geordiesteve710

How the hell is he still playing professionally? I know alcohol can prematurely age someone's looks but he looked ready l for retirement when he was at the mackems and that must have been a good 7 year ago.

As someone who lives in Leeds I can confirm that a good 90% their fans have turned into insufferable bellends since they got promoted and "belong" or not I will laugh until my cock falls off if they get relegated. Even better if we stay up at their expense. Preferably on goals scored.

Can't really knock the atmosphere since the takeover went through really. Been even better the last three games though. Yesterday probably not quite as good as Tuesday when the crowd really stepped up after the early red card but it felt like a special moment at the end of the game yesterday with the players hugging and majority of the crowd staying behind to chant and cheer them off. Even for a grumpy old git like me.

From what I saw he seemed annoyed at the award of the penalty and was walking away from the goal along the goalline. Probably a bit of kidology, trying to delay as long as possible to jangle the takers nerves. Our fans weren't having it and were ushering him back to goal to get on with it. So he started mimicing back, pointing towards the goal like he was inviting individual fans to take his place and face the penalty. All done with a smile on his face and in good humour I thought. Certainly didn't seem like he was "remonstrating" with anyone like .com put it.

Bloody hell, uncle Pards would be proud of that one.

Just checking here- you don't think the son/phd are anything other than a figment of a very active imagination do you?

There is definitely a reason why the most vocal criticisms have centred on Khasogghi, which was purely perpetrated by KSA and not on Yemen where the West and the UK are absolutely compicit in what's going on.

To clarify, I do have my doubts that "sportswashing" is an effective way to repair/reset a country's brand or image. For example it's never going to magically make everyone forget the abuses and get on their side. But my comment was more aimed at those who doubt the very existence of sportswashing as a concept. You've now got Newcastle fans (often but not always the same people) saying that they just want to watch football but then getting defensive and justifying the ownership every time it is attacked. We are only five weeks in and already Saudi flags are a consistent feature in our away ends. The extreme version is you've now got Keith, a fan who has considerable influence within our fanbase doing a video in arab garb with Saudi flags pinned all over his basement explaining that they're not all that bad and there's much we can learn from each others cultures. And in honesty there are many (not all, obviously) who are happy to hang on his every word and get behind this narrative. Fwiw I also agree with you that journalists are somewhat counter-productive, but as long as they get their clicks that's the main thing for them. This is where sportswashing is clever- it plays on the tribal instincts of football fans. The natural instinct in any close community is to see an attack on one of us as an attack on us all, especially when some of the attacks are aimed at the fanbase itself and worded provocatively often by (if we're honest) hypocritical dickheads. It plays on strong human instincts that are heightened by the passionate, tribal nature of football and I don't agree that it's insulting anyone's intelligence to say that it is a strategy that a) is used and b) potentially could have some success. Put the above together and all of a sudden you've got a section of voices in the UK fighting the Saudis corner and defending what they previously would have seen as the indefensible. Not everyone, but a section, and all of a sudden it's a legitimate debate.

If anyone still has any doubts that sportswashing exists as a concept, I'd point you in the direction of that doylem and a creepy video he did a couple of weeks ago. Horrific stuff.

Gone from a 9 to a 7. Was encouraged by most of the last half hour on Saturday, and it's useful that Howe will get the best part of two weeks with most of the squad. Clearly the next 3 home fixtures are key.

This is my takeaway as well. Amazing what happens when you stop treating every game as if you're a non-league side up against Barcelona

This is it. It's like a division 4 team rocking up at Old Trafford in the cup

Part of me thinks some of the comments aimed at Jones this last week have been a bit harsh. But fuck it, nobody is forcing him to pick this back three. Or put Ritchie up against Lamptey. Brighton have been woeful themselves this half as well. Imagine coming up against this opposition and you're only ahead through a soft penalty.

This is correct

The recruitment side of things gets a lot easier when/if a DoF is appointed, especially if they are a big name. And if they're not, hell surely they Keegan could be appointed to an ambassadorial role and wheeled out whenever they need to talk a player into signing.

Now admittedly I don't keep a particularly close eye on our mates from down the road but have they got a lot of injuries at the minute, or are they as fucked as it looks? Just looked at their game tonight and no idea who most of their team are. Honestly only recognise/ ever heard of three of the starting eleven (and one of them I only recognise because he's named after the strip of skin next to your arsehole.)

Think overall this is a cracking idea like. Wrote a few articles for The Mag back when it was in print and not a big steaming pile of online shitbait. Was really therapeutic and could do with something like thay in my life right now.

If @Stifler gets access to the oven he could do a cookery class once a week?

If it's aimed at putting pressure on KSA then I'm not sure what they're going to achieve other than some nice headlines. It's a bit late for that, the PL already passed them through the test. If they're meeting to advocate introducing human rights into the test in a meaningful way going forward then I'm all for it. The fact that the takeover was held up on account of pirated tv rights but nobody gave a second thought to a journalist being chopped up in an embassy is something I'll never fully comprehend like.

I think there's a difference between: On the one hand the way the media (written media and talksport in particular) go on about NUFC fans as well as, I suppose, the minority of dafties that swallow everything these outlets say. And on the other hand your average match-going English football fan that you meet and speak to before/after games. I agree think that the media love to run an "entitled, delusional geordies" piece especially in the age of the internet where traffic is everything to the business model. It's all a bit old hat now imo, although the widespread furore over the Bruce sacking did surprise me. But the idea that English football fans are, and have been for 20 years, permanently in a seething state of emnity towards NUFC fans is also basically bollocks, despite what RTG would like you to believe.

Given that the trust are (presumably) trying to se what can be gained from these owners in terms of official fan representation within the club they can't exactly be writing to them as "you genocidal scum." Does it sound a bit cheesey? Absolutely and they'll have to take the criticism and lolz on the chin, but I can see why they did it.

It comes across like they have to use it because it's his official title and not using it cpuld be culturally disrespectful. I think it maybe loses something in translation because it sounds a bit daft in English. I thought it was quite funny on the day of the takeover and the presenter on SSN went from basically saying (and I paraphrase) "this awful regime has committed some horrific atrocities. Here's a statement from one of the cunts himself, His Excellency..." sounded completely inappropriate

Correct

Greg's comments are more measured than Hurst (not that that would be hard mind.) I'm just not sure what the article was supposed to achieve or why the trust got involved with it tbf. There isn't even any real insight or novelty to it- the best bits are a rehash of the age old "deluded geordies" argument which Alex does his best to live up to with a bizarre pop at Watford.