NUFC: Just Trust the Process.

There’s a lot said about opinions. These days, everybody seems ready to offer you theirs, on any subject regardless of their ignorance.

John F Kennedy once said that “we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought”, while my dad often used to quote the old saying that “opinions are like arseholes; everybody’s got one”. While both are – as far as I know – true, I think I prefer JFK’s.

I got to thinking about this when the story about Newcastle wanting to sign Scott McTominay surfaced. As an avid user of social media I was immediately made aware of the fact that this was a player that we shouldn’t sign. The only grounds for this opinion seemed to be either that fans like Keith from Gateshead didn’t like him or that, under the new ownership, we could afford to go out and buy ‘better’. The internet seems to mean that every other football fans thinks they’re ‘in the know’. I’m not sure they are though.

Misguided opinions have been around in football for a long, long time. In my own experience one of the first that springs to mind is when we signed Mick Quinn in 1989. Not good enough, came the cry from many, while a banner at a fan protest about sacking the board read ‘Who the f*** is Micky Quinn?’ Many were unhappy that, in their opinion, our new number 9 just wasn’t good enough.

Those of us old enough to remember know that Quinny scored four on his debut in a 5-2 home win against Leeds. He’d certainly answered the question from the banner pretty quickly and he went on to score 57 goals in 110 appearances. It’s safe to say that anyone who had a problem with his signing was guilty of what JFK was talking about – quick to shout up, but with no thought whatsoever.

In more recent times we’ve probably all been guilty of questioning some of our signings. Possibly none more so than the signing of Joelinton. Whatever way you look at it, we were wrong. Yes, there were times when it looked like we had a real point as he became guilty of miss after miss or tripped over his own feet once again. But what did we really know? I for one, hadn’t even heard of him before he signed and I knew very little even about the club we signed him from, Hoffenheim. Put simply, I hadn’t seen him play. Not even on every amateur scout’s favourite place, YouTube.

I think I’d be fairly accurate in saying that Big Joe wasn’t Steve Bruce’s signing. But Bruce was happy to work with him. And work with him he did, sadly almost ruining him in the process. Face it, Bruce would have made Messi look like a carthorse, so Joelinton didn’t exactly have the easiest of starts. But still we were happy to put forward nothing but negative opinions. While I was desperate for him to be a success, I just couldn’t see a player there.

When Eddie Howe came in as manager he was quick to stress the importance of Joelinton to his team. He was very vocal about the fact that they’d identified him as a major player from very early on in their time at the club. And while it took a sending off and a hasty re-arranging of the formation to put Big Joe back in midfield, it worked. Again, what did us fans really know?

“He’s Brazilian…” – The Remarkable Rise of Joelinton.

Being a club with rich owners means that we’ll be linked with a whole host of players, many of whom you or I won’t have heard of. Yet still people offer negative opinions. Not good enough, doesn’t score enough goals, lazy etc. If nothing else it proves that the internet, especially Twitter, is the maddest place on the planet. I simply don’t believe that 99% of the people who offer their expert opinion on the players that we get linked to know the first thing about them. I mean, how can you know? I have a family and a full time job; I just don’t have time for that many scouting trips. None, in fact. I’m sure most of you are the same.

Which brings me on to McTominay. I quite like him. He’s strong, physical, quite quick and has a good deal of Premier and Champions League experience. I’m not sure whether he’d be a signing that would excite me that much or where he’d fit in, but I quite like him. I’m of the opinion, like lots of others, that we’re in need of a defensive midfielder and he’s not it. I’m sure there are much sexier names out there too. But what do I really know?

Football has become a squad game, so McTominay fits in, whether we like it or not. The point is though, I don’t have the luxury of regular chats with Eddie Howe, Jason Tindall, Steve Nickson or Dan Ashworth, so I haven’t the first clue what the plan is. What I do know is that in the last week, McTominay has scored four international goals for Scotland, so he might just be proving himself to someone.

I trust the process and I don’t think I should be part of it. I don’t think you should either, with the greatest of respect. Eddie and his team are doing an incredible job. Personally, I’m just basking in the glow of not having to think about relegation for once and I’ve got Eddie and the team to thank for that.

So, while we’re all on social media offering scattergun negative opinions on 90% of the players we’re linked to, maybe we should all just sit back and allow ourselves ‘the discomfort of thought’. I wouldn’t want Eddie Howe or Dan Ashworth coming in to my classroom and telling me how to teach Macbeth to a room full of disinterested Year 11s. They’re happy to leave the Shakespeare to me. So, maybe I’ll leave the transfers to them.