Vainly, I had hoped that the current recession might have brought an end to the shamelessly bandwagon jumping and event junkieism which characterises many an Irish football fan. The initial signs were good, with a fall off in the number of leprechauns in Bari and Sofia. However the front page of yesterday’s Tribune showed that the species is alive and well.
“Pub owner Chawke in bid to buy Newcastle United” screamed the Page 1 headline. The article went onto quoted Chawke, who confirmed his interest in purchasing the club from Mike Ashley. The ball park figure to gain control at St James’ Park is reckoned to be £100m sterling, with Ashley prepared to take a massive hit to get out of the club.
Chawke was part of the Drumaville consortium that purchased Sunderland a few years ago, before selling out their remaining sake to Ellis Short at the end of last season. There were a few choice quotes from the piece, none better than
"This is a better and bigger club. Bigger support, bigger team. It has no debts. It's a great city as well."
This is nothing more than shameless opportunism by the consortium involved. Buying one club shortly after selling ones is bad enough, but buying their biggest rivals. It shows that Chawke and his mates have no interest in the soul of football but want to suckle at the teet of the celebrity circuit once more.
However English football is so in thrall to the money required to keep the circus show on the road that they can’t turn down any serious offers. Whether it is former politicians from the Far East with questionable human rights records or mysterious Russian oligarchs then the door is opened and they are welcomed in.
Louis Fitzgerald is one of the other moguls quoted in the piece, saying
“To have a stake in a well-known club like this would be fantastic. They were in Dublin playing Shamrock Rovers this weekend but if it all works out, we could be in Newcastle in the near future watching them at St James' Park."
The concept of irony is obviously lost of Fitzgerald, as he mentions one of Ireland’s best known clubs and then in the same breath speaks with giddy excitement about investing in a foreign club instead. The consortium seem to be drawn to the bright lights of the Toon Army, in the same way that the club’s emblem, the Magpie, is draw to shiny things.
£100m. A staggering figure at any time, particularly for a loss making leader in a time of deep recession. What is it about business people losing all their business acumen when they get into a football boardroom. Somehow people who have made millions in their jobs take a deep sniff of nitrous oxide and go mad when put in charge of a football club.
Newcastle are now in the second tier on English football and the reality is that it is going to take a multimillion pound investment to get them back to challenge the elite in the game. Yet Chawke and his merry brand of paddywhackery think they are men to do it.
Now think what an investment of £100m in the Irish game might do. In fact scrap it, think what an investment of £10m would do for a domestic team. An investment of that size would virtually guarantee domestic silverware and would provide the side with a real chance of a major European breakthrough into the group stages.
No, instead these proud Irishmen will once again pump their cash into a foreign side, play the green card to attract the “Oirish support”, enjoy the company of their £100,000 a week players and watch defeats to Peterborough. Meanwhile the domestic game struggles for scraps.
I hope John Delaney is drawing up a black list for people to those who should be refused entry to Lansdowne Road following redevelopment. Chawke and his acolytes should be top of the list and I sincerely hope their fortunes are scuttled by the Fog on the Tyne.
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