I have a confession to make, I have been off work for a week and didn’t even watch Newcastle plunging to a new low against Liverpool on Saturday. I didn’t even watch the highlights on Match of the Day.
I adopted a similar policy to Sunderland’s 7-1 thrashing at the hands of Everton. Why? Because, for one week only, I got away from football. I went home to stay with my parents, did a bit of Christmas shopping, went out drinking, ate well and, well, switched off from work and enjoyed the other things in life for a while.
They say a rest is as good as change and, before any of you start to worry about my mental state, I’d just like to reassure you that I’m back and have plenty to say on the events of the last week. I will not pull any punches either. I might even slip in a couple of low blows!
It’s a bit early in the season to be getting disillusioned, but I couldn’t even raise my normal level of anger as Steve “chump� McClaren and England’s egos - sorry I mean players - embarrassed themselves against Croatia. Yeah, I was irritated, but I couldn’t escape the feeling that they got exactly what they deserved. Steve’s luck ran out, plain and simple and, deep down, I was actually relieved our illusions of grandeur had been shattered.
English football has been exposed as an arrogant fraud. Unfortunately, just like the little boy who pointed out the Emperor was parading through town with no clothes on, we failed to see it, or were too scared to say it, until it was too late.
Which leads me on nicely to Sam Allardyce. As you will know, I’ve advocated the time argument with Newcastle’s manager. I have suggested that there is no point sacking a manager after just six months in the job - of which only three and a half have been competitive football.
But is Big Sam beginning to look like the Emperor with no clothes? Is he so arrogant and self-absorbed he cannot see the glaring deficiencies in the Newcastle team he has constructed and the style of football he wants them to play? Well if he can see them, he certainly doesn’t appear to be having much success in putting them right.
I’ve been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt about tactics, but from what I’ve heard about the Liverpool game, Newcastle didn’t appear to have any tactics. If they did, the Newcastle players didn’t know what they were. That is, to put it bluntly, woeful.
Liverpool are a good side, we know that. They will be one of the four clubs challenging for a Champions League spot at the end of the season. But no shots, no corners....at home...in front of your own supporters...that suggests no clue to me!
Of all the players Sam has signed, have any of them been a success? Are they better than the players they replaced? Joey Barton for Scott Parker? Alan Smith for Kieron Dyer? Cacapa for Titus Bramble? David Rozehnal for Craig Moore? Geremi for Nolberto Solano? Jose Enrique for Paul Huntington? Mark Viduka for.... well, alright, he didn’t really replace anyone, but you know what I mean!
A fair few of you had your issues with some of the above, but how do you feel about them now? I bet you’d like to have three or four of them still available for selection when you have to watch performances as bad as Reading away and Portsmouth at home, let alone the Liverpool game.
Allardyce is under pressure and he is struggling badly to arrest a slump in form which has all the hallmarks of a crisis. He is struggling to come to terms with the football culture on Tyneside and, most worryingly of all, he looks like a manager who is struggling to convey his ideas to his players and, perhaps, to even motivate them in the first place.
Unless that changes soon - I’d say before the busy Christmas period - Big Sam could turn out to be one of the shortest serving Newcastle managers in history! Freddie Shepherd’s final gift to Newcastle United Football Club could have gone from England candidate to laughing stock in six short months.
Yet, I’d still argue that Sam deserves a little longer. His back is against the wall, but this is his acid test. If he can turn things around after this, when the club’s own supporters are openly mocking him, when confidence has hit rock bottom, he will have pulled off something special which, when all is said and done, should be applauded. If he doesn’t, well then it’s bye bye Sam, probably in time for the New Year!
That is not a fate that will be shared by Roy Keane, however. What ever happens at the Stadium of Light this season, whether they cling on to their top flight status by their fingertips, or whether they suffer another immediate return to the Championship, Keane will remain at the helm.
Why? Because Keane has already achieved something by getting them promoted, ahead of schedule, in the first place. He has bought himself time with that and, in just a few months, changed the mood on Wearside from one of disillusionment to optimism.
Not that 7-1 away defeats are not alarming. Sunderland are in the bottom three for a good reason. They do not look good enough, at the present time, to stay up. Whether they can learn quickly, strengthen in January and show they are able to compete at this level, remains to be seen, but this is easily the biggest test of Keane’s managerial career so far.
It was easy in his first year, now we will see how he responds to a far more difficult challenge...
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