Wallsendmag

I'd go for Bruce Arena.

Yep my dad for one. Had a season ticket since the days our season ticket numbers only numbered a few thousand and he was eligible to apply but said he couldn't be bothered. I think people might be surprised at the crowd numbers next season. A big chunk of the crowd go purely out of habit and have done for years. It's been broken now. If it's still the Ashley/Bruce shit show, numbers will be sub 40k. They were heading that way until Ashley shit himself and issued 10k free tickets to plug the gaps.

Getting confused here So is Manorpark, Whitley and Keith the same person then? Doesn't make much difference to me as I quite them them all as they/he wants exactly the same as I do but it'd still be good to know.

He's vile isn't he.

Can't argue it's been some turnaround but the idea of a form table is comparison. And surely for a true comparison everyone has to have played the same amount of fixtures or it's not really a form table.

Fulham Will pip us on the final day. Maja will be the man to relegate us. The mackems have been promising us this for weeks.

Hardly a proper form table when we've played 6 and other teams have only played 4. It's usually last 6 games for everyone, unless it's been drafted up by Steve Bruce because he can spin anything.

Just realised this game is tonight!

Wrong topic

I was at Blackburn. The bus journey back home was horrendous. At every away match I've ever been to (prob around 200) the crack on the bus home has always been superb, win, lose or draw. That game was the one exception. Everyone just sat in stunned silence the entire 3 hours home.

Same here. Trying to cram that into half an hour, minus the adverts, was pointless really.

Funnily enough I thought that about Arsenal on Sunday! (replace Final with Semi).

Aye that was the game where Sky christened us "The Entertainers". We beat them 3-1 (Cole 2, Beardsley) on Monday night Football. Think the stats were something daft like 28 shots to 1. It was also our crowd that got the attention that night. 4,000 fans behind the goal and they were deafening. You could tell Sky had seen nowt like it as their cameras were constantly panning across to the away end. We really did have a team and a fanbase to be proud of back then.

My first say on the subject. If the PL refuse to punish their "big six" the other 14 teams should grow some balls and point blank refuse to sell tickets for games against them. Reduce season ticket prices to account for it and also have no general sale for these games. Yes give them their 3k tickets in the away end (PL rules) but 3k Man Utd fans up in level 7 by themselves won't add anything to the spectacle for the TV audience. Refuse away tickets for the 6 venues as well. Yes it'll cost them money in gate receipts but I'm sick of talking about money and football, especially top level football, going hand in hand. Yes it's a business but first and foremost it's a sport.

Get rid of agents. They take a ridiculous amount of money out of the game. Players to negotiate their own contracts with the manager, like how it used to be. They can bring their parents along to help them get a better deal if they want.

Great work; our standard season ticket prices are higher than every other club, outwith Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Man Utd and Liverpool. The fixture scheduling; how many Monday night away matches in a row for NUFC? St James' Park; well the less said about that the better, but basically it's a shithole, inside and out.

This is why Burnsie should never be taken seriously. Just look at the state of this man!

How do you rate Henry Mauriss' first 6 months in charge at NUFC?

Aye but even then most of the talk was still, on the field actual football related. Nowadays we seem to be taking more about off the field events, probably nowhere more than at Newcastle tbh. Certainly I'd say the 3 most talked about topics on here are the 2 takeover ones and the Mike Ashley thread.

Isn't football awful at the moment? We've spent far more time in the past year talking about corruption, greed, and court cases than we have anything on the pitch. The actual game (on the field) almost feels incidental these days.

Well you've hit the nail on the head really.

He's sort of right. Young people aren't interested in attending football matches as much these days, certainly not in our country. A study of Premier League season ticket holders a few years ago had the average age of a Premier League supporter at 45. This of course is mainly in part to Premier League clubs pricing their young fans out though over the past 20 or so years which has ended up costing them a generation of supporters. My son is 8. He's football daft but in his class at school there's only 2 others (from 30) who are interested in football.

I feel exactly the same. Put Sky Sports on last night, watched it from 7pm - 8pm to hear what Neville and Carragher had to say, switched it off at 8, and then put it back on at 10 to see if they had any more interviews lined up. I'm not that bothered however it all ends up, I've discovered other interests away from football these past few years, but I'm enjoying all the drama and outrage!

Seems like I'm the only person not outraged by this. Football sold its soul many years ago. This is just a by product of what the Premier League and its broadcasting partners, mainly Sky have created since the 1990s. I class myself as a "traditional" supporter. Been going since the early/mid 80s but over the last few years my interest in the sport has been decreasing rapidly to the point where I watch very little live Football on TV, and I include my own team in that. I'll watch 5/10 mins then inevitably my attention strays to other things and I end up switching channels. If what happens here ends up triggering some sort of "reset" in the English game I'll be delighted, but first these 6 clubs need to be told, once you're gone, you're gone for good and let's get back to a more level playing field in the English game.

It's a 3 for me now. It's possible we've already done enough but a win v Sheff Utd will do us. Can't see either Fulham or West Brom getting 38 points, although I've still got this irrational fear of West Brom winning 5 of their last 7, purely because of Allardyce's record of never being relegated and them coming into some form for the first time this season.