Will you be supporting the team?

[HughieG]

McClaren was an even worse appointment than Bruce, and Kinnear before him. But back then there was still a feeling that Ashley might sell the club.

Now we know that is not his intention, but just a game he's playing. That's what makes it so hopeless.

[TheOtherTerryMac]

I understand those not going Tez, but not to watch them play on TV, I couldn't do that.

I'd go mad.

It would only depress me more mate. He is Head Coach so effectively Ashley buys the players and Bruce trains them

[Curian]

My heart says no my head says yes. Totally torn!

[Sclox]

Will watch at a distance with all hope, emotion and expectation curbed. Its become a black comedy for me now and I feel sorry for anyone who sees it any differently.

Never felt as negatively in all the years as a fan.

Dark, dark times.

[HughieG]

Will watch at a distance with all hope, emotion and expectation curbed. Its become a black comedy for me now and I feel sorry for anyone who sees it any differently.

Never felt as negatively in all the years as a fan.

Dark, dark times.

I feel exactly this way. I care about our club, not this joke of a Sports Direct branch that Ashley has turned NUFC into.

[ghostrider]

I feel exactly this way. I care about our club, not this joke of a Sports Direct branch that Ashley has turned NUFC into.

Where you around when we were in the old second division for years and looked to have zero prospects to get out, other than to fight among many clubs trying to get out but struggling?
I was a fan then, full on, amid all that stuff, as I imagine many on here were.
Is the club worse now than then?

Sometimes it's worth taking a step back and wondering what acceptance is for any time and hope.
Expectation is better thought of as the low shot. Survival is an expectation, as is.

From that point, there's hope, whether it's hope for a higher spot or a cup run or a new player or big result...and so on.
There's fans going to non league games, full of excitement and gusto for their day out to see their team win, lose or draw but with a hope of a win, always...and generally without too much expectation, unless they've been spoilt by blank cheque, live above the means owners...which is a rarity in the lower leagues.

People think Newcastle United, a premier league club is a club in turmoil and yet nobody seems to give a passing thought to all those other clubs that finished below us, as being in turmoil. Weird as all hell.

[AP69]

IF you were there and it's a big IF you would know those 4 (89 - 93) years spent in Div 2 were a world away from where we are now

No mega rich owner

No £185m income

I still bet we spent more (net) in those 4 years on players than Ashley has in the last 12

You would also remember the fanbase although smaller was way more militant than it is now and things would of been done to rid the club of this leech

We should not be in this position we are in the richest league in the world and should be getting a lot of money for sponsorship (as other clubs in the league do)
We were the 19th richest club in the world last year and have a war chest of £50m

That's like going to war with empty water pistols

[bib60]

After 50 years have given up, did not even realised we were playing until I got home from work, just totally disconnected.

[HughieG]

Where you around when we were in the old second division for years and looked to have zero prospects to get out, other than to fight among many clubs trying to get out but struggling?
I was a fan then, full on, amid all that stuff, as I imagine many on here were.
Is the club worse now than then?

Sometimes it's worth taking a step back and wondering what acceptance is for any time and hope.
Expectation is better thought of as the low shot. Survival is an expectation, as is.

From that point, there's hope, whether it's hope for a higher spot or a cup run or a new player or big result...and so on.
There's fans going to non league games, full of excitement and gusto for their day out to see their team win, lose or draw but with a hope of a win, always...and generally without too much expectation, unless they've been spoilt by blank cheque, live above the means owners...which is a rarity in the lower leagues.

People think Newcastle United, a premier league club is a club in turmoil and yet nobody seems to give a passing thought to all those other clubs that finished below us, as being in turmoil. Weird as all hell.

I think you and I have completely different ideas of what ambition means, and what that means to a fan. I'm not satisfied, like you seem to be, with looking at the teams that finished below us just so I can go "At least they're worse off and in much more turmoil than us - thus Ashley must be doing brilliantly!"

That philosophy doesn't make any sense. Football is about prospering and that's exactly where hope enters the frame. The hope that we can compete with the greatest clubs in this country, the greatest clubs in Europe again. And everything is in place for us to do that, and we can even come out of it as a financially stable club. Ashley just won't let that happen. Weird as all hell.

It's not even that any of us expect us that this will happen, but we demand that we try. And you know we aren't.