Newcastle being run responsibly... or into the ground?

Jan 18 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

SO Joe Kinnear has been forced to sift through the thrift rails at the January sales, praying for some TK Maxx-style miracle.

Sadly, there isn’t much hidden value in football’s bargain basement; no little Prada or Gucci number lurking between the seriously cheap and the downright nasty.

The week of Manchester City’s lunatic largesse, there was never a hope of Newcastle nabbing a target like Stephane Mbia fior a song.

And, what of us mere witnesses to this hitherto non-event of a transfer window, not least the fans throwing money into the emotional black hole that is Newcastle United?

We’re left to reflect on how apt it is that Mr Sports Direct — clothier of chav Britain — should leave successive managers spending mere pennies . . . and up to their neck in the brown stuff.

Yet we’re also left to ask questions that demand a response, but I doubt will ever be answered.

First off, of Kinnear: What did you expect?

This, after all, is the fourth transfer window in which Mike Ashley was ready to short-change his manager.

To be fair to Kinnear (well, somebody’s got to be), Newcastle’s owner gave him particular reason to expect better backing this month.

Which only begs more questions . . .

Such as how did Ashley have the brass neck to come out three weeks ago and talk about 2009 being “the year in which we drive the club forward together”?

Such as does Ashley believe the word “responsibly” — as in “the club would continue to be run responsibly at all levels” — means “into the ground”?

Such as did Ashley say he was “happy to end the uncertainty the fans may have had about the future direction of Newcastle United”, because he was about to make it clear that direction was anything but upwards?

Such as why, if Newcastle really have “no debt whatsoever” (mind, the bloke who said that still didn’t manage to sell the club) was Ashley so obviously ready to risk incurring the horrendous losses guaranteed by relegation, rather than spend decent money this month?

How do we know he was ready to do this? Because it seemingly needed an SOS call from Kinnear — a full 13 days into the transfer window — for Ashley to agree to spend any real money at all.

Talking of which, where has the James Milner money gone?

You know, the £12 million that Ashley’s apologists, and even Kevin Keegan (in the mistaken belief that it would be re-invested), insisted was simply too good to turn down.

Yes, an absurd £5.7m was then spent on Xisco — the player Keegan didn’t want and who Kinnear, irony of ironies, was told he had to sell before he could buy.

Yes, another £10m had been gambled on Fabricio Coloccini.

But the departures of Milner, Emre (£2m), Abdoulaye Faye (£2.25m) and David Rozehnal (£2.9m) much more than covered the silly money spent at Deportivo la Coruna.

And where too is the £16-17m Newcastle were willing to pay for Luka Modric long before they banked any money last summer?

Sure, messrs Mbia or Neill might yet provide small mercies this month. But at what further cost? Given, Owen, N’Zogbia?

All things for fans to ponder as Ashley asks them — there’s that brass neck again — to fork out for season tickets years in advance.

They say time is a healer, but the memory of some of Keegan’s last words as United manager jar as painfully now — after an abject exit from the FA Cup denied fans any distraction from a relegation battle — as they did when he departed.

Of Milner, he said: “It’s a win-win . . . we can make a plus out of this. We can maybe slightly go in a different direction.

“The fans shouldn’t be worried. I’m certainly not and if I was worried I would tell them.”

That different direction? It may well be down. Those fans? They should be worried.