Newcastle's way of releasing cancer-survivor and relegation-battle hero Gutierrez is plain cruel

You know how they say, in the world of marketing, that no publicity is bad publicity? Well Newcastle United, one of the oldest English Premier League clubs, could be about to find out otherwise. Ryan Taylor, 30-year-old versatile midfielder, came to know that his six-year spell with the club is over through a phone call from caretaker manager John Carver. But Carver didn’t stop there. He asked Ryan to pass the phone over to Jonas Gutierrez and told him the same. [caption id=“attachment_2274834” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Gutierrez mobbed by his teammates after he scored he put in a match-winning performance on the last day of the season. Getty Images.[/caption] One stone, two birds. “John Carver rang me and told me the club wasn’t going to offer me a new deal,” Taylor told Sky Sports News. “So I had a chat with him and then he asked me to pass the phone to Jonas, which was unbelievable.” Now, this is Gutierrez, the man who beat testicular cancer and came back to full fitness to kick a ball again. And arguably the most popular player at the club — after turning in a man of the match performance in Newcastle’s last match of the season — saving them from relegation. Ouch. Gutierrez’s return to first-team football earlier this season was one of the most heart-warming stories of the season. Reputed football website, F365, had written this at the time of his comeback: “It is an emphatic reminder that we are guilty of treating footballers as robots, immune to the travails of everyday life. Even if Gutierrez never wins another match as a player, he has won the most important battle of his life. Welcome back.” But Gutierrez went one step further than merely turning up for his side. On the last day of the season, the Magpies’ premier league survival hopes were hanging by the flimsiest of threads and only a victory against West Ham would have done. Had other results not gone their way, a win would not have been enough either. But everything did go Newcastle’s way that afternoon at St. James’ Park. Gutierrez set-up the game’s first goal and scored a second to seal their involvement in the cash-rich league for another year. He went wild with his celebrations. The crowd went wilder. There are fairy-tale endings and then there is this. “I know this could be my last game at St James’s Park,” he said after the game. “Since I have recovered from my illness, I have always said the same thing. I want to help the team and work hard. I’ve been improving all the weeks since I arrived. I feel stronger and feel I can play 90 minutes. Two months ago, I didn’t know I was going to be able to play.” “We have to do it for the fans and the city, because they don’t deserve to be in this situation,” Gutierrez continued. “We are the players, and we have to take responsibility. It’s always our responsibility. We are the players that are on the pitch. We have to do it for the fans and the city.” This is isn’t the first time Gutierrez has been treated shabbily by the club either. He had spoken earlier about how he’d never be able to forgive the club for wanting to get rid of him when the news of his disease became known. He, in-fact, paid his own medical bills. The club had said then that the decision to let him go was based on purely footballing reasons but his performance on the final day of the season against West Ham clouds that judgment too. At the end of the day, the club is not obligated to retain any player if they do not wish to. Like both Taylor and Gutierrez admitted in the Sky Sports interview, the club is fully within its rights to deem their services are not required anymore. But what is ridiculous, is to let them know that by phone. At a time when the club owner Mike Ashley’s popularity with the fans is at an all-time low , unceremoniously dumping the fan’s favourite is – to put it mildly – cruel.