OzzieMandias

It's amazing how all these continental clubs manage to get by, really.

The parochialism has really been showing its fangs in the last few weeks, though. I can't believe some of the stick being handed out to those deemed "foreign" by a handful of self-righteous mongs on here, starting with all the crap about "cockneys". It's all right as banter; it's fucking embarrassing and offensive as banners.

That's about the size of it.

Alright, steady on.

They should either hold off from making pronouncements until there's a proper membership structure and way to sort out complex mixtures of opinion, or they should quit styling themselves as the voice of all fans while tying the thing's founding statement to a set of opinions and ideas about appropriate action that many people disagree with. I put my name on the mailing list because I wanted to have a say. I emphatically do not want to make up the numbers that "justify" actions I think are harmful to the club.

On the other hand, maybe it's good that we have a few people around who aren't absolutely wallowing in it -- "Oh, the terrible suffering of being a Toon fan! Woe is me!"

Let's face it, given the usual brilliant timing of our managerial changeovers, we've effectively started the season with managers who didn't choose their players almost as often as not over the last dozen years.

What's he done now?

Bizarre attitude. I was born and bred in Newcastle, but though my mother was a Geordie, my father had spent his school years in Liverpool and he was a Liverpool fan. So there was an element of choice in our family right from the start, given that dad relentlessly propagandised for the scousers, who pretty much always had a better team than us. My mam didn't care about football at all. Still, it was my dad who first took me and my brother to SJP, and Newcastle is the team we both ended up supporting. I remember refusing to watch the 1974 cup final with my dad, and stayed away from the house as long as I could after the game. Still got a lot of stick when I finally crawled home on Sunday evening, however. Meanwhile, I don't see how anyone can criticise someone who comes from a place without a team for choosing to support Newcastle. We should welcome their interest. If we don't, they'll just be spending their cash on one of our rivals. Personally I find the current situation more depressing, where hardly anyone outside of the UK seems to have heard of us anymore. As a Geordie who's spent his adult life either in London or abroad, I'm always glad to see foreign supporters. Trying to follow our fortunes in Sky pubs is, in my experience, a thankless and lonely task. If we're on telly, we're either playing one of the "big four", in which case the pub will be full of glory-hunters in red or blue, or else we're playing some smaller team, in which case most people will be cheering on the "underdog" -- and we're never the underdog. I was in Lisbon when Gullit took over. I remember travelling all the way to Cascais, 40-minute train journey, just to watch the match at an "English" pub. The place was full of scousers on holiday, and I had a right miserable time as Owen banged in goal after goal. Remember his rubbing his hands? I was the only one who wasn't cheering. And then a 40-minute ride back into town. Earlier that year, though, I was in Budapest, where I watched the cup final in an "Irish" pub. The place was packed with Arsenal supporters, neutrals -- and me. Some woman behind me kept shouting "Cheat! Cheat!" in a Felicity Kendall accent whenever Shearer appeared on screen. I wanted to turn around and slap her. And then there was some kind of mangled chorus of "Geordie Boot Boys" from the back -- a bunch of Hungarians from (I learned later) a town about 40 miles away, who travelled all this way in full Toon regalia. I could never figure out why they were supporting us -- they couldn't even speak any English -- but I was glad to see them. Their presence was the only thing that cheered me up that day.

Good post.

Chances are Given will be off as well.

That's the first thing I wondered, too.

I think it's more that he doesn't think the odds are good enough. He's wary of failure.

And some other bloke... http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/sep/27/newcastleunited.premierleague

Strangely, not one but two quite good articles in the Guardian. First up... Russell Brand: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/sep/27/premierleague.newcastleunited

Aye, bring on the Geordie dream team. Messiah Man and Alan Saviour. And Terry MacBaptist, of course, with Sir Bobby as a sort of wise old cross between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Gandalf. There may even be a role for Craig Iscariot.

Or Australians.

There IS a certain comedy to it all. If someone had said to you a month ago, "Before the end of October the Toon'll be managed by Joe Kinnear and owned by a bunch of anonymous Nigerians..."

Err ....... if some people can't see that we are very serious trouble of being Relegated, I really worry for their sanity. Even the bookies have us at 5-1 for the drop and they arn't often wrong. Wake up mate smell the coffee, find that A to Z of Ipswich you've got hidden away. It is, as I said, a possibility. It's not a fucking foregone conclusion.

I think I'm glad I don't know much about anglosperms.

No, it's not the worst time. We're in a right old state but the season is young, the squad is far from the worst in the league, and if a decent manager gets appointed in the not-too-distant and everyone's spirits get bucked up, I feel we've more than enough to avoid relegation, even that does look like a possibility. But a possibility is all it is, right now. Stop wallowing in it. People are posting like we're already relegated. It's pathetic. And it will do us no favours as the season wears on.

Too late. The damage is done.

I've given credit to Shepherd for what he did well and I have no problem doing that but I see where he went wrong, unlike you who seem to try and gloss over it. As for Dinnis and the others, I've replied to it, I understand that you don't think the players were after more money even though I've supplied a link which supports what I said. they threatened to go on strike because Lee going to Everton unsettled them and they were unhappy with the club. Not because of money. In the summer, some of them no doubt renewed contracts, but that is normal. Just like Owen has hasn't renewed his contract. I've never said Shepherd didn't make mistakes. But the last 15 years has been the best of the last 50. Correct or not ? And - having supported the club during a period where they were happy to go nowhere and do nothing - despite you denying that years of doing nothing and going nowhere was the result of it - you should have been capable of seeing the current regime as heading in the same direction. Which says everything about your lack of judgement and perception, but I understand you were blinded by personal hatred of the old regime for calling you nasty names and "embarrassing " you. Anyway, thats my piece again. One day you may learn something, your judgement may improve, but you probably have a fair bit to go yet. probably correct,unfortunatly we were headed back that way not necessarily, but we certainly are now. Fast. Point is, the last 15 years, raised expectations and the stadium, is the legacy. Relegation may well be Ashleys, but not the Halls and Shepherd. So, let me think... who was it again that sold the club to Ashley? Who'd run up such ridiculous debt levels that they flogged the club in a desperate hurry in case the new owner spotted what he was getting into? It's on the tip of my tongue...

Only when Shepherd was doing the appointing.