More than bones broken at United

Mar 28 2010 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

HANDS up every Newcastle United fan who believes the Battle of Benton, or whatever it was, doesn't matter much?

Who has the Steven Taylor/Andy Carroll carry-on marked down as a storm in their girlfriend’s DD cup?

Which of you reckons a broken bone is a bit-part story in the grand scheme of things at St James’ Park?

To you people, and there are plenty of you judging from the widely non-judgemental Geordie reaction to Jawgate, I ask another question: What grand scheme can there be at a football club making it up as it goes along?

Oh, and I’d also mention Dennis Wise.

Why bring the poisoned dwarf into it? Well, because he was sacked by Leicester City eight years ago. For breaking a team-mate’s jaw.

Oh, and because – by funny coincidence – Wise was recently still being paid an estimated 20 grand a week by Newcastle United.

That’s not funny ha ha, by the way.

Not that any of that holds sway with the ostriches whose method of dealing with yet more Magpie madness is simply to act as though nothing has happened.

Ostriches inside the club as well as out.

Will they still have their heads in the sand the next time the national Press deliver them a kick up the a**e?

For no one willing to dismiss a serious dressing room tear-up as an irrelevance should moan when some southern-based hack next lets rip at them or their club.

I keep hearing that “this sort of thing goes on in all the time at football clubs” and “will soon be forgotten”.

No, this sort of thing happens at Newcastle, or have you heard of someone’s jaw recently being broken at a different training ground?

Oh, hang on, I’ve already mentioned Dennis Wise. The sacked Dennis Wise.

This new episode will be forgotten only because it is regarded as par for the course at Newcastle.

Other people say that in-house problems should be dealt with in-house, and I’d see their point . . . if there was a sign that United were dealing with it.

Me? I can’t help wondering if their silence has anything to do with Carroll’s conditions of bail ahead of his ABH trial.

But what’s that suspicion next to the oh-so persuasive argument that nothing is as important as United winning games and getting promoted?

Well, I would be persuaded, if I didn’t believe United have set themselves up for more ridicule following promotion.

Whatever went on between Carroll and Taylor, any bid to gloss over it – or airbrush it altogether – spreads yet more muck across the image of a club already blackened beyond recognition.

And what example – or deterrent – is set within that club by a code of omerta?

Not much of one, if Carroll attending a paparazzi-ridden concert on Thursday with bandaged hands is anything to go by.

Finally, just ask yourself what level of misconduct you would expect to get away with in your workplace if you had “previous”? Or should that be “recent”?

Newcastle United has been a beacon of hope in dark times on Tyneside, starring players grounded enough to adhere to the same moral code as the rest of us. Grounded enough to be folk heroes.

What folk see any heroes now at the moral vacuum that is St James’ Park?