Skirge Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 http://bleacherreport.com/articles/38218-are-newcastle-a-big-club Scroll down in link for replies. If you listen to opposition fans and the British tabloids, the answer is no. However I'm going to underline reasons to why Newcastle are not a big club at all. Forget whatever you thought about Newcastle being one of the Premiership big clubs. We are not. I know this because from the day Sam Allardyce and various other managers have been shown the door, we have had to endure endless nonsense from pundits and fans alike. They can't all be wrong, can they? Due to the lack of interest from the press and media in such a small club like Newcastle United it may have passed you that Kevin Keegan has returned to the club. This was not widely reported at the time because we are not worthy because we don't win trophies. Therefore the press and media are not the slightest bit interested in us and the British public is ambivalent at best towards us. I don't really like the sarcasm, I believe its the lowest form of wit but how else can you describe the days after Allardyce's departure when everyone and everybody was lining up to have a go at us. In the aftermath of Sam's departure I listened and watched hours and hours of coverage devoted to our club. National radio held phone-ins just to discuss our managerial merry-go-round and the level of ignorance spouted by presenters and the public alike was mind blowing. I listened to fans of numerous clubs ring in to tell me and many other Newcastle fans that we Geordies are too big for our boots. Apparently we'll never be a big club until we win back-to-back European Cups like...Nottingham Forest! We've not been in a Champions League semi-final so we'll never be a big club like...Leeds! Big clubs don't reside in the old third division! Fans of the gigantic "big four" are always worth listening to. They are not like us. They don't ever expect their team to win anything and support them only because of bloodline or local pride which is why every one of their victories is met with such magnanimous humility. They are fortunate that their teams do win regularly because this makes them much more knowledgeable than us fans of smaller clubs. It is difficult to work out just why so many fans of other clubs feel the need to ring national radio or television and express their opinions on our managerial changes. I don't remember this much coverage of that many opinions being expressed when similarly small clubs to us change their managers. Derby, Fulham, and Birmingham all changed gaffers and this was met with about five minutes of coverage on every station yet for Newcastle a whole show is dedicated to the coming and goings at SJP. Even persistent media darlings Tottenham didn't generate anything like the interest we did when they changed manager. So why this massive national interest in such a small provincial club like NUFC? If Ferguson, Scolari, Wenger, or Benitez were to leave their clubs, I would only have a passing interest in either their leaving or replacements. God only knows what it would take for me to ring up a radio show and bad mouth a club and it's fans for sacking that said manager. So just what does it take to measure a big club? A good chance of currently winning a trophy appears to be most peoples best gauge. If that was the only criteria then Middlesbrough and Tottenham would be big clubs, even the most insane know that's rubbish. Historical success seems not to be preferred as measure. Chelsea have only overtaken us in the "Number Of Trophies Won", since Abramovich has arrived. (Currently CFC 13, NUFC 11) So I think I finally have it, winning in the recent past is the barometer of success. Only problem is that brings us to the Smoggies and Spurs. Having a large number of fans could be another measure as could being 14th in the world's richest club list. But when it comes to us, apparently money and fans don't count. Maybe it is the amount of columns of newspaper and hours of television coverage that a club gets that defines its size? For example, on the day Kevin Keegan returned to Toon, Fabio Capello was under investigation for tax fraud. This snippet was totally swept aside as was Havant and Waterloovile's shock win over Swansea. All was totally overshadowed by the appointment of our manager. All this leads me to believe that Newcastle are not a big club, we are a huge club, and thats why they all hate us! Case settled. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I don't care , it's my club so fuck it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newcastle Fan Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 We are a good club who gives shit peformences week in week out..its not a question of us being a big club or not as much as its a question of can we live to our big club reputation or not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sondre Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 how many times was that now? can't believe anyone would bother to discuss this anymore. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobby_solano Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 how many times was that now? can't believe anyone would bother to discuss this anymore. this ^ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Who cares how big your club is? To me Watford are the world's biggest club, they mean everything to me. Fuck the rest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Petay Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I need a hobby to stop me reading toss like this, and worse replying. I'm off to read 'War and Peace'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colos Short and Curlies Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 how many times was that now? can't believe anyone would bother to discuss this anymore. In terms of Internet traffice Chelsea are the fourth biggest cllub in London - outside the top 10 in England. No idea where we are mind Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skirge Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Its good to fire up some debate though, seems there are plenty of footballers out there that do not see us as a big enough club to want to join us.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newcastle Fan Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 how many times was that now? can't believe anyone would bother to discuss this anymore. In terms of Internet traffice Chelsea are the fourth biggest cllub in London - outside the top 10 in England. No idea where we are mind I blame Dave.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Not a bad article, but like everyone says there's a million ways to debate this 'who is biggest' issue - all of them pointless. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimbo Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I've never cared about anything less than the "big club" argument. It's for insecure losers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest loonietoonie Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I don't care , it's my club so f*** it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 The smaller people think we are, the better for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzzieMandias Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Even persistent media darlings Tottenham didn't generate anything like the interest we did when they changed manager. Is that really true? I don't know how you'd measure the column inches, but there was quite a bit of fuss about Martin Jol being out of favour and then Ramos arriving. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest microbar Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 We used to be a big club but not anymore, If a top premiere player is looking to move on we would be well down the list. Clubs such as Pompey are now taking over our status, And Players are keen to move there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzzieMandias Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I always come back to the same non-answer when we visit the question in the thread header: We sort of are and we sort of aren't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sicko2ndbest Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 We get as much press coverage as the top 4 therefore we are a big cub! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
afar Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Have those people complaining, actually read the article, it's a damn good read actually. Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes. Please spend some time to actually read the text before you complain about it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Have those people complaining, actually read the article, it's a damn good read actually. Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes. Please spend some time to actually read the text before you complain about it. Don't think many people are complaining about the article (I specifically said it was alright), just the pointless nature of the whole 'big club' debate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
afar Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Even persistent media darlings Tottenham didn't generate anything like the interest we did when they changed manager. Is that really true? I don't know how you'd measure the column inches, but there was quite a bit of fuss about Martin Jol being out of favour and then Ramos arriving. No where near the coverage of KK's return. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
afar Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Have those people complaining, actually read the article, it's a damn good read actually. Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes. Please spend some time to actually read the text before you complain about it. Don't think many people are complaining about the article (I specifically said it was alright), just the pointless nature of the whole 'big club' debate. There are a lot of pointless debates in football and I agree this is one of them, doesn't get away from the fact that the text is pretty entertaining though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filflop1 Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Who cares TBH all that matters is its the club we love Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzzieMandias Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Even persistent media darlings Tottenham didn't generate anything like the interest we did when they changed manager. Is that really true? I don't know how you'd measure the column inches, but there was quite a bit of fuss about Martin Jol being out of favour and then Ramos arriving. No where near the coverage of KK's return. Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 966,000 for ramos tottenham Results 1 - 10 of about 697,000 for keegan newcastle. And there's a longer association between the words "keegan" and "newcastle" than between the words "ramos" and "tottenham". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shearergol Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 Even persistent media darlings Tottenham didn't generate anything like the interest we did when they changed manager. Is that really true? I don't know how you'd measure the column inches, but there was quite a bit of fuss about Martin Jol being out of favour and then Ramos arriving. No where near the coverage of KK's return. Google: Results 1 - 10 of about 966,000 for ramos tottenham Results 1 - 10 of about 697,000 for keegan newcastle. And there's a longer association between the words "keegan" and "newcastle" than between the words "ramos" and "tottenham". To be fair, Spurs have been linked with 19 million midfielders since he took over, so that might explain the extra press Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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