The Magedia Thread - Sunderland suck trollolololol

[Thespence]

Another tosser - for a "small club", these wankers spend a lot of their time "wriiting" about us.............

 

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/32424/No-Toon-are-not-the-special-ones

 

The writer of this is a sunderland fan

 

Mick Dennis is a Norwich City fan

[Mick]

 

Mick Dennis is a Norwich City fan

 

Close enough, still a sad mackem.

[Wallace]

I think it is daft when people compare average attendances for teams from different periods as Mick Dennis has done - it ignores lots of other contributing factors.  For example, in the 80s football reached it's nadir and attendances all over were falling whilst in the 90s, it was a boom period.  What about unemployment back in the early 80s and then the loadsamoney attitude of the 90s.  Football was out of fashion and then it was back in fashion.

 

Newcastle in the 80s was a depressed city hugely affected by the economic situation of the time and in the 90s started to regain its confidence and redeveloped itself.  Was that the situation with City or with Norwich?  Maybe, maybe not but unless you address those issues in the argument, it is a pointless discussion.

 

No doubt in the future, people will say Newcastle had an average attendance of 36,000 in the early 90s compared with 52,000 10 years later but will omit to say that the ground capacity had increased.

 

 

 

[Nicky]

Lovely reply to that from nufc.com;

 

 

 

Hopefully you didn't have the misfortune to come across this rotten piece of journalism in the self-proclaimed "world's greatest newspaper" (that's the Daily Express if you hadn't guessed...!).

 

Egotist and Sky favourite, Mick Dennis, did what any lazy journalist does and picked some attendance figures out of nowhere to try and justify his own small-minded agenda:

 

Newcastle (population 280,000) had an average attendance of just 16,879 when they had a dodgy season in what is now the Championship in 1991. Norwich (population 126,000) had an average of 24,545 last season despite a dismal Championship campaign.

 

Or what about Leeds? They know a bit more about disappointment than Newcastle, I’d suggest, yet in the third tier attendances have averaged more than 27,000.

 

When Manchester City were playing at that level, they drew an average of 28,273. Nottingham Forest, another club who could tell Newcastle a tale or too about unfulfilled hopes, managed an average of 20,612 in League One last season.

 

Of course, attendances are not the only measure of loyalty or passion. That’s why I’d nominate the supporters of Rochdale as being truly remarkable. There are fewer than 3,000 hardcore fans, but they punt up week after week to cheer, despite having precious little to cheer about. Dale are the least successful club in the history of the Football League.

 

This was preceded by this patronising and ill-judged twaddle:

 

For generations most of us have rather liked Geordies. On the whole they are sociable folk, and it is good they have a strong sense of identity and are proud of their area and its heritage.

 

Most of us have quite liked their football club as well. And we have empathised with their lack of trophies, and cherish memories of the kamikaze style they developed the last time Keegan was in charge.

 

But his third coming as a Messiah has helped sustain the Geordie delusion that Newcastle are a “special” club, whose success is pre-ordained – and that has infuriated the rest of the land beyond endurance.

 

Where to begin....

 

We're not sure where Mick got his population stats from but 2001 census figures state:

 

443,247 Leeds (W.Yorkshire 1,499,465)

394,269 Manchester (Greater Manchester 2,240,430)

249,584 Nottingham (Nottingham Urban area 666,358)

189,863 Newcastle (Tyneside 879,996)

174,047 Norwich (Norfolk 816,500)

 

Comparing Newcastle's attendances in 1990-91 with Nottingham Forest's or Norwich's in 2006-07 is absolutely ludicrous.

 

How about comparing our 1990-91 average (16,879) languishing in Division 2 with Norwich's in 1990-91 (15,468) mid-table in Division 1?

 

Or how about the season before - Newcastle (21,590) in Division 2 compared to Brian Clough's League Cup winners Forest (20,606) in Division 1. Oh, and Nottingham's population is larger. It may not be a one club city but County's average that season was only 6,151 while our near neighbours averaged 17,987.

 

And what about Leeds?? That'll be another one club city, just like us, but with a population more than double. Leeds won the First Division Championship with an average crowd of 29,459 in 1991-92 - just 26,582 turned up for the penultimate home league game. A year later we won Division 2 with an average of 29,018.

 

And what about the 80s Mick? Leeds' averages were 15,994 (1982-83), 15,493 (1983-84), 15,161 (1984-85), 13,259 (1985-86) which included three sub-10,000 home league crowds and an amazing 2,274 (not a typo) for a Full Members Cup game against Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United.

 

And then there's Manchester City....

 

If Newcastle ever tumbled into the third tier and were immediately promoted we'd suggest attendances would be at least 28,000, if not more. But why pick out our 1990-91 season and compare it to their 1998-99 season?

 

Let's look at their 1964-65 average crowd (14,753) in Division 2 and compare it with ours (35,659) also in Division 2. Or the season before when City finished above us in Division 2 (18,201) compared to our 29,426.

 

Or we could get really silly and look at our 56,283 average in Division 2 and compare it with City's 42,725 in Division 1 in the 1947-48 season. Judging by Mick's craggy features, he can probably remember it.

 

We also feel obliged to mention City's 3,007 for their game against Mansfield (658 were away fans) in their promotion winning season 1998-99. Auto Windscreen Trophy it may have been but where were they when they were sh*t?

 

The Rochdale stuff is just plain barking. Every league team in the land has a hard core of 2,000 who will turn up to every game. So what? Rochdale deserve no more plaudits than anyone else.

 

To quote Brian Tabner's Through the Turnstiles,

 

"Rochdale have always struggled at the turnstiles. In only two seasons since 1921 have they finished with an above average attendance, the most recent being 1926-27. They have finished as the worst supported League club six times...."

 

If Mick doesn't like us or Kevin Keegan any more, then fine, we don't really care but to try and justify it with meaningless attendance statistics just makes him look an even bigger twit than he does already. And that takes some doing....

 

[Turnbull2000]

I see the Telegraph's business editor had a dig yesterday

 

It was a short piece on how you can bet on "the joke known as Newcastle United FC" total Premiership spoint count against the value of Northern Rock shares.

 

 

[Rich]

I'm loving all of this stuff, personally. People can't stop talking about us.

[Guest alex]

Cracking retort from .com there like.

[Rich]

Newcastle making drama out of a crisis

By Michael Henderson

 

It's good news either way for Newcastle fans this weekend, as they follow their team to London. They can toddle along to the Emirates Stadium, to see Arsenal educate them in the art of beautiful football, or they can jump on the Piccadilly Line into the West End, and see what a theatre looks like.

 

If we are to take Kevin Keegan at his own word, which is not compulsory, going to the theatre is one of those customs exclusive to people 'down south'. An odd view, one might think, considering that the highly-acclaimed Sage at Gateshead, which brings all forms of entertainment to the people of the north east, lies just across the Tyne from St James' Park.

 

Which dramas best suit Newcastle? For their manager, naturally, there is The Homecoming. Given the general palaver surrounding their former No 9, Noises Off is appropriate for Alan Shearer, while the players King Kev has inherited would fit snugly into Black Comedy.

 

When the Halls were running the show the club appeared to be A Small Family Business. Now that Mike Ashley, he of the replica shirt, is in charge, it's more like The Pyjama Game. The fans, who pine for The Coast of Utopia, have had to endure many a Long Day's Journey into Night.

 

As events up there constantly teeter on the brink of farce perhaps they can all join in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, with its rousing chorus of 'tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight'. Oh aye, tonight and every night. Or, in remembrance of Big Sam Allardyce, there is always A Chorus of Disapproval.

 

But there is really only one play for the Tyneside Mummers. It was written by the father of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen: When We Dead Awaken.

[Guest thenorthumbrian]

Lovely reply to that from nufc.com;

 

 

 

Hopefully you didn't have the misfortune to come across this rotten piece of journalism in the self-proclaimed "world's greatest newspaper" (that's the Daily Express if you hadn't guessed...!).

 

Egotist and Sky favourite, Mick Dennis, did what any lazy journalist does and picked some attendance figures out of nowhere to try and justify his own small-minded agenda:

 

Newcastle (population 280,000) had an average attendance of just 16,879 when they had a dodgy season in what is now the Championship in 1991. Norwich (population 126,000) had an average of 24,545 last season despite a dismal Championship campaign.

 

Or what about Leeds? They know a bit more about disappointment than Newcastle, Id suggest, yet in the third tier attendances have averaged more than 27,000.

 

When Manchester City were playing at that level, they drew an average of 28,273. Nottingham Forest, another club who could tell Newcastle a tale or too about unfulfilled hopes, managed an average of 20,612 in League One last season.

 

Of course, attendances are not the only measure of loyalty or passion. Thats why Id nominate the supporters of Rochdale as being truly remarkable. There are fewer than 3,000 hardcore fans, but they punt up week after week to cheer, despite having precious little to cheer about. Dale are the least successful club in the history of the Football League.

 

This was preceded by this patronising and ill-judged twaddle:

 

For generations most of us have rather liked Geordies. On the whole they are sociable folk, and it is good they have a strong sense of identity and are proud of their area and its heritage.

 

Most of us have quite liked their football club as well. And we have empathised with their lack of trophies, and cherish memories of the kamikaze style they developed the last time Keegan was in charge.

 

But his third coming as a Messiah has helped sustain the Geordie delusion that Newcastle are a special club, whose success is pre-ordained and that has infuriated the rest of the land beyond endurance.

 

Where to begin....

 

We're not sure where Mick got his population stats from but 2001 census figures state:

 

443,247 Leeds (W.Yorkshire 1,499,465)

394,269 Manchester (Greater Manchester 2,240,430)

249,584 Nottingham (Nottingham Urban area 666,358)

189,863 Newcastle (Tyneside 879,996)

174,047 Norwich (Norfolk 816,500)

 

Comparing Newcastle's attendances in 1990-91 with Nottingham Forest's or Norwich's in 2006-07 is absolutely ludicrous.

 

How about comparing our 1990-91 average (16,879) languishing in Division 2 with Norwich's in 1990-91 (15,468) mid-table in Division 1?

 

Or how about the season before - Newcastle (21,590) in Division 2 compared to Brian Clough's League Cup winners Forest (20,606) in Division 1. Oh, and Nottingham's population is larger. It may not be a one club city but County's average that season was only 6,151 while our near neighbours averaged 17,987.

 

And what about Leeds?? That'll be another one club city, just like us, but with a population more than double. Leeds won the First Division Championship with an average crowd of 29,459 in 1991-92 - just 26,582 turned up for the penultimate home league game. A year later we won Division 2 with an average of 29,018.

 

And what about the 80s Mick? Leeds' averages were 15,994 (1982-83), 15,493 (1983-84), 15,161 (1984-85), 13,259 (1985-86) which included three sub-10,000 home league crowds and an amazing 2,274 (not a typo) for a Full Members Cup game against Yorkshire rivals Sheffield United.

 

And then there's Manchester City....

 

If Newcastle ever tumbled into the third tier and were immediately promoted we'd suggest attendances would be at least 28,000, if not more. But why pick out our 1990-91 season and compare it to their 1998-99 season?

 

Let's look at their 1964-65 average crowd (14,753) in Division 2 and compare it with ours (35,659) also in Division 2. Or the season before when City finished above us in Division 2 (18,201) compared to our 29,426.

 

Or we could get really silly and look at our 56,283 average in Division 2 and compare it with City's 42,725 in Division 1 in the 1947-48 season. Judging by Mick's craggy features, he can probably remember it.

 

We also feel obliged to mention City's 3,007 for their game against Mansfield (658 were away fans) in their promotion winning season 1998-99. Auto Windscreen Trophy it may have been but where were they when they were sh*t?

 

The Rochdale stuff is just plain barking. Every league team in the land has a hard core of 2,000 who will turn up to every game. So what? Rochdale deserve no more plaudits than anyone else.

 

To quote Brian Tabner's Through the Turnstiles,

 

"Rochdale have always struggled at the turnstiles. In only two seasons since 1921 have they finished with an above average attendance, the most recent being 1926-27. They have finished as the worst supported League club six times...."

 

If Mick doesn't like us or Kevin Keegan any more, then fine, we don't really care but to try and justify it with meaningless attendance statistics just makes him look an even bigger twit than he does already. And that takes some doing....

 

 

Well done nufc.com, can there be anyone who genuinely believes that the London gutter press doesn't have an agenda of hatred towards Newcastle United and this region in general ? 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Thing is, they just print whatever will sell at the time, during the first Keegan era they were loving us.

[Guest alex]

Newcastle making drama out of a crisis

By Michael Henderson

 

It's good news either way for Newcastle fans this weekend, as they follow their team to London. They can toddle along to the Emirates Stadium, to see Arsenal educate them in the art of beautiful football, or they can jump on the Piccadilly Line into the West End, and see what a theatre looks like.

 

If we are to take Kevin Keegan at his own word, which is not compulsory, going to the theatre is one of those customs exclusive to people 'down south'. An odd view, one might think, considering that the highly-acclaimed Sage at Gateshead, which brings all forms of entertainment to the people of the north east, lies just across the Tyne from St James' Park.

 

Which dramas best suit Newcastle? For their manager, naturally, there is The Homecoming. Given the general palaver surrounding their former No 9, Noises Off is appropriate for Alan Shearer, while the players King Kev has inherited would fit snugly into Black Comedy.

 

When the Halls were running the show the club appeared to be A Small Family Business. Now that Mike Ashley, he of the replica shirt, is in charge, it's more like The Pyjama Game. The fans, who pine for The Coast of Utopia, have had to endure many a Long Day's Journey into Night.

 

As events up there constantly teeter on the brink of farce perhaps they can all join in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, with its rousing chorus of 'tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight'. Oh aye, tonight and every night. Or, in remembrance of Big Sam Allardyce, there is always A Chorus of Disapproval.

 

But there is really only one play for the Tyneside Mummers. It was written by the father of modern drama, Henrik Ibsen: When We Dead Awaken.

If he's going to try and be clever he should at least know the Sage is a music venue. And btw, if Keegan or anyone else had been proclaiming Newcastle/Gateshead/the North-East were cultural centres due to the likes of the Sage and Baltic they'd have been scoffing at that too.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Where was that one printed? The editor should be embarrassed...

[Rich]

Telegraph. One of the worst articles I've seen on there, utterly pointless.

[Guest alex]

That comment by KK really pissed people off imo (the theatre thing) and the reason is because it was true.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

We actually have a brilliant theatre, frequented by the RSC, but the guy mentions the Sage instead? That's research for you.

[Rich]

That comment by KK really pissed people off imo (the theatre thing) and the reason is because it was true.

 

I'm not sure I fully believe the comment itself, I'm not sure even Keegan does, but I love what it was designed to do and has subsequently done, if you get me.

 

He's not a daft bloke like.

[Guest alex]

We actually have a brilliant theatre, frequented by the RSC, but the guy mentions the Sage instead? That's research for you.

Just what I was thinking. Re: what Janitor says I know people up here are interested in the arts, whether that by poetry, theatre, paintings, ballet or whatever. I like going to the Laing now and again myself, ponce that I am, but KK was genuine in what he said imo and there is definitely more interest amongst a greater proportion of the population in the North East in football than there is in lots of parts of the country. It's a genuine and pretty knowledgable interest too which you just wouldn't find across the board in the South East.

[Rich]

We actually have a brilliant theatre, frequented by the RSC, but the guy mentions the Sage instead? That's research for you.

Just what I was thinking. Re: what Janitor says I know people up here are interested in the arts, whether that by poetry, theatre, paintings, ballet or whatever. I like going to the Laing now and again myself, ponce that I am, but KK was genuine in what he said imo and there is definitely more interest amongst a greater proportion of the population in the North East in football than there is in lots of parts of the country. It's a genuine and pretty knowledgable interest too which you just wouldn't find across the board in the South East.

 

I was looking at it the other way more than anything. Because Keegan was speaking at a press conference and only people really interested in football would be watching/listening I simply think the comment was designed to rile the majority of the press. That's why I think it was a calculated comment more than anything, because of where and how it was said, and because of who he was in the room with at the time. He was speaking to blokes who've given their careers to the game, for the most part, and all the Southerners watching down south would most likely be football fans as well.

 

Personally I know a lot of Southerners, and they're all far more interested in supporting their respective teams than they are in the theatre. I'm not sure KK would make such a sweeping, generalising statement about the majority of this country's population without having an agenda behind it.

 

I just think he wanted to wind them up and play on the "us and them" mentality, to help himself and the club more than anything and fair play to him, because it's worked a treat. He'll have to back it up though, big style, because there'll be many hoping Arsenal trounce us at the weekend now. I'd even love a fighting draw and then getting into them psychologically by going on about bringing them back "up here" for the replay.

 

I might be giving him too much credit here, but it's how I'd like to read into it. First and foremost we need to make teams fear coming to St. James' again, comments like that one can only help in that respect.

[Guest alex]

You could well be right there like.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

True, and Keegan is quite emotional and nostalgic by nature... so I wouldn't be surprised if he partly believes in what he said genuinely.

[Guest Slippery Sam]

We actually have a brilliant theatre, frequented by the RSC, but the guy mentions the Sage instead? That's research for you.

 

Exactly. Of all the cities in UK, the RSC chose Newcastle as its second home.

 

Keegan's comment was designed to show that we pay money to be entertained when we go to the football, not to be bored by tactical stalemates. It hasn't half touched a raw nerve with our press favourites. Lovin' it!

[NG32]

Are they still banging on about us!  fck me they must have sore fingers and worn out keyboards.

 

At the end of the day in my eyes it comes down to this.

 

We are happy at the minute, no matter what crap people throw at us we are happy.  We have the chance of decent football again and a smile is back on our faces.

 

These people that write shit articles, call radio shows, send emails to SSN are fcking jealous.  Fcking jealous as they know nothing can curb our enthusiam now and they hate it cos their lives dont have that buzz about football.

 

The north east is a hot bed of football no matter how shit we are the southern press dont like it because the enthusiasm isn't down there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[johnnypd]

if it had been a southern journalist saying that (about the theatre) we'd be telling the patronising twat to piss off. but cos Keegan is seen as one of ours we're naturally receptive to what he says. Janitor is right in that Keegan was firing people up, both us and the journos. clearly it has worked, all those journalists devoting acres of press coverage to how we're "not a special club" simply contribute to the effect and belief that we are. i'm loving the fact that their pumping out these bitter and twisted articles, i get more pleasure out of them than the fawning platitudes that read like the obituary of a dear friend.

 

but keegan's point has a kernel of truth to it even though he exaggerated it for dramatic effect. you can't accurately make sweeping statements like that in the modern age with its diversity of pursuits and types of people, but newcastle is still more homogenous and 'traditional' than other british cities. this has its drawbacks certainly but it also means we've got a more tangible identity and sense of place. the city is more united behind the team, not just because we're a 'one club city', so is Leeds yet it has nothing of the same spirit you get up here. football up here is a different beast compared to what it is in say, Reading, or Northampton. when i lived in London all my mates who were interested in football were interested in it casually, for 90 minutes a week. actually the closest thing to an NUFC-type situation down there is West Ham but that's been obliterated with all the changes in the london and the east end and the fact that most of that lot have been dispersed like wandering jews through essex and other home counties.

 

another point - someone on here said the differencebetween supporting Newcastle and supporting Villa or Everton is that here, fans are supporting the city and area too, as if NUFC was the national team. an example of this - the way the national papers behave during an international tournament, whipping up a frenzy, blowing rumours and details out of all proportion, page after page of football, special supplements and so on, that is how our local papers are every day! down south if someone is not interested in football they honestly dont know anything about it, its cut out of their lives. even the people up here who have no interest still know everything about the club, how dyer was an injury blighted pisshead, how shola am-a-nobody can't play football and so on. because you cant really avoid it.

 

another point, i reckon our relative isolation and insularity means that as fans we're a tad less competitive than fans of other clubs. we don't exist cheek by jowl by a dozen other clubs within a 50 miles radius, we've only got two shite laughable clubs on our doorstep, one of whom aren't even real rivals. that means we dont neccessarily have the attitude of 'dare not lose' or oneupmanship as much. maybe that contributes to the alleged attitude that we'd rather see our team play well than win at all costs (which i'm not sure is entirely true but seeing some of the mongs on SSN i'm sure some believe that). as does the fact we havent won anything in donkeys years, as a consequence we're probably less bothered with actually achieving something as we think it's never going to happen anyway (though you could equally say it makes us more desperate for success/more impatient).

 

take all this with a pinch of salt as im just thinking aloud basically, the same thing exists more or less everywhere, only here to a greater extent. also i'm not sure how this applies to NUFC fans who aren't from the area. maybe they have a completely different take on it.

[BONTEMPI]

Are they still banging on about us!  fck me they must have sore fingers and worn out keyboards.

 

At the end of the day in my eyes it comes down to this.

 

We are happy at the minute, no matter what crap people throw at us we are happy.   We have the chance of decent football again and a smile is back on our faces.

 

These people that write s*** articles, call radio shows, send emails to SSN are fcking jealous.  Fcking jealous as they know nothing can curb our enthusiam now and they hate it cos their lives dont have that buzz about football.

 

The north east is a hot bed of football no matter how s*** we are the southern press dont like it because the enthusiasm isn't down there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They're  scared that once the sleeping giant wakes up we may blitz everyone in football!

 

 

[madras]

wouldn't it be nice if Mr Mort read these articles and stopped their passes....."hey we're a joke remember,you'll not want to repeort on something as crap as us so we'll have those passes back OK ......now FUCK OFF"