On the " gave up half way through" line. Very doid line anarl. A canny few years ago, that lot were playing in a CL game. Probably the first time. I went into a workshop and the lads had a radio on. Talk sport was playing and in honour of the match upcoming, Freddie Sheppard was lined up for an interview with a character called Mike Parry, a bloke who likes to make a noise for a reaction. In the morning this was, maybe half eight or so. Parry. " Well Freddie, a great night coming up" Sheppard. " Yes, we've worked hard towards this, blah...blah." Parry. "And the atmosphere should be great at St James Park. It's a great ground, I've been there myself. It's going to look great when it's all finished". Sheppard. " It is finished". Cue a tailed off interview. Fantastic, and confirms the " gave up half way through" impression.
Bang on. When we were looking to move from Roker we looked at loads of sites before coming up with the A19 site, which ultimately fell through. If I remember right, Silksworth, Herrington, Penshaw, Cleadon and Doxford Park were areas looked at and rejected for various reasons until they settled on Nissan. Those stadium plans were brought out in 1993 after about a year of rumours with the stadium due to open in 1995. I remember seeing the clubs proposal for the "Wembley of the north" when they put stuff out about including stuff about feasibility studies. I think it said it had been about a years work from a initial ideas, identifying sites, conducting feasibility studies, getting designs etc before coming out with it. With all the disputes and objections, especially from Nissan, it was called in for a public enquiry and ultimately it fell through. But in the meantime those delays allowed a better site to come available. By luck (if you look at it that way) Wearmouth colliery closed and the site became available, which is better than the ones previously looked at. If it hadn't and we'd stayed at Roker I can bet now we'd have looked at building on Vaux and maybe be on site now.
Its not just the results and performances. They absolutely hate the fact we're being talked about in all areas of the media, and getting such positive attention. They want it all for themselves , as they have had so much smoke blown up their arses. Its grating on them, and they do not like it!!
In the spirit of enquirey, PLEASE correct me where I have it weong. It seems that The Freemen of the City of Newcastle are not the same as those who have been honoured with the Freedom of Newcastle. This second catagory currently includes Meesrs Shearer and Howe for example and they are Honorary Freemen. (A sort of non-voting member). It seems that anybody can apply to become a Freeman providing they qualify, but I have not managed to find out just what the rules are. The best I have come up with is that Bastards are NOT eligable!!! And this is my todays -- 'new thing learned'
