I suppose that must be more fun than watching your pretender side tread water yet again. Glad we could be of service!

We had a great run, I might have to go back and watch some of our memorable wins. 2020 PF with a bundy and coke might be a nice one to start 😁

Will be interesting to see how Yze and a new look coaching team stamp their new game style on this group. We have a few key talls like Balta, Gibcus, Miller, Ryan and potentially Koschitzke who have at one point or another been deployed in different positions and roles around the ground. I personally reckon Ryan looked better as a ruck this season as he could get more involved in games and IMO had better tap work than Nank – when played as a forward, he had hot and cold flashes (though that probably was exacerbated by a lack of Lynch and also being a young tall trying to find his feet in the game/side).

Good article mate and Toon definitely merited a shoutout. No one one would have predicted a top 4 finish this season – I believe we were also only the second team in the last 15(?) seasons to finish in the top 4 (from the club’s not considered part of the big 6) – the other being of course Leicester. Howe also a worthy candidate for manager of the season taking a defence that broke the record for the most goals conceded in a calendar year by the fraud Steve Bruce – to joint best defence in the league 18 months later (and all for a cost that was less than what Man Utd paid for Maguire).

As for Leicester, a cautionary tale of what can happen and how fortunes can change so quickly. A bit like Southampton (and possibly something for Brighton fans to worry about) in that continually selling your best players and gambling you can unearth new talent to replace them is always a risk. With the prohibitive restrictions of FFP to protect the established elite, it makes it very hard for other clubs to make a sustained push to break into the top 4/6. Even with all NUFC’s wealth, our commercial revenue is a fraction of the teams we are chasing – so for ambitious clubs like Villa, Brighton, Brentford, Fulham, West Ham etc, the challenge will be likely even harder if they want to shake up the top of the table.

That being said, Leicester went from a relative ‘yo-yo’ club to winning a PL and FA Cup as well as playing in the champions league. They are the main character in probably the biggest team underdog story in any sport. Not bad for a club that was in League One 15 or so seasons ago and a further considerable chunk in the Championship in that same stretch. They are definitely one of the most intriguing clubs to watch next season for me and will be keen to see if they can rebuild under Maresca. Hopefully big Souttar can help lead them back to the PL.

Oof – I have Kayo because I had no interest in the other Foxtel content (way overpriced IMO) but assume as Kayo is part of Foxtel, Kayo will lose this content as well. Was just thinking the other day I might cancel some of my streaming subscriptions. Self fulfilling prophecy of sorts!

“its a win win as you hurt the tv network as well as the faceless corporation of a club (eg man city) that doesnt care about fans”

Not a City fan but unsure how it impacts City (or any other specific club) – aren’t EPL TV rights shared equally among member clubs? I think in La Liga, the TV rights are determined by popularity and interest in each club (hence the Madrid clubs and Barca can have huge TV income relative to everyone else).

Lol, the reality is Cotchin is a ferocious leader that pretty much any of the other 17 clubs would have wanted leading them. It’s a prelim final, players are going to be giving it their all and going into every contest hard.

As for Shiel, believe it was a separate incident with Astbury that did him. After the Cotch collision, he kept playing and it was the second incident that probably made the GWS medicos pull him out of the game at QT.

Shiel himself said there was nothing in it, and that it was a free kick at best. Kind of you to allow Sir Trent to live rent free in your head though – no doubt all that anger you hold keeps it nice and toasty this time of year 😊

Good article mate. I remember watching that ‘Wounded Tiger’ doco that celebrated the 2017 flag and the end of 2016; coming off the crushing defeat to Sydney, the club was in crisis. Focus on footy coup board was challenging to seize power, many called for Hardwick’s head, others in the media said we needed another 5 year rebuild. A lot said Cotchin wasn’t a strong enough leader, that he was too soft, went missing in important moments.

The thing that has always stuck with me is hearing Cotch talk about how he thought he had been pretty resilient and stoic at avoiding the criticism up until that point but after that 2016 season, under the relentless scrutiny and his own sense of failure for the group he was leading, the walls were beginning to crumble. It’s easy to bag and lay into players over the fence or on social media as they might seem like just a number on the back of a jumper but at the end of the day, they are human beings with families, friends and their own internal insecurities and doubts. A lesser person or leader might have broken under those circumstances and given up the captaincy and the weight of responsibility and become a shadow of the player they once were but Cotch transformed himself, his leadership style and his role and it paid dividends.

That first QF against the Cats in 2017, under the microscope of past finals performances, he was a man possessed. One of the most frenzied and focused performances I’ve ever seen. For mine, he set the tone and catapulted the club into premiership contention and eventual success that night.

All things considered, has been a great year for the code – the only glaring black spot being the APL Grand Final decision and subsequent scenes of protest and poor crowd behaviour it spawned. While I still don’t agree with the decision, I think had they communicated it better, most fans might have been able to accept it. Was just a poorly handled and bungled announcement to detract some of the feel good from the Socceroos’ heroics at the WC.

Yep, am I wrong in thinking we still have uncertainty over the ownership of the club as well? That probably doesn’t help matters.

Yes, you’re not wrong. Given the proximity to CCM, it’s amazing how much talented youth they are able to unearth and develop in comparison (especially with the Hunter region in the past having some prominence as a football catchment area). Seems the best way for the club to compete (without the resources of other clubs or being seen as a destination club) would be to focus on youth development or offering opportunity to player’s elsewhere looking for a chance to impress. Maybe they could take chances on NPL talents (think the Phoenix and a few other club’s tried that approach with some success in the past). Unless they can get a big name manager, seems it might be more of the same unfortunately.

I suppose I should renew my membership – sounds like the club really needs all the help it can get at this stage.

Not intended as a criticism but I’m unsure what the contention of this article is? I actually thought it ended prematurely or was missing a section as it doesn’t really bring up anything new or provide a fresh food for thought to mull over. Yes, sportswashing is a thing and has existed for decades. Yes, there is a growing number of middle eastern backed money coming into the game and other sports. Yes, money is king in football as it is in most sports and forms of capitalism around the world. These aren’t exactly secrets and these practices have been going on for many decades at this point

Just got an email from the club yesterday asking me to renew my membership and was going to do it this morning before seeing this news

Might wait and see who they appoint before committing. Really need a messiah type manager who can (with the obvious challenges and restraints on the club) unearth some talent and tactics to reinvigorate the club back to the upper echelons. When you’re club has been languishing in the doldrums for so long (and is a regional club without the lure or attraction of a major capital city), it’s hard to attract players and staff who might have better options elsewhere.

My personal dream is the Jets are bought by NUFC and form part of a ‘Newcastle Football Group’ similar to City or Red Bull’s feeder clubs. Already got the right name and some other historical links between the clubs and cities.

I tend to agree with this mindset – champion players who’ve given incredible service for a long time to the club should be able to call time on their own careers. I’d also argue there is potentially a risk to the culture and fabric of a club at discarding a champion player in a messy or poorly handled fashion. Yes, football is a results based business but what kind of message does it send to the younger players at the club that no matter how good you are, how loyal you are or how much you’ve given the club, you can just as quickly be sent to the proverbial glue factory. Much is asked of players, it’s perhaps only fair clubs be willing to give back (one for all, all for one). Fortunately, we seem to have good people, structures and relationships in place at the club to help navigate these tricky waters.

As for Cotchin and Riewoldt, both are showing there is a bit of life left in the tank. We’ve been pretty fortunate to have not gone down this route often with our ageing premiership stars. Most seem to have retired on their own accord or had the issue forced by injury (Lambo). Probably the only notable one who wanted to go around again but didn’t get the chance to (that I can recall) was Houli – but we were blessed in having Short and Baker down back who were already productive players at the level as well as a recently redeployed Rioli to help provide Houli’s trademark run and carry rebound. I personally struggle to envision a Richmond without them so naturally hope they can keep going as long as possible. Yes they’ve lost a step of pace but for footy smarts, experience, leadership and mentoring, those are intangibles you can’t easily find or replace in a new draftee and IMO there is value to having them around to help leave a legacy for the next generation that follows.

Comical article, great satire – might print it out and use it for kitty litter later. 😂

Would take far too long to pick this article apart and discuss the few nuggets worthy of discussion given the deluge of artificial outrage that’s here. But a quiet afternoon at work, so here’s a few points to get it started and address some of the misinformation. Hopefully like Newcastle’s future prospects under new ownership, the comprehension and research skills of this writer will improve.

“But cheering his replacement by a Saudi consortium is like celebrating a doctor’s visit where you’re cleared of a cold but diagnosed with pneumonia.”

A bit of research would have told you that the celebrations and scenes of joy were not at becoming the richest club in the world but rather seeing the back of a deeply hated and despised owner. Yes some fans would undoubtedly be over the moon of winning the lottery of financial powerhouse owners to help take the club to lofty heights; but frankly, most Toon fans would have been overjoyed with a poorer (net worth) owner if it meant the end of Mike Ashley (a man none of us would even wish on our bitter rivals Sunderland). Most of us fans just want a project or a vision that we can become a part of and to see the club trying to be the best it can be. There’s some very easy low hanging fruit for the new owners to get them popularity points that doesn’t involve spending millions on new players – honest and regular communication with the fans, public acts of reconciliation with club legends, integration with local charities such as the Sir Bobby Robson foundation and local foodbanks. Some reports Ashley is sniffing around the financially stricken Derby County now, let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

I look at Brighton and Brentford for example under Bloom and Benham respectively who are fantastic owners with a clear vision and love for their respective clubs. Ashley’s net worth is probably more than both of them combined but he’s not a lick on either of them as an owner. He ran the club as a soulless advertising board for his Sports Direct empire without a care for the club, city or fans. Leicester are seen as a model club of how an ambitious owner and vision can materialise and challenge the established big order. I’d love to have that kind of owner and journey of transformation instead of the likely influx of plastic supporters that follow any popular big club (though a bit of research into Leicester’s owners will reveal some shady controversies too).

If Newcastle fans were so desperate to get rid of Ashley, why didn’t they protest more effectively for the last decade and a half?

A more sophisticated set of supporters would have coordinated a boycott to make his ownership unviable and force him out the door. If Newcastle fans didn’t turn up, Ashley would’ve stopped turning up too.

If you think Mike Ashley cared or would raise an eyebrow at an empty stadium, then you are as misguided as your faux outrage here. There has been many fan led attempts to pressure his departure everything from sits in, walk outs, paper airplanes, protests inside and outside the stadium, boycotting the club store, protests at Sports Direct stores, petitions and probably a few more I’m forgetting.

What more can fans do when the league and FA stood limply by and did nothing for 14 odd years? Local council and national Government figures couldn’t effect change either – and therein lies the problem with private ownership (which is a discussion worth having). You point to the victory of German football fans against Monday night football but that was a collective effort of supporters from many Bundesliga clubs. How many rival PL clubs would have joined us in solidarity? The answer is zero. Maybe as Mike Ashley puppet Rio Ferdinand said, ‘maybe if the fans didn’t like it, then the fans should have banded together to try and buy the club’ (oh wait, that was tried as well). Perhaps we could have resorted to violence like West Ham fans did and damage parts of the stadium?

Or when local players, so cherished by a fan-base as parochial as Newcastle’s, are consigned to the dustbin You might want to research just how Ashley treated club legends and heroes like Shearer, Keegan and Gutierrez because we’ve been there and done that already. Early signs suggest Shearer and Keegan will be involved in ambassadorial roles so already they are winning on that front. 👍

Football sold it’s soul decades ago – the same people in the media standing on their soapboxes expressing outrage here probably went or watched the WC in Russia and likely will cover the Qatar tournament next year despite well publicised worker issues. We had journalists and television programs crying foul at the Super League formation but those same journalists and stations would have covered the competition had it gone ahead. Hypocrisy at it’s finest wherever you want to look. At the end of the day, money and capital reigns supreme over morality both in society and in sport. It’s not right but that’s the way of the world. This takeover was initially stopped last year not on moral or human rights grounds, but that of TV piracy (oh perhaps from a few of the big 6 clubs leaning on the Premier League to protect their seats at the head of the table against a potential rival). This was a private sale between parties that the league eventually allowed (out of what I suspect was to cover their own dirty laundry from being revealed in a high profile arbitration case amidst the backdrop of growing noise over independent review and oversight of the PL).

Oh and ironic you mentioned the coke zero bit, given their human rights violations (wasn’t sure if that was a clever choice by design?). But I look forward to your next articles about how coke drinkers should be ashamed of themselves everytime they take a sip from their cans, or Apple users buying the latest iPhone should spare a thought to the forced labour camps in China or to give a thumbs down to consumers who shop via Amazon because they can’t shop in person due to the pandemic despite the plight it creates for warehouse workers. etc etc. Heck, even your beloved Netflix isn’t clean, maybe you should switch to Amazon Prime Stan…? That’ll show them!

P.S reading through the comments section, if the writer sees this, no need to refer me to the fifth paragraph 😊

Well the new owners have already pledged much needed investment into our severely neglected youth and training facilities so the long term hope is we will see local talents making it into the first team. You may not follow the PL but the North East has a great catchment area for young talent but sadly lots of those promising youngsters are poached by the established big clubs like Liverpool or those with great youth recruitment programs such as Everton. As a toon fan, you can’t begrudge them as our current setup is subpar and they have a better chance at making it at other clubs but hopefully with investment and competent people put in charge instead of puppets, the wheel will eventually turn. We currently have a handful of local talents in the current squad and there are also home grown and club trained squad requirements each PL side need to meet so even with new signings, there is still a strong likelihood some of the locals will still be at the club next season.

Good article mate, as another long suffering Toon supporter down under, the last 24-48 hours has been incredible and a real joy to see the fans coming together to celebrate and enjoy the end of a 14 year nightmare.

What a lot of people won’t understand is that the celebrations are at the departure of the grossly unpopular cancerous cretin Mike Ashley. Fans can hope again that the club custodians will act in the club’s best interests to become the best version of itself it can be. Under Ashley, it was a zombie like existence bumbling between controversies, poor performances, excuses all with next to no communication or accountability. At least fans can now dream and have hope again that the enjoyment and passion will return to the club. All clubs in any sport should be ambitious and want to be the best they can be – Newcastle hasn’t done that in Ashley’s time and instead regressed backwards at an alarming rate.

Naysayers will moan and complain but I think this is from a place of jealousy or insecurity. Where were these same comments when things like the F1, Boxing and WWE were making big money deals to host events? Football lost it’s soul a long time ago – look at the coup by the ‘Big 6’ to try and join the Super League out of pure greed and elitism. They were forgiven with a gentle slap on the wrist. If reports are to be believed, some of these same clubs also then influenced and pressured the PL to try and stop this deal to protect their oligopoly. Yes, the Saudi’s have questionable track records but given their assurances the state won’t be involved in the running of the club and the new owners have already pledged to invest in the region and work with the community and charities. Regardless of what people think, that will be a huge benefit to the whole North East who have done it harder economically than those down south.

Just enjoy the ride. It’s been a long time coming and we fans have had to wait a long time for this so let’s become UNITED again as a club, as a supporter base and as a city and get excited for the future. We may not win trophies but it can’t be worst than the neglect and damage Mike Ashley has caused. Howay the lads!