December 2008 Archives

It was not a shock to hear Mike Ashley no longer wants to sell up at Newcastle United. No, a shock is finding out Father Christmas appears to be stashing your Christmas presents at the bottom of mum's wardrobe and that he looks a little like your dad when he sneaks into your room in the middle of the night.

To be honest, I've suspected something like this was going to happen for several weeks, if not months. The economy is in disarray and it always appeared a little ambitious to expect anyone to splash out the best part of £300m when we are teetering on the brink of the worst recession/depression since the 1930s.

Ashley's announcement will not have gone down well with many of you I'm sure, but if he can't sell he has to stay, it's as simple as that.

Newcastle fans will be relieved to know they no longer have to spend the Festive period worrying about the possibility they will attack the next person who wishes them a Merry Christmas.

What a difference a week makes. I head off for a break pondering the possibility Newcastle would be in the bottom three by the time I returned to work and instead the Magpies are up to the heady heights of twelfth spot and someone on my web chat on Monday even mentioned a possible push for a European place.

Ah, yes, the good old Newcastle United rollercoaster, full of stomach twisting highs and stomach churning lows. A couple of defeats and the manager is ready for the sack, but grab a couple of wins and they are better than Fabio Capello (copyright Mike Ashley).

We put our Christmas tree up in our front room yesterday to finally provide some Festive cheer at chez Edwards, but for some reason I'm still struggling to get into this season of goodwill thing.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact one of my friends is seriously ill in hospital at the moment, perhaps it is due to work pressure, maybe it is simply due to the fact the outlook for the rest of the football season in the North East is particularly bleak.

It was only as the rather chunky angel was impaled on the top of our ridiculously large tree which has swamped our living room that it occurred to me that said angel bore a passing resemblance to a certain Mike Ashley.

Before I launch into another diatribe about Newcastle United's ridiculously under-equipped first team squad I would like state, once and for all, that there was absolutely no way Sebastien Bassong should have been penalised for the foul which led to Stoke City's injury-time equaliser.

I have watched it time and time again over the weekend and if that was a foul then football is a non-contact sport. And, do you know what, I would have sworn at the linesman who gave it and I would have complained to the referee and, like Joe Kinnear, I would have been sent off because I would have been angry and upset and, and, well I'd have probably thrown a tantrum about it.

For such a tough character, Roy Keane's surrender as Sunderland's manager was as embarrassing as it was surprising. The Irishman who has always maintained he would never shirk a challenge, appears to have quit at the first sign of major trouble on Wearside.

Yet, while criticism of him has grown steadily all season, Keane's departure will still be a blow to many supporters who believed he would not only guide the team out of their sticky patch, but also come good on his top half of the table objective this season. Unlike most who part company with a football club, Keane retained the support and admiration of the vast majority of those who follow it.

Instead, the former Manchester United midfielder and one of the finest players of his generation has decided he has had enough, walking away from a half finished job with his reputation, perhaps, in tatters.

It doesn't seem so long ago that Roy Keane could walk on water as Sunderland's manager after two years of steady improvements and an ambitious summer in the transfer market had been capped by a derby win over Newcastle.

Fast forward a few weeks - and most Sunderland supporters probably wish they could have done during the abject home displays against West Ham and Bolton Wanderers - and Keane is struggling to keep his head above the surface.

It is sometimes asked rhetorically - albeit from the warm and comfort of a television studio by chin stroking, back slapping pundits, most of whom have either failed in the dugout or were too scared to try - who would want to be a Premier League manager such is the pressure and unrealistic expectation levels which comes with the job.

Michael Owen has always tended to dominate headlines during his four injury-plagued seasons at Newcastle United but there is a far more serious concern ahead of the January transfer window than his unsigned contract - Shay Given's future.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez - who turned down the chance to sign Owen from Real Madrid in 2005 - used his post-match press conference on Monday night to firmly deny reports linking him with an interest in the striker by saying "clearly I can guarantee that we are not going for Owen."

So that clears that up then, but you can also guarantee Owen will be linked with yet another club in the Sunday papers, with the new smart money on Everton following the news Yakubu will be out of the rest of the season with an Achilles injury. Owen's family home is still in Cheshire, so are his stables, he supported Everton as a boy.... the rest will write itself I'm sure...

We all know Newcastle need to buy players in January if they are going to pull clear of the relegation zone. What we don't know is where the money is going to come from because Mike Ashley appears to be about as likely to spend his own money as I am to book a room this weekend at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai.

The Taj Mahal could do with some renovations after last week's terrorist attacks and so could Joe Kinnear's first team squad and I don't mean of the 'sell to buy' variety.

Newcastle did not have a big enough squad when the transfer window shut in September and they don't have enough players now. It's as simple as that.