Benwell Lad

£12M for Fletcher is bordering on insanity. I thought it was only Liverpool who did that.

By chance watched the USA v Canada SF last night and although I'll admit to previously being a little cynical about ladies football (not as a participation sport but as a spectator sport) it was probably the best "neutral" game I've seen in years. The standard of goalkeeping, defensive strategy, attacking play and commitment was amazing. It was like the epic summer game we've been waiting for in the men's tournaments but just hasn't happened recently. Credit to the Newcastle supporting lad from Consett who coaches the Canadian team.

Best be careful what you say Brummie lad. There are some right hard fuckers on RTG and you might end up having to watch your letterbox.

Colo at Gatesheed last night watching the reserves. I'm not sure many Argentinian international superstars would spend their evenings doing this. We are really lucky to have this guy as our club captain.

There's a thread running on the SMB site at present which has been mentioned on here and is essentially a glorification of football hooliganism most particularly relating to the many historic occassions on which they have allegedy "battered the mags". Judging by the numbers of "batterings" we have received at their hands over the years I would assume that none of us have escaped their wrath on some occasion or other. However, funnily enough I know a lot of Newcastle fans, but can't think of anyone who has suffered the gory beatings they seem to be revelling in relating through their keyboards right now. There are a few main contributors who are keeping the thread running with their tales of heroism, martyrdom and military like operations against "the Mags", but frankly reading between the lines they sound like sad, probably perverted individuals who most likely have never had a real fight in their lives but love wallowing in the reflected glory of those who have. In typical macum fashion it has now descended into civil war as they squabble amongst themselves about whether people from East Durham are harder than people from Sunderland or somewhere else or vice versa. If anyone anywhere in the world needs an insight to what a festering hovel of a place Sunderland is, stuck in a timewarp and populated by backward dimwits, then that thread sums them and the place up perfectly.

We cover all costs and receive nothing. In fact the club has to pay many hundreds of thousands back to Sports Direct in compensation for loss of stadium coverage. Ah well, that's not too bad then. As long as that most worthy of causes gets well rewarded I'm sure no one minds the club being fleeced.

Does anyone know what level of compensation/reward, if anything, that NUFC get for handing SJP over for the Olympics ?

If he signs and they go down would that be 3 successive relegations with different clubs for him?

Like any other pro footballer if he has any realistic options he will only go to Sunderland for a vastly inflated price and a silly contract. Makes you wonder how much more overpriced dross they can clog their finances up with before the shit hits the fan.

Leon was a canny lad and did ok for us, but frankly that statement is ridiculous, or even horse plop as someone said earlier.

Harper won't let us down if called upon. He never has.

Isn't it time this thread was closed and we put our petty, parochial rivalry to bed ? With our clubs going in completely different directions we should be re-aligning ourselves against our real rivals in the football world. Once they finally realise that the "marty party" is just the latest in a long line of cons that their management has thrown at them, they'll totally implode and despite it being part of Geordie birthright to take the piss out of mackems, we really should just back off and let them stew in their own juices.

For those of us who went to St James and Roker in the 70s, its total horseshit as well. Aye. Anyone who was around back then knows that Sunderland were regarded as an absolute pushover. Mind things have changed a lot since the advent of the internet, they're the hardest fans in football nowadays.

Amazing how they manage to get 52,000 pissed up Geordies and away fans in and out of SJP without any problems week in week out but once LOCOG take things over getting 14,000 people into the stadium descends into embarrassing farce.

Johnathon woodgate and the rest of the smoggie first team just arrived in departures at newcastle international.

SAFC brand Sunderland Have to agree with the mackem in the quote. The Sunderland brand is that of a shitty little non-entity of a club and I'm sure the Korean people will be getting the message perfectly.

Nah, I got a lot of withering stares, one "what the hell!" and one "you've got to be kidding me." Otherwise we were fine. Obviously Wireside and the other hard lads decided to stop at home and watch it on telly.

That could be the most prophetic statement the halfwit has ever made.

Carroll was probably/arguably/maybe worth about £20M when we sold him to the scousers. His stock has fallen considerably since then. Do the math Yankee boys.

Is Sessegnon still their player? He's quite decent - surely he could do better than playing at a little unfashionable club? Surprised he hasn't moved onto something bigger like QPR, Villa, West Ham or Al Ain.

They are in this together and why Liverpool won't win. If Liverpool were rich and ran by Scousers rather than ruthless bottom line Americans, their pride may have got in the way of a deal with Newcastle. They are neither, so practically will overcome pride.

Perhaps he knows Newcastle are only interested in an initial loan, and so he has said he wants to go on loan first. Agree. The comments attributed to Carroll seem to be very much in tune with what Newcastle themselves want.

Main reason for above answers is that if he were to arrive, I would have faith in our excellent staff thinking the above through very carefully, thereby saving us from having to fret too much about it. That said, I don't think he'll come, but there again a set of circumstances seem to be coming together which make it look increasingly feasible.

We didn't and he looked fine then, and he was only 20/21 and very raw, and i'm not exactly sure where this "he's only good for hoofball" stuff has come from. He's tall innit? That's the uneducated assumption. In reality Carroll, though peerless as an attacking header of the ball, has a very sweet left foot, can hold the ball well and has a fantastic work ethic for a striker. He made a bad move for the wrong reasons and ended up losing confidence. Back where he's comfortable he could be a very good player again.

Your sarky posts brighten up my day no end