pinkeye

I too have sinned. I bought a ticket for me and my son. We promised ourselves we were done with this club but, I actually fancy going to see this team... they seem to, at least, give a shit!

I have had first hand experience of both Newcastle and Sunderland academies and the first thing I'd say is it's nothing more than a myth that Sunderland is, or recently was, superior in any way. They were different, both good in some ways but both probably behind the bigger clubs in the NW for example. Newcastle's is decent, despite what a lot of uninformed people say, but being in the NE means that due to population there are fewer kids in the available pool than there are in the NW, SE or Midlands for example. There again how many Premier league clubs have had two young homegrown players make up their centre midfield pairing in recent years ? There are kids from Wearside at Newcastle and vica versa so supporting either club is of no consequence at all. Currently Newcastle's is way ahead and has a far better pool of talent. When Sunderland's ownership changed every possible overhead was slashed and their academy really suffered. People sacked, contacts severed and a lot of their better kids going elsewhere. Ethically the academy system is questionable across football in general. Nowadays when they bring in youngsters from around the world at a later age very few will ever make it and parents need to be sensible and not build up their own or their kid's hopes too much. If one player is identified as having the potential to make it they will design a team around him in the almost certain knowledge that none of the others will be kept on. This is not a dig at anyone, especially HTT, because I know it is exciting to have your child singled out as having potential and being asked to join a professional club academy. But, at 5 years old how the hell can they tell that a child will be or is good enough.... they pick kids because they can kick the ball straight and hard compared to others at their age group, that is basically it. My boy has been approached, or should I say I have, numerous times. I always said no. It is a massive commitment of time for both the parent and the child and the chances of making it are practically zero. If he is good enough he will be picked up later, if he is not good enough, as I suspect, then he will not have lost anything. By the way, he is 14 and knows that I said no, he was a bit puzzled but, I explained it and he fully agrees with me. My son plays for a team at a high level in the Russell Foster league and really enjoys his football, he plays Futsal for Newcastle United via his school and will represent them at a U15 tournament at The Beacon of Light on Sunday, assuming he is able to shift the heavy cold he is currently laid up with by then. I get all I need simply by watching him play and watching him enjoying his game. His mate, who is at Newcastle academy, seems to have had all the joy of football sucked out of him already, he is 14 years old!! Just be careful with the academy system and believe this, if he is good enough they will come back and keep coming back....

I believe the children are our future....

Thanks for the replies... The ticket would only cost 80 quid or something and it is true that there are loads of worse things he could be getting up to. He is just 14 and a really good kid in every way, a bit lazy but, aren't they all at that age? I am going to call by the ticket office next weekend and see what they can offer, it can be part of his Xmas presents... Cheers!

As each week passes for me (in my first season without my season ticket for many years - apart from the one season I pulled the plug during the end of Pardew's reign as King) the situation is becoming more and more sad! My son, who is 14 and has had a ticket with me for the last 3 or 4 seasons, is still really into supporting Newcastle United. he was gutted when I told him we weren't renewing this season but, understood that something is wrong and that a stand was required. I hear him watching the match on a stream each weekend - or on Teevee when we are on Sky... he cheers, groans and shouts encouragement to the players to the point where he is totally immersed in the game... Running down to me on Saturday to tell me that we should be 5 or 6 goals ahead by now, we are playing great!!! For some of us, like me, who experienced the mid 90's as a supporter this period is nothing short of a disgrace, a blot on our proud history but, it is all my son has known and he still wants to identify with / support his home town team. How can I continue to do this to him? Some of his friends go to the match with low cost tickets in the Family Section, I am really tempted to get him his own ticket so he can go, sit close to his mates and work it out for himself... my opinions should not necessarily be his.... No matter how much I hate Ashley and what he has done to the club I know and remember I cannot penalize my son, if he wants to go to the match I am going to let him go.

At least we will all understand if we do not have any transfer activity in January.... I have no idea how they will keep this one rumbling along for 3 more months though!

I didn't renew my seat, my sons or my dads this season.... My dad was touch and go as to whether he was just going to go on his own until the rumours of Steve Bruce becoming manager, it took that level of shitdom to make him realize he would be throwing him money away at a dead horse! I watched a bit of the Arsenal match on teevee and realized that I wasn't interested. Since then I have barely even checked the results, I assume we are very low in the league, perhaps even bottom?? Checks now... ooo 17th... maintain that level and Ashely will be delighted! Anyone who is still going please have a think, what is the point of it? I have not missed it a single bit....

The whole situation is perfect for me having thrown in my season ticket this year.... I would normally try like hell to find a stream and pay for Sky in order to watch as many Newcastle games as possible. I watched a bit of the Arsenal game up until the substitution of Shelvey, that shitshow that followed was enough for me to not even bother with Norwich - I didn't even miss it. Treated the result with a small shrug of the shoulders, ah well.... I know last season we had a terrible start but, Rafa had a huge amount of credit in his bank..... Brucey baby must be feeling the pressure already having had all that money spent for him, (well.... all of Ashley's profits). We knew last season that we were a poor team but, being coached to produce the absolute best possible, we are not at all improved this season but, we have an absolute oaf of a man trying to tell these players how to play.... How the hell are they suppose to know what he wants them to do when he doesn't even know himself?? In the words of the mackem loft whisperer - "Pathetic!"

Good news! I held back a day or two on renewing my dads ticket and hey presto... he changed his mind and asked me not to bother. All it took was a Steve Bruce rumour haha.

I have three season tickets, or should I say HAD. I decided during this whole takeover lie that I wasn't going to renew but, my dad has asked, at the weekend, for me to renew one for him as he wants to still go. I am not going to have a go at him for that, he is 80 and really doesn't understand he politics or the situation with Ashley, he just enjoys to watch the football. So I rang the box office today to ask them if I can renew his seat and the girl told me that today they have done something with the computer system to flush down all seats that are not renewed to enable them to be offered for general sale next week. That kind of blows any theory that may have been lingering that a renewal extension may be offered. They are pressing ahead with a general sale starting on Monday. They said that by tomorrow they will be able to accept an order to renew a seat for him. So I will call tomorrow to renew his for him but, I am still not renewing mine or my sons. I hate what Ashley is doing to our club and more importantly the fans.. Recently I had the chance to speak to an ex player of Newcastle that I bumped into and he said that privately Ashley has never hidden his motives for owning Newcastle and the ambition (lack of) that he has for the club. It is simply a vessel to generate cash and to promote his other business interests. This player told me on the year that players did not receive a bonus Ashley himself came into the dressing room to tell them he was using the money he had planned to give to them as a bonus to provide bonuses to his Sports Direct staff instead. Cold and clear as that. There is a spread sheet in the managers office with every players name on it and a value, if that value is offered that player can be sold. The word around football players is that Newcastle is a terrible club and not one to join if you have other options available, kind of explains that we are linked to so many players but, never sign hardly any of them! He said that players and staff at Newcastle would be the last people to know what was happening on any take over front but, he did say that he loved his time with us and that he hoped good times would return again in the future - fat (cunt) chance in my opinion!

Renewal deadline is 4th July but, tickets do not go on general sale until 15th July which really means you have until 15th July to renew - should the takeover actually start to happen... There are no reasons for anyone to panic just yet. I love my seat but, I am prepared to let it go this time. Gutted about Rafa, I am just hanging on to some glimmer of hope that there is something better behind all of this and Rafa leaving is actually just all part of Ashley releasing his grip on the club.

I am not saying that Rafa owes anything to the fans but, he knows how we feel about him.... surely now that all the speculation is over he can make a statement to the press and at least put his side of the story relating to the events that lead to both sides deciding that there was no possible solution to have him stay.... I can hardly put into words how upset I am with the way that this has been handled by the club, why on earth do we put ourselves through all of this for football?

The thing that is destroying all of my hope on this topic is that there are strong transfer rumours, both inbound (unlikely) and outbound.... Joselu for example... If there was any sort of deal going through there would be a period of due diligence whereupon and during no transactions, other than standard normal running costs, are allowed. Of course no deals have actually happened in either direction so you could say that is a good thing but, with this club who knows?? All it would take is a single player to leave, or arrive, for a fee to be absolute proof that there is no takeover. I truly hope that all the stuff about offers for players is just journalist make believe and the takeover does happen!!

Guess he will say he was just doing it for the bantz...... Thick cunt!

You have to wonder how this situation came about....... in order for the whole family to be in a full kit they must have discussed it in advance, maybe thinking how utterly fantastic it would be to show them rotten Geordies that they are not in any way scared to show up to Ponteland airport wearing a Sun'lun kit... those Geordies will be full of fewm!! Frankly that women turning up in womens clothes would be equally horrific.

I voted Dubravka but, could easily have said Schar, Perez or Rondon. Dubravka has made some outstanding saves and kept us alive in games which is why I picked him in the end. Frankly we have not had a forward like Rondon for many years and his contribution cannot be overlooked but, I think for overall consistency the keeper takes it in my mind. (I can maybe think of two obvious errors, which from a keeper across a season is incredible).

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-nufc-striker-papiss-cisse-16194871 Sorry it is the Chronicle but, it is news! Cisse been injured in a coach crash in which team mate Josef Sural has been killed.

In recent times Riviere is one of the worst players I have ever seen let alone worst striker. Joselu is rubbish, he has an uncanny knack of running out of space to head or flick the ball on, right into the space he previously occupied.... All time worst list would include Andreas Andersson for sure!

Probably due to the similarities of being in the huge shadow of their nearest geographical rivals but, being completely deluded to that fact....

On their website it says between Monument and Hebburn/Brockley Whins, guessing it means both Shields and Sun'lun as they share the line up until Pelaw right?

Anyone South of Newcastle needs to be aware that there will be no trains running from Monument to Hebburn over the weekends of our remaining two home games. That is Easter weekend and then the May bank holiday weekend. Nexus running frequent bus services number 900 and 901 stopping close to all effected stations. Nice work Nexus!!

I have said before that I have a friend who lives in Atlanta who absolutely raved about Almiron before he joined us, He has since watched every Newcastle match on TV and commented that we have not yet seen the best of him. That, to me, is a mouth watering prospect because I really like what I have seen so far! He also said that it is starting to become noticeable in their crowd at home games that there are several Atlanta fans wearing Newcastle shirts (Jerseys in his words) with #24 on the back!

I have a really bad feeling that Cardiff will win and we will be sucked right back into a relegation battle. I don't think we can go down because we have a reasonable run of games to see the season out: I think we will get 7 more points.

Marco Silva has been fined 12grand for entering the pitch after the final whistle to confront Lee Mason! Wonder what he thought was wrong (maybe the offside goal) but, the amount of decisions that Everton got during that game we surely deserved a bit of luck at the end.... https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47629874

My thought exactly, how the fuck can that gimp get into any England team? When we played Burnley the other week he looked very ordinary.... Not that I want him anywhere near the England squad but, Lascelles looks twice the player (and he's injured)....