Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Robin van Persie for Arsenal (v Newcastle United), 30 August 2008

So, as a surprise to basically no-one outside the North East, Kevin Keegan has today parted company with Newcastle United.

I actually feel a bit sorry for King Kev. With a wafer thin squad, the club's decision to flog James Milner to Aston Viller and bring in an untried Uruguayan and a striker who, the season before last, was on loan in the Spanish second division hardly smacks of a brilliant transfer policy.

To be fair, the appointment of Dennis Wise as Chief Transfer Person was utter lunacy in the first place - a bit like giving me the job of presenting Top Gear as I drove a Volkswagen Polo once. Wise was a tenacious but ultimately limited talent (and, let us remember, an idiot) and so what qualified him to be put in charge of a multi million transfer policy? Plucked as he was from the job of managing a third division club on limited resources, it hardly smacked of having an address book full of international contacts, did it?

And then there are the people who run the club. Fresh from the embarrassment of Freddie Shepherd and his cronies the club got a clueless beer-swilling idiot who appears to want Newcastle to be challenging for the Champions League without having to open his chequebook.

I'm sorry, Newcastle fans, but your club has yet again been made to look ridiculous in front of everyone. Parting company with your manager the day after transfer deadline day is not really that attractive a proposition to a potential new coach, is it? Having to work with a tiny (and frankly not terribly talented) squad will be a completely thankless task. I suspect Wise himself will get the job, and if he's the sort of calibre manager your club is looking to attract then it is going to be a very, very long ten months indeed.

6 comments:

swisslet said...

apparently they haven't sacked him and he's still there. Christ, I think botching the sacking might be even worse than trying to get rid of him in the first place. They can't even do that right.

Wise and Ashley are playing a dangerous game if they think this is a sensible move. If hiring KK is the way to get the doubting fans behind you in the first place, firing him is hardly wise.

Dear oh dear.

Bless him, but I even admire KK's stance on Joey Barton, as it shows him to be a man who is prepared to believe the best in people when precious few others would. Bollocks to football, that marks him out as a decent human being full stop, if you ask me.

Dennis Wise though? WTF?

ST

ian said...

"oh no they haven't"

I do love the regular Pantoonmime, but isn't it a bit early?

Mosher said...

Like the above I just don't have a clue what's going on. OK, they've announced they've not sacked him... but does that mean he's still there and that the meeting was a usual (if heated) one and the press blew everything up (for a change).

Or does it mean he's walked out and they're formally stating that he did so to ensure that they don't have to pay him a termination fee?

Will someone please think of the children^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hfans?!

Shane said...

The tone of Radio 5's on-location coverage - 'has he, hasn't he', 'my highly reliable sources tell me that he has', 'as you can hear in the background, fans are gathering...' and so on - suggested that the programme makers would be satisfied with nothing less than a baying mob storming reception and setting the place alight, whilst chanting 'Toon Army'.

Loosely related to the latest KK saga, this past transfer deadline day has been altogether alienating (in terms of top level football). I feel the late £183 purchase of a Port Vale season ticket coming on (really).

Ben said...

You spoke too soon, LB, as did quite a few others - not entirely sure why I clung to the hope that it hadn't actually happened, but I did. Of course, patching things up from here would still be extremely difficult, and the ongoing talks may yet break down.

Paul said...

i have to agree with Shane. How 5 Live managed to string out "We know nothing, but neither does anyone else" out for the best part of two hours is beyond me. Chuff knows how poor the programme schedule was that they dropped almost everything else for two hours in the rain outside St James Park.