We supporters of Newcastle United and other clubs, I suppose, think the club belongs to us and not the actual owners. That is why we refer to it as “our club.”

A couple of years ago the club was sold to a wealthy businessman and he brought a couple of  cohorts with him to manage the club.  All three of them are from the London area and when things started to go wrong, they became known as The Cockney Mafia. Their propensity for not telling us anything about what they were doing evoked memories of Omerta, reinforcing the idea that they were sinister outsiders.

Because the team is sinking in the Premiership, apparently on the way down to the Championship, some misguided souls think this is a deliberate tactic, for what purpose is a total mystery, but when notions of conspiracy are afoot, some people will believe anything.

The big talking point right now is Avoiding the Drop as if by some superhuman effort we can, if we are nimble enough, jump out of the way just as the trapdoor is opening. Your actual gallows metaphor.

So what are we to do? We are not going to stop spending money on season tickets and merchandise. We are still going to have a pint in Shearer’s Bar. So what is the answer?

I asked my friend O.D. Malone and with language so spare that it would make Elmore Leonard look verbose, he said,  “Cockney Mafia oot.”

How this is to be achieved is not clear at the moment, but it has become received wisdom that the only way to stave off disaster is to get rid of the present owner and his team.

Cockney Mafia oot.

Related posts:

1. Football Chronicles. Part 2. Ah got me Owen top.
2. Football (Soccer) Chronicles. Part 1, It’s the pies, innit?