Testing, testing. 1-2-3. Ah yes that's better, after a few technical problems - namely a Bank Holiday Weekend and a few days off in the sunshine in Manchester - I'm back and ready to give my insight into the events of the last few days.
So where to start? Well I guess Kevin Keegan and his not so shocking (unless you want to cause mischief) statement that the Premier League has become too predictable.
As you will know (unless you're finding your way on to this site for the first time) I have long advocated such a view and it is far from controversial to suggest that the same four teams - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United - will once again be the favourites for all of the major honours again next season.
I suppose the controversy - if you can call it that - comes from the fact a manager of a so-called big club like Newcastle United should dare to share such an opinion. Is it defeatist? Should a manager with the ambitions of a club like Newcastle not believe he has the ability to break that Champions League monopoly?
Well I agree with Kevin. Newcastle are highly unlikely to break into the Champions League in the next three years. Look at the money, time and energy invested by Tottenham, Everton and Aston Villa to achieve that precise aim over the last few years and they have still not achieved it.
However, what they can do is close that gap considerably and start to exert some pressure on them, while competing in the cups as Carling Cup winners Tottenham have done. Kevin was being realistic, tempering ambitions ahead of the summer so that he is not putting himself or the players under undue pressure. I call that sensible.
Privately he may well still believe that Newcastle can break into the top four inside three years, but why come out with such bold predictions in public when, if you fail, you will only be criticised for supposedly under-achieving?
According to some reports on Thursday morning - ie The Sun and the Daily Mail, two papers who said Keegan was on the brink of the sack a few weeks ago (ahem) - Keegan has been summoned to London for a meeting with owner Mike Ashley to explain himself because the billionaire is furious etc etc.
Either that or he has been summoned to a meeting with Ashley to finally find out just how much money he is going to have to spend in the summer - something Keegan also said he wanted to find out during his anti-Big Four rant in the immediate aftermath of a 2-0 home defeat by Chelsea. Hence why chief scout (forget the fancy title because that is all he is) Dennis Wise will also be present.
I'm sure Ashley would like to talk to Keegan about what he said, as it's hardly what fans want to hear just before season ticket renewals land on doormats, however I doubt it amounts to a crisis or a disaster.
But if I were KK - and clearly I'm not - I'd stand my ground and suggest that, if Ashley wants to break the Big Four's stranglehold, he might want to put his hand in his pocket to finance a spending spree which will bring the necessary quality of player to St James's Park next season. That, after all, is what Roman Abramovich did to get Chelsea where they are today.
To put Keegan's comments into some sort of context, he wants to get as much money as possible out of the owner and his comments - although a typically emotional outburst from the man - were probably designed, to a certain extent, to put pressure on Ashley and chairman Chris Mort to come up with the goods.
They say they are ambitious, I guess Keegan wants them to prove it because, although the club's debt has been cleared by Ashley - no small matter when it was more than £100m - he has yet to flex his muscle in the transfer market.
Only in the world of Newcastle United could the club be in a "crisis" following the team's first defeat in eight games...
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »