Up the A19 we see a farce. A complete disgrace in the modern era of business and within the world of football the circus that is Newcastle United.

It got me thinking… How lucky we are to have a chairman in Steve Gibson. As Mike Ashley, Dennis Wise and a couple of Spaniards can’t seem to make up there flipping mind about whether to let such a charismatic figure amongst the Geordies get the boot (Ed; would that be Mr Keegan by any chance?) it begs a question of “how should a football club should be ran?”

Gibson is a legend, if you had to do the good the bad and the ugly you could almost weigh it up with the 3 past and present North East chairman’s.

The Good - Steve Gibson (of course, otherwise this article is pointless)

The Bad - Mike Ashley

The Ugly - a lot of choice here, lets just move on…………..

That’s the immature side of things out of the way but what of the man? A businessman in his own right, having founded Bulkhaul ltd in 1981 and in starting up the business he had to borrow a grand off of his Dad in order to pay the necessary costs . Another landmark is that he was Middlesbrough’s  youngest Labour Councillor representing his native residents of the Park End ward at the tender age of 21.

Of course there is only one reason why we know  his name and sing it…The Boro. Having gone bust in 1986 Boro had nowhere to turn, with the famous gates of Ayersome Park being locked and the players who had not bailed out training in Albert Park. However a consortium led by the man in question bought out Scottish and Newcastle’s shares and turned the finances around. A gentle “F off” to the administrators and a LOT of hardwork behind the scenes and Boro were back in Business. He had to start from scratch although his Dad didn’t help him with this one oh no, Bulkhaul was finding it’s feet with it’s 5th year of trade.

He eventually replaced Colin Henderson as chairman and now had a nice little stake of 90% in MFC.

So he began to make made his changes, bringing a world name of Bryan Robson as Manager and wanting to sustain Premier League status. We achieved that and he was so adamant and determined to make MFC Premiership force that the Riverside took shape. A 30,000 stadium amongst the Teesside docks was appropriate for us to kick off a brave new world and a vision of what might be.

And now to the present day, a Carling Cup win gave Gibson’s mountainous task substance, and what seemed an impossibility 18 years from a  start up as a local entrepreneur and a loyal fan, it must have been a very proud day for him. An incredible task and a staggering project to undertake considering the circumstances from the start of derelict times to a glossy cup win with international players in your team.

It didn’t stop there after only 2 years playing European football we achieved the final, sure we may have lost convincingly but now you look back at it and seeing whose in the UEFA cup we can say we reached the final.

Gibson appointed club captain Southgate as his 3rd encumbent in the managerial hot seat but it’s worked, Robbo established us in the Premier League and giving us some cracking football to watch. Mclaren again not managed  anyone previously took the club to cup glory and a European final as well finishing 7th (which if we did that now would be sensational). So what of Gareth then? He asked for continuity as soon as he came and now it starting to happen, yes it may well be his 3rd season but he’s young, ambitious and has seen what the club has achieved having lifted the cup himself.

I honestly thought I would have been about 40 year old  until I have seen Boro had spent over 12 million on a player but football rates are increasing and Gibson has not been scared to spend big when he saw the reason to do so, and not been scared not to spend either, as brave (if not braver) act. So far it’s all gone good for Gibson.

I salute that man and everything he stands for.

Mike Ashley should have looked at Gibbos  style and methods of football Business rather than steam in and appoint  a verticly challenged cockney who sits in an office, presumably  on “Football Manager” all day looking at players (thank god we got Tuncay when we did if that is the case).  In bringing back the “Messiah” he created a rod for his own back, everyone in football (outside of Tyneside) saw it was a recipe for disaster, it was when it would all end in tears, not if.

It would appear that at Comedy Club Barcode, the belly laughs never stop.

Shame people are laughing at them, not with them.

MarkA and Chopper

(no, thats not us in the picture, thats a different pair of clowns………)

(MarkA’s is the good stuff!)