brummie

Gorgeous. Seriously? It looks like something Fulham would play in to me. Tacky.

Said this when your current kit came out, and I appreciate the plusses re legibility, but that big white patch on the back, and also this season's big black one. It just makes it look not like black and white stripes. Who cares if you can't read the players names easily on a striped background when viewing on telly, Newcastle are supposed to play in black and white stripes, surely?

Arsenal are unbelievably one dimensional. If you don't sit back and let them play their poncey, quick passing game, they haven't got a clue. If they had a snarling meat headed b****** like Gattuso in the midfield, they'd be unstoppable. Well, and a more capable defence, too. You should be well pissed off that you let 4th slip. Gooners booing, We were never going to get fourth, we didn't have the squad depth to do so. I've been saying that on here all season. Ask Dave, he's always here, he'll confirm this. He'll also confirm that I've been telling everyone how overrated Barry is for ages. I want this to be resurrected when he cocks off this summer, too, so my air of nonchalant detachment will be taken seriously.

Arsenal are unbelievably one dimensional. If you don't sit back and let them play their poncey, quick passing game, they haven't got a clue. If they had a snarling meat headed bastard like Gattuso in the midfield, they'd be unstoppable. Well, and a more capable defence, too.

Come on Man United. I've a vested interest in Arsenal and Chelsea not winning it. Well, I do in Man U not winning it, as well, but not as much as the other two.

When do you play Boro? My word, that is going to be a big one.

Well, that was nervewracking. Their keeper - who we sold to them - was brilliant

That's the thing. Away from home this season, we've looked awesome at times. At home we've looked at best competent, and at worst crap.

Wish I was as optimistic. We've stopped playing. We look as if we know we're going to finish 5th or 6th and don't care. I'm leaving the house for the match now, and can smell a draw from this considerable distance.

I love the way all fans of all football clubs have the same obssessions. 1. Everyone hates us - we never get the respect we deserve from other clubs. The entire country wants us to fall on our faces. 2. The tabloids hate us - some random article gets written up in a shitty tabloid they wouldn't give the time of day to when it comes to transfer rumours, but now it suits agendas, it gets taken as gospel. 3. Other clubs are jealous of us. The vast, vast majority of football supporters don't really give a second thought to other clubs. I look at, say, Everton, to see how close they are to us in the table, but I don't spend a great deal of time agonising over what they do, other than the extent to which it affects us. 4. The BBC hate us - OMG! We're on MOTD last again!!!! OMG!! Alan Fucking Green HATES us so much!!! And the worst mistake of all is to take internet forums as some representative sample of football supporters. They aren't. They are the haven of the obssessive, the borderline OCD, and people with barely hidden Aspergers. I reckon if i asked nearest 50 people sat near my seat at Villa Park what they thought of Newcastle's situation, at least 45 of them wouldn't give a shit, they would have no real opinion, other than maybe to raise an eyebrow. To read internet forums, you'd think they're like a litmus test of the wider football world. They're not, get over it.

Macheda. Cunt.

Incidentally, in our 87-88 spell in the second division, I went to pretty much every away game, and had the absolute time of my life. I know the financial situation is far more complicated these days, and this is easy for me to say, but it won't be the end of the world, you won't stay there very long, and that is if it actually happens, which it probably won't.

i think they played in 3rd division, after winning the European cup? No...late 60's.They were relegated to the old 2nd division in 1986-87 last time. I started going in the early 70s, we'd just got out the third division. In the space of 15 years, we went from third division -> first division champions -> European Champions -> second division. Ellis dismantled that team because he wasn't there in the spell we won all that stuff, the vindictive fucker

All the Villa players have it on theirs.

It is just schadenfreude, it doesn't matter that it is Newcastle. I remember when we last got relegated, five years after winning the European Cup, people were queuing up to take the piss. Nowadays the interest in football is much wider and more intense, so the piss gets taken even more. It would be absolutely no different if it were Villa, Everton, Spurs etc etc. The time to worry would be when nobody batted an eyelid.

Will City ever learn?

I imagined that delivered in a Marlo Stanfield way.

Yup. The whole system is flawed. Well, not if it applies to calendar year, that would make sense. What doesn't make sense is then releasing the results so much later

MOTD is just unwatchable, it is so cliched. They have the dullest of ex professionals sitting around in sensible shirt and trousers, looking like accountants on a company night out at Tiger Tiger, spouting the most predictable shite you could ever imagine. Then you have Lineker, the vile sex weasel, acting like he thinks he is some kind of junior Lynam, some cheeky housewives' favourite. The whole thing just makes me want to vomit my head clean off my shoulders.

Honestly, I can't believe it, it turns out football is wracked by self interest and hypocrisy. Fucking hell. When was this allowed to happen?

Elbowing cunt. *winks at Neil*

I think a lot of clubs are going to have a slightly rude awakening as far as season ticket sales are concerned this summer.

Which year does this refer to? Because if it is, in any large part, this current season, then Ashley should be nowhere near it.

I wouldnt write them off, they have previous

There was no big four back then. And FWIW, we finished 2nd in 1993 in any case. If you talk about 1996 as relevant I might as well start going on about the 10-15 years earlier when we actually won it, as did Everton (but Spurs were still refreshingly nowhere near). That's the point though, it is entirely irrelevant. There is a top four now which is perpetuated by the fact that four teams get entry into the massive cash cow which is the Champions League. With the exception of Everton and Newcastle, it has been the same four teams for a growing length of time now, and every year like this year when they all do really well in the competition, just makes the gap even bigger. That's why even during our good run I was convinced it wouldn't happen for us. Incidentally, I don't class finishing in the top four once as "breaking it". For me, breaking it means breaking it up, and that will not happen through the efforts of the competing clubs outside that group. In fact, I reckon if one thing breaks up the top four, it will be UEFA reducing the number of English clubs who get entry into the competition.