Knowing your place

Getting battered at Manchester City came as no real surprise to many, myself included. Tim Krul & Hatem Ben Arfa being the only shining lights in what was a shambolic display. Cabaye looks set to leave so we just need to make sure we keep the two aforementioned players, otherwise we're relegation candidates for sure.

All that aside, I think it's a good chance to take genuine stock of where we are as a club.

Mike Ashley has set-out his agenda with his 'selling for a profit' style. His head will have been turned by Arsenal's £10m for Cabaye as it's "double-bubble" as they say in cock-er-nee land.

Joe Kinnear floats around (not to the matches thus far) trying to look busy and waiting for Pardew to quit... oh and the loan signing of Remy.

Pardew is in limbo, waiting to see if Krul & Ben Arfa get sold so he can quit with justification.

But more than all of that, it's a chance to recognise that as a football club, we are now officially second-rate.

Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and perhaps Arsenal are on a different planet when it comes to financial spending power. We simply cannot compete with them so have to surrender the top 6 positions straight off the bat.

Next tier down, we have Everton, Aston Villa, Swansea, West Ham, Fulham, Sunderland, Norwich and ourselves... of course that's all open to conjecture.

The point being that fundamental change is needed at Newcastle United, from top to bottom.

I fear that relegation or perhaps two relegations will be the catalyst for such change, the obscene amounts of money being pumped into the Premier League just now is keeping all the greedy, money-making sharks at our club.

We look set for another heartbreaking season, even from a distance it hurts to watch, so is there another way to rid NUFC of the 'cancer' that it's currently suffering with?

I fear there is no hope except the 'hunger strike' option of cutting off the supply so leaches like Ashley remove their fangs from our lifeblood.

With little or no hope for improvement and with attending PL matches costing a small fortune, what motivates people to still attend?

Howay the lads!

 

Very true! As alluded to above, the only option we have as supporters is to not spend our money on the club. Whether that be stopping attending matches (As I have done by cancelling my season ticket!), stop buying the merchandise such as shirts etc. After all, who wants to walk around with "WONGA" written across their chest. It seems to me like Ashley is deliberately trying to deter us from supporting OUR club!!!

 

I was going to give my season ticket up last season but family talked me round.
Last night I wasn't excited that it was our first game of the season. I knew we would lose simply because of Pardew's tactics.
His mentality against big clubs beggars belief.
I will be there on Saturday cheering the lads on but I want to see change at the club.

 

I for sure will not not putting money into fat mikes pocket.
I can say that the game on Saturday is
Going to be like the hull game we lost
When Keegan walked.

 

I think your spot on Joker, but with the following;

As I see it, CHelsea, Man U and. Man C are so far ahead financially they are in an elite group of their own.
Unless another financial power shift comes along, one of these three will win the PL for many years to come.

Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool are in the next level down vying for 4th place and a spot in the Champions League.
These three and the rest are basically there to give the top 3 a platform to make more money and provide a league to compete in. We along with others make up the numbers.

We are currently in the next group down again as you say, but as things stand are struggling to retain that position due to lack of investment. With a bit luck, there is always the chance that one of this group will over perform as we did in finishing 5th.

The chances of breaking into the top three are non-existent unless a sugar daddy comes along, another rich sheik or oil billionaire and who does a Man City or Chelsea.

Take away the odd couple of years under Keegan and SBR we have never been players at the top table in my lifetime and i'm in my 50's. We might sniff around the top 4 or 5 but that all it is.

As long as we have been able to watch a decent team and have a chance of winning a cup most fans have been accepting of that over the years. I don't think anyone has any expectation more than that. We might want to win the league, but we know it won't happen.

Under Ashley the spirit has gone from a lot of fans and I can understand that. Pardew isn't helping at the moment and neither are the players due to lack of leadership and a malaise running through the club.

If I wanted to support a club that was going to win the league, I was born in the wrong place. I'm a Geordie and all I want is a team that goes out on the pitch and gives it all and plays good football and is exciting to watch. An owner that cares and unfortunately we don't have that from what I can see.

Ashley will never drive me out of SJP as long as I can breathe, I've seen worse times than this with teams that make this one look like champions.

You mention relegation, perhaps we need to hit bottom before we start to rise again.

 

I'm not going to any more away games this season.
I'm at the point where i'm considering cancelling my season ticket.
I won't be buying any merchandise. I'll stick with retro shirts bought from elsewhere.

 

Sorry (I'm not sorry), but this can't have come as some sudden revelation.

 

C'mon you can't give up that easy.
Been to worse away games than losing 4 - 0 at possibly best team in the country.
Cancelling ST may not be that simple.

 

Well said Joker

 

I think that like many others, finishing 5th in the league a couple of seasons ago, gave many Toon fans fresh hope that we could again be a force in the Premier League.

Sadly though, it has proved to be a flash-in-the-pan season and we have made no progress since that season. It would be easy to argue that we've actually gone backwards somewhat.

On the player front, Krul will attract plenty of attention if our team keeps offering him the opportunity to show off his skills!

Debuchy looks no better than Danny Simpson in my opinion.

Steven Taylor needs to have a serious look at himself - when you figure in his poor injury record, getting banned for utterly stupid behaviour is simply not acceptable.

I could go on but I think most of you saw the horror show for yourselves.

 

It's not a revelation - it's the last straw. After the debacle of last season, the close season provided a time to re-group, recharge the batteries, renew optimism for the forthcoming season. All that was wiped out after 6 minutes on Monday night!

 

Apart from the last sentence this is an excellent summary and applies to the rest of us `also rans`.
Relegation has been tried. Came back. Still no ambition?

To my way of thinking the biggest problem is Ashley and I honestly can`t think of a reason why he will change his ways.
I don`t know what he`s doing or why he`s doing it but for some reason (known only to himself) he seems to enjoy the torment.
He`s got some strange ideas.
I can`t see anything changing until you get a new owner.
I can`t see you getting a new owner until something changes.
A hell of a catch 22 imo.

 

Not buying the merchandise won't actually hurt Ashley too much as the club receive massive income from the PL.

I think the best way to demonstrate the anger is to stay away from home games.

An empty SJP would send an unmissable message to the fat controller.

 

I agree an empty SJP would send a message to MA and as a ST holder I would do it, but would others I don't think so.

 

I didn't see the City match live as we had guests staying, who to be fair had travelled over from Australia, so l thought it might seem rude to ignore them and watch the match lol. But seriously, l recorded it with the intention of staying clear of the result and watching it after work on Tuesday night.
However due to the Cabaye/Arsenal bid avoiding the aftermath was impossible. I never really expected that we would win this match, away at City and with their new additions they are without doubt a potent force, but l was hoping that we would give them something to think about and set out our stall.
The comments on here, the write up in the sports papers and Pardew's pathetic excuses taught me all l needed to know about how we performed, or didn't as the case seems to be.
So for the very first time EVER.... I deleted the match without watching it, as l simply couldn't stand to see the pathetic, I'll disciplined rabble being taught how to play football yet again. Benny and Tim aside, we are a spineless shambles. I for one really have just about had enough of this circus, we really do deserve much better than this, that's not me being delusional or sentimental, just asking myself the same question over and over again, which is..... What in Gods name Di we ever do to deserve this ?

 

It's such a frustrating situation, l would desperately love to do something to bring about the much needed changes at SJP, and perhaps an empty ground, sad though that thought may be, is just about the only thing that might make our so called Directors, stop and think about the perpetual laughing stock they have turned our beloved club in to.

 

Actually, the merchandise is quite an interesting subject within NUFC's finances. Whatever the totals are, MA would not turn his nose up at it, that's for sure.

Here's a couple of interesting articles on it:-

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/mar/27/newcastle-united-announce-profit - Love the Llambias quote - ""We are looking at several playing positions. Next year we will have extra TV money, there is a budget to spend."

http://www.thenufcblog.com/newcastle-united/spot-the-difference/ - This is the reason why the merchandise doesn't really matter to MA.

I know the articles are old and have probably been done to death on here but I still think they are a good read in hindsight.