BrettNUFC

You're still attending matches though? That's fine, it's those who say they are never going back. You're giving up your ST but then still going, so not like you fall into that category.

Yeah you should keep the points, i think the points system works well. Would still piss me off if i lost out to someone who had give up on the team though Wouldn't make it any less infuriating.

Basically hard luck, sure there's fans all around the world who follow us madly and would love to save up for a trip to Wembley but just have to accept unless you know people who might get you a ticket, you're unfortunately just going to have to watch on the TV. I know it sounds harsh but i think it's still the fairest way. Would have just as much sympathy for those who actually live in the area but can't afford to attend. you can't reduce support to any kind of value judgement though. I was going to games when I was 5, some people might have started later than me? that make me a better fan? I was at Villa away relegation season, I've followed us for 20plus years. This mentality of ST stuff is totally wrong imo. Nothing makes you a better fan, its an abstract concept. I'm not sure who said better fan I think the points system works well and is fair. If you've gained the points, in theory you'll get your ticket. If you've just been buying on the day or get away tickets through a friend or whatever, you're running the risk of losing out on a ticket. If you give up your ST and just pick and choose which matches you attend, once again you'll be running the risk of missing out. If you've gave up your ST because you are fed up and said you'll never return under this regime and watch us again, then you want a cup final ticket, you don't deserve one imo. If you stick by your word and miss it, respect to them, if you try and grab one, it's fickle and glory hunting

Basically hard luck, sure there's fans all around the world who follow us madly and would love to save up for a trip to Wembley but just have to accept unless you know people who might get you a ticket, you're unfortunately just going to have to watch on the TV. I know it sounds harsh but i think it's still the fairest way. Would have just as much sympathy for those who actually live in the area but can't afford to attend.

You wouldn't deserve, nor should get one, ahead of a current ST holder at the time though. Hypocritical in the extreme tbh You're stopping going because Ashley is a b******, yet if the b****** (who you despise) by some strange quirk of fate/fluke delivered the chance of "glory" you'd want back in. That'd make you a glory hunter IMO. that's total rubbish imo. There is no hierarchy of fandom. I'd argue I care more about NUFC than some ST holders and I've never had one Well for example, if i didn't get a ticket for the final then Kev who has thrown in the towel with the club gets one, I'd be more than pissed off I don't think it should be a raffle between ST holders and genral public. The points system works well so i'm not arguing with the club with that as if you've put your money, time and effort into attending matches, you'll get your rewards when the big matches come along, you'd like to hope so anyways.

You wouldn't deserve, nor should get one, ahead of a current ST holder at the time though. Hypocritical in the extreme tbh You're stopping going because Ashley is a b******, yet if the b****** (who you despise) by some strange quirk of fate/fluke delivered the chance of "glory" you'd want back in. That'd make you a glory hunter IMO.

Staggering, it really is. We have and if you look in some of the matchday threads this type of talk would be said. Man Utd away we were excellent, Villa away we were excellent, first half against West Ham/Cardiff, excellent performance against Chelsea, dominated at Palace. We've played some excellent stuff this year just not on a consistent basis but no doubt we've put in some great halves or team performances this season. Don't know how you can't accept that, been light years ahead of last season and even better football than the 5th season at times.

Nothing is great about 8th. What is good however is the progress we made since our fall last season. We could have easily ended up amongst them teams down at the bottom this year as many predicted, which understandable given how bad last year was. However we have pushed on ahead of that group and got ourselves into a position where we can look at the summer to improve again on the 8th place. Whether or not that investment will be big enough to take us any further ahead, i seriously doubt under this owner as i think this about the peak of it. Teams may falter and we grab a Europe spot but i don't see that happening anytime soon given the strong position the top 6 are in. As much as people hate Pardew, i don't see any other manager breaking us into the top 6 with the type of investment Ashley provides, i think this is the limit. I hate Ashley more than i hate anyone else on this planet so i'm not accepting 8th as some great achievement for the future. In regards to how bad last season was, i'm happy to accept it’s been progress in steadying the ship again and at least giving us the chance to challenge top 6 if Ashley is willing to do so with big summer investment.

My enthusiasm for saying we definitely wouldn't be in a relegation battle was also making you feel sick in the summer. The confidence to even beat that talk away as laughable didn’t sit right with you. I mentioned the relegationometer thread to be a farce and sure enough it turned out to be the case when it got scrapped or changed into something else once it became clear we were nowhere near that standard. Amount of people giving us only 30/20 percent chance of survival was staggering. The football this season has been much improved and we've had some very good spells of football, some of the best we've seen in years. Once again you’re probably blinkered and will just say it's been crap. Our long balls were slowly decreasing back end of last season even though results were still awful. The friendlies in the summer then started to indicate a definite change in style of play and we've carried that on this season by playing some very good football at times. You couldn’t accept we were moving away from hoof ball under Pardew and still beat him with that stick yet it’s been used sparingly this season. I'm still confident of top 8 even with the loss of Cabaye and a couple of hard fixtures upcoming. Then I do feel we will see incomings in the summer to help us replace those who we have lost. You’re not confident of top 8 and you can’t see players arriving in the summer, you say you’re a realist yet you struggle to see we are still better than the sides below us, and we won’t go into next season with 1 striker, so that already starts to doubt your apparent realistic prediction.

We'll just leave it there then. You think we won't sign anyone, i do. I'll call back and prove you wrong again like i did at Xmas when you said Pardew would be gone by now and we would be in a relegation battle. Or during the friendlies you failed to spot Newcastle progressing as a passing side and not all hoof ball, yet you couldn't see us doing anything other than that during this season. Once again you were wrong on that account as we've played hoof ball sparingly this season as I told you we would. So my next prediction is we'll spend at least 15 million in the summer, if not more. New players will arrive and a few will be shipped on. And there we go, proof we are dealing with a child. "prove you wrong" for f*** sake. I hope if you do, you will be standing there with your thumbs at the side of your head and your tongue out. Reading through these posts, you seem to be a bit of a mystic meg in your own mind. Because you done this in the summer with the whole what do you know, you're just a child, happy dreams, top 8 my arse, we've got no chance, we are in a relegation battle, pardew will get sacked. All of this on and on, rolling out the negatives and little digs at me for my opinions yet i was the one who was right but was taking the flack in the summer. Then you do it now when i say we will sign players, try and make me look an idiot because i believe we'll sign players in the summer. Right now, people will be reading probably agreeing with you. However months down the line when looking back and i was the one who was right about the situation, only you will look like the clueless idiot then. You'll be a happy one though because we'll have some signings to cheer for. I’d say similar to now but we are top 8 and not in your relegation battle and you still aren’t happy. You might find something else to moan about in the summer even if we do spend my predicted 15 million plus.

We'll just leave it there then. You think we won't sign anyone, i do. I'll call back and prove you wrong again like i did at Xmas when you said Pardew would be gone by now and we would be in a relegation battle. Or during the friendlies you failed to spot Newcastle progressing as a passing side and not all hoof ball, yet you couldn't see us doing anything other than that during this season. Once again you were wrong on that account as we've played hoof ball sparingly this season as I told you we would. So my next prediction is we'll spend at least 15 million in the summer, if not more. New players will arrive and a few will be shipped on.

Buy loads? I said 3 players, think we'll sign a striker or two, replace Cabaye and possibly a defender. Fancy us to sign a few and let a few go. Just think we'll bring decent standard of quality like De Jong/Gomis, Cabella/Grenier, them sort of targets. We are often linked with players heavily only for the move delayed, it takes longer from them to come in as Ashley waits for the right deal. Whether or not deals like the Debuchy one are in the best interests of the club or not is entirely down to opinion but Ashley is always going to look to save money and not dive straight into paying what the selling club want. If you think Pardew will just be left with this current squad over the summer and nobody brought in because Ashley won’t come up the A1 with his bag of cash or whatever else, that’s your opinion. I personally just think no matter how much people including myself hate Ashley, he’s a lot wiser than people think and there’s no chance in hell he won’t get the cheque book out in the summer. I thought that last summer and look what happened. Why though? He just spent a fair amount in the summer and brought deals forward? The summer he fucked up on was when we only signed Anita, that's where we should have really strengthened our position and he failed to do so. Last summer he had already bought the players he was looking to get in the summer and paid extra to get them early. He didn't need to pay extra this time around to get Gomis/Cabella or whoever, as far as he is concerned we are sitting comfortable in the league and those type of deals can wait till summer where it will be better financially. Don’t think no permanent signings last summer was a huge shock, was just disappointing we failed to get any from a fans perspective.

Buy loads? I said 3 players, think we'll sign a striker or two, replace Cabaye and possibly a defender. Fancy us to sign a few and let a few go. Just think we'll bring decent standard of quality like De Jong/Gomis, Cabella/Grenier, them sort of targets. We are often linked with players heavily only for the move delayed, it takes longer from them to come in as Ashley waits for the right deal. Whether or not deals like the Debuchy one are in the best interests of the club or not is entirely down to opinion but Ashley is always going to look to save money and not dive straight into paying what the selling club want. If you think Pardew will just be left with this current squad over the summer and nobody brought in because Ashley won’t come up the A1 with his bag of cash or whatever else, that’s your opinion. I personally just think no matter how much people including myself hate Ashley, he’s a lot wiser than people think and there’s no chance in hell he won’t get the cheque book out in the summer.

Do you actually believe what you wrote there? Just for your information, santa claus isn't real. Yeah i honestly do. It's looking likely Cisse will leave, Remy likely head elsewhere, is Ashely really going to let Pardew go into the season with only Shola as a striker? Absolutley not. We will replace Cabaye, no doubt about it in my mind. The exact player i obviously don't know but i'd expect a Cabella/Grenier standard player. I really do fancy us to get a few in like we did last January when we were desperate. Fancy us to let a few go and bring a few in. Don't think Ashley will just sell and leave Pardew with what he has which some expect him to do. Aahh, to have that innocent, child like optimism and excitement all over again. I remember feeling like this when I was a nipper too. Ignore everything that has gone on and still have high hopes for everything. Give those straws an extra clutch from me too. So you think Shola will be our number 1 striker next season...i'll only trawl back through your posts when you're wrong again like i can do this summer when you said we are in for a relagtion battle. I was young and stupid then too. How can we possibly finish top 8 after almost getting relegated, it all seemed such a far stretch of the imagination with Pardew in charge, yet hey ho here we are in the top 8.

Do you actually believe what you wrote there? Just for your information, santa claus isn't real. Yeah i honestly do. It's looking likely Cisse will leave, Remy likely head elsewhere, is Ashely really going to let Pardew go into the season with only Shola as a striker? Absolutley not. We will replace Cabaye, no doubt about it in my mind. The exact player i obviously don't know but i'd expect a Cabella/Grenier standard player. I really do fancy us to get a few in like we did last January when we were desperate. Fancy us to let a few go and bring a few in. Don't think Ashley will just sell and leave Pardew with what he has which some expect him to do.

Plenty of people have made it clear that they are binning STs, not necessarily never buying a ticket. The dynamic between supporters and club is very different when you can opt to attend or not a couple of days before rather than being commited months in advance. Yeah, struggling to grasp what that achieves? Hardly going to bother Ashley if people bin ST's then buy single match day tickets? Anyways the point was to those saying they aren't going back till the owner has sold up or Pardew is sacked or whatever the reason they say.

I see Bret's voted. Obviously i'm in the 17 percent staying on. I predicted us to finish 8th and i would have snapped hands off if I was offered it in the summer after last season, so don't see why i would cancel now after battling through last season which was a lot worse. Yes we made signings in January last year but i expect us to grab a few good names in the summer along the lines of Gomis/Cabella or the like. We got De Jong which I never expected and happy he’s arrived (although he probably wants to go back after the reception he seen on Saturday) but I don’t think waiting till the summer for Cabaye’s replacement is the worst decision in the world as we aren’t in a desperate league position and I’m happy for Ben Arfa/Marv to take on the creativity role in the side. If people wish to leave and never come back that’s fair enough and entirely their choice but would hope they stick by their word and don’t come back even if there is an upturn in our fortunes under this regime, be that a few great coups in the summer or even by some miracle a trip to Wembley through a cup run.

If there is one downside to him and this bar the West Ham match because I've never see interview, but I've never seen him criticise himself, players or performance. He's always looking at positive things even if there wasn't any in the match. Mentioned on here before how much shit he actually talks when assessing his match and maybe the board have felt he's not addressing the issues. Still think it's a horrendous call and he's still better than the fair share of managers in the league and be surprised if Swansea can upgrade.

Amount of rimming this bloke was getting last season across the country. Football is fucked up these days. I expected better from the Swansea board, this is horrendous.

Walking out on a team 8th in the league just seems baffling to me, especially when a relegation scrap was mainly called to be on the cards. Seen a few cancelling who were in the relegation thread in the summer/start of the season saying we hardly have a chance of survival. If i was predicting that then found us well clear, surely they are surpassing your expectation? It was a horrific result once again against the mackems but the way we conducted ourselves as fans was nothing short of embarrassing, was the first time i'd ever walked out feeling ashamed to be associated with Newcastle United. That wasn’t just down the performance of the players, the mentality of the manager or the circus in the boardroom, was down to our fanbase as well. I’d say it was a few nuggets running on the pitch, enforcing Krul to have a go at the fans but it was the thousands that totally forgot we were in a derby and after 20 minutes stopped chanting for the players and turned their attention to the board even though there was still a game to be played and plenty of time to get back in the match. Nobody came out of that derby with any sort of credit from a Newcastle perspective, it was an absolutely rotten all round.

your feeling generous Possibly, think Krul saved them over a lower score however.

One went to dugout and threw his ticket at Pardew, another booted the ball away and generally was a total fucktard. Could well have been a third oo Anyone who gets on the pitch from the stands and acts as a fan is a 'fucktard', as much as I don't like Taylor, he should have close lined the bloke before it escalated just as a thank you to Pardew for playing him.

Wullie is quick out today, we got beat. Pardew's fault, awful tactics, awful mentality and awful performance. As much as I think the blame lies on Pardew, there's no need for not one of out players to get no higher than a 4 out of 10. Disgraceful both those on and off it, complete bottlers!

Once people get in the ground, I've no doubt any fan with this awful mentality of thinking we are beat already will change their opinion and be right behind the lads for a win. Atmosphere always takes over the head and the heart and passion comes out. Doesn't matter if we've got Shola or a Sammy or even both playing, you've still got to remember who we are, and who they are and that should give you all the confidence you need.