Posts Tagged ‘Newcastle United’

Sniffer Nose 30/03/10: Leeds United, Burnley, Shrewsbury Town, Ipswich Town, Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Swindon Town, Sheffield United.

Mar 30th, 10 / Comments Off

 

This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.

Hidden within the myriad of idiocy that is the Leeds United news merry-go-round last week was a comment from Simon Grayson indicating that all discussions with players whose contracts were ending had stopped until season’s end. Well you can see why, poor Shaun Harvey and Gwyn Williams can’t possibly discuss terms and conditions whilst they have all the important work to do in the last 8 game run-in, like discuss terms and conditions! Of course this unique style of man management where you incentivise all your players to seek Bosman’s is also copied elsewhere, the mighty Crewe Alexandra are also using this template of the successful, financially secure club (although to be fair to Dario Gradi he is doing the equivalent of Grayson’s, Harvey’s and Williams job at Gresty Road). Bottom line is Marques, Ankergran, Hughes, Somma and Judas are on their way out, Dickov and McSheffrey have nowt to come from us come season end and Doyle and Lowry are going back (thankfully). The amount of ins and outs to come at Elland Road this summer, regardless of which division we are in, will rival that of Burnley.

Turf Moor will be an interesting place once relegation is confirmed, what with Brian “1 win in 10” Laws trying to convince the board he can bounce the club straight back up, regardless of the fact nearly all of the present squad will want to leave pronto, it could be an interesting time for outsiders to observe. One of the things we may spot is how little home grown talent is available for the Championship campaign. It is one of life’s great mysteries as to why promoted clubs take on another 15 overpaid professionals (most of which usually have a track record of relegation) and immediately stifle any prospect of a decent young player making a break-through. Oh for a club that gets promoted into the PL and just buys a couple of players to go with what took them up and allows players to progress through!

Meanwhile in Shropshire the stirrings of discontent can be clear heard from the Shrewsbury Town direction. It seems the new stadium and a couple of flirtations with the play-offs have created that old monster expectation in that quiet part of the world. I confess to not being sure how to react, on the one hand there is no reason why the club shouldn’t aim to replicate its 1980’s status as a side in the second tier but equally perhaps the fans should remember they dropped into the Conference not so long ago. The question is this, can Paul Simpson do any more with the players and resources he has? If the answers no then the abuse he complained about this week isn’t worth the effort is it? Speaking of effort, the amount Ipswich Town have to put in to deny “Roy Keane to get sacked this week” stories is astonishing.

The problem at Portman Road stems from Keane’s own reputation. After bailing from Sunderland because he got bored he attracts the attention every time the job looks tricky. This site has suggested before that if a club gives a manager a 3 year target they have to let them use that time. Keane, whether through ability of luck has just done enough to avoid relegation and as such it’s now up to Keane to rectify whatever wasn’t right this season. Constant press speculation isn’t helpful but to be fair the amount of press attention Keane generates can’t be all bad for the club, although they would have to go some to match the amount Newcastle United can generate.

So to clarify, one of your players is in hospital with a wired up jaw because of an assault that had nothing to do with why the club pays the two local boys involved. Got to be said, how Carroll isn’t up for another criminal charge to go with the one he is already facing beggars belief but much worse than that Taylor has to witness Newcastle acting like West Ham did when Hartson so publically attacked his team-mate. When are clubs going to stop indulging thugs and start sacking them?

The sack would be too good for the likes of Portsmouth’s “footballing consultant” Peter Storrie. I look forward to his advice to the administrator after relegation is confirmed and the PL pass on to the FL the dossier than would have made Chainrai fail a “fit and proper” test had the PL had the balls to do one. The problem for Chainrai is that he needs to close the book on all the infighing and intrege around Pompey but that can only happen if he re-buys the club and that opens up a whole new can of worms. The administrator, Andrew Andronikou has been laying the ground work for Chainrai to become official owner; we shall see how the FL reacts.

In the Championship next season Portsmouth could play the club Andronikou last was administrator for, Swindon Town. Notwithstanding the complications of the L1 promotion race one can only marvel at the job Danny Wilson has done at the County Ground. He even saw something in Jonathan Douglas that we never saw in 160 appearances. Wilson must have loved the win at Hartlepool last week given how they ignored his record and dismissed him. Sometimes a manager needs a couple of jobs to get his ability back on track and in this case well done Mr Wilson. Some other managers however could get a million jobs and still be rubbish.

Competition time, who does this quote belong to? “It’s a big rebuilding job here. Let’s get real – you can’t keep [making progress] with part-time staff. There’s only nine players left at the end of the season. Seven who played on Sunday won’t be here in a few weeks. People criticise knowing the problems there are here you get frustrated because you know how great the club is and what’s expected. I know what the fans want because I want exactly the same”. Leeds United and Luton Town fans disqualified because they will have heard it all before from the best Mr Delusion in football management history.

The Other 91 Basket Cases

Sniffer Nose 26/01/10: Leeds United, Newcastle United, Chelsea.

Jan 26th, 10 / Comments Off

 

This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.

The 10 games that matter.

The home defeat last night for Charlton Athletic couldn’t have been better timed from a Leeds United perspective. Tonight’s game with Swindon Town starts a 10 game period between now and the end of February which could define the whole season. The Spurs replay speaks for itself in terms of importance and by his previous team selection and post match comments Grayson is committed to a strong line up in the JPT 2nd leg game. That leaves 8 league games in which we need to reproduce the pre Old Trafford form to ensure any concerns about promotion, generated by the recent league dip, are short lived. 8 games is a lot of points to win or lose in such a short time period, nothing is decided yet.

Given that we will enter this period with the squad that entered the new year, and if anything a couple of people, like Robinson and Huntingdon, are more likely to leave than we are to add anyone (Gradel’s signing, another “undisclosed fee” that makes you suspect the transfer fund is low, will ensure the best we can expect between now and February 1st is maybe another loan in) Leeds need to take a pragmatic approach to this vital period. For me it’s a simple equation, 4 points out of every 6, win at home, draw away. Obviously the league fixtures don’t come out that way always but in essence if we have 73 or more points at full time after Huddersfield away, then we have really cemented the climb out of this horrid division.

However if we replicate Wycombe or Exeter the wobbles can only increase, tonight is where we have to start that pragmatism, I’ll take a draw.

Seeing it through.

A little nugget that didn’t quite get the publicity it perhaps should have was a story suggesting Newcastle United were to install a policy of a unofficial maximum wage for any players signed of £30k a week (and that apparently is the PL level not the consequence of staying in the CCC). Before the chorus of criticism starts, that is still being paid £1.5m a year for being a 44 game a season mid-table player, times that by 30 professionals then you still have a first team squad wage bill of £45m (or the same as it was at Elland Road in 2002). Notwithstanding the clear relationship between madness wages and PL debt levels some will suggest such a policy amounts to a limit on the quality of player they attract, perhaps but it also has the potential for being ground-breaking in bringing some sanity back to PL finances,

Obviously the words sanity and Mike Ashley are not usually used in the same sentence but as this site has suggested before the godfather of the cockney mafia is not as stupid as some would have you believe. It looks like Ashley has decided to install some of the business practices that helped him make his millions, the lower profile he has achieved suggest some lessons have been learnt. Should the toons achieve promotion back to the “promised land” at the first time of asking the temptation to fudge that policy and have it as “an average” will as likely as not be succumbed to but even then that will still be a significant change not only for that club but the whole culture of that division.

Once one club starts the process the ripple effect could well kick in and soon enough average PL players will have a simple choice, a decent millionaires wage at Newcastle and other clubs that reign wages in or potential unemployment!

Top heavy.

Interestingly the quickest way to cut down on overall wage levels is to have more home grown players that have progressed out of the youth system. Teams like Arsenal and West Ham United show what can be achieved in this respect, some others, like Chelsea seem not to have the slightest idea how to balance between £100k+ a week “superstars” and promising youngsters. Even when playing Preston in the cup only Terry (now on £150k a week) was brought through the ranks and that was a decade ago. The likes of Taiwo and Sinclair are either sold on or loaned on, this hardly looks like the investment in Frank Arnesen has paid off!

In some respects I shouldn’t care what the consequences of this is for Chelsea, if they continue to need being bailed to the tune of £80m a year by sleight of hand equity deals then at some point an implosion is inevitable. But something else is at stake, not just the future of clubs or even the future of young footballers, it’s about aspiration, if you make the odds of a local kid getting into a London team playing in the PL almost impossible that will start to affect how the whole game is perceived. Without the process of development, where lads from normal lives can dream of playing for the club they support, there is no soul.

I detest Manchester United for lots of valid reasons but so far the one thing they can show which Chelsea can’t is a commitment to developing youngsters regardless of how profligate they are elsewhere.

The Other 91 Basket Cases

Leeds United: Beckford forcing the issue?

Jan 5th, 10 / Comments Off

 

The following quote is taken from today’s Journal (Newcastle based paper):

“Leeds United have told Jermaine they will allow him to leave as soon as they get an acceptable bid from Newcastle.

“There is still a bit of work to be done in that respect, but they realise he wants to go and it is not beneficial to anyone to keep an unhappy player against his will.

“Jermaine wants to go and he has made that clear. Nobody wants to see the situation turn nasty between club and player so it should be resolved amicably in the end. Jermaine has given his all to Leeds but chances like this don’t come around very often.”

If the quotes are really from “a source close to” (i.e. his agent Rubery) then Beckford goes from Hero to Zero in record time.

Edited to add a link with the quotes in: http://www.nufcblog.org/2010/01/and-were-off-toon-submit-bids-to-leeds-and-sheffield-united

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