Caz
8th May 2007, 10:33 AM
It's not often words of praise are written - or sung, as anyone who has visited St James' Park can tell you - about Freddie Shepherd, but his decision to call time on Glenn Roeder's reign as Newcastle manager was the right one.
The Magpies' tradition of releasing managers just after the start of the season was never constructive. With the advent of the transfer window, it became farcical. 48 hours ago, I was expecting Roeder to keep his job for the summer, and be dismissed when his team failed to perform in the first six games of next term. In giving his new manager a summer to work with the players, and bring in much-needed new faces, Shepherd has, for once, done the right thing.
There is a tendency, such is the general scorn in which Shepherd is held by the Toon Army and football fans in general, to blast each managerial departure as a scapegoating exercise by the Newcastle board and their unpopular chairman. It may well be, but having an incompetent chairman doesn't necessarily mean that the manager is blameless. that fact isn't lost on the Newcastle faithful; the chants of "Sack the board" and "We want Shepherd out" were accompanied with "Taxi for Roeder" on Saturday.
Sure, there are reasons to feel sorry for Roeder. He never had the full backing of the board - Martin O'Neill and Sam Allardyce both turned down the job before it was given to him, and funds weren't made available when they were desperately needed in January - but let's make no mistake, Roeder had to go.
Yes, he's had some horrendous bad luck. Yes, any team would miss Michael Owen. But Newcastle have gone nowhere fast under him; what improvements have really been made since Graeme Souness left? For that reason Roeder had to go, even if the club did allow him to keep his dignity by resigning before he was sacked. Make no mistake, he would have been.
For all that it's easy to poke fun at them, this is a side which should have realistic ambitions of finishing in the top six next season. As it has been for over a decade, the defence is the team's weak point, but if that is sorted out then Newcastle have the attacking players - spearheaded by Owen, who seems to have been rebuilt from the ground up, and twice as stocky - to climb the table.
The man likely to take them up could well do so while his old club move in the opposite direction. Sammy Lee is a highly-rated coach, but there is no guarantee that he is going to be a good manager. Indeed, the thrashing at the hands of West Ham at the weekend lends credence to the idea that here we have the latest Brian Kidd, or Steve McClaren.
In contrast, Sam Allardyce has proven he knows how to turn a side into European challengers, and should he be appointed at Newcastle, as expected, the odds will dramatically shorten on them making the UEFA Cup places next year.
Shepherd insists no deal has been done. Fine. But if no deal is done, it will be the biggest confirmation of the Newcastle chairman's incompetence yet. Allardyce is exactly what Newcastle need. And, for that matter, Newcastle are exactly what Allardyce needs.
Should he be installed at a club with a large fanbase, ambitions to match his own and the funds to back him, we will at last find out if Bolton's style of football has been a (very effective) needs must, or the only way the former centre-half knows how to play. I expect the former.
As for Roeder, where next? Will Newcastle allow him to take back his position at the head of the Academy? Will he want to? He's certainly unlikely to have done enough at his time at St James' Park to earn himself another managerial job in the near future.
Still, he doesn't need one. His reported £1million pay-off is just the latest example of a manager reaping rich rewards for delivering nothing but failure.
Whether the League Managers' Assocation will make their usual fuss over his departure, given their opposition to his appointment, remains to be seen. But as has been argued on these pages many times before, every top-level managerial change is actually a benefit to them; freeing up a job for one of their members and handing a fortune to another. And in allowing that to continue, Shepherd is far from alone in his incompetence.
The Magpies' tradition of releasing managers just after the start of the season was never constructive. With the advent of the transfer window, it became farcical. 48 hours ago, I was expecting Roeder to keep his job for the summer, and be dismissed when his team failed to perform in the first six games of next term. In giving his new manager a summer to work with the players, and bring in much-needed new faces, Shepherd has, for once, done the right thing.
There is a tendency, such is the general scorn in which Shepherd is held by the Toon Army and football fans in general, to blast each managerial departure as a scapegoating exercise by the Newcastle board and their unpopular chairman. It may well be, but having an incompetent chairman doesn't necessarily mean that the manager is blameless. that fact isn't lost on the Newcastle faithful; the chants of "Sack the board" and "We want Shepherd out" were accompanied with "Taxi for Roeder" on Saturday.
Sure, there are reasons to feel sorry for Roeder. He never had the full backing of the board - Martin O'Neill and Sam Allardyce both turned down the job before it was given to him, and funds weren't made available when they were desperately needed in January - but let's make no mistake, Roeder had to go.
Yes, he's had some horrendous bad luck. Yes, any team would miss Michael Owen. But Newcastle have gone nowhere fast under him; what improvements have really been made since Graeme Souness left? For that reason Roeder had to go, even if the club did allow him to keep his dignity by resigning before he was sacked. Make no mistake, he would have been.
For all that it's easy to poke fun at them, this is a side which should have realistic ambitions of finishing in the top six next season. As it has been for over a decade, the defence is the team's weak point, but if that is sorted out then Newcastle have the attacking players - spearheaded by Owen, who seems to have been rebuilt from the ground up, and twice as stocky - to climb the table.
The man likely to take them up could well do so while his old club move in the opposite direction. Sammy Lee is a highly-rated coach, but there is no guarantee that he is going to be a good manager. Indeed, the thrashing at the hands of West Ham at the weekend lends credence to the idea that here we have the latest Brian Kidd, or Steve McClaren.
In contrast, Sam Allardyce has proven he knows how to turn a side into European challengers, and should he be appointed at Newcastle, as expected, the odds will dramatically shorten on them making the UEFA Cup places next year.
Shepherd insists no deal has been done. Fine. But if no deal is done, it will be the biggest confirmation of the Newcastle chairman's incompetence yet. Allardyce is exactly what Newcastle need. And, for that matter, Newcastle are exactly what Allardyce needs.
Should he be installed at a club with a large fanbase, ambitions to match his own and the funds to back him, we will at last find out if Bolton's style of football has been a (very effective) needs must, or the only way the former centre-half knows how to play. I expect the former.
As for Roeder, where next? Will Newcastle allow him to take back his position at the head of the Academy? Will he want to? He's certainly unlikely to have done enough at his time at St James' Park to earn himself another managerial job in the near future.
Still, he doesn't need one. His reported £1million pay-off is just the latest example of a manager reaping rich rewards for delivering nothing but failure.
Whether the League Managers' Assocation will make their usual fuss over his departure, given their opposition to his appointment, remains to be seen. But as has been argued on these pages many times before, every top-level managerial change is actually a benefit to them; freeing up a job for one of their members and handing a fortune to another. And in allowing that to continue, Shepherd is far from alone in his incompetence.