One of THE memorable scenes from last season.Earlier on I found my mind wandering, as it often does, but this time the smutty thoughts were firmly on the backburner as I found myself thinking about the fortunes of my team, both past and present.
Newcastle United are back in the big time. But for for me, departing the Championship has left me with a tinge of sadness, and a tinge of fear as I ponder what is to come next season.
This is not a rubbishing of my teams chances in the Premier League next season, in fact I believe we have it in us to stop up without massive investment. Rose-tinted? Perhaps, but it is what I believe we can do in what I believe is a very much over-hyped Premier League. The point that I am trying to look at here is the change in mindset between life in the Championship and life in the Premier League, and which mindset is better from a fans perspective. (more…)
What does the shirt mean to you?I don’t really like taking exception to things that are written by writers like myself, as I know just how hard and time consuming it can be.
However, after perusing the latest editorial from True Faith, I feel I can take nothing apart from an exception to certain parts of it.
In a nutshell, they are usually a sound read. I may not agree with everything written, but generally speaking they are more than worth a read. In the latest editorial entitled “No capital outlay”, the writer freely admits that he thinks that adults that buy Newcastle replica shirts are “mugs, not mags”.
I understand that what is written is only the view of one person and all that, but then on the flip side of that, this is only my view on it, and it would only be fair if I had the opportunity to have my say on the whole thing and to explain just what the Newcastle shirt means to me, all in the interest of balance of course. Equally, it gives you guys and gals the opportunity to have your say on the matter. (more…)
Mike Ashley - 3 years at the helm.Between the vast swathes of speculation in these last few weeks, I nearly managed to forget that a certain anniversary is about to be upon us.
That is an anniversary to mark Mike Ashley having owned Newcastle United for three years! Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun eh?
Technically, Ashley completed the sale three years ago this coming Sunday, but with me being faced with the very real possibilty of having a stinking hangover from Saturday night, and the fact the nearly all of us will be wrapped up in the World Cup by then, I thought it would be best to, errr, ‘celebrate’ this milestone prematurely and get it out of the way. To say Mike Ashley’s reign on Tyneside has been a turbulent one would be a wee bit of an understatement. His tenure includes having had five different managers in three years, two failed attempts at a sale, and one very big falling out with Kevin Keegan, and that is the one thing Ashley will probably find the hardest to come back from, plus countless others that I have probably either forgotten or haven’t got enough time to write about. (more…)
Moving on from the last chapter in out one year retrospective, we come to the end of October. With the club still in a state of flux, now departed midfielder, Nicky Butt, was calling for the permanent appointment of the then caretaker mananger, Chris Hughton. Of course though, back in those days there was still one giant figure in Newcastle’s history looming over the position, despite having it already at the time of our relegation and things not working out. I am of course referring to Alan Shearer, who many still presumed would be the choice of a new owner, an owner who never came. So we come to another story by Hugh de Payen which tackled the issue of our next permanent manager. It was titled “Next Toon manager: Shearer v Hughton.“. Despite the title though, he also looks at other options for the position. It’s an interesting read for many reasons, not least to see how much things have changed since those days. (more…)
Before I begin with the second instalment of our little retrospective, I would like to thank all those who left such wonderful comments about the blog in the first instalment yesterday, and indeed, everyone who has stuck by the blog in general.
I left the first part of this retrospective with one of our stories (by Geordie Deb) written in the aftermath of the sad death of Sir Bobby Robson, as it seemed an appropriate point to finish on. It is now time to move on, mostly through speculative tosh and non stories regarding Ashley’s second attempt to sell the club, as the publicity hounds seeked to captilise once again on one of Newcastle United’s sorrier periods. Of course, there was also the great exodus of supposedly top players at the club which relegation and lesser income streams brought. We saw the departure of Duff, Beye, Bassong, and of course, Michael Owen.
As I hinted at in the previous chapter, this period also saw the emergence of Chris Hughton as a leader under the most testing of conditions as Newcastle got their season in the Championship underway. Both of these facets were kind of hinted at in the first story I have included by someone who was undoubtedly one of our best writers, but who is sadly no longer with us, Hugh de Payen. His small news article on the 29th August last year, “Fire sale over, says Hughton“, seems to hint, albeit faintly, at some kind of ‘turning of the corner’ for the club, with Hughton succesfully calling for an end to the fire sale, and though much depleted in terms of ‘big names’ a greater collective spirit seemed to be emerging, a spirit which barely existed in the previous season of emnity and flux. (more…)
