Manager must still be the main man or Newcastle will falter By Rob Lee Unless Newcastle United have got an amazing game plan up their sleeve that they aren’t telling us about, I have to say I am struggling to see how things are going to work at St James’ Park in the coming weeks and months. All is not well as far as I can see. We haven’t heard from Alan Pardew this summer. At other clubs managers have been out and had their say and made new signings, whereas we are waiting for a breakthrough at Newcastle. I’m not sure how it is supposed to work having a director of football in Joe Kinnear and then a manager in Pardew. If Kinnear does have the final say on transfers then who do targets speak to during discussions? For me, it has to be the manager and nobody else. He is the one that you will be playing for and only he can answer questions of how and where you will play. Plus, however the team performs, the buck stops with him. Surely he picks the players and knows what personnel he requires to make his system work? And if this really does all go wrong, who are the fans meant to blame – Pardew or Kinnear? The manager must have a good working relationship with his players. Then you have the potential for differences of opinion. Let’s face it, two blokes in a pub have differences of opinion and they are sitting next to each other having a pint watching the game. That’s what makes football so good – everybody has different views. But only a manager can have the call on which players he needs. As a potential signing you want to hear what his plans for the club are. What are the ambitions? What style of play will the manager use? Who does he intend to bring and play alongside you? Only the manager – surely – can answer that. When I say all of this, I speak from experience. I signed for the club in 1992 and it wasn’t the club it is now. The stadium was different and the team were in the second tier of English football. As a southerner, I obviously had to be persuaded by Kevin Keegan to join. As everybody knows, he persuaded me to sign and told me how he intended to use me. Every player needs to be mollycoddled and told they are rated if the manager wants to get the best out of them. I wouldn’t have signed for the club if it wasn’t for Kevin. And I know I’m not the only one. Alan Shearer signed, but he wanted to talk to Kevin first. So much so that when we were on the Tarmac at the airport, Kevin had to get off the plane to start the discussions. That underlines my point. You have to talk to the manager. Alan was the best striker in Europe – if not the world – at the time and Kevin managed to sign him for Newcastle. Money is important to players, but so is being happy and knowing the manager wants you. Liking the manager you play for makes all the difference. Let’s not pussyfoot around the issue here, players need to speak to the manager and that is the same for Pardew right now. To me, it is just logical and if you don’t like the manager you won’t sign for them. /Loraine
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 14:09:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015