Your 14 years under Ashley

[BlackandWhite]

Foreign supporter. I was a 15-year-old when the FCB took over.
 

The Newcastle I grew up with in childhood were the Keegan and Bobby Robson teams; the last good times the club’s ever had. The Newcastle I grew up with has taken away from me in 2007. In it’s place came a failure prone, unambitious, club that wasn’t even a shell of its former self. I stuck with the club all through my teens and adult year to date. I had people question my dedication in the bad years, why I stuck them through failure. Those people don’t understand what makes Newcastle such a special club. 
 

Today, it feels like the Newcastle I grew up with is coming home. It’s like if you dearly loved someone that left you, like a son gone to a long-term war, and you never thought they’d return; only to randomly see them return to your doorstep again 14 years later. They never sent any letters, you never got any contact from them, you’ve pretty much accepted they’re dead for years now. But they’re not, they’re still alive, and now they’re back. Such an indescribable joy.

 

[Vinny Green Balls]

A couple of lifetimes happened for me in those 14 years. From a dead end as a teacher with no prospects for cash to a bonafide documentary filmmaker with no prospects for cash.

[Darth Crooks]

This thread has prompted some reflection. I left uni in 2009 and shortly after became a teacher working schools, prisons and universities. I’ve been abstaining attending home games since McClaren. I actually used my uni space booking powers to arrange anti Ashley London meeting of the London Magpie Group. I got marrried in 2014 and I think in part the fight cost me that - such was the time I devoted to it. I have no regrets all told as I am in much more level headspace but maybe the real protests were the friends we made along the way? Going to be emotional returning.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by Darth Crooks

[Disco]

3 minutes ago, Darth Crooks said:

This thread has prompted some reflection. I left uni in 2009 and shortly after became a teacher working schools, prisons and universities. I’ve been abstaining attending home games since McClaren. I actually used my uni space booking powers to arrange anti Ashley London meeting of the London Magpie Group. I got marrried in 2014 and I think in part the fight cost me that - such was the time I devoted to it. I have no regrets all told as I am in much more level headspace but maybe the real protests were the friends we made along the way? Going to be emotional returning.

 

 

 

You, more than many others, genuienly deserve it mate. Breathe it in and fucking enjoy it.

[Darth Crooks]

Thanks mate. Strange where the emotions take you but exciting times.

[Heron]

18 minutes ago, Darth Crooks said:

This thread has prompted some reflection. I left uni in 2009 and shortly after became a teacher working schools, prisons and universities. I’ve been abstaining attending home games since McClaren. I actually used my uni space booking powers to arrange anti Ashley London meeting of the London Magpie Group. I got marrried in 2014 and I think in part the fight cost me that - such was the time I devoted to it. I have no regrets all told as I am in much more level headspace but maybe the real protests were the friends we made along the way? Going to be emotional returning.

 

 

 

Fucking hero. 

[Anderson]

15 when he bought us. I’m 30 next month. Had my first legal pint outside of his ownership tonight. Good fucking riddance. 

[Shearer9]

3 hours ago, Wullie said:

Went from an obsessed 21 year old who wouldn't miss a home game under any circumstances to a 36 year old who doesn't watch most of the games and wouldn't have set foot in the ground if you paid me.

lmao still the same wullie after all these years

[GWN]

I was 39 , ive seen some shite in the early 80s and then in walked KK, incredible times , I loved the whole club, then Ashley ….he made me hate going , I stopped , it drove me away, I have fallen in love with another club Blyth but today I’m coming home .

 

NUFC is back , Ashley is gone and look who came through the door, fuck me and fuck off Mike Ashley . 

[Froggy]

Thought it was alright tbh.

[mouldy_uk]

I was 25 years old when he took over and turning 40 next year. Still remember how excited this place was when he took over thinking we had hit the jackpot with a British billionaire buying us. Shame we have wasted so many potentially good years under his control but onwards and upwards!
 

 

[SiLvOR]

I was just finishing secondary school when Ashley came in. My Dad and I went up to St James' together for the first time (we lived in South London which is why it took me so long.)We won 3-2 against Everton, Barton addressed the fans I think. Thought we were gonna be in for some good times. Then relegation happened soon after, and I was sick to my stomach. I didn't talk to anyone at work for about 2 days

 

I followed us up and down the country in the Championship season, I actually enjoyed it a lot. At this point, I assumed Ashley would be gone and things would change drastically. Then came the following season. Losing Hughton and Carroll was the start of the demise for me. Yes there were bright spots, like Ben Arfa, finishing 5th and so on. But my passion eroded season after season seeing our best players leave and that dickhead Pardew stink up the touchline. 

 

To cut a long, and miserable story short, by the time we lost Rafa I'd all but given up. Didn't post here at all, barely watched games. My love for football as a whole had all but vanished. So to get that feeling back, of actively coming here again, being excited. It's fucking magic.

[Superior Acuña]

Ashley took over just before my 18th birthday and I left Newcastle for uni a couple of games into his first season (and I was at the first Ashley match - Sam's debut away at Bolton). Although I left it was just to Edinburgh, so the first 4 years I was still a season ticket holder and away regular. Like many I was excited at first, and quite enjoyed him being with the fans and that - remember seeing him at the Stadium of Light. It seemed like a really special day too when Keegan came back.

 

I think the recent years were the worst. The first relegation there was a kind of defiance and hope/belief he wouldn't be around long. All in all I enjoyed the whole first relegation/promotion and first season back, still thinking he'd be gone soon. Then there the 5th place finish - maybe he'd actually figured things out a bit? I was away that year though (and gutted to miss it). I was back a regular in 2012/13, and bar Benfica and that, things were shit again. Over the next few years, til now, bar the pride Rafa brought, our club just really felt hopeless. Rafa going killed us to a new level for me. It's a bit morbid but I started to think I'd never see us lift a trophy with my dad, who'd been taking me since I was 5. When I was a kid I'd never doubted it was coming, but why should we ever win anything under Ashley.

 

One thing is he made moving away easier. I've lived far away since 2013 and I'd be absolutely gutted missing great NUFC times. Bar some exceptions, it's been pretty easy watching a dodgy stream on a saturday morning. Think that's going to change like.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by Inferior Acuña

[Beren]

Look at this thread. We're a forum full of Mick

 

[christ]

I was 19 when he bought the club. I’m 34 now, so obviously life has happened - births and deaths, love and loss etc. Two main ones that stick out though…

 

My grandad died. He had long since stopped going to matches before Ashley arrived, but he was the reason me and my brother were black and white daft. He took us to our first games, dragged us around the club shop so we could get fully kitted out, had us in awe with stories of Newcastle old. Trophies and world class players. He handed over the baton in a way, as when he stopped being able to attend me and my brother started going. Football was always our thing, and for the last decade of his life our conversations about it were uniformly miserable.

 

Also, my daughter was born. I took her to her first game at the start of this season against West Ham. She was pretty nonplussed to be honest, but she enjoyed the idea of liking the same thing as dad so she didn’t outright say she was bored to tears. Anyway, she was sat with me watching the Leeds game on TV a few weeks later and when we went 1-0 down she says “Do I have to support Newcastle?”. You kind of hope that this takeover will put an end to questions like that.

[Kaizero]

Was 17, sat on the toilet at school thinking Newcastle were finally going to be great again. Been on here about a year or so at the time after @BlufPurdi allowed me to write articles for the long gone N-O front page about who the fuck other teams were. I didn't really accept the reality of just the utter and complete shitness of the ownership until Pardew strolled through the door. 
 

Seeing Ben Arfa play in black and whie srripes will probably be the only memories from the Ashley era I will cherish, or well, Tiote's mad thunderbastard and whatever the fuck Cisse tried to do when he scored that goal against Chelsea. Colo, Jonas, Cabaye and Ben Arfa are probably the only players I will remember ten years from now. 
 

Or wait, the straight like a banana days on N-O with Nile Ranger's arrival will also remain a highlight of my Newcastle related life. Though that is more a shared N-O experience than a Newcastle one. 
 

I'm thankful for N-O, Sack Pardew, Ashley Out and more to have kept me at least somewhat interested in NUFC and footy in general. The last few years since Rafa left I've only watched international games, not a minute of NUFC. I'd even started taking longer and longer breaks from N-O and I'd not been logged on for over a month when I had to return to remind @Shak and the other cunts that I still wanted to play NFL fantasy football, only to find out the coward had pulled a @Mike and pussied out of participating himself.

 

On a personal level there's been highs and lows. I've gone down in weight, up in weight, down in weight, up in weight and so on for nogh a decade. I've worked jobs I loved and jobs I've hated. I lost my father to a sudden cardiac arrest out of the blue, and knowing he'll never see the good days ahead for Newcastle breaks my heart. I've lived in Oslo, Trondheim, Berlin, Milan, London and Los Angeles. I've made a TV pilot that got optioned by a major streaming network and we're shooting a first season next year after living through the sadness of knowing they had shelved it as they didn't order episodes immediately, only to get a call four years later at 4am on a Friday night from a US number asking if I could send them an updated logline. I've lived through gaining friends and losing friends. Business partners have stabbed me in the back, making me almost lose out on my dream project. But things are looking better. Last year around this time I tried to end it all and had to spend a good while on suicide watch. A year later I am close to realizing a pet project (starring John Carew and a well known ex-boxer), investors have lined up for my dream project that I almost lost in 2019, a streaming network wants my show and I am moving back to LA in a few months with my now fiance, who's a fullblown actual Playmate. If myself from the future arrived and told that story to the depressed and overweight 17 year old Kaizero sat on the toilet reading the news of Ashley taking over the club, I wouldn't have believed him.

Now I'm just dead scared of the better times stopping, things can turn quickly in life, sadly. But in my last few years I've learnt to truly understand that for every dark night, there's a brighter day. I'm excited for my own future for the first time in ages, I'm excited to follow Newcastle again, I'm excited to still be an active member of this community. I'm grateful for each and every one of the N-O members whose path I've crossed in the last 15 years. This place and Newcastle (up to a certain point) were the escape from everyday life I needed and no doubt still needs. I'm glad Newcastle is back on the list of escapes in life that I can enjoy again. 

[LiquidAK]

15 then and now about to turn 30. Hard to know if the mad levels of enthusiasm I felt for the club back then was due to youth or just through having a club that tries - guess I’ll find out soon enough! These last few days have certainly given a bit of a hint like 

[AJ9]

I was 21 and in my 3rd year of Uni. Thankfully I had a season ticket during the Robson years which was amazing. Since then, all my family have moved out of Newcastle, got married and am about to have my second kid. NUFC was really the last thing keeping me tied to the city.

[St. Maximin]

Having lived a few places growing up, I lived to Newcastle as a fan in 2008 for uni and stayed all the way until 2020, then moved to London during a pandemic. I’m all about timing. 

[Novocastrian]

Actually met Ashley outside the Emirates during the infamous pint-necking game against Arsenal which was Keegan’s last natch. He was moaning about how there’s no value in the transfer market. Knew straight away he was a wrong-un.

[Guest HTT II]

I was 28, single, went bust, unmarried, no kids, now happily married with two great kids and a thriving business so it’s not been all bad. Just don’t mention NUFC/the football… now that was bad!

[Holmesy]

1 minute ago, Novocastrian said:

Actually met Ashley outside the Emirates during the infamous pint-necking game against Arsenal which was Keegan’s last natch. He was moaning about how there’s no value in the transfer market. Knew straight away he was a wrong-un.

Applying his tat-shop model to a completely different market and realising you can’t just pick up PL standard players for £1m. Fucking whopper! 

[GeordieDazzler]

Didn't realise when I got my free drinks in Blu Bambu that it would all be downhill from then!

[wormy]

I was 17. Still but a mere lurker on the hallowed boards of Newcastle-Online.

 

Working a bar job when we were first relegated. Remember my phone buzzing non-stop with 'bye bye newcastle!!!' from twat friend after twat friend who must have all been watching Final Score elsewhere that day while I just took my break and stared dejectedly at the 14" CRT we would stick it on in a corner of the bar.

 

I'm now a 32 year old office drone and thanks to @Anderson just realised that I too have my first legal non-Ashley era pint to look forward to. Might save it until I'm in the City next Saturday to make it all the more sweet.

[Froggy]

1 minute ago, wormy said:

I was 17. Still but a mere lurker on the hallowed boards of Newcastle-Online.

 

Working a bar job when we were first relegated. Remember my phone buzzing non-stop with 'bye bye newcastle!!!' from twat friend after twat friend who must have all been watching Final Score elsewhere that day while I just took my break and stared dejectedly at the 14" CRT we would stick it on in a corner of the bar.

 

I'm now a 32 year old office drone and thanks to @Anderson just realised that I too have my first legal non-Ashley era pint to look forward to. Might save it until I'm in the City next Saturday to make it all the more sweet.

 

Distinctly remember you having horrendous issues with your arse. Wonder was that Ashley related as well?

 

Also, welcome back, you were one of my favourites.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by Froggy