New Castle Player Piano

Ashley's tweet justice is flawed

Tue Aug 02 08:57AM

David Cameron, in the days prior to Hackgate when he still retained a Teflon sheen, once provoked giggles when remarking during a radio interview that, "the trouble with Twitter, the instantness of it - too many twits might make a t**t."

After dramatically putting Joey Barton up for sale on a free transfer , fining Jose Enrique for comments made on the site and even seeing youngster Nile Ranger question his own future in a series of tweets on Monday, you suspect Mike Ashley and his cronies at St James' Park would endorse similar sentiments to the PM.

In fact, such is the dysfunctional relationship Newcastle have with the site, it would be no surprise to Early Doors to see the Fail Whale swim up the Tyne, moor itself next to The Pitcher and Piano on the Quayside and take up permanent residence in the city.

Newcastle's failure to control this new medium is hardly exclusive to them of course, as the anatomy of Barton's expected departure is that of a very modern transfer.

When George Eastham was set on leaving Newcastle in 1959 he was forced to go on strike for eight months and overturn an archaic and oppressive retain-and-transfer system to eventually secure a move to Arsenal in October 1960.

Barton, though apparently happy to stay at the club, may achieve the same end result by briefly shunning his usual stream of Smiths quotes, denunciations of Obama's 'fascist' America and complaints about the speech impediment afflicting the leader of the opposition in order to have a pop at the Newcastle hierarchy on his phone.

Though the Magpies have not said as much - limiting themselves to a brief statement - it is believed that Barton's repeated questioning of Ashley and his regime has paved the way for his exit. That and a reported bust-up with Alan Pardew following a friendly defeat to Leeds at the weekend.

Tellingly, Barton laid into the club in a series of tweets on Sunday evening, referencing the incident that saw left-back Enrique fined in the region of £100,000 for criticising the club's board on Twitter.

Barton told his legions of followers: "If only we as players could tell the fans exactly how it is, without them above fining us lots of money. There will be a time and a place.

"If it wouldn't effect team morale and cause unrest within the dressing room, am certain Jose's comments would be the tip of the iceberg...

FootballAnarchy

The turbulence of the 2007/2008 season under Paul Le Guen when PSG narrowly avoided being relegated by the most minuscule of margins seem all but over. A new era has been ushered in at the Paris club after Qatar Sports Investments (QIS) bought a controlling stake from American investment firm Colony Capital.

The club has now spent more than all other 19 clubs in Ligue 1 combined, a staggering 90€ million with more transfers on the horizon. They have set the record for the highest transfer fee paid for a player in France and the most spent on transfers in a single season.

Therefore when you consider the enormous financial clout of the Parisian club, the calibre of the player’s signed, anything short of winning Ligue 1 would be a colossal failure.

However one questionable decision made by QIS President Nasser Al-Khelaifi continues to linger, that was to keep Antoine Kombouaré in the role of manager. Kombouaré is fairly inexperienced in managing big name players, his previous main two coaching roles were at relatively small clubs in the form of Strasbourg and Valenciennes.

Kombouaré will have difficulties in managing the new assortment of egos at the Parisian club but also finding the right balance with the players available to him.

I believe the following example applies, you can have the most luxurious, exquisite and finely made concert Piano – yet this Piano in the hands of an amateur player will sound atrocious, to the point where the quality of the Piano is entirely lost on the player. It’s the same with quality football players, they need a quality manager to achieve the highest level of productivity.

Transfers in - Douchez (free), Pastore (€43m), Menez (€8m), Sissoko (€7m), Bisevac (€3.5m), Sirugu (€3.5m), Gameiro (€11m) and Blaise Matuidi (€10m) Paris have no excuses for not winning their first Ligue 1 title in 17 years when they boast in their ranks a player of the quality of Javier Pastore, who many regard to be better than Lionel Messi.