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Falling apart - latest from True Faith
Where do we go from here? Things are getting worse and the noise coming from the confused flap of Joe Kinnear about a new 2-year contract for him are simply sending thousands of us into absolute despair. If Kinnear is the answer then what is the f***ing question? Until now Kinnear has been tolerated by supporters - but if this is going to be a permanent arrangement then the future is postponed.
There are reasons why Kinnear was out of work for God knows how long after he bombed at Forest just as there are reasons why Peter Lovenkrads was released from his contract at Schalke. It?s because they aren?t up to it. We have seen enough now of Kinnear to know he is tactically clueless, his teams are completely one-dimensional, he has no flexibility to his approach and there is not one player under his tutelage performing any better now than they were prior to his arrival, though Shay Given is getting more opportunities to show his class than is good for our collective mental health. Over-weight and out of date. There is not one area of our play where we can say we are improved under Kinnear.
Defensively, we are an absolute joke. Hopeful punts down the middle aren?t dealt with and players are just not doing the basics of defending i.e. the tracking back and other dirty jobs. In midfield, it doesn?t matter who is in the team, it?s the same old laboured, one-paced, clueless bollocks and up front, well, up front is something we haven?t seen enough of quite honestly. Kinnear is out of his depth. All of the stuff about blaming the referee after Blackburn is fooling noone! We were s*** and he didn?t have enough craft and guile to fashion a result against a very, very poor team. His lack of personal discipline whilst at first entertaining in an eccentric way is now embarrassing and once again, after the Hull game reveals the histrionics of a man who believes passion involves behaving like a pissed up jakey whose had his last half bottle of cider stolen from him. A joke manager on appointment and a joke manager today but please God, not in the summer. Kinnear is an appalling example to players who are now severely losing the plot! Nicky Butt ? a more committed model of professionalism we have not had in recent seasons ? totally lost it at Ewood Park ? two ridiculous yellow card offences borne doubtless of frustration but which will cost us dear. Joey Barton, once again drawing attention to himself for non-footballing reasons. Of course he was right about Enrique trotting back like he didn?t have a f***ing care in the world and not tracking his man. But f***ing hell, keep it for the dressing room, man eh? He wasn?t trying to show us how much he cares was he? We?re not that f***ing gullible, man! But how can Kinnear say anything to them when his response to criticism about his own lack of discipline is a shrug of the shoulders and the plaintive response ? it?s just the way I am. Idiot. Be a f***ing professional.
Then again, talk of a 2-year contract for Kinnear could be the voices he hears in his own head or it could be more of the bull-s*** he?s had fed to him by Ashley, Wise and Llambias because he says one thing one day and the opposite the next to have a few of us wondering whether his invisible bosses are just taking the piss out of poor old Joe.
Kinnear has told us he is thinking over a very lucrative offer from NUFC. He wants to have a word with his wife about moving up norf permanently. Joe - do yourself a favour, bank the loot you?ve already had off Ashley and go back to pruning the roses. You might not make any dough but you?ll keep what remains of your dignity and your sanity. This NUFC thang isn?t your gig bonny lad. Get to May, get some of that reported £30K a match lolly in your poke and start having a look at those brochures for quiet holidays in Madeira or some such. If Kinnear is indeed our permanent manager-elect then Ashley is indeed embarked upon a mission to empty the stands at SJP come August.
The latest rubbish is of him going to watch a player in France to decide whether he wants him. It?s the f***ing 18th of January and we haven?t closed in on our targets? What kind of shambles is this? What kind of operation is Ashley and his London-based lieutenant presiding over? Meetings last week to persuade Ashley to release funds? What was the patter about available funds in November and December? f***ing amateurs the lot of them.
We have indulged Kinnear so far because frankly, we have had little option but now he is showing himself for everything we feared he?d be on appointment ? Dennis Wise?s bitch. Read this s*** from the whopper:
"Our biggest problem is a lack of strength in depth. Why wasn't it addressed by the previous two managers? I am carrying the can for it."
No Joe, the last two managers operated wholly under Ashley and were not given funds to buy the players required. Had KK been given modest funds you would still be down the f***ing bowls club. Even Allardyce who on the whole bought very badly told us he didn?t think Cacapa and Rozenhal were up to it but had no wedge to bring in any better. He was right. As for KK, Joe, were you f***ing paying attention in the summer? Did you notice why KK was so unhappy about being used as a patsy (in my opinion) by the despicable c*** Wise? You know, the KK you have had a pop at in that thick way of yours. You do realise why you ended up with the job in the first place don?t you? It was because no one decent would touch it with a f***ing bargepole and you have made a t*** of yourself sticking up for Ashley, proving your lack of credibility. KK wasn?t perfect but he worked for Newcastle United whereas you work for Mike Ashley. And that is the nub.
Then of course there is Kinnear opening his flap about Lucas Neill and setting West Ham off on one about a possible approach being made to one of their players without their permission. Unprofessional in my opinion! And another thing ? Lucas Neill? Jesus!
And then there is the question, if we get to the close season with Kinnear as manager, what player worth his salt would play for this clown? Not that he will have any say in who comes and goes ? that?s Dennis Wise?s area as we persist with a model for management on the football side which just does not work in this country and which will never work in this country. And with people, namely Wise who are just not up to it and who compound their lack of ability by their sheer cuntishness. I mean, why give Shola Ameobi a 3-year contract extension on the strength of what he has put in this season? Whose judgement is so shot as to make that decision?
What can we do? Well, it seems there are too many who can?t observe the boycott of all things NUFC as has been recommended in the past. Some actually believe problems are being caused by the moderate protests there have been so far, which I?ll admit has me bewildered. The problems are being caused by Ashley and the clueless bastards he has running the operation and the lack of resources going in. The simple fact of the matter is whatever happens with supporters is underway now and is happening of its own volition ? people are chucking it. Direct debits are being cancelled and Mags are promising this is the last. Whether that threat is carried through from the most voluble remains to be seen but it is the supporters who are more quietly resigned who will be more likely to be on the point of walking away. And the feeling in my water is there are thousands at that stage. Anger is an energy but apathy is getting a hold of a big section of our support in a way I?ve not seen since the days of the late 80s when McKeag and Co. had flogged off the golden trinity of Waddle-Beardsley-Gascoigne and we said hello to Pingel, R McDonald, Fereday and a host of others that still make Mags of a certain vintage wake up in a cold sweat almost twenty years later.
Will we go down? Who knows but one thing is for certain and that was a relegation performance at Blackburn after it went 1-0. There is no question about that. Heads dropped and whilst Kinnear has spoken about his fears for Guitteraz fitness delaying his arrival, we?ve seen this dithering before ? namely away at the Mackems when it took him an eternity to take off a completely ineffectual Geremi stuck out wide when we were being over-run in the middle.
Reading the local press over the weekend its now obvious local journalists have completely lost it with the club. Malcolm Macdonald (The Chronicle) articulated something I?ve heard for a while from Mags and that is if we survive this season and something big doesn?t happen over the summer then Ashley-Wise-Llambias-Kinnear are simply delaying the inevitable and we?ll slip away next season. That was a point echoed by John Gibson (The Chronicle) who rightly pointed at the quality of player who wants to leave (Given, Owen) and the quality being brought in (Lovenkrads). Neil Farrington of the Sunday Sun was particularly toxic in his assessment of the incompetence and lack of commitment running amok on Barrack Road. All of them are right and the acid criticism of the bastards running our club has now moved from the dark corners of fanzine-world and into the mainstream. What kept you?
It was sobering to hear our ex-No.9 Alan Shearer on Match of the Day talk about his worry for his club and our?s. Is this the ?moving together in 2009? bull-s*** put out by Ashley?
We should never get used to being treated like s*** by Ashley. We should never stop wanting the best for our football club because we should never surrender our love for Newcastle United. But we have reached the stage where even those of us with a burning rage at how our club is being shafted are becoming weary and defeated at banging a drum not enough people are responding to. This is the worst of times but I fear we haven?t touched the bottom yet.
Keep On, Keepin? On ?
