By Mark Deeks
July 7 2005

This is an email from Mark Deeks, letting us at TyneTalk know why he is no longer writing for us, and why he has given up his season ticket.

Mark Deeks has written columns for TyneTalk for sometime now, and has been a life-long Toon fan. He is now bidding farewell to the writing, and to the Toon. I’d like to thank Mark for all the work he did for the site, and for being a good fan.

 

I’m as disillusioned as I’ve ever been with Newcastle united. I have
decided to let my season ticket go, and I will no longer be writing for
Tyne talk. the reasons are simple. I no longer have the appetite for
putting myself through the emotional wringer that is following NUFC.

Without question I am still a fan. Without question I still care.
Without question I will follow them closely. but I no longer feel that I
can continue to invest so heavily the financial and emotional backing I
have given them so freely over the years, when the club is being run
into the ground so spectacularly as it is now.

This is not a dig at Souness or shepherd in particular. More a general
feeling of disgust and disappointment at the catalogue of bad business /
football / financial decisions that continue to be made by those in
power at SJP.

One half time last season, when particularly bored, I set about trying
to list all of the central midfielders on the books of Newcastle.
Without any difficulty we got to 10. We were criminally and obviously
lacking width.

Newcastle’s main transfer dealings this summer have resulted in the
selling of the one left winger at the club, and the import of a 6.5
million central midfielder. Not only that, but another central
midfielder who when talked about in the papers etc. is referred to with
the sentence “if he could just add a few more goals to his game he’d be
great”. Just how many of these do we need???

Surely Jenas, dyer, Viana, bowyer, Milner, Ambrose, butt, N’Zogbia all
could be classified as the same, could they not?

How many other clubs would put up with having a rack of midfielders none
of whom consistently score goals or even create chances for others?

I could go on but I would only succeed in bringing myself back down to
the depressed feeling that engulfed much of last season.

I guess the final straw for me was Nicky butt’s behaviour in Cardiff. I
know that no player is bigger than the club, but spending a total of 21
hours on a coach, paying out all that money, and investing all that
emotion into the occasion (the Geordie fans singing the instrumental
“local hero” ten minutes before kick off will remain the most spine
tingling moment of my NUFC following life… there are still tears in my
eyes when I think of it), for one of our so called heroes to depart the
pitch so fast it was untrue without acknowledging our phenomenal support
then appearing at the post match press conference with the opponent’s
manager’s arm around him, was just too much to take.

I lost the spark at that point.

As all Toon fans know, it’s hard work following your team. Of course
there are ups and downs. But that was one kick in the gut too many.

Of course there will be accusations that people like me who will be (so
called) deserting the club, are fair weather supporters. I won’t even
rise to the bait. I can never ever be accused of that. I’ve watched some
shit over the years and I’ve just screamed my support louder. Ask anyone
in the north west corner of the leazes stand about my insistent loyal
support. I refuse to accept my decision is a sign of lack of loyalty.

In my own way, it is a small demonstration, that until certain players,
the current manager and almost fit-inducing shockingly arrogant
chairman start respecting the fans in the way that they deserve, then I
will not contribute my hard earned cash to the cause. The club is being
run on a whim, in the belief that the fans are thick and cannot see what
is going on.

Freddy shepherd (curiously at season ticket renewal time….again)
pleading how insulted he was that he was only talking up the forthcoming
signings to boost sales…. Please….”They all want to come to Newcastle”
he said. Toss, said I. Utter toss. Where are they Freddy? Where are
they? The vast majority of players won’t touch the Toon with a barge
pole at the minute and I can’t blame them.

I feel sorry for players like Taylor and N’Zogbia, as well as Shearer
and Shay etc, who are obviously exempt from my rant due to their clear
dedication to the cause.

But, No I’m done. I can’t do it anymore. Until there’s a change in
leadership and/or management style at the club, I shall follow the boys
in black and white on the box, in the papers, on the radio, and on the
occasional match day.

Thanks for all the emails of support I’ve received during my several
years writing for this site. It’s been a lot of fun. To those who
disagreed with my comments, all the best too. That was part of the fun
too.

Let the good ship Toon sail victoriously again soon. But until someone
has the sense to give the club the major overhaul it so desperately and
obviously needs, I say…

No more Freddy. No more.

 

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