Gram123
Posts: 5665
Joined: 19/1/2006
From: Reino Unido
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I dunno about the "general feeling", but my own feelings on Ashley are pretty much the same as they have been for the past 4 or 5 years.
He's done some positive things for us, like clearing the debt and funding transfers, albeit with not quite as much $$ as we were sometimes promised. He's done some things that seemed mental or frugal or backward at the time, but fortunately turned out positive in the end, such as giving Hughton a go as manager (frugal), and later dropping him (backward) and giving Pards the job (mental), as well as failing to keep hold of the likes of Milner, Given, Carroll, Nolan, Enrique and Barton. And he's done some things that were out and out negative, or else betrayed the fact that he hadn't a fucking clue what he was doing, from swapping Allardyce for Keegan (Allardyce should have gone, Keegan shouldn't have been his replacement), employing Wise, then undermining Keegan by giving contracts to players like Xisco against his wishes, employing Kinnear, signings like Sol Campbell, a series of acts that had a knock-on effect and are largely to blame for our relegation in 2009, right up to changing the name of the stadium.
So... I don't hate the fella, and I don't (have never) refer to him and Llambias the Cockney Mafia, though I do find Llambias a bit of a snake at times, and it's perhaps a shame that he replaced Chris Mort, who seemed to forge a more positive link between fans and owner. I don't pin the blame for all the ills of the last few seasons on Ashley, and neither do I give him all the credit for our successes, particularly not the fostering of a team spirit that helped us finish the 2009-10 season as Championship winners, or Pard's odd yet seemingly quite successful policy of buying French, and the resultant form we've shown this season.
As with anyone, I guess, it's more complex than saying a person's a hero or a twat. I've been angry with some of his decisions and bemused at others (Solero shirts?!). I've felt kinda sorry for him when he was almost forced out by the fans (whipped up into a frenzy by the tabloids, lest we forget) and said he regretted buying the club, thought him a bit of a dick when he was photographed stripping off in a Chinese, and felt optimistic when he withdrew the club from sale, took a deep breath and announced a raft of positive plans to turn things around, a number of which have since come to fruition (including clearing the company debt, and, rather less positively, re-branding St James').
I said back in 2008, in response to generalised accusations of Newcastle fans having unrealistic expectations:
quote:
From my own p.o.v., I wanted the club to get a couple more half decent players during the transfer window, to give some much needed depth to the squad, but in fact more players left than arrived. So they failed on that count. They failed to fill the positions where we needed players most.
Whilst our squad is still not bulging with an excess of talent, it's at least in better shape than it was back then.
quote:
I'd also like to see a year-on-year improvement in our final league position, mainly through improved defensive play - since I've watched Newcastle, they've always tended to have a pretty decent attack, but have also had a leaky defence.
Well, we rollercoasted here, didn't we? Finishing 12th in 2008, relegated in 2009, top of the Championship in 2010, back to 12th in the Prem in 2011 (i.e. back where we started!) and hopefully looking on course to finish 7th or better this term and get into Europe. So it ain't been a year-on-year improvement, but we seem like we're finally making headway and our defence has certainly improved. And you know, that season in the Championship was strangely quite fun. Leavers aside, I think it helped strengthen the squad spirit and boosted morale, cos, well, we fucking won all the time, didn't we?! And the subsequent season was pleasing enough, as we confounded those "straight back down" naysayers by finishing mid-table.
quote:
I don't think I'm unusual amongst Newcastle fans - yes, of course, buying the greatest players in the world and winning something (anything!) would be marvellous. But the realist in me just wants to see progress, stability, a decent team who don't fall apart when a couple of first-teamers are injured, and a positive goal difference at the end of the season.
And again, here, it looks like we're finally on course. Ergo, I'm fairly happy with my club right now after an ugly patch, and ergo for his part in getting us from A to B (via X and F%?# and Sh*&!), I can be neither too blindly hateful nor too reverent toward the owner.
< Message edited by Gram123 -- 8/3/2012 12:46:29 PM >
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