Brilliant as always from Caulkin;
GEORGE CAULKIN
september 8 2017, 12:00am, the times
Rafa Benítez illness feels symbolic of Newcastle United’s malaise under Mike Ashley
george caulkin, northern sports correspondent
Newcastle United fans fear manager’s possible absence on Sunday is start of a long goodbye, writes George Caulkin
For Rafa Benítez, injury was added to insult. After a loveless end to the transfer window and a summer of festering tension, the Spaniard set off for Newcastle yesterday after minor surgery to clean out an old hernia wound, but discomfort turned him back to his home on Merseyside. Those stitches and staples, that flare up of infection, feel symbolic of a club who are once again ailing.
Benítez is stubborn, but his staff are advising him to miss Sunday’s Premier League fixture away to Swansea City. It is an inconvenience, but it may also be what the future looks like, because there is a sickness to Mike Ashley’s Newcastle United, a regime with an allergy to consecutive good decisions. Where their manager is concerned, supporters fear that a long goodbye has already begun.
Promoted to the Premier League as champions, powered by momentum, coalescing behind a garlanded coach, Newcastle should, in theory, be in the rudest of good health, a rebirth the city yearned for. They were no longer the dead-eyed works team of Ashley’s Sports Direct, but an energised institution, promising more. Blissfully, briefly, they shimmered with possibility.
Ashley does not have the wit to see history repeating itself
That moment has shrivelled. Having confounded precedent by appointing a man with a gilded CV and a reputation for pushing clubs — as all good managers must — the sportswear retailer is sowing discord, spreading dismay.
Last week, as the deadline approached, Benítez travelled to Switzerland to attend the Uefa elite coaches forum, chaired by Mr. Ferguson. Back on Gallowgate, Newcastle were trying and failing to sign Matt Targett, a bit-part left back, on loan from Southampton.
It made for a depressing juxtaposition. “What an irony,” nufc.com said, that Benítez should leave such a prestigious gathering, “to try and manage a club with absolutely no ambition and run like a pub side.” It was not a dissenting voice. At True Faith, the Newcastle fanzine, there is “an overwhelming sense of dread”. The Mag, meanwhile, wrote that “the ‘Rafalution’ and Newcastle’s last hope now hang by a thread.”
To understand the plunging mood, you must contextualise Ashley’s decade at St James’ Park, the two relegations, the dismissal of cups as not a “priority”. He has twice employed Joe Kinnear and meted out humiliation to Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan. The name of the ground was changed. There is plenty more, but as a banner inside the stadium summarised: “We don’t demand a team that wins, we demand a team that tries”.
Alan Pardew, John Carver and Steve McClaren all explained that Newcastle could not compete, which was what made Benítez’s arrival last March all the more extraordinary, both from his and Ashley’s perspective. Benítez spoke about stature and history. He looked at the club and did not simply see the eyesore of countless hoardings for Sports Direct, he saw potential.
At a meeting with Ashley at the end of last season, Benítez was given a budget and, like the previous year, encouraged to stay. He set up deals for Tammy Abraham and Willy Caballero but nothing happened. Abraham will face Newcastle for Swansea City on Sunday having joined on loan from Chelsea, while Caballero moved on a free to the league champions. Newcastle were playing catch-up but never caught up and Benítez, who refused to dismantle the Championship team he had assembled before replacements were signed, expressed concern. In public, he implored Ashley to “keep his word.”
When all the haggling stopped, Newcastle’s net spend was below Huddersfield Town and Brighton & Hove Albion, both promoted with them. There was no new goalkeeper and no fit left back. “A complete shambles,” nufc.com called it. “These penny-pinchers are gambling with our future yet again.”
In January, Benítez wanted two new players, but none came. An absentee landlord, Ashley began attending matches, but avoided his most prominent employee. Dysfunction again, infection spreading. There has been no direct conversation between them since May. When Ashley gave a rare interview to Sky Sports last month, he apologised to Keegan and Shearer, but does not have the wit to see history repeating itself.
Not for the first time, Ashley is seeking to sell the club but he has learnt nothing. His drive for self-sufficiency at Newcastle now feels like ideological austerity. Beyond some skin-deep alterations, the training ground is unimproved. Commercial income has fallen. And now the team have been starved of investment and the great risk-taker has rolled the dice on doing just enough.
Benítez is not a just-enough manager. He longs to repay fans who have shown him adoration but avoiding relegation is a questionable dream and although he will not resign, it is not unreasonable for him to expect more. When his health allows, he will get on with it, anchored to the club by a contract that stretches for one more full season, by his relationship with supporters and little else.
One day, West Ham United, who are long-term suitors, or some other club will stump up Benítez’s £6 million release clause. Ashley believes he has spent too much of his own money, but millions have been wasted chasing his mistakes. He is making another one and the cost will be more than cash. He is not Newcastle’s owner, he is its illness.
