TheBrownBottle

They’ve back-pedalled on loads of stuff over the last six months or so - as they were always likely to do. The issue with this one is that it directly hits FIFA - Budweiser will be pissing blood about it. I’ve little sympathy for those over there - if you were going to this WC and treating it like a jolly, more fool you. The quicker this is over the better. The whole thing just seems like a massive damp squib.

I still love Umbro kits, they’re absolute masters of simple, respectful design. I’ll try and forget the ‘barcode’ kit from the early ‘90s (not exactly an era of particularly dapper kits generally). Brentford’s home kit is perfect Umbro - no faff, no frills - standard size stripes and a simple collar I’m sure whatever conservatism is in me is expressed via football. I never feel like this about clothing and traditions outside of the game

Pie face is fantastic - beats Greggs into a cocked hat. I only go once every couple of months. Terrified that I’ll get an addiction to it

I think he used to wilfully miss the ‘left leaning’ stuff in TF - the political bits and Peoples Assembly articles. And the music bits. And the cultural stuff.

I sometimes wonder if I’m the only Geordie on earth who thinks that Greggs food tastes bland and is guaranteed heartburn. Milligans was always the better Newcastle bakery chain. How Greggs went national is a mystery to me

Hated Sherwood as a player, never keen on him as a pundit - but he’s saying some nice things about us at present, which makes me feel momentary guilt for holding those views

Those of a certain vintage will remember him achieving a certain level of ‘fame’ via his constant media appearances for ‘INUSA’ - of which no-one knew anyone who a member, yet somehow the press constantly spoke to - during the ‘Toongate’ scandal in 1998. His work with the FSA has been good mind - effectively operating as a roving embassy for England fans away.

Yeah, we had an interesting discussion on that one. I’m very much in the ‘they’ll sack it off after the WC’ camp

Hurst and his pals are the perfect representation of the modern game. The punk movement - and the birth of fanzine culture which came with it - was homousian with working class football terrace culture. It makes perfect sense that now the game has been Co-opted by middle class Tories, it’s fanzines would be no different. Remember when TF and the Mag started apologetically at first included adverts? Hurst’s taxi firm was one of the first to sponsor them. Fanzine culture in football retained its links with music etc. That’s gone too. I’d be willing to bet Hurst has bought three albums in his life, and two of those were Coldplay. It’s all bought and paid for. TF was utterly dreary towards the end of its run - though I understand it’s in print form again. Personally, I find the podcasts they put out tiresome - but then we’re not exactly well-served on that front.

Sitting on massive reserves of oil and gas has meant that society in KSA has had no need to evolve. It’s still an atavistic form of govt which retards progress, built upon a vicious brand of conservative religious values and completely at odds with what most would consider reasonable. It is for good reason that every time some fucker commits a religiously-inspired atrocity in the name of Islam, said fucker will have been ultimately funded or influenced by the Wahhabist Salafist lunatic strain of the religion which KSA has birthed and has poured money into spreading. Note that the elites in KSA don’t feel any compunction to follow the rules that they set. They’ve been living it large for years, with their billion-dollar yachts with gold-plated bogs. A mate of mine who worked in KSA - and drank in the embassies over there - noted that the elites didn’t exactly follow the laws that the hoi polloi had to suffer, under the literal threat of the lash for imbibing a drop of alcohol. Any notion that there will be a cultural cross-pollination via NUFC is laughable. The entire purpose of ME despots buying sports clubs is the soft power that they offer. It’s got nothing to do with profits, and nothing to do with ‘sportswashing’. The only thing that will free the people of KSA will be the people of KSA overthrowing a vicious dictatorship. No-one should feel any guilt whatsoever for enjoying watching their football club - but anyone who wants to raise concerns re KSA has my support.

It’s a bizarre rule when you think about it; a Brazil squad player would have issues that a regular international for the Cook Islands might not. Luckily, every South American player ever happens to be eligible for a Greek/Italian/Spanish/Portuguese passport. Phew. Oddly enough, this doesn’t seem to be the case for all the other non-footballing S Americans.

Few people outside of France give half a shite about Ligue 1 - PSG will drop off the radar after the WC, when their use to Qatar diminishes. It’s incredible how many great players France produces when it’s not particularly well supported over there - PSG is the only ‘big’ club in Paris, and has always struggled to fill the Parc des Princes. It just isn’t a big footballing city. Lyon - the dominant side in France previously - aren’t exactly a massive attraction globally.

No, the crimes of British govts past don’t mean we shouldn’t speak out about crimes committed by govts in the present. The Raj hasn’t existed in three quarters of a century. I don’t hold today’s Germans responsible for the Holocaust.

Hang on, even if it was relevant - the Arabs fought with the British against the Turks. The modern state of KSA was carved out of the Ottoman Empire after the war. I mean even if they know fuck all about history, surely they’ve seen Lawrence of Arabia?

‘So yer see marra, aal of their achievements mean nowt because errr … it’s like aal blurd money an that like’ [spanish barman]: ¿podrías dejar de hablar? maldito imbécil ‘aye, erm … then like we’re more ethical and that. That’s why nee-one owa here has hord of us’

Howe: fans applauded Bruce: fans defrauded

BRE still talks about ‘no sky lines’ and vertical sky components etc. It would require an actual assessment to be done. It’s been a few years so my old RICS guidance notes are falling away from my memory I’m afraid

They’ve never seen ‘good’, that’s the problem. The best they’ve ever seen - and they’ll happily tell you this themselves - was in 99-00. That’s when they finished 7th with ‘diagonal passes’ were played from deep onto Niall Quinn’s heed. They finished a colossal SIX points and four places above NUFC that season - that was the year Robson saved us from looking like relegation fodder. We were shite that year.

Yep, there was a couple of superb first-time reverse passes - technically very difficult to pull off and he did it running at full pelt.

Yep, structurally it would be tricky and would likely require pillars to the underside of the top tier if it were built. The ‘right to light’ of course is the other issue - but it should always be remembered that we don’t actually know the extent of the impact (the Waldram Method is actually very conservative on light allowances), and of course depending on the circumstances there is the opportunity to pay compensation if needed. It might well be possible to lift the east stand higher without breaching Waldram’s 1/500th rule

Those bottom two tiers is what I was thinking with a new East Stand. A shallow bottom tier with a steeper tier above. It would increase capacity and let’s face it the 50-year-old East Stand is a bit shabby really. What should also be considered is dropping the pitch a couple of metres (including getting rid of the ‘slope’) and adding another couple of rows

Christ, I was in that top tier at OT in 98. You could literally feel it move - it was like experiencing an earthquake. It was a bit unnerving

Yes, but the number of tiers you can build when you are limited by how high you can build determines capacity. The East Stand isn’t optimised as originally it had corporate boxes - they were replaced by a continuous gradient in the mid-90s. The stand could be double tiered if redeveloped without the need to go any further back

It does if you intend to expand capacity by growing the stand vertically. The East Stand being redeveloped is the no-brainer one for me. You’re limited on space due to the road as well as Leazes Terrace itself.

cf ‘making a virtue of a reality’