Wallsendmag

I know what you mean but I genuinely find them more as a source of amusement these days. They've actually turned themselves into a parody of a fanbase these days.

Must admit I don't have the same hatred I once had for them. I find them more amusing than anything else these days. Late 80s through to early 90s I really didn't like them but then Keegan came and we both went in different directions. Throughout most of the 1990s I actually disliked Man Utd far more than Sunderland as they were the team that was stopping us winning the League and the FA Cup in 1999. Even the Charity Shield match really pissed me off. Then Ashley came and slowly dragged us down to their level and those cunts lapped it up and with nothing else to really focus on under his regime they once again became relevant to me. Fast forward to Ocober 2021 and the footballing landscape in the NE changed forever. They were Division 3 and even more irrelevant to me than they were in the mid 90s. I seen how much it broke them. How desperate they'd become. They were embarrassing themselves on a Daily basis, whether that was on their RTG forum, or other Social media platforms. We absolutely consumed them, ruined them and I just found it funny and imagined how devastated I'd have been had the roles been reversed. They have one focus this season. Finish 17th place. They'll do well to achieve that. Remember how demoralising it was for us every year under Ashley when that was the aim. It all felt rather pointless because inevitably after a while you knew we'd slip through the trapdoor. That's all they've got to look forward to now, whilst we're going to be fighting it out at the top end of the League, playing Champions League again and are one of the favourites for the 2 Domestic Cups, one of which we hold. Again just imagine for a moment if it was the other way around. When you see all their desperate rants on RTG or X or whatever just remember the hurt and the desperation that is behind each and every one. They know they'll never get close to us again and it absolutely kills them. To be honest I understand it.

Good finishes but we've got to put it into perspective here. He was up against 41 year old Thiago Silva. His trick appears to be cutting in from the left, putting it into his right and then hitting it. Premier League defenders don't allow him the space or the time every week to do that. Bakayoko at PSV the same but in reverse. Likes to cut on from the right and shoot with his left but that's literally all he's got. Once defenders sussed him out he was nowhere near effective to the point where he was dropped by PSV midway through last season.

Aye it's going to be a long old season for Gateshead you feel. The Conference is brutal these days amd if you aren't prepared, and I don't think they are, you'll suffer.

Can someone change the topic title to Nottm Forest please? Cheers.

Champion.

Ruddy announced. Looks like Wilson might be staying as well now.

I know he's a stand up comic and hes up there to get laughs but he's genuinely spot on there. Your typical Brexit towns, your Burnleys, your Sunderlands etc would genuinely benefit from some form of controlled immigration into their areas but the irony is that those sort of places are the ones who are against that the most.

Pretty ironic considering Sunderland was basically the face of Brexit.

Ironically they're actually the first city that springs to mind when you think of a place that could genuinely benefit from immigration. Been there twice in the past 12 months and on both occasions it was like being in the land of the living dead. I implore anyone to spend an hour at some point just walking around their city centre. Seriously it's a hell of an eye opener.

Not sure about that. I'd have thought globally more people would be interested in who misses out on Champions League between the likes of us, Chelsea, Villa etc than who stays up between the likes of Sunderland, Burnley, Wolves etc. People outside of their respective areas couldn't really give a toss I'd imagine. Obviously an exciting title race is what really matters.

Looking at that Blyth Spartans squad announcement earlier in the week it's certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that they'll be relegated yet again next season as well.

Same Apparently they're all mint though.

Fair enough I suppose considering members don't get any loyalty points anyway.

They should have opened it up to members as soon as the extra 2k allocation was confirmed. They get absolutely nowt for their 50 quid a year apart from a lottery ticket giving them a small chance of getting a ticket for a home match, loads didn't even get a sniff of 1 ticket last season. Talk of at least making the membership fee feel like slight value for money, allowing members the chance to buy a ticket for an away friendly with a 10,000 allocation is surely an easy win.

So just to get this straight there's something wrong with people turning up at Newcastle Airport wearing a Newcastle top but if someone rocks up there in a Sunderland top then that's "classy"? They are utterly deranged. An absolute parody of a fanbase. Any slight rhyme, reason or ability to have any sort of rational thought with that lot disappeared on 7th October 2021 and it's never to return. They are too far gone now. Whilst it's funny for us and gives people a good laugh, and offers plenty of content for that Deluded World of RTG site on X, it's also pretty tragic really. Basically living their football supporting lives through another club. Whether it's a concert at SJP, seeing another human out and about in a NUFC top, worrying about Mags taking over areas that they believe more Sunderland fans should live in etc, it literally consumes their lives amd in such a negative way. Honestly if football made me feel like that I'd genuinely wrap it all in. There's just zero enjoyment in getting yourself so worked up about such trivial things. Football is supposed to be enjoyable, a bit of relief from everyday pressures. For them it just sends their blood pressure soaring further.

Sampdoria going to stay up. Have to say I'm pleased about that.

I got kicked out! We were in the front row of the Darwin End, he scored up at the other end, I hurdled the fence and almost got onto the pitch but was wrestled to the ground by 2 stewards. Got kicked out and went and sat on the minibus waiting for everyone else to come out. Match finished, 10 mins went past, then 20, then half and hour and not a soul back on the bus. Found out later the whole away end stopped back for best part of an hour singing in support of Keegan who had just sold Andy Cole

Sold out all their Season "Cards" I see. I expect it'll be a bit awkward for all the bandwagon jumpers who've had to buy newly released seats in the Upper Tier as it was closed down for their PL exile. Nowt like advertising the fact that you are indeed only there for the Premier League and to watch the opposition

Joke was on you then

Think it was something like 28 or 29 years they failed to beat us at home. We beat them 5 times in a row in the 90s and I honestly never heard a single person reference it.

Honestly hope that when we play these down there next season there's loads of Fender flags alongside NUFC ones in the away end. I was flabbergasted at how much his last concerts at SJP had them rattled but they've somehow managed to take all that fewm and multiply it by at least 1,000! Genuinely don't know how a lot of them will get through these next 2 nights. The last concerts he did here, and then their many flags they took to Wembley with images of his head being chopped etc off gave a good insight to their level of derangement over him, but even so their reaction to Thursday nights concert still caught me a bit by surprise. I reckon a good 90% of Fender stuff I'm seeing on X is posted by them rather than people who were there!

By wildlife she means rats. I walked through that park last year for the first time in about 5 or 6 years and couldn't believe the state they've let it get in. Its main inhabitants these days are rats and druggies. If nobody can be bothered to maintain it and look after it's upkeep, not to mention policing it to chase out the undesirables then what's the point in it being there? Surely a land swap with SJP whereby SJP is turned into a lovely park in itself which people will actually use and walk though en route to SJP like at places like Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt would be a winner. No doubt PIF would even take care or contribute towards its upkeep.

They need to find some middle ground. In 2025 with so much emphasis on memberships and most top clubs not selling new season tickets, members should definitely be given an allocation of away tickets, whether that's the 40% Chelsea hand out, 30%, 25% or whatever. A lot of members are people who have put the hard miles in over the years and a lot of ST holders aren't interested in attending away games and never have been, so there's an argument there about who is most deserving. First and foremost members need to be included in some sort of loyalty system. Don't think there's any debate there. The debate starts with deciding what happens after that!

Think it became an issue because current ST holders who hadn't been bothered to attend away games previously suddenly decided they wanted to go but found out it was a closed shop so demanded change, which is what's happened, well to suit them anyway. The current system is outdated and fundamentally flawed. I very much doubt there's another club in world football that in 2025 gives you a credit for an away game you lent your season ticket to someone for in 1994. On one hand they can't say they want to grow the fanbase, push International memberships etc, if they're making 50% of all games 100% inaccessible to the majority of the fanbase they are determined to grow! Back in the day, I'm talking late 80s here, your ST got you reduced admission for all home league games, plus first refusal on any home cup games. Away games were a separate entity altogether. Early 90s seen clubs really push ST sales and a design ticket boom ensued. They added the extra perks of loyalty points, away game priority etc but nowadays most the big clubs are making serious money on memberships (cost of memberships plus what members spend on tickets) and the 1990s ST culture is being reversed now clubs know memberships are more lucrative so in time I do expect members to get access to away tickets and that's as it should be. Doesn't really affect me now anyway as away days don't interest me much these days.