Was Scunthorpe the moment that Newcastle United hit rock bottom?
Losing to little Scunthorpe United may well feel like Newcastle United have hit rock bottom but unless there is a dramatic response to this unacceptable defeat for the Magpies there is every chance there is more pain to come for the long suffering Toon fans.
Furious United fans stormed out of Glanford Park last night with every reason to be annoyed.
It isn't just the humiliation of losing to Scunny and the magnitude of such a result, it's the way it all unfolded.
Firstly, the lack of depth and investment in the Toon squad meant that we had a 5ft 9in full-back in Danny Simpson in the heart of the back four alongside another player who isn't even ours in Zurab Khizanishvili.
The pair aren't bad players but the fact that we have to cobble together a centre-back pairing that don't even belong to us shows how far we've tumbled.
After the game when chatting to ex-Toon coach John Carver he raised the point that no squad should go into a season without at least four established centre-backs.
Throw into the fact that the Academy system and transfer policy of bringing in quality overseas youngsters appears to have come to a standstill and we really do have a mess on our hands.
Should Chris Hughton had a bit more conviction to play Ben Tozer or Tamas Kadar?
Or is Tozer completely scarred by the London Road experience?
Then we quickly move on to the selection of Geremi?
The Cameroon midfielder looked out of his depth at Glanford Park and that has to be a worrying sign.
Surely Nicky Butt (rested for the trip) would have been a better option and at least would have had some understanding of the situation.
Many have slated the decision to play the 4-4-1-1 formation but it was poor finishing that let United down.
With Doncaster Rovers next there is a superb chance to erase memories of this shocking loss.
Failure to do so will almost certainly see the alarm bells ringing even louder at St James's Park.
Which gets me back to the point, is rock bottom still to come for Newcastle United?
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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Worrying times indeed as far as I'm concerned.
Lee - I noted Ashley's latest comments about "putting £20m into the club every year" with amazement. Can you confirm my understanding is correct? Have we not brought in around £40m net in the last 3 transfer windows? Do we not have some kind of parachute payments from the Premier League to help us land a little more softly? Are we not in a fairly rare position (esp. when compared to other Championship clubs) of having c.40,000 turning out for each home game? How is it that Ashley cannot invest a bit in our squad? I genuinely don't understand it. The biggest risk to our club, and therefore his investment, is that we don't make it back up to the Premier League at the first attempt, as players like Smith, Taylor, Guttierez, Nolan, Guthrie will certainly move on, unwilling to stomach a 2nd season in this division. Therefore, it is paramount that we build on this decent start. If Ashley invested £10m into the squad in January, I think we'd be shoe-ins for promotion. Where's the risk? From where I stand there is a greater risk in not investing, as without promotion the club could be worth much less than the £80m he values it at today.
Dear Mr Ryder & Mr George
yet again you travel so far to bring us the fans from around the world together with your live blogs from the games so i thank you for that.Your piece today Mr Ryder is yet again hitting the heart and soul of are problems and these problems our beloved team has had for quite sometime....as you are well aware the team does not have any depth we do not have enough quality players in are squad to even dream of going into the prem , even if we do get promotion lets face it there will not be many quality players who would risk coming to newcastle in fear we could get relegated straight back into the championship,even if they did sign for our beloved team they wouldnt have the undying passion for the club we the supporters,the fans,the people who are born and raised in the shadow of the beautiful tyne bridge they would only becoming because they have been offered high wages as normal is that the type of players we need??? . YOUTH i agree again with you why is it are managment has no faith FAITH in our youth for god sake we have RANGER holds the ball well excellent control has an old head on his shoulder it seems he can read the game so so well but instead we fill our team with loan signings who are less skillful than are youth all they need is there manager to have faith in them just like ferguson had faith in the neville brothers,beckham,scholes and look how well they did that was yes FAITH. I do have faith in our team but when is it going to end the everlasting taste of defeat when are we going to become this GREAT TEAM everyone claims we are because truly we cant be great when we have won nothing we are just good losers in the eyes of the likes of liverpool and manchester utd .....and that for me and im sure for you also is very very saddening .so to you my ASHLEY please sell our club even if it means losing money you had our respect and love at the start but you made to many bad buisness choices as you yourself addmited SO YES WE TURNED ON YOU what did you expect us to do. so lets us go lets be sold so we can go and try and become what we deserve to be and thats a GREAT CLUB FOR OUR BELOVED SUPPORTERS...
Have we hit rock bottom ?
That`s the question everyone would like answered.
From top six finishes in the PL under Sir Bobby, to getting beat by the likes of Blackpool and Scunthorpe, how much lower is there to go ?
Just for all the people who slagged KK off for suing Ashley, this is further proof of what a bunch of LYING *******s Ashley and his cronies are:
4. Thirdly, we direct that the Club should pay all of Mr Keegan’s costs. Although part of the hearing and preparation was taken up on the question of whether Clause 14.8.1 applied and, if not, what would be the appropriate measure of damages, this represented only a very small proportion of both. Mr Keegan succeeded on all other significant points. Moreover, we reject the Club’s attempt to rely on the various offers which it made both prior to and during the hearing to settle the claim since none of them involved the Club’s acceptance that he had been constructively dismissed and all of them involved a condition of secrecy or confidentiality.
5. Fourthly, we direct that the Club should pay Mr Keegan’s costs on an indemnity basis given the manner in which it conducted this litigation: its defence on the primary liability issue was, in our view, wholly without merit and it chose to make entirely unfounded allegations against Mr Keegan
Summing up they did make offers which were wholly dependent on keeping the truth hidden - for the clowns who thought KK was only after the money- why didn't he take the bigger offers (£4M??) and just keep quiet - KK has more integrity, decency and manners then all of that shower of lying despicable tosspots put together.
WE have to get this FCB to leave this club, by any means possible - if this involves harming his other business interests then so be it - it is beyond me why the likes of the CHRONICLE are not leading a full scale campaign to rid NUFC of this lowlife. It's now time for all NUFC supporters (not just internet forums, websites etc ,but all who truly love the toon to get together and force this despicable man out. It's up to you now LEE
John Capewell - couldn't agree more.
We are stuck with Ashley as long as 30,000 sheep (albeit passionate, loyal sheep) turn up every week and pay the fat man's ticket prices, buy his merchandise and eat his pies. All the time, he's laughing at us.
We are stumbling blindly into oblivion.
FOR GOD'S SAKE WAKE UP! The only way we're ever going to get rid of the cancer that is Ashley is to take away his reason for hanging around ... ££££££.
I can't believe that Thomson House hasn't taken him on. What have you got to lose boys? He doesn't talk to you anyway! You could orchestrate a campaign that the whole of Newcastle would get behind. We want our club back. You're the only common voice we have. Please help.
And if not, why not? Lee, tell us.
I couldn't give a stuff about promotion or who is manager. I want my club back in the hands of someone who isn't a crook and a pathological liar.
It has to be a proper boycott. What is the point of getting promoted if Ashley is not prepared to direct the money that we put into the club towards building a team? The only reason why he puts the club up for sale every close season is to avoid spending any money on players...
We haven't hit rock bottom yet, that'll happen after the January transfer window when we will have sold yet more players and brought in a couple of has-beens or kids on loan.
Ashley has his yes-man manager in place, there'll be nowt left by the time he is finished.
i'm not at the game much these days, but i have to say MA has to be reminded a lot more strongly that hes not required, due to him not knowing a lot about fotball he looks like hes given CH the job and looking to take it off the market. oh dear! i don't think i can even bare to watch the ahem hight lights any more... he really is milking the club dry, good on the players for sticking around, its really is just for the fans that turn up every week. Message to CH you must up your game mate -4411?? mate we should be going out 352 or 343 agoinst scunny 334 please get a grip! 4411 we might as well turn out without a keeper.. lets be more positive you muppet!
Time for the Chron and Journal to join forces and step up to the plate I think Lee. Restless has hit the nail on the head. The time has come for anything but a full-on campaign to rid the club of this parasite to be put aside.
It's the duty of a local press to represent the interests of the local community. This club is at the very heart of that community. Even on a purely commercial basis it's time for Thompson Hse to orchestrate the efforts to move the shopkeeper on to where he belongs, out of football before other irresponsible characters try the same trick with other clubs. If the local press lives up to its responsibilities the knock on public relations benefits will live on long after Ash the Cashless is gone. The place of the Chronicle and the Journal in the heart of the city will be set in stone. Time for action I think Lee. The supporters of the club haven't much left to lose and need focus. You can provide that focus. Run it past the editor if nothing else.
rock bottom comes on february 1 when ashley has sold jonas, coloccini, taylor, nolan, smith, butt, geremi (we can dream), enrique, guthrie, carroll and whoever else he can flog have all been sold.
oh and simpsons, kishanishvilli and harewood have gone back to their clubs.
the thing is ashley liked to speculate to accumulate on shares but why not with us...we have MUCH more pain to come which i fear includes relegation.
What I don't understand is why (with respect) teams like Birmingham, Portsmouth, even Notts County can find buyers, but NUFC can't? Are we really such a poisoned pill that nobody wants a club with such potential?
Have we hit rock bottom? Ask Leeds, Charlton etc - recent Premier League clubs that are now in the 3 division. Scary!
“The worst is not
So long as we can say,
'This is the worst.'” (King Lear, 4. 1)
For those of us at Roots Hall in January 1992, watching Newcastle get thumped 4-0 at Southend, we thought we were only half a season away from the Third Division/League 1. If KK hadn't walked out on the club after a few games in charge, he would have not received the £250,000 to buy Brian Kilcline (an inspired buy from KK, this is why some of us still love him). Bear in mind that we didn’t escape relegation by much.
The 1991/2 season feeling is creeping back…
come on Lee - has your paper considered a campaign against Ashley? At worst you'll sell more papers, at best he might take the hint and go
I'm hoping we can look back and say "Yes, this was Rock Bottom". Unfortunately, we will not know for awhile yet, will we?
Looking ahead with dread to Donny.
Have we hit rock bottom?
Well! That depends if you mean;
(1)The club
(2)Support
(3)Financially
(4)Morally
(1)The club are a laughing stock because of Ashley,but not rock bottom.
(2)With support like this (even though Ashley is laughing at us) not rock bottom.
(3)We're not as well off as we were but not skint at the moment. Not rock bottom.
(4)Ashley has took the p++s out of 2 Toon legends, Keegan and Shearer, out of the supporters, and is now taking it out of Hughton by saying he'll give him the gaffers job but it'll be he (Ashley) to decide on transfers.
I was going to say, morally this is rock bottom, but I reckon this bloke can go lower yet.
Are the local press not campaigning against this bloke because they fear legality repercussions??
I know of a pretty good player and manager who was once an apprentice at Scunthorpe.
If only someone could come in with enough cash and let him get on with his "unfinished business".
I would just love it !!
Yes, I was going to make the same Scunthorpe connection as 'Richard A' above. All things considered, including the evidence of the constructive dismissal case, Keegan remains the man for NUFC.
The selection of Geremi? But he was far from our poorest player. Khizanishvili and Simpson were awful and so was Smith. Worse than that, his recklessness will let in Butt.
ANSWER TO THE TOPIC TITLE, NO....October 28th the day Ashley announces Hughton as permanent boss and that hes staying is the day we hit rock bottom, what a joke!