LoveItIfWeBeatU

The Premier League is sold around the world as a product. Lots of places whose own leagues aren't the same quality can watch it. The teams are packaged as products. The fact that e.g. Man U come from Manchester is meaningless to people outside of England. For me though, Newcastle is my home. NUFC is my home's football team. If we lose it hurts, if we win it's great. I don't dislike people from outside the area supporting the team but it would be a bit like me supporting the LA Lakers basketball team. I don't have any connection to LA. I wonder what a Man U fan from Manchester thinks when someone from Nigeria or wherever talks about 'their' team. I once had a taxi driver in Mauritius telling me his team (Man U) always beat my team Newcastle. I asked him why he supported them and he said "because they are the best". I doubt many people in Spain or Italy watch the Premier League compared to the amount that watch their own league.

As I said above it's hard to get our heads around. In England we have a lot of clubs. People who don't support their local, home town/city club and 'choose' to support someone like Man U get stick. It's just weird to me to go to Dublin and see shops selling Sunderland and Celtic shirts. Those countries have their own leagues. The leagues will always be crap as the home population often seem to support foreign, glamour sides.

Agree. It is very easy to choose to support Newcastle if you also chose to support a team like Barcelona. It's hard for me to get my head round people from foreign countries choosing to support a foreign team. I can understand liking to watch the likes of Man U, Barcelona, etc because of their quality but to actually support them and get upset if they don't win? It happens in other sports though. People supported Michael Schumacher in F1 "because he was the best".

I don't know if guilty is the right word. Some of them like Butt and Duff work hard but aren't the players they used to be. Harper and S.Taylor will have done their best. Beye is another professional. Owen and Viduka are a shadow of what they used to be due to injury. It will be interesting to see where Owen ends up. In January the only thing putting off other clubs was probably his injury record. Now his poor form will also be considered. Is he finished?

I have no doubt Shearer will be manager. It may take until the weekend but I'm sure it will happen. What choice have they got? Meanwhile, I hope it's action all stations elsewhere at the club preparing for next season. They better not just be standing around waiting.

Well I've been a fan of Barcelona since I went to their staduim at 9 years of age, so your argument is pretty worthless. Just like you are. I went to Highbury at 8 years of age - should I support Arsenal? Wow, 2 miles away for an away match, or over 2 hours on a plane away.. and when I was just getting into football. Good argument you have.. Your digging a deeper hole for yourself. "I support Barcelona because they're the best", "My dad supports them", "They're the team I chose when I was young", etc. I went to Barcelona on an Easyjet flight. The day I arrived Barcelona had just won the title and people were driving round the city beeping their car horns and waving flags well into the night. I visited Camp Nou a day or two later. I also visited Espanyol's stadium. I am a fan of neither team. If Newcastle played Barcelona who would you want to win?

Well I've been a fan of Barcelona since I went to their staduim at 9 years of age, so your argument is pretty worthless. Just like you are. Ha ha ha. Well I visited Barcelona 3 or 4 years ago and I didn't magically turn into a Barcelona fan. You sir are a plastic, glory hunting fan.

Regardless of which league is best I think it is just as bad as the Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool plastic fans when people have foreign teams like Barcelona as their second team (you can't have a second team unless it was something like you support Newcastle and Whitley Bay).

Thats where I disagree. Lots of people think thats boring, but for me they're like a predator toying with their prey before unleashing hell, and I love it. Yep, I thought it was a class game. Technically it was very good play, etc. but I prefer to see an end to end game. It is the sensible thing to do if your winning. Passing the ball around without ever really trying to go for goal is boring to me. Did I miss this? Is there a clip? :@ i also saw it. i thought it was more than a "little" smile though. lovely karma. Newcastle should put a video on their website of Dowie walking in to tell Shearer the Champions League result and have Shearer pull a grin.

I missed the first 15 minutes but from what I saw of them Man U were poor. It was similar to how we played against Aston Villa. Did they have a shot in the second half? Maybe they could have done with playing the first team against Hull last weekend? I thought it was a pretty boring game. Barcelona would work the ball to the final third then instead of going for goal they passed it all the way back to their defence. Made for boring viewing.

Some people have expressed worries about Shearer being a rookie manager. Well Barcelona put their trust in a rookie manager in Guardiola. In a similar way to how Guardiola knows Barcelona having played for them Shearer knows Newcastle. Maybe having someone who knows the club will work out for us.

I'd like him to stay if he actually wants to stay and Shearer wants him. http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/05/27/mike-ashley-apologises-to-fans-as-shearer-deal-not-yet-agreed-61634-23723122/

I'm sure the Mackems will moan about having another "Geordie bastard" at their club like they did with Clark and Chopra. Hopefully Bruce will follow in the footsteps of Lawrie McMenemy. I wonder who N'Zogbia's new manager will be?

This is why our relegation is even more tragic. I think that when Mike Ashley appointed Shearer he had finally learned his lesson about putting his trusting in the wrong people. I think he would have fully backed Shearer next season whatever league we were in. I'd obviously have preferred this overhaul to have started in the Premiership. I expect Shearer to get what he wants in the negotiations.

Beye could have came under that bracket though, its always a bad thing to have experience in the squad. Yes but Beye hasn't had the injury problems that Campbell has had. I agree with Optimistic Nut. No more buying players on their last legs.

"Many" goals? I think he means 3. "fantastic experience"? Glad you enjoyed it. Any player who doesn't want to play for Newcastle can piss off. We don't want you.

Can't believe anyone would turn their noses up at loaning a few players from the likes of Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, etc. Beggars can't be choosers. If they help get us back into the Premiership who cares? I'm worried about how the club will cope with all the transfer activity that is required this Summer. They've got a poor record when it comes to getting the number of players we need into the club.

The fact that Ameobi and Ranger have been ahead of Xisco in the striker pecking order (going by bench appearances) probably answers the question of how Shearer rates him.

Assuming the manager wants to keep them Steven Taylor and Damian Duff have said they'll stay. Beye's another possible: - http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/05/25/beye-the-fans-have-been-amazing-72703-23705874/

http://www.true-faith.co.uk/tf/editorials.nsf/LookupUNID/CAC04DF3EEE7B935802575C1003755B8?OpenDocument

Once again, I never said Martins was as good as Tevez. I said Tevez is a £25m player and Martins is a £11m player. Whoever buys Martins will probably get him for around £8m. Martins is worth that. Look at how much other strikers have cost over the last season or so.

There should be no holidays for the manager, scouts, chairman, etc. over the summer. As Shearer says, we are already running behind the rest of the Championship in being prepared for next season.

Why not? Some people compare Jonas to Park. Because both comparisons are madness. Park and Tevez are a thousand times the players that Jonas and Martins are. I agree that Park is loads better than Jonas. Tevez is valued at more than 2.5 times what Martins is. My point was is Tevez worth 2.5 times more than Martins? You may think he is, I don't. We'll see where Martins ends up and how he does. Also, to be fair to him, he was injured a lot this year (and his mother died).

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/05/25/sort-this-shambles-plea-to-shearer-72703-23705786/2/

Comes back to "You can't polish a turd". He probably hasn't got the players to play in the style he'd want. He often talked about creating chances for the strikers. I'd imagine he'll want wingers who can provide crosses for the strikers.