John Carver looked close to breaking point. Minutes earlier his makeshift team had surrendered to a seventh straight defeat and he had been forced to retreat deep inside the home dugout during a second half in which stewards permitted two hysterical fans stationed near the technical area to subject him to a cascade of abuse.
“The club has to do something about it,” said Newcastle United’s head coach as he stood, clearly distressed and almost shaking with emotion, in a corridor deep inside St James’ Park. “It was personal stuff. It’s quite difficult to actually stand in that technical area and get abused the way I was abused without any protection from the sidelines. I’m not going to stand there and be abused. I’m not accepting it. No one should have to put up with that. We have stewards but some of them just watch the game.”
After the final whistle the odd supporter used social media to allege that Carver – whose suddenly relegation-threatened side are now only five points above the bottom three and visit renascent Leicester on Saturday – had sworn at his detractors, before issuing an invitation “outside” for a fight. Backed by senior club executives, he categorically denies both suggestions.
If it were not so depressing the whole thing would be comedic. “I said to the two lads: ‘Come and see me afterwards and I’ll explain what I’m trying to do,’” said Carver. “One of the lads said: ‘Are you threatening me’? I said: ‘No.’ But he obviously thought I was. There was no way in the world I was doing that. I did that once before [as Alan Pardew’s assistant at Southampton earlier this season] and I said then I’d not get involved in something like that again and I ain’t.
“I think if they sat with me and understood where I was coming from they’d understand. But when they’re blaring at you for 45 minutes it’s very difficult. They expect me to put the ball in the net, stop the headers going in, stop the opposition from scoring. I can’t get on the end of the corner and head the ball clear which would have kept us one up at half-time.”
What Carver has done is invite his abusers to sample some finest Darjeeling. “I’d love them to come to the training ground, have a cup of tea and talk about it,” he said. “Then they might understand what I’m going through.”
The Tyneside landscape had seemed infinitely less harsh when, with Newcastle playing quite well, Ayoze Pérez pounced on Jordi Amat’s mistake to tap Newcastle ahead from three yards. Carver’s defence are hopeless at set pieces, though, and, unmarked, Nélson Oliveira soon headed in a corner.
Swansea clicked into a pleasing passing groove. The impressive Gylfi Sigurdsson shot Garry Monk’s incisively intelligent side into the lead and, as Newcastle’s early promise was eclipsed by calamitous defending, Jack Cork increased it. Newly recovered from a collapsed lung, Siem de Jong stepped off the bench to volley a classy consolation but it failed to staunch the Geordie vitriol.
Carver’s critics claim he is failing to motivate his squad. While there is a degree of truth in this in certain cases, other players are having to be deployed out of position – Vurnon Anita at left-back, for instance – while some clearly try hard but are patently not good enough.
The suspicion is that even some extremely highly regarded managers could struggle horribly when confronted with a side as under-strength and injury-riven as Newcastle’s. Pardew’s temporary successor has been hung out to dry by Mike Ashley, the owner, who could yet pay a very high price for his negligence in failing to restock a skeletal squad in January.
It is the team’s worst run since 1977 but with only four games – at Leicester and QPR and at home to West Brom and West Ham – remaining it is surely too late for Ashley to replace with a Red Adair a coach set to be succeeded by Derby’s Steve McClaren this summer. “I’ll fight on,” said Carver. “Unless told otherwise.”
Man of the match Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea)
