Wallsendmag

Bloke was an absolute chancer. He'd have taken them down to the Northern League if he'd been there much longer. People like him have no business being involved in a football club at any level.

There seems to be a constant stream of new build monstrosities going up in the city centre to satisfy the growing student demand all the time. As far as aesthetically pleasing buildings in the city centre go SJP is the least of your worries if it's something you're bothered about.

Is he one of their players?

Aye they're another one as well but tbf to them, Hoffenheim is a tiny club playing from.a tiny village with a population of under 5,000 and their average crowd is around 25,000.

I think the mentality of your average German supporter is completely different to over here. Obviously you picked a bad example in Stuttgart as they finished runners up last season to Leverkusen but their culture is different. You've had the likes of Hamburg in the 2nd division for quite a few years now selling out 57,000 every week. Schalke have been in a mess down in the 2nd Division for a few years now, still 62,000 there every week. That doesn't happen over here. I'm lucky enough to have visited half a dozen Bundesliga grounds and the general fan mentality at each one has always been the same. Enjoy yourself with your friends and family, have a good drink, and support your team unconditionally inside the stadium irrespective of the scoreline. Leverkusen are actually classed as a "plastic" club in Germany. Think there's only 3 non fan owned clubs in the Bundesliga and they are one of them, being majority owned by Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Wolfsburg (Volkswagon) and RB Leipzig (Red Bull) are the only other two I believe. One thing I will say is that all the grounds I've visited are indeed miles from their respective City centres which involved either using local trains, trams or park and rides to access. Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen involved walking through a forest to get to!

Wouldn't bank on Wilson coming back after the break. Next setback is just around the corner.

You correctly pointed put a few posts up that the Metro is shite so you must have some knowledge of the place!

The loss in revenue would be a drop in the ocean. Lots of clubs either cap memberships or take them off sale once the season begins. If they do that they could almost eradicate touting after the 1st couple of games of the season. At present the system is clearly broken with the amount of tickets going on sale at ridiculous prices on these 3rd part ticketing sites.

It's still easy. Just stop selling memberships once the season has started.

Great news. I'm off to spend the rest of my day on RTG now. See you all later.

It literally is as easy as that but for some reason they seem very reluctant to do this.

They're only top due to the worst goalkeeping howler you're ever likely to see and Sheff Utd being deducted 2 points but aye those pesky mags carry all the luck.

Paid the keeper off etc etc.

Same. Can only assume those suggesting it haven't been. It's grim. The surrounding areas are grim. The pubs are grim (not that I expect we'd be allowed in them anyway on police advice). Fuck going there every other week. We don't have the luxury of moving to Wembley like Spurs did and Chelsea may have to, or Rangers did with Hampden earlier in the season. If a major rebuild of SJP means playing with a severely restricted capacity for a few years I think it's a complete non starter but who knows. We only lost around 1k capacity during the rebuild from 36k to 52k and with all the advances in building technology in the 25 years since maybe there's ways around it.

People sing the songs too fast these days to fit the 3 claps in between the "Uniteds".

Tbf for something like a penalty when there's a 90% chance people are going to be celebrating a goal imminently it's pretty much commonplace to stand whilst it's being taken and that's everywhere.

Middle tier is mainly miserable bastards who've sat there since it was built in 1994. Were in their 30s and 40s back then but now in their 60s and 70s.

I know where you sit mate. Wasn't all that far from you. Middle tier so just above you and a bit along (block L).

Got asked to sit down on Tuesday night as I was standing up waiting for Schar to take his penalty. Usually I would have told the miserable cunt to fuck off because he'd be likely standing up in a minute anyway when we go 1-0 up but as I had the bairn with me I restrained myself. Imagine my shock when he did score and around 50% of the people around me remained seated. Didn't even celebrate the goal. They were OK to stand literally 30 seconds later mind when they were off for their HT piss/pint. This was the Gallowgate End by the way. Not the Platinum Club or the East Stand.

It's a 20 minute walk from their main shopping areas, Bridges, Fawcett Street etc. SJP is around a 10 minute walk from Northumberland Street/Eldon Square. Never really thought of them as having a city centre location in the way we do, although location wise as far as new builds it's as good as there is. Maybe that's because we're spoilt for choice for drinking/eating establishments within a 15 minute walk whereas they certainly aren't!

Been loads of times tbf.

Surprised at people's objections to the Arena site. I think, if it was big enough it's a good position to build a stadium. Been to many a gig there and just ended up drinking in many usual Pre match pubs beforehand so that wouldn't be an issue to me. People comparing it to the SoLs position at Sunderland are well wise of the mark. Firstly the 2 cities simply don't compare amd there's no bias in that statement. They just don't. But secondly at least we'd still be on the right side of the river to the City centre. Leazes Park or Town Moor I'd probably prefer but I'd be more than happy with a 70/75k super stadium by the river.

This is very true. A lot of supporters who chucked it when Ashley was here had no chance of a cup final ticket and a lot of the people who've replaced them maybe don't quite share their passion. That's certainly my personal experience of people who I know who've packed in at various times over the past decade or so and people who've came in as new season ticket holders in that time.

My first experience of the Anfield atmosphere was in 93/94 when the Kop was still a terrace. Going there as a 16 year old kid I was totally underwhelmed by it. The world famous Kop never sang, the rest of the ground sat in silence. I remember thinking how much better our home crowd was. Anfield was rubbish. I also visited Villa Park that season to witness our first ever away win in the Premier League. The Holte End was also still terracing and it absolutely pissed all over the Anfield Kop. Also looked far bigger and more intimidating. A lot of it is clichéd nonsense. Anfield has never has a great atmosphere. You'd go to places like Upton Park, Maine Road, Elland Road, Filbert Street etc and they were far more vociferous and intimidating yet they never got the same acclaim Anfield did. I just think today's crowd aren't as invested in the game as they were years ago. Back then you'd hold a piss in cos you didn't want to miss owt but if you were desperate you'd go as quickly as you could and get straight back up again, desperate lly hoping you'd not misssd anything. Nowadays people start drifting down for a piss and a pint from 30 mins onwards and stay there till after the 2nd half has started. That never used to happen. A lot more people leave well before the end these days as well. One thing that struck my last night was a good 10k people had left well before the final whistle when a goal for Wimbledon would have taken the game to penalties but they clearly weren't arsed about missing it. Again, in times gone by not a single person would have upped and left whilst there was the chance of a penalty shoot out. Different times, different people, different mentality. I definitely think the supporters were more committed to the cause back then.

Another unsuccessful ballot entry. Only had Wimbledon so far and I'd rather have been knocked back for that one given how bad it was.