Newcastle's Bad Public Relations Record Grows

Think of the last week and a half we have had as Newcastle United supporters. We witnessed our squad actually fight when it meant something and stayed in the Premier League. Jonas Gutierrez sealed his status as a Toon legend with his goal and assist in what we now know as his last match with Newcastle, including a goal in front of the beloved Gallowgate End.

We heard Mike Ashley speak in public for the very first time! Not only did he take fault for the travesty we have watched on the pitch, but he even promised ambition and vowed to not sell the club until successful!

Not only that, but we found out today that Newcastle is coming to the United States! Being from the greater Chicagoland area, I am even MORE excited to see they are playing in Milwaukee! It's such a reasonable drive, some could consider Milwaukee practically a suburb of Chicago!

We have all of these things going for us. Unfortunately, the PR rating of Newcastle United is still at a big fat F.

Last Friday, we all found out that 6 players were leaving the Club, including Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, and Adam Campbell. None were horribly surprised by any of the releases, but some may have been surprised at what surfaced since they were released. Taylor and Jonas told Sky Sports John Carver sacked them both via phone on the same phone call. Sacking by phone is a big enough slap in the face. Getting sacked and handing the phone to your mate to be sacked at the same time is even more despicable.

The Club tried to smooth things over with a news story released on their official website, including some heartfelt quotes from captain and fellow countryman Fabricio Coloccini. It turns out the statements were nonsense, as stated by this Tweet from Jonas.

The coments that coló has supposed to have said about me to nufc are un true i have spoken to him about this matter.

— jonas gutierrez (@elgalgojonas) June 1, 2015

All of this is a very poor, reactive attempt to improve relations with the fans of Newcastle United. Everyone knows this is not a proactive move, and everyone knows it's half-assed and insincere.

The worst story of all of these comes from releasing Adam Campbell. He didn't even receive a phone call. According to this article from Eurosport, he found out via Twitter! He did not even get the decency to hear from his agent or anyone at the Club saying "best of luck" or "we're releasing you". He found out with the rest of us fans!

All of this is in addition to Working Class John Carver™ running his mouth and tooting his own horn since being appointed head coach this season, Alan Pardew's excuses, and the lack of transparency surrounding replacing Alan Pardew. We are nearly halfway through the calendar year, and we have not heard a peep out of Lee Charmley about appointing Pardew's replacement.

We, the Newcastle fans did hit back at their lack of foresight to promote themselves. As we previously reported, the Milwaukee Brewers announced they were hosting a Newcastle United friendly at their stadium Miller Park. Newcastle had a full 6 hours of time difference to announce this, but they chose not to. All social media related to Newcastle (except the Club's official Twitter and Facebook feeds of course) went mad over the announcement. Expect once again to see them react because they forced to.

This is a prime example by a lack of foresight. If Newcastle United wants to become a contending club in the Premier League again, they have to think ahead and be sure of their actions. They simply cannot expect to be taken seriously at any level of professional sport by insincerely reacting to bad press. Nor can they expect to further themselves by taking advantage of a positive press opportunity like the one gifted to them today.

We are not asking for anything earth shattering. We just want some ambition and effort into making our beloved club a team we can be proud of supporting again.