Braced for winter of discontent at Newcastle United

Nov 4 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Everything seems to be going to plan on the pitch but are we in for a stormy winter at St James’ Park? Chief sports writer Luke Edwards reports

He is thick-skinned to the point of ignorance. The reasonable men and women who support the club would not argue with him about money, accounts or balancing the books. But they would happily question the horrible errors in judgement that led to relegation and his apparent disregard towards the feelings of supporters who were here long before he ever thought about buying a football club.

His intentions might have been good, but he has been insensitive and crass too often and still mistakes are being made. The search to find a sponsor for the stadium was clarified last night by Llambias and the St James’ title will remain, albeit after the name of a corporate sponsor.

In reality few people will ever call it anything other than St James’ Park, but the back-pedalling does at least show the board have recognised the strength of opposition to their latest money-making scheme.

Whether it will be enough to extinguish the latest lit fuse of discontent remains to be seen.

Protests and demonstrations are still planned for the Peterborough game and while Newcastle might be sitting pretty at the top of the Championship, the mood around the club threatens to remain ugly.