lookupsport

What is it about incredibly bright and successful business men, who throw away everything they have learned about business when it comes to football. I guess it could be just called “passion for the game” but really its more like a a child with playing with a new toy.

Mike Ashley is the latest example. Having paid £134M for Newcastle, settled over half of their debt with personal money, he has since sacked the manager and his team of 20 all of who would have need large settlements to cancel their contracts.

He has now recruited the peoples favourite Kevin Keegan, who has a flakey rack record to say the least. The only reason as far as I can see for the appointment is that the fans love him. Keegan has proved twice before at once as England manager and once as Newcastle manager that he cannot handle the pressure. He is paying Keegan £3M a year and will no doubt have to open a war chest to find the money he will want to build his own team. I estimate the entire sorry episode will cost him a minimum of £100M in addition to the original purchase. Not exactly good business sense.

So why do the fans love him? Because he play exciting attacking football that’s why. Big question. Is that all the fans want? They have been whining about the fact that they are “big club” and should be winning trophies. Unfortunately, attacking football doesn’t necessarily mean winning trophies. Teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and even Chelsea theses days all play attacking football, but based on a solid platform of good defence.

How long will it be before the pressure is turned up on Keegan and the fans start to ask where their trophy is? I give him two years tops before either the fans get tired of waiting, or Keegan realises he still cant take the pressure and walks again. Remember you heard it here first!