Matt Thompson initially offered Karl Fearns a new contract with the Falcons but was then left hanging for two months before the club told him that there would be no extension Photo: Getty Images/Stu Forster
At the start of 2023, Newcastle were going from strength to strength under head coach Dave Walder. The Falcons have just won four of their last six Premier League games, with consistency and cohesion growing. However, turmoil was waiting around the corner.
By the end of the season, Newcastle had lost two of their three starting front row players – George McGuigan and Trevor Davison – as well as Walder. By the start of the ongoing campaign, there had been significant turnover in the squad. Under new head coach Alex Codling, the Falcons currently sit last in the league without a win.
The winds of change have reached Newcastle. The gusts of wind were necessary, the club said, to survive. Of course, three Premier League teams – Worcester, Wasps and London Irish – have failed this season. Financial sustainability and cutting fabric to budget became not just goals for the club, but vital ones.
Such drastic measures would inevitably cause upset. After all, professional rugby is a cutthroat business with huge sums of money and contracts involved.
Newcastle lost all eight Premier League games this season. Photo: Getty Images/David Rogers
Ultimately, however, the path of financial necessity intersects with treating club members with the respect they deserve, rather than as pieces of meat.
Telegraph Sport has spoken to several sources, some of whom are reluctant to establish who accused the club of significant failures in this regard. One such is Karl Ferns, the abrasive defender who left Newcastle at the end of the previous campaign and who, after a spell at Carcassonne, announced his retirement last week.
Ferns, 34, felt the need to speak out following Codling's explosive post-match interview following the Leicester debacle earlier this month. The Falcons head coach, in his first season in the Northeast, publicly questioned the direction of the club after a string of poor results with a relatively weak team.
'I'm emotional, I love what I do, I'll protect these boys while I'm here… it's quite a tough night.'
Emotional Alex Codling speaks after eighth straight defeat @FalconsRugby is in season. #LEIvNEW | #GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/Br7BNrWw5g
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) December 3, 2023
Fearns spent two seasons at Kingston Park, having been recruited by former director of rugby Dean Richards. Ferns explains that he received a verbal contract offer from the club's head of personnel, former hooker Matt Thompson, over coffee at the Twin Farms pub, near Falcons Stadium. He says he was then kept in suspense for two months, with no clarity about his future and no offer of a contract.
Ferns says he didn't mind leaving. He understood the budgetary changes that were taking place at the club, but indecision and a change of heart left him worried about his livelihood and providing for his family. This version was confirmed by another anonymous player at the club, and Telegraph Sport saw communications between Ferns and Thompson.
“Around January 6, I had a private meeting with Matt Thompson over a cup of coffee and he told me he wanted to leave me at the club,” Ferns told Telegraph Sport. “He said that I was an experienced player and that next season it would be a younger team and that he needed my experience. He said he wanted to keep me and would send the contract by next week. This is how it all ended.
“A week or two went by and I asked him if he had a contract for me. He said, “No, sorry, nothing at the moment.” This continued and the next week I asked again. “Not now, not yet, sorry,” he repeated.
“At the end of January I wrote asking whether the position had changed. I had a family, I needed to plan, I could be finishing my career, I needed to find a job, I had a mortgage. He didn't respond until I wrote again in March.
“I'm not a stupid guy. I'm an old pro. I knew what was going on. After the third week, when he said “not yet,” I knew exactly what was happening.
Ferns in action for “ Newcastle: All he wanted was a straight answer and Newcastle now admit they should have handled the situation better. Photo: Getty Images/Chris Lishman
“I think this man is a coward. We need to treat people right. I've talked about this pretty well in posts. I understood that if the club were in a financial position, the situation around me could change. I may have hated to hear it, but I just needed to know yes or no.
“In March I told him what I thought and he replied that he thanked him for the message and said that the club was looking new coach. That's all I have, really. I never got a straight answer.
“I felt like something was wrong. If I were a young player, I could leave at 12 o'clock without a job, without a family.”
Telegraph Sport has since met with both Thompson and Semore Kurdi, Newcastle's owner, where the duo acknowledged communication gaps over the lack of a contract extension for Ferns, explaining that the club is in a period of transition, with sustainable development and a long-term project in mind. around a core of youth talent is the goal, but the treatment of their former defender should not have happened.
“We were sad to hear last week that Karl will retire from professional rugby. but he has had a great career,” Newcastle said in a statement to Telegraph Sport.
“In hindsight, we recognize that the communication around his contract situation could have been handled more clearly, but we thank Karl for his service and wish him all the best in life after rugby.”
The departure of lineout coach Scott MacLeod from the club, Fearns explains, is another example of mistreatment. With the arrival of Codling, whose specialty is lineout, Thompson informed MacLeod by telephone at the end of last season that his services would not be required by the club for the next campaign.
An hour later, unaware that the former line coach's contract had not been renewed, Codling called MacLeod and asked what he would bring to the coaching team next season. Newcastle were unwilling to respond to Ferns' message about MacLeod's departure, although the club are understood to have apologized privately.
Alex Codling trains in the corridor – the head coach did not know that the club had released Scott MacLeod. Photo: Getty Images/Michael Driver
“I feel for Alex because, like I said, I know what's going on. around the club,” adds Ferns. “But if he had done his due diligence before arriving, he might have realized what was going on at the club. But Tommo, like me, maybe he promised him something he would never get? Maybe this happened? All he had to do was do his due diligence – it was clear how the club were going to get rid of all the experienced strikers in the group.
“If they want to cut their game down accordingly, that's entirely their right, but you have to treat the players as people – and treat them well.”
“We've had one of the best lineout years under Scott MacLeod and he's a great coach. There was no point in getting rid of him.”
The departures of McGuigan and Davison were high-profile; not only because the duo were either members of the England squad or in the conversation for international call-ups, but also because they arrived mid-season, with immediate effect, three months apart – and both players left for rivals in the Premier League. One source, who wished to remain anonymous, told Telegraph Sport that Davison was left in tears on the side of the training field.
“The way George left the club… We came in on Monday and George just stood up in a team meeting and said, 'Boys, I'm going to Gloucester.'” Some of the coaches didn't even know it, Ferns says. things, the whole squad – which, with less resources, expected to be a cohesive unit – began to wonder why we were doing this if people were being treated like this?
“Trevor was going to Northampton, then he wasn't there. I think he was told the deal was off, then one day he came and Thommo told him he was going to Saints tomorrow. It seemed like these actions were forced on both George and Trevor.
“At the end of the day, I felt for Dave and all the staff who stood in front of us and communicated to us that we were supposed to be 'true north' and they were united as a group, but every week something else was happening that was throwing them off-kilter. I'd leave if I were Dave.”
Newcastle were unwilling to comment on the departures of either McGuigan or Davison when contacted. Both players also refused to give interviews to Telegraph Sport. However, it is clear that factors beyond the club's control and external contract negotiations were one of the reasons for the urgent departure of both players.
Recent Comments