Newcastle need long-term rehab, not a quick fix

Dressed as though he was on his way to a funeral, Alan Shearer made a fashionably late entry on his return to St. James’s Park on Saturday – one without fanfare, announcements or triumphalism. He was not interested in grandstanding or playing to the crowd.

And as he prowled the touchline, occasionally pointing vaguely to his players and shouting instructions, every act from Shearer screamed out that he knows the seriousness of the problem he has walked into.

But while he is understandably desperate to play down any feeling that this is a one-man crusade, saying: “I will try and do everything to deflect the thing away from myself”, passion is probably the only thing that can save this ailing club from relegation.

And if that involves taking the limelight, then that it what it necessary.

Chelsea failed to read the script for the hero’s return, but if there was one worry for Newcastle, it was the actual lack of obvious reaction from the players to Shearer’s arrival.

Under Houghton and Calderwood, Newcastle lacked leadership. And we were all expecting Shearer to provide it.

When a new manager comes in, just to have a fresh face at the training ground and picking the team can often raise the level of performance.

‘The Shearer effect’ would once have been good enough, even against one of the best teams. Not anymore.

Chelsea, who have been a disappointment themselves this season were very comfortable when circumstances should have dictated a testing afternoon.

More worryingly however, there was no fire from Newcastle. In fact, there was barely even a spark.

Newcastle’s starting line-up contained two Argentines, two west Africans, a Spaniard and a Dane, players who are not going to get the same lift from all this talk of a proud, Geordie nation.

On the contrary, its Newcastle’s English contingent – the very players who are going to be inspired by Shearer’s tenure such as Nicky Butt and Steven Taylor – who are the ones, who more often than not, have given their all for the club week after week.

That is not to say foreign footballers are to blame for Newcastle's plight - there have been some lousy British ones this season, but the reality is that Shearer's appointment is all about inspirational impetus, something that is unlikely to be felt by players like Fabricio Collocini and Obefemi Martins, whose tenures have seen managers come and go – and so-called messiah’s for that matter.

Super Al will ultimately discover that the success of his spell rests on the shoulders of his team and their response to his leadership. But how frustrating will that be for a man who single-handedly carried Newcastle with his will-power and spirit on the pitch for the best part of a decade?

At the same time however, it also illustrates that this is an assignment that will tell us nothing about Shearer and everything about Newcastle.

Shearer is a man whose scouting record of Europe is completely blank, whose never coached a team before, whose starting from scratch.

And with just seven games to make his mark and in doing so galvanise a city that has become torn apart over the fortunes of its ailing football club, he will talk about the need for organisation, discipline work rate and dedication.

Those are the traits that made his career. And those are the characteristics he will want Newcastle to demonstrate immediately.

Risking his reputation to starve off relegation and answering Newcastle’s fans cries for a new messish are brave and selfless acts.

But in spite of all the clichés, Newcastle are not in the market for Messiahs. After all, Christians look to the messiah as an establisher of peace and one who rules the world for a long time. Shearer, for all his god-like connotations on Tyneside, has already stated that this is simply a guest appearance.

But forget the threat of relegation. Newcastle fans need someone who loves them.

What they don’t need, however, is someone who loves them and leaves them. They need a relationship, not a one-night stand.

There are those who believe that Shearer’s motive for taking on the role is that it is a win-win situation.

And on the face of it, he cannot lose. Survive and he is a hero, fall and it is the fault of the club’s farcical past.

But if Shearer walks away at the end of next month, it could be seen by some Toon fans as a betrayal.

There is no doubting Shearer’s affection for his hometown club - this guy could have won every honour in football with Manchester United and chose instead to play for the Toon.

But If he really loves them as much as he says he does, will he really be able to sink back into the snug BBC sofa, spouting platitudes about the gilded world of the Premier League, while Newcastle battle in the realms of Peterborough and MK Dons?

And if they survive, what chance will the club’s successor have while the saviour sits under the TV spotlight, smugly passing judgement?

Shearer is effectively Mike Ashley’s last big gamble, for an owner who likes a gamble. And his last throw of the dice has certainly dealt the club a lifeline.

But perhaps Ashley has played his cards right too little too late.

Why he waited until he had steered the club so perilously close to the edge before applying it is unknown. But for now, if not applauded, he should at least be recognised for doing not so much the right thing for Newcastle as the only thing.

And if it is a decision that saves the club from the perils of the Championship, then maybe Ashley’s place amongst the “Cockney Mafia” will dissolve

Until then, Newcastle have a fight on their hands and it is now down to Shearer to take centre stage, inspire his side and write a happy ending to a story that started with a miserable first chapter.

How that story ends could shape the future of this ailing club forever.

Capello can't go on dismissing Owen

No-one could have anticipated that the international career of Michael Owen would ever be as bluntly and brutally interred as it was by Fabio Capello at the weekend.

"We are playing Ukraine not history," sniffed the England manager when he was asked if Owen might be drafted into the England squad after injuries to Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch.

Perhaps we should glory in the fact that in Fabio Capello we have a man who – unlike Steve McLaren and Sven Goran Eriksson – doesn’t prioritize reputation in his team selection, a man who has turned a group of fine individuals into an effective international football team and restored much-needed confidence in players shattered by their failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

However it is surely true, among any reasonable doubt, that Michael Owen deserved a more generous requiem than the one so brusquely administered by the England manager.

And as he trained alone yesterday morning, making full use of the international break to bolster his recovery from the ankle ligament damage that kept him out for six weeks, Darren Bent limped out of England’s training session.

According to some, Bent’s leg injury – with Emile Heskey, Jermain Defoe, Carlton Cole and Theo Walcott already missing from the squad – demonstrated the stupidity of Fabio Capello’s refusal to call up Michael Owen. For all the recognition of what Capello has achieved with the national team over the past 13 months, there remains a widespread disapproval of his stance over Owen.

Maybe the 29-year-old has somehow antagonised Capello. Maybe it was Owen's "you'd better ask the manager'' comment when discussing his confused role against France on March 26 last year. Maybe it was citing a "virus'' before withdrawing from England's visit to Trinidad and Tobago last summer and then being spotted at Chester races. Maybe Capello simply wants to remind everyone that he is no respecter of reputations, that form must be permanent as well as class.

The drift of Owen's career, and the hideous difficulties he has faced on Tyneside do suggest that his England days are inevitably over. Yet that requiem still needs to be sung.

Owen, as Rooney is today, was a contender to smash every scoring record for club and country and even now, after all the years clouded by injury and the sense that he will never be idolised by the same England supporters who can shut their eyes and still see him flash past Jose Chamot and Roberto Ayala against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup, he is just nine goals off the all-time mark of 49 by Sir Bobby Charlton, having played 17 games less.

In another campaign disfigured by injury, Owen has still managed to find the net 10 times for his club. Since the summer of 2005, he has only started 53 games in the Premier League for Newcastle, yet he has still scored 26 times. At Liverpool, Madrid and on Tyneside, his record remains formidable; 266 league starts, 157 goals. With England it is 89 caps, 40 goals. That is Owen’s history. It speaks for itself.

But while Capello is aware of the statistics, he has not been blinded by them.

Before the squad for Andorra and Croatia was named without him on Aug 31, Owen had played three games on the spin for Newcastle, scoring twice. For the next internationals, the October qualifiers with Kazakhstan and Belarus, Owen was again absent despite playing six games for the Toon, finding the net on three occasions. It is not hard to detect a theme developing.

Before Capello announced his squad to play Germany in November, Owen had featured three times for Newcastle. Still no call. He was ignored for the Slovakia squad and even after Bent’s withdrawal, Capello yesterday overlooked the 29-year-old, opting instead for Gabriel Agbonlahor and in doing, he refueled the great Ostracised Owen debate

'In every interview I said the door, for all the players, is open,' said the England manager.

'I chose Agbonlahor because he has played a lot of games. I respect Owen but I am focused on the game of football. I choose the best players who are in a very fantastic moment.''

Indeed Agbonlahor may have played a lot of games. But he was left out of the Under 21 squad last week after being considered an injury doubt.

And with one goal in his last 17 appearances for Villa and none since he last played for England against Spain in February, his recent performances have provided very few ‘fantastic moments’.

There will be those that argue that Owen is simply not fit, that even if a bout of food poisoning were to sweep the England hotel tonight, forcing Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch to drop out of the squad, it would not alter Capello’s perception that Owen is not playable.

Indeed he has played just 98 minutes of football since January. But Owen for all his hits and misses is a player who, if he plays games he will score goals, and this makes him worth a place in the squad at least.

Would Wayne Rooney have been overlooked in the same situation? Certainly not. And Capello had no quarms picking Ledley King despite his ongoing knee problems.

He may not be someone who fits perfectly into a system that Capello has designed to get the best out of Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, but he should certainly not be ignored. He should be in the squad for the same reason Beckham remains there. Because he is someone who can make an impact.

Only time will tell how the situation unfolds. If Owen’s goals steer Newcastle away from the drop-zone, Capello’s decision making over Owen will face the ultimate test. Whether he will pull on an England jersey again is unknown.

But if things do not go to plan tonight in the absence of Heskey, England's manager might regret taking such a stance on a player who can influence the outcome of the most important matches.

And in your most important matches, you need your most important players. Michael Owen, for all his recent problems on and off the field, remains one of them.

Capello the real winner in dispute over King's knee

Club versus country will always be a spirited debate. Fans will differ over which is more important, players will weigh up their loyalty between the flag and the funding, managers will wonder if recognition for their stars on the global stage is worth risking injury for.

But as an illustration of the huge divide at the top of our national game, nothing serves better than the war of words over the condition of Ledley King’s fitness.

Called up one day, sent home the next – the dispute over whether King’s battered, bruised and in places, non-existent cartilage should be prioritised for club or country came to a head this week, with both parties at odds over who is the priority nowadays.

Capello, in the midst of a World Cup campaign, wished to call on one of the best centre halves in the country, a decision he is fully entitled to. And what he was saying by calling up King was that the priorities of Spurs – and thus every other club – must be secondary to that.

To Capello, country has to be the pinnacle of everything. The Italian believes that the future of the game in this country would benefit far more from England succeeding in South Africa than Spurs staying in the top division. And few could disagree with him.

But it is hard to not have a bit of sympathy with Harry Redknapp here. Since he arrived at Tottenham, Redknapp has done something that his predecessors were unable to achieve; he has extracted a significant number of games from his best player. And King’s eighteen appearances this season (under Ramos he managed four) have been focal to Tottenham pulling away from the relegation mire.

The injuries that grip King’s career are why his call-up to the England squad on Sunday came as such a shock to the Tottenham hierarchy and to Harry’s credit, King’s controversial arrival at the England training camp did have a recipe for disaster.

The club boss pointed out that, such was the stopper’s chronic knee condition, that heavy training and an international appearance would render him a write-off for Spurs’ upcoming and quite vital league matches.

Spurs informed Capello’s camp that King could only play once every six days at a push and that would be without him doing any full training in between. What use would that be at the world cup, where games come at a rate of one every four days?

But as Harry spat, Capello contemplated. England boss, Capello, it seems, did not call King up lightly, and certainly had no intention of throwing him in for a week of punishing training a match action that would see his knee troubles flare up.

“The England management have spoken to Tottenham Hotspur FC and explained that they will take no risks at all with Ledley King,” said an FA spokesman.

“They fully understand the player’s injury situation but they wanted to have a close look at him in the team environment as Ledley has not previously been part of a Fabio Capello squad.”

Horror of horrors, the FA were true to their word. On Tuesday morning, Capello and his staff met with King, and also Tottenham medical staff, who were on hand to monitor the situation. King, publicly keen to continue his international career – but not at any cost – would be the richer for the experience.

That it didn’t work out was perhaps inevitable but by no means pointless. And for once we saw a mature and constructive agreement between all parties.

The FA, not normally an organisation praised for transparency, said, “Ledley King has returned to Spurs Lodge to continue his rehabilitation over the course of the international break, following discussions and assessments overnight by medical staff of both the club and the England national team.”

Why Redknapp appears so smug about his apparent ‘victory’ is perhaps a little foolish. But while ‘Arry’ may be the victor in the ‘Battle of King’s Knee’, Capello managed to maintain an important principle, one that he adopted earlier in the season with both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.

It is the one that establishes him as the final arbiter of choice. In the past, England managers have been hopelessly subservient to club bosses. Can you imagine Steve McClaren insisting Rio Ferdinand attend an England medical if Fergie had told him the player was crocked? It just wouldn't have happened.

By demonstrating his muscle, Capello sends a message not just to the club managers, but to the England dressing room, a message that says he is in total control, that he has more authority than anyone else, that he is not to be pushed around or taken lightly.

On such subtle psychological margins does success hang. This week's apparently petty spat over King's knee was further evidence, if any be required that - for the first time since Euro '96 - England appear to have a proper manager in place.

Kent side's future looks bleak as fans choose to abandon the 'Fleet'

It’s difficult to imagine anything that more succinctly captured the perils of the modern game than the ‘MyFootballClub’ takeover of Blue Square Premier (BSP) outfit, Ebbsfleet United. The experiment, which was completed this time last year to a largely unquestioning media fanfare however, now faces its toughest test, as the latest figures suggest that interest in the venture is on the wane.

Formerly Gravesend and Northfleet, the Kent club was purchased by My Football Club.com for £635,000, with thousands of people paying £35 each for the privilege of football club ownership, securing them a vote on virtually every aspect of club affairs, from buying and selling players to agreeing sponsorships.

To most, the sense that such a small amount of money effectively buys you the right to behave like a football god is an attractive proposition. And before the yearly memberships went up for renewal on Thursday, upwards of 32,000 people agreed.

It was the day of reckoning - the day when the number of members who saw a gimmick of what they wanted to be part of a year ago, had their commitment tested and were asked to renew their membership. Instead of funds however, its excuses that are flowing in.

“It was an alluring idea but after a few months the appeal wore off”, said one supporter opting to withdraw his membership. “The choice of club was disappointing”, said another.

Fans were requested to sign up long before MyFC made a deal with the BSP side. So while many were attracted to playing Football Manager in the real world, many also believed that they would own a piece of Arsenal or Leeds United.

But now that its time to renew, the majority appear to be abandoning the ‘fleet’. Like the Christmas puppy who grew up, the novelty has worn off and it just doesn’t seem so cute anymore.

Before last week’s deadline, the club stated that they would see 15,000 renewals as a success. However those of you with long memories may remember that MyFC’s cut off point - the point at which membership levels become theoretically too low for the project to be viable – was also 15,000 renewals.

This time around they were expecting anything between 8,000 and 16,000. The reality however, poses a number of concerns.

Before the deadline just 9,407 had renewed. So with less than half choosing to prolong their ownership, Ebbsfleet are some £250,000 short of meeting their £500,000 target needed for the day-to-day running of the club.

Chief executive David Davis admitted, “We will have to look at the figures and we may have to make cut backs”.

“Unfortunately, although the last resort, we may be forced to sell the club if the situation fails to improve.

“Going back to playing part-time is also an option that we are not ruling it out at this stage, but we will have to see if it is viable.”

The news will come as a surprise to most, given Ebbsfleet’s successes in the last year. Although they failed to reach the BSP play-offs, defeating Torquay United 1-0 at Wembley in the final of the FA Trophy gave them a massive publicity boost, as did the record sale of striker, John Akinde, to Bristol City for £140,000.

Events like these are highly significant for a non-league side, but somehow MyFC have managed to squander these cash injections over the course of the year. Their estimated losses for the last season are said to be in the region of £800,000 and there is no question that these are circumstances that cannot be allowed to continue.

For the time being however, the stability of MyFC should not be the primary concern, given that only time will tell whether the club meets his ownership targets. Some people may have been disappointed with MyFC’s choice of club. Some, given that team selection was a focal attraction of the project that has never materialised, may have been disappointed with the venture’s broken promises. Others may lose - or already have lost - £35. Such is life.

For one group of people however, the ramifications of the last twelve months could be ruinous. This group is the one group of people that have been ridden roughshod over, and who will now most likely be left to pick up the pieces after the part-time supporters, internet entrepreneurs and visionaries have left Stonebridge Road for the last time - the supporters of Ebbsfleet United Football Club.

These supporters have been let down by everybody. They were let down by their own Supporters Trust, whose supine reaction to events was to accept it and take a seat on the new board of the club. And they have been let down by MyFC and its founder Will Brooks, who have been proved to be incompetent in their running of the club.

Brooks was reported this week as saying that, “There are a lot of people who would be willing to pay a lot more money, for example £250 for their yearly subscription” in order to plug the financial shortfall. This seems optimistic to say the least. But it also seems that MyFC are already praying that the club’s ‘loyal’ supporters – the very supporters who they let down in the first place - will get them out of the hole that they have dug themselves.

It’s a shame that the fans no longer have the pockets’ to match the ambitions of the club. But given the current situation, MyFC should accept that this ambitious project is failing.

And, rather than hanging on grimly in the hope that things will get better, hand over control to someone else. Then perhaps, Ebbsfleet United can regroup and move on.