Super Duper Branko Strupar Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Class, again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Duper Branko Strupar Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 You wonder how Lee Ryder feels reading a piece like that. You would hope it might inspire him. Did anyone spot Lee's daily error today? He's an utter fuckwit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottishMagpie Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Fantastic piece of journalism yet again from Mr Caulkin. That should be printed (with permission of course!) and handed out outside SJP next Wednesday evening. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minhosa Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 You wonder how Lee Ryder feels reading a piece like that. Confused that there wasn't a page 3. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timeEd32 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 You wonder how Lee Ryder feels reading a piece like that. I read Ryder's column this morning. It's so poorly written. He has sentences I would expect to see in a nine year-olds match report. I don't understand how he has a job. Caulkin article is very good, as usual. Regardless of how poor the writing is for some of them though I'm glad to see the post-Derby output. I was going to post something lengthy on this topic in the "are the match going fans to blame?" thread, but the short version is I think the media, specifically the local papers/journos, have let us all down massively. It's gotten better since JFK has arrived (since I think they have a general disdain for him and things have gotten worse in terms of transfers), but there could still be more. Hope it continues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattoon Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Damnit!! I missed the blog, any other links? I know he's usually happy about it being shared by other means Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NG32 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Kegs, missed it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timeEd32 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Newcastle are profoundly unsatisfactory George Caulkin February 03 2014 17:02PM Profoundly unsatisfactory: Newcastle United’s vapid, hollow-eyed performance in the Tyne-Wear derby. Profoundly unsatisfactory: selling Yohan Cabaye, without question their most accomplished player, and failing to replace him. Profoundly unsatisfactory: successive transfer windows without a single permanent signing. Profoundly unsatisfactory: two words which could sit beneath the club crest. “Profoundly unsatisfactory”: a phrase employed by a Premier League tribunal in October 2009, which found in favour of Kevin Keegan’s claim for constructive dismissal against Mike Ashley’s Newcastle and which now, five years later, is in their DNA. Defeat to Sunderland can cloud the eyes, befuddle the brain and inflame emotion, but not this time. More than anything else, it felt like another quiet, lonely death. “The cathedral on this hill” was how Sir Bobby Robson used to refer to St James’ Park, perched on Gallowgate’s elevation, visible from most approaches to the city, but that was before the bulldozers moved in and a cavernous warehouse was erected in its place. Newcastle did not participate in a game on Saturday, not really. They were a 90-minute advertisement for Sports Direct and Wonga. They are a works’ team, with better perks. The extraordinary thing is that Newcastle remain eighth in the Barclays Premier League and players and staff are fulfilling their brief. They are on course for a bonus. There have been worse moments in their history, not least the toxic season which followed Keegan’s departure, and episodes when they have danced towards oblivion or irrelevance, but have they ever been this transparent? Have they ever felt this empty? Eighth and on target, but out of both domestic cups which, more and more, feels like betrayal of history (“Our primary aim and focus has to be the Premier League,” is the official, joyless mantra). Eighth, but rejecting the chance to reinvest, regroup and, with a bit of luck, kick on. Eighth, but three-time losers to their local rivals. Eighth and apparently content with that. Eighth and leading the race for eighth. Eighth and pointless. Communication with supporters is measly, bombastic, deflating or contradictory. Joe Kinnear, the director of football, says “judge me on my signings,” and then makes none. Directors to a fans’ forum in September: “the club confirmed that money was available.” Alan Pardew: “you can’t lose a player of (Cabaye’s) quality and not replace him.” Pardew at the weekend: “I didn’t particularly say in this window, though.” Whether or not Newcastle refurbish their squad this summer (there is no evidence they are capable of it), an opportunity has been forsaken and there is no guarantee that results, fortune or circumstances will fall for them next time. Momentum is everything, as Sunderland have shown, and Pardew has lost his biggest player and personality, not that it excuses the paucity they mustered against Gustavo Poyet’s team. Sunderland fans might dispute the tone of this. If you want desperation, try two relegations with record-low point tallies. Try Paolo Di Canio and taking root at the foot of the table for half a season. They would have a case, but Newcastle’s recent narrative is of a soul’s slow corrosion, peppered with some surges and decent football. Cups? Not a priority. The Europe League? No, no, no, no, not at any cost. A hole, which a club once filled. On Wearside, mistakes are legion and perhaps there will be more, but errors have been corrected with a stunning brutality. Di Canio was dismissed 13 games into a two-and-a-half year contract. Roberto Di Fanti, Kinnear’s equivalent, lasted a few months. At Newcastle, Kinnear is associated indelibly with relegation, but is given another job and greater responsibility. He is still there, when nothing suggests he is qualified for it. There was no affection in this space for Ashley’s predecessors and there is no mourning for them now. The money they spent was not theirs, their stewardship made wealthy men wealthier and an institutionalised arrogance brought interference and vanity signings ahead of growth and improvement. Their departure was overdue, but there is one area of empathy; when they made an appointment, I don’t dispute that it was with a view to winning something. Some came close, although a majority were a queasy fit and Newcastle’s quicksand foundations and financial overreaching were deep flaws and fissures. Partially through his own missteps, Ashley has offered some correction and there was a worth to Derek Llambias seeking “stability” through self-sufficiency, a strict transfer model and long-term contracts, although the byproduct was often hateful (Sports Direct Arena, Wonga). One argument – and it is a powerful one – is that any notion of stability was blown away from the second that Kinnear blundered into Newcastle saying that all criticism of him was “water off a duck’s arse,” and promising “I’ve got my finger in the pie halfway around the world.” Another is that this is where stability gets you. Eighth, with Ashley knowing that he can do what he wants, pretty much, and people will still turn up. If you care for Newcastle, Sunderland was unacceptable; for a fixture which carries a clout far beyond the rational, there was no sense of a team. Just 11 untethered men. In isolation, there was “a criminal lack of commitment and talent,” as nufc.com put it, which reflects poorly on Pardew, but the wider picture is of “an overwhelming sense of gloom across Tyneside following the sale of Yohan Cabaye and completely predictable failure to sign a replacement.” A month or so earlier, Newcastle lost 2-1 at home to Cardiff City in the FA Cup and for the entirety of the day – before, during and after – they felt like a beaten club. There were 31,000 supporters inside the stadium (smaller crowds were widespread, admittedly) and apathy was entrenched. The league had won, Sky had won, Ashley had won, just get it over with and move on. That experience was profoundly unsatisfactory, too. Ashley has staunched his losses, but his Newcastle is without direction, where relationships are risibly brittle and where nobody will take him on. Where the chief scout scouts players the director of football does not buy and where the manager makes do, unable or unwilling to criticise, the only public face of a dysfunctional business. Where they can all point to the table and claim they are doing their jobs. A profoundly unsatisfactory eighth. It is one of those dilemmas that shovels lead in the pit of supporters’ stomachs, because Newcastle may be a difficult club to love, but they are even more difficult to forsake. And, when it comes down to it, they should not have to do. When Keegan arrived for his first spell as manager, the first thing he did was fumigate the dressing-rooms. They need another Keegan. They need a fumigator. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattoon Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyn davies Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 totally agree Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattoon Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Amazing piece by Caulkin again, sums it up in its entirety and kudos for getting his rightful dig at the lot of them and not allowing Pardew exception from blame. Love the guy, his writing is spot on very time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ToonZA Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chopey Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Caulkin quality again, Ryder's piece today confirms that he is actually starting to listen to the fans and write the truth and not a watered down version of it so as not to upset Ashley. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Geordie Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Great piece from George. Wonder if the club will ban him soon too? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paully Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 This blend of history, hope, yearning and passion is what football is all about George Caulkin February 28 2014 07:02AM This is it. This. That flutter in the belly, that sprinkle of nerves, that wondrous, aching possibility of this time, this time, for God’s sake PLEASE let it be this time. That cacophonous train ride, that lad sitting opposite decanting booze into Ribena bottles, that motorway convoy, scarves trailing from windows, that persistent, pissed memory from last night: your mate in a copper’s helmet, sopping and shivering in the Trafalgar Square fountains. This is it. This is what football is. What it was. That walk towards Wembley, at once familiar and new, the old chants and the remixes, scorching the air. The fella you recognise from a few seats along at the Stadium of Light, who never stops moaning – that miserable git – but he’s strolling beside you and he’s neither miserable or moaning, because he’s shepherding his kids, fussing and smiling. They couldn’t miss this. Not this. This is it. Not enough to obliterate all those disappointments, those bitter, loveless relegations, but you wouldn’t want that, anyway. They are part of who you are. Part of Sunderland. And whether you stopped going or persevered, whether you are an addict or a convert, a malcontent or a loyalist, this is your patience through adversity, your gallows humour, those howls of anguish. This is why you do what you always do; bear witness and sing. But this is how it should feel. This is less about winning – although you wouldn’t say no – than giving it a go. Trying everything and then heaving a bit more. Not holding yourself in. Seeing a flash of silver across the stadium and knowing that 90 minutes could mean a long journey’s end and another beginning. This adrenaline. This soppy descent into cliches about heroes and giant-killings, those stories about Stokoe’s sprint and Monty’s sorcery. About daring to dream. This is why your dad passed down that beautiful, cursed birthright. Your mam or your sister, brother or friends. This is why he stood at Roker Park, so cold and crammed that his legs were locked and leaden. This is why you shook together at those reserve-games, why you stayed outside when the rain whipped in, your mouth numb and nose running. This is why you put up with his stupid music on that endless away trip. This is all those feelings like love and loss, straining for release. This is Sunderland, your Sunderland. This is your city, your town, your village, your region, forgotten sometimes and left to suffer, but prominent now, loud and raucous. This is supporters’ associations and local branches, working men’s clubs, community and togetherness, collective strength, being part of something both greater than and intrinsically you. This is pride – stinging tears of pride. This is raising your head and gazing at the sky, not staring down at your navel. This. Not that great, grotesque lie about priorities. Not swallowing the guff that one season of toil should be superseded by another, that having endured the delights of Stoke City, the only ambition must be straining to get to Stoke again. You know what Stoke’s like. Christ. Aston Villa, Crystal Palace. Tick them off. Been there, seen it and, you know what, they’re not that much different from Leicester, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham. Not couldn’t be arsed. Not withdrawing your best players for a one-off match because of 38 league games which simply must take precedence in a cold, grey world of sporting accountancy. Not fear. Not dread. Not measly, weasel-word excuses for laying waste to tradition because of avarice or arrogance and cowardice. Not name-changes and colour-swaps and franchises, or a stadium’s brutal nobility scarred by garish advertising hoardings for money-lenders and tat-hawkers. Not the bottom-line. Not the profits or the losses, the turnover and the revenue, the wage-bills and the relegation-clauses, because when the files are lodged at Companies House, they will not be hailed with an open-top bus ride, a civic reception, or a hazy, alcoholic day which stays lodged in the brain. Not Financial Fair Play, not billionaires, not the stodge of mid-table and totting up television revenue after one more lunchtime kick-off and a 200-mile journey. Which is not to toss away the prospect of staying up. Nor to deny that it matters for progress and development and all those other birds which have never quite flown. But neither is it everything, because you’ve slumped before and ricocheted back. Having squirmed through long, sapping sequences in every single season since Roy Keane and Niall Quinn secured your return to this ceaseless, daft, grasping jamboree, you reckon you can cope. This, though. This is something. This is different. This is booking your London hotel en route from that draining, life-affirming semi-final, when those caustic commentaries about the worst penalty shoot-out in the history of awful penalty shoot-outs missed the point entirely. It was the best. This is snaking, sluggish, twitchy queues outside the box office, 80,000 frantic telephone calls on a single day, begging for favours, scurrying for tickets. This is a day out and a night away, a daubed blur of red and white. This, like the song says, is cheesy chips on Wembley Way. And win or lose, this will be recorded and you were there, one small figure lost amid the din, but integral to it, which, in the final analysis, is what clubs and their supporters should mean. What football is. This is history, hope, yearning and passion, maybes and meaning, exquisite agony, wild abandon, love. This is you. This is Sunderland. This is it. In memory of Kevin Twist and to Lyndsey, his daughter, with love. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belfast Mags Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 feel like crying Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattypnufc Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Thing is, he hits the nail on the head if you just replace them for us...its fair enough. Its just a shame the powers in charge at our club don't see it this way, in what it means to support a team. I'm jealous of them having their day out, in fact, I hope the mackems I know enjoy it as they, like us, deserve it after season upon season of shite. I just don't want them to win it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Should have posted that in the sunderland thread then i could have ignored it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unbelievable Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Beautiful Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unbelievable Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Not couldn’t be arsed. Not withdrawing your best players for a one-off match because of 38 league games which simply must take precedence in a cold, grey world of sporting accountancy. Not fear. Not dread. Not measly, weasel-word excuses for laying waste to tradition because of avarice or arrogance and cowardice. Not name-changes and colour-swaps and franchises, or a stadium’s brutal nobility scarred by garish advertising hoardings for money-lenders and tat-hawkers. Not the bottom-line. Not the profits or the losses, the turnover and the revenue, the wage-bills and the relegation-clauses, because when the files are lodged at Companies House, they will not be hailed with an open-top bus ride, a civic reception, or a hazy, alcoholic day which stays lodged in the brain. Not Financial Fair Play, not billionaires, not the stodge of mid-table and totting up television revenue after one more lunchtime kick-off and a 200-mile journey. Eat that Mike,you fat wanker.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGuv Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Great article. It makes me so anhry that I'll never see this at Newcastle for the forseeable future. I just about remember the 1998/99 FA CUP Finals and i just remember everywhere you looked in black and white. The main thing that stands out is the black and white streamers coming out of car windows. God, how awful it is to support this club right now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanSkÃrare Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 One of a kind, Caulkin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Great piece. I think football has changed forever now though, certainly at the top level. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unbelievable Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Great piece. I think football has changed forever now though, certainly at the top level. Not sure what you mean by that. Recent cup finals show that there is actually more chance of a surprise package ending up there, not less. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varadi Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 That's a simply brilliant piece of writing. Anyone reckon we could convince him to post on the forum? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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