Newcastle United - that loving feeling

[Guest Knightrider]

It will never be the same

 

Ashley doesn't know the fans, Allardyce doesn't know the fans

 

Ironically, the fans want the only bloke at the club who really knows what it means, kicked out

 

The irony depends whether or not you believe that is conducive to success in modern football.

 

it seems to be what people are tugging themselves about regards keegan

 

Is that you missing the whole point, again?

[Guest Invicta_Toon]

Aye, 100% fresh start. KK would make a great DOF or Chairman though, and in an interview with Tyne Tees a few weeks back he did say when asked whether he'd be back in football "you never know". I think the right offer will always tempt him back, maybe not management or in the Premiership, but that spark will never leave him.

 

What promted this thread was reading back through loads of my old Toon clippings from the KK days, I still have the pullouts from all the papers when we won promotion to the Premiership and all our end of season stuff from the Chronicle, those 80 page specials or whatever they were called.

 

Some of the headlines...

 

"Next stop the Premiership Title, says KK" - this was days after we were actually promoted.

 

"We can be as big as Barcelona, says Sir John" - again, days after promotion.

 

"We will buy the best"

 

"This is just the beginning"

 

"Toon plan 80,000 seater stadium and sports academy"

 

Happy days indeed.

 

only one of those, and failing at it asweel, had a majority input from KK

[Guest Invicta_Toon]

It will never be the same

 

Ashley doesn't know the fans, Allardyce doesn't know the fans

 

Ironically, the fans want the only bloke at the club who really knows what it means, kicked out

 

The irony depends whether or not you believe that is conducive to success in modern football.

 

it seems to be what people are tugging themselves about regards keegan

 

Is that you missing the whole point, again?

 

I get your point completely, falling in love with the club will produce success

[Beren]

Times have changed. The supporters have not been given any real reason to get behind players, and they really really haven't. Not one player was exempt from criticism this season - even Shay! That said, the fans should support the team irrespective of how good they are. That isn't to say they can't have an opinion/criticise etc - they do/did pay the money to see the side, but there's a time and place IMO.

[Guest jimmy m]

That was a class post CoahHTT.

 

It's great to feel a bit more enthusiasm around the place in the last few days. I always thought it was unlucky how we got the bigger ground just after the wheels had been coming off regarding the running of the club... We had more supporters but a lot of them had been disappointed by SHeperd/Hall news of the world and when they started moving season ticket holders about etc etc. Even though Robson turned it round a bit there just hasn't been the same optimism as there was in those KK days. I've never felt that we've managed to transfer the big bad geordie atmosphere to the 50,000 ground which is a gutter cos we all know it could be like no-where else in the world if we got it right. Let's hope this is the start of something good again!

[Nobby]

"I knew all about the fans as my dad was one and I'd always thought they were good fans during my time at Liverpool whenever I played against their team, but I wasn't awestruck by them or anything like that. Not until I joined the club as a player that is. No set of fans love their football team like the Geordies do or get behind their team as much."

 

"It didn't take me long to accept the challenge of reviving the club. I couldn't say no to those fans otherwise I'd never have forgiven myself. I knew I had to somehow help them out and give them a club they could also be proud of. And I'd like to think in my time as manager myself, my players and the board did that. But we couldn't have done it without them, they were terrific."

 

"We had some great times together and we almost cracked it. Someday someone will and that day will be very special. No-one deserves success like the Geordies. I'm just sorry I couldn't quite deliver it."

 

"We didn't discuss tactics much, I sent my players out with one mission - to play for the fans. Do that and no team will be able to beat us I thought and to be fair, no-one could on our day."

 

"I've been in winning dressing rooms with some great characters and very experienced men for club and country, but the spirit at Newcastle was phenomenal."

 

"Who motivates the moitivator? Those fans, they're incredible."

 

The words of one Kevin Keegan, the original messiah that built the club that Michael Ashley (our new messiah?) is poised to buy.

 

It is clear to me (and KK has said this himself), that he fell in love with the club and us fans, we were somehow like a magnate to him both as a player and as a manager.

 

KK has a very good head for business and was known throughout his career as a footballer to be just as motivated by money as success. He made sure in every move or contract renewal that he was richly looked after. The orginal David Beckham if you like. That all changed when he come to Newcastle however, first as a player (he says for the first time in years he got to enjoy football again at Newcastle as a player, away from the pressure and almost robot like way he'd managed his life and how his success came about as a footballer in those great teams he played in), and then as a manager where he literally fell for the Geordie nation bollocks which contrary to popular opinion wasn't invented by Sir John Hall but by us lot (inadvertantly), that was the aura we gave off back then as a club, fans and as a city - of a black and white Geordie nation. That's where Sir John Hall got it from and indeed KK and since the media.

 

KK had made his money and enjoyed success by the time his career took him to Tyneside, now he wanted something more which is where NUFC and us lot come in.

 

Henry Winter the respected journalist once called us the most interesting club in football or something along those lines and on John Barnes' Football show when discussing a Toon topic said "there is something special about Newcastle". He isn't the first to be taken in by Newcastle United.

 

Sir Les anyone?

 

Supermac? Aaron Hughes is from Northern Island but has went on record saying when his career is over he and his family will move back to Newcastle, same with Shay Given. Why has Shay not left this rabble by now? Because he still believes, he knows what success here will mean to him, far more than at anywhere else, because he has an emotional attatchment to the club and area now.

 

Anyway, my point.

 

KK came to Newcastle originaly because it was a great deal for him, it was all self serving at first which will be the case with Mike Ashley who lets not kid ourselves will want to see a return on his investment, but in time KK fell in love with the club and that is what I hope will happen to our prospective new owner which is down to us really, the vibes we give off. We need to make him feel 100% welcome and be positive about the future like we were under SJH and KK, and together we can take off again. He has to become more than a new owner, a man who puts money into the club. He has to become a part of it. One of us. That's the only way to be at this daft club of ours.

 

If Ashley does fall in love with the club and sees it more than a toy or an investment, we'll go places. If not, I'm not so sure.

 

This goes for Big Sam too.

 

I'll end on this from KK once again

 

"There is no better place to be on a match day than St. James' Park and I've been fortunate enough to have experienced it on the pitch as a player and in the dugout as manager."

 

PS I realise this may come over as sentimental bolloks to outsiders and indeed some of wor lot but so fuck. 

 

 

 

Great post mate, made me shiver, so true