When Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear stood in front of TV cameras yesterday and announced that goalkeeper Shay Given had been left out of his squad to face Manchester City because of injury he must surely have assumed that the club’s fans are as clueless as he is.

Given will be sold to City within the next day or two for a fee that can’t match his value as the Premier League’s best shot stopper. And when the inevitable happens Newcastle will have lost more than just a goalkeeper.

Given leaving Newcastle is the Geordie equivalent of the ravens leaving the Tower of London. Over 11 years he has been, give or take Alan Shearer, the club’s most valuable player. Shoddily protected over the years by scores of inept defenders, Given has had plenty of practice, and his goalkeeping prowess has probably earned more points for his club than the strikes of any top forward could. He has been a wonderful player. But more that that, Given has been at the very heart of the club for those full 11 years. 

With a proper work ethic and a Lazarus-like ability to overcome injury, Given has been the ’consummate professional’, but was nonetheless unafraid to occasionally stick his head above the parapet to voice concerns about squad weaknesses and other issues that were playing on the minds of fans. And Given was a fan – that was evident to anyone who might have compared his post match reactions to some of his teammates. His family were happy and settled on Tyneside. He had become a Geordie. And now he is leaving because he has had enough. The Toon Army knows exactly how he feels.

Bearing in mind all of the turmoil and disappointment he has been through at the club, the fact that Given can stand no more says much about the club’s present position. Given knows as much as anyone about the inner workings of Newcastle United, and his leaving confirms he sees no rescue in sight, no light at the end of this tunnel.

Ironically, Given’s playing position is perhaps the only one on the field that Newcastle have adequate cover for. Steve Harper has been at the club even longer than Given, and he’s a good keeper, despite obviously lacking the first team experience of his mate. But what else does the club have?

Michael Owen is injured again, his Newcastle career effectively written off having cost something like £1 million per goal. Nicky Butt has the head for a relegation battle, but perhaps not the legs. Obafemi Martins has been injured almost as often as Owen. If Steven Taylor was half as good as he thinks he is, that would be about twice as good as the reality. Youngsters Bassong, Guthrie, Carroll and Edgar might show promise, but the task of saving this football club can hardly be placed on their shoulders. What’s left? Washed up pros like Geremi, Duff, the returning Smith and the early-retired Viduka have consistently proven that they are not up to the task. Newcastle’s squad is the weakest it has been for almost 20 years, and this season it might prove to be the weakest in the Premier League.

Back in September I wrote at The Times Online about the fallout after Kevin Keegan’s resignation. There was much anger in the air, and I tried to point past the so-called ‘bedsheet brigade’, with their anti-Cockney banners that so infuriated parts of the media. The Times itself had the audacity to blame Newcastle fans for their club’s failings. I pointed out that the fans are the only thing the club has left. That remains true, but, worryingly for the future of the club, anger has now turned to apathy. Ticket sales are tumbling, with even the regular travelling hardcore of thick-and-thin fans seeking alternative entertainment. Like Shay Given, the Toon Army has had enough.

Can anything be done? In spite of 40 years of mismanagement, the buck for the current situation stops squarely with Mike Ashley. He failed to appease Kevin Keegan (and Keegan’s relative success with the squad outlined above should be enough to prove that he was the right man for the job), instead backing Derek Llambias and Dennis Wise, neither of whom has contributed anything remotely positive to Newcastle United’s cause. Wise, specifically tasked with the recruitment of new players, has spectacularly failed. Of his signings, only two frustratingly inconsistent Argentinians have become first team regulars.

And then Ashley appointed Joe Kinnear, a man so ill-suited to the role it seems cruel to criticise him.

When Ashley took the club off the market he declared an interest in rehabilitating himself at the club. It might have been possible, had he replaced Llambias and Wise, appointed a real manager, and backed that manager in the transfer window. He did nothing, and as I write there are less than three days of that transfer window left.

If Newcastle are relegated they will be ill-suited to bounce back. Unlike, say, a West Brom or a Stoke, they will not be able to retain their core squad, regroup and have another go. The club’s huge outgoings will hang heavy around its neck. Players will leave, fans will drift away, money will be lost.

Newcastle play local enemies and relegation rivals Sunderland on Sunday. If, as is quite possible, Newcastle fail to win the game it will be interesting to see if apathy turns once again to anger. But by then it might be too late. Newcastle United are heading into the wilderness, and it could be a long, long way back.

[UPDATE 03/02/09: Shay Given did sign for Man City, and Charles Insomnia went to Wigan, with Kevin Nolan and Ryan Taylor coming in, and Mike Ashley making an £8 million transfer window profit. Newcastle failed to beat Sunderland - the match ended 1-1. Today George Caulkin in The Times echoes many of the sentiments raised above.]

My book, about supporting Newcastle United in happier times, is Black & White Army.

Paul Football