As if Newcastle United weren’t making fools enough of themselves already by signing Kevin Nolan and sitting 18th in the Premiership, they’ve now decided to ban a reporter dubbed “Mr Newcastle” from St James’ Park.
According to Hold the Front Page Alan Oliver was banned for saying that Joe Kinnear suffered a health setback after undergoing heart bypass surgery last month.
As if that weren’t ridiculous enough it also transpires that Oliver had just days before received a lifetime achievement award for his coverage of the club over the past 30 years.
In actual fact the article in question probably irked Newcastle cronies more for its suggestion that Terry Venables or Alan Curbishley should be brought in to replace current caretaker managers Chris Hughton and Colin Calderwood.
Oliver wrote the piece for the Sunday People after the Toon let in three goals in ten minutes against Arsenal on 21 March, claiming that: “Many Toon fans would like to see an experienced manager brought in while Joe Kinnear completes his recovery from open heart surgery. A manager who would have known how to stop the floodgates all but opening in the closing stages after such a promising hour.”
Oliver recently moved from local Geordie rag the Evening Chronicle to the Sunday People. His offending article was co-written with the Sunday People’s Dave Kidd who was also banned from St James’ this week for his part in the piece.
Kidd said that the club called his claims that Kinnear had suffered a health setback false. They can’t say the same though of his remarks that the Toon Army have won five times in 29 matches under Kinnear and Hughton yet have still been offered new contracts by club owner Mike Ashley.
“The club is in limbo under Hughton, who has never looked comfortable as a No 1,” he added, “Conspiracy theories say Ashley wants the club to be relegated so he can cut costs, but no self-made multimillionaire can be that stupid.”
Daily Mail columnist Charles Sale said of the debacle: “Newcastle’s ridiculous over-the-top reaction against a newspaperman who has written more positive paragraphs about the football club than anyone says everything about the buffoons running the club.”
Oliver may have written a lot of nice stuff about the Magpies over the years, and he did break the story of Alan Shearer’s signing, but his record is hardly spotless.
He had a scuffle with Lauren Robert after the French fancy took a disliking to Oliver’s questioning of his attitude on the pitch, and was banned from the ground by Kevin Keegan during the Mighty Mouse’s first spell in charge of the club.