Supermac sticks the knife into Hughton.
Posted on October 31st, 2010 | 48 Comments |
Anyway, I was perusing the ‘comments’ section on the ‘blog to see if I had missed anything and to catch up on the gossip when one thing struck me. It seems that the media bandwagon regarding the future of our manager is rolling on.
Those who listened to ‘The Legends’ radio phone-in during week will have heard Malcolm Macdonald bleating on about Chris Hughton and launching some quite scathing attacks on our current manager. The reason being that he is somewhat annoyed by the team selection that Chris Hughton made against Arsenal in the Carling Cup in midweek.
Now I see things differently and fully backed Hughton’s decision to rest a good number of first-team players in midweek as I wanted our best possible team to be available to play in today’s derby, but I understand that others feel differently and feel that fielding a weakened team during the week equates to us missing out on an opportunity to progress into the Carling Cup quarter-finals at the expense of a team that has scored an average of three goals in every game this season.
That particular debate has been done to death on here, and it got quite heated at times, but Supermac has decided to re-open that particluar can of worms and use it as a base to launch yet another attack on Chris Hughton.
In an article for the Sunday Express entitled “Supermac turns up the heat on Hughton”, our former frontman believes that the team selection in midweek wasn’t actually a team-sheet. Instead it was a resignation letter from Hughton. In that article he said;
“It wasn’t a team sheet, it was a resignation letter. It was sheer madness and I’m still trying to make sense of it,” said Macdonald after the 4-0 fourth-round defeat. “Chris has put himself under immense but unnecessary pressure and I’m not sure why.”
“To me his team selection was a dereliction of duty. It’s like Sports Direct shutting their stores at lunchtime, saying they can’t be bothered. The previous three games at St James’ Park – against Blackpool, Stoke City and Wigan – saw Newcastle take just one point. Now after Arsenal, it’s four home games without a win.”
I understand that our home form has been disappointing, and I am just as frustrated about it as the next person, but I believe that Supermac seems to be missing the bigger picture here.
Football, rightly or wrongly, has moved on and has become more of a business than anything else. A football club is no longer a club anymore, it’s a brand, and the Carling Cup doesn’t strengthen a brand whereas being in the Premier League, with it’s vast amount of revenue, does.
Now it’s fine for teams that are established in the Premier League to take on a cup competition as they, generally, have the squad to deal with the extra workload. We don’t. People need to realise where we were just fourteen months ago and compare it with where we are now.
Our squad is weaker for being in The Championship for one season, and whilst our first XI may well be good enough to give anyone a game, beyond that there isn’t an awful lot to write home about. It sounds harsh but it is true.
So by using logic, if we were to lose one of our first-team players to injury, say Jose Enrique, because we played him against a team that is averaging three goals a game anyway, against even the top teams, then it would surely leave our team for the league a hell of a lot weaker?
Hughton was playing it safe, and protecting the first-team. Not one person moaned when he protected them against Accrington Stanley, and won. Not one person complained when we played a similar team against Chelsea and won in their own back yard. But now Supermac believes that the team selection on Wednesday has given Suderland a massive boost ahead of today’s derby.
“Steve Bruce and his Sunderland team must have been watching the game and laughing their socks off. This was the best build-up that Sunderland could possibly have had. If I was the owner of the club, I wouldn’t be happy that in these hard financial times the chance of progressing in a cup competition has been lost,” added Macdonald.
Really? I’m sure the £12,000 prize money for getting past Arsenal will be sorely missed. Realitically it will be outweighed heavily by just the TV money from the game today.
“If Newcastle had beaten Arsenal, then the only really serious opposition left was Manchester United reserves. Even Marks & Spencer ignore the customers at their peril.”
Really? So you, Supermac, are so cock-sure of us beating Wigan in the next round? Aston Villa and Birmingham are not serious opposition then, no? West Brom are stroll in the park aswell are they?
“A win at West Ham was something to build on. Now the emphatic defeat by Arsenal has obliterated the West Ham result. It’s now totally forgotten. Honestly, being at St James’ Park on Wednesday night was like being in the middle of madness, not being able to do a single thing about it. Now, there’s no doubt about it, Hughton has to win this game against Sunderland but he has handed the momentum to Bruce and the Sunderland players.”
“You can’t keep on losing home games – that’s largely where you are judged by the fans. To say you’re only bothered about staying in the Premier League is a cop-out for a club like Newcastle.”
You may view it as a cop out Supermac, but I don’t. As I said earlier, football, like it or not, is a business nowadays, and business sense dictates that the Premier League, with it’s £40 million annual windfall, is the priority.
It seems that leopards do change their spots, as most fans know that survival is the aim for this season with the view of kicking-on next year. Unfortunately it appears to be the media that is struggling with this. It is they who have started all of these rumours, and it is they who are perpetuating them to make them sound viable. If enough people whisper a rumour it will eventually catch on, which is what the press are trying to do now!
I just wish they would piss off!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Off topic, just wanted to mention the clocks have gone back one hour in the uk but have not changed in the usa for anyone watching the game.