We live in changing times as the years march on. Many for the better of course as new and exciting discoveries are made but not all bring glowing pleasure. Football has I’m afraid fallen foul of its own relentless tinkering.
The unseemly rush to comply with FFP rules that saw Newcastle United jettison two of their bright young players has left a bad taste in every fan’s mouth. Certainly mine anyway.
I wanted to watch Elliot Anderson especially and, yes, Yankuba Minteh grow encased in black-and-white but United were left with no option other than to tout someone, and primarily them, round the country with ever increasing urgency.
The only consolation for the Toon Army, apart from the surety of no points being deducted, is that exchanging Anderson and Minteh for £68m will hopefully mean that bigger-hitters Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon, whose names had been alarmingly bandied about, remain fighting the cause.
That United had to even consider selling Isak and more likely Gordon to Liverpool is disturbing. What mess had the Magpies owners found themselves in and how? If FFP is in need of binning, and it is, then nevertheless the lasting feeling is that the club were apparently not as clever as they purport to be in their transfer dealings or there would have been no blind panic with virtually every first-team member at risk.
To lose anyone of their like would be to abort all plans for a trophy-winning future. Club legend Alan Shearer has warned about letting Isak go and he speaks for all with a Geordie voice.
Frankly I have not seen anywhere near enough of Minteh to get too upset at his departure though a growing reputation worries me that perhaps a star is waiting to burst forth, but I am extremely sad to see a Geordie kid of genuine talent who loves the club being forced to leave for the greater good.
His grandad is United’s 1969 European Fairs Cup winger Geoff Allen, of course, and when I spoke with him 24 hours ago he was in no doubt over what brought about the deal.
“Elliot took one for the club,” maintained Geoff. “He loves Newcastle United as I do but if he had been awkward and the transfer hadn’t gone through they would have been in real trouble.”
That Anderson ‘took one for the club’ is supported by the evidence of how the transfer unfolded. I can reveal that Elliot actually left a family holiday to get the transfer done in time. He was in Portugal with mam, dad and his girlfriend when Forest got in touch. They hurriedly flew them by private jet to Nottingham to complete transactions with the clock rapidly running down and then on Monday afternoon put on a car to return the whole family to Tyneside as they had no transport having flown direct from Newcastle to their holiday resort.
Allen went on: “United will sadly find out what they are missing because this will be the start of a great career for Elliot. He is only 21 and you never lose genuine talent.”
Football can be laced with irony – Allen’s career finished at Nottingham Forest and now his grandson’s is about to begin there. Geoff’s was tragically cut down at the age of 23, only a couple of year’s older than Elliot, when he was badly injured against Forest shortly after his sensational performance smashed Feyenoord in United’s first ever European tie back in 1968. He had played only 26 first-team games.
The league match had actually been switched to Notts County’s ground across town because of a dressing-room fire at Forest. Geoff never blamed Peter Hindley for the tackle that finished him – he insisted that it was a pure accident – but by a strange twist of fate his grandson will now wear those Forest colours.
