On Saturday at the match I read the latest match programme. Derek Llambias, our Chairman, has a regular page in it, and decided to use his latest spot to rant at the Newcastle fans because they dared to voice their feelings towards Liverpool's Andy Carroll at the game at Anfield. These are the same fans who have steadfastly supported this club since before Dekka even knew exactly where Newcastle was, the fans who have watched Mike Ashley make a mockery of NUFC legends Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer, the same fans who watched Ashley and Llambias lead our club to relegation.
How many clubs would love to have fans who, despite not having seen a major trophy since 1969, still turn up week in, week out to support their team? Who, in a season in the second tier of football averaged a home gate of 43, 388 and managed a staggering 52, 181 against Ipswich Town? Who have regularly sold out away allocations for years and who have taken over 8, 000 fans to the likes of Blackburn?
These fans commit a significant proportion of their wages to following Newcastle. The majority have just renewed their season tickets for the next season, and some have signed up for 10 more years. Yet Llambias feels that he has a right to have a go at these fans for daring to vent their frustrations at Andy Carroll, a local lad, who only back in November signed a new long term deal to stay at his home-town club, but by the end of January had handed in a transfer request to join Liverpool.
Llambias has no right to criticise anyone, least of all the fans who have backed this club through thin and thinner. He really has no clue what this club means to us, he doesn't realise that supporting Newcastle is a birthright, he has no idea how betrayed we felt by the sale of Andy Carroll. He has no clue what the relegation meant to us, hasn't a clue about the roller coaster of emotions ridden between 2008 and 2011 while supporting Newcastle United.
He stated that "...the abuse he [Andy Carroll] received was difficult to stomach..." Really Dekka, was it? Well try being a Newcastle fan who has had to live with you and Mike Ashley for the last few years. Try living watching you guys humiliate Keegan, watching you admit in court that you've lied to the fans, watching you employ the frankly embarrassing Joe Kinnear, the relegation, the fucking around with Shearer and then, when we were back on the up and up, the sacking of Chris Hughton and the sale of Carroll. All while you pick up a wage that a lot of us could only dream of. That is sickening Dekka, that is difficult to stomach.
Since Llambias' appointment as Chairman many fans have asked what qualifications the former casino manager had to run a football club. Fans have been staggered by Llambias' scorn towards the fans, the distaste he has shown when dealing with us, the lack of respect, the stories of him drunkenly running naked over the hallowed St James' Park turf for a laugh, the barely disguised marionette controlled from above by Mike Ashley. The man really has no class.
Many of us asked whether a man like Llambias even knew anything about football at all. One quote from our most recent programme sums up to me that he hasn't got a clue. Llambias says "To go from hero to villain simply for moving clubs...is beyond me." Unbelievable, the man has no clue! How he cannot see that not only the move, but the manner in which it unfolded, hurt the Newcastle fans and detailed to us our lack of future ambition is baffling. Why he cannot see understand that we are still sore about seeing a young lad who could have been the future of our club pulling on the jersey of Liverpool shows that the guy should stick to managing roulette tables.
Andy Carroll, like Michael Owen when he returned to St James Park with Manchester United, got exactly what he deserved. He put money before the club. Carroll, as a young Geordie lad, had his dreams come true when he was awarded the coveted number 9 shirt. He was in a position that every Newcastle fan would give anything for. But he decided that the Anfield grass was greener, and by doing that he burned his bridges with a lot of the paying fans.
Llambias needs to remember that he and Ashley have it lucky. He has 52, 000 people who still flock to St James Park to worship the black and white. Criticising them for expressing their feelings towards someone who has turned their back on our cause just shows that he hasn't got a clue. The sooner Llambias moves on to manage Aspers and leaves running a football club to a football man the better.
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