Tales from the Toon. The ups and downs of an NUFC supporter....

[arbboy]

Correct you are 20th in europe but 7th in the epl and more importantly nowhere nearly any of the top 6 above you.  You currently sit in 9th in the EPL (2 spots below where you should sit during a normal season per your chart) mainly because soton are having a freak year with an unusual amount of home grown talent coming through and everton who are not a million miles behind you in the financial table also having a great season under a great manager.  Yet your club is in crisis.  This is the bit i don't understand.  This should be a pretty normal season for you.

Being 20th in Europe's Money League doesn't win you any trophies. And who gives a shit if we stay 20th here until the end of time, if the owner doesn't invest we'll never improve. Who wants to do anything without wanting to get better at it.

How is this so hard for you to understand.

It's not hard to understand from your point of view.  However what happens if Ashley thinks back to Leeds circa 2000 and thinks 'you know what i don't fancy spunking £500m of my own money to try and jump from 7/8/9th in the league to not even be guaranteed a champions league spot and potentially end up like leeds'?  That's the level of investment Newcastle would need to make over say 4 years in order to become a team that the vast majority of Newcastle fans consider their team to be (a regular champions league team).  Even if Ashley decides to do this if Chelski/Man City/Man U/Arsenal decide to spend even more they have just become further behind the top 4 and cost themselves a fortune in the process with no realistic prospect of Ashley seeing the money again. 

[mulhuzz]

It's not hard to understand from your point of view.  However what happens if Ashley thinks back to Leeds circa 2000 and thinks 'you know what i don't fancy spunking £500m of my own money to try and jump from 7/8/9th in the league to not even be guaranteed a champions league spot and potentially end up like leeds'?  That's the level of investment Newcastle would need to make over properly 4 years in order to become a team that the vast majority of Newcastle fans consider their team to be (a regular champions league team).

this is 100% not true and is just really fucking tilting to have to read such utter fucking drivel.  for some reason you really have a hard on for telling actual newcastle fans what they believe.

Go ahead. Justify your statement by telling me all about the absolute clown you once saw on SSN on transfer deadline day playing the village idiot for David Craig.

[arbboy]

what do the majority of newcastle fans think newcastle should be then if they are in the top 20 clubs in europe all of whom are regular champs league clubs and they finish 9th in the EPL with 50 points and that is a crisis season where the owner and manager should go?

[The Camel]

what do the majority of newcastle fans think newcastle should be then if they are in the top 20 clubs in europe all of whom are regular champs league clubs and they finish 9th in the EPL with 50 points and that is a crisis season where the owner and manager should go?

I'm not a Toon fan obv, but I see no reason they shouldn't be one of the top 20 clubs in Europe.

Huge and passionate support.

Fill St James's Park week in, week out with over 50,000.

The biggest city in England with only one league club (I think I heard this)

IN every city I've lived in you see a myriad of kids wearing all sorts of shirts - Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

In Newcastle 90%+ of kids wearing football shirts are Toon.

No reason they shouldn't be on a par with Dortmund, Atletico and Napoli.

[Doobs]

what do the majority of newcastle fans think newcastle should be then if they are in the top 20 clubs in europe all of whom are regular champs league clubs and they finish 9th in the EPL with 50 points and that is a crisis season where the owner and manager should go?

I'm not a Toon fan obv, but I see no reason they shouldn't be one of the top 20 clubs in Europe.

Huge and passionate support.

Fill St James's Park week in, week out with over 50,000.

The biggest city in England with only one league club (I think I heard this)

IN every city I've lived in you see a myriad of kids wearing all sorts of shirts - Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

In Newcastle 90%+ of kids wearing football shirts are Toon.

No reason they shouldn't be on a par with Dortmund, Atletico and Napoli.

Leeds is way bigger and has more people in its catchment area surely?  Cardiff and Bradford too?  Don't think Newcastle is that big a place. 

Should follow Bradford City if they want to know what shite football and underachieving is.  Way grimmer teams to support than us too.

[mondatoo]

what do the majority of newcastle fans think newcastle should be then if they are in the top 20 clubs in europe all of whom are regular champs league clubs and they finish 9th in the EPL with 50 points and that is a crisis season where the owner and manager should go?

I'm not a Toon fan obv, but I see no reason they shouldn't be one of the top 20 clubs in Europe.

Huge and passionate support.

Fill St James's Park week in, week out with over 50,000.

The biggest city in England with only one league club (I think I heard this)

IN every city I've lived in you see a myriad of kids wearing all sorts of shirts - Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

In Newcastle 90%+ of kids wearing football shirts are Toon.

No reason they shouldn't be on a par with Dortmund, Atletico and Napoli.

Leeds is way bigger and has more people in its catchment area surely?  Cardiff and Bradford too?  Don't think Newcastle is that big a place. 

Should follow Bradford City if they want to know what shite football and underachieving is.  Way grimmer teams to support than us too.

Ton of people whinge about how shit England are and nobody makes this same comparison.

[The Camel]

what do the majority of newcastle fans think newcastle should be then if they are in the top 20 clubs in europe all of whom are regular champs league clubs and they finish 9th in the EPL with 50 points and that is a crisis season where the owner and manager should go?

I'm not a Toon fan obv, but I see no reason they shouldn't be one of the top 20 clubs in Europe.

Huge and passionate support.

Fill St James's Park week in, week out with over 50,000.

The biggest city in England with only one league club (I think I heard this)

IN every city I've lived in you see a myriad of kids wearing all sorts of shirts - Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

In Newcastle 90%+ of kids wearing football shirts are Toon.

No reason they shouldn't be on a par with Dortmund, Atletico and Napoli.

Leeds is way bigger and has more people in its catchment area surely?  Cardiff and Bradford too?  Don't think Newcastle is that big a place. 

Should follow Bradford City if they want to know what shite football and underachieving is.  Way grimmer teams to support than us too.

Leeds should be a top 20 club in Europe too.

Newcastle the city isn't as big as some of the cites you mention, but as a district (Tyneside) it's way bigger.

[Doobs]

what do the majority of newcastle fans think newcastle should be then if they are in the top 20 clubs in europe all of whom are regular champs league clubs and they finish 9th in the EPL with 50 points and that is a crisis season where the owner and manager should go?

I'm not a Toon fan obv, but I see no reason they shouldn't be one of the top 20 clubs in Europe.

Huge and passionate support.

Fill St James's Park week in, week out with over 50,000.

The biggest city in England with only one league club (I think I heard this)

IN every city I've lived in you see a myriad of kids wearing all sorts of shirts - Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

In Newcastle 90%+ of kids wearing football shirts are Toon.

No reason they shouldn't be on a par with Dortmund, Atletico and Napoli.

Leeds is way bigger and has more people in its catchment area surely?  Cardiff and Bradford too?  Don't think Newcastle is that big a place. 

Should follow Bradford City if they want to know what shite football and underachieving is.  Way grimmer teams to support than us too.

Leeds should be a top 20 club in Europe too.

Newcastle the city isn't as big as some of the cites you mention, but as a district (Tyneside) it's way bigger.

No it isn't.  Leeds City is as big as everything in Tyneside put together.  Once you adding in the metropolitan area then it is 2.5x the size.  Ah but then you can add in Bradford/Huddersfield football clubs and you are almost right yada yada

Stupid spending holidays arguing over facts though. 

[Cf]

arboy missing the point a lot here, as are a lot of others.

Newcastle fans aren't expecting us to spend £100m+ a season and hit the top 4. This is the line that gets spouted so much and it's so tilting to read it. We're not deluded. But we're getting served the complete opposite.

From the outside looking in I can see how it seems we are about "where we should be". But the fact we are is a minor miracle. We ran so far above expectation in the first half of the season. This second half of the season has been more true to where we are at and exposes the absolute fraud that is Alan Pardew.

He's a shit football manager. Simple as that.

He continually plays down expectations with the fans and players alike. He plays people out of position and sets up his team to defend, dig deep, get a few tackles in, without having any clue how to attack.

The times his teams do perform is when he has a couple of gifted players on form. This season that was Cabaye and Remy. When we were dicing with relegation last season 5 new players got brought in and pretty much saved us. Since then they're now playing out of position or not playing at all.

Beyond that though he has no idea how to build a team. If you were to ask me what Newcastle's style is I'd reply I've not a clue. His game plan is to study the other team and try and contain them. It's not about what we as a team should be doing.

The Cardiff game yesterday summed him up quite well. Last home game of the season. We're 1-0 up against bottom of the table Cardiff. At 70 minutes Pardew decides to take off a midfielder and put on a defender. And for anyone who didn't watch that game I'm not sure how Cardiff managed to not score a goal. Some ridiculous saves and goal line blocks from us.

And for those who didn't watch the game MOTD didn't do justice the atmosphere in St James Park. The walk out wasn't as good as it might have been (NUST changing the time from 60 mins to 69 mins causing confusion won't have helped) but the anti-Pardew chants and booing was great. Any time Pardew got up from his chair he was booed straight back into it. He left the game at the end and didn't come back out for the lap of honour (standing in the middle of the park clapping).

And I haven't even started on some of the mindless drivel he comes out with to the press. But special mentions to blaming science, the local media, and the fact our players aren't middle class enough.

For balance I can appreciate some managers might struggle under our regieme. Our lack of spending the last season has been bizzare at the very least. But we DO have a good squad which a year ago was starting to look very strong. Unfortunately this squad has pretty much now been Pardewed.

He's not the only thing wrong with the club but he's a major factor and due to the other problems has somehow gotten away with the world seeing how shit he is. Thankfully this looks like it's starting to change. He simply needs to go.

[TightEnd]

Worst protest of the yr award: Tears up season ticket… throws it at the dugout… at the end of the last home game.

[arbboy]

rofl

[mulhuzz]

Worst protest of the yr award: Tears up season ticket… throws it at the dugout… at the end of the last home game.

If that had happened yesterday, you'd be right, but it didn't.

It's from the home loss to the other lot down the road in Early Feb.

[arbboy]

Just when the Newcastle faithful thought it couldn't get any worse!!!!  Pulis has been very heavily backed today to be your next manager!

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/newcastle/next-permanent-manager

[Marky147]

Just when the Newcastle faithful thought it couldn't get any worse!!!!  Pulis has been very heavily backed today to be your next manager!

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/newcastle/next-permanent-manager

I'm pretty sure that's like manna from heaven!

[arbboy]

bit of a sideways move for pulis though don't you think?  Just keeps moving from one mid table side to another from stoke to newcastle via palace!