End of an era?

[toptoon]

I was just wondering if Ashley will manage to change our club forever or whether things will get back to normal once he goes, whenever that may be.

We are currently seeing a fundamental change in the type of supporter going to home matches. Many die hard supporters have stopped going and are being replaced, in part, by a new type of supporter who has less love for the club. The result is the ever worsening atmosphere in St James´Park. Ashley and his pals won´t care less about this and, apart from the poorer atmosphere, will actually welcome supporters who care less about the club, For them, they´re less bother and it´s 'bums on seats' that count, and that is all.

It concerns me seeing comments on some sites that people who have had season tickets for 10, 20, 30 years have not just stopped going as a protest but say they will not be going back, ever. I sincerely hope this is not true.

With the gutless action of the City Council today, I fear that we may never get back to the brilliant atmospheres that I´ve experienced at the ground (I feel lucky in that respect) and our home support (not away) will become completely average in the PL.

Whatever happens, for me the PL are getting it wrong. There is so much money involved these days that I think the absolute minimum should be that every club should be expected try to do the best it can with the conditions it has. With us being in the top 20 earning clubs in the world, with our stadium and being a one club city, the PL should be asking some serious questions. If Ashley were to get hold of a Man U or Liverpool and do the same, what would happen?

[Zippity]

I was sad to see Mick post that if fatso goes he still might not go back because his love for the club has been fundamentally eroded to the point where he just doesn't love it like he used to.

Personally, I can't wait to go back...whenever that will be. I agree that the make-up of the average match-going fan has changed but that reflects the changes in society more than it does the situation at our club, I think. I hold out hope that things will change back in the direction of where they used to be once he goes although maybe not to the same extent. As I say, though, i think that could be said of any club-football is changing and the people who go are changing, too. Maybe it's just a natural progression and the further we get from the way things were, the fewer people will be left who are bothered. Maybe it's an age thing? I remember when this was all fields-type thing


Dunno. I think even if those reasons are true, our particular set of circumstances has made it all worse and exacerbated the situation. Employing managers like Bruce and the parsimonious spending (to put it kindly), lack of investment, refusal to compete...all that has added to the way our crowd is and, in my opinion, wouldn't happen under a proper owner, in which case, i think the atmosphere would return.

We've been way more patient than other clubs' fans...all we want, as the line goes, is a club that tries and when we get that, we'll all be fully behind it in the way we used to be.

[Geordie1974]

Think I would be more inclined to go back if we weren't in the Premier League at the time the thief is gone.This Premier League comes with a "Premier League fan".Complete and utter embarrassment when you see pics of games now and most of the crowd have their mobile phones out.
When I first started going me and my mates had fùck all but we had a team,that granted was shìte but we had hope every home game that things would get better.
I am glad I havent given Ashley a penny as even the most die-hard fan now must be going through the motions going to games as their certainly isnt any hope anymore.

[ghostrider]

Bandwagon jumping and mountains out of molehills with a lot of stuff at Newcastle.
Any reasons to hate. Any reasons by some to slag the club off via one man as a backup for legitimacy in doing so. It's became pathetic at Newcastle and I'm bemused in some respects at some fans but also not too shocked that social media has created a poisonous overall atmosphere with all things Newcastle.

People who've chosen to give up their season tickets after a lifetime of support, or people who choose not to support or even be a fan anymore, are welcome to their thoughts and ways but if so, then wouldn't it be better to simply take a back seat and leave the hatred and get on with something else?

If the answers are " we love the club too much and it hurts but we're making a stand because this monster has our club".....then really think about this monster that's being created and really think about how you've been dragged into a media and social media frenzied mindset, backed by some steadfast haters who have used any snippet of info to keep poisoning...and many have bought into it to this very day because they refuse to back down for fear of being labelled weak for actually going back to supporting their club.

It's mental.

Nobody needs to argue with me. I'm counterarguing what I've seen and heard for long enough and I'm telling you that this club has been in a far far far far worse situation (as many know) and position many times in the past and happened when I've been alive and supporting.
I'll always support the club and I won't use an owner as an excuse to batter it when we've had owners who've literally battered it in the past, themselves, not to mention owners who've slagged off the fans and the people of the city.


Some fans have been dragged along on a wave of emotion and have decided to destroy their own matchday experience for the sake of feeling like they're contributing to some kind of boycott that will bring about a better Newcastle United.

Where?

Seriously, where?

The fans need to do what they've always done and that's to support the club and stop finding ways to create more and more turmoil for others who decide to go.

And as for someone saying a new type of supporter has replaced the old type. It's been going on since the word go. It's happening at all clubs and always will.
It's called stage change.
Cars have changed from cold morning chuggers that rust as you move, to start up amd go sweetness and light that still look smart after a dozen years in many cases.
Everything changes and everyone sees them.

The problem is in some people still using the past as their yardstick for their future and live on it as if it was better than it is today, whilst trying to tell those that were not around in that time, how they missed out.

This is what we're up against with the club. People living on past idols and what they saw as ideals.

People need to stop using other clubs as yardsticks for what our club should be doing.
People need to stop making fan comparisons about us being the best fans and then turning it around and saying they're a new breed and the best are vacating. It's pretty embarrassing to be fair.

I see fans shouting " don't go to the game and it shows you're a proper fan....but if you go, you're feeding the poison that's killing the club." It's utter baffling and reeks of awful bitterness and spitefulness. It really does make me cringe at times.

Why don't people take a look at the team. Take a look at the exciting young players (Longstaff's) coming through and the exciting players we've just bought and just look at that instead of doing ground inspections or training centre put downs based on snippets of info portraying it all as old Beirut and trying to use other club's state of the art stuff as some kind of yardstick.

All this as just attempts to keep the fire fuelled to rid the club of an owner that's in the background and rarely seen and yet everything at the club ticks along, even if we aren't at the top end. Most clubs rarely are...why should we have the privilege over others?

Let's put this into real perspective...and really think about this.

Fans go to the match because they want to see their team. They don't go to see an owner or the board. And generally they won't go with any intention of disrupting their team before a ball is kicked but will do so if they do not see their team putting in the required effort as a minimum.
But mainly they go in hope that their team will beat the opposition, no matter who that opposition is.
In between they'll maybe buy a scarf, get a match programme, a pie and a drink, etc. Basically an all in matchday experience.

They will then leave the stadium with a big smile (hopefully) and a week ahead good feeling or they'll leave satisfied but not overwhelmed with joy. And then there's the matchdays that produce the gut wrenching feeling of defeat and sometimes a defeat that destroys the week.

It's always been part and parcel of being a fan and in the days before social media most people would simply be getting on with doing just that, with the odd chants of discontent as and when required.

What's happening now seems to be people deciding to destroy their own experience for the sake of listening to spin and believing they really know what's going on behind the scenes to such an extent that they see some kind of doom.
There's no doom and those that keep spouting it are doing it because it seems it's better to spout doom than to be upbeat or take hope from each game as it comes.

Some people must think they're going to live forever.
Those who've given up on their club....some for 12 years... but yet still come onto social media to be part of a matchday experience by phone or keyboard and watch the game on TV or stream it or have that radio commentary on...have not given up on anything.
They love the club. They love the experience and likely will be buying bits and pieces that actually support the club.
Admitting in with some would likely be too much of s stretch, maybe.

Don't be ashamed to be a supporter just because you can't rid bitterness over one man from your body. Are people really that hell bent on making their own lives a misery because they can't or won't rid it of the poison placed into it? Or is it so inbuilt with some that they're not happy unless they're part of a mass bandwagon of discontent/hatred.


Some people need to think back to how things were and then put it all into perspective. Not just look back on the times when messiah's were king for a time or when the long shorts and baggy tops of the time produced trophies, even amid the less than state of the art training centres or less than impressive stadiums....get it?

Continued.......

[ghostrider]

Part two.


Those who self exile who are able and want to go back to their matchday experience....go and do it and enjoy it and hope. Stop making out that all hope is gone....it's just an excuse, because there's always hope, just stop setting your sights higher than the next game.
Do what you always did and stop fretting over social media hype of hatred that poisons your own regular experience.

Don't be that person who boycotted thinking you may one day effect change of an owner or force that owner to change a manager who you've decided to dislike because he once managed a team down the road or you simply think is not good enough based on what he did at some other clubs but neglecting to add it the good he did at some.

Get rid of this idea that Newcastle United deserve to be higher than other clubs.
Get rid of this idea that our owner is the devil and every other club owner is some kind of angel when compared.
Understand that you don't become a multi billionaire or into serious money like that by being all sweetness and light, unless you win it or inherit it.....and even then?

Imagine boycotting until the owner is rid and then a new one comes in who literally does destroy the club, or sends it down into the lower reaches?
Maybe that owner is not a devil. Maybe that owner came with great intentions, to be the one that made Newcastle United great again...and in doing so he does an Ellis Short....because that man's intentions seemed to be on that kind of level.

I still remember fans wishing they had an owner like Short, instead of Ashley.
I seem to remember fans telling all and sundry about Dave Whelan for Wigan and how we should follow their model and his ways.
I remember we should follow the southampton model.
I remember many more models we should be following.

The managers who we should've had and those we should never touch.
All part and parcel of what if and who could.

The thing is, what we have is what we have...right now... and at each and every moment from there. This is what we're a fan of, because this is what we all bought into, at the present of that time you bought into it, whether your past was many many decades ago or you decided today.

Does anyone think fans are refusing to be fans because of the owner?
Does anyone think all young fans will simply decide Newcastle United is not for them because they can't abide the man behind the curtain or the geordie manager who isn't every adults cup of tea?

I don't even live in Newcastle and I became a fan when the team were doing nothing. I stayed a fan when the team were doing nothing. I stayed a fan when we started to do a bit of something. I stay a fan today and a fan till I die. I also, will support the club in any way I see fit, whether it's at the stadium or in merchandise outside of it....but I'll always support it until I'm gone.

I will not decide to give it all up because someone says the owner isn't a nice man and he won't keep up with the Jones's.
I'll simply look forward to every match day as I've always done, with all the different gut feelings like I've always done.

And I'll try and take as many positives from every match day but I will also moan like hell if I think it's required.
But everyone gets a fair crack of the whip and people trying to rock a stable boat will do a couple of things.
1. Make a stable boat rock but never sink.
2. Make themselves dizzy in attempting to do so.

If you're a Newcastle United fan and supporter, then be that fan and supporter...for you.....for you......not for the sake of standing by others who decide not to.

[toptoon]

Are you paid by the word?


Bit condescencing to claim everyone who doesn´t agree with you is being swept along by social media. You seem to think you´re smarter than everyone else when, the truth is, you can´t see what´s happening right in front of you.


All long term supporters have suffered many, many bad times at newcastle over their lives and have not protested and stopped going. They are now.

Have you stopped to think why?

[Kal]

Are you paid by the word?

If he is, he could put a bid in for the club.

[ghostrider]

Are you paid by the word?


Bit condescencing to claim everyone who doesn´t agree with you is being swept along by social media.

If I was claiming that, Id agree....but I'm not. You are claiming that I claim that.
I'm saying some people are, not everyone...and it has nothing to do with who agrees or disagrees with me..

You seem to think you´re smarter than everyone else when, the truth is, you can´t see what´s happening right in front of you.

Again, no. You are making out I'm saying I'm thinking I'm smarter when I'm simply putting my points across, no different to what you and others do.

As for me not seeing what is happening right in front of me. What exactly is happening?
I see Newcastle United being run as I've always seen, with good bad and indifference as I've always seen throughout my life.
I don't see the bad that some seem to see or manifest.

All long term supporters have suffered many, many bad times at newcastle over their lives and have not protested and stopped going. They are now.

I'm one of those supporters and like many I don't just stop going or decide not to support the club. A few thousand have stopped. I've seen it all before throughout my life. It'll happen again and gain just like the crowds will return again and again.

We used to get 14,000 at one time in a ground that held close to 3 times that at one time. And then it became full and then half empty and then full again.
We have a much better stadium with more fans who've filled it even when we went into the championship and back to the prem and back to the championship.

Nothing's changed today except for social media frenzy built up by poisonous gutter press.

Have you stopped to think why?

I know why. I've basically explained why.

[usedtobeshearer]

If I was claiming that, Id agree....but I'm not. You are claiming that I claim that.
I'm saying some people are, not everyone...and it has nothing to do with who agrees or disagrees with me..

Again, no. You are making out I'm saying I'm thinking I'm smarter when I'm simply putting my points across, no different to what you and others do.

As for me not seeing what is happening right in front of me. What exactly is happening?
I see Newcastle United being run as I've always seen, with good bad and indifference as I've always seen throughout my life.
I don't see the bad that some seem to see or manifest.



I'm one of those supporters and like many I don't just stop going or decide not to support the club. A few thousand have stopped. I've seen it all before throughout my life. It'll happen again and gain just like the crowds will return again and again.

We used to get 14,000 at one time in a ground that held close to 3 times that at one time. And then it became full and then half empty and then full again.
We have a much better stadium with more fans who've filled it even when we went into the championship and back to the prem and back to the championship.

Nothing's changed today except for social media frenzy built up by poisonous gutter press.


I know why. I've basically explained why.

Which "some people" do you know that are sick of the way the club is run simply because they follow social media? Bet you can't name one...talking b0ll0x s again!

[Geordie1974]

Are you paid by the word?


Bit condescencing to claim everyone who doesn´t agree with you is being swept along by social media. You seem to think you´re smarter than everyone else when, the truth is, you can´t see what´s happening right in front of you.


All long term supporters have suffered many, many bad times at newcastle over their lives and have not protested and stopped going. They are now.

Have you stopped to think why?

He is an idiot.I packed in my season ticket in the summer he took control so social media must have made me do it in 2007.Was it around then?.I stopped because I knew what sort of man he is.He wasnt getting a penny off me.
Others have stopped for different reasons.I wanted nothing more than to be proved wrong but as time goes on I havent been.
Take away the running of the club for a minute,I would like to know what Wilf sees in Ashley to back up the fact he loves him.Is it the fact he does searches on his workforce,is it the fact a woman gave birth in Shirebrook HQ as she was frightened of having time off or the fact he employs people on zero hrs contracts.Or could it be the fact he hates NUFC fans and shows it anyway possible.(would make sense with him being a mackem tramp)
The list goes on.