TheBrownBottle

Likewise - I don't see us dropping 50m+ on a centre forward when so many positions need recruits. GK, LB, CB, RW etc.

David Bowie's 'Good evening Newcastle' at Roker is of course hilarious because it sums up just how the rest of the country thinks of them. A kind of half-awareness of a place near Newcastle; or is it a part of Newcastle? Who knows. Who the fuck cares. Sheeran is a tiresome lickspittle, though.

That one is my pet peeve, not too fussed about reusing songs. Also, singing at it New Monkey 200bpm speed. Rant awa

If we're doing palindromes, what about the one who got away? Not sure if trialists count, but Massimo Oddo (yes, that one) was at NUFC on trial a couple of decades back. Had a canny career afterwards, so I understand

It’s bold of the club to go for them, but I think you’re spot on re the club’s attractiveness at present. We’ll hear lots of young talent not being ‘sold’ on the ‘project’ in the next year or two. It won’t be that they don’t believe we’ll make it eventually - it is because they need to develop and progress their career now. If I pretend I’m not a Geordie and (stretching it now) pretend I’m a pro footballer being offered a contract by NUFC and one by AC Milan, there’s no way I do anything but sign for Milan - unless the NUFC offer absolutely blows it out of the water. But the club are (sensibly) not looking to destroy the wage structure - so that’s a no-go

It’s entertainingly childish, a bit of fun. Like football itself is meant to be

Yeah, a couple of others here have pointed out that there was a sizeable influx of miners from Sunderland into Ashington for work. Makes sense - I’d (mistakenly) read your post as suggesting that support for Sunderland was intrinsically linked to mining. My misinterpretation tbh

I don’t hate him, don’t really know anyone who does. Just think he’s a shite manager. Plenty of them out there

Their current squad is incomparable to previous ones. Belgium were always solid qualifiers but not much else - over the last five or six years they’ve been peppered with genuine world class talent

Tbf the football must be desperate if they can get twice as many through the gate to listen to Ed Sheeran’s dreary busker shite

I’d definitely take that Twitter stuff from the Italian hack with a massive grain of salt

Absolutely. That we’re in the same conversation with players that they want is unbelievable given the previous decade and a half.

Why would mining turn someone into a Mackem? My granddad worked in the pits in Northumberland, but managed not to become one

Yeah, Ashington always had a high Mackem quota - never understood why, mind Our greatest no.9 grew up as a Sunderland fan in Ashington of course. He saw the light in the end

No idea if the lad will sign or not - but surely no-one could be annoyed at him choosing AC Milan over us? They’re one of the four or five grandest clubs on Earth to me. Admittedly there are parts of my brain which basically froze in the late 90s, but still.

100%. Never understood that one, they’re on the verge of wasting a golden generation of talent. I was deeply worried when we were linked with him before appointing Howe

The French police, UEFA and French govt are confirming it was mainly local ticketless people breaking through the barriers and causing bother: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61685718 I really do think we need to have a think before just pointing accusative fingers at Liverpool’s support generally. Of course they have shithouses in amongst them - so do we, so do most clubs of any reasonable size. I think it is almost guaranteed that if we got to a European final in a city with easy access and enough watering holes, there’d be more Geordies there without tickets than the ones with them - and a decent % of them would undoubtedly try to pay, cheat or burst their way in if the opportunity arose. Glass houses and all that.

The only owner in the PL who managed to shrink commercial revenues

Bede was a MLF.

Don’t be using logic. Logic is for Mags. Aristotle was a post-92 Keeganite

Probably not, but I’d stake a decent amount on the fuckers arguing that this is where we are i just hope that any new sponsorship deals are limited to one- or two-seasons at a time, so that significant increases can be made related to improved performance

And tbf, they’d be able to argue that is reasonable relative to their performance and size Personally, I don’t think sponsorship should be capped - the PL rules are ludicrous,

Liverpool’s deal is worth £30m per season. Adding £25m per season would take our shirt sponsorship past theirs. As raised earlier, West Ham’s is £10m. I reckon that’s where the PL will peg us for now

He wasn't one of our best players - but I was always of the opinion that he was better than Beresford. When Dalglish finally gave him a run at LB post-Keegan, he scored six or seven from LB in a dozen or so games. Dalglish then did the most Dalglish thing ever, and sold him for buttons whilst spunking nearly 5m on Pistone.

Mainly of course because it takes even longer to explain why they're not. Also, they'd not be able to give a sense of where sunderland is without its location relative to Newcastle