Doug

I would say tribalism means you love your tribe. Racism means you dislike others. Can you experience the first but not the other. They are two different things when you look at it like that. What an interesting subject this is. It should have its own thread. Doug.

I think we are far to quick to deal out the term 'racist' these days. Mess-iah, you don't know me but but I can assure you I am not a racist and would prefer not to be called a prick either. Rather than hurl out an insult I will try to explain. Newcastle is the provincial capital of the North east of England and the citys football club is a potent symbol of the feeling of belonging to the region. This feeling of of belonging is probably as strong if not stronger than in other less homogenous areas of the country. Consequently it would be a great aspiration to have the shirts worn by local lads representing our city/region such as Atletico Bilbao do/did in Spain. However we all know this is unrealistic in this day and age if we want to compete. The next best thing is to have the core of your side representative of the UK at least so that we can identify with the players and them with us. It fits in with the tribal nature of football. I know Villa usually have 8 starters for them most games and even Chelsea have half their 1st choice team of England internationals. Most players are here today and gone tomorrow but I think it is a reasonable assumption to say there is more of the mercenary element among the foriegn players to our shores who are only here for the money. You can't blame them for that, but 'racist prick' is a bit strong for identifying that many are here only to play for the highest bidder. I think we as fans want to have an affinity with our players that stretches beyond just playing for the biggest wedge of money. Polite comments welcome. Doug.

Who wants a team of foriegners ? Not me. Nucleus of good British (isles ) players most important for a club like us. O'neil is showing it is possible at Villa

Get results is the obvious answer. All parties concerned want the same. The team needs to be fit and buzzing. He is supposedly utilising his stats to find who is up for this. He needs to axe players who cannot do it for 90mins. Some of our players do not seem to have the energy levels required for the top flight. They need to be swarming all over the opposition. (Wigan can do this it seems). This is before we even begin to look at the skill levels. He needs to get as many players in the team who can go past an opponent with the ball. This starts at the back so it is ok to persist with Rozenthal and play Zog there too. After all it is easier to get a skillfull player to show commitment and energy for tackling but not to get a hoofer to show flair going forward. For our part we need to get behind the team and show our dissent only outside of the 90mns on matchday not during it. If he does not start getting results I think a nightmare scenario could soon develop. The Derby and Portsmouth games screamed of a relegation team to me. Doug.

I think you will find the facilities on every estate idea alive and well in Holland. Was'nt Van Persie a product of the 'cage' as they call it in Rotterdam. Pie, As for Cruyf, now you are talking my lingo. The finest exponent of the beautiful game I have ever seen in my lifetime. Danswon, If putting the kids in a cage keeps coaches out as well as keeping the kids in then lets go for it I say. Doug.

'Kids games' and 'caring about the result' as Keefas said. Now therein those two phrases is the root cause of what is wrong with football in our country. Kids should not have to care about the result. If I had my way I would ban coaches, ban parents and put floodlit all weather fenced in vandal proof pitches on every housing estate with free balls supplied and just let them get on with it. Jumpers for goalposts for the 3rd millenium if you like. The money is in the game to do this, Redistribute some of it away from the pockets of the elite few (and agents) at the top and back into grass roots. Give it 10 years and you,d have more footballers for your winning teams to satisfy the coaches (for it is they who want the medals not the young kids). Only then they can teach them to play their two touch football and the shift the ball quickly stuff after they have been left alone to develop the ball skills through the joy of playing for fun with their pals. Sick to death of the greedy and misguided idiots ruining our game. Doug.

The difference with Villa is they have a crop of good home grown youngsters from their excellent youth policy. It is a good job we have a few points in the bag. This team we have could go down, some of the results have shown relegation form, it really is that bad. Still sick to death Doug

How can you give 120% ? If someone gives 100% these days you think they are lazy b**tards. Slackers! btw we will lose convincingly tonight. Save your excitement for Saturday. Sick to death Doug.

Arsenal should win at a canter. Sadly, they need only play their reserves. We have players at the fag end of their careers who are there on reputation only. In my opinion the likes of Butt and Viduka do not have the pace, energy or work rate to live with Arsenals mesmeric passing and movement. Personally I find it hard to watch anymore. The pain of 5 decades of domestic failure has reduced me to being a miserable bastard at weekends. Why cant there be a patch to wean you off it like smokers can get. Sick to death Doug.

Relegation form. Succesive three goal margin home defeats losing to out of form Reading. Losing to Derby ffs. Am I the only one who is amazed that Butt has pulled on a shirt again after the game at Derby? I am having the feeling of relegation foreboding I had just before Souness was sacked. It could happen if things dont change quickly.

Another club who never recovered from having big useless Ron atkinson as manager spending all their money.

To all who may have looked at the back of the Sun today. Remenber, any article on our club in this paper or its national Sunday accomplice TNOTW is written simply to shift more copy and is likely to be no where near reality. I am more convinced than ever that the Cockney tabloids have an agenda to see our demise. They would never do this with their beloved Spurs for instance.

Overhyped by the London press. I never believed any of it for one minute. Hope we do the double over them again. A reprise of one of our vintage 7-1 thrashings would be nice.

Paper talk, he will probably play next week. But if not...., So Man Utd might not win the league so easily. Hordes of armchair Man U "fans" may be dissappointed. I may not be able to sleep tonight with the worry of it all. Ha Ha Ha

Stop Dyers wages now! Most of us would have our money stopped if we were not available for work. I would have been sacked ages ago if applied myself like he does. Illness and injury are one thing but this joker has no sense of committment or pride to repay employers who have set him up for life. Dont forget it takes many of us 4 years to earn what he will have picked up just last week! He deserves all the crap he is getting off fans who can see him for what he is, as far as I,m concerned.

I thought the point of an autograph was to represent proof of an intimate albeit fleeting liason with the celebrity concerned. Is this not negated and a waste of everybodies time by lumbering them with stuff through the post. Seems a bit pointless to me.

We all know there would be no trouble with atmosphere in our ground if there was a team playing on it like the Mancs have to watch. Conversely if they had not won a domestic trophy for 50 years they would have an empty ground with only a few souls from Salford turning up. I wonder if there is a parallel universe where this is happening. I want to go there now.

It is now over fifty years since we won a major domestic honour. I wonder what sort of crowds Liverpool & ManUtd would be getting today with that sort of unenviable record. 50,000+ ? I think not Radio 5 live held a text vote this morning inspired by our latest failing to suggest who were the greatest sporting underachievers. Not surprisingly we were highest up on the list along with such company as Tim Henman, England, Scotland, Spain etc. I have learned now never to build my hopes up ever again. That way you can stay calm and not get into emotional mud slinging about who is to blame. It is something too long standing and deep rooted within the culture of the club to put right by lashing out at single individuals. I fear we are doomed to never win anything in my life time as I was born in 1956 the year after the last of those domestic trophy successes. What a cross to bear. At least I can't be accused of being a glory hunter !!

Chelseas ground is in Fulham, or is it fulhams ground in Chelsea I always get that mixed up.

Man U & Liverpool = legions of glory hunting nonfans + Success in Europe = more lost generations of bandwagon jumping glory hunters. Lets support them in Europe then. COUNT ME RIGHT OUT .

Shame, because Gates has the ideal face for radio.

Viduka is past it now, I've seen milk turn quicker!

1Harry Roberts is our friend, 2Your going home in a f*****g ambulance 3 He's a w** a w** 4 Boot boys we are mental we are mad (still No1 song unbelievably) 5 Your just a town of P***s 6 Your gonna get your F*****g heads kicked in 7 Hes only a poor little hammer 8 In fact include anything obsenely insulting our hosts or visitors These are what they should be singing still I think not, More songs like Geordie allouette please would be preferable and fun. IMHO

Nothing is more sickening than our insistence on singing en masse the appalling geordie boot boy/mental mad hooligan song from the 70's which dominates more than the Blaydon Races still even after all these years. The last away game I was at was Everton away and the witty dittys were S**t ground S**t fans and your the S**t of Merseyside. It made be cringe. How you can tolerate this sort of embarrasing stuff while cryticising someone just having a laugh with an innocent song like the one in the thread title dismays me,and says a lot about the hostile mindset of the modern football fan which has not changed as much as it should have done since the dark days of hooliganism.

I have just driven past Macclesfield Towns ground and read that on a massive sign outside the main entrance. Looking after the fanbase of tomorrow, well done Macclesfield. Take note NUFC board members when you are looking out on the half empty stadium tomorrow night.