TheBrownBottle

I’m curious how they square the circle that they’ve created for themselves - because by that logic Howe is a better manager than Mourinho (I think he is today, but I know that won’t be their view …)

I’d be happier seeing him leaving a bookies

The highlights of the second leg were shown that night on BBC1 at 11pm

It’s a different stadium tbf, which is what I meant. In terms of the walk, I must have made that journey several hundred times - I never got particularly misty-eyed when doing it (though I often had unstable vision). Never really had a fixed route, either - depended on the watering hole that was favoured that day. Each to their own, perhaps others get sentimental about the walk to the ground - not looking to take the mick if they do. But I never did tbh.

You can add Willock to that, too

He absolutely is in their pocket - he’s paid a ten figure sum to manage their asset. He’s proof that having money doesn’t mean you’re not a mug

Yeah, I think she was right too. Ashley’s reign had basically bottomed-out our value. A paint job and some TLC would likely have doubled the value relatively quickly.

True, but from memory didn’t Staveley say that PIF were looking to buy into football - and she presented NUFC and basically sold them on the idea that this was the club to buy?

I can. It’s a petulant and childish response - and a Forest win wouldn’t be any less damaging for Luton than an Everton win. To accuse the referee of acting in the interest of Luton brings the game into disrepute. Forest should be charged - and whoever runs their Twitter account should have their toys taken away

Rugby league is called ‘football’ or ‘footy’ here in NSW. Rugby properly is called rugby union football or rugby league football, as opposed to association football. I guess most folks will call football whichever code of the game is the most popular where they are. I don’t watch gridiron either, but each to their own like.

Yeah, I don't think the lad shirks. If anything he is open for the ball constantly - I get far more frustrated with his dawdling on the ball than owt else

Isak won’t be off this summer - and when (if) he does go, Arsenal and Spurs won’t be in the picture

Yep - there is no argument that certainly before WWII, Sunderland were one of the biggest clubs in England

Incredible to think that their most recent spell under the much-loathed Ellis Short was their second-longest unbroken term in the top flight - ten seasons

In the top division: Newcastle - 34 out of the last 40 Sunderland - 17 out of the last 40

The fact that Ashley had any say in signings is depressing; talking about 4-4-2 and having two left wingers. He knew nowt about football

Good lad

This could all be true, but Tonali was almost certainly intended to replace Longstaff in the starting XI

I’m from Newcastle, didn’t realise that was an option The ground does not equal the club. If that is the case, and we move, I presume you’ll go and support someone else?

Yeah, I agree there’s definitely consequences to a move - particularly if it is a distance from the site. I do think that a club has a ‘soul’ of sorts. It’s a balancing act - like I said, I don’t think those who don’t want to move are ‘wrong’ in any meaningful sense. Also agree re West Ham. That’s the worst possible move - it’s not fit for purpose, that ground. It’s not a football stadium

I know the history of SJP. I’ve read enough books on NUFC. I also don’t like what football’s become in terms of the anodyne match day experience and the pushing out of traditional local working class support. I don’t like the ‘Americanisation’ of football. I don’t like shit kickoff times, the decimation of the FA Cup, the all-pervasive greed which has wreaked havoc on the football pyramid. But the game has changed, and that seems unlikely to be fixed. And if it isn’t to be changed back then all I want is to see a competitive NUFC. I don’t get emotional about where a rectangle of grass is situated tbh. It’s not an irreplaceable structure. Many of England’s biggest clubs have moved home, or are likely to in the not too distant future. If staying at SJP leaves us behind, then I don’t give a monkeys about going. Preferably there would be a solution to stay; but thanks to Newcastle’s relative isolation - and the fact that it is unlikely that the obvious and grown-up prospect of ground sharing with our favourite neighbours for a couple of years during a rebuild has zero chance of occurring - it’s either stay and get left behind or build somewhere else. No issue with those who want to stay, but they shouldn’t pretend that staying would have no consequences on the club’s future.

3-1 to NUFC

It definitely would. I’m not at all worried about the ‘what happens when we’re shite’ discussions. We don’t know when or if that will happen - and even if it did, the club still had big gates for most of the Ashley era. It’s a long time since I was on a half empty terrace with my dad at SJP

Sunderland’s continuing presence in the lower leagues next season means that for those of us born in 1982 they will have spent more than half our lifetimes outside the top flight. I propose that they aren’t stuck there - it’s their natural home