In the mid 1960's according to the musical Hair we entered the age of Aquarius and now with McCain and Palin forming the Republican Presidential ticket, Peter Mandelson returning to the Cabinet of beleaguered Prime Minister Brown and Keegan, Ashley, Wise and now Joe Kinnear at Newcastle we can be said to have returned to the age of the Maverick, the Creative.
I was up in time to listen to the Sunday Supplement reveal that when he attended his first press conference, Joe Kinnear, went at specific journalists who had ridiculed his appointment with a torrent of swearing. In most circumstances he should have been sacked. However the point about Keegan is that he is a Maverick as much heart as head and that is true in relation to Joe who like Keegan was out of the game for several years and therefore out of touch with the market and the way the dressing home has changed with players all millionaires and only prepared to submit to authority they can respect. The present team has loss confidence and has only one natural goal scorer. The new defence has not worked so far and critics agree that so far this season apart from the performance at Manchester United they have look a team that will struggle to reach mid table whoever is in charge, Keegan knew this and this is why be became so angry when for whatever reason the club failed to provide the players in the pre season transfer market. So he had worked with the players for a week and done the talk and now he had to sit in the stands because of an inherited ban from the pitch side. We would all be able to see the situation when he faced poor start Everton who had not year won a home this season on Sky at four this afternoon.
More importantly the programme revealed the gap between Michael Ashley's objectives when he bought the club and the aspirations of the 50000 who packed the stadium. The programme also revealed the ignorance and bias of some sports writers and their contempt for the average football supporter.
Lets begin with the reality. Newcastle was an average club well supported, but included a significant number of racist yobs, reflecting Newcastle as a City in the sixties and seventies, industrial working class, anti education, anti middle class culture and excessively tribal. The club had a number of tough and pushy centre forwards who went down well with the core fans. A good crowd was 30000. Two men were responsible for getting the crowd over 40000 to the 52000 when the stadium was completed. More than this the club was able to sell all its season tickets and at one point to have a waiting list in thousands. Tickets for homes games became gold dust and the club became the fans second favourite club after their own. The reason for this was the style of play under Kevin Keegan and his charismatic leadership, But the man who had the vision, the drive and the money to create the stage for the dream was Sir John Hall, also a Maverick and someone who I once met with his son and son in law.
The departure of Kevin Keegan was a great blow, but unlike his departures from Fulham, Man City and England there was regret and sadness at what might have been rather than anger. The appointment of Bobby Robson was seen an as attempt to reconnect the club and fans and for a time he was successful with both. However there were those who wanted nothing less than the championship win where Keegan had come so close. It was Robson's departure so early in the season which marked the effective end of the dream, and also heralded the fundamental change in British football with the arrival of the billionaire willing pay £1000000 a week wages and endorse cheques of £10, £20 and £30 million to bring to the premiership the best players in the world. From the commencement of the twentieth century it was apparent that only a handful of clubs would be able to command the attention of the best players because of that combination of financial backing, theatrical stadium, media and public interest and ability to perform every year in European as well as English competitions.
There are now three options facing those clubs who do not have these ingredients. Sell the club to someone or an organisation with the necessary funding which is what has happened at Manchester City.
You can buy one or two known and experienced world class players and attempt to build round them a mixture of experience and youthful promise, hoping to gain sufficient points to have a chance of making the second European competitions direct or through winning one of the two domestic cup competitions. There was a hint this morning that Keegan wanted to bring Beckham back to England and United or someone similar who would help the crown to get through an otherwise moderate season. Home supporters might expect to win at least a third of the home games and draw the majority of the rest, winning at least once in the most important local derby and giving the big four or five a good game and a surprising win. The season ticket holders need to feel that their investment in time and money and in all weathers and times to suit TV has been justified.
There is a third way which requires the confidence of Board and supporters to take a long term view as there is no attempt to achieve a quick fix. You commence to build a team from scratch, knowing that you will not attract big name players until you are to have more than one season at a time in Europe. Such teams have to be greater than the sum of the individual parts. A key aspect I the creation of an effective world wide scouting structure finding the young men as early as possible and bring them into the academy or directly into the playing squad. The two most successful managers in British Football of the last two decades have accomplished this more than once at the same club, Ferguson at Manchester United and Wenger at Arsenal.
In their instance, they did it themselves with appropriate help and neither would have tolerated a Director of Football acting for the Owner Chairman Board. The truth of the matter is that when Ashley bought the club he may have had this approach in mind or may have been persuaded to adopt this approach but he failed to communicate with club and more importantly its supporters. He anticipated bringing Harry Redknapp which could have worked except Harry had too much sense to buy into the operation whether he knew who would become the Director of football or not. The second decision was to appoint Kevin Keegan, cashing in on the brand name and supporter's enthusiasm, but h also must of known he needed to take Kevin with his plans or he would walk away. He was a maverick in the business world and is among football club owners and demonstrates the problem that when Mavericks foul up there are no half measures. He is said to be intent on selling the club although there would be more belief in anything's said on his behalf if he had not misrepresented the physical threat to himself and his family and inflated the asking price which despite the alleged reduction is said to want to make a profit in the tens of millions of pounds. So much for putting personal money into the club and wanting what was best for the club and supporters. To the sports writer who attempted to defend the indefensible I would remind that the road to hell is always paved with good intentions, but also leads to eternal damnation if the intentions are not good ones.
When this afternoon/s game commenced t was quickly evident that there were two desperate team who were throwing caution to the winds. Newcastle were two down with half time in sight and it seemed that Everton had won the gamble and Newcastle defeat and disaster. However they fought on and scored either side of the half, goals which the Manager did not see as he was making his way to or from the dressing room from his position in the stand. Both teams had the opportunity to win the match which ended in a an honourable draw and with Spurs beaten at home again by Hull of all teams, Newcastle was able to climb a place but remain in the bottom relegation three. Hill is now is the top three. Liverpool managed to score three goals in the second half to win at Man City. Joe Kinnear also lives to fight anther day.
Being Sunday it was also a day for political commentators to assess the impact of what has happened across the pond and at home. The decision of the USA Congress to ratify the Presidential plan to write the toxic loans featured. That is the loans which bankers should never have made and from which they made great personal profit, may or may not work and is not an approach which either the Prime Minister or Shadow leader would support in the UK unless there was no alternative. Far greater attention was directed to the reappointment of Peter Mandelson to the Government, a man who is said to have masterminded the first two Labour Government victories at the Polls and also had an important say in the third. The Tory party, caught out by the dramatic collapse of confidence between banks and between banks, government and the people were floored by the appointment of Mandelson, nearly as much he was when approached as late as the day before the announcement. He is said to have consulted Tony Blair before agreeing. Yesterday/Today the press was briefed that within the past weeks Mandelson had dropped anti Prime Minister poison to the opposition. This was immediately denied by Mandelson who said the cause of the story was likely to have been a conversation between him and the Tory Shadow Chancellor on a Greek Island in which they had both talked politics and political personalities. He reminded Mr Osborn that he would never reveal such comments, this taking the high ground and serving a warning shot that he is no lightweight and from now on he is joined at the hip with Mr Brown and the government. This also a good warning to those on the left of the party and those continuing to plan a coup on Mr Brown that from the moment of the decision to accept the invitation he is now in the corner of Mr Brown I have said that Mr Brown needed a miracle to survive. He has just created one.
I was up in time to listen to the Sunday Supplement reveal that when he attended his first press conference, Joe Kinnear, went at specific journalists who had ridiculed his appointment with a torrent of swearing. In most circumstances he should have been sacked. However the point about Keegan is that he is a Maverick as much heart as head and that is true in relation to Joe who like Keegan was out of the game for several years and therefore out of touch with the market and the way the dressing home has changed with players all millionaires and only prepared to submit to authority they can respect. The present team has loss confidence and has only one natural goal scorer. The new defence has not worked so far and critics agree that so far this season apart from the performance at Manchester United they have look a team that will struggle to reach mid table whoever is in charge, Keegan knew this and this is why be became so angry when for whatever reason the club failed to provide the players in the pre season transfer market. So he had worked with the players for a week and done the talk and now he had to sit in the stands because of an inherited ban from the pitch side. We would all be able to see the situation when he faced poor start Everton who had not year won a home this season on Sky at four this afternoon.
More importantly the programme revealed the gap between Michael Ashley's objectives when he bought the club and the aspirations of the 50000 who packed the stadium. The programme also revealed the ignorance and bias of some sports writers and their contempt for the average football supporter.
Lets begin with the reality. Newcastle was an average club well supported, but included a significant number of racist yobs, reflecting Newcastle as a City in the sixties and seventies, industrial working class, anti education, anti middle class culture and excessively tribal. The club had a number of tough and pushy centre forwards who went down well with the core fans. A good crowd was 30000. Two men were responsible for getting the crowd over 40000 to the 52000 when the stadium was completed. More than this the club was able to sell all its season tickets and at one point to have a waiting list in thousands. Tickets for homes games became gold dust and the club became the fans second favourite club after their own. The reason for this was the style of play under Kevin Keegan and his charismatic leadership, But the man who had the vision, the drive and the money to create the stage for the dream was Sir John Hall, also a Maverick and someone who I once met with his son and son in law.
The departure of Kevin Keegan was a great blow, but unlike his departures from Fulham, Man City and England there was regret and sadness at what might have been rather than anger. The appointment of Bobby Robson was seen an as attempt to reconnect the club and fans and for a time he was successful with both. However there were those who wanted nothing less than the championship win where Keegan had come so close. It was Robson's departure so early in the season which marked the effective end of the dream, and also heralded the fundamental change in British football with the arrival of the billionaire willing pay £1000000 a week wages and endorse cheques of £10, £20 and £30 million to bring to the premiership the best players in the world. From the commencement of the twentieth century it was apparent that only a handful of clubs would be able to command the attention of the best players because of that combination of financial backing, theatrical stadium, media and public interest and ability to perform every year in European as well as English competitions.
There are now three options facing those clubs who do not have these ingredients. Sell the club to someone or an organisation with the necessary funding which is what has happened at Manchester City.
You can buy one or two known and experienced world class players and attempt to build round them a mixture of experience and youthful promise, hoping to gain sufficient points to have a chance of making the second European competitions direct or through winning one of the two domestic cup competitions. There was a hint this morning that Keegan wanted to bring Beckham back to England and United or someone similar who would help the crown to get through an otherwise moderate season. Home supporters might expect to win at least a third of the home games and draw the majority of the rest, winning at least once in the most important local derby and giving the big four or five a good game and a surprising win. The season ticket holders need to feel that their investment in time and money and in all weathers and times to suit TV has been justified.
There is a third way which requires the confidence of Board and supporters to take a long term view as there is no attempt to achieve a quick fix. You commence to build a team from scratch, knowing that you will not attract big name players until you are to have more than one season at a time in Europe. Such teams have to be greater than the sum of the individual parts. A key aspect I the creation of an effective world wide scouting structure finding the young men as early as possible and bring them into the academy or directly into the playing squad. The two most successful managers in British Football of the last two decades have accomplished this more than once at the same club, Ferguson at Manchester United and Wenger at Arsenal.
In their instance, they did it themselves with appropriate help and neither would have tolerated a Director of Football acting for the Owner Chairman Board. The truth of the matter is that when Ashley bought the club he may have had this approach in mind or may have been persuaded to adopt this approach but he failed to communicate with club and more importantly its supporters. He anticipated bringing Harry Redknapp which could have worked except Harry had too much sense to buy into the operation whether he knew who would become the Director of football or not. The second decision was to appoint Kevin Keegan, cashing in on the brand name and supporter's enthusiasm, but h also must of known he needed to take Kevin with his plans or he would walk away. He was a maverick in the business world and is among football club owners and demonstrates the problem that when Mavericks foul up there are no half measures. He is said to be intent on selling the club although there would be more belief in anything's said on his behalf if he had not misrepresented the physical threat to himself and his family and inflated the asking price which despite the alleged reduction is said to want to make a profit in the tens of millions of pounds. So much for putting personal money into the club and wanting what was best for the club and supporters. To the sports writer who attempted to defend the indefensible I would remind that the road to hell is always paved with good intentions, but also leads to eternal damnation if the intentions are not good ones.
When this afternoon/s game commenced t was quickly evident that there were two desperate team who were throwing caution to the winds. Newcastle were two down with half time in sight and it seemed that Everton had won the gamble and Newcastle defeat and disaster. However they fought on and scored either side of the half, goals which the Manager did not see as he was making his way to or from the dressing room from his position in the stand. Both teams had the opportunity to win the match which ended in a an honourable draw and with Spurs beaten at home again by Hull of all teams, Newcastle was able to climb a place but remain in the bottom relegation three. Hill is now is the top three. Liverpool managed to score three goals in the second half to win at Man City. Joe Kinnear also lives to fight anther day.
Being Sunday it was also a day for political commentators to assess the impact of what has happened across the pond and at home. The decision of the USA Congress to ratify the Presidential plan to write the toxic loans featured. That is the loans which bankers should never have made and from which they made great personal profit, may or may not work and is not an approach which either the Prime Minister or Shadow leader would support in the UK unless there was no alternative. Far greater attention was directed to the reappointment of Peter Mandelson to the Government, a man who is said to have masterminded the first two Labour Government victories at the Polls and also had an important say in the third. The Tory party, caught out by the dramatic collapse of confidence between banks and between banks, government and the people were floored by the appointment of Mandelson, nearly as much he was when approached as late as the day before the announcement. He is said to have consulted Tony Blair before agreeing. Yesterday/Today the press was briefed that within the past weeks Mandelson had dropped anti Prime Minister poison to the opposition. This was immediately denied by Mandelson who said the cause of the story was likely to have been a conversation between him and the Tory Shadow Chancellor on a Greek Island in which they had both talked politics and political personalities. He reminded Mr Osborn that he would never reveal such comments, this taking the high ground and serving a warning shot that he is no lightweight and from now on he is joined at the hip with Mr Brown and the government. This also a good warning to those on the left of the party and those continuing to plan a coup on Mr Brown that from the moment of the decision to accept the invitation he is now in the corner of Mr Brown I have said that Mr Brown needed a miracle to survive. He has just created one.
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