TheBrownBottle

Europe is a location, and it is the European Cup - it should be played in Europe.

Honestly, can't they just fuck right off with this shite? It's the European Cup Final ffs. Don't CONCACAF have a continental cup of their own? Just fuck the fuck off. Other than the whole Moscow, Kiev and (part of) Istanbul being in Europe you mean - and them being a couple of hours away by plane from western Europe rather than nearly half a day away?

Looks like it could be one more season of working out if we're within 105m of acceptable losses again, rather than the proportion of squad cost vs turnover. Proper Roy of the Rovers stuff.

Haha I didn’t count the Chelsea semi! I was there too. That Euro96 match must’ve been a pisser for a Scotland fan - and if you’d went to the game a few years later, you’d have seen a Scotland win (Don Hutchison, the Englishman who scored for Scotland against England, also the Geordie who scored for Sunderland against Newcastle. A man not to be trusted )

"Live round the corner ... you only live around the corner" (to the tune of 'Guantanemera') is surely the standard response to 'United' fans at Wembley?

I heard Keith is going again - and was glad to hear it! I'd heard about his ban after Hull away yonks ago. And of course, she also had scraggy raggy hair Can't wait for the 16th mate - and I'll be one of the daft cunts singing at a telly in a bar in Sydney at stupid AM with other like-minded daft bastards!

In the 21st Century, sure. But we got to watch Blackburn win the league; even the Mackems regaled in the 'Bank of England' patter. It is almost as old as football.

I haven't been in years - and for those who don't know, I live in Sydney, so that probably seems like a reasonable excuse. But it isn't really - I boycotted after KK was pushed out (I was a ST holder who would average c. 10 away games per season - yes, there were bigger 'superfans' than me, but that took a serious chunk of my income and time). I would've lost 'the bug' either way after boycotting for so long. Then I fucked off abroad because - in part without the 'structure' of matchdays - I wanted a different life. I point this out because during my years as a 'regular' (c.1989 - 2008) the atmosphere was never perfect - in fact, it was often shite. Thanks mostly I think to Wor Flags, I think the atmosphere has actually improved over the last few years - I can promise any young'un, it really wasn't that good in the past a lot of the time. @Heron and his pals get plenty of kudos on here - absolutely correctly - but you know what, they probably still don't get enough credit! I can still remember the first time I started a chant - it was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes of my life. You feel like a conductor or something. After that, my ridiculously loud voice could be heard starting 'DRRRRRIIIIIINK DRINK WHEREVER YOU MAY BE' or 'Geordie Alouette' etc - or even sometimes one-off originals. And I fucking loved it. Some of you poor bastards likely had your eardrums knackered by my voice at away games, or on a Keith Barrett coach. For that, I don't apologise . It is also why I love reading @NUFC91's posts in this thread - they basically reflect my views as a younger bloke re atmosphere. But if you think that we've lost something recently - we haven't. That's been gone for decades now. The point of this self-aggrandizing post is that I've been both - the lunatic spending every penny on watching NUFC, singing every song non-stop - and also the older, miserable bastard who through distance doesn't go anymore. If you've got a Wembley ticket, make as much noise as you can - this is the entire point of all those shite afternoons in the arse end of nowhere, or watching shite NUFC teams lose at home vs weak opposition. I've been to Wembley four times, and we lost every bastard time. My Charity Shield programme in 1996 has got Warren Barton's signature on it - which, bless him, sums it up. I'd have been even more fucked-off if we'd sat there like day-tripping mutes. So don't sit on your hands - you'll regret it if you do. Cheers

Every fucking club 'bought' their trophies. As if Arsenal's status, revenue and geographical location didn't buy theirs. From the moment Blackburn Olympic won the FA Cup by paying players, all trophies were 'bought'. It is as true in the 2020s as it was in the 1880s - and any cunt denying that is a fucking idiot

That definitely helps (though there was a Man City-supporting lad in my class in high school in the west end of Newcastle - and we're talking 95-98. Looking back, he must've a masochist). Their old fanbase still exists for lads my age and both younger and older - lads and lasses who remember being absolutely shite and suffering in the shadow of their neighbours (who as a 40-odd year old NUFC supporter I still utterly fucking detest). Most of them have retained that cynical edge - they still sort of expect the worst despite being the luckiest sods on the planet over the last 15 years . There are knackers amongst them - like any support - but the Manc lads I've met over the years who support them retained that deeply cynical edge about their club which is embedded into my soul re NUFC. They won the lottery, and they know it - fair fucks to them! I don't have a 'soft spot' for them, exactly - I don't have one for any sizeable club other than us - but I don't give a shite about them, which I cannot say about Man Utd nor the cockney members of the Sky Six.

I still find Man City a hard club to dislike, even with all their trophies (probably because it clearly fucks off their less pleasant red neighbours). Always felt like a naturally 'big club' with a working class support base who'd been shat on for decades by incompetent owners. I want us to win, obviously - but whenever these have won trophies it has been met by a shrug by me - which is as close as I'll ever get to be congratulatory to another club winning things.

Fair play on this comment mind - it made me smile

We shouldn't be fooled, this is still a fucking hard away game - it is still a Pep-managed Man City, just one in a transition season. Any points will still absolutely be unexpected points gained. And on that, I'm going for 2-2.

That doesn't add up to one Alexander Isak for me

I always love a raucous atmosphere, but it does the sum total of fuck all in terms of winning trophies. The players will always make these sort of statements. There is zero connection between crowd noise and winning trophies. If there were, then Arsenal would have won fuck all - ever - and Crystal Palace and West Ham would be London's most successful clubs. We've won nothing in England for seven decades - I don't think this was because our atmosphere has been shit for 70 years. I don't think getting on players' backs helps, of course. But singing makes less than fuck all difference - though that isn't a reason not to do it.

100%. Which automatically rules them out of bidding for any of our 'purples', never mind Isak

Given we paid 63m quid for him, at the current exchange rate of 1.2 Euros to the GBP that means we get our money back. Lucky for us we made such a hefty profit on Lloyd Kelly, given we're looking to sell our best players for the money we paid ...

I suspect our Facebook and Twitter reactions may have some equally grim responses tbf

It’s important that the touts have tickets to sell. Sorry, I mean that the corporate sponsors have loads of tickets they can give to disinterested UK-based staff. Sometimes it’s so easy to get confused.

Play a weakened side vs Liverpool. Job’s a good ‘un

We had two shit teams in 1998 and 1999 playing the league champions each time they too, mind. Fuck me were we dreadful during that period - we were fantastically lucky not to go down in 97/98

I suspect you’re right - more for the PL to avoid the problem of what to do about it. They’d have to find some testicles. The problem with the PL from the off was that the league’s management wasn’t independent of the clubs - it isn’t administered from Lancaster Gate.

Yeah, I know where you’re coming - but I think if he goes he would join another PL club. That’s what I mean by it - I’d be surprised if a bottom six/seven side wouldn’t take him.

Cup finals usually list the teams in alphabetical order - Newcastle (United) vs Liverpool looks odd to me.