brummie

Personally, I wish they'd all just feck off and form their own poxy league (and take Chelsea with them, preferably), we'll see how long it takes for their fans to start bleating because they can't find any Porto fans at work to take the piss out of after beating them on a Saturday, and how keen players are to join them given that they won't be able to play international football. Assuming that they haven't already ruined international football, of course, which they seem to be quite intent on doing at the moment.

Not that I give a shit about this incredibly puerile argument, but you could point out that if the capacity is 36,000 and the average for that season is over 35,000, then it is pretty much safe to say that every game was either close enough to a sellout to actually be one (ie 35,900 is a sell out effectively) or there were games when away teams didnt fill their allocation. not really as you have to remember that because it is an average then there has to be a good few games where the actual attendance is below even that. But not that many, as the attendance can never be above 36000 - so for the average to be almost 36k, the lowest gates must have been still quite close to that, or the average would be much lower. If you get my drift. Not that I care about their attendances, my main objection to Spurs fans is one half decent season and they think they're Barcelona all of a sudden.

Not that I give a shit about this incredibly puerile argument, but you could point out that if the capacity is 36,000 and the average for that season is over 35,000, then it is pretty much safe to say that every game was either close enough to a sellout to actually be one (ie 35,900 is a sell out effectively) or there were games when away teams didnt fill their allocation.

Not forgetting Fulham, who have been in foreign ownership for over a decade.

Ken Bates bought Chelsea for £1 in 1982. And when RA gets bored and decides to buy an F1 team or something instead, or decides he doesnt want to prop them up any more, that's how much you'll be able to buy Chelsea for again pretty soon.

Philip Green brokered Robert Earl buying into Everton last month and said this: ""Paul Gregg's stake in Everton was offered to me. I have always made it clear that I do not want to own a football club so I introduced Robert Earl, a good friend of mine. It is no secret that Bill Kenwright is a good friend of mine too' So unlikely to be him, I'd have thought.

It must be odd being a Toon fan at the moment, with your league form so poor (barring recent slight upturn) but your cup form being so good. From what I've seen of you in the UEFA cup, I've been pretty impressed, and you can't really argue with winning your group. However, in the League you've been pretty rotten. I was wondering how you feel about this - does doing well in the cups buy Roeder time in the league? Should it? What if you go on and win the UEFA (or Carling or FA, for that matter) cup but narrowly avoid relegation - this buys Roeder time, obviously. Browsing through this forum, I'm yet to see many people arguing for Roeder as a genuine, long term appointment - lets face it, there hasn't been much evidence suggesting he is the man so far. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you got to the final of the UEFA. Look at Boro last year - they made it (thanks to some very flukey last minute winners, but I suppose that's what cup competitions are about), and it got McLaren the England job. This could quite easily happen to you this year, which would I imagine buy Roeder considerable time to get it right in the league. Would that be a price worth paying?

Yes please. But where are you going to find one? I hear they've been in short supply up your way for a while. *gets coat*

There's a lot of things other fans can take a pop at Newcastle for, but support definitely isn't one of them. I don't know what Kingdawson was saying, tbh, you could see from the off that he was a windup merchant.

Why are so many Toon fans absolutely *obssessed* with attendances? And do you realise how you're living up to a stereotype other clubs have of you? Yeah, its impressive that you are so well supported, but it doesn't make you Real Madrid, and a lot of you seem to bang on about it absolutely endlessly. Big clubs win things. I'd have thought if you wanted to have a go at Spurs not being a big club, this would be the most appropriate fact to use, not harping on about how many fans they take to Middlesbrough. Oh, and Stevie, I've been to plenty of games at SJP when it has been half empty.

If the people behind our takeover are anything to go by, I don't really see the problem with foreign takeovers. Although in our case, it is pretty hard to see how anyone could be worse than what we had before, what we've seen from the new board so far has been nothing short of excellent. What makes me laugh is whenever there is a foreign takeover, people start screaming stuff like "they want to build a casino!!!!" - like that's the best accusation they can come up with for "wrongdoing". And much as I admire Arsene Wenger for his legendary achievements, his comments about how English clubs should be English owned so they don't lose their identity are possibly the most hypocritical things I've ever heard - he doesn't seem too bothered about maintaining Arsenal's identity when they're fielding 11 foreigners. Rafa is right, though, it is all becoming about who has the deepest pockets. There's always been an element of that in football, but nowadays it is becoming the only thing that matters.

Sky's live coverage is excellent (though their supporting stuff like You're On Sky Sports seems to suggest that there are only actually four clubs in the league, and that the league didnt exist before 1992), but the problem is that in charging them so much for the rights, the league really have no choice when they say they want to show matches at the absolutely ridiculous time of 5.15 on a Saturday. Stuff like that will be the death of football.

I wouldn't mind that if he hadn't nicked it of Torres. Don't you mean Totti?

Sky just said 35. Certainly looks more like 35.

Spot on about the 5.15 games taking up the whole day. The timing of them is absolutely terrible, taking a chunk of the afternoon AND a chunk of the evening. I suppose for clubs who have their grounds in the city centre it is possibly not so bad as you can do the afternoon stuff, nip to the ground, then go straight out, but if you're not in that position it is a nightmare. I'm a bit worried that our FA cup game at Old Trafford might be the Sunday night 7pm one. That'd be the biggest kick in the teeth. You shouldnt have to worry about this type of shite. The thing I hate most about Sky is the fact that they act as if football didnt actually *exist* before 1992. They are slowly strangling the game.

We use all those excuses as well. Although in fairness, we too have played few Saturday matches and have not played any of the big clubs at home yet. Fortunately, they don't give out trophies for how full your ground is. And you are right, the best supporters are the saps who follow teams like Walsall, Colchester, Mansfield etc etc all around the country without a cat's chance in hell of glory. Oh, and slowly but surely, Sky are ruining football. 5.15 on a Saturday? What sort of stupid fucking time is that to play football?

I think he means Manchester City - Watford.

That baby rocking celebration as invented by Bebeto in 1994 is the worst ever. Saw someone in the Premiership do it the other day. It needs a "lets kick out racism" style campaign to ensure it never, ever happens again. Anyway, all goal celebrations are shite compared to this: http://specials.rediff.com/sports/2004/jul/02img3.jpg

David O'Leary will get that job. Done deal. In the manner of another non-Toon fan poster here, i am ITK.

Yep, he's obviously decided he'll learn a lot more under the tutelage of Roeder ;-)

They charged us 45 quid to sit in their away end last season. Expect to get similarly fleeced.

Not patchy enough for my liking *stroppy face* Heh, our form only becomes "patchy" when we make the trip to Villa Park....Everyone else beats the fook out of us. That Olaf Mellberg voodoo doll was the best fiver I've ever spent bluebiggrin.gif PS: Good luck in the cup mate Cheers, mate. What made it gutting was that i *knew* Darius would score against us, yet resisted the temptation to put money on it. Fair play to him for the total lack of celebration, though, he's a good lad Darius and was treated shittily by O'Dreary, he deserves all the success he gets.

Not patchy enough for my liking *stroppy face*

Who you lot at Villa got then ? :confused: Oh, right......the cosmopolitan bunch technically from Manchester.....well, their ground if not 85% of their fans is in manchester.... i think it is like the 3rd time in 5 years or something that we have drawn them. And they'll have Larsson possibly making his home debut, which means he is absolutely cast iron certain to score against MON's team.

It hurts me to say it but Birmingham definitely are not crap at the moment, they're on a real run of form, and although I think you will beat them it is still a very tricky tie for you. Although not quite as tricky as ours :-(