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Newcastle with 3 wins in 25 matches under John Carver

9 years ago
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With 2 wins in 10 first team matches under John Carver, I thought I’d have a look below the top level to see what we had coming through and give me a lift for the future.

I wish I hadn’t.

(To feature like Dale, send in your articles for our website to contribute@themag.co.uk – all views are the author’s own etc etc)

For the vast majority of supporters, the departure of Alan Pardew was a massive relief, the club stagnating with poor results and style of football, a fresh start was desperately needed.

Never did we think that Mike Ashley and his minions would decide that after (allegedly) scouring the world, they actually already had the ideal candidate right under their noses.

So we have seen John  Carver promoted. Despite understandable reservations, fans hoped for the best that things would be different.

Instead, we have seen more of the same. Defensive football, conceding the majority of possession willingly, seven changes and all the best players left out of the FA Cup match at Leaicester, desperate set-pieces in terms of attacking and defending them, poor results and uninspiring football.

Not the biggest surprise in reality when you take into account John Carver was working with Alan Pardew throughout his time at St. James’ Park.

Why should things have been different?

Particularly when not a single player was brought in during January and they actually sold and loaned out players at the same time.

So after going through the matches since Pardew departed we have the following results:

First Team: Played 10 Won 2

Under 21s: Played 8 Won 0

Under 18s: Played 7 Won 1

Total of Played 25 Won 3

There appears to be a malaise right through the club and despite noises from the club and friendly press about the possibility of great players coming through in the future, the recent results don’t fill me with hope.

Just out of interest I thought I’d look at what happened in the period before Alan Pardew left and it gave the following results:

First Team: Played 10 Won 4

Under 21s: Played 8 Won 6

Under 18s: Played 7 Won 4

Total of Played 25 Won 14

(*** There is also the FA Youth Cup which has slightly different age criteria I understand and the results in that competition this season have been 1 win in 1 game under Pardew. Then 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat under Carver in normal time, though teh draw was converted into a win against Sunderland in a penalty shoot-out)

Now in no way do I think it was a negative that Alan Pardew left but the stats above suggest a club in serious need of needing to be sorted out.

It is all very well promoting internally but only IF the people are up to the job.

Carver, Steve Stone, Dave Watson and no doubt others have all been given more responsibility (though probably no more cash if Ashley is involved!) but the results suggest that it has helped lead to a collapse throughout the club. Possibly a reflection of just what a shoestring the whole operation is run on compared to elsewhere.

When you consider that the two most senior staff and only Directors (other than Ashley) at the club, Lee Charnley and John Irving, have never ever worked at another professional football club, you do wonder just what expertise there is throughout Newcastle United compared to our ‘rivals’.

It is not just massive investment in the squad that is needed to help turn Newcastle United around in the summer, without the right levels of expertise and experience off the pitch in terms of those running the club and the coaching side, United could be in for major problems ahead.

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