All that was missing was rain, and an umbrella, and an owner. When the final knife went in — Bournemouth’s third goal — two minutes into stoppage time, Steve McClaren, who had spent most of the afternoon standing in his technical area, blinked to forget what he was watching, turned on his heels with his hands in his pockets and trudged back to his seat in the Newcastle dugout.
All around the stadium the procession began; a funeral-paced march of supporters trudging out of St James’ Park, heading to the sanctuary of the exit, unable to watch anymore.
It was an X-rated afternoon for anyone with black and white blood. There was none given for the cause from a group of players who now look to have seen off their third manager, after the exits of Alan Pardew and John Carver.
It is a football club without a heartbeat. A team without character. A city without a leader. So those who love their football club joined in when Bournemouth’s supporters started singing: “You’re getting sacked in the morning.” They joined in, and then they shouted: “Attack, attack, attack,” and they wondered why it has come to this — a team with no guts
Nobody could blame them. McClaren sat down. Lee Charnley, the managing director who has spent £120m of the football club’s money in four transfer windows, had left his seat in the directors’ box that had been protected by three bodyguards in the game’s closing stages, perhaps his best signings since he was given the reins of the club.
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Only Keith Bishop, an apparent crisis management specialist, or rather owner Mike Ashley’s chief PR adviser, remained in the seats of power. The call between Charnley and Ashley, the billionaire owner of Sports Direct, would have been worth listening to.
Newcastle had nothing, least of all the pitiful centre-forward that is Emmanuel Riviere, bought by committee, picked by necessity, anonymous by talent.
Their teamsheet, with Riviere where such giants of football as Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Malcolm Macdonald have stood, told the supporters and Bournemouth and even the Newcastle players all they needed to know.
Aleksandar Mitrovic was deemed too tired to start after his efforts at Stoke in midweek. Papiss Cisse is injured. Seydou Doumbia, the desperate January transfer window signing when a £24m bid for Saido Berahino failed, is still deemed not match-fit.
So McClaren felt he could turn to nobody other than Riviere, like walking into a gun fight with a water pistol in the middle of a drought; a football team built by an ill-equipped committee picked by a coach sinking in quicksand.
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Riviere has one goal (deflected off a defender) in the 25 league games he has played for Newcastle since his £6m move from France, a country that has proved to be a bargain bucket full of duds.
That’s the thing with bargains — they generally don’t fit.
The Newcastle players had released a statement two hours before kick-off saying that they were behind their manager. It did not look like it. McClaren walked into a moody dressing room when he took over. He has not, despite trying everything he knew, been able to change it.
Of their forwards, Mitrovic is the top scorer with five league goals. McClaren wanted a commanding centre-half in the summer and the club instead gave Fabricio Coloccini a new contract.
McClaren had been clinging to a home record that read one defeat in six games before yesterday, but yesterday was the day when the rotten road form of six straight defeats came home to roost.
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He said he would fight on.
Would he quit, he was asked. “No, no way,” he replied. “That is for other people to decide. You will have to ask them. I can’t control that.”
He was asked if he would still be in charge when Newcastle next play, at Leicester, a week on Monday. “I hope so,” he said.”
His was a lone voice, Newcastle were that poor. They could not defend and they did not look like scoring.
Such was the catastrophic feeling that Steven Taylor deflected into his own goal after 28 minutes. With 20 minutes remaining, Josh King smashed a second past Rob Elliot. The vitriol for McClaren came then. Nobody cared who signed the players. It was his team and it was rotten.
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Ayoze Perez latched on to a pass from Jonjo Shelvey to score with 10 minutes remaining. A fan had already thrown his season ticket at the dugout by then. It was not enough to whip up a late rally. That would have defied all logic.
Bournemouth instead scored their third in the 92nd minute through defender Charlie Daniels. It was over then.
Star man: Josh King (Bournemouth)
Newcastle: Elliot 6, Janmaat 7, Taylor 6, Lascelles 6, Dummett 5 (Anita 32min, 4), Sissoko 3 (Aarons 68min, 4), Colback 6, Shelvey 6, Wijnaldum 5, Perez 6, Riviere 2 (Mitrovic h-t, 5)
Bournemouth: Boruc 6, Smith 6, Francis 7, Cook 7, Daniels 7, Gosling 7, Surman 7, Ritchie 8 (Distin 90min, 2), Gradel 8 (Pugh 60min, 5), Afobe 7 (Grabban 69min, 6), King 8
