In the pantheon of Newcastle United greats, Kieron Dyer may not sit particularly highly.
However, speaking on Sky Sports on Sunday evening while analysing the 1-1 draw away at Wolves, the former Toon midfielder spoke on behalf of most fans of the club he made 241 appearances for.
“Steve Bruce has done a good job and Rafa [Benitez] did a good job before that”, he said via talkSPORT.
“But I’m bored of watching Newcastle, they bore me. It’s like they’re grinding out results.
“Newcastle were the entertainers. Now when you look at this team, surely there are some goals in this team.”
Indeed, everything he said was right. While there have been moments over the last half decade and the infatuation with Rafa Benitez was largely built around a dream of how good he might have been had Mike Ashley loosened the purse strings, supporting the Magpies has been rather a miserable experience for a long time now.
Certain pundits can get the wrong idea too. Whether it be Robbie Savage or Rio Ferdinand, the perceived insatiable desire for trophies (we know that doesn’t actually exist) from this demanding fan base leads them to a ‘well, what do you want?’ kind of reaction. You’re never going to be challenging for trophies, so don’t get out of line.
However, where Dyer is so refreshing is his complete apathy towards the team. He understands that nobody is seriously asking to challenge for league titles but asking for something to shout about. At least the pursuit of something to shout about.
Sadly for Newcastle fans, no pursuits are forthcoming. It’s simply grinding out results, only truly strengthening in the market every so often when a flaw in the team becomes too great to patch up and bobbing along until the next round of takeover rumours start.
At least Dyer gets it.