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Not such a Wise move…

Published by DSAdmin on September 13, 2008

The farce that is the current situation at Newcastle United continued on Friday as a meeting between club chairman Mike Ashley, and former Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan ended, as the League Managers Association put it, “without a satisfactory conclusion”.

The widely held belief is that Ashley, in the face of seething public backlash in Newcastle over Keegan’s departure, was hoping to persuade Keegan back to the club for what would be a fourth time. The meeting in London was arranged to try and persuade the emotional Keegan to make a return, and to placate the growing resentment felt by many Newcastle fans toward Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise, whom they perceive to be the reasons behind Keegan’s departure.

Keegan is thought to be angered that his role as manager is being undermined by that of Wise, whose primary focus is to bring players to the club whom he believes can take Newcastle to the next level, mainly to challenge for the Champions League places. Of course, in such situations it is going to be difficult for Keegan and Wise to agree on potential targets and it seems that this has been the prime factor in the manager deciding to leave the club.

The onus now lies with the Newcastle chairman to resolve the issue quickly. With Newcastle fans clamouring for Keegan’s return, at the expense of Wise, or even the chairman himself, and the estranged manager believed to be receptive to coming back provided the issues he has being resolved satisfactorily, Ashley now has to face up to the fact that his vision of the way forward for the club is unworkable as it stands. Certainly the current structure of the club would have to be changed to entice Keegan back, and the restoration of buying and selling players would need to be restored to the manager and where that would leave Executive Director Wise is unknown.

To further complicate matters for the beleaguered chairman, earlier in the week the majority of the senior playing staff at the club had reportedly agreed to bombard the club with transfer requests in January, in protest at the club’s treatment of Keegan, with one inside stating that the mood in the dressing room was “ugly” and that “They are disgusted with the way the club is being run, and don’t want any part of it.”

To combat this unrest in players and fans alike, the common sense approach would be for Ashley to bring Keegan back, meet the former England manager’s demands, get rid of Wise and back the reinstalled manager 100%. However with pride, and not to mention significant amounts of money, in terms of severance pay alone, at risk. Ashley may baulk at the thought.

More to the point, history has proven that Newcastle United rarely do the sensible thing.

**Photo Credit : Givepeasachance**

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