Why can some fans still not see how cynically Mike Ashley is spinning them?
Mike Ashley has the heads of Newcastle fans spinning round quicker than anything that was seen in the Exorcist.
He doesn’t have a single intention of doing anything in a fit and proper manner, whether it is Newcastle United, Sports Direct, Rangers, or anywhere else he gets his claws into.
Monday saw it made public that the Newcastle board, minus Steve McClaren, had met in York.
If anybody thinks that this was a scoop for any newspaper or TV channel thanks to canny detective work, think again.
Instead of Moncur and Charnley getting on a train from Newcastle Central Station, they could have jumped in a car and gone anywhere to meet Graham Carr and Ashley’s spin doctor, Keith Bishop. No doubt word was given to favoured journalists that this meeting was/had taken place, just to make sure everybody found out.
Raising hopes that a proper manager would be appointed on the back of this dynamic action by the club and Steve McClaren given the boot.
All the time the club play this out in public, it has always been the way in the past and always will be in the future seemingly.
This afternoon you have the club’s media partner Sky Sports announcing that Lee Charnley and Steve McClaren are having a crunch meeting this (Wednesday) afternoon.
How do they know this unless the club tell them so?!!
Even the most trusting of supporters must then question why the club are acting in this way, surely if they were wanting to appoint somebody else and get rid of McClaren they would just get on and do it – not bother posting a daily timetable of what is (supposedly) happening.
I find this playing of the fans by Mike Ashley just as demoralising as the feeble showing of the players on the pitch.
What is the point of telling everybody that Charnley and McClaren are meeting?
The two of them work only a few miles apart, they could meet any time, anywhere, in private without it being a story on Sky Sports.
Speaking of which, another episode of this public shambles/fake activity saw Sky reveal that Steve McClaren’s pre-Leicester press conference had been postponed on Thursday.
Once again, why tell the world this. They could easily have done that tomorrow morning (they aren’t averse to messing the rest of the media around usually), or if there was any serious intention to try and replace Steve McClaren, they could have left that media opportunity in place to potentially reveal Rafa Benitez, David Moyes or Brendan Rodgers tomorrow….
Something else I haven’t seen mentioned by media in regard to this set of tactics aimed at seemingly humiliating McClaren even further, is just what the likes of Rodgers, Moyes or whoever would make of it.
Yes we really want you to be our next manager/head coach and just look at how we treat the current mug!
Never mind fiddling while Rome burns, Ashley and his minions are spinning wildly while Newcastle crash and burn into the Championship and possibly beyond.
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