 Sir John Hall has stepped out of the shadows to express his "surprise and disappointment" at the reaction to Newcastle United's defeat by Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium on Sunday. And he while he accepts that "vast amounts of money have been wasted on players" he pledged that the club's board will get it right again. The 73-year-old life president, who says he is "just a fan" these days, believes that Glenn Roeder should be given the time to get on with the job he started in such great style last season. Freddy Shepherd was not available today, and no-one at the club was able to comment on the fact that the chairman's wife Lorelle was taken to hospital with a heart problem on Sunday about the same time as United were losing to Middlesbrough. Sources at the club said Shepherd did not want to be seen attempting to win any sympathy vote. Publicly, Sir John rarely gets involved with events at St James' Park these days, but he contacted the Chronicle today to say: "I am very surprised and disappointed with what has happened at Sunday's defeat when, as I understand, a small group of fans chanted for a short time. "I believe it has been blown out of all proportion by sections of the media. "Like I did before him, Freddy Shepherd has backed every Newcastle United manager in the transfer market to the limit of the club's resources. "And, like me, he cannot legislate for what happens on the field. That is up the manager and the players. "It is clear to me and everyone that some of the players brought by previous managers simply have not been good enough. "In fact, our fans must look in amazement at some of the vast sums of money paid out for players who are not good enough for this football club." Quite naturally Sir John would not name names, but there is no doubt in my mind that United wasted £20m on Jean Alain Boumsong and Albert Luque at a time when they had to pay £17m to replace Alan Shearer with Michael Owen and pay the England striker £100,000 a week to come to St James' Park. Roeder is paying the price for this as the current manager has been unable to bring in the players he so desperately wanted in the close season. This led Sir John to add: "Since the Halls and the Shepherds took over the club we have spent over £200m on players as well as making St James' Park into one of the best stadia in Europe, so none of our managers can say that we have not backed them. "Now we will get it right again. We know we have to get it right. "Like every other fan I am disappointed that we are not winning games at the moment and not scoring goals. "We have been unlucky with injuries this season to Michael Owen, Kieron Dyer and Shay Given and our other goalkeeper Steve Harper could hardly walk the other night against Fenerbahce. "No team can really cope with losing this calibre of player, and all this has happened as Alan Shearer retired." It was Hall who began United's revival by bringing Kevin Keegan back to St James' Park, and since then United have brought some of the biggest names in football in Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit, Sir Bobby Robson and Graeme Souness, without any of them being able to land a trophy. Roeder is not a big name, but Sir John insists: "Glenn is one of the most honest and sincere men I have met in football and I have the highest regard for him. "He has got Newcastle United in his heart and he feels the anguish the same as the supporters when results are not going our way. "I am sure Glenn will get it right, but he needs the strength of the fans to get him through. "We have also got to look at ourselves and may appoint a director of football to take some pressure off the manager and make sure we take advantage of modern technology." | 
