bigchrissamba

You meant large enough. Your city is bigger than our town, I wouldn't say that's something to be proud or ashamed of.. Anyway I don't wish to take this discussion away further from the football, because as a Blackburn fan that's definitely where I'm in winning territory on here

I see your characteristic Geordie intelligence has been working in overdrive with those last two replies.

As a fan, watching your team win and create chances playing "hoofball" will ALWAYS be infinitely more entertaining than watching your team pass their way to failure a la West Brom. Maybe that doesn't entertain the neutral but that should never be the primary aim of a club. I would say Newcastle along with West Brom but judging by your recent performances you've been shocking to watch in recent times too. You were definitely entertaining under Robson and Keegan but that's about it, so where this myth comes from that you're some kind of Brazil 1970esque footballing side is a bit of a mystery to me. We're pretty much neck and neck in the fair play leagues this season so you can't beat us with that. You haven't finished above us in years so you can't beat us with that. You haven't won any trophies of note in a generation either. Our small crowds are down to our small population and massive density of other clubs, together with two world footballing giants in Man U and Liverpool. There's the three of you in the entire North East of England, and in terms of success none of you are even English footballing giants let alone world footballing giants. And the last time you scored more goals than us (because, lets be honest, as fans there's nothing more entertaining than watching your team create chances and score goals) was in 2004-05. WBA, Boro and Mackems aren't so horribly delusional like some of you lot are. The drop's been coming for years, you just haven't seen it coming.

You'd be in a hell of a lot better position now if you'd hung onto him. It's only the expectations of you guys (and your idiotic chairman) which stipulated he didn't get nearly enough of a fair crack. But yeah...good manager at the right place, agreed. And people would bat an eyelid if a pretty consistently top 10 team spent the next few seasons hovering around the relegation zone. At least those who don't equate size of crowds with a measure of how good a club is.

If it wasn't for Ince we'd be looking at a fourth top 10 finish in a row. I agree Sam isn't the manager he thinks he is, but given time he could have done a good job for you and left you in mid table 9 pts from the drop. He deserves at least grudging admiration from other fans - we don't expect others to like him and had he not been our manager we wouldn't like him either - but he is a good manager.

We can't fill our stadium because we're a small town with lots of competition round us - Bolton, Wigan, Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool, Everton plus numerous Championship clubs like Burnley and Preston all competing for support within 40 miles of us. You have Boro and Sunderland - hardly beacons of footballing tradition there are they? It's still worth noting that on Sunday we had over a fifth of our towns population down at Ewood - not too dissimilar a proportion to what you get at St James', but you have far less competition for miles around. If it wasn't for a moment of madness in appointing Ince we would've arguably had our fourth successive top 10 finish in a row - no small feat in this league. Winning football is always more attractive than losing football and it's well worth noting the last season where you put the ball in the net more times than us was 2004-05. And as for Sam taking you down and fast? You were 11th when he left, 9 points off the drop zone. You'd gone through a poor run of form with one or two shocking results but IT HAPPENS. He'd had a sustained record of success at Bolton and you had more than enough of a cushion to be able to give him the benefit of the doubt for a little longer based on that alone, but the characteristic impatience of your fans combined with Ashley's general madness was what led to his demise. Sure he didn't start well but as I've said he inherited a club that was 5 points from being in the Championship the season before.

Don't be a twat. Well you did call us shit, granted this is your forum but I'd say I'm well within my rights to state my opinion. League table since he took charge: Top 10 under Sam's charge and just 2 points from being off top 6 form. Over half a season. Headier heights than you've achieved for a while... You've watched football before have you? He was fucking gash here. If he hadn't have been he wouldn't have been sacked would he? You'd finished 5 points from the drop zone the season before he came. When he left you you guys were 11th. He hardly covered himself in glory, he didn't even do a good job with you, but clearly that doesn't represent a disastrous job either and not one that required sacking after 6 months and he deserved more time. It's been downhill ever since you got rid of him - that should tell you something. It tells me that you get your football knowledge from tabloids and talksport. He was shit here. Absolute shit. He couldn't handle it and his record was woeful. Keegan got us back on track. He understands the club in the same way that Fat Sam does well at gritty mid table clubs. The Keegan/Ashley thing is what's fucked us, not because we don't have Sam Allardyce. I read The Times and have barely listened to talksport in my life. Try again. His record (mid table) wasn't woeful and if anything was an improvement on your previous season. Wasn't great granted but he could have brought some much needed stability to your club. Ashley has been responsible for a lot of your woes but one of those was sacking Allardyce. The Keegan fiasco was an error too, but then the man had only won 6 from his 21 in charge and the jury was still out on whether he would've made a good manager either way. Appointing Kinnear was the nail in the coffin but had you held onto Allardyce you wouldn't have fallen this far, not a chance.

Don't be a twat. Well you did call us shit, granted this is your forum but I'd say I'm well within my rights to state my opinion. League table since he took charge: Top 10 under Sam's charge and just 2 points from being off top 6 form. Over half a season. Headier heights than you've achieved for a while... You've watched football before have you? He was fucking gash here. If he hadn't have been he wouldn't have been sacked would he? You'd finished 5 points from the drop zone the season before he came. When he left you you guys were 11th. He hardly covered himself in glory, he didn't even do a good job with you, but clearly that doesn't represent a disastrous job either and not one that required sacking after 6 months and he deserved more time. It's been downhill ever since you got rid of him - that should tell you something.

Don't be a twat. Well you did call us shit, granted this is your forum but I'd say I'm well within my rights to state my opinion. League table since he took charge: Top 10 under Sam's charge and just 2 points from being off top 6 form. Over half a season. Headier heights than you've achieved for a while...

Good sight better than we were looking before Big Sam came in. You guys should think about hiring someone similar...

We're not shitting ourselves. Nearly home and dry old chap.