We take a look at the problems facing the 3 top men at Newcastle as they grapple with the Financial black holes left from the Shepherd era, poor results on the pitch and an increasingly disgruntled set of fans.
There were two main events in 2007 for Mike Ashley. The first being on 28th Feb when he made £929 million in one day by floating his company Sports Direct on the Stock Market. The second being how he used £133 million of that money to buy Newcastle United on 23rd May 2007. Those two events have transformed him from a recluse little known even by his neighbours into a national figure.
What we have clearly seen from Mike Ashley from his attendance at his first Newcastle match at Middlesbrough on the 26th August is that he is committed to his purchase and he has certainly won the fans over by his wearing of the black and white shirt and tales of his nights out on the town after matches.
Similarly Chris Mort has presented a very sensible approach to sorting out the off field activities and clearing the Freddie Shepherd skeletons which were left in many cupboards at St James’s. Not least being an impending court case with the Inland Revenue for dishonest completion of agent details on transfer forms to avoid paying VAT.
Chris Mort has now come out and backed the man really under pressure in the management team i.e. Sam Allardyce, there is no crisis at St James Park!!
Well apart from the fans being totally unhappy with the quality of football on offer and the increasing disillusionment with the manager, Allardyce is clearly also dealing with unrest in the dressing room as a lot of the players question his methods.
Allardyce has asked for time and appears to be getting it from Ashley and Mort. His record at Bolton shows that he only won 4 of his first 13 league games there and had similar dressing room unrest from Bolton players at first who would have preferred his predecessor Phil Brown to have been given the job on a permanent basis.
At Bolton Allardyce slowly built up his squad and his backroom team over 8 seasons in charge. Going from the lower reaches of the Nationwide First Division to top six in the Premier league was achieved through a team ethic imposed by Allardyce and his backroom staff.
At Newcastle he is trying to build up his backroom team and the football team at the same time. It appears he is having as much disagreement amongst his newly assembled backroom staff as he is amongst his players on the pitch. Both need time to bed in.
The problems for Ashley, Mort and Allardyce is that Big Sam is losing the fans support. The quality of football is not what the fans expect at Newcastle and the results are not coming either. Also the dressing room unrest is beginning to spill out as Joey Barton fell out with him for being excluded in favour of Geremi. The dressing room leak angered Allardyce prompting the quote: "I have no proof but a very good idea who it was. I just want him to know that I know.". Also quotes after the Wigan game “I don’t want my future decided by these players”. With the Newcastle fans singing at Wigan “We are sh*te and we’re sick of it”. All suggests Newcastle is not a happy place for Sam Allardyce at the moment.
Mike Ashley has certainly shown by his actions with the City over various criticism of Sports Direct that he is strongly his own man and very loyal to his management team. The players will basically look after themselves. The true test for Ashley and Chris Mort will be can they withstand the pressure of the disgruntled fans week after week as Allardyce struggles to win them over.
Our guess would be they will, as stated by Chris Mort, Allardyce will be given time to build and in our view will eventually succeed. The true test of Allardyce as a coach however is yet to come, which brings us all back to why he left Bolton and came to Newcastle in the first place.
Can Allardyce build Newcastle into a top four club and prove he is more than a functional coach who can only manage small clubs and cut price players??
At the moment most Newcastle fans are not convinced he can !!!
