A poor performance eclipsed by the circus - View from the North Stand
1:26pm Friday 5th September 2008
SO, now Manchester City are the richest club in the world, does that make Sunday's capitulation easier to swallow?
Probably not, but this week's news has done a lot to bury that performance.
It's been a busy one with our signing of George McCartney on Monday night and the sale of Danny Higginbotham to Stoke. But our affairs pale into insignificance when you look at the news from elsewhere.
Man City being bought out by the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi royal family - or as Sky Sports mistakenly called it 'the Abou Diaby United Group' - was enough to keep the national press going, but then Newcastle United turned all eyes on them on Tuesday in fantastic fashion.
The rumour mill went into overdrive regarding Kevin Keegan's future at the club early on the Tuesday after reports surfaced that he'd left the club. By the end of the working day, the media had ran with it, there was a posse of supporters outside the ground, and that was that.
Or not. Nine hours after the rumours emerged, Newcastle decided to make a comment, a terse four line statement, saying, in fact, Keegan had not left. Oh, how silly of us to think that.
A massive crowd were outside Sid James Park, and one bright soul had decided to make a banner, one that would surely be beamed around the world.
"KEEGAN GOES BOYCOUTT THE CLUB" screamed the banner, almost apologetically. The fans cheered, drivers beeped their horns, everybody outside of Newcastle hooted with derision.
"You've spelt 'boycott' wrong," moaned a lone Magpie.
You can see where the lad's gone wrong. Actually, no, you can't. Putting a U in boycott is just plain daft.
But even dafter was the lack of response from the club themselves. Maybe, just maybe, if they'd issued that statement at lunchtime as opposed to teatime, Joe Magpie wouldn't have ruined his Nana's best bedsheet on which to scrawl an errant message.
Newcastle find themselves front and centre in a week where there were plenty of other stories to lead the agenda: the Man City takeover, the Dimitar Berbatov signing, and most recently, the departure of West Ham boss Alan Curbishley.
Whereas Newcastle's situation is completely their own doing, I can't help but feel a little sorry for Curbishley, especially as it was the signings of Anton Ferdinand and McCartney that caused the former Charlton boss to walk.
But, on the plus side, we find ourselves with two top quality defenders on our roster. And following the Man City game, it's exactly what we need.
City didn't really offer much of an attacking threat, they just made their chances count. Simple.
We had a couple of nice moves in the first half, but that's all it was. Nice. No penetration, no end product, just a few decent passes and a bit of bobbing and weaving.
It was a side that lacked balance. All silk and no steel in midfield. We missed the physical presence of, dare I say it, Dean Whitehead, who can play a defensive role while allowing the dynamic midfield three the licence to push on and do what they do best.
All too often, our more creative players were finding themselves with their back to goal deep in their own half.
But we've finally got a squad that can get on with the job. I believe the days of bulk buying are over. I dearly hope they are. Ferdinand's squad number of 55 is testament to the sheer size of the squad right now.
Offloading Etuhu, McShane and Higginbotham were good moves, but I'd like to see the back of Kavanagh, Miller and Connolly et al, who are all charged with sitting on their backsides, putting in a half-baked attempt for the reserves while picking up their wages.
I can't see any place for them in the squad, and nor can Roy Keane, so why aren't they beating the manager's door down asking for a move?
It might, just might have something to do with the exorbitant wages they're on.