Another statement from Newcastle United!
Posted on May 11th, 2010 | 130 Comments |
You could argue that there would have been no need for it had the original statement been of the required quality which someone somewhere will have been paid quite a bit to write up. Ashley should ask for a refund as his attempt at PR and clarity backfired spectularly and has created quite the storm around the club. I’m going to have a go at writing my own statement later, just to see if I can do a better job than the PR and, media department, but first let’s deal with this latest release which says;
“In relation to recent media speculation following the statement made by the Club on May 9, Newcastle United would like to make it clear that owner Mike Ashley is not looking for his interest free loan to be repaid, or to take any money out of the club.”
I did say it was brief, and it should go some way to clarifying the owners intention. At least we know he isn’t going to be stuffing bank notes into his back pocket at every opportunity. But what about the original? As I and many others have said, this could have been avoided had the original statement contained clarity. I’m no PR guru, but after George Caulkin decided to have a go at writing his own, I thought I would do the same, just to see how hard it really is. Here goes;
“Dear Newcastle United supporters,
“Thank you for continuing to buy your season tickets, and thank you all for your support week after week. We know that at a time of economic uncertainty sometimes attending games can be a struggle, we know there are more important things than football. So for a club that haven’t won a top class domestic trophy since 1955 to record an average attendance of 43,387 in the Coca-Cola Championship was stunning and humbling.
“This season has started to bring about a period of stability, a sense of us all pulling on the same direction. We know mistakes have been made and we know that the mistakes may take some time to forget, but rest assured we are trying our best to run the club properly. In the spirt of pulling together, we feel that we have a duty to be open and honest.
“Just as this is a different Newcastle from the club that were relegated a year ago, it also a very different environment. With that in mind we will attempt to back the manager in whichever way is possible whilst retaining the integrity that will se us become a much more sustainable club in the future.
“In the meantime, we want to build a new Newcastle, if you will. We want this to be a Newcastle you can be proud of. A big part of that, as always, will be determined by what happens on the pitch and all players will be reminded of their responsibilities to you, but it also means focusing resources on our Academy structure.
“For far too long, this region has allowed its be better players to leave and we have to put a stop to that. We have an academy that is producing talents that are intersting some of Europes biggest clubs. For that reason we will be looking to integrate as many of these up and coming players into our first team squad as the manager believes he needs.
“We should also say a few words about the media and our relationship with them. It hasn’t always been easy. We happen to think that this club and their support have not always been well served by newspapers, television and radio and that we’re sometimes subjected to crude stereotyping, but we also accept that because of decisions taken by this regime and its predecessors, we’ve made ourselves easy targets. In retrospect, there was probably an opportunity to reshape the debate when Mr Ashley bought the club, but he was never very comfortable about assuming a public role and that moment has sadly dissipated.”
So that was my attempt at it. I’ve not covered all of it and I’ve tried to keep it brief, but I reckon that would have been enough and would certainly leave fewer questions being asked than what there is currently. In keeping in the spirit of things, if you have any queries regarding my attempt at a statement, the answer will simply be…..
“No comment.”
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Worky – Can you take this down for a bit and put it up later? I don’t know how to. I saw you had something planned but weren’t writing at the time so got this out.
Looks like we both did it at the same time :(
Like busses eh? lol