So what does go on in the Physio Room at Newcastle United? If you search the internet for ‘Physio Room League Table’ you will find one Premiership table that Newcastle have regularly topped over the last few seasons. We are consistently the Premiership club with the most players out injured at any one time.
Anyone doubting the sense in heavily investing in the physio room only has to look at the Michael Owen situation to see how quickly you would get a return on your cash if you could successfully manage the fitness of your players.
Assuming that Owen does not play at all this season, he will have cost us around £16 million in transfer fees and £10 million in salary over 2 years, totalling £26 million. During this period he has played 11 matches and scored 7 goals. So, Newcastle United have paid £2.3 million for each match that Owen has played, and £3.7 million for each goal Owen has scored.
There are other examples in recent times of similar injury situations with expensive signings.
Carl Cort springs to mind as a young striker signed by Bobby Robson in 2000 who cost £7 million and after off-loading him to Wolves in 2003 he had only played 28 matches and scored 8 goals having spent most of his time whilst at Newcastle in the physio room.
Then there is the famous case of Spanish international defender Marcelino, whom we signed for £5.8 million in 1996 and was on our books until 2003, during which period he claimed he was largely unfit to play. Over the 7 years before we cancelled his contract he appeared in only 22 matches for the first team.
Despite being a class act when on the pitch our Physio room also struggled to get Jonathan Woodgate match fit during his time at Newcastle. Having signed from Leeds for £9 million on 31/01/2003 he only managed 28 league games for us in a season and a half before we cashed in and sold him to Real Madrid for £13.5 million on 21/08/2004.
Of the current squad for this season up to the Manchester City defeat the analysis of our players’ fitness makes some quite disturbing statistics. Of the squad of 27 players there are 8 members, almost one third who have missed a significant number of matches through injury.
Premiership appearances:
Stephen Carr 18 out of 38 last season, 12 out of 31 this season
Craig Moore 8 games out of 38 last season, 15 out of 31 this season
Celestine Babayaro 26 out of 38 last season, 12 out of 31 this season
Olivier Bernard 0 matches played since we signed him in October
Damien Duff 17 matches out of 31
Kieron Dyer 4 out of 38 last season, 15 out of 31 this season
Michael Owen 11 out of 38 last season, 0 matches played this season
Shola Ameobi only 8 out of 31 this season
If you look in detail into the management of these players through their various injuries it does lead to some questions around the quality of the key decision making of when is a player fit to play Premiership football.
Kieron Dyer was originally injured in the UEFA Cup Semi Final against Sporting Lisbon on 14/04/2005. He was then played again a few weeks later on the 27th April against Middlesbrough, but only lasted 35 minutes before being substituted and was then not seen again that season. The following season he appeared on 14/08/2005 against Arsenal and only lasted 69 minutes. Then he played again on 28/08/2005 against Manchester United and broke down after only 38 minutes. Dyer then appeared as a substitute against West Brom on 30/10/2005 and was not seen again until 04/02/2006 against Portsmouth. Clearly Dyer has been played when not fit, almost experimented with in the first team when surely these issues can be sorted out on the training ground without risking Premiership points?
Michael Owen originally broke his metatarsal against Tottenham on 31/12/2005. However there was much optimism around as it was thought there was plenty time to get him back playing before for the end of the season to prove his fitness before the World cup in the summer of 2006. However on returning to training there was a problem with his injury and Owen had to go back under the surgeon’s knife to get an additional strengthening pin inserted into his foot, which substantially set back his recovery. He finally returned to action on 29/04/2006 against Birmingham coming on as a substitute for the last 26 minutes. It was then declared his foot was still not right and he did not play again that season. So he then went off to the World Cup with serious doubts over his fitness and the rest is history.
Shola Ameobi had been playing through his well-documented hip injury for almost 2 years apparently. It was decided at the end of last season that an operation on his hip was not necessary, yet a few games into this season it was stated that Ameobi was not really fit to play but he was helping out because of the injury crisis amongst Newcastle’s strikers. He lasted until 22/10/2006 against Middlesbrough before it was announced that he would be packed off to Richard Steadman’s clinic for his operation. Bizarrely, after making that announcement Ameobi was then selected for the first team against Manchester City on 11/11/2006 and not surprisingly was substituted after 56 minutes. Again, it is pretty clear that Ameobi has been played in the Premiership when not fit and one wonders why his problem was not diagnosed earlier and what is the best way to handle a promising young player trying to make his mark in the Premiership.
It’s pretty difficult to know what goes on behind the closed doors of the physio room but the facts above suggest there is room to be worried at how well Newcastle are managing the fitness and availability of their players.
Head physio Derek Wright has been with the club for 25 years and assistant physio Paul Ferris has also been with the club for a number of years, hence have presided over most of these situations and been involved in the decisions on treatment of injuries.
Glen Roeder, one hopes, is guided by the Physio room in his selection of players but it must be the team manager’s responsibility if players are being played when not fit.
Freddie Shepherd has overall responsibility for management of the club so he also needs to ensure we have invested properly, have a state of the art physio room and that the right decisions are being made on players’ fitness regimes.
The other aspect of course is to clear out players who are never fit to play and with almost a third of the squad consistently losing a significant number of matches through injury then it’s time for a clearout.
There are some decisions based on form and fitness that need to be made this summer. Babayaro and Bernard are easy, they should just go. Craig Moore similarly seems to have little commitment and should just leave. Stephen Carr is playing less and playing worse so he should go. Damien Duff has been constantly injured and clearly not settled at Newcastle, he should go. Kieron Dyer our non-performing attacking midfield star who has averaged a mere 5 goals a season over the last 7 years should be cashed in now that he has regained his England place. Shola Ameobi however needs time to regain fitness and a proper chance to prove himself at premiership level.
The remaining figure out of the Physio Room gang of 8 is of course Michael Owen. Now that poses a few interesting questions given his well publicised £5.6 million annual salary. Can he and Martins function in the same team, being such similar players i.e. out and out goal scorers? Given that Owen has barely played for the last 3 seasons is he value for money on his salary? Does Michael Owen want to play for Newcastle and could he outperform Martins if he did? There is a strong case for staying with Obafemi Martins who has delivered on the pitch this season despite playing in a poor team. Therefore we could be cashing in Owen by selling him to a Champions League outfit willing to repay some of his enormous transfer fee and take on his substantial salary.
So there we have it, our physio room should be recommending clearing out 7 of our gang of 8 unfit squad members hence getting rid of Babayaro, Bernard, Carr, Moore, Duff, Dyer and Owen and remove around £20 million off our annual wage bill.
With that £20 million saving plus any transfer fees from their sale we could then invest heavily in fit, exciting new players for next season to take us on to our much needed first trophy win for 38 years!
