Is enough ever enough at Newcastle United?

Much of the literature about Newcastle United football club that is floating in the internet owes its existence to the mysterious and unanswered ways of its owner Mike Ashley. Looking at the way he has been running the club since 2007, certain conclusions can be drawn.

He started off as a typical rich owner of a football club – buying stars and signing crowd favourites. The Keegan affair and the eventual aftermath should be treated as a turnaround from wherever he was heading to as a club owner. He clearly put his back towards marquee signings and crowd appeasement. The businessman in him took charge of the club and since then, I am afraid, our beloved club has been treated as an investment which was expected to break even and then bring in profit. From where Mike Ashley stands, so far things are going decent although still much below the bar raised by his core business entities. The only friction in this style of business administration is its correlation with the achievements expected out of the club by its players as well as fan base. It’s not that Ashley is not paying heed to achievements. He is very much interested to achieve the goals which have a fixed financial reward. Avoiding relegation, for instance, is something he takes very seriously. When Newcastle was free falling last season Ashley didn’t hesitate to buy 5 new players and do his bit to avoid relegation. A regular top half finish is one of his interests. It is indeed a very interesting position of the table if we look closely. A regular top half finish leaves you out of the potential relegation candidates listed at the beginning of each season. It requires almost as much investments as a 14^th place or 7^th place club, a stark contrast to a top 4 club. One look at the top 4 clubs in EPL today reveals that there has to be at least one world class player. Özil, Cazorla, Walcott and Ramsey; Rooney and Van Persie; Gerrard and Suarez; Hazard and Oscar; the first team of Manchester City...did I say at least one world class player? Names like these involve investment running into hundreds of millions of pound. Yet with a fraction of such amount one can reach up to 5^th or 6^th in the table. Investment wise, it is not practical for a club like Newcastle to even dream of a Champions league slot. Or even Everton, the form team so far this season hasn’t spend enough money to ensure, if money alone could buy, a top 4 finish. Even with the comparatively limited amount of money spent, teams like Everton and Newcastle can still aim for a Europa League position.

But clearly Newcastle prefers to stay out of the poisoned chalice that is Europa League. So where does it leave us? We have to avoid positions 5^th to 7^th and domestic cup wins. Our top 10 goal implies that we have to finish at least 10^th. So basically our aim, officially indicated if not pronounced, is to finish 8^th to 10^th. And we are currently 8^th! As a businessman, this man is nothing sort of a magician! He has actually understood the financial aspects of the premier league football, zeroed in on the targeted league position and actually has his club firmly hooked to the target. Ever since coming back from relegation, Ashley has won at every move. He cleared off all the influential players and eliminated the possibility of player’s lobbying, he sold off players mostly at profit, sometimes huge ones, he got a yes man manager in on a long contract, he uses the club as his advertising vehicle, he is not answerable to anyone on all matters Newcastle, bought in cheap players to rescue him from the financial loss of another relegation and finally sold off Cabaye. Cabaye’s presence was going to be a threat to our 8^th -10^th finish aim. He could have ensured us to Europa League if Cup results would go our way. Not only did Cabaye bring in handsome profits, his absence will help in our cause of not qualifying for the Europa league. Ashley’s business acumen often amazes me and in that sense I admire him.

But his brilliance stands in the way of Newcastle United’s path to any chance of glory; and for that I utterly despise him. He has shackled the club to mediocrity by clipping its wings whenever they flapped for a high flight. By regularly selling players without quality replacements and by appointing management staff with less than impressive records, he is creating an environment which puts serious doubts about the club’s ambition and future road map in the minds of the players as well as fans. While the entertainer era was instrumental in packing the stadium regularly, a feature the club enjoyed even after all these years, the on goings of Ashley era has now raised concerns among fans whether to renew their season tickets or not. While a steady broadcasting revenue is bound to come as the club seeks to cement its premier league presence, the soul and the spine of the club threatens to corrode away in the light of shameful derby and home defeats, inability to retain and buy good players and apparent lack of interest in winning silverware. With the recent six days of madness starting with Yohan Cabaye’s sale, third straight derby defeat, lack of inertia in the transfer window and finally ending with the sacking of Joe Kinnear, it has become all too obvious that there is no hope of any long term step forward. It is regrettable that the best one could expect at this point is that the club is bought by someone with acceptable business skills but definitely more footballing passion than our present owner. Until then the club will stagnate in mediocrity and will continue to nourish itself from the steady revenue that is a guarantee in the premier league.