As a Newcastle fan, football was brilliant - up until the Ashley era. Before 2007, Newcastle United played some brilliant football. We had so many great players playing for us and playing for passion such as Alan Shearer, David Ginola, Les Ferdinand and Rob Lee. The Club was watched by every supporter in the world as we were known as 'The Entertainers.’
In the 1995–96 season, the Toon Army challenged Manchester United for the title - which Kevin Keegan was the manager in this season.
In 1999, Sir Bobby Robson was appointed as manager for Newcastle, Bobby managed a total of 255 games for the club. The Magpies ended up winning 119 of them games, drew 64 and lost 72. Robson had some amazing results at the Toon Army. Sir Bobby really did turn Newcastle back around.
In the year 2007, Mike Ashley bought the club from Sir John Hall for a fee of 135 million. This year was not the best year for the Magpies as the club had a new owner who did not care. Newcastle finished 12th in their first season with Ashley being chairman however, he was happy because we did not go down. Sam Allardyce was our manger for the season until he had left over mutual consent, however shortly after a Club legend was re-appointed - Kevin Keegan.
In 2008, on January the 16th - Kevin Keegan became Newcastle boss, after spells in charge of Fulham, England and Manchester City, Keegan would make a shock return to Tyneside when he was appointed successor to Sam Allardyce. However, there was to be no repeat of his earlier glories as he oversaw just 7 wins from his 22 games at the helm before opting to walk away, citing differences with the Club’s board.
Keegan did not have full control over transfer policy and consequently his relationship with owner Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise - (the director of football) broke down. The departure of Keegan caused uproar among supporters, who demonstrated in large numbers against Ashley and Wise outside St James’ Park.
However, that was it for Newcastle as no one wanted to be under Ashley. Chris Hughton took over as manager for Newcastle four days after Keegan left the club, however Joe Kinnear was the replacement for his job and we were sent down this season. Kinnear lasted around until the final 8 games. This was when our club hero Alan Shearer took over as the boss, unfortunately for him he did not have the times to make the Magpies survive and we suffered with relegation that season. Chris Hughton was appointed as Newcastle United boss and they went on to win the Championship the following season.
Alan Pardew was appointed as the head coach for the Magpies on the 9th of December 2010. Pardew gave us a bit of joy of watching us in Europa League and getting us to the quarter finals. However, Pardew lasted 4 years at the club before he decided his time was up. During Pardew, we seen some great players such as, Demba Ba, Pappis Cisse, Hatem Ben Arfa and Chiek Tiote. John Carver then took over from Pardew and we just survived relegation. We had finished 15th and was 4 points off 18th.
John Carver lasted until the end of the season until he got the sack. However, Steve McLaren took the job after him and did not do much better. Newcastle went down to the Championship after Sunderland defeated Everton 3-0 but the result sealed our fate. Steve was given the sack with only a few games left. That is when the famous Rafa Benítez took over as head coach. Unfortunately, we weren't able to remain in the Premier League, but we won our final game 5-1 at home against Spurs.
Rafa was loved by all the fans and the players, we ended up winning the Championship and came straight back up. Rafa wanted Newcastle to be a team that could compete and would fight for silverware. However, Mike Ashley would not allow him the money to go and improve the training facilities and purchase better players. After 3 years at the club Benitez’s contract expired, he decided to leave because Ashley wouldn't give him what he wanted - the fans still miss him. After Rafa, Steve Bruce was appointed as the head coach. We broke our transfer record fee which is £40,000,000 for Joelinton.
Bruce was appointed head coach on July the 17th 2019. In his first season he led us to a 13th position. This season he is hurting the club, big time, Bruce does not get the lads to play attacking until very recent. We are one game away from going into the drop zone with Newcastle, Fulham and Brighton fighting for survival. Fulham and Brighton are starting to win as whilst Newcastle are struggling to get a point against West Brom. Bruce has a mindset of playing for a draw, getting a lucky point at the end of games - Steve Bruce is an awful manager and we want him out of the club.
Hopefully, we can read this back with years to come and laugh. We will get our club back one day.
Coran Mulley
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