Jon Mcleod
Andrew MacdougallFinal word on the weekend - Ashley and Kinnear miracle men of Newcastle
While all eyes trained on Craven Cottage where Fulham beat Manchester United or Anfield where Liverpool trounced Aston Villa, Newcastle United slipped almost anonymously into the bottom three with eight games remaining following defeat to Arsenal.
A whiff of Championship football next season has been in the air circulating St James’ Park for a while now but is fast becoming a lingering stench. Such a situation would have been unimaginable to Newcastle fans at the start of the season. But now it is a reality they have accepted.
In the space of seven months, Mike Ashley and Joe Kinnear have achieved something none of their predecessor could. They have quelled the expectations of the fans. They have transformed the fans from potent protestors, demanding the best, into beggars, pleading for mercy. They have run the club down so far that survival would be an achievement, a great achievement.
Mid-table anonymity was not enough to save Glenn Roeder, Graeme Souness or Sam Allardyce mainly because it left them without an identity and a without a purpose. What the fans want most of all is a fight, a struggle, an enemy to unite and rally against. During the Keegan era it was Manchester United, now it is Stoke and Middlesbrough.
