Saint Maximin and Almiron out for a month with Wilson, so they’ll at least have the biggest stadium in the championship next year. Small mercies.
I thought the MK stadium was terrific. Spacious seats, good concourses, excellent views, plenty of easy access and parking. Shame it's not a 'football' town, because there's little to no atmosphere, but as a ground it's excellent.
Stadiums are not the issue. It's the fans that fill them that make it an experience. The SoL lost a bit of that with the crap footy and double relegation (not surprising, really), but it was coming back before the covid shut-down. That 46k against Bradford was magnificent. A bit of success and ours will be a ground to envy again. SJP remains impressive from a distance, but those nosebleed seats and the lopsided feel of the thing make it less than it should be. As does the fact that it's crying out for a lick of paint. View from the away end pretty impressive, mind, and usually better than what goes on on the pitch.
Let's be fair the southerners are fickle compared to the northeast supporters, they will never know what a proper Derby is and Kryil will hopefully see one one day, PSG vs whoever ! Real madrid vs Barca frig off, we have the biggest in europe and will again one day.
I was there a couple of years ago for an u12s football tournament my son's team were playing in. The kids all got a tour of the stadium beforehand, my son asked "do I have to go?" I sat in the big stand behind the dug outs and was quite shocked how small the ground actually is - when you look over to the small stand opposite (the one they can't extend) it looks tiny, like a non-league ground I mean, if they could extend it all the way round, it would look quite smart, but it's an absolute hotch potch of a stadium. As for the statue of teh famous Ipswich and England manager outside. WTF is that about?
I still talk with my mates about the videos of Leicester fans celebrating their title win. It was like being at the cricket or the athletics "yayyy.......yayyy we won. Yayy" Let me tell you something - if we won the league like that in 2016 I'd still be drunk now
It's what they do, success by osmosis. They absorbed all of the trophies Benitez won and quote them time after time as if they were part of it. They claim Mourinho has a 'special link' to the supporters. Bobby Robson won things at every club he managed. They latch onto winners because it makes them feel as if they've won something, absolutely infantile tbh. If Robson hadn't managed Barcelona, England, etc, and hadn't won domestic and European trophies, there's no way they'd have put up a statue for him. If Benitez was Graham Potter, played the same football and got the same results they couldn't have got him out quick enough. If Mourinho hadn't won all those major trophies they'd never mention the man. Even Shearer is a hero, and gets a statue, despite only ever winning anything for Blackburn Rovers.
Osmosis you say.....Just thought I would put this up..... Track 7 on the album is called "Denial", a beautiful ballad about a failed takeover, and the local press' reluctance to accept it. Maybe....
"despite playing in league one" I fail to see the relevance of dropping that in just after saying it's more modern and for a tournament 9 years away. By that time it'll have been extended to 60k plus after we become Champions league regulars.
Seems unlikely this will happen anyway to me. But if it does and they have 24(?) teams in it, there is a strong case for a group up here. Three grounds that are big enough, three training bases, plus Durham Uni at Maiden Castle for the fourth team, easy transport between all four bases and the three grounds, and a lot of people ready to come and watch any football. That sounds too simple doesn't it?
as i remember it, they have taken it as far as absolutely possible. FFS simply wanted more seats/capacity than the SoL, he tried many options to relocate and build a new, bigger stadium...unfortunately, his self-named 'jordy nation' did not share his passion and planning permission was refused or contested at every space chosen (may be wrong but pretty sure even somewhere in gosforth was knocked back and by then they were getting too far away from the city center) while SJP was extremely limited as to options to expand it was his only choice in the end, rather than be sensible he went all out to get over that 50k capacity and turned it into the lop sided mess it is today. i believe SJP also has the same structure type as Roker Park had and time will take it's toll if it has not happened alreay, remember when the Roker End had to be 'halved', this was due simply to the age, wear and tear of the concrete...there is a possible chance that parts of SJP may need to be reduced as repairs will be costly.