When Alan Pardew is asked a question regarding the possibility of Yohan Cabaye leaving the club and replies by saying that he is “not confident of keeping him” and stresses the importance of signing a replacement then you know that once again things are happening that he has absolutely no control over. This is nothing new; it has happened at almost every transfer window since Pardew arrived. Yet this time around our Director of football had already stated that no one is leaving during the transfer window. 12 hours later and the deal is done; the hollow words are seen as what they were; the sound bites of a fool; a fool treating supporters with condescending contempt. Treating us as though we are some sorts of moronic tribe of imbeciles who can be played; conned.
The catalogue of words uttered by our Director of Football and Team Manager between transfer windows, are best confined to the bin of deceit. They serve no purpose other than to spread the wild sense of anger, disbelief and mistrust that echoes around the city with such perpetual regularity that is has become a permanent feature of almost every conversation that supporters enter into concerning the club. In any other business, shareholders would see such actions and words as worthy of dismissal. Investors would be calling in the financial authorities to question their motives and as they contradict every movement that the company takes.
But Kinnear and Pardew are mere acolytes. The real source of that anger, disbelief and mistrust comes entirely from the actions or non-actions of the owner. As belligerent a recluse as anyone can possibly imagine, he is an owner with no heart for the Club; no passion, no belief, no dreams. He is an owner devoid of any sense of responsibility towards anything or anyone other than himself and his actions and inactions concerning Newcastle United at key moments defy logic.
Football is built on dreams; the dreams of supporters. It is built on their aspirations, their sense of pride; their sense of being part of something they have been brought up to believe in. The dreams live in households, families, pubs, clubs, schoolyards and park pitches. Mike Ashley has no dreams for Newcastle United; no interest. He is a breaker of dreams, a destroyer of dreams. For Newcastle supporters he is their Dementor; a soulless creature consuming the emotions and good memories of supporters’ young and old, forcing his victims to relive our worst memories, in his case collectively as he sucks the lifeblood from their club.
Whenever Pardew, Kinnear or the Board at Newcastle United roll out their bland statements they sound like they are taking part in Radio 5 lives’ “defend the Indefensible”; when a wild and totally impossible scenario is thrown out to the panelist and they have 20 seconds to defend it. Pardew defends Kinnear and Ashley as though his life depends upon it. Perhaps his life at Newcastle United does. A More honourable man would have walked by now, knowing that he is being undermined at every move and that supporters no longer buy into the sound bites and rhetoric that he utters. But that has not happened and some would say that says a lot about the man.
Kinnear; well nobody knows why he is here, what he does or what he brings to the roll. His words are a joke, his position even more laughable. Words other than that fail me when it comes to Joe Kinnear.
I and I’m sure many others believe that Ashley is no longer interested in Newcastle United as a going concern and hasn’t been for at least five seasons. He is maneuvering for a sale. The signals are all there; the lack of any incoming transfer activity; the cash being banked from player sales; the accumulation of signings only on loans and easy to get off the books for a new owner. I was told earlier in the season about a firm offer that was made to buy the club but Ashley wanted to wait until after the January transfer window before concluding. It wasn’t a conversation in a pub or something picked up from some far away forum. It was information regarding a genuine bona fide offer but Ashley’s insistence on waiting killed it. The potential owners walked and that deal seems dead, but who knows what’s round the corner in the world of Mike Ashley.
Perhaps the 5 year plan that was spouted so flagrantly by Llambias is coming to fruition. Perhaps the plan was simply to recoup the debt accrued from his misguided purchase. Perhaps it was nothing to do with performances but simply an asset strip. Net transfer profit, repayments of loans, Cabaye money, and Television revenue. They soon add up. And after all, the Board tells us that we are in a healthy financial position.
Sell a cash rich club and you are hardly going to leave a nice nest egg in the bank account for the new owner are you.
For a man who utters nothing his actions appear louder than words. I hope I am right and a sale is close at hand. Our club is too good and our supporters too loyal to have to put up with him much longer.