Mort relishing challenge

Nov 15 2007 By Luke Edwards, The Journal

HE has taken a less high-profile approach to his new job than owner Mike Ashley in recent weeks, but Newcastle United chairman Chris Mort is relishing the challenge of trying to turn the club into a European force again.

While Ashley was attracting plenty of headlines and photographers at the weekend following his decision to watch the Wear-Tyne derby with Newcastle’s supporters so that he could wear his replica shirt, Mort was in a suit in the directors’ box as usual.

But, after years carving out a successful career for himself as a lawyer in London, Mort is thrilled by the new challenge at St James’s Park as he outlined plans to shake up the club’s management structure to allow him to spend more time defining United’s long-term strategy and goals.

He said: “It’s a fabulous way to spend one’s time, running a football club. It didn’t take long for me to accept Mike’s offer to come and run the club and I have absolutely no problems having done so. I’m enjoying it. I’m working hard, but I worked hard in my London life, so that aspect is nothing new. My mindset is not ‘this is only a game’, It’s that there’s a city full of passionate people who care very much about what happens here on a Saturday afternoon. I know they look to the club to determine how their lives work out to a great extent. It’s part of our responsibility.

“I don’t come into work thinking ‘oh, won this week, lost last week’, but I’ve grown up enjoying football, so I don’t treat it in a way that perhaps we should, which is that it’s only a game. There’s more passion to it than that.”

Former chairman Freddie Shepherd would argue he shared such a passion for the job, but Mort also combines his enjoyment of running the club with the desire to ensure there are long-term strategies put in place to try to ensure sustainable success is finally brought to Tyneside.

It is an objective, though, which has already encountered some problems as supporters continue to demand an instant improvement in the club’s performances on the pitch. As a newcomer to the city, Mort admits he has still not got used to the knee-jerk nature of football opinion in the North-East.

Mort explained: “In my role I have to be determined to take a medium-to-long-term view and not be the guy texting in to the Press on a Monday morning saying everything’s gone horribly wrong. I have to look at it more long term than that.

“It struck me, even after drawing at Boro and winning at Bolton for the first time for ages, that there is lots of negativity around. Lots of people are clearly waiting to see where this club is going. Having been through last season and lots of people been unsatisfied, a lot of people have gone into this season wondering where the club’s going to go.

“Is it going to continue as it is, is it going to go to a higher level. People are perhaps looking to judge it even quicker this season because they’re trying to work out where it’s going. But it would be wrong for me to join the element that swings both ways, because I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if that’s the way my mind went.”

After less than six months in the job, though, Mort is also planning to recruit a new management team to help him deal with the wide range of issues which require his day-to-day attention.

Mort explained: “I’m not looking to bring in a new chairman or anything. There’s a couple of senior people I think we need to add to help the management of the club, which will make life a little easier.

“It would enable me to move up to a slightly higher level in terms of strategy, but at the moment I’m getting down into the detail of lots of things, which is a healthy thing for me to do, to understand what needs to be done. Because over time I’d hope to be able to get a bit more management in there as well.”

GUS Poyet insists getting Tottenham to defend better has been one of the major plus points since he and Juande Ramos took control of the team from the ousted Martin Jol.

Head coach Ramos stressed immediately after Sunday’s convincing 4-0 win over Wigan that he took most satisfaction from keeping the opposition out in three of his four games in charge so far - Blackpool in the Carling Cup, Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Uefa Cup and Wigan in the Premier League. Assistant coach Poyet added: “When you go to a club, especially in the middle of the season, you have to look at the stats and check where things might be going wrong and to try and put them right. The rest will follow.

“Everyone knows the quality of the team and everyone knows we can create chances and score goals because we have quality players.

“The problem was that we were conceding too many goals, a lot from set-plays, so we’ve been working on that.

“It’s important for the team to see that we can defend, to see we can keep clean sheets and then have the freedom to go forward. Even at the end of the game Michael Brown had a chance with a header and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen. Even if we are 4-0 up, we don’t want to concede a goal.” Poyet was also delighted with an attacking display which brought the London side a 3-0 lead by half-time.

He said: “Everyone was thinking about the three points but it’s even better when you show everyone what you can do.”