A little patience...

Here's my latest column for Nufcview - feel free to disagree and then be shot down in flames by me :-

There will be those of you who’ve been a little disappointed by the results of the messiah’s return thus far. Some of you were no doubt dreaming of us storming up the table and into the European places just before we battered Man Utd in the FA Cup final and have been a little discomfited by the chill wind of reality. Me? I knew we’d struggle for the rest of the season. I also knew we weren’t likely to qualify for any European competition (fingers crossed for the fair play league though eh!) so I’m not downhearted in any way shape or form.

In fact, I would even go so far as to say that our less than brilliant start under Keegan so far could turn out to be a good thing in the long run. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll make some fans realise just how far backwards we went under the chairmanship of Mr Shepherd and his ‘managers’ (I still have nightmares about Souness). Then once they’ve accepted that we have no divine right to be in the top four we might get back to supporting the team and creating the atmosphere we used to have when some teams were beaten before they got on the pitch at St. James.

Turning back to our new manager though, If you look back at Wor Kev’s previous go around at Newcastle he started slowly, just keeping us up in Division two with a mixed bag of results and performances before he got to have a proper pre-season and work with everyone away from the hurly burly of a match every couple of days.

Throw into the mix that it also gave him time to plan and execute his transfer policy and it’s obvious we should be looking forward to next season with relish.

That summer we stayed up he got rid of half a team and brought in players of the calibre of Venison, Bracewell, Beresford and (a few weeks later) the mighty Robert Lee. He persuaded them all to sign for a team that was literally minutes from going into Division Three (once again thank you messrs Kelly and Peacock – lest we forget) and then lit the blue touch paper.

So give him time, don’t worry about this season as Kevin bloods younger players, finds out who he can rely on and who he can’t and, most importantly, gets them used to his (and our) style of football.

I think it’ll be worth the wait.


Howay the lads