TomYam

Is that The Vineyard? Back in about 1998/1999 I used to occasionally go there and he was there a couple of times too.

Desperately sad. R.I.P Christian.

My mindset on this subject hasn't changed one iota. 1. The ideal capacity would be about 70,000. 2. The club would need to move in order fulfill its potential. 3. Presuming the arena site is a non-starter, then the club should pursue a move to Castle Leazes. About 300 metres north. 4. The remainder of Castle Leazes and the vacant footprint of St.James's should be incorporated into an extended Leazes Park. Perhaps the club could manage and maintain the park as part of the deal. 5. The city would get a stadium as good as anywhere in Europe and an expanded and renovated city park.

Lazy line for sure, although the unchanging Celtic-Rangers monopoly of the SPL does dull the senses somewhat. Hopefully Hearts will one day soon put up a sustained challenge. Thanks for the update on Kuol.

Re Strawberry Place. If I had my way, I'd build a 30 storey slender glass tower on the most south-westerly section (facing down St.James's Boulevard) and convert the rest into a square. The city needs more green spaces and the site lends itself to a tall building.

A bit lame, perhaps, but easy to sing and si catch on: "Schar, Schar, Schar, Schar... Schar, Schar, Schar, Schar... Hey, hey, hey.... Fabian Scharrr" To Bananarama's Na Na, Hey Hey.

Always the same 4 clubs at the heart of these schemes: ManU, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham. It has been ever thus for almost 40 years.

This is a very realistic alternative/solution and, providing the club has excellent proposals for both stadium and extended park, this would surely be approved as it would enhance the city considerably. Hall's proposals from about 28 years ago involved retaining a reduced St.James's Park as well as building a new stadium. In my opinion that would have been to the detriment of the city - particularly as Hall had a history of promising way more than delivering.

Shola showed a lot of promise and had his good days, but this promise was never fulfilled due to inconsistency, injuries and, no doubt, some poor coaching and too much comfort on his part. He should have been moved on at about age 27. On a personal note, I've only ever heard good things about Shola.

Surely Apple should buy either Braeburn Rovers or Gala Fairydean?

Remarkably, all 7 PL London clubs have been knocked out of the EFL Cup. No more to say on the matter.

David Craig was outstanding both in defence and initiating an attack. He was fast and athletic, but his career was increasingly blighted by injury and he missed both the '74 and '76 Cup Finals. Tripps is probably not as strong defensively, but his leadership and dead ball game probably give him the edge. Sadly we've only got KT for the tail end of his career, while DC was a one club player.

Of course Sunderland are our true rivals - although (sadly for them) they are a long way behind us now. You'd have to go back to the 19th century to a time when Sunderland were a far bigger club, mind; they were a richer, more stable and better run club, but certainly not bigger.

I'm just old enough to remember the tail end of David Craig's career with us - and he set the gold standard prior to Trippier. The two guys that followed DC were good quality too - Irving Nattrass and John Brownlie. Tripps is something else again, though, and has been absolutely crucial in our transformation.

The stadium went through a bad patch around the 1980s - just like the club did and also the state of the game in the UK (stadium disasters, hooliganism, lack of money for all but a few clubs, the rise of the player agent and spiv, hoofball, etc).

I imagine Targett will come back in to the first team once St Maximum returns.

The Central Exchange buildings will only be used for clear and specific purposes - like, for example, exchanging Longstaff and Wood for De Bruyne and Haaland.

I have only hideous memories of Johnson and believe him to have done possibly irreperable damage to this country. Although I can't say the same of Hall, much of the electorate remain in thrall to Johnson.

I always saw Hall as a populist, a narcissist, someome who'd say/do anything to get what he wanted. Yoo could say it was those traits that helped make us such a force for a few years, but it was also thse traits that almost destroyed us before he took total control in 1992 and at the point he sold his shares. He was our equivalent of Boris Johnson.

Again, I'd argue that he was responsible for the club almost going into oblivion. True enough Hall was also the guy who made KK manager and the glorious years that followed.l, but don't forget that his was a hostile takeover (late spring 1988) at a time when we had just finished 8th and things were looking brighter than for many years. The club was lloking for new investors, the PL was being mooted, etc. Had Hall approached the club instead of whipping up a firestorm, then the club wouldn't have auffered those calamatous seasons from 1988-92.

We haven't had a leading professional operation here since the Edwardian era! I'd argue the Hall era began in 1988 and led to in-fighting and relegation. Depending on your opinion, he either got had brilliant foresight to sign KK as manager or it was a deperate last roll of this dice that came up double six. We then went on a wonderful journey for a few years before Hall jumped ship when we hit choppy waters. Everything at the club was built on sand and when it was evident we needed roots investment he shut up shop and then sold up to the first person who was prepared to pay the inflated sale price (Ashley). Our owners are trying to make up decades of ground on the most professionally run clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and ManU - especially in marketing.

I can't say I've given it too much thought but I suggest the essential features of our crest are tue seahorses, castle and black&white stripes. The lion and the little flag it's holding and even the banner with the club's name could be dropped to streamiline the crest. Whatever, I'd definitely cut the blue and red colours.

Clearly you're a young un. I'm 56 and calling us Newcastle or the toon is a recent phenomena (well, post 1992). When I was a lad in the '70s our fans would usually use 'United'. The increase in tv coverage and parroting of the term United as a descriptive term for one selected club has led to even the likes of Alan Shearer adopting this. It grates on me a great deal but, sadly, that ship has sailed.

I recently watched MOTD from 1977. Throughout the game the commentator described us ad 'United'. Back then, our fans called us 'United' - just as Manchester and Sheffield described half their clubs as 'United'. Things started to change in the 1980s and United started being used nationally for Manchester United alone. Surely it was because football became increadingly commercial and ManU were/are the epitome of that. It helped that SheffU slumped after 1976 and NUFC after 1977. Whatever the reason, it caught on like the plague and sadly the United tag has been hijacked by a singular club.

Not sure there's much 'hatred', just a little needle. Truth is Villa, Everton and us, possibly one or two other clubs, look at the Sky 6 and know that (with better timing, wealthier and more proactive owners and more friends in high places) their clubs could or should have been part of that 'elite' group.