ponsaelius

The difficulty with that is you simply couldn't do it unless you had another stadium to play in temporarily. Not a development you could do over the summer or without affecting the game like a new stand. Plus you'd also have to basically push the existing stands outwards to make it work.

Their averages by season have actually been: 32k 30k 0* 30k They probably have about that many core fans who would turn up to watch them at any level.

Can we ban these weird proto gloryhunters? It's only gonna get worse from here.

The bloke has absolutely no football acumen and neither have any of the people he has appointed to roles at the club. How's he gonna improve a Championship club? Both times we got out of the Championship we had a wagebill akin to a mid table PL club and the second time we had a CL winning manager. Bouncing back was just highlighting the atrocious mismanagement in the first place. Honestly man, the way outsiders view Ashley is fucking comical

Ashley turned a club pushing for and playing in Europe ever year into relegation battlers and obliterated commercial revenue. He basically just cruised and lived off the collective TV money like a fucking parasite, getting actually relegated twice in the process. I'd love to know where these lunatics get the idea from that he'd take over a club destined for League One and in financial straits and shrewdly guide them to the PL. It's absolutely disjointed from reality. But they're welcome to crack on.

Not really convinced by the idea of just sticking with Graeme Jones like. Honestly don't even really know anything about the bloke. What's to say he's capable of managing a PL club?

But the people who run The Strawberry aren't even the owners of the site itself - they're just tenants. There's been a pub on that site since middle of 19c.

Not sure you can quite compare the pub with some of the finest classical architecture in the country but I do agree that on a cultural level it's a bit crazy that there's nothing stopping the Strawberry being flattened. Don't even think it is locally listed.

The Strawberry has no protection whatsoever and could be knocked down tomorrow if the owners wanted to. It's also not residential. Leazes Terrace is Grade I listed and is resi.

I think you have to be very careful with signings because clubs will just rinse you if you go for established PL players. Particularly in January. But equally you don't want to gamble on random players that you haven't done due diligence on. I think players with expiring contracts and buy out clauses are a good option to get quality without having to deal with ridiculous negotiations.

Not to go down a boring planning rabbit hole to a jokey suggestion but even if nobody was living in them, be it through lack of demand or artificially engineered by an owner (as suggested), they would still remain residential in use and would be assessed as such with the same weight. To remove any direct residential amenity consideration you would have to fundamentally change the use of the Terrace entirely. And changing the use of a Grade I listed building from the use it was originally intended and designed for for is an extremely difficult thing to do, even when a building is falling apart and unviable, never mind when it's well used and in good condition. It would a bit like like trying to turn St Paul's Cathedral into a giant softplay when it gets 2 million visitors a year. I don't think people quite realise what a huge constraint LT is to development of that side. And indeed should be, tbh. Newcastle is about more than a football stadium as much as we all love it.

Good game today between Whitley and top of the table Consett - 3-2 to the away side. Cracking crowd of 637 - must have been a couple of hundred Consett fans. Think they'll be OK but Whitley in danger of getting dragged into trouble at the bottom the way they're going at the moment.

The issue with Leazes Terrace is not just engineering. You could certainly gain height vertically without having to touch the terrace itself with modern engineering. But the Grade I listing also gives huge weight to the historic setting of the listed terrace - which any increased scale would adversely effect. Not to mention the direct and immediate overshadowing and loss of light to the residents. I'm not sure building a bigger stand there would ever really be possible. The Gallowgate is more possible although the metro station underneath makes it an expensive endeavour.

Ignoring the transport point out of town stadia are universally soulless. The area around Wembley is dystopian - surrounded by endless chain bars and restaurants and without an iota of character. That's what you get if you build an out of town stadium and try to augment a place out of thin air. And that's in London with proper transport links. A new SJP would need to be surrounded by miles of windswept car parking - adding to the inherent awfulness. There really is no need to sell our soul. Keeping the ground in walking distance from the Gallowgate is paramount for me. The Castle Leazes plan would have just about done that - and enhanced the setting of Leazes Park and Leazes Terrace. If we must rebuild that would be the only option we should pursue.

If you think having a city centre stadium causes congestion on matchdays it would be far, far worse having it outside the centre. In the current location huge amounts of people get into the city on matchday via public transport. The centre of the city is served from everywhere. Metro from the coast, buses from the West End, trains from the Tyne valley - even walking in from likes of Jesmond. It's a natural orbital location from transport routes to end and makes it a very good, efficient and sustainable location. And because it's a city centre location people drift in during the day, some coming in early to eat or drink or shop, others turning up close to kick off. This controls the flow and arrival of people naturally. I can't think of anywhere outside the city that is as remotely well placed for transport. If you move it out of a central orbit you have to provide direct transport routes. That causes an enormous bottle neck and would be horrendous for the road network because there would not be public transport infrastructure. And because it would be out of the centre everybody would go to the ground at exactly the same time after spending the day in town. The current location is not just great for the setting (which is the best of any ground I've ever been to) and history - it's a very good location in general. It's an agglomerater which boosts the coffers of the city businesses - and this is reciprocated by boosting attendances. The location is one of the main reasons our crowds have been so good for so long. The only thing that should even be considered is the 90s plan to move it onto Castle Leazes behind Leazes Park. Otherwise it should stay exactly where it is.

Keep the ground where it is.

When the match was delayed because the massive screen Ashley had put up to advertise sports direct was gonna fall off.

The idea of having the likes of Shearer and Keegan in roles at the club is really hard to even process after what we've been through.

Conte can organise a team. He'd probably keep this current squad up. Considering we could be cut adrift by January getting a manager in is even more important than anything we do in the window.

Was 14 than and 28 now. Literally my entire adult life supporting NUFC has been ruined.

You're not allowed to love both Blyth and Gateshead, Ian.

I just hope the official Twitter account unblocks me.

It feels a bit like getting a text from an ex that after years you've just finally gotten over and moved on with your life

It's very weird one for me this because this season is the first time ever I've been able to properly pull myself away from the club altogether. Have watched about 60 minutes in total of our games. Have had no Sky Sports so been able to avoid them. Dived completely into supporting local non-league. Not even really followed the Premier League. I had convinced myself it was not happening, and that allowed me to have a clean break. For this to seemingly come from nowhere - not even sure how to take it. Probably won't know really until it's announced.

Played a great semi and were unlucky to lose, but nah. Dreadful vs Switzerland and most of the group stage.