Newcastle’s name game is glimpse of Stadiums Future

Another Ashley hit: Toon fans in their traditional posture upon hearing news of Mike's latest scheme. Photo: Mike King

Perhaps Mike Ashley simply finds the spectacle of crying Geordies funny. With the club enjoying their best on-field days since Keggy was in his managerial pomp, it takes a very special sort of owner to nonetheless plunge the fans into frustrated outrage. But Mike is a man who never stops thinking about how he can take his relationship with the Toon Army to the next depth, and it was inevitable that the shell suit magnate would sooner or later auction-off naming rights to the family home.

The argument that “a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet” holds no appeal for Newcastle fans who, not unreasonably, don’t feel too happy about roaring on their heroes in the Sports Direct Arena rather than St James’ Park (even if some are as shaky on the apostrophe as Titus Bramble dealing with a bouncing ball).

They should count their blessings: fans of MLS team FC Dallas have to root for the home team at the Pizza Hut Park. The NHL’s Nashville Predators until recently welcomed opponents to their intimidating Gaylord Arena. And what MLS fan could fail to be inspired by a trip to watch the Colorado Rapids at their prestigious Dick’s Sporting Goods Park? Closer to home, pity York City fans, obliged to create a cauldron of support inside Kitkat Crescent (née Bootham Crescent, and thankfully restored to its former glory once sponsors Nestlé moved on in 2010 before they could change it to the Baby Milk Bowl).

All in all, the Sports Direct Arena could be a lot worse. And with all the teams that aren’t owned by billionaires starting to feel the pinch, maybe a rubbish name for your beloved home ground is inevitable. At least Newcastle can enjoy some sort of early-adopter advantage, and hopefully get a decently named sponsor while there are still plenty to choose from. Newcastle United at Sony Park, or the Adidas Stadium, or the Coke Arena (even has ties with the region’s colliery past)… it might not be so bad.

Rather that than be one of the teams that leaves it too late and is forced, like a man ferreting for the wife’s Christmas present in a Christmas Eve panic at Superdrug, to pick up any old rubbish that has a half-familiar name and hope for the best.

In five years time, slowcoaches like Sunderland might have had to forgo the Stadium of Light for the Happy Shopper Arena, Liverpool might be playing their home games at Ovaltine Crescent and, if Lord Sugar for some reason decided to get back into bladdy football, poor Tottenham might even be turning out every fortnight at the Amstrad Stadium. All in all, it could be worse.

Newcastle must be taken seriously even if they still have questions to answer

The shock has faded, but the smiles are spreading. Newcastle United are not content with being the Premier League’s surprise packages, they want to become serious contenders again.

Most anticipate a slump at some point, most believe the Magpies have over-achieved after ten games, but nobody is denying they need to be taken seriously.

It may still be autumn and Guy Fawkes remains unburned, but a quarter of the Premier League campaign has already gone.

In case anyone needed reminding, Newcastle’s impressive 3-1 win at Stoke on Monday night moved them above Chelsea into third, one point behind Manchester United, three points ahead of Spurs, four clear of Liverpool and six better off than Arsenal.

Newcastle’s achievements cannot be dismissed as a flash in the pan success, their unbeaten start cannot be waved away as a quirk of the fixture list.

Detractors may point to their relatively easy run of games, but try telling Stoke City they are a push over at home. Try persuading Arsenal and Tottenham they are not good enough to play in the Champions League. All three have faced Newcastle this term and failed to beat them.

Stoke were made to look distinctly ordinary in front of supporters who have seen their side beat Liverpool at the Britannia Stadium this season and draw with Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs.

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay Alan Pardew’s side is I wasn’t even surprised they won at Stoke.

Others were, most notably Gary Neville. The former Manchester United player has proven to be an excellent pundit for Sky Sports and was clearly impressed by what he had seen from the Magpies.

Not only did he concede that Demba Ba – eight goals in nine starts – was a far better player than he had ever given him credit for, he tipped Newcastle for Europa League qualification.

They will need some good luck along the way. Pardew has been careful not to say so publicly, but his squad lacks the strength in depth to cope with anything approaching an injury crisis.

Should either centre back, Fabricio Coloccini or Steven Taylor pick up an injury while Mike Williamson remains sidelined they are in trouble. Should Yohan Cabaye pick up an injury while Chiek Tiote recovers from a knee problem, it’s the same.

Foreign imports to English football normally start to feel the strain of a hectic schedule, the climate and the lack of a winter break around Christmas so we do not know how Cabaye, Ba, Sylvain Marveaux and, as he was injured last season, Hatem Ben Arfa are going to cope.

The fact Ben Arfa still cannot force his way into the starting line-up is encouraging of course and Marveaux provides cover for Obertan on the right, but there is not a specialist left-sided player to deputise for the industrious Jonas Gutierrez.

Newcastle are moving into unchartered waters and there are plenty of hazards waiting for them over the next month or so.

If Newcastle haven’t played anyone yet as some argue, they will play virtually anyone who is anyone in English football over the course of their next four games.

Everton arrive at St James’ Park this weekend, before the international break is followed by successive away games at Manchester City and United. After that Chelsea land on Tyneside.

Should Newcastle remain in the top four at the end of that daunting run of games, nobody can dismiss their European credentials.

Of course, there are other important questions to answer. The chief complaint against owner Mike Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias has been the club’s performance in the transfer market, so will that also change for the better now the club is on firm financial ground?

Will Newcastle resist bids for their star players in January? Will they look to strengthen the squad from a position of strength?

Striker Modibo Maiga is expected to arrive from Sochaux in the New Year, but is there room in the budget for another centre-back and a left-winger as well?

Finally, will Coloccini finally put pen-to-paper on the new contract that has been “virtually agreed” for more than a month?

There are murmurings of interest from Liverpool for a player who will have one year left on his current deal at the end of this campaign.

Kenny Dalglish has already stolen Jose Enrique and Andy Carroll – albeit paying hugely over the odds for the latter – from his former club, he must not be allowed to take another.

If Newcastle really want to be taken seriously again, they must stop their best players signing for a rival which, at the moment, they look strong enough to stand toe-to-toe with once more.

The gift and the curse of Newcastle United

Forget fourth place, forget unbeaten starts, the biggest success Alan Pardew has achieved is making Newcastle United fun to watch again.

For the first time since Kevin Keegan’s brief return as manager in 2008 – a largely unspectacular nine month reign that ended in an acrimonious departure and an explosion of supporter animosity to owner Mike Ashley – everyone is enjoying themselves at St James’s Park.

Before Keegan, you would have go to back to the Sir Bobby Robson years (1999-2004) – although even the end of those were soured by bitterness and resentment as an ageing support grew disillusioned by the constant near-misses under the grand old knight.

For the first time in years, Ashley and his right hand man Derek Llambias can come to games without hearing chants asking them to leave – although obviously in rather less polite terms – supporters can come to games with belief in their side and players can enjoy playing in an arena which has few rivals for atmosphere when it gets going.

Newcastle are never more dangerous than when their long suffering support sense they have something worth supporting again.

They are not unique in that, of course, but it had been forgotten for too long at St James’s Park. There are so many clichés that can be used, but I’ll go with the most simple. When Newcastle fans are at their partisan best, they really are like an extra man on the pitch. When they roar and they scream, sing and they shout.

Anyone who has played there knows how intimidating and intense it is, the only problem is that intensity has weighed too heavily on the shoulders of home, rather than visiting, players in recent times. Newcastle United were constantly in danger of becoming victims of friendly fire.

Things have changed this season. Even when Newcastle fell behind against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, there were no signs of disgruntlement in the stands, merely a desire to help lift the players.

By the end, after Shola Ameobi had pegged Spurs back for a second time, the stadium on the hill overlooking the city crackled with energy that fuelled Newcastle’s players as they went in search of a winner.

It is to Tottenham’s credit that they did not wilt because they were clinging on for a point and were mightily relieved to head home with one. That is what Newcastle’s support can do to you – just ask Arsenal.

That magnificent, memorable clash back in February was perhaps the moment those fans remembered how important they are.

At 4-0 at half-time, Arsenal were strutting peacocks, masters of all they surveyed, but they were shivering wrecks 45 minutes later.

I will never forget the confused faces on the Arsenal players as the home crowd cheered a corner and rose to urge the players on.

Once one goal went in, Arsenal’s cockiness was replaced by fear. The game ended in a 4-4 draw and earned instant acclaim as one of the Premier League’s best.

That sort of support in such an apparently hopeless position was alien to so many in the Arsenal ranks, as it had been to most Newcastle players in recent years. But on that day something changed for the better.

For the last few years, even during the successful promotion campaign from the Championship, opposition sides have known it does not take much to make the crowd turn on their own on Tyneside. Newcastle United were anything but.

If you could get Newcastle’s support to turn. If you could get them at each other’s throats, half the battle was won, but visitors to St James’s Park are once again more worried about getting their throats ripped out these days.

Few would have anticipated it in the summer, particularly once the window shut and Andy Carroll’s replacement still hadn’t been signed, but there is a feel good factor on Tyneside which has brought unity as well as momentum.

Results have been good, but more significantly in trying to explain the current mood, they have been unexpectedly so.

As well as being hard to beat, Newcastle have a threat going forward. They have natural width and pace and should Modibo Maiga, as expected, sign in January, they should have another player to put the ball in the back of the net on a regular basis alongside Demba Ba, who has notched five in his last three appearances.

The squad is small and unlikely to be able to handle injuries and suspensions, European qualification may well be beyond them because of it, but that cannot disguise the fact Pardew has built a team – with the help of chief scout Graham Carr – that plays with enterprise, spirit, speed and skill. That’s good enough for most who follow them.

There is a buzz around the city there has not been since Robson led them into the Champions League. You can feel it, sense it and I’m not even a Newcastle supporter (it will always be Leyton Orient for me).

Even during these times of financial uncertainty – the North East has the highest unemployment rate in the country – Newcastle United have done what they are supposed to do – they have made the city feel good about itself again.

Long may it continue, not just for Newcastle, but for the vibrancy and entertainment of the Premier League. In these days of billionaire owners, English football needs the rest to make the most of the strengths they have.

Newcastle United’s supporters are their gift and their curse. They can be too demanding, too expectant and they can crush those who do not provide them with what they want.

At the moment, they are a gift to Pardew and players who are thriving in the positive atmosphere they generate. The longer it lasts the longer Newcastle will maintain their challenge for Europe.

Newcastle United are benefiting from low expectations rather than suffering

From the depths of depression and despair to wild and unrestrained euphoria, sometimes all in the space of a week, Newcastle United have tended to show all the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder.

It is a rollercoaster ride you simply cannot get off, full of exhilarating highs and stomach churning lows, or at least it has been ever since Kevin Keegan gave the archetypical sleeping giant an almighty kick up the backside in 1992.

In the 19 years since Keegan used Sir John Hall’s money to restore the club to something like its former glory, expectations have run wild on Tyneside.

It is not true to say Newcastle supporters expect to win trophies, that is clearly misleading when the Magpies have not won a major trophy since 1969, a domestic one since 1955 and the league title since 1927.

But they do expect to be in the mix, jostling for European positions, snapping at the heels of the super-heavyweights in their division and landing telling blows while they do it.

And, they have, since Keegan, been expected to do it in an attractive, attacking style with the emphasis on goals scored, not conceded.

Keegan helped transform a football club and, in doing so, helped reawaken several others. Having seen how much could be done with a little bit investment and momentum, the Hall-Keegan axis galvanised all of English football.

Keegan, of course, did not win anything, but he turned Newcastle into a major attraction again, a force to be reckoned with and he did it with flair.

His success has weighed heavily on the shoulders of all those who have followed him into the St James’ Park dugout. It says much about the magnitude of the challenge that only a titan of the game like Sir Bobby Robson has matched his achievements.

Newcastle fans are generally viewed with mixture of bewildered admiration and begrudging respect, if only for continuing to turn up in their thousands to follow a team which persistently fails to match their expectations.

There are some who mock their misguided loyalty, while Sunderland supporters can rarely mention their local rivals without the words arrogant and deluded creeping into the conversation, but generally speaking I suspect there is more respect than ridicule.

Expectations, though, have perhaps never been lower on Tyneside and if Mike Ashley has done one thing successfully since he took over four years ago it is this.

It is not necessarily a bad thing as Alan Pardew and his squad are starting to discover. Tipped for a relegation battle after an uninspiring summer which saw virtually none of the £35m Andy Carroll fee spent on transfers, Newcastle’s supporters headed into the new season with a sense of foreboding, or worse, apathy.

With the club’s iconic number nine shirt remaining vacant after a mistake-ridden search for Carroll’s replacement, Pardew’s side were not expected to achieve anything more than disappointment and, with a bit of luck, top flight survival.

The early signs are far more encouraging than that. The leaves are still on the trees so no need to get carried away, but for once nobody is.

There is just quiet satisfaction because, for once, Newcastle are exceeding expectations, not failing short. Newcastle’s squad is small, but it is talented, while Pardew has created the sort of siege mentality every team intending to punch above its weight needs.

Newcastle are well-drilled and well organised. They have shed the Entertainers tag, but have not suffered negative publicity because of it.

In fact, Pardew has done what Sam Allardyce failed to do. He has made Newcastle, first and foremost, a difficult team to breakdown, difficult to beat. Stubborn, obstinate and belligerent, not exciting, expansive and flaky.

Pardew, though, hasn’t shouted about it in every press conference and repeatedly told everyone how clever he is, as Big Sam had a nasty habit of doing during his short spell as manager.

Newcastle do not have to play attractive, attacking football. Of course, it is preferential, but a win will be celebrated as a win, regardless of how it came about. This has been the subtle shift Pardew has managed to oversee.

Where once there would have been excited chatter about a European push after an unbeaten start to the campaign, and even a shot at silverware in one of the cup competitions, there is just contentment things have not begun nearly as badly as feared.

Newcastle still need a striker to fill the number nine shirt, regardless of Leon Best’s run of three goals in four games, and the squad only looks a couple of injuries away from being stretched in any department, but at the moment solid rather than spectacular is going down rather well.

Andy Carroll needs to take Capello warning seriously or he will fail at Liverpool

If Andy Carroll isn’t careful he will have achieved the seemingly impossible on Tyneside – made Mike Ashley look good and the decision to sell him to Liverpool for £35m a masterstroke.

There were those who, even if Carroll went on to play 100 games for England and led the Liverpool line with distinction for the best part of a decade, would have argued the money was too good to turn down.

At least they would if Newcastle had actually spent any of it on incoming transfers this summer rather than grabbed it to balance the books.

Others, the more romantic souls, who were thrilled to see a Geordie in the club’s iconic number nine shirt again, will never accept it. Well they might, if as is rumoured, Newcastle have a buy back option should Liverpool decide to part with him and Carroll returns to St James’ Park for less than they sold him for, but I’m getting off track here.

At the moment, even though Newcastle have ridiculously failed to sign a replacement for Carroll this summer despite sitting on a great big wad of cash, it is the selling club who have come off best in the deal.

The stark, brutal stats of his time at Liverpool, are this. Carroll has played 13 games for Liverpool and scored just three goals, one of which came against Exeter City in the Carling Cup. The other two in a solitary game against Manchester City.

To put the Carroll transfer into some sort of context he is the most expensive British footballer and joint 13th in the all-time world list.

Yet, this is a player who moved to Anfield after just six successful months in the Premier League. A year earlier, the young striker had not even been guaranteed a start in Newcastle’s Championship-winning promotion side.

Liverpool paid a huge price for potential, but potential isn’t always realised, particularly if the person in possession doesn’t fully appreciate what needs to be done to unlock it.

Early days of course. Carroll hasn’t even been at Anfield a year and has spent a lot of that time recovering from a niggling knee injury.

There is still plenty of time for the 22-year-old to come good and rediscover the rampaging, uncontainable old fashioned centre-forward quality he appeared to have in black and white stripes. But, for the first time in his young career, Carroll is under pressure and we don’t know if he can cope.

He is being questioned and criticised, something he never had to contend with on Tyneside. For £35m, Liverpool don’t want potential, they want performances and goals, or at least a suggestion they are on the horizon.

As a local lad, fresh faced out of the Academy, Carroll’s failings were ignored at Newcastle, his bad behaviour forgiven and his liking for a night out just part of his charm in a city where everyone, young and old, enjoys doing the same.

At Newcastle, Carroll could do no wrong. He was encouraged and supported, even when he first broke into the first team and was so raw he looked blue.

Carroll thrived in that environment as an unknown quantity and was more accustomed to having smoke blown where the sun doesn’t shine rather than kicked around the same area.

The move to Liverpool looked a good one. He would learn from an old master like Kenny Dalglish and would develop at a club which could curb his wild streak and turn him into a finely-tuned athlete.

It has not quite worked out that way. Carroll regularly returns to Newcastle to enjoy his home town and he does not appear to have curbed anything.

Dalglish is sensibly trying to protect his player and has never criticised Carroll in public, but England manager Fabio Capello will be gone in a year’s time and has no interest in the long game or the hope Carroll matures with age.

He wants performances from Carroll now and he isn’t delivering them, hence his presence in the stands, not the squad, when England beat Bulgaria last week. Carroll has looked heavy and slow so far this season and there are suggestions he has put on weight since he left Newcastle.

No wonder Capello is worried about his lifestyle. The English drinking culture is alien to the Italian, but he has a valid point where Carroll is concerned.

There was another player like Carroll who once took the Premier League by storm. He was unplayable on his day, a devastating target man defenders were terrified of. His name was Duncan Ferguson.

Ferguson was a nearly player, someone who had 10 excellent games a season when he was fully fit and firing. As he got older and his lifestyle caught up with him, his body began to protest and he spent most of his time at Everton and Newcastle injured or recovering from them.

He was a brilliant player, but he never did it enough to be considered a great. Carroll could find he is following in his footsteps.

Does anyone remember Michael Ricketts? He scored 24 goals for Bolton Wanderers as they won promotion to the Premier League and had scored another 15 by February in his first season in the top flight.

It was form that rightly earned him an England cap against Holland in 2001. His career has been in free fall ever since, taking in the delights of Middlesbrough, Leeds United, Stoke, Cardiff, Burnley, Southend, Preston, Oldham, Walsall and finally Tranmere, who released him at the end of last season.

Carroll is a far better prospect than Ricketts, but his rapid decline is a timely reminder of what can happen to one season wonders in the Premier League.

Carroll could be a magnificent centre-forward for club and country. He could be the player Newcastle supporters always dreamed he would be for them, but at the moment he is danger of becoming the most expensive transfer flop of all time. Capello’s warning must not be ignored.

Joey Barton is a fine footballer but is he really worth the hassle?

It is difficult to know where to start with Joey Barton and even harder to know where to finish.

Newcastle have lost a talented player and Queens Park Rangers have signed one, but it is still difficult to decide who has made the better decision given the circus he brings with him.

I doubt it is possible to sum Barton up in 15 words, but I’ll give it a go. Volatile, intriguing, articulate, arrogant, stupid, rash, bold, talented, competitive, disruptive, angry, difficult, inspirational, bright and deluded.

There are several contradictions there, but then Barton is a contradiction. On one hand he is a hugely talented footballer who played a big part in Newcastle’s return to the Premier League. On the other he is a hugely disruptive influence, divisive in the dressing room, difficult to manage and difficult to control.

In four years on Tyneside he fell out with four managers, Sam Allardyce, Alan Shearer, Chris Hughton and Alan Pardew. Some made up with him, others didn’t.

On the one hand he is seen as a hero at Newcastle United, one of their best players and a vital member of a side which stayed up with relative ease last term. On the other he is a player who had one good season out of four at St James’ Park and who has been, at various times, hated by large sections of Newcastle’s ever-loyal support.

On the one hand he is a humble working class lad, with a leaning towards socialist politics, generous with his time and committed to helping good causes. On the other he is conceited and arrogant, referring to people he doesn’t like as peasants while crowing about how rich he is.

On the one hand he is a footballer who refuses to be pigeon-holed, a reader of philosophy, a player who pledged his loyalty to Newcastle United even when they withdrew a contract offer at the start of the summer. On the other he is merely predictable in his desire to be different, ultimately leaving for more money elsewhere as soon as someone offered him the chance.

Barton, who last season claimed he was the best English midfielder in the country, said he would only leave Newcastle for a team in the Champions League and has, instead, signed for one who, with the best will in the world, will be battling against relegation all season.

He may not have felt loved by Newcastle’s owner Mike Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias – the feeling was most certainly mutual – but Alan Pardew fought long and hard to keep him. Even while those above him refused to forgive and forget his Twitter rants and misdemeanours, Pardew did.

Barton only started the season in the side because he told his manager he would stay for the rest of the season, regardless of contract issues, but left, using the lack of a contract as his excuse.

Barton is always keen to paint himself as victim at Newcastle and, yes, he should have been retained if the manager wanted to keep him. He has been a big presence over the last 18 months and his loss is a blow to the team on the pitch, but I suspect it may be a relief in the dressing room.

When Kevin Nolan left – also in acrimonious circumstances – for more money and a five year contract at West Ham – earlier this summer, Barton lost more than just a friend, he lost the one person who could keep him in check.

Barton’s performances last season justified his £56,000-a-week wage packet, but the previous three years were soured by injuries, jail terms and even a bust up with Alan Shearer during his short spell as manager in 2009.

Even in the successful Championship promotion campaign, Barton was injured for most of it and was dropped by Hughton at the start of the season after he questioned his authority as caretaker manager.

Barton complained he deserved to be rewarded financially, yet he conveniently forgets most people would not have had a job to come back to after he was jailed for assault three years ago, just as you and I wouldn’t if we used a public forum like Twitter to slag off our employers in a bid to incite customers/fans to turn against them. Yet this is precisely what Barton did last month.

It is also worth pointing out that a new contract was offered to him on the same terms, minus image rights, earlier this year. Barton shook hands on that deal, but returned on the day it was due to be signed and asked for more money.

It was a move that infuriated the Newcastle hierarchy – it does not take much it has to be said – and the bad feeling lingered until the offer of a new deal was completely withdrawn back in May.

In my first blog for the Telegraph I praised Barton for being a footballer who was thoroughly enjoyable to interview. Lively, challenging and far more intelligent than your average Premier League star.

The problem is, being intelligent in the dressing room does not make you an intellectual and it does not make you a genius.

Sometimes I think Barton’s problems are due to the fact he thinks he is not just a better player than he is, but also far cleverer.

Some of his comments on Twitter have been brilliant, insightful and thought-provoking, some of have just been plain stupid, vicious and hypocritical.

At times this summer, it feels as though I have written about nothing but Barton. He has been centre stage in another dramatic summer on Tyneside. Newcastle will miss him as a footballer and they must replace him in the transfer market, but I’m not sure they will miss everything that comes with him.

Now he is Neil Warnock problem and you can be certain of one thing, it won’t be long until he is making headlines in west London, for all the right or wrong reasons.

Sunderland lost to Newcastle but must not lose sight of a bigger picture

The thought of a manager being under pressure after just two games of a new season is, quite frankly, farcical. The thought of Steve Bruce being that manager after two years of steady improvement at Sunderland is, quite simply, ludicrous.

Then again, who would have thought the mighty Arsene Wenger would be starting a new campaign swatting away questions about his future at Arsenal while a slither of the club’s support begin to call for his removal.

Football is a ruthless, ridiculous business and football managers are normally its biggest and most frequent victims.

Bruce’s crime amounts to little more than a derby defeat to Newcastle, a one off game which can turn even the most level-headed into raging madmen; a game Sunderland were widely tipped to win given the two club’s contrasting fortunes over the summer months.

Newcastle’s recruitment strategy has been widely criticised and questioned, Sunderland’s was seen as bold and ambitious. Newcastle were thought to have got weaker because of the loss of key players and the relative unknown quantity of their replacements.

Sunderland, it was thought, were stronger because Bruce was allowed to reinvest in the team, not merely balance the books.

Thrashed 5-1 at St James’ Park last season and fortunate to escape with a draw in a game the Magpies dominated at the Stadium of Light, last weekend’s clash between the North-East’s ever warring neighbours was perceived by Sunderland’s supporters and players as an ideal opportunity to put the record straight.

Instead, Newcastle survived a difficult first half, scored from a Ryan Taylor set-piece in the second and made the short journey back to Tyneside with another derby win to celebrate. It was a crushing experience for those in red and white.

Bruce’s new look side looked worryingly familiar to the one which tended to run out of ideas towards the back end of last season and the knives, if not exactly out, are at least being reached for.

It is dangerous and short-sighted. So Sunderland lost to their bitter rivals on home soil. It was painful and embarrassing, but it is ultimately just one game in a very long season.

Under Bruce, Sunderland have progressed and improved. The calibre of player signed this summer would have been unthinkable when the former Manchester United skipper arrived just over two years ago.

This must not be forgotten, particularly when Sunderland started the season with a 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield, who beat Arsenal at the Emirates at the same time as the Black Cats were losing to Newcastle.

The problem with derbies as intense and as hostile as the North East one is they mean everything at the time, but little in the grand scheme of things.

Sunderland’s record in these regional battles for supremacy is abysmal. One win in 14, one win at home in 30 odd years. Yet, they have finished above Newcastle three years running.

There is a section of the Sunderland supporters who will simply never accept Bruce because he was raised a Newcastle fan. They will always look to pounce on any failing.

Sadly, it is that bunch which will be heard loudest at the moment, metaphorically shouting on internet message boards, ranting on Twitter, bending the ear of radio pundits, whipping the media into a frenzy, turning a solitary defeat into a disaster. It’s the same at every club.

Had Newcastle lost to Sunderland, the mood would have turned ugly on Tyneside. A frustrating summer in the transfer market would have been replaced by anger and animosity at the thought of a troubled season ahead.

But they won and manager Alan Pardew has some breathing space as he looks to sign the two players, a left-back and a striker, everyone knows he needs before the close of the window. It was a great result for him, a terrible one for Bruce.

Sunderland must pick themselves up and dust themselves down. They responded to the 5-1 defeat last season by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A victory over Brighton in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night would be a start this time. Two early cup exits last season were arguably far more damaging and disappointing for Bruce and Sunderland’s board than those derby results.

Bruce has tried to do a lot this summer and has perhaps done a little too much in terms of the number brought in. With ten new players, the team needs time to gel, time the derby defeat has taken away to a certain extent.

The squad has more depth, but it seems to lack a goalscoring threat at the moment, while the lack of pace out wide is a concern.

Sunderland fans will be tetchy and emotional after the defeat to Newcastle, calm and a sense of collective purpose needs to be restored. The derby blow was a devastating one and it has undoubtedly wounded Bruce again, but it was not a mortal strike.

It has made the next few weeks tough for manager and players, but there is no sense in panic or attacking Bruce. He has damage to repair and the sooner the better, but a sense of perspective must be maintained even while their old enemy gloats, goads and grins.

What does Mike Ashley actually want to achieve with Newcastle United?

It is a question Newcastle United fans have been asking ever since he bought the club in the summer of 2007, but what does Mike Ashley actually want to do with it?

It is a question he has never felt the need to answer. In fact, he has never felt the need to answer any questions during the course of four difficult years as owner.

There is no conclusive answer because Ashley simply hasn’t given one, so in its absence all we can do make an educated guess based on actions and off the record briefings from Newcastle’s managing director Derek Llambias.

The conclusions I have drawn are unlikely to make pleasant reading for those who can still remember standing toe-to-toe with Manchester United for the Premier League title on more than one occasion.

A club that has qualified for the Champions League three times, more than any other side outside the traditional Big Four – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.

As far as I can tell, Ashley’s ambition amounts to keeping Newcastle United in the Premier League as a self-sufficient business which occupies little of his time and none of his money.

Having spent £286m to buy the club and then keep it afloat following a relegation to the Championship his bad decision making facilitated – Joe Kinnear as manager, Dennis Wise as Director of Football anyone? – Newcastle’s owner does not want to have to spend a penny more.

He will not put any money in, but neither will he take any out. He expects the club to survive in the top flight without his help, maybe dabble with a cup run.

The suspicion is Ashley just wants to keep things ticking over until someone buys it from him and pays back the interest free loans, totalling more than £111, put in.

When Andy Carroll was sold, fans were told all the money would go into the strengthening of the side, Ashley has used it to strengthen the books of a business which previously lost him money.

That is his prerogative, he is the owner and there is no rule or stipulation he has to bankroll the club, match the expectations of supporters or throw money at new players in the vague hope it will be restored to former glories.

Newcastle United are not up for sale because of the uncertainty it breeds, but if you have a spare £300m knocking about and you want to buy arguably the last English club able to achieve something with the right investment, it rapidly would be.

But that wasn’t Ashley’s initial intention, he bought Newcastle United to turn it into European football contenders, to have fun, or so we were told by those – former chief executive Chris Mort and now Llambias – employed to run it for him. So where did it all go wrong?

Naturally suspicious of the media, initially the business journalists who covered his rise to riches, and then the football hacks who yearned to know what he had in store for a football club light on achievements, but big on ambition.

Newcastle United is a great football club which rarely achieves great things. It is an iconic brand, one of the “crown jewels of English football” as Ashley – in one rare public comment shortly after his takeover – described it.

Initially perceived as a knight in shining armour, liberating Newcastle United after years of dissatisfaction under the Hall-Shepherd alliance, he was the billionaire who would rival Roman Abramovich’s spending at Chelsea.

Even when it quickly became apparent he was not interested in blowing a big chunk of his personal fortune on new players, Ashley retained his popularity even if only because he had removed the former chairman, Freddie Shepherd, from office.

From what little information there was about him, Ashley came across as a self-made man; a common man with an extraordinary talent for business. He was a bold entrepreneur with a sharp eye for an opportunity, a gambler who had taken huge risks and won.

He bought Newcastle United because he loved football and had the money knocking around to buy his own club to play with.

Nothing new there, the only difference is it takes a billionaire, rather than a millionaire to do it in the Premier League.

At the back of his mind, though, Ashley probably felt there was the chance to make a profit. Football was riding the crest of a wave, the country as a whole was still in the boom before the bust and football clubs were traded as hot property.

It has not worked out like that, partly because of a global recession, partly because football is a business, but it is a business not quite like any other.

There is too much emotion involved. The personalities are different, they have egos and will not simply be told what to do. The media interest is not like any other. It means too much to people for the same belligerent rules that have served Ashley so well in his business empire to apply.

Not content with alienating one club legend in Kevin Keegan in his second season, Ashley managed another in Alan Shearer.

On both occasions Ashley brought them on board and fell out with them to his cost. In Keegan’s case because of broken promises about control of recruitment and in Shearer’s because the club was up for sale following relegation in 2009 and he didn’t want to spend the money the former Newcastle captain required to build for the future.

Keegan’s resignation in complaint at boardroom interference – in other words Wise’s control over transfers – was the beginning of the end for Ashley, even if that end remains out of sight.

He had a shot at salvation with Shearer, but blew it. He even had another shot when he covered huge losses during one season in the Championship. He wasn’t popular, as such, be he was appreciated a little more.

The sale of Carroll and Kevin Nolan, last season’s top goalscorers, combined with the treatment of Chris Hughton, and the lack of spending on new players this summer means he has probably blown it again.

According to research done by one fan’s website, Newcastle United have made a profit of more than £31m in the transfer market since 2006, by far the highest figure in the Premier League. http://www.transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/2006-2011.html

Ashley brought Newcastle to have some fun and he did for the first year, sitting and drinking with fans at away games. He wanted to be one of the lads and he was accepted.

But as soon as that went following Keegan’s resignation so, it seems, did Ashley’s enthusiasm. The knight in shining armour had been knocked off his horse by King Kev.

He is abused and he is resented and he knows it. He is a very rich man, but why should he continue to spend his own money to bring success to a club and supporters who have made it perfectly clear they don’t like, thank or respect him?

It is an increasingly well-run business, which in one of Llambias’ favourite phrases, can wipe its own nose, yet supporters are still more likely to wipe a tear from their eye.

They don’t care about books being balanced, they care about what happens on a match day and this is a club which once aimed for far more than a shot at a top ten finish.