Newcastle United yesterday unveiled their new away football kit for the 2009-10 Championship season. In what can only be described as a truly awful effort — arguably one of the worst football shirts of the 21st century — it is yet another example of how the club just seem to manage to get things so wrong.
The only thing consistent about Newcastle United is their ability to mess things up on a grand scale. The two-toned yellow jersey may appeal to a small minority, but the reality is it is yet another reason for the football world in general to laugh at Newcastle United.
Relegation to the Championship, confusion over the future of manager Alan Shearer and a number of “stars” on ridiculously high wages (even for the Premiership) means a summary of misery for the Toon Army and a very difficult route back to the Barclays Premier League.
The departure of the club of Michael Owen on Monday told a story in itself. Signed in a blaze of glory from Real Madrid by Freddy Shepherd, Owen left St James Park with barely a whimper — which ironically summed up his participation in a Newcastle shirt.
Long gone are the days when Newcastle were the most exciting team in England, thrilling fans throughout the country with top stars like Shearer, Les Ferdinand, David Ginola and Faustino Asprilla.
The current team is a far cry from the great team built by Kevin Keegan and Philippe Albert’s exsquisite chip over Peter Schmeichel to put Newcastle 5–0 up against the Champions seems a lifetime to go.
Nobody would love to see Newcastle turn it around more than me — I was a huge fan of Keegan’s side and consider Newcastle one of my favourite clubs in the English league. However, the reality is for Newcastle to bounce back, it’s going to take a change much bigger than on the football pitch itself.
The whole club is a joke and needs an overhaul from top to bottom. Summed up by chairman Mike Ashley swanning about in a replica kit drinking a beer in the stand, Newcastle United lack professionalism and failure to change this image drastically and urgently could very well lead to much bigger problems for the club than relegation to the Championship.
Leeds United are an example of just how far a club can fall from grace — lets hope Newcastle don’t suffer the same fate.
Written by Danny Watson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football news.
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