Rather than reprint it I thought I would summarise it here. Not in a told you so, sort of way, but more of a next time, just listen, more modest kind of way. Here goes.
“From 1955 when we last won the cup through to 1992 when KK took us to the top six. we had 14 years in the second tier, 17 years outside the top 10, six top ten finishes and one top six finish – 5th when Gordon Lee had Supermac and John Tudor banging in the goals. So not much expectation there.
Of course come the Premiership and KK flew into town backed by John Hall’s money, good assistants and charisma. It worked we had four great years (3rd, 6th, 2nd and 2nd) and then with Sir Bobby another three years (4th, 3rd & 5th). Even Glen Roeder got us a top ten finish. Unfortunately the other nine seasons were outside the top ten including one in the second tier again.
So do we treat the two great recent golden eras as the norm or as massive over-achievements? Well one we had loads of money and one we had one of the great all time managers. So no they are not the norm. However, the real question is can they be repeated? I’ve no evidence, based on historical performance, to support that “We are a big club, we should be in the top six year in year out. We show no ambition.” All this reminds me of my 10-year-old drawing up his Christmas list. We are financially the best of the rest. In my opinion we have the best team outside the top six and so top ten is realistic, if very rarely achieved.
I tend to be a bit pessimistic in the hope that I can be pleasantly surprised. Let’s assume for the moment that we lost every game against the top six home and away. Then lets assume that we win all our other home games. That’s 13 wins at St James’ Park. Then on the road we ought to beat the three teams that get relegated and a point away from home in the derby game is always nice. Now lets assume that that is it. That’s W16, D1, L21. 49 points. That should get you 10th or 11th. Right on our historical achievement It also gives me 21 games where I can expect nowt and be presently surprised.
So my minimum expectation is 49 points, I’m OK with top ten as it happens rarely enough and qualifying for Europe is wonderful.”
I was going to write a review of the season. But I don’t really need to, do I? 49 points, 10th place, just as expected. Just as we’ve always done.
I’m not so sure. I get that historically we’ve largely been a mid-table team, know that, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting more.
At the start of last season I’d have been happy with top ten so for me we managed to equal my expectation but the frustrating thing for me is that it could and probably should have been far better. The second half of the season was not good enough. The lack of a permanent signing for 18 months is not good enough. The lack of willingness to run in the cups is not good enough and in fact is highlighted more by the fact that we are historically a mid-table side with a league title out of reach so why not try for a cup.
It’s everything. If it wasn’t abundantly clear that we are here just to exist then it is now. No investment, no ambition, just a will to tread water and hoover up PL money with as little outlay as possible. Because remember Europe is also an unwanted distraction.
Anyway I’m ranting. But long story short overall for me we didn’t underachieve but from where we were after beating Stoke to just scraping a top ten finish is a travesty.
toonsy(Quote)
At the start of the season top 10 was ok as a target but come January when we were doing well points wise then surely a club with any ambition would have amended that target?
If you ran a business and at the start of the year aimed for a 100k profit but then made 90k profit in the first 4 months would you have the same target? nope you’d adjust your target and aim higher.
The thing that pisses me off isn’t even the league position as such or the points total etc it’s the fact that as a club (ie the hierarchy) don’t try to do the best they can and achieve as much as they can, I don’t mean splashing massive amounts of cash but sensible spending on good players. Try their best, show ambition, sensible investment it’s not too much to ask is it?
richietoon(Quote)
I agree with Toonsy. We achieved what was expected, league position wise.
Off field they achieved to **** fans off more than they managed last season – so there were some improvements.
Toonsy – I know you are normally the articles man and stay fairly neutral, so it’s good to see you rant a little bit too mate.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Toonsy ,did you get my Email?
kIMTOON(Quote)
This Sissoko story is absolute tripe, Hes got 5 years left to run on his contract. Slimy agents again
CC(Quote)
Prem , Good question. Well I suppose you could argue Pards did exactly what was asked of him but for me it wasn’t enough, but considering mitigating circumstances some of his own making (headbutt) and lack of in comings what could he do . Having said all that I still think he had enough talent at his disposal to get a few more results on the board and I feel we played far too defensively too often. We need more players ,better coaches and a rethink on how we approach games imo. If this is done then maybe top 6 is a realistic target, but I’m not holding my breath.
kIMTOON(Quote)
CC…Aye but maybe we didn’t buy him a Birthday cake? 😐
richietoon(Quote)
Thats the worst excuse ive seen from a player trying to get out nearly as bad as Goma curing his homesick for Paris by joining Fulham
CC(Quote)
Bloody glad I dont work for Richietoon inc! Imagine doing really well for half a year and then he moves the goal posts! Bye bye end of season bonus payment! Scrooge! 👿
if you are doing well at the half year mark, you keep the momentum going and then set your next years target at the end of the year! You may wind up with a stretch target but at least you can base it on a 12 month period of results!
Richie =Ashley jnr!
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Worse than Goma that should say 🙄
CC(Quote)
Just a thought. If we are not targeting top 4. Too many rich competitors, If we avoid Europa league and exit the cups early enough we can save on the cost of one or two Purples.
Premandup(Quote)
I remember the article Prem and for the most part I agree, we’ve always been a mid tableish side and anyone expecting us to compete with the big boys and attempt to buy the league as we did before are always going to be disappointed. A better manager may have got us 8th instead with a less embarrassing second half of the season but I think most of the anger from the fans (certainly me) is just about the pure apathy of everything at Newcastle United. There is no driving force behind the scenes to ensure we get the best players, coaches, scouts or develop or youth or senior teams to their fullest. There are no attempts to seriously build upon sponsorship, or market the club and generate our own revenue. We can’t even organise a bloody pre season successfully for christ sake.
While almost every squad in the entire league are tempted with the offer of a cup “bonus” for their efforts in either the F.A or League cup, yet the “Charn” offensive is telling everyone we can’t afford to compete in them and basically telling Pardew and the squad not to bother. It’s a complete joke. Considering the start we got off to and the results that we managed in the first half of the season you’d have to say overall we did underachieve. The only achievement this season has been the removal of Joe Kinnear, and that was a problem of our own making only six months earlier! Shocking.
Newkie(Quote)
I think whatever Pardew did ‘achieve’ last season was largely thanks to the goals from Remy.
I can’t say I’m overly confident that those goals will come from the forwards we’ve been linked with so far – ie Bent, Perez and Lasogga.
I know the Gomis rumour is still lingering, but I’m not so sure that one will come off.
I think Norwich proved last season, it’s all well and good spending money and strengthening your team, but if you don’t have that forward to stick it in the net then you’re screwed.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Aussie…I’m over the moon you don’t work for me if you think 4 months is half a year 😆 …but what I meant was obviously original bonus deals would still stand but you’d add extra incentives for reaching a renewed target. If you sat in 2nd place(I wish) from the start of the season until January you wouldn’t be happy then finishing the season in 10th even if that was your original target 😉
richietoon(Quote)
I think in years to come we’ll look back and see the top ten finish for what it is – ie one of our best league positions.
It’s just the manner that is so crushing. Come January we were vaguely in the hunt for 4th – what harm would it have been to have made a statement of intent by keeping Cabaye until after the WC and adding in one position in Jan rather than the summer – we’re getting £60M more next season!
So yeah – as others are saying, it’s the board accepting mediocrity and not even pretending they want to progress that is the biggest disappointment.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
I think at this moment in time we are a mid table club with a mid table manager and a mid table squad we we have finished where we should of been. However I dont think fans wanting more is a bad thing. We all want a better life for ourselves so why not better times for our club? I would love ( and occasionlly daydream ) of us winning Champions Leaue but I know at this moment in time we are closer to winning the Championship again that Champions League. It is about managing our own expectations. I do think second half of season was a disgrace. At start of the season I would of been happy but its the way it unfolded thats the issue. We imploded. We are the form team for relegation next season so we need the club to get its act together this window
Johno(Quote)
Think I might defect from the miserable whingers on a similarly named blog…
Good article and I think most of us would have taken this at the start of the season too. Totally disagree that the goalposts should have been moved in Jan but clearly we all had hope for better when so well placed.
Disappointments of the season for me:
Two derby defeats
Failing in both cups
Selling Cabaye without replacing him
Pardew not managing to find a successful style of play after Cabaye left
No permanent signings
No youngsters seriously breaking through
But the positives are that we finished a solid 10th, as far as we know no more players are desperate to leave and we kept our powder dry last summer so we should have a bit of cash to spend on players.
I’ve banged the drum enough times (and been mostly ignored) on the other blog, that what we really need is a stable base to build from. Finishing in the top 10 for 3 or 4 years in a row means we’re more attractive to sponsors, players and potentially a new manager. Everton and Spurs took a long time to build up to where they are and the only other way to do it properly is to invest some serious money. Ashley doesn’t appear to want to do that.
Crossing fingers for a busy transfer window…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Ritchie. I think the bonus was 10% for 10th, 20% for 9th etc. So if we had got 7th which was possible everybody would have got 40% bonus instead of 10% surely that’s enough incentive.
Premandup(Quote)
RICHIETOON
From what I understand, they already had incentives for a higher placed finish so I don’t think they needed to change that. What they needed to do was to replace Cabaye and the manager show some positivity to pushing as high up the league as possible. Losing Cabaye seemed to knock the stuffing out of us…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Toondarn
Agree – a few years just around 8th-10th is probably needed (boring as it is) to stabilise ourselves.
The major difference is that Everton/Tottenham even if not spending in Everton’s case – constantly invested in young players. Ashley doesn’t even seem to be doing that.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
TDS – I could live with that if it went hand in hand with entertaining football and good cup runs mate.
Sharpy17(Quote)
By the time you take my sick days I take out, 6 months just about equates to 4 months of actual work!
disagree, if your target is tenth, you leave it and reward for anything above that. Say you finish 6th, you then make next seasons target 5th or above!
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Welcome Toondarnsarf, to the happy blog. Well, I say happy blog, it’s just the least miserable of the three I know….most of the time 😉
Newkie(Quote)
To be honest lads I’m not arsed about the bonuses(teach me to mention it 😉 ), more that if you set a top 10 finish at the start of the season and then do so well up until Jan then you should, hope/wish and maybe expect(rightly or wrongly) to finish higher than that target, if you were bottom at Xmas would your target still be top 10 or maybe “move the goalposts” to just survival?
richietoon(Quote)
Ashley’s policy does seem to be to invest in young players but sadly very few of them have been up to much. Vuckic, Abeid, Kemen and several others have been highly lauded but haven’t really cracked it. I said last summer that I thought our squad was virtually where I thought it should be bar a LDJ style striker and I really hoped we could spend some proper money on some real young stars. Now we desperately need at least 2 first team players who can slot in and then a few more too.
And, yes, it’s boring…
I’d love to see more entertaining football too, but Pardew doesn’t seem to be able to do that unless we have our key creative players fit and on form. Hiring an attack-minded manager would be a risk to that stable base I mentioned. As for cup runs…well, that’s luck at the end of the day really isn’t it? With a bit of luck we’d have beaten City and we certainly put out a good enough team to beat Cardiff on the day.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Newkie
Happy to be here! 🙂
Least miserable is good for me…it’s not as if we have too much to shout about right now but at least I like to be optimistic for the future!
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
I totally disagree with this article. If you look at the whole of Newcastle premier league finishes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newcastle_United_F.C._seasons then you can see that we finished in the top 5 in 8 out of the 20 seasons and top 10 9 out of 20 seasons. Ashley has owned the club for 6 years and we only managed 1 top 5 finish with him. So if we take him out of the equation then it would be top 5 7 out of 14 seasons and top 10 8 out of 14 seasons. So as we can see before Ashley came 50% of our total premier league seasons were in the top 5 and 57% of our seasons were in the top 10. So it doesn’t look like a rarity to me, it seems more of a damning verdict of Ashley’s tenure as owner.
Stephen(Quote)
Toondarnsarf-Some optimism will be welcome, I usually try to be but this season has been hard on the best of us 🙂
Abeid is one who (looking at the stats) has done well for himself on loan, albeit in what is now a very weak greek league. I would still definitely like to see him given a chance in pre/early season to see what he can do. I would rather we promote him and find out if he’s any good than sign colback anyway…as for the rest…Vuckic and Fergie are done for, Tav won’t get a renewal. I think Dummett has done ok but it’s hard for him as he’s clearly the least technically gifted of our three left backs. He had a decent start and has come in for some strong criticism lately, think he could benefit from more loan time.
Newkie(Quote)
Stephen
As commented in the article, I think you need to consider the situations that we finished in the top positions. The first phase had a maverick manager (KK) and a fantastic owner (SJH) who leveraged the financial potential of NUFC to outspend our rivals and bring in some fantastic players. The second phase had a truly world class manager (SBR) who frankly would not have joined us if he wasn’t a fan.
And to add to that, these days we have mega-rich Chelski and Man City, Everton and Spurs who have been run extremely well (both before and during under Ashley – both times have been messy) and our financial advantage with a big ground and big sponsors has been diluted by the increasing TV money and the bigger sponsors going to the nailed on CL clubs. Rather than there being 2/3 clubs almost certain to get CL football and then we’re in the next group, there are now 5 clubs that expect CL football and we’re in the next group who can just hope for an amazing season and a couple of other clubs slip up.
Times have changed…shame…but true.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Newkie
I think we need to keep some of these players around as squad players anyway, but obviously only if they are good enough for that level. Player like Fletcher, Carlton Cole, Bertrand and Mellor have done jobs for top clubs and often only move on closer to 24 than 20. Obviously Fletcher stayed and I don’t think he’d have been fantastic elsewhere.
You’re right, Abeid seems to have done well, so we’ll see if he’s part of the squad next season. I can’t see a Greek club paying massive money for him if he leaves though…
And yeah, last season was tough, especially on top of an even tougher season before! I’m realistic about my football and I don’t just love NUFC because we’re winning cups (good job!) or getting into the CL. That other blog has a fantastic SBR quote about NUFC and that’s why this is my club. It’s the fantastic fans and the amazing passion and history of the club. Love it.
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
ToonDarnSarf – You’ll probably want to skip my next article then if you like feeling upbeat 😆
toonsy(Quote)
ToonDarnSarf….. So this is your escape from the madding crowd.
You’ll feel at home in no time and your input’ll add to debate with blogland’s elite.
😉
lesh(Quote)
Kimtoon @ 4 – No e-mail. I’ll get in touch so you get my personal e-mail address.
toonsy(Quote)
TOONSY
😈 Oh, I’m well aware that there’s room for improvement with this club, so I’m quite happy to get involved in a bit of bashing where deserved!
My pet peeve is the lack of a senior person at the club who has experience running a top-flight football club leading to the club talking to fans more like they are business partners or shareholders rather than football fans…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Some of you need to give your head a shake. If playing/watching football is not about winning things then what is the point?
We were in a perfect position to add to the squad and push on but the club did not want to qualify for Europe. Pardew cant even organize set pieces properly, our football under him in the final third has been woeful.
If he was any good his time to shine was when Cabaye was sold and look at what happened, he broke some of the worst records we had.
Ashley wants the club to stay mid-table, forever rebuilding and taking in Premier League money. Some of you seem happy to be served up **** and nver going anywhere.
Where is the pride ffs?
Marc0Toon(Quote)
LESH
Hey, it will be nice to read some more constructive posts I hope rather than:
“Pardew will ruin any new signing”
“Ashley is pocketing all the money”
“We won’t sign anyone anyway”
“All our players want to leave”
“Ashley would be happy with 17th every year”
“The club don’t want to win a cup”
Repeated EVERY SINGLE DAY…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Newkie…Bloody hell are we really the “least miserable”?, is that even possible? I would say the more the merrier but perhaps it should be “the more the less miserable” instead 😆
richietoon(Quote)
You’ll also have to put up with Richie’s **** jokes aswell 😛
toonsy(Quote)
TDS@36- Uh oh….best advice I can give is not to come on here every single day then 😆
Richie-we certainly used to be, I think lines have blurred over the last two years though 😛 . You’re right about the last bit, collective misery is always preferable to individual misery. Isn’t that why people like you got married? 😉
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie
Please don’t shatter my hopes about this blog! 😆
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Well it wasn’t for his money because he’s a tightwad. She also didn’t marry him for his:
Looks
Charisma
Hair
Physique
😆
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy 😆
Newkie(Quote)
The season was **** and full of agro as is the norm under ashley. We were doing really well up to the january sales (despite less than zero investment) and then of course the greed shows its head again at our club. Cabs said the agreement was already in place for him to leave in january, this the case why did we have zero in place as a plan to replace him? Thats simple, the fact we were all but safe come the january sales sealed our own fate – there was no need to spend, only sell. Ashley knew that no matter how **** we played in the second half of the season we would not be relegated. So our best player left, ashley made a cool 20 million and we were a disgrace for five months as we limped over the finish line with zero credability left in regard to having any on-field ambition. Anyone who can look back at this season and try to even suggest it was a good one is smoking something pretty bloody strong.
craig chisholm(Quote)
****’s 😆
Toonsy@41… I think you have “Richie” and a “mirror” mixed up mate 😉 good to see you back on….I think! 😛
richietoon(Quote)
You’ll get peace in a few weeks mate. Off to Turkey for a fortnight and with no deputy looks like not a lot of articles will be going on 🙁
toonsy(Quote)
Is Big Dave away too? or is there anyone else who’s computer literate? I’d offer but I’m not even literate never mind on a PC 😳
Enjoy ya hols anyway and don’t go on the beach with ya toon top on, they’ll think an orca has beached 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Toonsy, give me a run of your blog while you’re off mate! I will look after it and sort a few of the bloggers out! I can do a few match previews and the like 😯
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Match previews 😯 how longs he away like? although your lass does write a canny article like.
richietoon(Quote)
TOONSY
And what is your excuse for not writing from a beach in Turkey??? 😉
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
TDS – I’ll be drunk 😆
Also I’ll have nee laptop. I can’t use it when the lad is around (I’m on my second keyboard already 😆 )
toonsy(Quote)
Aussie – You can if you like mate
toonsy(Quote)
Richie, i was thinking of doing a match preview with us against the scum based on the players we are both been linked with recently.. currently there is 19 players on the bench after I have selected the starting 11 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Toonsy, send me an email and let me know what is involved mate!
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
TOONSY
Fair enough!
I wouldn’t mind writing an article at some point actually but I’m a bit new to this blog and the protocols anyway…
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
Toonsy ,thanks , I sent it via the contact us link ,few days ago 😉
kIMTOON(Quote)
Aussie@52 😆
kIMTOON(Quote)
Yeah at the start of the season top 10 would have been the target but as Richie and Toonsy said at the start, when we got to the start of the year we should have kicked on and set new targets but instead we just put our feet up and crawled over the line.
Listen to Aussie crawling to Toonsy 😳
Big Dave(Quote)
Aussie… 😆
richietoon(Quote)
Toonsy where are you’s going ❓
Richie I can’t afford a holiday mate 😥
Big Dave(Quote)
For me it isn’t where we have finished it how we got there.
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Of course to be successful you need a fantastic manager and owner that is the same for all clubs really (unfortunately we had Freddy Shepherd and now Ashley). I think the main advantage clubs in London, Manchester and Liverpool had on us at least in terms of attracting players would be that they are classed as being more “glamourous” cities. However where our massive advantage should have been (and I think Freddie Shepherd messed this one up a bit by extending our stadium in it’s current location instead of moving it) is our catchment area. If we had of moved and built a new stadium for the same price as the St James’s park expansion we could have had more opportunities to expand in future. Our catchment area means that if we had an ambitious owner who wanted the club to achieve things then we could have easily filled out an 80,000 – 100,000 seater stadium that would have given us a financial advantage on our competition. I think the global audience mainly wants to follow the most successful team (not all of course there are hardcore NUFC supporters all around the world.) I think the success should have started with having a good ambitious owner that could sell the idea of what he was looking to build to a talented manager, we already have the talented scout in Graham Carr, we would need an improvement on our back room staff and Academy. If Ashley really was ambitious I think we could be back challenging with the bigger clubs again. Even in it’s current location if Ashley hadn’t have bought the land in an underhanded way we could have extended the ground to 80,000 seats and still filled it. This would have attracted a good manager and good players. Who wouldn’t want to play in that atmosphere. Alas it will never happen under Ashley and I think it might never happen as he is reducing the impact of our greatest asset.
Stephen(Quote)
Your right though Toondarnsarf unfortunately times have changed, we went from having a good owner then to an incompetent (but still ambitious) owner and now we have went to a thoroughly unambitious owner who is looking to scrape every penny he can out of the club instead at the cost of progression instead of trying to make the club successful and then reaping the rewards of that success. I don’t think anyone has problem with the owner making money as long as it is done in the right way.
Stephen(Quote)
Has the nugget been sacked yet?? real sorry about the heed,better luck next year lads,I will just drown my sorrows over here.
DAVE, cannot afford a holiday bullshit,pawn that midwifes ring you stole when you were born it should be worth a few quid now
icedog(Quote)
Ice, how’s the hols mate?
kIMTOON(Quote)
Dave – Turkey mate. Hisaronu. Looking forward to it to be fair. Been a long time since the last one 😆
toonsy(Quote)
KIM going great mate nice and hot,hope you and lewis are going ok
icedog(Quote)
Stephen
Sad really…
And the funny thing is, the current owner isn’t even making money directly at the moment. Sure, he’s got the SD adverts but he’s also given the interest free loan.
He’s all business that man. I think what he wants is to increase the value of every asset he has and that includes NUFC. Makes sense when you think of his transfer policy. Every potential player will be weighed based on the financial costs and potential financial gains…
If only someone at the club would talk to the fans in the right manner, then we might be a bit happier about the situation!
Still…there’s always next season… 🙂
ToonDarnSarf(Quote)
We’re the 5th most succesfull team in the history of the premier league.
We ‘should’ be able to beat all of the teams in the bottom half at home & away.
10 teams
20 games
60 points
60 points as a minimum is a fair benchmark for a club our size. Any more is a good achievement as Pardew managed in his first season.
Any less is not good enough.
We have to give credit to Ashley & Pardew – both have managed to convince some fans that finishing midtable with rubbish football & no desire for a cup run is the way forward.
This is business not football.
Lets enjoy business & give them praise for tgeir success in it.
KK(Quote)
Toonsy enjoy your holiday. Hope the young lad is well
Do you have someone who can post articles in your absence? If so maybe a few of us can contribute to keep things moving while you’re away
MDS(Quote)
40 points is usually the minimum target for newly promoted teams.
If our target is 9 points more than that (i.e. 3 wins) that’s a ridiculously low benchmark.
Sure we’ve had lots of bad times &:only a few good times – are we going to say that’s the way it should be forever?
Because we’ve generally had poor management & owners is that something that should determine the destiny of the club.
If we’re destined for rubbish then why bother at all?
KK(Quote)
Ice , yeah fine mate, just got some anti-biotics from doc for a hacking cough that just about every one I know seems to have but otherwise all cool. Glad the hols are going well anyway, your not missing much on the Toon front, lets hope no news is good news eh. 😉
kIMTOON(Quote)
So the Chronicle seems pretty sure that Ayoze Perez is a done deal. One for the future I suppose. It’s a bit jump from second division in Soain to the Prem
MDS(Quote)
Toonsy have a good one mate I liked turkey 😉
Ice I gave that ring to batty yonks ago to sell but he said he lost it 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
MDS – god I hope he’s not another Xisco or Luque. The future of our forwards isn’t so much of a worry with Campbell and Armaz in the ranks at the moment – it’s the current first team options that worry me. I’d be far happier if this was Gomis being signed.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Agreed Sharpy but I’ll take it. I’ve read where he is very quick and has played well when deployed as an out side attacker as well. For the rumored price it looks like good business particularly since some good clubs appear to want him.
But as you say we need at least two that are ready to play now. Gomis plus Lasogga or Finnbagason perhaps?
MDS(Quote)