Coverage for the week of the 23rd - 29th January 2006
 

Another week, same old same old.  Shite on the pitch, not much better off it.  Ominous silence from the boardroom, the continued absence of a number of exceptionally well paid individuals and a display of bullishness from the management team that really does have to be admired.  Personally I’m almost at the point of wishing the season was over, and it’s not even February.  Oh and we had to suffer Ronnie Radford all over again.  Insult to add to the injuries.

A home defeat by a workman like Blackburn side is where we start the week.  (Article) (Article) (Article)  The press seeming to go down 2 roads here.  One covering up a poor performance with the excuse that the goal was a handball missed by a bad referee.  (Admittedly Howard Webb had a stinker but we’ve heard this before surely.)  The other, perhaps more realistic view, that the end was again near for Souness (Article). 

We also had another run of pro-Souness waffle from friends in the media. Alan Hansen leading the way with his weekly column for the BBC (Article) and Carl Markham writing on the Sporting Life website coming up with an excellent example of how you can manipulate stats to make any point you like.  (Article=)  Now I love stats (you can probably tell) but even this is stretching a point, just look at how the team is performing on the pitch and how unfit certain players look and that should speak volumes.  Dean Saunders meanwhile is doing a great ostrich impression.  (Article)

The infighting has brought glee from predictable areas of the media.  Louise (occasional contributor to official Mackem publications) Taylor, who seems, in my opinion, to be reduced to regurgitating others’ work under her own name these days, for one, loving the reported press conference Frosties/Cheerioes incident (Article) also mentioned by The Mirror (Article).  Amidst continued rumours linking us with Allardyce (Article) apparently it is up to FFS whether Souness stays or goes (Article).  No, really?  Tell me another one, please.  Cutting edge journalism from The Journal again.

With Souness summoned to what was described as yet another crisis meeting with the chairman (Article) we were left waiting and wondering once more.  Only for Souness to emerge quite upbeat describing what was in his eyes a nice chat over a cup of tea.  (Article) (Article) (Article) (Article)  Probably best described in more realistic terms by The Times as an “uneasy truce”. (Article)  FFS for his part remains unusually quiet (Article).

Of course the usual suspects on the playing staff come out yet again giving the manager their “full support”.  Shearer (Article), Clarkie (Article) and Peter Ramage (Article), who repeatedly comes across as a level headed professional in his dealings with the press, unlike some young stars we’ve had in our time it must be said. 

And with the NUFC hot seat being described as the “toughest in the game” (Article) (and probably the easiest when you’re doing well I would suggest), we launch full length into the build up to the FA Cup tie at Cheltenham.  All the classic cup clichés with a manager under pressure present of course.  Win or bust (Article), make or break (Article), resting on laurels (Article), you know the sort of thing, we seem to hear them every year.  Helpful and “incisive” comments as well from former players, this time Rob Lee (Article) and John Beresford (Article), near condescending sympathy for Souness from the Cheltenham manager (Article) (Article) and little sympathy from former chairman and club president Sir John Hall (Article) who has obviously forgotten who also sits on the board alongside FFS and must shoulder some of the responsibility for the mess that is NUFC.  Also with little sympathy was The Mirror, beating the underdog drum claiming the whole country was wanting us to lose (Article) and it wouldn’t be a cup tie with us involved against lower division opposition without Ronnie Radford getting a mention (Article)  over and over again, of course.  The only thing missing was Souness or FFS going out of their way to upset the opposition with some sort of glib or misplaced comment about them, Stevenage style.  For that at least we can be grateful.  We’ll not mention calling Cheltenham non league though.  Best not eh?

Souness himself, buoyant after his cosy chat with FFS, had plenty of other things to say.  Firstly defending his transfer dealings (Article), having no regrets signing Owen (Article) and claiming that the fans haven’t written him off, indeed suggesting that he is getting plenty of letters of support (Article).  I’d love to know who that fan is, and how many times he’s had to change the ink in his printer.  Meanwhile there were reports that more friction loomed as he tries to get us to lower our aims (Article).  Don’t worry, with what we’ve been served up week after week we already have.

Cheltenham came and went in what the lads at the ever essential nufc.com kindly described as an “efficient” performance.  The match reports are, almost as usual, uniform in their opinion; Cheltenham did not disgrace themselves, we navigated a potential embarrassment and made a meal of it and Boumsong was bloody awful.  (Article) (Article) (Article) (Article) (Article) (Article)  The post match comments have Souness as “relieved”.  (Article) (Article) (Article=)  You can read into that whatever you want to.  We’re stuck with him for another week then.

Or not perhaps.  Not if FFS has been sending text messages to Sven, as the News of the World claimed (Article) (Article).  Denied strenuously, of course (Article) (Article).  When I think about it, Sven would probably be right at home at St James’, he could join the players on the front and back pages all at the same time.  The news that Sven would be “leaving” the England job after the World Cup has brought plenty of comment and speculation.  Not short of a word or two were our captain (Article) (Article) and “England’s Michael Owen” © The Sun (Article) on his “best chance ever” to win the World Cup (Article).  And the odd word for the team that pays his wages, of course (Article).

Everybody rejoice!  “Kieron Dyer’s back on the comeback trail” © the Journal part 387.  (Article) (Article)  Supersub indeed.  I give him 25 minutes and another 6 game absence before he hits that trail again.  Yee-ha!  Also on his way back, not that he ever really started like, is Craig Moore (Article), Newcastle’s David MacCallum, complete with bandages and paint on skin.  Probably.

Three things to leave you with this week.  Firstly the debate rages on about who will be top scorer if/when Shearer grabs the one goal that the official records say he needs to wrestle the title away from Jack Milburn.  Now they are asking do war goals count. (Article)  How about just saying they are both great goal scorers in their own time and have served the club with pride and leave it at that now eh?  Secondly the Guardian reported this week that the club were the first in the firing line in a test case relating VAT payments which could cost the club millions.  (Article)  And possibly one further reason why funds are limited.  The club for their part were quick to put the record straight with this official press release (Article).  Factually incorrect stories in the newspaper?  Who would believe it?  Sloppy on the part of The Guardian, but then again they are proving time and again this season that they don’t have an ounce of affection for NUFC.  Finally, I wonder just how different could things have been had we ended up in the Scottish football league like Berwick Rangers did. (Article)  Curious but as ever with NUFC it just seems to be a case of “what if?”…

NM