Football Through The Eyes of a Female!

By Matthew Jones
September 2 2004

With the football season underway and the schools rallying the kids back up this week you would have thought nothing could go wrong – but it did...

With the football season underway and the schools rallying the kids back up this week you would have thought nothing could go wrong – but it did.

The man who couldn’t be sacked was leaving the Toon Army mortified. Infact even some of those people who support different teams were shocked to hear that Sir Bobby Robson had been sacked from his position as manager at Newcastle United. The one club, which was his own in the words of the man himself, "This has been my club since my father brought me here, and I am black and white through and through. I wish the club every success in the world and I will be their biggest fan now.”

Freddy Shepherd has quite blatantly been making headlines for himself in the last week but "Sacking Sir Bobby was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life” doesn’t really help us get any nearer to finding a respectable manager who can fill the void Sir Bobby has left at St James’ Park.

The 71 year old left the club with tears in his eyes – it was hard watching a man like him suffer such misery after just four games to this season.

The majority of the fans were behind him but others obviously weren’t. Many who were even took the time and effort to show their appreciation and stage a sit down protest at his treatment – that’s support!

The players at least have shown some gratitude towards him – even those who stepped out of line over the past few weeks and as some may say may have paved the way for his departure.

Craig Bellamy was this week quoted singing Bobby’s praises “It is a massive stage to play on and being part of Newcastle has been a dream for me, and it was a dream I own him thanks for.”
This being the same Craig Bellamy who stood before the cameras after last weeks match and almost directly said that if Newcastle were to complete the purchase of Wayne Rooney then he would be looking for football else where? Yes the very same one.

And Robert – the midfielder who takes it upon himself to decide as and when he will play a decent game of football and actually earn his wage has also spoken out about the disgraceful way our (now former) manager has been treated. "He hired me and we had worked together for four years so I was really mad.” Even if he hasn’t exactly shown much emotion – he made an effort.

Its time for the rest of the players to speak out and show their appreciation to the man
who brought our club from the bottom half of the table and reinvented it, gave it some life and brought in some very good players (even if he did add his fair share of misfits into the fold).

And now we hunt for a new manager – and surprise, surprise nearly every manager in the premier league (and the those who haven’t been around for a while) have been rumoured with a move to us. Gerard Houiller, Steve Bruce, Sam Allardyce, Martin O’Neil, Glen Hoddle, Steve McClaren, George Graham, Graeme Souness, Gordon Strachan, David O’Leary, Alan Curbishley and even Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer have been linked with the job all in the past 3 days.

I personally have a very low opinion of Freddy Shepherd – some of the things he has done have been great but lately there have been too many absent comments and no reality such as us fans being “pleasantly surprised” as a result of selling Woodgate the man who would leave “over my dead body” so he claimed. Well he is still standing, and making the club look like a comedy show in bidding against Manchester United for Rooney and then giving up, getting the fans hopes up and failing them, and not bringing in players which the club desperately needs to strengthen the team.

Personally I don’t feel Robson should have been the one to go but if his departure had to be so definite (which is obviously was seeing as it was made clear pre season he wasn’t staying after a year) then there should have been two people walking out of St James’ Park on Monday and Freddy Shepherd should have been the second.