The plight of Newcastle and the Champions League Final

Every Newcastle fan's nightmare was confirmed at the weekend. Even Alan Shearer couldn't stop the Toon Army sliding into the Championship.

I'm devastated for the fans. Loud and colourful, they remind me of the Celtic fans I played in front of. And like them, Newcastle fans happiness is governed by the fortunes of the team.

They've been shortchanged by mismanagement and, in all honesty, they are yet to pay the full price.

I feel their demise can be traced back to the sacking of Sir Bobby Robson. He brought the team to the Champions League and fifth in the league. Letting a man of his background go was a huge mistake.

Will they bounce straight back up next season? It depends who takes the reins as manager. But statistics show that only 40% of teams return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

And with 15 players on £50k or more, many of whom certainly aren¹t worth that, it¹s a tall order.

The Champions League final will be a contest between two teams easy on the eye. And it should be very, very entertaining.

Barcelona possess so much creativity, not to mention strength of character; to contain Chelsea in the semi final for 90 minutes then nick it at the last demonstrated this.

Messi, Henry, Eto¹o and Iniesta all have mouthwatering ability. But their equally talented full backs, Alves and Abidal, are both out. And I haven¹t been too impressed with the two centre backs either.

It's these failings that I feel Manchester Utd will exploit. My verdict? Fergie's men to win on penalties.

Grassroots talent the key for Charlton and Luton

As I predicted, the resolution of the Premier League season is going to the wire. But life for the 72 clubs outside the elite is almost over for another season. Two of my former clubs, Charlton Athletic and Luton Town, have been relegated.

I am naturally disappointed. Both clubs have a proud tradition, a loyal fanbase, not to mention a strong record in producing fine black players; Ricky Hill, Chris Powell and the Stein brothers spring instantly to mind.

I played for both teams in the 1980’s. I was involved in the Luton game when Millwall supporters rioted in front of a television audience of millions in the infamous FA Cup tie in 1985.

I also turned out at Kenilworth Road for a game in which eight black players were fielded by manager David Pleat. This was a pioneering move at the time and particularly for a club of Luton¹s modest stature.

My time at Luton Town was the happiest period of my playing career. But it was Charlton Athletic that gave me the bug. The council flat I grew up in overlooked the ground and I remember sneaking into The Valley as six year old.

10 years later, I made by debut for them against local rivals, Crystal Palace. Ironically, the club were forced to sell me to raise some much needed funds. The team that came in for me? Luton Town.

The reason for the demise of both clubs comes down to mismanagement. At Luton, financial issues led to a 30-point deduction before the season had even started.

Who knows whether or not the authorities were looking to make the club a scapegoat. Either way, reversing this would always be an uphill struggle. At Charlton, it was a number of honest errors of judgement.

In Alan Curbishley and Peter Varney, the club had two men of talent and integrity. Their departure, followed by an inexperienced choice of replacement and subsequent restructuring, helped accelerate the club’s fall from Premier League to League One in three years.

I feel for the supporters of both clubs and the staff who work behind the scenes.

I’ve used this blog to talk about the positive work done by Charlton with the CARE project; the same can be said about Luton who use their Football in the Community department to engage particularly with the local Asian population living in the streets surrounding Kenilworth Road.

It’s now vital for both clubs to look to their academies and unearth the players that can help them recapture former glories. Charlton’s parachute payments have now ceased which means they’ll be relying even more on the likes of youngsters such as Grant Basey, Josh Wright and Jon Joe Shelby.

In Luton’s case, their financial woes and non-league status mean they’ll be looking inward for raw local talent. But they can take heart at their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy win at Wembley last month.

The talent shown on the pitch that day, coupled with the terrific support in the stands, shows that the ingredients are in place for league status to be restored.

Chelsea high flyers

I really do believe in football’s ability to change lives and from previous blogs you will know of my work with the Charlton Athletic Community Trust.

I've also been very impressed with the CSR work Chelsea have been doing. The club may have become known for what they spend rather than what they give back over the past decade but I have been aware of their community, anti- racism and social inclusion work for some time.

Their key staff in this area, Shaun Gore who leads the club’s football in the community programme and Simon Taylor who is the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, are great people putting the club on the map as much as the superstars on the field of play.

An example of the way in which their work is being recognised in football circles was that the club picked up the Intermediate Level of the Kick It Out Equality Standard last week, just a few days after launching a talent search for an Asian footballer.

On another Chelsea connection, I met David Baddiel recently who is looking at making an advertising film to highlight the fact that the word 'yid' is a racially offensive term. I support David's work and will be getting involved. The use of this term has gone unchallenged for too long and often leads to overt anti-semitism. Abusive terms like this just don't have a place in football anymore, whatever the context and we need to educate people as to its meaning.

I am also an ambassador for and a big fan of the FARE network. It's their 10th anniversary this year, ten years of doing some great, challenging work. I'm looking forward to getting involved in the celebrations!

First there's a meeting in Budapest later this month to look at how the network operates that I will be attending, I'm an ambassador but I want to make sure I contribute as much as possible, not just as a figurehead.

Italian discipline working for England

England stuttered a little on Wednesday and made heavy weather against ordinary opposition. I think the level of expectation may have got to some of the players, resulting in a few nervy moments.

In amongst it all was another cap for David Beckham. With Bobby Moore’s record now beaten, he’s bearing down on Peter Shilton’s magic number of 125 appearances.

There have, however, been one or two dissenting voices, not least from Shilton himself. With Beckham coming on in the dying seconds of a handful of games the view is that many of the caps he’s recently won shouldn’t have been won at all,.

Certainly in Shilton’s era, caps were harder to come by. In modern football, squads boast much larger numbers, and some managers have been generous in awarding caps to players who might not have been in the reckoning in the past. I can see why he felt the need to comment.

Back to last night, and Capello continues to drive the team forward in his own assured way. And a key part of this is a disciplined approach. I experienced this first hand during my time as a player in Italy with Bari and Pisa.

There were no nicknames, cliques or in-jokes. We ate together, trained and travelled together. When we wanted to leave the table, we even had to make eye contact with the coaching staff to ask to be excused. I was only 23 but I enjoyed this kind of management.

My old club Chelsea go to the North East this weekend for one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the season. But the spotlight won’t be on Hiddink and his team. Alan Shearer’s return to Newcastle United as manager means all eyes will be on the home dugout.

It’s an interesting turn of events. He’s a wealthy man with a burgeoning media career. It will please many people, supporters and credible people in the game that he has come out of that zone. And it’s this that may have spurred him on to take the job. The managerial post at St James Park is far from comfortable.

Crucially, it appears he’s taken the job on his own terms. There’s a real sense that the team might go down which will have huge ramifications financially for the club. The chairman, Mike Ashley, is giving him sole responsibility to steer the club to safety. This might explain the departure from St James Park of my old teammate and friend, Dennis Wise.

Dennis is a capable football man. And he’s been instrumental in some of Newcastle’s successful signings this season. The circumstances were very unusual, with him being appointed director of football, particularly bearing in mind his credible managerial career. He was brought in because Mike Ashley wanted knowledgeable people to flank him during his first season as a Premier League chairman.

I think that what was always a tall order and became glaringly evident over time was the strange relationship between Wise and the fans. But ‘Wisey’ has a good pedigree in the game and he’ll be back. There’s a club out there for him, I’m sure of it. And with the ‘contain and counter’ game Chelsea are so good at it, the result tomorrow might not be what Shearer, or Ashley, were hoping for.