Last week was a very bad one for Newcastle United. The transfer window closed with the
club having failed miserably to recruit into the positions where it has had massive priorities for 18 months and two years respectively, namely a goal-scorer and a central defender. We’ve needed a proven goalscorer at the club since Demba Ba activated his contract clause and moved to Stamford Bridge in January 2013. We might have needed a central defender longer than two years. It’s been clear Steven Taylor is the same player he was at 19 and hasn’t progressed. The ring-leader act hasn’t fooled anyone.
The goal-scoring burden now lies with Riviere, Cisse, Ayoze Perez and Ferreya. Three of that foursome are yet to score a goal in English football. Their pedigree is unconvincing. I can only believe that Riviere was adequately scouted. I don’t believe for one moment Graeme Carr has been watching Perez and Ferreya in Tenerife and the Ukraine on a regular basis. I don’t swallow that at all. Cisse is in the sick-bay with a broken knee-cap and only a vague reference to October for his return being spoken about. Pardew is bigging up a player the club has attempted to sell in the summer window of 2013 and the January window of 2014. Cisse is a player who has regressed under the coaching regime of Alan Pardew.
Clearly, the big news from transfer deadline day was the departure of Hatem Ben Arfa and
Mapou Mbwia to Hull and Roma respectively, both on-loan, with no recall or fees attached to them as yet.
Personally, I have no issue with either going. I don’t think Mbwia was suited to English football and he agrees with me. I do think he can be a fine player in Serie A and may even perform well in the Champions League for Roma. I wish him well at the same time as questioning Graeme Carr’s status as the Obe Wan Kenowbi of football scouting. I still wince when I think of Mbwia being bullied out of that game at Everton by Lukaku last season. Painful to watch.
I’m genuinely sad about Hatem Ben Arfa. He is one of the greatest talents I’ve seen at United but due to a combination of Pardew’s inability to nurture and cajole his talent as well as the player’s own lack of commitment and professionalism he is now down the road at Hull. If he comes good there, then the poison spat at Pardew will reach new levels of intensity. I bear HBA no ill will, I think it will be tragic if he doesn’t exploit his God given talent, so for that reason I hope he does well at Hull.
It is right that we consider how our two greatest modern managers might have managed 
HBA’s talent. Certainly, KK adored talent and loved David Ginola’s ability. SBR did likewise with Robert and Bellamy.
Robson had a career marked by his ability to get the most from challenging personalities – Stoichkov, Romario, Ronaldo, Gascoigne etc. HBA might not have presented too much of a challenge to him.
Pardew, on the other hand is a pygmy compared to those two managerial giants. The best you can hope from this corned beef manager is getting the best from Mike Williamson, James Perch, Danny Simpson et al. Players like him – plodding, average, uninspired. He doesn’t understand talent. That is not to absolve HBA for his lack of commitment. Those who celebrate HBA as much to put the knife into Pardew as bemoan the absence of his talent ignore those games where he contributed absolutely nothing. His performance at the last derby disaster will live long in my memory for its sheer gutlessness.
I will question Pardew’s lack of man-management skills for HBA failing to live up to his 
billing but I will not excuse Hatem for a lack of professionalism on and off the park.
But the big story is how that departure of that deadline duo wasnot replaced with new incoming talent. Pardew promised they would. By now my mantra – nothing Pardew ever says ever happens, is less the eye-spinning paranoia of a foaming mouthed fanzine head as simply a statement of painful, repetitive fact. Alan Pardew just cannot be trusted.
On Monday night, Lee Charnley and Alan Pardew had done something good for their boss, Mike Ashley, in reducing the salaries but something really bad for Newcastle United – leaving the squad really, really short. Both men work for Ashley, not Newcastle United. There is a clear, painful, suffocating difference. With no injuries, the squad was short.
With the news De Jong has torn a muscle and will be out for four months, the squad is all 
over the place. Cisse is already out, Janmaat limped off during the game with Palace and Colback missed an England call up because of injury. Not many of us won’t have clocked Tiote apparently hale and hearty playing for the Ivory Coast given he has been unavailable for pre-season friendlies and United selection so far this season. Many suspect lies from the club regarding his injury as United have attempted to sell him. We are preparing for the fourth PL game of the season away to Southampton and already there is talk of crisis and manager change. Pardew has completely lost the support. There is no rational argument to keep him other than woeful fears about who might replace him. Pardew is finished – unable to do the job, untrustworthy and loathed in equal measure. That is not a workable situation for any manager, even one who clings to his job in the PL knowing it will be his last. I fully expect United to lose convincingly at Southampton and I believe we have a back to the future event with Hull on the 20th of this month.
If Pardew sticks around after losing both those games, he threatens to become this 
season’s Steve Kean at Blackburn. I don’t think Pardew’s overweening vanity would allow him to be swallowed up and spat out by a venomous, hate-filled St James’ Park. Nothing Pardew has experienced in his career will prepare him for us at our worst.
I don’t even have the heart to crank up to a rant regarding Mike Ashley and the cancer he is upon our club. Only a fool would defend his position at United. Whether the lack of investment, yet again, will see a big crash grab from the club’s increased TV revenues by Ashley to lower the debt, remains to be seen.
Whether that will mark the beginning of the end for Ashley as he gets ready to sell up, we can only guess and there are convincing arguments for and against but both are rooted in speculation.
No-one knows Ashley’s next move. He is ahead of us all.
Is Rangers the next stop or is it an addition? No-one knows. We’ll only understand when it has happened. I hope and pray he goes sooner rather than later. There is only so much any of us can endure of this spirit-sapping, joyless, corporate defeatism.
*
We have the next issue of true faith (TF114) out for you tomorrow (8/Sep/14). As you 
might expect there is plenty to say about the place United is now in but we have so much more as well. We’ll have a separate column online detailing everything that’s in the thing but as you know, you can get signed up to true faith here.
Each subscription to true faith includes ten issues and that will set you back only £17.99 (annual) or £5.99 quarterly. As well as 10 issues per season, you will get access to our growing back catalogue at no extra charge.
Each issue has 100 pages+ – every issue is written by people like you – people who go to the matches home and away and our exiles embrace the football where they are at and tell us all about it.
We welcome contributions from people who love Newcastle United, care about the club and who want to inform and entertain their fellow supporters.
If you are interested in contributing to true faith, just drop us a line on editor@https://true-faith.co.uk and we’ll get you put to work.
In terms of what we are trying to do with true faith, we would like to pioneer the future format of fan expression in the future by developing the platforms for the new and evolving fan culture.
Every bit of profit we make from the fanzine and our online merchandise operation will be reinvested into developing a better fanzine, improving the website, investing in kit for our podcasts and video-blogs and everything else we need to keep Newcastle United supporters at the forefront of fanzine culture across the UK.
We need your help to do that. Just click here to take out a subscription.
*
We are now well into the season and sign-ups for our FREE Saturday Special has gone 
through the roof. The Saturday Special is a fanzine within a fanzine and is finding its niche as the match-day (ish) reference point for those heading to games at SJP and all points south. It’s is entirely the work of true faith Deputy Editor, our young Mr Harrison and the unstoppable design genius Glenn Ashcroft. Its full of unique content – can be read on PCs, lap-tops, tablets, i-phones, smart-phones and smoke signals. Probably. All you need to do to get the essential Saturday doings, is sign up here.
*
As you know our massive online merchandising operation is putting the fear of God into Mike Ashley and Sports Direct.
We’ll be putting the whole thing on the stock-market and living a life of fast cars, crazy stripper girls, cocaine parties and yachts soon. Probably.
So, we need you to keep spending your money on our gear.
On planet earth however, we are knocking out these rather fetching Bucket Hats as a nod 
to two lads who turned out for us in the early 90s who we thought a lot about – Gavin Peacock and David Kelly.
The hats are top quality schmutter and feature the true faith version of the crest of the City of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
We are also doing a selection of pin badges which have gone down a storm with you lot looking for items that actually mean something about the club we love and the areas where it draws it support.
We still have pin badges available for sale and more will be coming on stream this week so
please keep an eye out.
Rather than wisely investing any small profit made from the true faith online merchandise operation (cough) in coke and strippers, we’ll be using any monies made at true faith to invest in the kit we need to take us forward over the next few years. So, if you buy merch from us, you are contributing to the wider benefits you will get further down the line we hope.
Have a look at our stuff here.
*
Please put a date in your diary. It’s the 20th of September 2014. 12 noon at the Mining Institute on Westgate Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
It’s just before the game with Hull City.
It’s a meeting put on by the Newcastle United Supporters Trust and it’s to explain the work
being developed by the Trust about moving football up the political agenda and pressing for reform. At a time when political parties are developing their manifestoes and desperate for every vote ahead of the May 2015 General Election, we all, as supporters, have an opportunity to press our political representatives to ensure that is delivered.
Politicians all say they recognise the wider community and cultural importance of football and sport more widely, so its time we got ourselves into action and did all we can to make those parties work for us.
There will be several notable speakers including local MPs and United season-ticket holders Ian Mearns and Mary Glindon as well as Football Supporters Federation Chief Executive Kevin Miles and Kevin Rye from Supporters Direct.
The Trust will be making the case for Government intervention into a game described by Tory Sports Minister Hugh Robertson MP as the “worst governed sport in the country” and setting out what we can all do to improve the lot of supporters – from safe standing, affordable football, our legal rights, protecting the identity of clubs (strips and stadium names), increasing real representation and accountability of clubs and reconnecting football clubs with their real stakeholders.
There is more information here And here
*
We had a brief period of deluded optimism in the summer, which results and a shattering lack of ambition in the transfer market has completely shattered. Our mood is dark and I expect Pardew to be out before the month is finished.
Keep On, Keepin’ On …
I actually think a lot of mags would agree with me that Pardew and Ashley have some sort of agreement.
Have to agree with David why else would Parsew have got the job in the first place
You are arguing with yourself mate.
So Alan Pardew is qualified to manage Newcastle United? I haven’t imagined anything, anybody in there right mind can see the blokes incompetent, a lucrative contract given to somebody who massively underachieved at Southampton, with the academy they have. Sacked by West Ham and now is in charge of the 5th best financially supported club in England, something isn’t adding up here, Then he takes the complete piss last season with his disgusting antics but he’s still here. If Ashley buys Rangers guess who will be managing them.
We’ve not lied to the public and you are getting a bit het up about something you’ve imagined.
I forgot to mention, I find it disgraceful that True Faith continue to pretend that the contract between Mike Ashley and Alan Pardew has anything to do with football, the fact he sacked good footballing blokes like Keegan and Houghton prove he has no morals or footballing knowledge whatsoever, don’t lie to the public, you lot know as well as I do that Pardew will be around as long as Ashley is, I don’t pretend to know what’s going on but it certainly isn’t anything football related.
I know I’ll probably get verbally battered for this but I cant find Ben Arfa at any fault at all for any of this, I have a feeling his, quote: lack of commitment and professionalism wont be a problem at Hull, where he will be appreciated, play every game, get an arm round his shoulder from Mrs Doubtfire and be treated like a professional footballer instead of an unruly child.
The way the current regime treat people is a complete disgrace, from top to bottom, I hate the buy cheap sell at a profit philosophy, it doesn’t help team building, it helps nobody but Ashley. The likes of Williamson, Elliot, Dummett, Obertan and both Taylor’s must look around on match day and think they’ve won the pools, no offence to them but they shouldn’t be anywhere near Newcastle United. The jury’s out on Cabella and Riviere, headless and chickens come to mind but that’s probably down to Pardew’s clueless tactics, Perez and Ferreyra are guaranteed flops, Ten minutes of football was enough for me to realise Perez is completely out of his depth and he’ll be back on loan in Spain soon as.
On the plus side Colback’s looked a better player than I ever thought he was, De Jong who is obviously injured is a hell of a player and Janmaat is the best of the bunch, he’s the one who will be cherry picked by one of the ‘bigger’ teams, come the next window, sadly.
I think we are much, much weaker overall than we have been in many years, the French well has run dry, Tiote has regressed rapidly, Santon is never going to be the dashing wing back we all hoped he’d become, Krul is not as good as Stoke’s goalie and to top it all off Alan fucking Pardew is still in charge.
Our only hope is that Ashley decides it would be more fun to torment our Blue Scottish cousins instead of us and sells up, unfortunately his hatred for us means we will probably be sold to Vincent Tan’s dog.
I don’t hold much love, hope or respect for what NUFC is at the moment, I do hope for better days, I think perhaps Ashley is looking to sell his shite over the border and perhaps, just perhaps, for the first time in years there is a glimmer of hope.
“There is no rational argument to keep him”
Respectfully I disagree.
When Cabaye and Remy were fit last season we put together a decent run of games and we weren’t a million miles from the top 6 around christmas time.
When then sell Cabaye with no replacement, Remy gets injured and suspended, for me it was no surprise things went pear shaped.
Much was written about Cabayes influence on and off the pitch – to me he still hasn’t been replaced. Cabella’s role in games has appeared to be more of a Ben Arfa type than a midfield linchpin.
So yeah, my argument is Pardew has persistently had the rug pulled from under him, selling players and not replacing them.
Could he have managed the HBA situation better? Maybe, but the nufc.com match report from Palace is interesting:
“Point your finger at Alan, at Hatem, at Fabricio. Seriously. “
I agree with what you’re saying but Pardew should and could have made far better use of the players he had remaining after Cabaye’s departure.
That we went on a frankly disgraceful run of poor form and results suggests more than just having ‘the rug pulled from under him’
…and Tony Pulis is the bookies favourite to replace Pardew.
Oh joy
Another good piece Michael & another lesson in cold reality of the pain & suffering of following our madcap club through the decades but more particularly under the current “regime”. Personally I cannot see how Pardew can survive much longer especially with the venomous feeling towards him which as you say is only going to get much much worse & as he’s only brought it upon himself since his arrival, would he not save some face by falling on his sword. Whether he has the bottle to even consider doing this remains to be seen although I’m sure any other manager would be an improvement. Getting rid of Ashley is a whole different ball game of course but as has been said before, the club will be here long after he decides to move on. I can only pray for the day this happens & will get out the black & white bunting to celebrate. Perhaps Ian has a good point regarding getting behind our local grass roots teams.
Pardew has backed himself into a corner by working under conditions imposed by Ashley leaving him with an insufficient squad season after season. He can only retain any dignity or reputation by resigning but the obvious question then becomes what kind of buffoon would agree to working for a club owned by Ashley. Ultimately it feels like we no longer have a club to support. Perhaps our energy would be better placed supporting local non league football.