Last of the summer whine for Toon fans?

Posted on September 27th, 2009 | 34 Comments |

United?
United?
Save us from ourselves! That is the plea you hear from various quarters with regard the behaviour of other Newcastle fans in recent months, notably recently, in response to the anti-Ashley jeering which was evident throughout the Ipswich game.

The view taken by some supporters is ‘what will be, will be’ and we should get back to supporting the club. Other sections take it upon themselves to communicate their dislike of the current owner and will do until he’s gone. Personally, I say it’s a free country, but it’s not free to watch the Toon and so there are two good reasons, you should be able to say what you want.

However, even I found it a bit bizarre that we celebrated two of our goals with anti-Ashley jeering. And I guess it would have been nice to have got through a special occasion with Sir Bobby without that issue detracting from it. But it’s done now and we should move on, together. Except we can’t, at least for now but hopefully only until we’re sold and we all try to start getting on again.

So we should at least try and look forward eagerly to these next few weeks and hope some key decisions will be made and we can see the following –

– Ashley selling to a responsible and solvent owner
– The good form continuing on the pitch
– The fans less divided and happier
– Promotion?
– Europe??
– World domination???

Then we can get back to arguing over who had the biggest stinker in our last game, what our best formation is and where the best place is for a pint. And hopefully the next transfer window will be all about buying and selling players and the speculation we all used to love, and not dominated by the topic of buying and selling clubs.

It should be an exciting future and hopefully a prosperous 2010 but above all, we can hope the troops are United and we can get back to a proper undivided collective and just concentrate on deriding the opposition at games instead.

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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34 Responses

  1. It was incredibly distasteful of those fans to chant those things during such an occassion. I don’t know what goes through some of their heads to be honest. DO they honestly think Sir Bobby’s family want to hear such things during such an emotional occassion?! Braindead.

    Anyway, Like you say, what’s done is done and there is no changing that. However, i am quite surprised the press haven’t caught wind of it and used it as fuel to further ridicule the club. Maybe they are finally bored of ripping into us?

  2. Yeah well put B.M.
    It`s true that if anything Newcastle fans tend to be quite passionate about their team.
    Which is reflected in the various blogs associated with the club, there are few middle of the roaders.
    However, even though we are playing in the second division things are going well and I think most believe we can gain promotion, whether it ends in world domination, I`m not so sure.
    Again,once the KK situation is settled, things may settle down with an end to the divisiveness (apart from who played good/bad and as you mentioned what the lineup should be)
    so here`s hoping for a decent season, promotion, a few decent additions to the squad, then onward and upward.

  3. A new owner will only change things temporarily. One little incident and all the old behavioural problems and the shooting ourselves in the foot will re-emerge. Only a radical change in our psychology as a group will have a truly lasting effect. Or a trophy perhaps.

  4. Dragonera – well put. Bearing in mind the game was being transmitted worldwide, I don’t think it reflected well on the fans. I also thought Ipswich did a great job in commemorating Sir Bobby – pity some of our fans thought baiting our owner was more important than maintaining a dignified atmosphere.
    Also hearing chants for Shearer when the current manager is in charge of our team winning 4-0 away from home and top of the league is very disrespectful. Sometimes i just despair.

  5. What gets me is why everyone assumes that just cos we wear black and white, our opinions also have to have a similar seperation?

    I don’t see anything wrong with the away fans chanting anti-ashley songs, and it’s hardly a case of them ‘not getting behind the team’, is it?

    have you ever travelled to Ipswich from Newcastle? It’s not the shortest, nor easiest of journeys to make, especially on a saturday evening.

    i can’t bring myself to criticise our away fans, these are the guys who follow us to all ends of the country, come rain or shine and frankly, that kind of dedication grants them the right to be vocal if they aren’t happy.

    Sure, the occasion may not have been the best for it, but it’s not like they only chanted anti-ashley songs, there were a lot of renditions of the Blaydon Races as well as chants remembering Sir Bob.

    Maybe what needs to change is the attitudes of a lot of fickle posters on blogs and messageboards who seem to be led around by the very redtop media they claim to despise, rather than that of the diehard fans who spend a fortune following the team far and wide.

  6. oh, and Geordie Deb, the only shearer chant i heard was a chant of “Shearer, give us a wave!” because he could be seen in the BBC booth…

  7. Whats the deal with fans wanting Shearer in as manager. He’s got no experience except for doing nothing to stop our downfall last season. If a change a owner will bring about a change of manager, I for one am willing to put up with Ashley til the end of this promotion push.
    Let this crap die and get behind the players and management team who have been loyal to the club.

  8. Anything less than total brick wall anti-Ashley opposition
    and he will think I can ride it out.

    I have written to his people and explained that normally easy going people have hardened and are 100% against him.

    I have tried to explain what he has done just incase he still didnt know.

    Ashley GO go now but GO, there is no way back for you it is a hopeless case the only thing that can begin to put things right is your departure.

    Go, dont wait, be gone, and take your stupid friend Llambias with you!

    Weve had our fill and will never be bought off!

  9. I`m all for Anti Ashley chants at every opportunity. This scum bag has totally destroyed our club and is taking us further & further down. How many times does he have to feed us ridiculous lies and rob us blind? Everything this Oaf does is just embarressing. I agree it wsa a pity it had to be done on on such an emotional time and event but he was sitting there all smug in his crumpled shirt and baggy faded Jeans. He couldn`t even dress for the occassion correctly. He`s got 3 interests in life – making huge profits, getting pissed and then blowing his money in Casinos.
    Keep up the Anti Ashley chants and let him know he won`t be tolerated any longer. He`s had far far to an easy ride so far. He must be driven out for the sake of the club, for the sake of the city for the sake of us all. He`s a rotting Cacer that needs cutting out and destroyed.
    I detest this Clown and would personally hang him if I had my way.

  10. and like i sed yesterday these fans put more money into the club than any of us they travel every where with the toon even the freindlys abroad so why cant they sing what they want

  11. Some people on here are going on like no other fans would chant like that against their owner.

    Get real! Every other set of fans would have boycotted games in the tens of thousands not just the odd chant.

    His people would have us believe he is desperate to get out. That’s complete bollox! He’s going through the motions and he will be here at the end of next season and try and hope to sell a PL club.

    Then our entire pre season will be interuppted yet again with buy out talks and lack of investment.

  12. So the argument is that because they travel and pay money they should be able to chant such things at SIR BOBBY’S CEREMONY!? You’re having a laugh. That is clear disrespect toboth him and his family…but who cares eh? They pay their money and travel so they don’t need to show respect…

    Geordie Deb

    Spot on. This would have made NUFC fans look the pits on global television.

  13. So we should applaud whatever idiotic chants some people make just because they spend a lot of money and travel home and away? I don’t think so. Our away support is fantastic in supporting the team. It always has been and plenty of us have been there many many times. My issue with this occasion is it was a special match to commemorate SBR played in the presence of his wife and family as guests of honour. I think it was distasteful in this situation. This occasion was about remembering a great man and not about abusing our owner for all the world to hear. I can’t believe people can’t see how this kind of stuff is perceived.

  14. geordie deb says:
    September 28, 2009 at 11:55 am

    “This occasion was about remembering a great man and not about abusing our owner for all the world to hear. I can’t believe people can’t see how this kind of stuff is perceived.”

    Deb, when people are full of hate and spite, they can’t see how selfish or ridiculous they look because they are too involved in themselves and their own feelings, just like bairns playing up in the supermarket.

    As Stardust put it, “the camel can’t see the hump on it’s back”, or something like that anyway.

  15. True Worky. The stupid thing is, it usually has the opposite effect to that which is desired. The child having a major paddy is more likely to get no sweets and to be considered by observers as a spoilt brat.

  16. Stuart 79

    ‘Get real! Every other set of fans would have boycotted games in the tens of thousands not just the odd chant.’

    Thought quite a few thousand of our fans had boycotted the games or have the huge increase in empty seats at SJP since the start of the season been a figment of my imagination?

  17. geordie deb says:
    September 28, 2009 at 12:18 pm
    Stuart 79

    ‘Get real! Every other set of fans would have boycotted games in the tens of thousands not just the odd chant.’

    Thought quite a few thousand of our fans had boycotted the games or have the huge increase in empty seats at SJP since the start of the season been a figment of my imagination?

    I imagine that’s got more to do with the fact that were in the second division actually

  18. “The child having a major paddy is more likely to get no sweets and to be considered by observers as a spoilt brat.”

    Deb, I remember gannin’ into supermarkets in Tyneside in the late ‘nineties and the early ‘noughties. Most of the radgie ritalin bairns having a wobbla seemed to be called “Keegan” :-)

  19. Ou supporters are no worse than any other.

    At least we haven’t set up our own football club in protest.

    That really effected Man Utd didn’t it? Not to mention the demonstrations and disgusting chants towards other managers.

  20. Stuart 79

    We have definetely lost ‘fans’and commercial sponsors as a result of being in the second division, but come on Stuart, how many hundreds/thousands of fans bombarded blogs, the comical, radio shows etc proclaimimg ‘Ashley will not get another penny off me, I won’t go to matches, won’t renew my season ticket etc’ until he’s gone? I would guess around 50% of the empty seats are due to fan’s protesting. So no it’s not just a few chants fans are still not going to games because Ashley is in charge. That’s their choice, they are the one’s losing out seeing the team and the club is the one losing revenue, potentially making it more difficult to oust the very thing they want to get rid of. Sometimes best intentions have a habit of back firing and this could be one. I respect people’s choice to stay away if that’s what they want to do, but I don’t respect people who tarnish the club whoever they may be: Ashley, die-hard fans etc

  21. if you think it was bad on sunday away wait till our next home game.when 40 odd thousand are chanting.

  22. Chris F

    ‘Maybe what needs to change is the attitudes of a lot of fickle posters on blogs and messageboards who seem to be led around by the very redtop media they claim to despise, rather than that of the diehard fans who spend a fortune following the team far and wide.’

    Chris I would agree. There are far too many fickle posters who do not support the team, using every opportunity to criticise individual players, the team Hughton etc etc. You only have to look at some of the match day blogs to see some of the most vociferous critics clearly never bother putting their hand in their pocket to support the team home or away yet use every opportunity to criticise. I by the way am not one of them. Due to work commitments and living a 360 mile round trip from SJP I can’t go to all the games I would like to attend but I get to as many as I can. I just bought my tickets for Notts Forest this morning and if I can get away will travel up for the game at SJP on Wednesday evening. So yes there are many people who pay a fortune to follow Newcastle. It’s a bit easier and cheaper to do if you live in Newcastle.

  23. hitman

    I’m sure that could be true.However when I was at the Leicester game I was surprised that there wasn’t more Anti Ashley stuff. To be honest I’m just interested in watching the footie rather than all that cr*p. Let’s just celebrate being top of the league, having the guys playing as a team, having the best defensive record in the division etc at this point in the season. We would never have imagined that with all the turmoil at the start of the season, so I’m happy to just enjoy that and whatever will happen off the pitch will happen anyway.

  24. hitman says:
    September 28, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    “if you think it was bad on sunday away wait till our next home game.when 40 odd thousand are chanting.”

    Why fools are endowed by nature with voices so much louder than sensible people possess is a mystery. It is a fact emphasized throughout history.

  25. worky im not condoning it,what im saying is its a new chant and it will ring round sjp on wednesday neet.get a grip kid this is life.

  26. geordie deb says:
    September 28, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    Deb, I actually think the people staying away from the games due to Ashley are in the hundreds not thousands.

    More people aren’t there due to the division were in.

    But to be fair neither of us actually know.

    I know I’m aghast at the way the club is at the minute but I wouldn’t NOT go to matches because of the owner. I support the players not the chairman/Owner.

    There are some very weak minded fans (I use that word rather than supporters) who would stay away due to this but not me.

  27. hitman says:
    September 28, 2009 at 2:12 pm

    “worky im not condoning it,what im saying is its a new chant and it will ring round sjp on wednesday neet.get a grip kid this is life.”

    I know hitman, it is life unfortunately. But I take no credit for the contents of my last comment. That was written by Arthur Hertzler many years ago.

  28. Sorry, but were they disrespectful during the stuff to do with sir bob, or just during the match?

    howay man people, getting on your high horse because they slagged off our incompetent fool of an owner is ridiculous.

    were you outraged when they started singing a certain song about roy keane and his canine relieving activities?

    or were you disgusted that ipswich fans booed their team at full time, when the occasion was meant to be all about sir bobby?

    let’s face it, despite the occasion, there was still a league game of football to be played. outside of that i felt our fans showed the greatest respect to sir bobby and his family.

    in fact, the thing i found most disrecpectful about the occasion was that while every person invited there by ipswich, former players, bobby’s family et al, were all smartly dressed in suits as a mark of respect.

    yet our prick of an owner turns up in a scruffy shirt and a pair of jeans.

    that’s pure class that is.

  29. Deb, just reminded me, about the forest tickets. I completely forgot they went on member sale, today.