National Shaming

Usually I would be the first to defend our club when the national media would hurl criticisms, yet I can only find myself nodding with approval at the headlines I have seen since out disastrous performance at Southampton.

I am a big fan of Skysports Monday night Football and found their dissection of our performance brutal, but very honest. Neville & Carragher hit the nail on the head and said what many other journalist will not. They did not hold back and if anyone from NUFC heard this then they understand this represents what the majority of fans feel.

Carragher said: “There’s lots of talk of Alan Pardew losing his job. Forget Alan Pardew for a minute, some of those players are a disgrace.

“We’re not talking about an end-of-season game, which still isn’t acceptable, but this is four or five games into a season.

“I played against a lot of these players towards the end of my time at Liverpool. We beat them 6-0 at St James’ Park and the performance was shocking.

“You think of a club like Newcastle, a working-class club and the fans go there. You want to see great players do great things, score goals and win games – but you want to see a bit of graft, heart and intensity.

“For Newcastle to be seeing that for the last few years is a disgrace.”

And he fears there could be another hostile reception when Newcastle host Hull in the Premier League on Saturday

Carragher added: “Alan Pardew said after the game that the reaction of the supporters didn’t help what was going on out on the pitch. That was just an away section – probably 2,000 or 3,000 of them.

“I would never advocate a manager losing his job. I’ve never been one and I don’t know how tough it is, but can you imagine 50,000 people with banners screaming for Alan Pardew to go?

“Whether you agree with it or not, I’ve said before with managers – David Moyes last season and Roy Hodgson at Liverpool – it becomes untenable.

“To lose your job after four or five games is ludicrous, but he’s on a poor run from January when they lost Yohan Cabaye and we all felt for him then.

“If that carries on, those supporters have turned so far that it might become untenable.”

While is is not great to hear your clubs name be dragged through the mud live on TV - maybe, just maybe this is what is needed for Mike Ashley to take notice of the problems we are facing. Yes well all know he is the biggest problem, however Alan Pardew must be the fall guy.