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I remember a few people saying, some years ago when this was all kicking off, that maybe Brexit is what this country needs to finally move on from the Imperial past and embrace a global future. The failure of it will demonstrate to people how deluded our imperialist mindset is. Brexit is basically the UK's midlife crisis - divorce the wife, lose all the stability but convince yourself that you're going to be free, like how you used to be. The euphoria lasts for a while before you realise that yeah, you're free, but that you lost all that stability, mutual co-operation and support. Meanwhile your ex wife who missed you to begin with, is now increasingly happy to be shot of you and moving on towards a better future. Your thoughts turn to regrets, what could have been, how good things actually were once - and eventually you turn to drink, put on weight, and wonder what the point of being alive is as a nation, we are living this collectively.

Brilliant, can’t wait. What’s on the undercard for that, Bernie Winters v Frank Bough?

I've known the man was a cunt since we beat Man Utd 5-0 and he claimed Peacock's goal shouldn't have been allowed despite the camera angle clearly showing it go over the line. I've known he's a shite manager ever since he started managing. Why the fuck would I give him a chance? His constant bleating on about work in progress and keyboard warriors as well as what the stats tell me and my eyes can see make me feel very comfortable that I never gave him a chance in the first place. I'm just annoyed that there were suckers out there who did, particularly Ashley.

South Shields REPRESENT

I read somewhere that Fulham are currently on course to stay up with 17 points. The lack of ability in Sheffield United’s squad is finally being exposed, West Brom and Fulham are complete failures and Burnley shot themselves in the foot by refusing to freshen up the squad. Out of the 4, I’d say Burnley and Dyche are probably the most likely to find some form and stay up but if he walks, they could easily drop. Obviously losing Jeff Hendrick was a major blow.

As soon as the free trade deal was agreed between Japan and the EU I thought the writing was on the wall for Nissan. The much-vaunted UK/Japan deal just makes it even more likely, ironically. It’s an absolute tragedy waiting to happen as far as the NE is concerned. Perhaps people seeing the consequences of believing Russian memes on Facebook might bring about a change to the status quo but I won’t hold my breath

I feel a deep sadness when I see everything associated with that desperate display. Like when you see those chained up bears on the telly

Just saying…

@TheGingerQuiff, don’t read this mate, it’s soon.

If the takeover doesn’t happen, the chances of which are slimmer than Lena Zavaroni, I’d put good money on Pulis being our next bloke to pull us out of the Championship after Bruce inevitably relegates us. ( On a side note, I delivered goods and comestibles to Emil Krafththfth today- big lad, likes his broccoli. His Mrs has gone “in the bank”, too ).

Between the ears, too..… Can we just settle on dead from the neck up?

He should definitely be on some sort of register, if he isn’t already.

Absolutely tragic

Is that the gormless twat again who posted those videos to YouTube, singing chants he’d made up himself? Absolutely tragic character

Shep stepping up a few weight divisions there. I might actually pay to watch that.

I mean I understand these pundits are his mates, but when the football is this fucking bad and we’re this far down on every single attacking (and quite a lot of defensive) metric, surely they’ll have to start holding their hands up soon and saying it’s not good enough? As Tom said there’s just nothing at all about this side, I have quite regularly watched them pass it back and forth between Central Mid and Central defense until someone inevitably wildly hoofs it up field to no one, or one of their simple 5 to 8 yard passes is misplaced and rolls out for a throw in, then there’s another 5 - 10 minute spell where we barely touch the ball. I also don’t understand the pundits constantly bringing up Benitez, the bloke left 18 month ago, we have this daft cunt now and however boring Rafas football was (imo it wasn’t particularly boring but it wasn’t thrilling so I see it both ways) this brand of football is definitely worse to watch. Again though I’m not arsed about Benitez now, he’s gone and Bruce is here, he’s the one doing the terrible job, of their entire point is that we gave Benitez more of a chance then yeah we probably did, Benitez is a manager that has won league and CL titles, Bruce has fucking nowt as a manager, Benitez had a plan in games, I really can’t see Bruce’s plan each week at all, I also fucking hate this assertion that football fans should give him a chance, why? I never wanted him near the club, I knew he is as shit manager, he’s turned out to be a shite manager, so I’m really not sure why I was supposed to give him a chance? I guess so that when he inevitably failed Ashley would be comfortable giving a contract to the next complete dinosaur of a manager knowing we’ll all give him a chance? And in all honesty my (and a lot of others) indifference gave him a chance, he certainly hasn’t done anything with it has he . To top it all off the bloke lays into the fan base on a weekly basis at this point, he’s just a wanker.

I would love to know what we do practice in training as it's blatantly obvious it's not anything to do with attacking or pressing. I can only assume it's on how to camp out in front of/just inside our 18 yard box and allow shots at the keeper.

I mean I wouldn’t mind if we weren’t entertaining if we looked like our football could get us a result and it was sustainable. However we aren’t playing any football at all. We can’t even press in groups, we never have the ball & when we do we can’t pass it properly or create anything. I don’t think I can remember a team failing so many of the basics at once.

Daniel Storey F365: The three Newcastle United myths “Well they are never happy, are they? They want to win the Champions League but they’re not in it unfortunately” – Mark Lawrenson, November 7. Well, yes and no. Of course Newcastle United fans would like to win the Champions League. Every supporter of every club wants their team to be as successful as it can be. But that’s not the point (and it’s not Lawrenson’s point either). He is insinuating (as many other pundits have) that there is an unhelpful entitlement amongst Newcastle United supporters, a lack of gratitude for their current situation. You’re 14th in the Premier League, guys – what’s the worry? The worry is that they support a football team that barely even tries to attack. After 84 minutes against Chelsea on Saturday, with their team 2-0 down but with a throw-in close to Chelsea’s goalline, Newcastle played the ball back down the line, then into central midfield and then to their goalkeeper. Karl Darlow launched the ball upfield and Chelsea won back possession. That’s the worry. Newcastle rank 20th in the league for shots per game. Newcastle rank 20th in the league for shots on target per game. Newcastle rank 20th in the league for touches in the opposition box per game. Newcastle rank 20th in the league for passes in the final third per game. Newcastle rank… 19th in the league for successful passes per game. Huzzah! “Newcastle don’t have the personnel to play any other way.” Nonsense. They have Callum Wilson, a proven No. 9 who will score when serviced effectively and probably still score a few when he isn’t. They have Miguel Almiron and Allan Saint-Maximin, two exciting wide attackers whose confidence has been shorn to the point of disillusionment (see the comments of Almiron’s agent this week for details). They have Ryan Fraser too, and a collection of capable midfield holders. They have Jamal Lewis, an excellent attacking left-back. It is true that Newcastle don’t have a squad capable of making a sustainable challenge for a top-six place or one suited to playing all-out-attack football, but then both of those are straw-man arguments. They do have a squad that might offer more if they didn’t sit 40 yards from their own goal and hope that their goalkeeper produces consistent brilliance to keep them in matches. “Erm, they played exactly like this under Rafael Benitez.” They did indeed play very deep under Benitez against Big Six opponents, particularly away from home. Benitez got plenty of stick for one defeat against Manchester City in which Newcastle also barely bothered to try and attack. But here’s the thing: They didn’t always play that way. Between January 1 and the end of 2018/19, when Benitez managed his last game, Newcastle ranked joint-sixth in the league for goals, seventh for chances created and ninth for shots and shots on target. Their five most regular attacking starters were Salomon Rondon, Ayoze Perez, Miguel Almiron, Christian Atsu and Matt Ritchie. Those options are not better than Bruce’s now, and were certainly less expensive. But really, none of this matters. Because you do not get to tell football supporters how they should support their club, particularly those who have ploughed thousands of pounds and hours into it. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more than this (and it would be great if Bruce recognised that and was more adventurous). There’s nothing wrong with wanting your team to attack or even wondering what might happen if they didn’t sit so deep. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be entertained by your football team. Anyone that tells you otherwise is wrong

The in-laws phoned immediately after the announcement to basically say "aye, fuck that shit, we'll see you in the summer". I'm delighted. (His stepdad has COPD so we weren't planning on going this year anyway, but we wanted them to come to that conclusion themselves rather than having to be the ones to break the news...) So, Christmas in London for the first time ever, and indeed making Christmas dinner myself for the first time ever. Veg that isn't overcooked? A decent cheeseboard? Bring it.

As opposed to the Magma Carta, which is presented as a list of five current facts about you.

'kin hell

I might go to Chester and shoot a Welshman through with a crossbow… on a Sunday…after midnight.

People were buying ppvs to watch some YouTuber cunts I’ve never heard of fight last year.

Schnorbitz v Shep

I'm not sure there's many managers still going that I'd want here less than him now. I mean I know it's certainly not impossible that he would bring some clown back from years out of the game given he did that with Kinnear but I can't actually see him doing it again. So the only person I can think of that would annoy me close to the level of Bruce would probably be Tim Sherwood. The problem is all he actually wants is to get shot of us now and as long as we're in the premier league Bruce will suit his purposes. Especially as it's very unlikely we're going to get any meaningful crowds in this season so he's at no risk of losing ticket sales.

Yes but there is also the undercard which is a basketball player fighting some gimp off YouTube. Who the fuck wants to watch that, let alone pay for it? I’m not sure I understand the 21st century.

Gives us an excuse to cue up this tune, so I'm all for it.

I have nothing funny to say

the PM: “it’s the season to be jolly careful”

Mackems- permanently in tier 3.

There’s a reason Steve Bruce is popular with some of the players & Id bet it’s largely because he lets them doss about.

You just know that when Steve Bruce says 'I make no excuses' that he's milliseconds away from trying to make an excuse.

So ... wood?

A natural stepping stone to the NUFC job according to Ashley.

Just the 608 deaths today

He’s 100% dead behind the eyes

I hope the dumb fuck goes bankrupt.

Can I add that the kids are likely to move in with their mum too and have little to do with their dad?

massive

Leaving 5p for you to buy one of this forum's favourite things, an energy drink with a dubious promotional strategy

If you watched the Liverpool match yesterday you will have seen just how important a good (exceptional in their case) manager is. They were without Van Dyke, Alexander Arnold, Gomez, Thiago, Henderson and Salah all of whom would probably be first choice for them as well as Oxlade Chamberlin who's there or there abouts and they absolutely wiped the floor with Leicester. That's Leicester who are in the top four, had won their last 6 in all competitions and have been talked about as champions league place contenders. Klopp has Liverpool drilled perfectly. Of course Bruce doesn't have anything like the quality of player at his disposal as Klopp but when they had so many top class players unavailable it barely made a difference to them at all despite starting with two midfielders in defence and a 19 year old in midfield who's only had a handful of cup games previously for experience. Anyone who thinks getting rid of Bruce would make no difference needs to have a word with themselves. The man is fucking useless as we all knew from the start. Admittedly we can't rely on Ashley to replace him with anyone of quality but it's becoming more and more difficult to see where he could find anyone worse than Bruce.

Imagine wanting to go Christmas shopping.

Hi Tommy...its widely rumoured you spend all the housekeeping on pinball mate....

Who told you?

Not sure that one made it out of Bernie Taupin’s notebook

National pride. I’ll take my chances with 70% and my bulldog spirit will make up the other 30%

Any 'journalist' or social media commentor (same thing these days) who still suggests that Bruce is doing a good job here should be made to watch the entirity of this game and then re-state their 'expert' opinion. Once again a case of a team that wholly believes they're second best, don't give a crap and are therefore beaten before the game starts. Hayden clearly not giving a fuck, throwing himself around with terrible tackles whilst on a yellow. Should have been given a second and sent to an early shower, the fact the ref didn't probably shows he felt a bit sorry for how terrible we were.