Would more communication be a good thing?

Would you like to hear more from these two? I saw a comment yesterday which I thought raised a jolly good question. Plus it takes us away from the seemingly not-stop speculation that appears to be happening at the moment.

Anyway, the issue raised was about communication from the club and how it could be made better. Now I’ve always been of the mindset that more communication is a good thing, and with Alan Pardew at the helm we get that in my opinion. What about the men upstairs though? Would it be beneficial to hear more from them about the club?

That is the point made by Rinton man who offered this idea yesterday evening.

“Do any of you think, maybe it’s a little unheard of, maybe everyone would just think it was just a load of tosh at first. But, there is a massive amount of distrust between many fans and the people who run our club. In order to rebuild a bit of trust would it make sense to release a club statement (via the website/Pardew) at the close of the season detailing things like: during this transfer window: we are not going to sell these key players(…..) we are going to sign quality players in these positions (……) we are going to implement these changes to our training facilities(…..) ETC.. and then stick to what they say. I know there would have to be some leeway for stuff like stupidly inflated transfer fees or players who handed in transfer requests, but wouldn’t this do something to help instil a bit of faith?”

Personally I think it’s a great idea, in theory. The problem is that football is not a static game so it’s hard to outline things when you don’t really know what is going to be happening.

If the club came out with a statement like that they would leave themselves wide open to criticism. We’ve seen how Alan Pardew gets ripped apart for answering press questions, so imagine what it would be like if Ashley and Llambias said something then had to go back on it for whatever reason. Not many people trust them at the minute so imagine what it would be like if they went back on a public statement. Anarchy.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the stuff we are getting from the club at the moment. It’s not all good news, but at least it’s better that “I won’t be commenting on that today, sorry”. Communication can be improved of course, but I don’t think we are a million miles away from what fans of other clubs get when it come to news about their respective clubs.

Statements from Ashley and Llambias would be great, but they do have a habit of being rather ham-fisted when it comes to things like that. Anyone remember the “no capital outlay” debacle? Exactly. Misleading, confusing and lacking in clarity. In fact you could argue that it done more damage than good.

How would you improve the communication from the club? Do you think we get enough already? Would it be a smart move for Ashley or Llambias to pen an open letter to fans to clarify a few things or outline their intentions?

Interesting questions, but what are your answers to them?

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

33 thoughts on “Would more communication be a good thing?

  1. Good read, and good points. I think communication is a good thing, but then how far does it go? If they backpeddled on something, they’d have to explain why. And then how far does that go? Will they eventually have to explain every single decision they make? Obviously this is a slippery slope. It goes without saying that the owners should be held accountable for the state of the club, but I feel like it’s probably unreasonable for the owners to be obliged to explain every move they make in some kind of weekly “fireside chats”. As it stands, we have no actual reason to complain (except for finishing below the unwashed… 👿 ), and as long as we have no reason to complain, then I don’t see the need to change what we have. IMHO

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  2. I am not so sure I would. Footballs such a fluid thing that things can change in an instant, Judas being the case in point.

    It would also give a little insight to the other clubs on what we are doing etc, and so in that regard I think it is better left unsaid. I dont think other clubs are any more vocal in what they are doing and their plans, I certainly cant say I have read any insightful interviews from anyone really.

    I have to say that Pards does give better answers than Hoots’ rather boring non answers.

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  3. It’s all a bit pie in the sky really. No club does it and for good reason. You really cannot legislate for people (players and agents) changing their minds. Plus it would be showing your cards before they’re called.

    I don’t think more communication would change the level of trust. It would just provide more ammo for naysayers to use when things don’t happen by the letter as ‘communicated’.

    I quite liked the non-communication style of Hoots, it really calmed the waters around the club. As frustrating as it was for fans, it went a long way to stopping the media circus. That said Pards seems to be able to handle himself well in the media.

    OHurley makes some very valid points too.

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  4. It would be nice to of them to release a statement now and again like. The lack of communication is at times laughable.

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  5. Personally I think that Ashley & Lambias should restrict themselves to annual report / vision statements and all the routine stuff from Pardew. Otherwise statements get compared to find disagreements etc. PR not needed as not well recieved, and business statements about commercial stuff interesting, but really most critics only interested in football issues. These you don’t comment on until everything is tied up. There yes area for improvemnet but not radically overhauled.

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  6. inclined to agree with ohurley, would be a disaster waiting to happen with fans like steve wtfaith arguing the toss about hidden agendas and reading between lines, better they release financial accounts and facts such as improving training ground etc , impossible to make statements on players

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  7. agree with Premandup @5 Think that owlheed should consult with our new PR woman before he goes spouting off uncalled for random sh1te (Re Judas sympathy vote) 👿 👿 ….or better still sack him orrf and replace him with a proper football brained/orientated chairman 😆 😆 😆

    p.s….. off the previous thread, toonsy mentioned Wolfies avatar ….zoomed in and had a look PMSL …very good, poor bungles face 😯 😯 😆 😆 😆 George and Zippy with their twangers hangin oot :mrgreen: :mrgreen: 😆 😆

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  8. Off topic but I see there’s a bit of Junior Hoilett chatter at the moment…

    It appears Pardew/Carr read my posts weeks ago despite them being widely ignored by most bloggers on here 😉

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  9. Some supporters demand we have more communication but what’s the point? No other club has weekly or montly statements. Maybe one at the end of a season saying well done to the players/targets met would have been alrite but still needless. I like how we say nowt on transfers then we have a player signed ala routledge/cabaye??. It’s making statements that has caused the club to look untrustworthy. You can’t win with most like the carroll thing. He won’t be sold, no one expected a 35mill bid then they got ripped for it. Best just keep stum and get on with their jobs quietly.

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  10. Would anyone have Zhirkov? Seems he wants more first team football, and can play LW and LB. I think he would be a great addition, and cheaper than NZog I think

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  11. 4411

    I take issue with that – how on earth you can call Steve Wraith a fan is beyond me 😆

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  12. Re communications

    You are never going to please all people all of the time but transfers (in or out) should remain private until the player has signed in the dotted line.

    Also let’s think about the communication channels we already have, the manager who seems to talk daily, the official website that tends to be used for the softer side I.e community stuff, player blogs as well as official confirmation of transfers, the match day programme that includes a up-date from the chairman (okay maybe not every issue) and others like companies house fir the accounts etc.

    It’s all there if you want it….just because you might not like what you hear doesn’t mean they aren’t communicating

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  13. I think the club are communicating just fine with the fans. Yes many fans will argue that we have not announced Cabaye’s arrival or Abeid’s arrival for that matter but the fact is, we need to tie those deals up first and and that can only be done at a later stage. The nice thing about it is that the media have no clue who our targets are and yet tomorrow we could announce a signing. Also by making statements, it attracts media coverage and for the most part the media will blow things out of proportion. To answer the question my answer is no…

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  14. Communication is relative and subjective. People will never agree on how much the club should say and in what contexts and subjects they should comment on.

    I think that the club could communicate their goals more clearly to the fans, I also would like the club to give us some explanations about certain things like the Barton contract saga and the Carroll transfer and Chris Houghton’s sacking.

    However that said, I don’t want the club/Ashley to say anything that will further embarrass the fans and further rubber stamp the tag of ‘laughing stock’ on us. We’ve put up with enough of that.

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  15. we’ll never have any communication with Mike Ashley. Apparently he cant spell and is embarassed to speak because he’s got a voice like Joe Pasquale 😆

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  16. I don’t need to hear anything from the club. I just need to see positive actions and over time that is enough to build up trust.

    It’s repeated **** ups that resulted in relegation that make me resentful and mistrusting.
    It’s now our best players who are unsettled and talking of leaving which again makes me mistrustful .

    Actions speak louder than words.

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  17. @stardust

    How is Steve Wraith not a fan? I’ve seen him at the matches which is somewhere you never tred.

    You sit behind your PC and listen to the radio for match reports whilst the real fans go to SJP.

    Your hatred for the ordinary fan is incredulous. You horrible, twisted pug nosed, monk haired gimp! 😆

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  18. The best thing they can do is keep there mouths shut. Every time Derek comes out and talks he makes a fool of himself just like his last little outburst over Carroll.

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  19. Some fans scream for the club to come out and dispute rumours (the Phil Thompson/Jose saga being a fine example)

    If the club came out and laid to rest every rumour out there they’d not have time to do owt else. Plus, the less I hear from Dezza – the better.

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  20. Plus, our friends at United for Newcastle had a chance to improve communication – and blew it.

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  21. How the **** has Michael Owen managed to get a one year extension at Man Utd 🙁 👿 😯 😡

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  22. Booby Clingon

    “It’s repeated **** ups that resulted in relegation that make me resentful and mistrusting.”

    And your joining the mob with your pitchfork and “Dungarees” – didn’t help. Now Booby come one tell the blog the trooooothhhh about the picture of you out on the drink in Dungarees and no Tshirt 😆

    And the only time you’ve ever been to SJP is when you were knocking on the lift door pleading with me to get you into the box woooo hooooooo 😆

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  23. @stardust
    And the following week you were at the stadium of ***** cheering on the scum. And your reason?
    “I love North East Football teams to do well”.

    Well why don’t you keep your horrible allegiance to 5under1and to yourself. 😳

    The days of following both teams died out back I’m the 60’s. 👿

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  24. When some fans demand more communication from the owner, can you remember how many football club owners actually communicate with the fans? How often do we hear the owners from other clubs having little heart to hearts or releasing regular updates, the answer is probably few if not none. Remember when Ashely bought the club he was a virtual recluse and almost never spoke to the media. As a businessman he’s not going to completely change his communication style overnight.
    The job for communication should be the MD’s supported by the comms/pr dept and there in lies the problem. Dekka does not appear to be a natural communicator and the disaster that has been our pr dept has been laid bare for all to see. From recollection the olive branch was held out to fans group who promptly rejected it with their insane demands.
    Like others i agree it would be a nightmare them commenting on players/contracts/transfers for all the reasons already laid out.
    I do think if we could organise a decent fans group to represent us all who didn’t just have a major axe to grind there could be more ‘meet the fans’ type sessions to discuss issues such as level 7 move, ticket issues etc etc. In the meantime carry on as is. Say little except at key points to set out the vision and expectations for the season, clarify major misunderstanding, progress report every now and then and usual stuff with website, community relations etc.

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  25. a fans group will never represent us all. Everybody has different agendas – oh and by teh way i like marmite 😐

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  26. Crappy punk , that’s just Ginola having the rip on twitter, basically proving a point that anything can be made up and people believe it.

    Anyway back to the point at hand.

    This more communication can be a good thing but it can also be a bad thing.
    It’s basically a no win situation as far as the board and Manager are concerned, because your damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

    Naturally, us as fans, we all love a bit of speculation because it sort of gives us an excited hope for a small amount of time.
    The thing is though, if that speculation comes from the tabloids or from twitter,football message-boards or the likes, it’s mostly waved away as bull-****.

    Now if the club send out the very same messages about who we are about to sign, we would naturally be rejoicing if it’s a quality player.
    Now imagine if that deal falls through at the very last minute due to a player getting his head turned by another club, or changing his mind on wages and we lose him.

    Naturally, with the mindset of many fans, it would be Ashley’s fault and Pardew is a puppet and the club know fine well this would happen, so probably take the best stance…and that is, let’s wait till the ink on the contract is dry and then we can confidently send out the message that he is ours.

    In all fairness, it’s better that we find out for sure, rather than have the club basically shout out ” our target signing is as good as sealed”…see what i mean.

    Financial wise, in truth, we don’t really need to know at any given time what the finances are do we .

    I mean let’s be honest here. How many of you worried about what our finances were under Sir John Hall and Freddie Shepherd when we were signing anyone and anybody.

    Finances weren’t and issue were they. why?

    Easy… It’s because we were signing trophy type players….players that us as fans wanted..AND GOT..

    We didn’t sit back and say “oh look we got Shearer, great stuff, but what will that do to our finances”…we didn’t did we.

    Yet Ashley takes over and makes a few mistakes but because he’s a billionaire, fans expected the very same trophy signings, especially when he appointed Keegan .

    Once Keegan went we were told that this club had to balance it’s books because this due diligence was overlooked and we couldn’t just go all out and buy buy buy, that’s when many fans started to take a major interest in the clubs finances.

    Basically the reality had dawned on them, that Shepherd had re-Mortgaged basically, to keep the club in trophy type players (owen) for instance.

    I’m babbling on here and going a bit off track lol…but what i’m saying is, If Ashley gives Pardew a shed load of money to bring in the quality for next season, making the fans excited, you can bet that for most, finances won’t even hardly get a mention from most and neither will mentioning about the owner communicating with us.

    We are a fickle lot aren’t we if we are honest and not just us, i mean most fans of bigger clubs who have higher than average aspirations.

    In a nut-shell, all we should really only be concerned about is 2 things.

    1. That we continue to have a club to support well into the future and beyond and that comes down to good financial management which we can see is happening and if anyone wishes, they can always view the accounts.

    2. That we have a team on the park that can perform week in, week out and that we also have a continuous crop of youngsters coming through the Academies.

    Anything else pales into insignificance really .

    What do you reckon?

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  27. The most sensible comment on this thread is Andrew @ 18 🙄

    AndrewNUFC

    Posted June 1, 2011 at 10:02 AM

    The best thing they can do is keep there mouths shut. Every time Derek comes out and talks he makes a fool of himself just like his last little outburst over Carroll

    The less that comes out of that 4 eyed owl heed the better.
    Most of us are intelligent enough to work things out 4 ourselves.
    Its hard enough to digest the the constant flow of tripe that spews forth from Pardews gob, without muddying the waters with owl heeds version of things.

    TBH I think Pardew is told when and what to say most of the time.

    Which is probably something Hughton wouldn’t agree to do. Maybe this was another nail in his coffin. ❓

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  28. @31 why don’t you do as your name suggests and put a sock in it, eh? 😆

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  29. My company is a well respected PR company and I am also a Geordie and a life-long Newcastle fan!

    I have offered our services to help NUFC to make sure that the fans are brought closer to the decisions and thoughts of the club, but to no avail. It will remain as is until the next owner comes in I’m afraid – and we need to be prepared that it may well be a long time – much longer than most fans would hope for!

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