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Opinion

That is it I’m afraid…I have got to the point where enough is enough with Newcastle United

5 years ago
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There’s only so much anyone can take with Newcastle United. It’s easy to react in such a way after any defeat but all things considered, time is just about up.

On the football side of things, I don’t always agree with Rafa, some of his subs are strange, but he is easily the most qualified to pass judgement on what he sees on the pitch. A top manager fighting against the flow.

To his detractors I ask, who would you like in his place…Steve Bruce? Sam Allardyce? Mark Hughes? Dennis Wise?

If I were Rafa and by some miracle we are safe with a game or more to spare, I’d resign at the end of that particular game and release a written statement and be off for an early holiday on the Costas, waiting for the phone to ring with a job offer from another team. There wouldn’t be a very long wait.

He need not worry about us Newcastle fans, we always would be in for a far longer wait to see better days. His head held high at manfully tackling the task in hand, trying to turn this madhouse into a professional football club. Something the owner doesn’t care about.

And to those who continue to suck at the teat of Mike Ashley as some sort of saviour from the club ‘doing a Leeds’, I ask the question, could we be any worse off?

Yes we have a Premier league club, for now… And would any other owner do better?

I would advance the opinion, they could hardly do any worse if they deliberately tried to.

Grateful for Mike Ashley? Do me a favour. It would take a special form of idiocy to bankrupt a football club post-2007 with the vast money flooding in from TV deals, so any alleged debt that Ashley found upon arrival is a moot point, it is how you manage it. He’s a businessman, he should know, that is if he wants to manage it properly.

This running down of Newcastle United is deliberate, intentional and benefits one man: Michael Wallace Ashley.

To anyone who points fingers at the manager, and not the owner who refuses to allow sufficient money to be spent, there’s a simple solution, give Rafa a sizable budget over two summer windows, no strings attached. Fail after that and he would have nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, nobody to blame. It won’t happen, but until it does, the problem at the club will remain, Mike Ashley.

The biggest problem to befall any football club is apathy. When supporters simply don’t care it’s a sure-fire sign that they’ve given up and after Saturday’s FA cup tie, I had that awful feeling of not actually being bothered about the defeat. Put simply, it doesn’t hurt anymore. It was water off a duck’s back.

Back when we had Alan Shearer leading the line and banging goals in, with Shay Given between the sticks, the team was solid from back to front.

We had Robert and Nobby on the flanks, Speedo in the middle with a supporting cast of Bellamy, Dyer, Jenas and the rest. Any defeat would linger for days, the mood would be doom and gloom. Engaging in conversation with me used to be torture after a defeat.

Not now, it’s often a relief when the game is over: win, lose or draw. Years gone by it would be a case of moving the conversation on, talk about whatever else you like, anything to avoid the football. Not now, not now, I can talk about it at length as it doesn’t matter. I’m past caring.

So if Rio Ferdinand and his ilk are accurate in their assumption that we should be thankful to Saint Mike, then yes, thank you Mike, thank you very much.

Come the last game of the season in May, my active backing of Newcastle United will come to an end, not a reflection on the manager or the team, but a simple case of cause and effect. If the cause of my unhappiness/lack of enjoyment is still owning this football club and a World class manager has inevitably walked, I won’t be back.

It doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s become accepted. It will also be time to save some money/grief and find something else to do on a Saturday afternoon. Not giving up on hoping the team does well, but getting a life, I think it’s called.

Many thanks and a personal f… you to Mike Ashley.
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