The Blame Game

Having tried all day to think of a word that is suitable enough to describe last night’s abject performance from Newcastle United, I finally came up with it.

Repugnant – Definition: distasteful, offensive.

I realised today that this sums up the way I have been feeling when pondering the displays on journeys home from most games this season. Then I realised that this is the way I have felt when pondering displays I have witnessed for most of 2015… and 2014… (you get the picture).

So who is actually to blame?

As fans, we all see things in different ways. However, I would imagine that even the most ardent subscriber to the ‘rose-coloured glasses brigade’ when it comes to all things black and white, would struggle to argue that this season as a whole, and more particularly last night, was anything short of unacceptable.

I will give my own, personal opinion on who I think should take the brunt of the blame shortly, but I know that I could have conversations with other fans who will each apportion varying measures of blame to various people, and all would have a valid and credible argument for their reasoning.

So I just want to stress that this is my opinion, and in no way do I expect everyone to agree, but if it creates debate, and conversation, then I hope you can at least see my point of view.

Mike Ashley - In the past, fans have been quick to point the finger at our evasive and provocative owner, and rightly so. I have been one of his biggest critics. His failure to invest in the club. His appointment of Jimenez, Wise and Kinnear. His failure to address the media and fans. His reluctance to acknowledge that things had turned irreparably sour between Pardew and the fans, board and even the players. All of these things were perplexing decisions.

However, for probably the first time since he arrived, I don’t believe the blame lies at his door… not for this season anyway.

He made his now infamous statement to his Sky mouthpiece David Craig on the last day of last season, and, to be fair to him, what he laid out in that interview he has basically done. For once, he appears to have kept his word.

He said he would loosen the purse strings, and he has. Newcastle forked out a significant amount (£50 million) on players this summer and, to be honest, he is entitled to have expected more for the outlay. I know people will say that a lot (if not all) of the money was from funds recouped from the sale of players, and as a result very little has come from his pocket, but he still could have sat on that money and not spent… but that is a separate argument for another day.

Ashley’s mistake, in my opinion, is that he entrusted the money with the wrong people, and I will come to that later.

Steve McClaren – Whatever fans may think of his appointment, and I wasn’t particularly enthused by it, I refuse…absolutely refuse… to believe that he is not a better manager/coach than John Carver – and I will refute this with anyone who says that he is. It literally makes my skin crawl to hear or read Carver having the utter gall to comment on what is going on at the club.

The problem that McClaren has (and I am referring solely to his time at Newcastle, and not his past performances), is that he has found himself in the exact same situation that Alan Pardew did. He is the spokesperson, manager, coach, and stool pigeon for those around and above him. He goes to his press conferences with a bullseye tattooed on his forehead, and tries as best he can to bat-off all the questions put to him from hacks that are the only ones in a position to ask them on our behalf.

It’s like déjà vu.

He is, of course, doing all this with one hand tied behind his back. We know he has little, if any, say on which players come and go. He knows that too. He also knows that we know, but cannot come out and say as much.

Yes, our tactics have been pretty negative, despite protestations before the season that we would play attractive, attacking football. I have no problem with building a team from the back, getting the defence right before focusing on the rest of the team, and when it works, like it did at Old Trafford, then great. The problem is, that more often than not it hasn’t been working. We have largely the same personnel at the back, and you simply cannot create a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

Other similar frailties are rearing their ugly heads again too: Our lack of discipline; players that look devoid of any idea what their role is; other players that simply do not look interested; injuries that constantly occur, and then regularly recur time after time, suggesting that something is amiss either on the fitness side or the training side of things.

For these things McClaren has to accept some blame. At the end of the day it is his job to coach the players, assess the players and motivate the players. If he is not successful in that, then that is strictly down to him.

Lee Charnley and Graham Carr – I have put these two together, as they do act like a comedy double-act. This (not-so) dynamic duo are, in my mind, to blame more than anyone else at the club. Questions have to be asked of them, and their inability to get almost anything right.

Charnley’s inexperience of running a football club should have ruled him out of the top position at the club, as it would at most others. I wouldn’t trust him to run a bath properly, never mind a Premier League Club. It is exactly this inexperience that makes him rely so heavily on his right hand man when it comes to matters such as recruitment. But here lies the problem. Graham Carr may have brought in players like Yohan Cabaye, Moussa Sissoko, Matthieu Debuchy et al, but he also brought sub-standard players like Luuk De Jong, Emmanuel Riviere, Romain Amalfitano and Yoan Gouffran.

He has been responsible for recommending our signings to Charnley, and it is on his say-so that a player is deemed good enough to bring in. There is no doubt the calibre of players we have signed, particularly those that arrived this summer. But it is a manager and coach who watches a player and sees which ones will fit into the team’s system, and which ones will enhance performances. Scouts spot players; managers build teams.

Because of the influence (way too much in my opinion) Carr has, we appear to have a group of individuals on the pitch as oppose to a team. Would this be the case if our manager had more of a say on recruitment? I somehow think not.

So, for me, Charnley and Carr must take the bulk of the blame, but McClaren must be held to account for some of it too. Ashley of course employed the footballing Laurel and Hardy, and although he is at fault for that, even he could have expected better this season.