The Newcastle United Blog

Glenn Roeder yesterday gave interviews before the game today with Blackburn and talk of Sam Allardyce taking over at Newcastle invariably came up – no surprise there. But when pressed about one win in nine games Roeder said the players and himself were devastated in the dressing room after a loss.

If that’s true we suggest the players start doing their talking on the field - and put in a performance of passion, dedication and skill, every week - so they don’t have to feel devastated in the dressing room afterwards. Maybe the fans will also start to feel better.

This is rather a nonsense statement from Glenn - does he really think we should feel better about the players for this?

Certainly most Geordie fans feel devastated after a loss - they come to see their team perform - and for the last nine games the team hasn’t performed in many of the games.

Newcastle Manager Glenn Roeder

But there is one big difference here between the fans and the players - the fans pay good money to see the game and the players get paid big money to play.

It’s irrelevant how players feel after a game, what’s relevant is how they played and what the result is.

We know Geordie fans are passionate folks about their football - and we are reminded of the famous Bill Shankly quote:

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.”

Liverpool Legend - the Great Bill Shankly

That quote is true for many Newcastle fans - so it’s understandable they are not too happy with the way the team is playing right now. It’s true we’ve had bad injuries - but that’s starting to sound like an excuse - (it was the same last season) and we haven’t had a lot of injuries in the last nine games when we’ve played very poorly.

We also need to fix the injury problems -over here in the US - conditioning coaches lose their jobs if there are too many injuries. Take a look at this article and you’ll see what we mean.

NY Yankees sack fitness coach – are you watching Newcastle

(NY Yankees conditioning coach Marty Miller was sacked earlier this week - because of too many hamstring injuries - and the team is doing poorly - sound familiar?).

It’s the job of the manager in football to win games - that’s their job - and when they don’t produce results they have to face the consequences. It’s like any other job that pays big money - people expect results - that’s why they are paying big money. If the results aren’t there (and then reasons usually are) they should feel the consequences and be accountable.

Here’s the text of what Roeder had to say yesterday:

“I don’t care who it is, be it a manager in work or a manager out of work, he would have struggled with Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi out,” he said. “It’s not been a great season; no one’s trying to make out it is. We’ve not done anywhere near as well as we have done [in the past], but there are strong reasons for that.”

Roeder said the club was a target for speculation and players shared supporters’ worries after one win in nine league games. “The big majority of our players are devastated when they lose,” he said. “I’ve got passion to win, I hate losing and I’m as despondent as any of our loyal fans. I’m right alongside them. I’d like to take the 52,000 through the dressing room after we’ve lost and show them what it means.”

Here’s our advice to Glenn and the players - Do your talking on the field , give 100% effort and show some passion - if you do that fans will be a lot happier - and the players will not have to feel devastated when they lose.

A good time to start is today against Blackburn Rovers.