Ged Clarke - Newcastle United: Fifty Years of Hurt

FIFTY YEARS OF HURT

A BITTERSWEET STORY OF NEAR TRIUMPH AND DISASTER

Ged Clarke

Foreword by Sir John Hall

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Epub ISBN: 9781780573045

Version 1.0

www.mainstreampublishing.com

Reprinted, 2007

Copyright Ged Clarke, 2006

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by

MAINSTREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY

(EDINBURGH) LTD

7 Albany Street

Edinburgh EH1 3UG

ISBN 9781845960827

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any other means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for insertion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

To Jules and Rachel

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply indebted to the many people who helped make this book possible, some of them blissfully unaware of their part in the process, i.e. the various TV commissioning editors who rejected this as a documentary idea. Thanks to Bill Campbell at Mainstream for realising that it might make a book and to his colleagues Graeme Blaikie and Paul Murphy, who knew how to make it all fit together.

Biggest thanks has to go to my good friend Simon Malia for helping me over the line in the closing stages with his prodigious news editing skills, but more importantly for sharing the pain more than most over the years. One day, mate, eh?

Of course, it wouldnt have been possible without the many former managers and players of Newcastle United who spared the time to offer their thoughts eternal respect and gratitude to them all. Special thanks to Paul Tully for helping me to track down the more elusive ones! Thanks to Sharon at NUFC and, of course, to Sir John Hall for writing the foreword. Bowing and scraping is also offered in the direction of Paul Joannou and NUFC.com. Any factual errors in this book must be mine, not theirs.

There are several people to thank for taking, finding or releasing photographs: my mate Russell Rusty Cheyne for his fab pics (you havent lost it, pal!); Bob Bodman at The Telegraph; the Mirror's Conor Hanna and Kevin (not bad for a Mackem) Maguire; Alistair Machray, Mark Thomas and John Thompson at the Liverpool Post and Echo; Ann Dixon at The Chronicle for all her help; Les Jones, a Canadian exile who answered my appeal in The Mag; and Jack Milburn, jun., who proved as reliable as his dad. Gratitude also to Paul Walker for his photo montage and all-round creativity.

Thanks too to The Chronicles John Gibson and Alan Oliver, and my pals Chris, Mick, Steve and Richard for their voices of bitter experience. And a special thanks to my uncle Richie for taking me to St James Park on that first, fateful day, back in 1966, and to my mam and dad for letting him.

Last, but not least, I must thank my wife Jules and daughter Rachel for their incredible patience while I locked myself away for months, immersing myself in all things black and white. Can I come out now?

FOREWORD

Newcastle United FC is a big club with a long history. To be a great club it needs constantly to win silverware at the highest levels of domestic and European soccer. This it has failed to achieve, much to the frustration of everyone at the club, especially its huge following of very loyal fans.

Over the years, many questions have been asked about the clubs lack of success, and Ged Clarke raises many interesting theories in his book, which makes fascinating reading. From my point of view, it could be said that there was a lack of financial investment in the club by previous boards up to 1990. However, since that date, the regime change which I instigated has invested over 120 million in St James Park and in the training centre and youth academy. Countless millions have been given by the new board to every manager they have employed to improve the team, but none of this has achieved the success on the playing field which we all desire.

I myself cannot give you an immediate solution to achieve that elusive success but can only suggest that we continue to look at ourselves in depth and examine every facet of the club. It could be that we need to change the role of the manager to that of a coach, employ a director of football, set up a full department of sports medicine and science with all of the relevant specialists to ensure that the club is at the forefront of soccer technology.

However, there is one certain fact. We cannot give up on the quest for success. Ged Clarke should not have to write another similar book in 50 years time.

Sir John Hall

President, Newcastle United FC

Wynyard

2006

INTRODUCTION

So whats this book all about then? Well, it might be easier to start by saying what its not about. This book is not intended to be a definitive modern history of Newcastle United for starters, there are much better historians out there than me (step forward Paul Joannou). Nor can I claim that these are the views of the longest-suffering, most loyal and dedicated supporter there are far better Newcastle fans than me out there as well (but please dont step forward, we havent organised security). No, I wrote this book simply because I was getting fed up with being part of the largest band of unrewarded football fans in England (Britain? Europe? The World?), and, by employing elementary mathematics, Id also clocked the fact that when we didnt win anything in 2005, wed gone 50 years without winning a domestic trophy.

A version of the title first formed in my head back in 1996 when it seemed that every football supporter in England was singing about the thirty years of hurt theyd suffered by not seeing England win the World Cup or the European Championships. Like most football fans, I too would have liked to have seen England repeat their 1966 success at least once in that time. But like most Newcastle supporters, I couldnt pretend to be hurt. Mildly disappointed summed it up more accurately.

Thats because wed already clocked up over 40 years of proper hurt. None of this 14-tournaments-without-a-win lark, we were talking 118 goes at trying to win one of the big three the League Championship, the FA Cup or the League Cup and with 118 blanks to show for it. Now thats real hurt.

This feeling obviously festered. Spool forward another nine years, Newcastle eventually reach the big five-oh, and it was time to do something about it. Not the team, obviously, who still hadnt changed the habits of half a century; no, it was finally time to write the book.

Now, two things have to be cleared up at this point. First of all, I wasnt there for the first ten years of this story (Im not that old), so for the period 195565, thanks are due to the historical accounts of others. And second, Newcastle United actually