TheBrownBottle

Excellent I’m cursed with the knowledge of how much sandstone builds cost £/m2, so I understand why they’re not built - usually because my profession will stick its tongue in its cheek and go ‘it’ll cost you’. When what I really want to say is ‘go for it you mad bastard’

Haha aye fair enough. I think architecture can be awe-inspiring and impressive - but beauty is something else altogether. Maybe I’ve been a QS too long - I’ve heard too many architects talking about their ‘vision’ and been irritated by listening to that shite

Stephen Fry once summed aesthetics up quite well for me - he said that beautiful buildings look like they’ve been pulled up from the earth instead of plonked on top of it Newcastle’s Georgian city centre looks like it’s been hewn from the earth. SJP looks like it has been plonked on top of it

Yep, totally agree. And that Northumbrian light yellow sandstone that makes up huge swathes of Newcastle city centre is just beautiful. Those views don’t need a concrete and glass behemoth looming in the background. I’m definitely not advocating a move out of the city centre (it is where the club should be), but to me its presence there is a necessary sacrifice on the city’s aesthetics rather than the ‘cathedral on the hill’ patter

I agree, and I tend to with most of the things you write on here mate - just can’t agree re the Ashley vs ESL thing

In all honestly you could stick the San Siro at Gallowgate (still my favourite ground I’ve been to with NUFC) and I’d still think it was a blight on the landscape of the city. Just personal taste

Have to disagree. Ashley was a bad owner, a super league rips up a century and a half of history and wrests clubs from their communities

The Sun isn’t the only red top with a glorious history in that dept …

I didn’t die in Flanders Fields to see a Jorman manage England

Champion - good appointment this one

He’s talking about the vaunted investment into the region, not the football club. And he’s right.

Don’t see how there’s an argument against it. It’s precisely what was threatened to be lost when the takeover was on ice. There’s been precious little so far - and it doesn’t take three years to invest in an area.

I agree mate, just saying that short term greed was behind the PL breakaway, it is the same motivations again for a ESL

It’s why we have a PL not a Division One anymore

Most people would agree I think that NUFC haven’t hit the ground running, and we look out of form at the moment. We’ve lost one game in seven in the PL, and every side we’ve played would walk the second division at a canter. I wouldn’t swap them for anyone. Love having them as rivals.

I always thought SJP was a bit of an eyesore tbh - Newcastle has one of the most beautiful city centres in the country. A pile of concrete, steel and glass shouldn’t be towering over it. An 80k SOL replica doesn’t actually leave us much better off. The point would be to increase commercial revenues, not try and sell an extra 30k cheap seats.

He never played no. 10 for any club or side in his career. He was a centre mid, just a painfully slow one - Robson ended up pushing him out wide on the left. I remember watching the U21 Euros in 2002 when he'd signed - he scored against England when they played our side off the park; but me and the two mates watching it just scratched our heads thinking that he looked like he'd have the same issues Veron had.

Can’t see him applying at all. I could see an approach, though.

That’ll dee

£8.5m was decent money in 2002. He’s still the slowest midfielder I’ve seen in B&W. Lad had talent, but he was completely unsuited to English football.

I genuinely blacked out Bellamy’s winner. The train back to Amsterdam that night was great

I’ve always thought that the solution was allowing owners to spend but capped to the turnover of the previous season’s richest club. So if you take over Bournemouth and they have a turnover of £100m, and Man City have a turnover of £600m, then - bingo - you have a lot of spending leeway. It means that you can’t blow the league apart by outspending even the big boys by a ridiculous margin, but you can pump as much money in as a you want until your income is at a level where you don’t need to anymore. Won’t happen due to UEFA regs etc, but it always struck me that what is unfair is the ability to spend well beyond anyone else in the league. If you can only ever match through investment the highest earner, then what’s the issue?

I don’t think he should (or will) either, but I’d understand the temptation

They’d be mad not to at least put out feelers to him. Up to Howe at that point. Could completely see how he’d be tempted given the talent he’d have at his disposal

I could see them appointing him too - he’s cheap