Sound of silence is just deafening

Jun 7 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

THOSE of you with an ear for news of events at Newcastle United should stop for a minute, and listen.

No, really listen.

Do you hear that? That’s the sound of silence at St James’s Park.

And it’s absolutely deafening.

A club commonly depicted as a sinking ship is going down without so much as a voice raised in alarm, let alone an SOS signal or all guns blazing.

And that in itself is a cause for grave worry.

Sinking? No wonder, when there seem so few hands on board to bale out, never mind find a buyer to bail them out.

Or, put another way, while Mr Sports Direct is off trying to sell the business, who is minding the shop?

Who is actually running this football club, never mind running it into the ground?

I only ask because, in a week when Newcastle United needed some seriously positive PR – by way of expert crisis management – more than ever, they were struck dumber than ever.

Not one word came out of the club, though doubtless a choice few could be heard on the lips of fans and, perhaps, Alan Shearer.

Not one hint at a future direction. Other than down.

They say publicity is oxygen. If so, Newcastle’s supporters have been left gasping in an all too familiar vacuum of speculation.

Not surprising really, considering the track record of Mike Ashley, Deggsy Llambias and co.

Oh, and considering they dispensed with the head of their media department – the doughty, diligent and devoted Gary Oliver – the previous Friday.

Defending the indefensible had long appeared to be Oliver’s primary occupation at St James’s Park.

Without him, it seems to me, the motto is “why bother?”

Never mind that there are at least 48,750 reasons why.

Or 48,751, if you add Shearer to the average number of supporters mugged by the Magpies in the season just gone (but not easily forgotten).

But don’t mistake this for a personal rant against United’s journophobic hierarchy.

No, my misgivings extend way beyond whether I – or even the fans – will ever again get an answer from the club.

My biggest worry is whether Newcastle United can continue to function on a day to day basis with a staff which appears not so much thin as skeletal.

As already suggested, and even accounting for United’s plummeting profile, an already hard-pressed Press office now looks hopelessly overstretched.

But so too, to my eyes, an administrative team from which director of operations David Williamson, like other key figures before him, has gone the journey.

Who will identify, woo and negotiate with players?

Who will attract new sponsors?

Who – and cast your mind back to last summer when you consider this one – will do such basics as getting season tickets processed, printed and posted out?

Never mind that Ashley is struggling to sell the club in the literal sense, who is around to sell it metaphorically?

And all that is before we come to the empty manager’s office.

Pre-season training plans, friendlies, contract negotiations and transfers, anybody?

Anybody?

Sir Bobby Robson often spoke of Newcastle United needing “steady hands on the tiller”.

Steady hands like those of one or two of the people who parted company with the club a week last Friday, I’d argue.

A sinking ship? We’ll see.

But as it is, I predict only troubled waters ahead for the Magpie Celeste.