit of bother money wise, but these days all you do is get some billionaire tycoon to buy you out and its as easy as pie. It will be interesting how much the credit crunch effects manUre with the glazers and needing a new sponser n all, but again with a club that size i hardly think the're going to go into free fall with or without fergie

[Hadrian 0]

fuckin ashley proganda and jfk quotes mike pays wage bill ? what the **** do we do then ? and sponsors ? and the tv money we get ,

 

all it ever took mike was 50mill , you have lost that gambling on shares and roulette(probably) . and lost 2 billion (bullshit)

we had stadum , half decent squad and all it took was smart investment into equity ,

 

altho , a few digs at ashley and support from toon army in that article .. ish

Edited January 31, 2009 by Hadrian

[Park Life 71]

Melodramatic shizzle. I think we're undoubtedly in a mess and people are disillusioned but there's no prospect of us 'doing a Leeds' imo. I'm hoping a flurry of late signings and we can turn the corner starting on Sunday. I don't know why but I'm starting to feel optimistic again. No doubt that'll get knocked out of me soon enough, it's the Newcastle way

 

More tea vicar?

[Fop 1]

Lazy journalism of the worst sort. There is no next leeds. They were operating way beyotheir means. We are not. They also did not own their most valuable assets. We dont have any valuable assets lol. Seriously we might get relegated but we have a huge stadium and relatively little debt in comparison to thers. A real leeds type scenario could await Arsenal if they dont make the champions league this season. or man utd when Sir Alex does retire with their debt if they get someone in who takes a while to settle in they could be fucked.

 

If we get relegated I'll be surprised to see a repeat of the Keegan era, we might just get stuck in the Championship or just become another yoyo club.

 

Which maybe some would say is our level, but we stood toe to toe with Man U commercially not so very long ago.