Since Joe Kinnear came on board in mid-June and immediately embarrassed himself and Newcastle with that talkSPORT interview, things haven’t improved much, and indeed Joe didn’t produce over the summer, even though he told us he would be a terrific Director of Football for Newcastle, although few fans believed him.
Joe Kinnear – didn’t get the job done in the summer
And given the personality of owner Mike Ashley, we’ve often thought this summer about what a good Director of Football should be doing on Tyenside.
They are responsible for bringing in players to the club at all levels, so they need to be good negotiators and professional in their dealings with other clubs, where they often will be interfacing with the Chairmen and Presidents of other clubs.
But because of Mike Ashley’s tendency to be a little bit miserly, he should be able to have some influence with Mike on how much money the owner is willing to pay out in terms of fees and wages.
But Mike Ashley has the last say – and we heard that after an agreement was reached with Gomis to move to Newcastle in early August, we went back in and asked Bafe to take a wage cut – and while Joe can be blamed for that – it was Mike Ashley who made that decision.
But the other thing that is sorely missing at the top and has been since Ashley bought the club over six years is communication with the fans in terms of what we are trying to do, what a potential five year plan or a two year plan is – or do we have any plans at all to guide Newcastle in the future?
What in essence are we trying to do to become a top club in England again – or are we even trying to become a top club?
We’ve given up on Mike Ashley doing the communication since he just doesn’t talk to the fans at all, and it’s been pointed out by some of the media people at Newcastle that Roman Abramovich at Chelsea doesn’t communicate with fans either.
But Roman does his talking by paying out the money to get top stars into the club – something that Mike Ashley cannot be accused of.
So the Director of Football has to be a good communicator with Ashley, the Newcastle fans, and with the other clubs as he tries to bring good players to Tyneside – and he needs to be able to communicate and talk to Newcastle fans about what he is trying to do for the club.
And of course a top priority is that he has an excellent knowledge of players in Europe at all levels and has the contacts to go with that.
It would also help if he has some past positive links with the club – and maybe a former player like Les Ferdinand would fit the bill?
It’s debatable who would do a good job at Newcastle, but most fans have already given up on Joe Kinnear – who just hasn’t got the right personality to do what’s needed at Newcastle.
Who do you think would be a good Director of Football for us?
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212 comments so far
Scottiedog
Sep 10, 2013 at 4:52 PM
Comment #201As predicted by CIES for 13/14 – Would fans be happy??
Club Rank* Key players
Manchester United 1 [1/1]
Chelsea 2 [3/2]
Manchester City 3 [2/3]
Arsenal 4 [4/5]
Tottenham Hotspur 5 [5/4]
Liverpool 6 [6/8]
Everton 7 [7/7]
Newcastle United 8 [8/6]
Southampton 9 [9/9]
Swansea City 10 [11/10]
West Ham United 11 [10/15]
Stoke City 12 [13/12]
Aston Villa 13 [15/11]
Norwich City 14 [14/13]
West Bromwich Albion 15 [12/16]
Sunderland 16 [16/17]
Crystal Palace 17 [19/14]
Fulham 18 [17/18]
Hull City 19 [18/19] R
Cardiff City 20 [20/20]
BandB
Sep 10, 2013 at 4:53 PM
Comment #202Slank,
The ground was a dump for a fair while.
I don’t go back as far as the 60’s or seventies, so I can’t comment on the despair back then.
What I notice is that the gallows humour that got us through bad times has gone.
The mood now is too often stomach-churning, finger-chewing paranoia, with floods of delirious relief rather than joy when something goes right.
Even during the season we finished fifth something was missing. I think it was belief.
Slank
Sep 10, 2013 at 4:53 PM
Comment #203Ruddy @ 195
I can assure you (without being patronising) that in IMHO the troubles of today are minor niggles compared to yesteryears. It’s possibly why I’m not supportive of the tactics of demonstrations and banners.
It’s getting dark now over the Mediterranean so I’m signing off.
WWSBRD
Sep 10, 2013 at 4:54 PM
Comment #204Ruddy
Haha aye mate still I will check it out I imagine I will enjoy reading ur blog and that’s a rare thing. Is it impartial though or biased?
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
Sep 10, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Comment #205WWSBRD
I’m not a journalist, I despise them, so I have absolute no need to honour journalistic “integrity” (a paradox and contradiction if there ever was one) so it is littered with my own views, tempered to an extent so as not to ward away those who disagree. I’m not as heavy handed but I stay true to my beliefs
Coach
Sep 10, 2013 at 4:58 PM
Comment #206Blackley
Ashley’s financial commitment is split in two, his loan and his equity, I know you get that from your previous posts.
Based on a mid table club with the new tv deal, shirt sponsorship and a reasonable fan base the club will generate sufficient surplus cash to pay back the loan in a small number of years. At that point or even slightly before, he should be able to sell for around the £200M mark and come out with enough profit to satisfy his pride.
My figures are all approximations of course but given the factors that can and will change them, accuracy is unimportant. All that matters to me is that I’m convinced that I will have to live with him being our owner for several years and that all the campaigning will, if anything, make that longer not shorter.
You only gave two choices but not all teams are willing or able to burn money to beat us and each year several of those will fall away below his aim of mid table. I don’t think it’s about profit for Ashley, it’s about pride. He makes his profit in Sports Direct he can live with low profits from us while he gets us ready to sell.
Blackley and Brownlie
Sep 10, 2013 at 5:21 PM
Comment #207Ruddy
You say, “I’m not calling for or demanding success or silverware. Simply a more ambitious approach, or even a slight desire to provide us with entertainment and an indication that the owner wants us to succeed as much as we do.”
Not really that much of a gripe when you put it like that. Certainly not the Martin Luther King moment that Beattie harked back to the other day. Can’t see it mobilising folk to action.
I’ve just read your reasons for starting a new blog. A good blog master can’t be sensitive. Surely it’s about the issues and who’s winning the argument and swaying opinion than about which multiple personality has said what?
Blackley and Brownlie
Sep 10, 2013 at 5:33 PM
Comment #208Coach
good comments @206 and you may well have called it better than I.
Where it doesn’t stack up for me is the “pride” part. Pride in what? It’s on record that he caught the claggy end of the stick when he didn’t do his due diligence. And he’s going about it the non-financially astute way to make good.
To me, he’s in it for the celebrity. If I had his money, I’d love to have the power over people’s lives that owning a football club brings. It’s something that owning SD, a much more valuable enterprise, cannot bring. As you know, when people get power, they find it extremely difficult to relinquish.
Coach
Sep 10, 2013 at 5:43 PM
Comment #209Blackley
I can definitely go with your “desire for power” argument, there is absolutely a lot of that in his character and I’m sure you’re right that this drives a lot of his decisions. It might also explain why he picks people like Kinnear who he can control easily.
I know what you mean about his errors being public knowledge but to me that just makes it more important to him that he makes it right by getting his money back.
TheAnswer
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:16 PM
Comment #210The answer to how to remove Mike Ashley is simple, hit Sports Directs income. This solution I am about to propose will take down the Sports Direct for as long as you want (money permitting). For a few hundred pounds you can take down the website for a couple of days. Now imagine 50,000 fans paying £1 each, you can take the website down for 1 year easily. This is completely anonymous and is done by skilled people, such as those who took down the FBI website.
So the steps are;
(this guide assumes a group of people have opened a digital Bitcoin account and deposited funds)
1) Access the ‘Dark Web’ (can only be done using the ‘TOR’ web browser. The websites below are only accessible via the TOR browser.
2) Create an account (or login if you have one already) at ‘The Silk Road’ (http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion) or ‘Atlantis'(http://atlantisrky4es5q.onion) or any other site selling such services.
3) Find the appropriate section to do with website services etc, pick the highest rated seller you can find (some will have 100% quality feedback).
4) Discuss with the seller the website you wish to take down (Sports Direct) and the amount of time you want to take it down for, 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month etc. Mention any other requests like replacing the site with a holding message saying “Ashley out!” etc, agree a price with the seller and finalise the deal. The good thing is the funds are held by escrow and so the seller isn’t paid until the goods or service has been delivered.
5) Sit back and watch Sports Direct shares plummet!
musomag
Sep 11, 2013 at 5:51 AM
Comment #211What a Director of Football at Newcastle needs to do?
RESIGN
KINNEAR OUT, ASHLEY OUT
James RS
Sep 11, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Comment #212Kinnear needs to resign..he blew the Douglas deal; he blew the Gomis deal and he blew the Bent deal too to mention a few. Totally unsuited to the job. Go now Kinnear give Newcastle a chance of success please.