Article: GOAL... Name on the shirt | Football, Newcastle

Well I have had enough of reading about Barton, Ashley, Enrique etc.

In the immortal words of the manager in the film Goal (can never remember the bugger's name)

"The name on the front of the shirt is more important than the one on the back"

Whether they are new arrivals, youngsters, or established first team players, the lads who pull on those shirts need our support. They need us to be loud and they need us to be positive. I am not interested in giving Ashley abuse, it's like water off a duck's back anyway, so what is the point? He will do what he likes anyway.

The squad that we have now is a bit lightweight and needs a couple of key players. We all know this. However, it is full of young exciting players, who, if the fans really get behind them, like we did with HBA, could light up our saturday afternoons brighter than Guy Fawkes' bum on bonfire night. We have a team filled with pace and the enthusiasm of youth. We have players like Cabaye and Marveaux looking forward to a new challenge.

So I say **** Ashley, **** Llambias and **** Barton, they only bring embarrassment and shame on the club anyway. I will be giving 100% of my support to the players on the pitch, whoever they are, regardless to whatever ****e is happening behind the scenes that I cannot influence anyway.

NUFC will be here a long time after those ****ers have departed, and I will be backing MY CLUB no matter which league we end up playing in.

Rant over

 

Here Here to half of it. I'm all for abusing Ashley in the build up, but when the games come around, I'm not one for abuse, I will be giving 100% support to whichever player steps out onto the pitch (even if it is Shola). I'd love to see Barton staying here, and I don't give him any of the blame, but when he's gone he's gone, and I'll be cheering on the lads who are still in black and white.

 

Santiago Muñez? Also, agreed.

 

When I saw the name of the article, I thought you were going to tell us that you had just got 'Munez' on the back of the new home shirt.

But yesm, I agree with everything you've said

 

Dornhelm! Why can't we have a German manager in real life?!

Totally agree though, it's time we all just got behind the team regardless of who the team's made up of!

 

I still think Barton is taking the piss with all these claims of loyalty and pride in the B&W etc. Forget him. We have an awesome midfield as it is now, all we need are full backs and we should improve on last season

 

I don't think he is. For all his faults, he appears to be esssentially honest, if often not the most tactful. Howeverm who would you prefer, a spin doctor like Alqain de Pardieu, or someone who tells it like it is, warts and all.

James Lawson has a great piece in the Independent, if anyone cares to read it. In it, he says

"Joey Barton, for all his rampages...and sometimes gut-wrenchingly brutal discord with team mates and opponents, has always tended to connect with the fans of the clubs who pay his wages. It is that which probably this that resonates most powerfully in his latest controversy, coming as it does in the middle of perhaps the most sustained burst of career and financial opportunism in the history of the game."

While the more cynical of you may think that all this is a ploy to get a big money move, I'm not sure that this is the case, at all. Indeed, he has tweeted that he might just stay, as they can't actually force him out. All they can do is what they are doing, ie., give the captain's armband to Shola (ffs), at Leeds, take away his usual dead-ball duties, and now humiliate him by making him train alone.

I'd laugh if he just stayed, for the last year of his contract, training alone and not playing, but still picking up his £63k wages from the Fat Controller. At the end of it, if nothing else, his golf handicap would be somewhere down near scratch!

As for ourselves, anyone who supports him could have his name printed on his shirt (the old ones, as new ones are crap) and all do a Poznan at the Fiorentina match!

 

Is it me or do we not need to told or reminded to 'support the players on the pitch' or 'support the team' that stuff is a given surely...?

Most people who slate Ash Fat is because their support for the team is never ending, and never will be whether it be Premiership footy or Conference North football....Some things that Ash does just needs to be aired thats all. He doesnt deserve to have his **** ignored and buried in the sand. Hes a **** and if the fans sang Ashley is a **** for 90 mins it would be brilliant.........Because it would be loud and EVERYBODY would be singing it.

 

I don't think Barton was ever trying to engineer a move elsewhere. I do believe he wanted to stay, however he should have been professional about not receiving a contract renewal and respected their decision- this means getting his head down, and not slagging off the employers who have stood by him for the past 4 years on some social networking site.

I believe the board are looking to call his bluff, sure they've transfer listed him but hasn't Joey stated he only wants to play in B+W (as he put it) for the fans- so what's the big deal then?

Barton is going on about how much he loves the club and its fans and all he had to do was keep his mouth shut and focus on the team. Alas, it's once again the fans who are made to suffer the humility of it all.

 

Sorry simonbh7, You have given out too much Reputation in the last 24 hours, try again later.

Will leave you some ASAP.

Very good article.

PS. The only players names I've had on my tops were local legends Milburn and Shearer plus KK.

I'll get Barton on my new one.

 

Very good article and wise words! Rep'd

 

I'm afraid this is exactly the sort of thing Ashley wants to hear. As long as he is assured of hordes turning up at SJP he will continue to treat the fans like dirt. What exactly will it take for Newcastle fans to do the only thing that could possibly affect Ashley - ie make the team play in front of an empty stadium?

 

Please remember that the money it generates will be going into Ashleys pockets. Thus he gets the last laugh again. ;-(

 

Good article.