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Starved of the oxygen of communication but still breathing; just!

28/6/2013

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The situation that we now find ourselves in is all Mike Ashley’s making. He chose to appoint Joe Kinnear; he allowed Kinnear free reign to make the announcement without notifying anyone at the club; he allowed Kinnear to go back on Talksport and continue to release information about his appointment, his position within the club and the imminent change of job description of the MD Derek Llambias. He also allowed Kinnear to explain the new transfer policy that the club would adopt; everything going through Kinnear himself.
 
Throughout his time at NE1 Ashley has never publicly uttered a single word about his plans for the club; instead choosing to speak through first Chris Mort and then Derek Llambias. His inner sanctum of advisors has fluctuated between the very public (Wise, Jiminez) to the very private. He has sacked or lost 5 managers (Allardyce, Keegan, Kinnear, Houghton, Shearer), paid millions in compensation to managers and back room staff; taken platitudes and stick in unequal proportion; had the club dragged through the courts; seen us relegated from and promoted back to the Premier League; taken us on a European journey that was long on enjoyment but ultimately impacted on our fight for Premier League survival by a failure to provide his manager with a squad capable of competing on both domestic and European fronts. We have seen sponsors come and go. More go, if utterances about our commercial position are anything to go by. We’ve had the fuss concerning the ground name; the new club shirt sponsors, transfer policy, ticketing arrangements for away travel, the ban on watching training sessions and reserve fixtures, the abandonment of L7 signing section, heavy handed stewarding, issues concerning standing in the Gallowgate Corner and a general perception that some at the club simply enjoy rubbing our noses in the dirt.

We have been told that we are following the Arsenal model (16 consecutive seasons in the Champions' League), the Aston Villa model (a youth policy based on Academy A status); the Liverpool model (is there such a thing?). Thankfully we have never been informed that we are following the Sunderland model !

We have been left sometimes dazed, sometimes confused; sometimes ecstatic and at other times bereft of an understanding of where we are heading. We have praised, we have berated, we’ve screamed and we’ve at times protested but as supporters we have continued to support the team as we always have and always will; loyalty comes as part of our birthright; we are born into it and we carry it with dignity and pride in equal measure.

We have supporters who simply want to attend on match days. We have others who see results as the be all and end all of everything. Some attend religiously home and away, never missing a game. Others just do home games and some simply dip in and dip out when the desire of finances allow. Some no longer attend; be it for work, family, financial or personal reasons but each and every one of them remain supporters; carrying with them the passion during 90 minutes with the same strength of belonging as the next man.

That is the beauty of being a Geordie; being a Newcastle Supporter. Being part of something collective. We feed off the oxygen of the club; eat sleep and drink its movements, utterances, publicity, products, success and failure. We talk football incessantly; we talk Newcastle United even more. And when our club is wounded we feel wounded too. When it doesn’t talk to us we feel rebuked; when it is successful we feel buoyed and we buzz. Success being measured in victories not trophies, obviously.

But because Mike Ashley hasn’t uttered a single word to supporters in six years and hasn’t explained a single decision that he has made for the “benefit and stability” of the club, many feel angry; take it personal and start to question motives. A void is created and without the oxygen of communication the void starts to get filled for many with a fear, a loathing and a desire to seek answers; a desire for change.

The change that NUFC FANS UNITED seeks is a change in attitude; a removal of the mistrust that exists between Mike Ashley and supporters; a desire to help the club realize the importance of direct and positive communication and a desire to see success. That’s why we set the group up; convinced by Malcolm Dix that in the long term, club and supporter needed to listen to each other.

The recent appointment of a fans' liaison officer was a great start and Lee Marshall, with the backing of Derek Llambias (now departed) and the support of PR officer Wendy Taylor.  Lee is doing a great job building a set up based on trust and a sound understanding how important communication is. Indeed, Derek himself was working his way slowly into the task and in recent months was pulling in the right direction; engaging once more with supporters with grace and courtesy; and having met with him I warmed to his change of approach. Don’t get me wrong; he was no saint and I’m sure that his single minded approach to some issues would have remained and would not necessarily have been for the good for the club (my opinion). But with commercial finances starting to come into to the club I think he was finally being released from the shackles that Mike Ashley’s business plan held him to.

We know Derek’s departure was not anticipated by either himself or his staff and his successor needs to build on the important work that Lee and Wendy were implementing through fan liaison; ensuring that supporters views are taken as of paramount importance in decision making in the future for the benefit of everyone associated with Newcastle United.

NUFC FANS UNITED hold monthly meetings. Our meetings are open to anyone to attend; we have an agenda that lays down topics for discussion; we don’t shape or develop opinion; we simply provide the vehicle for supporters to come together to discuss issues or concerns; listen to opinions and see those opinions, concerns and issues fed back to the club for consideration. We ask people to join as “members” simply so that we can e mail them and invite them to bring forward agenda points before each meeting. Our last meeting saw an abundance of opinion put forward with various levels of passion; none more so than by the MAOC group. The meeting provided them with a platform and they put forward a motion to those attending that endorsed their own opinion on Mike Ashley’s Suitability to be the custodian of Newcastle United. Many in the room agreed and their motion was passed on a show of hands. That group will no doubt now carry on with its campaigning in whatever manner they see fit; good luck to them.  They’ve started the debate and already social networks will be fuelling that debate as we crawl towards the first fixtures of the season.  If there is such a thing as a Mike Ashley In Campaign (MAIC) then they too will be given the same opportunity as MOAC if they so wish; come along; talk, be listened too and run their counter campaign. That’s what NUFC FANS UNITED is all about; providing supporters with a vehicle to have their opinion heard and listened to by the club and if anyone has a problem with that then there is probably little we can say or do that will be of benefit to them.

NUFC FANS UNITED won’t run campaigns for change; we won’t be holding protest rallies and we won’t be calling for anyone’s head; that’s not our purpose. But we will continue to provide fans with a platform for their concerns to be presented to the club and help their fans' liaison team in the best way we can.

 

Steve H

NUFC FANS UNITED
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The Questions Asked

26/6/2013

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We should have included this into the minutes just make everyone aware of what was asked.  Just for reference, we received over 500 questions (many were repeats), they were compiled into the following sections and list.  These questions were passed on the NUFC on Monday and a sample were read out to start the meeting.  Further questions were asked on the night, but nothing that provided a major departure from the below. 


Joe Kinnear
  1. Why Joe Kinnear? What are his credentials?
  2. Was he the only candidate? 
  3. Aren’t you concerned about his health?
  4. Why not somebody like Chris Mort?
  5. Why the delay in announcing?
  6. Did Llambias walk or was he pushed?
  7. Doesn’t this appointment undermine Alan Pardew/ other staff?
  8. Who allowed JK on TalkSport?


General Q’s about JK
  1. How will this work? (ie who’s responsible for what - clarity of JK’s role)
  2. Who has the final say on players?
  3. How do the players feel - especially those whose names he mangled?
  4. What action did the Club take after TalkSport? 
  5. Do the Club not feel embarrassed by TalkSport?


General Mike Ashley/ Ownership
  1. Why did MA buy the Club? 
  2. Does he still “want” to own NUFC?
  3. Can you help us understand what you are trying to achieve with NUFC?
  4. What does Mike Ashley want? Why does he do things he knows anger fans?
  5. Will you ever issue a statement (from YOU) or communicate directly with fans?
  6. Would you sell?
  7. Would you consider some form of scheme to allow (partial) fan ownership?
  8. How much we now owe Ashley has he been taking the installments back?
  9. Would MA accept further (outside) investment into NUFC?


General NUFC
  1. What happened to the “five year plan”?
  2. Do you think you are following your own Mission Statement (refresh???)
  3. How can we be confident in club when direction changes more than the wind?
  4. What does the last week to to encourage stability?
  5. What progress have you made as a club?
  6. & do you actually understand how important the customer is?
  7. What was the MASSIVE commercial deal that was going to be announced at the end of the season?
  8. Would you ever consider bringing a safe standing/ singing section back?
  9. Will SJP ever be upgraded to hold more? 
  10. What’ the thinking behind “membership” also do you know how poor an offer it is?
  11. Also as a side question can they look at away games, in particular lifting the ban on non season ticket holders and also taking the full quota of tickets offered by the home clubs
  12. Have you published the revised disabled supporters’ ticketing policy yet? Who are you consulting with?


Transfer/ Team questions
  1. What is the transfer strategy? Has it changed? Are will still buy young & cheap?
  2. Why didn’t we sign players last summer to build on 5th place?
  3. Why weren't the buys/ sales sorted the week after the last game as promised?
  4. Can we get out of the Wonga deal?
  5. Do we always have to bring in money first before buying?
  6. Could the club look into fan input on how the club is ran?
  7. Is the rumour true about Aubameyang been offered shares in SD in a contract offer?
  8. How often do you practise corners and do you have any tactics
  9. with us £18mil up on transfers and the wage bill down + TV deal, why arent we spending big eg Aubameyeng
  10. And how long are we going to have to put up with the fact that the likes of Gutierrez and Tiote are constantly bigged up as being 'key players' for the team when in reality the only thing they contribute is holding us back?

Any other business
  • Pre - season tournament held at St James' Park each year. Newcastle United and 3 of Sir Bobby's former clubs all taking part. Four teams in the tournament with the opposition rotated each year so they all get a turn. Imagine the interest in this man! They could even donate the gate money to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation
  • Why not do themed screenings of classic matches in the off-season?
  • Why not embrace the city, embrace the club and its fans - it would help build a winning team.


Sorry if we missed your question or you felt yours was significantly different to the above
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My thoughts on the "big meeting"

25/6/2013

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Well that went…  What are my thoughts in the cold light of day, the morning after the night before, as it were?  It’s a shame it descended into a bear-pit at the end - but in hindsight that was to be expected and in some ways it was; we were very clear to the Club that we felt the meeting would be a venting-zone.  

So why did I say, in hindsight?  Because I think I  (and here I do mean me personally rather than the group) underestimated the level of anger that exists because of the Joe Kinnear appointment.  Or maybe, more accurately the anger that still exists at the ownership of the Club.

You see the thing is I WAS very unhappy post KK, at Hull, post relegation, post Sports Direct Arena, post Chris Hughton etc etc etc. I’ve never been involved in any fans’ groups at all - like many I joined the Trust, but when I felt it stopped “listening to us” I lost interest. Then after reading two articles - one George Caulkin’s magnificent “Mike Ashley Must Go” and something posted by True Faith I decided something had to be done.  

Originally NUFC Fans United was set up by two of us with the stated aim of “providing a hub for all anti-Ashley groups”.  The thing with any group is that to be effective you need “critical mass” otherwise you end us looking like that famous Monty Python skit from the “Life of Brian” which I see is doing the rounds again this morning.  Once more and more people got involved I saw it as a natural progression to move from being purely ant-Ashley to being more about engaging with his regime. I am a ranter you see, but I’m also a pragmatist - and the way I see it is, at the moment we’re “stuck” with Mike Ashley; so what do we do?  Do we continue to rabble-rouse and call for boycotts and protests - or do we try and engage?  The pragmatist is me, says engage. 

Now comes the tricky part - and when I go off script… as a fan, I don’t want to organise meetings and have dialogue with press officers - I want to be the “silent” (but cheering my wildly successful team) majority.  I have two kids, I run my own business - I don’t need to spend my weekends collating questions for meetings with my Club.  It’s the off-season FFS… I want to watch baseball and read about the exciting players we are signing.  But I’m a Newcastle United fan - and that aint gonna happen (not for a while anyway) - so as someone who believes that communication is as much about listening as it is about talking/ shouting/ ranting, I worked with the others to provide a platform for individual fans to have their say to the Club.  Which brings us to last night…

Last night was either a farce or a success depending on how you look at it.  If you wanted a formal minuted meeting where Club reps gave answers to all sorts of questions and a fellow fan (friend of Joe Kinnear, Eddie McIntyre) wasn’t heckled - then yes it was a disaster.  If however you wanted to provide a platform for fans to express their feelings, be heard, have a rant and start to see the power of their voice(s) then it was a resounding success. I have no idea how many people showed up - 300+ though would be my guess - think about it.  It’s a Monday in the off-season, on a night when “The Man With 10 Stone Testicles” is on TV and we had a packed out meeting in the centre of Newcastle. Yes there was ranting, yes there was shouting and yes there was heckling - BUT and this is KEY - there was passion, there was eloquence and there was listening and that is DEMOCRACY.  

It amazes me how many people complain about lack of communication between the Club and Fans and then want to censor the message going one way!  That’s not communication that’s propaganda.  It would’ve been great if Lee and Wendy had addressed the crowd, but they felt it would be inappropriate to do so - they did however turn up and 4:30 and they didn’t leave until 10:00 - and spoke to many attendees on an individual basis - that shows commitment, if nothing else.  The aforementioned, Eddie, much to his credit did the same; listening and talking to fans with dignity and respect long after “the final whistle”.  

I’d like to thank all those fans who sent in questions and statements and in particular those who took the time to speak last night, it took great courage to address what was a very angry crowd.  Yes it was heated and while I personally don’t agree with many of those opinions - it’s not my job to stifle debate.

Yes there was a motion passed for a protest, but that was called for by one of our member organisations - not us.  Back to hindsight, perhaps we should have had a counter motion - but we didn’t.  Does that mean NUFC Fans United has gone back to its Anti-Ashley roots?  Not at all - this is bigger than that.  As Bobby Robson famously said 

"What is a club? Not the buildings, directors or people who are paid to represent it, the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. It's the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, It's a small boy gripping his father's hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love."

That’s what was on display last night “the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging” - I admit I hadn’t understood quite how angry people are, and that’s mainly because my own feelings are so conflicted.  BUT what I do know is this - giving people the floor, letting them see their own power, allowing them to show their passion and giving them a chance to be heard is something I’d do over and over and over again. This isn’t about Joe Kinnear, this isn’t about Mike Ashley - this is about us and our Club.

I totally admire those with the commitment to boycott and protest, but I can’t do that - a few good results and I’m back on the NUFC crackpipe; so although we provided a platform to allow the Mike Ashley campaign to call for a protest and it passed (by a resounding majority) that doesn’t mean we as a group change direction - it means we continue to provide the platform and encourage alternative views to be spoken too. If you expect easy answers and cliched platitudes from NUFC Fans United or to be told what you should or shouldn’t say or think, then you’ve come to the wrong place.  Our job isn’t to tell you what to think, it’s to listen to what you think.  Is that naive? Possibly. Is it idealistic? Definitely. But that doesn’t mean we’re doomed to failure, because unlike Newcastle United, real life isn’t black and white.
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