TomYam

I certainly despise ManU. I also have a strong dislike for Everton, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Sunderland, Villa, Arsenal and Stevenage. Something like in that order. The dislike for ManU is many faceted, but most of all down to the all-consuming promotion of that club. I'm in SEAsia now and ManU seems to compete with Pepsi and CocaCola in terms of inculcating the masses. ManU (along with Spurs), more than any other club, has been at the forefront of unwanted commercialism and money-grabbing that has perverted association football.

Presently, we can finish anywhere from 3rd to 11th. Likelihood is we'll finish 4th to 7th. Stating the obvious, but if we defeat ManU, the resulting confidence, coupled with a busier fixture list for most of our rivals, would make a CL finish highly plausible. So let's screw the 'biggest football club in the world' and make a real statement of intent.

Not sure if mentioned before, but just watched a C4 news story re the Tyne Bridge kittiwakes and learned Alex Thomson is a longstanding NUFC fan.

I only want Everton to drop and Leicester to stay up. No strong feelings on the others, really, but would choose West Ham and Palace to go down too.

If not us, I'd rather it was Brighton to finish 4th than the other contenders. Still want Leeds to win, though.

Are you doubting the BBC's impartiality rules?

Agree with all you've written here.

Yes. If I were an investor worth multiple billions of pounds/dollars/euros, and had no particular club affiliation (which very few, if any, have), I'd choose to buy a long underperforming club with a past pedigree and large and passionate supporter base. A club that has the potential to compete at the very top and, if not for the advent of the PL and the nouveau "elite" clubs, could have reached the peak a decade or two ago; eg. one of the Sheffield clubs or, cough, Sunderland.

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.