Roll on Carlisle, and the Premier League whilst I’m at it!
Posted on July 8th, 2010 | 91 Comments |
I know I am, and I can’t wait for us to kick off our pre-season campaign away at Carlisle in a little over a weeks time. At least it will give us something else to focus on, and it will give us a sneak preview as to how the team are shaping up for the forthcoming season.
I think perhaps my excitement regarding the new season has been cranked up a notch by what has been a disappointing summer, particularly on the World Cup front as England faltered at the first knockout hurdle leaving me with not much else to focus on apart from domestic interest. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had half an eye on the World Cup ever since England’s departure, but for me it just isn’t the same without them in the competiton and I have found it hard to sit there as a neutral and take in the dull game after dull game that has been on offer.
But now I can get back to my bread and butter, the reason why I fell in love with football in the first place, and that is Newcastle United.
I know a lot of people hold some fear of the forthcoming season, which is fair enough, but I don’t hold those same fears. I understand there is a step up between the Championship and the Premier League, but I honestly believe we have what it takes to survive.
Survival? Is that me being unambitous? Or is that me being realistic? The fact we aren’t likely to see vast swathes of cash pumped into the first team over the summer, although evidently there is at least some cash available to Chris Hughton, would suggest that we won’t be following the example set by Kevin Keegan and his entertainers on their return to top flight action back in 1993.
The world has moved on since then, and all that team is now is a pleasant memory, a brief highlight in amongst years of medocrity. In short, that is all in the past, the distant past, and shouldn’t dictate the future.
This is a different Newcastle United these days, and although many don’t like it, unfortunately that is what it is. I don’t want to go into the politics behind it all as I am prepraing to put all my efforts into backing the team, but I’ve said it many times on here before that now we have a team that will fight to the bitter end for the cause, and that is a quality that will be needed next season.
At the end of the day, whatever happens, happens. I fully expect that we will lose our fair share of games, we may even lose a few games heavily, but I believe this team has enough character to not let it get them down and to be able to bounce back fighting.
The voices of discontent are there, like white noise, but I just don’t get why? Again, avoiding the ownership situation as I support Newcastle, not Ashley, I just don’t get why people are so down on the team we currently have. At the end of the day, we stonked the Championship and finished miles ahead of anyone else, that kind of hits home when you realise that we could have stopped playing in March and still got promoted as champions. Surely all that combined indicates that we were just to good for that league?
I don’t believe that this team is as bad as has been made out. Yes it needs strengthening, and it looks like that is happening, but I honestly feel that some people are being overly harsh on the side. Lets look at our last time in the Premier League, in fact lets look further back than that. How many so called inferior teams have managed to beat us despite the fact we had a team that was worth loads more than them? We can do that.
I just think that if you take out the top ten teams in the Premier League, the ones that are left are distinctly average and should hold no fear for us. It will be hard, it will be tough, we will lose games, but we can survive.
This season we really have to be Newcastle, united.
Did we get promoted to the Premier League then, toonsy?
Sorry – but by the way some poeple on this blog gan on I could have sworn we’d been relegated to League 1! ;) :)