acrossthepond 707 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Sunday will see the Premier League finished, with potential for Geordie tears heavily on the agenda. While the more circumspect supporters of Newcastle United are steadying themselves for the worst yet also considering that relegation might just be for the best, much of the nation readies itself for comedic images of Toony tears. Rent-a-gob Oasis rocker Noel Gallagher perhaps best summed up the feelings of a sizeable group when he said: "I hope Newcastle go down. There's no better sight than seeing fat, topless Geordies crying." Harsh but fair? It’s certainly unfair on a number of the club's fans; those who do not expose themselves in such an uncouth fashion and actually show signs of having a grip on reality. A minority of the club's current players too. Few will have sympathy for Mike Ashley, an owner whose public face of ownership has included an unspeaking beer-swilling presence in a replica shirt, a disappearing act and nowadays, a grinning loner in a XXXL white shirt with added bar-scarf. Still no speaking, save for a hand-wringing open letter to fans which did little to quieten the anger at a man who has put millions into a club yet failed to read the runes. Ashley has paid for his choice of friends, having to pay off the similarly reclusive Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez along with the cash it took to employ Alan Shearer to take over the bar at this last-chance saloon. As for Joe Kinnear, he delivered better comedy than results. First came his improbable arrival from the footballing wilderness and then came that f-worded rant. Yet even before bad health took its sadly predictable hold, things were lurching towards disaster. Kinnear's win percentage does not match well with his predecessors. Many clubs have fallen victim to unpopular stewardship. Currently, Manchester United's Glazer time-bomb ticks on. Liverpool's "Barnum and Bailey" act of Gillett and Hicks also approach D-Day with an unpaid loan. Though we don't know the cost of it yet, at least those clubs have enjoyed success. As yet, they deserve no sympathy. Newcastle, fortunes falling as low as they have been in nearly 20 years, surely deserve some. Yet it seems in short supply. The "Geordie Nation", a phrase also derided by Gallagher in the same rant on his recent radio double act with Russell Brand, has used up its chances with many. Sir John Hall was the man who took Kevin Keegan back to the club as manager and around that time spoke of his hopes for a "team of Geordies", a kind of Athletic Bilbao of England's North-East. At the time, that sense of local pride looked laudable, especially as Hall hoped to regenerate an economically depressed city with the football club as the centre of that plan. In the time since Newcastle were "everyone's second-favourite team", a result of their attacking zeal, exciting matches and not being Manchester United, that sense of national admiration has departed. Perhaps it happened when Keegan did the second of his flouncings from St James' Park. Kenny Dalglish and Ruud Gullit failed to recapture the imagination with some bad buys and two execrable FA Cup Final performances. When Bobby Robson took over, the club had a true Geordie in charge and started to play decent football again. During the 2001-2 and 2002-3 seasons, Newcastle were again the entertainers though never looked like claiming honours. That lack of silverware yet fervent support is used as proof by Magpies fans of a status of "true supporters", as compared to those who support the teams with more glitter in the trophy cabinet - the "glory hunters". Many choose to deride Newcastle fans for getting overly excited about what seem to others like the smallest crumbs of success, for example the riotous scenes that greeted the recent win over Middlesbrough. There was still a job to be done but black and white scarves were being waved in paroxysms of delight...the type of premature elation that brings hoots of derision from the rest of the watching public. Those chickens came to roost during the loss to Fulham. Robson was ousted from the club as the victim of, firstly, boos from sections of the crowd who had forgotten the resurrection job he had done and then Freddy Shepherd, the chairman, a man who has been taped showing open contempt for fans of the clubs for spending money on tacky merchandise and the womenfolk of Tyneside. Once Robson had gone, to be replaced by Graeme Souness and Glenn Roeder, national sympathy deserted the club. Not the fans' fault, of course, but Shepherd's removal of such a dignified man reflected the lack of reality that forever thwarts the club's development. Since then Sam Allardyce has been put through the mixer, his brand of football not matching Geordie expectations of the type of football they played under Keegan and Robson. When Keegan returned, hysteria was fully back in tow, while hilarity ensued elsewhere as fans cavorted and remembered the days when...they didn't win anything. Ashley played the populist card and lost, mostly as a result of his use of joker in the pack in "the Cockney mafia" of Wise and co, friends he met in a London casino. Keegan exited again, back to the circus from whence he came from the one he’d help start. That takes us to the present day and Alan Shearer, the last messiah. And to many, a charmless one. He has done little to augment a terrible team playing with little confidence, with two home performances against Fulham and Portsmouth surely as bad as any that Allardyce had served up. Michael Owen meanwhile is more remembered at Newcastle for the Nuremberg-style rally that greeted his arrival than anything he has actually done on the pitch. Those images of thousands of fans thronging the ground, seemingly at the drop of a hat, always meet with mockery. Owen will soon be gone, Shearer may stay and may well save Newcastle United from the abyss, both footballing and financial, that many think they deserve. Delusions of grandeur and arrogance rarely make for national appeal and charm. Don't be surprised if many are cheering on Aston Villa on Sunday. Relegation may serve as a Geordie reality check. But don't count on it. Scum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 13892 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 A nothing article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Carr's Gloves 3240 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Still upset his brother got a smack at the riverside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kelly 1117 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 I got bored after the first couple of lines and couldn't be arsed to finish reading it but generally I expect to have little sympathy from anyone if and when we go down. Most people like nothing better than to see a big name fail and seeing the same thing that happened to Leeds will please people the same as it pleased a lot of us then. As I'm typing this I've got the feeling that Stevie's controlling me here but the fact is that no one save their local rivals would care what happened to teams like the makems, the kiddie fiddlers (they don't even have any real rivals so no one cares at all), West Brom, Hull, Fullham, Portsmouth, Bolton, Blackburn, Stoke, etc. Teams like that don't make a difference to the league. But teams like us and Leeds have made a big impact in the premier league, we've got a history, we've got a massive following and everyone esle will enjoy taking the piss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasepud 59 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 sad thing is they're entitled to do it take it on the chin, smile sweetly then set fire to their feet. Thats what I'll be doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kelly 1117 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 sad thing is they're entitled to do it take it on the chin, smile sweetly then set fire to their feet. Thats what I'll be doing. Exactly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) They can't have it both ways. If we're a nothing club then why does every media muppet need to say something about us.... I couldn't give a fuck what Noel Gallagher thinks about our club, you'd have thought he'd be more concerned about ManU's third title in a row. Edited May 22, 2009 by Asprilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 35124 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Or the fact that his last decent album is getting on for 15 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Or the fact that his last decent album is getting on for 15 years old. I have quite a bit of time for him usually, he still writes great songs from time to time. But when he spews out this kind of shit for the Talksport numpties he can fuck himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JawD 31 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 CAnt stand that fucker Still, of course people want to see us go down. People like a train wreck or a car crash. Thats exactly what we are at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakehips 0 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Obviously a personal attack on us, thinly veiled as a report on the general feeling of most football fans. The bit about our celebrations against Boro got me . If anyone couldn't appreciate why we were the way we were, they don't know a fuckin' thing about football. FACT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakehips 0 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 CAnt stand that fucker Still, of course people want to see us go down. People like a train wreck or a car crash. Thats exactly what we are at the moment. Who wrote it?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JawD 31 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 CAnt stand that fucker Still, of course people want to see us go down. People like a train wreck or a car crash. Thats exactly what we are at the moment. Who wrote it?? Sorry, was referring to Noel Gallagher not the author of the article. He/she's probably a twat as well though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Noel Gallagher's basically a wum. Sad thing is, most of the media is full of them these days. Whether it's a rent-a-quote celeb fans or the actual reporters themselves. The internet doesn't help but I think it's more to do with the way football has changed as a whole. Plastic fans with plastic views and so on. Admittedly I couldn't be arsed to read more than a couple of lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fop 1 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinofbeans 86 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 CAnt stand that fucker Still, of course people want to see us go down. People like a train wreck or a car crash. Thats exactly what we are at the moment. I'd suggest this club is far worse than that in terms of the people in charge and the majority of the playing and coaching staff. its the worst run club in the premier league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sima 0 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Of course Noel Gallagher's attack had nothing to do with him having a Stadium Gig in Sunderland did it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia 0 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 I much prefer to be disliked than liked. All that 'second favourite club' shite was cringeworthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew 4252 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 I much prefer to be disliked than liked. All that 'second favourite club' shite was cringeworthy. especially by noel gallagher since hes such a massive cock I'd feel sort of ashamed to like something he does Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Richard Kimble 0 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 The only person who ever went on about the Geordie Nation was John Hall as a marketing gimmick. This was always going to rankle irk 95% of the snotty and feeble minded British. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acid 0 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Noel Gallagher is a grade-A cunt, simple as. ESPN, well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewerk 26673 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) I fail to see how that article illustrates that we, the 'Geordie faithful', don't deserve any sympathy. If anything it goes to show how we've been fucked over. Edited May 22, 2009 by ewerk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 13892 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 It's because the fans celebrate when we get crucial victories. How deluded! Flags and singing! !1!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 It's because the fans celebrate when we get crucial victories. How deluded! Flags and singing! !1!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acrossthepond 707 Posted May 22, 2009 Author Share Posted May 22, 2009 Aye, that bit about celebrating against Boro really rankled me too. Idiotic thing to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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