TomYam

A big one for sure, but surely the biggest 'what ifs'? would surely relate to disasters like the outbreak of two world wars (eg. would Charlton Athletic have become a dominant force of not for WWII ?) and, particularly, how different would the story of ManU have played if they had decided to book themselves into a hotel in Munich instead of trying to take off for a third time? The likelihood is they'd have won many more trophies over the next 10 years but would not have become the monolithic club that they became subsequently. The club - quite understandably - gained enormous numbers of new supporters after that hideous event and Busby and players like Charlton and Foulkes had an almost superhuman drive to succeed afterward.

30th January, 1977, NUFC were in the chasing pack behind Liverpool, but our manager resigned and joined Everton. Before leaving he told the players his 'coach' (ball collector and pair of ears), Richard Dinnis, would make a good replacement. 18 months earlier Gordon Lee had replaced Joe Harvey as manager. Lee had strong political opinions that permeated into his football pholosophy and believed the team should operate as a singular unit without stardust and theatrical footwork. Out went Supermac and Terry Hibbitt. In came Alan Gowling, Geoff Nulty and pragmatic football. Led by Nulty, seconded by Tommy Craig and Gowling, while also seemingly supported by Tommy Burns, Irving Nattrass and Alan Kennedy, the players threatened to go on strike if Richard Dinnis was not appointed permanent manager. The weak and embattled board of directors caved in to player power! All went well enough for the remaing 3 months of the season, but the team lost 4 of their last 5 games and close season quickly showed the ineptitude of our novice and meek manager. Season 1977-78 started with a win but we then lost 12 consecutive domestic games. The kindly (if hopeless) Dinnis was sacked and, true to form, he was replaced by the sergeant-majorly disciplinarian, Bill McGarry. SBR to Sourness or Ossie Ardiles to Jim Smith, anyone? Sliding doors: what would have happened if the board had stood firm? We may well have struggled in February as we appointed a new manager (Ian Greaves and Graham Taylor were top of the list), but we surely wouldn't have had the calamatous season and ignominious relegation which followed. A dark cloud hovered over the club from 1977 to 1982 - could it all have been avoided?

Yes. Dalglish failed as manager for us. In one year we changed from a wildly exciting team that had finished second in consecutive seasons into a lower midtable team of dullards. He got a few transfers right but more wrong. However..... Keegan's great forte was his unbridled positivity and charisma. Hall had spent a lot of money that had been promised to KK. Now he wanted to that money back as he was no benefactor. After KK walked away after one too many broken promises from Hall, Dalglish came in under financial strictures. Also, as pointed out elsewhere, a club restructure had to be undertaken after KK had - peculiarly and short-sightedly - disolved the reserve team.

I'm delving back further in our history and the career-ending (essentially) injuries to two of our greatest players. Len White's ankle ligaments were torn asunder after a violent tackle from specialist leg-breaker, Dave Mackay of Spurs. Len was by far our best player and, without him, we were relegated. He never really recovered. Tony Green suffered unfortunate knee ligament damage during a match early in season 1972-73 that ended his career aged 25. United had some seriously talented players - with the brilliant and consistent TG seemingly being the final piece of the puzzle to help make us likely challengers at the top of the table; without TG that team became hopelessly inconsistent and mid-table.

Based on 1) geographical spread, 2) clubs I feel more affinity with and 3) some real history: 1. Newcastle United 2. Ipswich Town 3. Plymouth Argyle 4. Sheffield United 5. Sunderland 6. Norwich City 7. Swansea City 8. WBA 9. Wolves 10. Coventry City 11. Charlton Athletic 12. Manchester City 13. Hull City 14. Portsmouth 15. Preston North End 16. Burnley 17. Leicester City 18. Peterborough 19. Nottingham Forest 20. Derby County

This rsole was one of brexit's leading advocates/impostors; he went into tax exile in Monaco just in time for out formal departure. A supporter of Chelsea and ManU, he certainly has a track record of split loyalties. Sadly this multi billionaire grifter - in the way they usually do - has massive influence over this shitstain government and a few handy friends in the Labour ranks too. Flying the flag for Manchester, London from Monaco.

It was a league game. Our ladies are in pole position but it's now a three horse/car/team race.

Perhaps I exaggerated slightly. However, Maidstone beating Ipswich changes the destination of the Cup not one iota while Ipswich defeating Liverpool very much could.

Hereford were elected to the 4th division at the end of the season (having finished 2nd in the 5th tier Southerm League), replacing an unfortunate Barrow who had finished several points ahead of Crewe and Stockport. There had been about 3 postponements leading up to the game at Hereford. It had been a one-sided game on a hideously muddy pitch until Radford equalised a couple of minutes from the end of the game. They scored a second in extra time.

It is....and yet for at least 30 years I've believed the only real cup upsets are when a lower league club beat one of the 'Sky 5/6". Imo Ipswich (22nd) winning away at Liverpool would be a bigger shock than Ipswich losing at home to Maidstone.

Come on Town!

If done correctly and openly on that Castle Leazes plot AND with an extended park very few would object. Most who objected in the '90s were set against the plan to retain St James's (possibly in reduced form) AND build a new stadium on Castle Leazes. Offering an extended and enhanced Leazes Park, while building a new state-of-the-art stadium, would override the objections of all but a handful of hardcore idealist environmentalists.

Ok, but if just a bit of it then it sounds like your talking about the strongly mooted Castle Leazes (ie. town moor) proposal - broadly similar to Hall's plan from the mid '90s. That plan could see an enlarged Leazes Park IF St.James's Park were demolished (unlike Hall's).

Huddersfield, Hull, Rotherham, Reading.

Not sure if you're on a wind-up but - as has been stated numerous times before - digging up Leazes Park (Newcastle's only city centre park, the oldest park citywide and Grade II listed) could never happen. So, on that basis, you don't want a stadium move.

I'm hearing that Nemo is signing up as our official fish sponsor.

True. Until two seasons ago they had spent as much time in the 4th tier as the first. Over the course of their history, their average position has been about 4th in the 3rd tier. On a par with Barnsley certainly, or possibly Grimsby, Plymouth, Hull, Bradford and Rotherham. Unlike those other towns, however, Brighton has long had a booming population and economy.

With more than 30,000 members of the Saudi royal family, including 4,000 princes, I expect most institutions and large companies in SA are owned by them. Needless to say, Middle Eastern countries like SA, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar don't have a whole lot in common with Western Europe.

Yes, but the 64,000 dollar (and potential stadium capacity) question is 'would the majority of our fans be prepared to move into a new stadium elsewhere in the city centre?'

? I think they mean they're now considering setting their sights higher than a 10,000 expansion of Villa Park.

Kevin Scott? Would have been a decent free signing although his value would surely be closer to that than £850,000 - as I'm sure Leffe would agree.

Some are (naughty things). Some aren't (thickies).

Portsmouth v Southampton is worthy of mention.

Not as much luck as in season 1980-81 when I believe 8 players were able to play every game that season. The remaining 3 first team players missed only a handful of games each. Knocked out in tue 3rd round of both cups, they avoided injuries and played far fewer games than their nearest rival, Ipswich. Ipswich beat Aston Villa home and away and also in the FA Cup. They had a 4-pronged pursuit of trophies but ultimately, due to an unforgiving fixture schedule (66 games) and a crippling injury list, they won only the UEFA Cup. At seasons end, they were given the award of 'European Team of the Year' for their brilliant football and yet, ultimately, they finished behind a far inferior Villa.

There's a lot of empty land, as well as vacant or tertiary commercial/light industrial units adjacent to or in the vicinity of the Arena. If the desire was there to purchase pretty much every parcel of land all the way to Newcastle Business Park, it would get done.