THE ONLY #NUFC ONLINE FANZINE

ISSUE  ONE

TINOASPRILLALLAMBIAS  TO  THE  SLAUGHTER NUFC  FANS  UNITED

SPECIAL  GUEST  EDITOR

INSIDE  THIS  ISSUESUPERMACS  VIEWSTINO  INTERVIEWNUFC  GATES  -  THE  REAL  STORY

@9_NUFCFANZINE

WWW.NO9FANZINE.CO.UK

CONTENTS//ISSUE  ONE

SUPERMAC

FACEBOOK:  /9NUFCRETROFANZINE TWITTER:  @9_NUFCFANZINEWWW,NO9FANZINE.CO.UK

MCFAUL

MIKE  ASHLEY  OUT

04 Guest editor

05 Wraiths rant

06 Supermac

07 Unsung hero

09 Ian Cusack

11 Remember when

13 Fairs club

14 NUFC a history

16 A Sky free zone

18 As it stands

19 Just a football club

20 Continental Travels

21 Tino Asprilla

27 No enemy at the gates

29 Howay The Nads

30 Little Joe Allon

31 Déjà vu

33 MAOC Campaign

34 Divide & conquer

36 Sons of the desert

38 The number nines

39 Llambias to the Slaughter

41 Things are on the wane

43 Summer of discontent

45 NUFC Fans United minutes

Guest Editor: Tino Asprilla

Editor in Chief: Steve Wraith

Columnists: Steve Wraith, Malcolm MacDonald

Issue One Writers: Marc Corby, Ian Cusack, Andy Singe Thompson, Peter Mann, On Loan, Max Flinders, Brian Hall, Old Heatonian, Andy McPherson, Little Joe Allon, Davey Brown, Winston Smith, Leazes Lad, Geordie Dentist, Nick Kane & Jonathan Anderson

Design: Alberto Martinez

Copyright: All work in this publication is copyright #9 Magazine and Gallowgate Media. All usage of material within these pages is forbidden without prior consent.

Disclaimer: The #9 is not an official Newcastle United publication and is published by Gallowgate Media. All views expressed within these pages are that of the author and do not always represent the views of the #9 magazine or Gallowgate Media.

Keep supporting the magazine. Enough support means it will become available in print.

GALLOWGATE

MEDIA

04 05WRAITH’SRANT

Welcome to Issue 1 of the very first online Newcastle United Fanzine #9 named after one of the most famous shirts in the clubs history worn by the likes of Shearer, Milburn, Gallacher, and of course Supermac who we are delighted to have as one of our regular columnists.

We aim to bring you a mix of articles on current events at St James Park and take a look back at our mixed bag of history. Each issue will have a guest editor and I am delighted to be sharing my maiden voyage with Columbian genius Tino Asprilla. Also in this issue an in depth interview with Darren Jackson and some forthright views on the summer circus that has once again engulfed our beloved club.

The summer has been one of discontent for me and many other Newcastle fans. If there is one thing that really gets me down it is our club being on the front and back pages for all of the wrong reasons and the return of Joe Kinnear gave the southern press a chance to stick the knife into us once again. His much publicised radio rant was all the ammunition they needed to point the finger and belly laugh at those ‘daft Geordies.’ Pardew’s silence was deafening and only added to the air of confusion around St James Park. He has since given his view on the appointment and has clearly pulled on his tin hat and gone about his job in a professional manner. The situation has led to fans speculating on why Kinnear has returned. Is he here to replace Pardew if things go wrong on the pitch? Is he here because he was still under contract? Is he here because his little black football book is second to none in the game? Only time will tell. The failed bid to bring Mick Harford in

as an assistant only served to fuel the speculation. One things for sure I don’t expect Joe to keep his vow of silence for long. I’m expecting fireworks before November 5th!

Failure to invest in a team that qualified for Europe last season almost saw us lose our Premier League status. Surely we won’t make the same mistake this time? The departures of Perch and Simpson have saddened me. Perch was ridiculed in his early days at the club but managed to earn the respect of

the fans and was awarded cult hero status. A man for all positions and never one to shirk a fair challenge he will be sorely missed. Simpson not the greatest full back in the clubs history but for me a consistent player who understand the club and always gave 100%. Steve Harper, a magnificent servant, has now moved onto pastures new and Kinnear, who is in charge of ins and outs at the time of writing has yet to recruit one first team player. For me that leaves us three players down on last years squad which clearly was not big enough. The public chase for Gomis showed that Mike Ashley is still determined to dive a hard bargain and he will not pay over the odds for a player. Many see that as a commendable quality but sometimes you do need to take a gamble on a

player and pay the going rate. Let’s hope we get a few players in and retain what we have before the window slams shut.

One positive note over the summer is the club communicating with NUFC Fans United the Fans Coalition established 18 months ago with the remit of communicating with the club. With the help of Head of PR Wendy Taylor and Fans Liaison Officer Lee Marshall important issues have been raised, tackled and addressed and Chairman Steve Hastie has been invited to sit on the newly established fans forum. I wish the forum the very best of luck. Enjoy the read and if you want to contribute for the next issue or advertise then please drop us a line.

Happy new season and welcome to the first edition of #9 the very first online Newcastle Fanzine. I am very honoured to be the first guest editor as we begin another season in the Premier League. Last season really was one to forget for my old club. With the exception of the Europa League I felt the squad underperformed in all competitions and the football on some occasions was painful to watch. For me the failure to invest at the start of the season was the key factor and once the injuries and suspensions hit Alan Pardew his team was always playing catch up. The loss of Demba Ba was always going to hit the team hard and failure to sign a replacement was crazy. It mean that Cisse who had been outstanding the previous season was left to plough a loan furrow up front on his own on in many games and it made our style predictable and easy to defend against. The defeat to Sunderland was unforgivable and the collapse against Liverpool embarrassing but Pardew managed to get his team to pick up enough points to stay up, but only just. So have we learned our lesson? At the time of writing it seems not. We have sold Percg and Simpson and released Harper and brought in Remy on loan. For me that is a weaker squad. Okay we don’t have Europe to worry about this year but if we lose a Cabaye or a Colo or a Cisse in the first couple of games to suspension or injury then where is the ready made replacement? There isn’t one. Failure to invest in the squad for a second consecutive season for a club of Newcastle United’s size is not good enough. I guess the owner will say that they spent money in January and that those players will now have had time to bed in and we should see the best of them now. I hope that is the case and that this season sees

us battling for points at the right end of the table. I will be back at St James Park on September 11th for Steve Harpers’ charity game to celebrate his 20 years at the club. I will be pulling on the black and white shirt once more to play alongside Shearer, Lee, Beardsley and my best mate in football Keith Gillespie against an AC Milan Legends team. It is always special coming back to Newcastle, I left a piece of my heart here during my playing career and to play at St James Park again will be really special. Tickets are £10 for adults and £5 for children and available from the club website so please come along and give Steve the send off he deserves.Personally I am teaming up with a football club in Newcastle called Newcastle East End. I will becoming an ambassador for them and will

be spending time with the up and coming footballers each time I visit the city. My big hope is that we can discover the next Alan Shearer at East End and he goes onto play for his hometown club. Never say never.Where do I see our season going? It’s a very hard one to call. The fixture list has been kind to us and if we can get off to a good start then who knows. We need a bit of luck with injuries and suspensions and hope that the likes of Sissoko and Mbiwa and Remy can hit the ground running. It would be nice to see a couple of new faces through the door before the transfer window shuts to. I just hope that the football is more entertaining than last season it is the very least the fans deserve. Tino Asprilla is available for talk ins September to October. To Book call 0191 2299631

ASPRILLA

SOMETIMES  YOU  DO  NEED  TO  TAKE  A  GAMBLE  ON  A  PLAYER  AND  PAY  THE  GOING  RATE.  LET’S  HOPE  WE  GET  A  FEW  PLAYERS  IN  AND  RETAIN  WHAT  WE  HAVE  BEFORE  THE  WINDOW  SLAMS  SHUT.

“

06 07

“Joe’s crafty, every season he splashes the cash on one big signing and that keeps every one happy for a few months!”.

Somebody once said this to me, back in the early 1970s’ a year or so after I made the move to Tyneside, referring of course to then manager, Joe Harvey. It was a rather cynical view and didn’t do credit to the manner that Joe would utilize the transfer market for the betterment of his team.

In the summer of 1971 Joe Harvey moved as soon as the season ended to bring me to St. James’ Park. The time to do the best deals I believe. Strike whilst others are still thinking about it.

Then in the following July he entered the dressing room where his team was after a morning’s training and stood in front of me. In a stage whisper he announced, “I have just signed the man who is going to make the bullets for you to fire”. Wow! Who was the new signing, Joe, c’mon, tell us. He dramatically took his time before announcing, “I have just signed Terry Hibbitt from Leeds United for £30,000”.

WOW! We really were impressed at this, great passer, wonderful left peg.

As Joe started to exit the dressing room door he slowed and turned and said, “Mind, he can cause trouble in an empty house!”. And do you know, he was right, on every count. But Joe had made two close-season signings bringing in the highest goalscorer outside Division One and hugely experienced midfielder, and also, to boot, two left feet into a totally right footed team. Balance was created. And so Joe would manoevre on a yearly basis, always looking to strengthen the weak spots and

balance the team. The Newcastle United I witnessed

last season had little balance and was riddled with weaknesses that spread like an unwanted cancer that nobody seemed brave enough to tackle and do something about. Not helped by a negatively defensive formation of 4-2-3-1 that is as depressing to play in as it is to watch. Ah, but wait a minute folks, we now have a Director of Football whose remit, it would seem, is firstly to search for an assistant and secondly to go on holiday during the relatively limited transfer window.

Well, I suppose a fifty per cent success rate isn’t bad going for starters. Although, I do feel I should mention that I haven’t come across a Director of Football requiring an assistant before.

So what is Joe Kinnear really in the Club for? Certainly, I don’t think it will be to aid and assist the manager in any and every way to put a great side on the hallowed turf of SJP and get the wins stacking up. No, too obvious. Anyway, complacency might creep onto the Terraces if the team were winning all the while, and we can’t have happy, satisfied customers can we?

Joe has no doubt, over a pint or three, informed the owner of the fortunes last season’s top-three are pouring into the transfer market. Even fourth-placed Arsenal have set aside a modest £80million for Arsene Wenger to try not to spend. So how much to attempt to compete at the top? Too much, and that’s without the detail, thankyou. The Europa League isn’t profitable to play in, unless you get to the very late stages where you’re drowning in Champions League drop-outs. What does mid-table obscurity bring you? Well now, that’s rather lucrative, the prize money in the mid-Premiership table is phenomenal considering it’s all prize money for relative failure and, at best, mediocrity. But, nevertheless, it costs a lot to get even to there. Norwich City and Swansea City have spent vast sums for the size of clubs they are. Both finished way ahead of NUFC last season so it means the Magpies spending more than they just to catch up.

Joe, let’s have another pint, I’ve just had a thought. The financials for the seasons when we got relegated and then promoted immediately look really good. To be honest we made good profits, little outlay, got the wage-bill right down. Do you think it’s an idea?Think it over.

SUPERMAC

SAYS UNSUNG  HEROWORDS//MARC CORBY FROM

CONTINUED

08

NEWCASTLE UNITED VERY RARE PICTURES AND VIDEO CLIPS 1980-1994

DARREN  JACKSON

On November 30th 1986, I was 8 years old sitting down for ITV’s ‘Big Match Live’ between Newcastle and West Ham United.Having never stepped foot inside St James Park due to the lack of influence from family members, this would be my first ‘experience’ of seeing Newcastle play.

Bottom of the old First Division that day, the following 4-0 victory was unexpected against a team who had beaten us 8-1 the previous April. Peter Beardsley was sublime and although Andy Thomas scored a brace that day, it was another Newcastle player who caught my eyes. Darren Jackson.

Scoring a tap in thanks to a typical Beardsley dribble, the skinny 20 year old looked more like Auf Wiedersehen Pet’s ‘Wayne Norris’ than a footballer but his performance in this match and in the following 2 years confirmed that he could play. Almost anywhere.

Signed initially as a striker from Meadowbank Thistle for £40,000 on the back of 22 goals the previous season, Jackson gave up his part time job working as a Printer and told me how his move materialised:

“I got called into Scotland U21’s for the 1st time and had heard Chelsea and Liverpool were interested but got a call from Terry Christie (Meadowbank’s manager) to say I was going to Coldingham (Village in Berwickshire) to one of the Newcastle director’s house, George Forbes. I met Willie McFaul and signed there and then. I was made very welcome, I think they (Geordies) like the Scot’s!”

When he signed, the idea was to use Jackson sparingly but with

Beardsley’s strike partner still to be found (Paul Goddard was to arrive a month later for a record signing fee of £415,000) and injuries forcing manager Willie McFaul’s hand throughout the season, he quickly made his debut as a substitute v Arsenal (1-2) at St James Park on 18th October 1986. A month later, a cameo in a 3-1 win at Chelsea came a week before his noticeable performance v West Ham, “I just remember my goal and Peter Beardsley was outstanding, but what’s new?” he vaguely recalls.

Rewarded with his first start the following week at Charlton

(1-1) when called upon that season McFaul played him out of position mainly as a right midfielder, one of many different positions he would play in his time at United. But he was “happy to play anywhere for Newcastle” adding “I played right back at Anfield when we won 2-1, upfront or midfield...it didn’t bother me”.

A second goal for Jackson came at Old Trafford on New Year’s Day 1987 (1-4) but the return of key players saw him fade from the first team picture. McFaul would later praise his attitude, telling The Pink “It’s obvious Darren has plenty of skill but he has a burning ambition to become a top player and when I dropped him into the reserves he didn’t sulk as some would, he reacted by digging in and was always the best on the park”

With 12 games to play, bottom and

I  PLAYED  RIGHT  BACK  AT  ANFIELD  WHEN  WE  WON  2-1,  UPFRONT  OR  MIDFIELD...IT  DIDN’T  BOTHER  ME.“

08 09

facing relegation, United earned 10 points from 4 consecutive home games

including a recalled Jackson goal as a sub in the 4th match, v Norwich (4-1). Replacing the injured Dave McCreery in centre midfield, a position he later played throughout his career and for Scotland in World Cup 1998, Jackson started the last 8 games enhancing results over Man United (2-1) and Chelsea (1-0) and subsequent survival. Jackson confirmed Gazza, Beardsley and Paul Goddard (7 goals in successive games ensuring 6 wins) were “definitely the best footballers during my time at NUFC” and they, along with “a fantastic team spirit” were the major factors in staying up.

At the start of the 1987-88 season, Newcastle bought the Brazilian Mirandinha for a club record fee of £575,000 but started poorly again with only 3 wins in the first 15 games, 2 of those influenced by Jackson goals away to Sheffield Wednesday (1-0) and Coventry (3-1).

Injured for a month Jackson didn’t start again until Boxing Day. He recalls “Beating Manchester United 1-0 when Glenn Roader scored is my favourite memory when at Newcastle” backed up by The Pink match report who, despite playing in midfield again said “Jackson outshone Mirandinha and Paul Goddard to take the honours as Newcastle’s most dangerous striker”.

Jackson came in for high praise from Tottenham’s Chris Waddle after United beat Spurs 2-0 in January 1988, telling The Pink “When Darren Jackson played at White Hart Lane at the beginning of the season (1-3 defeat), he looked very slight and lacking in strength, but I’m happy to say he’s filled out and played extremely well. He has a lovely first touch and a good change of pace and has come on leaps and bounds”.

Due to a family bereavement, I was taken to St James Park to simply get out of the way. Standing in the D Paddock for the FA Cup 4th Round tie v Swindon, it felt fitting that Jackson, my first hero, scored the first goal I seen ‘live’ in a 5-0 win. A screamer, looking back at footage now, you can see from his celebrations how much it meant to him as he confirmed to me it was his “favourite” United finish.

The Pinks’ match report confirms “The ball broke for the slim Scot

to crash a great left foot shot past Hammond for his first FA Cup goal”.

This goal followed a League Cup goal v Blackpool (4-1) earlier in the season and would be his last goal of that campaign. However his form prompted an improved contract keeping him at United until 1991. Reminding him of this, he told me, “I was happy to sign as I believed the club were going places. Although we needed strength in depth we had so many young players with quite a bit of first team football that things could only get better”.

By this point Jackson was ahead of schedule stating at the time to The Pink “I only expected to be breaking into the first team about now so I am a year and over 40 appearances ahead of schedule”.

United finished strongly in 8th and at this point Jackson’s United

career had peaked but come the first day of the 1988-89 season he found himself on the bench at Everton. Following yet another Mirandinha injury, he played upfront and scored in 2-2 draws at home to Spurs and at Charlton before solving an injury crisis in that historic 2-1 win at Anfield. Jackson recalls, “As I said earlier, I played right back and I’m sure Steve Staunton made his debut as a left midfielder. He got taken off!”

He certainly played his part in one of the decade’s highlights.

The following week United were hammered 3-0 at home to Coventry and McFaul was sacked. Jackson told me “It was one of my worst days in football, a wonderful man and manager; he would have got it right”.

United were in turmoil, the fan protests “not affecting the players but it wasn’t nice” didn’t stop Jim Smith arriving in December. Instantly selecting Jackson up-front v Wimbledon at home (2-1) and at Watford in the Simod Cup (1-2), this was to be Jackson’s farewell as he recalled the following day:

“It all happened very quickly. I went in for treatment on a knock and the physio said the manager wanted to see me. Jim Smith told me he had to sell to buy and accepted an offer from Dundee United and suggested I talk to them leaving me in no doubt that my future was elsewhere.”

A £200,000 move followed with Jackson reflecting “Yes, it was a sad day when I left, I was very disappointed. I made a lot of good friends down there and enjoyed my time”.

Smith sold Jackson, amongst many other youngsters far too soon and United went down without any fight in May 1989.

Almost 25 years since he left, Darren has remained close to the players he shared the dressing room and bars of Newcastle with, testament to that team spirit he mentioned earlier:

“I was Michael O’Neill’s best man so we stayed best friend’s and I still speak to Neil McDonald, Peter Jackson, Albert Craig, Ian Bogie and when you can get him Gazza. Gazza and I stayed big pals especially when he played in Scotland”.

Something of a forgotten player amongst most but an unsung hero to me, Darren Jackson is currently a coach at Dundee United.

FROM...

07

67 (16 sub)...................Goals: 9

NEWCASTLE  LEAGUE  &CUP  APPEARANCES

DARREN  JACKSON

HERDING CATSfor referring to politics in this piece, but I am also a Newcastle United supporter and I can see so many parallels between the indignation, anger and desire for change expressed at the Durham Miners’ Gala and what is happening at my football club. In 2008, capitalism’s version of progress ground to a halt. !ere hadn’t been a natural disaster or food shortage, but simply the capitalist elite’s way of moving abstract loans and debts around had failed. !e ruling class told us the only way the world could avoid calamity was for us all to agree to work harder for less money and for our bairns and grandkids to do the same. At the same time, Mike Ashley appointed Dennis Wise as Director of Football at Newcastle United. You hear what I’m saying? Cards on the table time; I am a passionate believer in fan ownership and would regard Ashley selling the club to another mega-rich Capitalist businessman as no sort of progress whatsoever. In my lifetime Westwood, Seymour, McKeague, Hall, Shepherd and Ashley have o"ered us nothing other than vague, empty promises of jam tomorrow; in a sense, Ashley is the most honest of that bunch as he o"ers nothing and promises less. My dream, idealistic though it may be, is of a sustained, mass, democratic, passionate, non-violent movement of Newcastle United supporters, with an agenda and an ideology decided democratically among us all, where our voices are of equal importance, bringing such pressure on Ashley that he cuts and runs, giving the club to the fans, washing his hands of the whole deal. At such a time, a properly constituted, democratic constitution, giving all members an equal say in the framework of the club, based not on our monetary interests but in the legitimacy of our involvement as supporters of the club, could be dra#ed, allowing for the provision of appointed, accountable, co-ordinating executives in a range of positions, both sporting and otherwise, to manage the club, but not for pro$t, ego or personal gain, simply for the good of the club, the city and the region. I’m talking Barca; I’m talking FC United of

Manchester. Impossibly idealistic though this

may seem; this is my fervently held hope. Remember, Newcastle

United has existed since 1892

and the incredible pace and nature of

the changes wrought on the game

in that time

On a gloriously hot Saturday in July 2013, I was

proud to be one of the 150,000 individuals who

converged on Durham for the 129th Miners’ Gala.

Some were there mainly out of respect for tradition;

others came merely for an all-day session in the Swan

& !ree Cygnets. Personally I was there as I felt

honoured at having been asked to carry my union’s

banner during the procession through the city. In my

judgement, it seemed that all those people gathered

on the site of the former Durham Racecourse, who

heard impassioned speeches from RTM leader Bob

Crow and Independent columnist Owen Jones, had

come together on that day and in that location as

we held a common, shared belief in the fact that the

current Government have proven themselves to be

%int-faced, implacable enemies of the working class

in thought, in word and in deed. Not only that, but I

sensed that a growing realisation is developing in this

country that the Labour Party are $nished; viewed

with scorn by those they should be standing up for,

who see them as utterly discredited as a force for

positive opposition and change. While there were

zealous Marxist ideologues and charismatic

Leninist Vanguardistas among those

voicing such opinions, most were just

ordinary working class folk, fed up to

the back teeth of cuts and austerity

measures being foisted on them

while the ruling elite and their

mates the bankers continued

to bathe in money. When those you’ve placed your trust in throw it back in your face with their smug indi"erence and zest for self-aggrandizement, the time has come to strike out in a radical direction.

I’m a Socialist; I don’t hide the fact and I make no apologies

RISE  LIKE  LIONS  AFTER  SLUMBER

IN  UNVANQUISHABLE  NUMBER  -

SHAKE  YOUR  CHAINS  TO  EARTH  LIKE  DEW

WHICH  IN  SLEEP  HAD  FALLEN  ON  YOU  -

YE  ARE  MANY  -  THEY  ARE  FEW!

(PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY:  THE  MASQUE  OF  ANARCHY)  

“

CONTINUED

10

WORDS//IAN CUSACK

THE  PHYSIO  SAID  THE  MANAGER  WANTED  TO  SEE  ME.  JIM  SMITH  TOLD  ME  HE  HAD  TO  SELL  TO  BUY  AND  ACCEPTED  AN  OFFER  FROM  DUNDEE  UNITED  AND  SUGGESTED  I  TALK  TO  THEM  LEAVING  ME  IN  NO  DOUBT  THAT  MY  FUTURE  WAS  ELSEWHERE.

“

10 11may be dwarfed by what lies in the future.

None of us know what that future may be,

but we can all agree that, in the same way

that Cameron and Clegg have managed to make the

$asco le# behind by New Labour a whole lot worse,

the 6 years of Ashley’s ownership have been even more

disastrous than the Shepherd administration.

By any standards, the period following the end

of the 2012/2013 has been even more farcical than

usual at SJP. No new players and the appointment of a

contemptible, discredited $gure of scorn and abuse as

Director of Football has had the e"ect of engendering

a rekindling of the %ame of sympathy for Pardew

that was e"ectively snu"ed out with his incompetent

misuse of his 5 player get out of jail card from

February onwards. However, tough as it may be to

accept this is the case, it is my belief that whoever pulls

on a black and white shirt, wherever we end up in the

league and whatever happens in terms of back room

sta" appointments during 2013/2014, are all complete

red herrings and as near as damn it utterly irrelevant

to the ultimate future wellbeing of Newcastle United.

Relegation has happened before and it doesn’t scare

me; what scares me is the thought of Ashley remaining

in charge of our club, which is why I urge us all to bury

hatchets and accept olive branches, then get involved

in a mass movement of fans to help topple this terrible

regime, before we lose our club forever.

So, that is my position; what can be done to bring it

about? Well, as I said before, this club is 131 years old;

history tells us that we need to play the long game and

we need to be organised. Perhaps the biggest criticism

we have of ourselves as fans of Newcastle United has

nothing to do with the insulting media stereotype of us

as impatient cry-babies demanding immediate success

or else (look at our history and laugh at that farcical

opinion), but the fact that we have found it impossible

over the years to work together. Ego, self-interest,

back-biting and whispering campaigns have nulli$ed

all those supporters who’ve tried to work tirelessly

for positive change in the past, but that was then and

this is now. !e time has passed when photographs of

Steve Harmison joining NUST are enough to satisfy

the desire for change among our support. To suggest

such gestures, and I’m aware NUST do tremendous

community work, are steps in the right direction or,

worse, that our fans will forget all about this if we %uke

a point at Man city on the opening day, is patronising,

insulting and downright inaccurate. Ignore the smug

Twitterati who claim this to be the case; as Secret

A"air said, this is the time for action.

In the same way that Bob Crow at the Big Meeting called for the formation of a new party to represent the working classes now that Labour is $nished, it seems to me as if the Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust have had their day; neither they nor !e Mag appear to be interested in mobilising our support to campaign against Ashley, preferring mild hand-wringing in the case of the Trust and a head in the sand approach in the case of !e Mag. Of course, they have time to learn the folly of their inaction and to get involved. I call on the Trust and those who relentlessly espouse its legitimacy as the sole elected voice of NUFC’s support, to do something other than repeat the mantra of the validity of elections; are NUST more like Kier Hardie or Milliband? On June 24th, the only credible organisation able to mobilise anything other than a tiny number of supporters, namely Newcastle Fans United held a sometimes rowdy, sometimes ill-disciplined, but always passionate, meeting in the Labour Club to try and make some sense of the Kinnear appointment and take the temperature among the support. In retrospect, perhaps those of us involved in Newcastle Fans United were naïve in our expectations of how the evening would unfold; certainly my heart went out to Bill Corcoran and Steve Wraith who did brilliantly to keep the lid on a seething vat of hatred in the room, especially with local and national media present. Fair play also to the likes of George Caulkin and Mark Douglas, who penned superbly articulate pieces about the legitimacy of the gathering in the days a#er; their opinions educated many message board observers who had previously sought to denigrate and blackguard those involved and, for once, it appears that there is an appreciable groundswell of fan opinion in favour of Newcastle Fans United. Don’t just take my word for it; check out the website http://www.nufcfansutd.com/ then come along to our next meeting and get involved. We are a democracy and your voice is as valid as mine and every other member’s. Newcastle Fans United is a loose amalgam of support that is evolving meeting by meeting; what we are and will always be, is a democracy, that is a growing organisation and one that will be de facto even more democratic the more voices are represented. For example, I would love to see those from NUFC.com and Black & White Da# in our ranks.

However, Newcastle Fans United is not simply a talking shop; it is a dynamic organisation that encompasses diplomatic, cordial relations with the football club, with more $rebrand opinions; in that sense, to steal a phrase from Gerry Adams, we have both the Armalite and the ballot box. It would be unfair to describe the meeting following Kinnear’s appointment as a bear pit, but the anger was palpable and demonstrated in the adoption of an uncompromising resolution dra#ed by Graeme Cansdale, of the Mike Ashley Out Campaign; yet the more the movement grows, the more we will learn whether this opinion is a majority or a minority one. Newcastle Fans United is democratic; the policies, opinions and campaigns involved come not from any

FROM...

9

IN  THE  SAME  WAY  THAT  BOB  CROW  AT  THE  

BIG  MEETING  CALLED  FOR  THE  FORMATION  

OF  A  NEW  PARTY  TO  REPRESENT  THE  

WORKING  CLASSES  NOW  THAT  LABOUR  

IS  FINISHED,  IT  SEEMS  TO  ME  AS  IF  THE  

NEWCASTLE  UNITED  SUPPORTERS’  TRUST  

HAVE  HAD  THEIR  DAY.

“

Welcome to the first issue of this brand-new fanzine. I’m going to offer you my memories of life supporting Newcastle United or as much as I can remember before alcohol fizzled my brain.

Jim Smith for some reason was fondly referred to in the media as the Bald Eagle. I’m sure Toon fans of a certain generation could come up with a million other more appropriate names for this wheeler dealer, tea cup throwing, hot headed bloke. After our hurtful play-off defeat to Sunderland within 10 months his side of knowledge and experience had fast became a side that was old, slow and sluggish. Smith fell on his sword after an away victory to Portsmouth where his goal scorer Kevin Brock took a barrage of abuse. The Bald Eagle went on record saying that we were unmanageable and stating that he had taken the club as far as he could (to be fair Portsmouth is canny far). The board appointed Swindon Town’s exciting Argentinean World Cup winner Osvaldo César Ardiles as our next manager. Remember that this was way back in 1991and any kind of foreigner was an exciting novelty this was long before the Premier League floodgates burst open to all players from all corners of the globe where an Englishman is now unfortunately a novelty.

Osvaldo or Ossie was actually a likable little chap if you ignore that awful Chas and Dave FA Cup song they did when he was at Spurs. His philosophy of playing a new refreshing brand of attacking football known as the ‘diamond formation’ was in his favor when football in the early 90’s was mostly kick it long from the back and gamble off the big centre forward. His first few months in charge at the back end of 1990/91 were erratic and no real indication of what was about happen.

The summer of the 1991/92 the bookies had us down as promotion hopefuls with big spending Blackburn Rovers, Boro and the

REMEMBER  WHEN        PART  ONE

OXFORD  AND  THE  FOGWORDS//ANDY SINGE THOMPSON

CONTINUED

12

Mackem’s. Ossie made a huge and bold gamble of ditching the majority of Smith’s old guard players like McGhee, Aitken, Burridge and Dillon, replacing them with Geordie kids Watson, Clark, Elliott and Srnicek (see Pav was always a Geordie) in our fresh attempted assault on promotion. The gamble didn’t work and we were battered off the park most weeks shipping goals faster then we could

12 13score them with stupid and baffling results 2.3, 0.3, 3.4, 0.4 being the normal.

The pinnacle of crazy scores was the mindboggling 6.6 draw with Tranmere Rovers in the ZDS Cup which was played out in one of Sky TV first ever televised matches. We also managed to lose the penalty shoot out just to add insult to injury. It also took until October before we won our first home league game in a season of on field struggle. Our much fancied promotion to Division One (old school league table) soon became certainties for relegation to Division Three inside of a few months. ‘A must win game’ is something of a football cliché similar to ‘a game of two half’s’ rolled out all too often by crap pundits with nothing else to say but by the time our tip to Oxford United came around in early February it was indeed ‘a must win game’. We were nestled 2nd bottom of the table with the mighty Oxford rock bottom. Things looked far from good.

As a kid my grumpy old man was never into football and had even less interest in giving me a lift for an away game. My travel partner at the time was a lad called Chuff who had discovered the delights of Red Stripe lager and the joys of Stanley’s finest nightspot Parkers nightclub. For some reason I’d railroaded the old man into giving me a lift early doors into Newcastle to catch the supporters bus. Chuff however in his alcohol induced stupor struggled to get out of bed in time; this made my old man even more grumpy than usual. After a good few bang’s on his front door to get him up we were ready to go. The temporary traffic lights at Sunniside

did little to improve the mood in the car. Thankfully we arrived in time to catch the solitary 7.30am Armstrong Galley coach which left the Haymarket Bus station full of the diehards (or silly bastards) and made the long arduous journey south to Oxfordshire without further incident. Chuff’s hangover lifted at Woodhall Service Station as we ate a 24 pack of Prawn Cocktail Skips and embarked on the 2nd leg of the journey.

The hour before kick-off was spent swanning around the streets trying to look hard and avoiding the obligatory policeman with a video camera as the streets were descended with fog. The Manor ground was a cramped little place made up of a mish mash of different sized stands and terracing and it actually looked as shit as it did on TV. The fog didn’t add to its appearance. The Newcastle fans were housed on the sloping concrete terrace of the Cuckoo Lane End that was split by an odd looking white painted brick tower that acted as a primitive score board. And of course penned in behind a giant blue and yellow security fence that restricted the view of the pitch. The game kicked off with Terry Wilson playing in defense making his début on loan from Nottingham Forrest. Wilson was a product of Brian Clough’s successful regime and he must have wondered what the fuck he had let himself in for as the fog came down thicker.

Oxford had the annoying twat in the head band Steve Foster making his return from a long injury lay-off. And of course it was Foster who scored the first goal of the game as

we went in at half time 1-0 down. Early in the 2nd half Durnin doubled the lead and we looked down and out. A neat glancing header from Scott brought us back into the game, then the away end went mental as Kelly was chopped down in the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Peacock coolly converted to the left of the keeper and were back in it 2-2. Our joy didn’t last long as Simpson smashed in a free kick. The fog by this time had visibility down to less than half the pitch from the way end. I hope Tommy Wright the Newcastle keeper didn’t watch the goals on the following day’s ‘Back Page’ sports program with the usual Roger Tames’s awful commentary as it appears Tommy dives over the ball for Oxfords 4th goal. The irritating Foster added his 2nd then full time whistle went and we were down and out twatted 5-2, there was no protest, no demonstration from the small band of away followers nothing but silence and the numb feeling of the unavoidable and inevitable relegation. It was a long somber journey back home to Tyneside that evening.

5,872 were present that day in this crap little ground in the fog to see our awful demise to a crap little club; it’s still to this very moment in my lifetime of following the Toon the very zenith of my worst footballing moment. Ossie rightly so was sacked a few days later and apparently shrugged his shoulders in vague acknowledgment when he heard the news. An even bigger gamble was made by Sir Johnnie Hall and the board with the return of the Messiah. King Kev’s second coming of course is another story for another day.

FROM...

11

“THE  HOUR  BEFORE  KICK-OFF  WAS  SPENT  SWANNING  AROUND  THE  STREETS  TRYING  TO  LOOK  HARD  AND  AVOIDING  THE  OBLIGATORY  POLICEMAN  WITH  A  VIDEO  CAMERA  AS  THE  STREETS  WERE  DESCENDED  WITH  FOG.

FAIRS CLUB WILLIAM ‘IAM’ MCFAUL

One of only a select band of players connected to Newcastle to have played for and managed the club, Magpies legend, William McFaul had a career spanning some two decades with United.

Joining in 1966, by the time he became manager himself some twenty years later, some six managers had come and gone, McFaul was there through it all.

Born in Coleraine in January 1943, McFaul caught the eye of then Magpies manager, legendary Joe Harvey, against his then employers Linfield. What was bizarre about the situation is that McFaul would concede seven times during that friendly, United romping to a 7-2 victory. Harvey though obviously saw enough that day to bring him to St’ James’ in a deal worth £7000. The future Northern Ireland international had a big challenge ahead of him if he was to make any sort of impact, he needed to oust stalwart Gordon Marshall (1963 to 1968).

McFaul’s first two seasons were admittedly a struggle, managing just thirteen appearances, Marshall keeping a firm hold on the number one jersey. Then came the season when everything clicked into place. Having finished the previous season with the coveted number one jersey, Willie McFaul would go onto play all but one of United’s 59 matches, marathon

season, keeping some 17 clean sheets and playing in all 17 cup matches. The piece de resistance though would see McFaul and United lift the Inter Cities Fairs Cup.

In the three seasons which McFaul and the Magpies flew across continental fields, their number one kept an impressive eleven clean sheets, including both legs of the semis of the cup-winning campaign against Scottish giants, Rangers. He also claimed a penalty save from Penman in a goalless first leg (United winning the second 2-0, goals from Scott and Sinclair). There were also clean sheets in both legs against Porto the following season before the famous shut-out during the 1971 season.

At home, on the 30th September 1970, the mighty Inter Milan arrived at St. James’ for a Fairs Cup First Round, Second Leg encounter. McFaul, along with his defensive backline that famous night, played their part in what was a great 2-0 win, United winning 3-1 on aggregate.

In the meantime, McFaul would become an ever present throughout the 1970 campaign and missed only one in each of the following two seasons. The seventies even saw several cup runs, McFaul starring between the sticks and aiding the club in claiming the Anglo Italian Cup (1973) against Fiorentina, and successive Texaco Cups

(1974 and 1975). Then they reached the FA Cup final in 1974, a match United would eventually lose 3-0 against a Keegan-inspired Liverpool. McFaul was remembered that season for his exploits in the semis though when his saves against Burnley kept United in the competition.

Even in his last season with the Magpies, McFaul would carry on in the previous vein of seasons past, appearing in over half a century of matches (55), his eventual replacement Mick Mahoney playing in two of the four that McFaul didn’t. Mahoney had arrived from Torquay United at a cost of £25,000.

McFaul though, with four cup winners’ medals in his locker, made the move into the boot room in 1975, becoming first coach and eventually the manager of Newcastle United on the eve of the 1985-86 season after the previous incumbent, Jack Charlton, had walked out. McFaul would last three and a half seasons at the helm, and be responsible for nurturing in the talents of Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne. During his spell as manager, United would finish 11th, 17th and 8th. He would also have held two spells as caretaker manager prior to taking the job on a permanent basis and be capped six times by his country, a spell headed by legendary Northern Ireland keeper, Pat Jennings.

WORDS//PETER MANN

14

After consecutive top six finishes throughout the previous three seasons, that which surrounded the 1902-03 season would become something of a damp squib for followers of Newcastle United.

Surprising as it was, the club made their best start to a league season when winning five out of their opening six matches and scoring some eighteen goals. However, it was to be the problems that were arising behind the scenes that would have an unsatisfactory filter effect into on field events. The boardroom struggle having repercussions that were felt throughout the football club, shaking it to its core, before then chairman, James Telford played a masterstroke.

That masterstroke would see the involvement of several of the clubs more senior players in order to help rectify and appease matters. The result of this masterful intervention would see those of Colin Veitch, Andrew Aitken and Jack Carr brought into the fray and which brought about the arrival of future United legend, Peter McWilliam, a player who would spend the next decade with the club.

On the field and the new season would begin with three straight victories beginning with a home demolition of Stoke City in what was to be the debut of William Agnew. A crowd of some 17,000 would see Bob McColl and Ronald Orr hit a brace apiece, alongside one for Jackie Rutherford in an opening day, 5-0 rout.

A solo effort from Willie Stewart would see off Everton away from home before goals from Richard Roberts (two) and another from Rutherford took care of the visiting Sheffield Wednesday. The club would then receive a sharp insight into what the season had in store for them when they visited the Midlands at the end of September, Rutherford netting a scant consolation in a 6-1

reverse at West Bromwich Albion. United though don’t suffer fools

gladly and, in their very next outing a week later, would inflict the same score line upon Notts County with Rutherford yet again being amongst the goals, This time with a brace that took his tally to five in five from the seasons start; the other goals coming from McCool, Orr, Stewart and what would be Jack Carr’s seasonal, customary goal. Bolton was then beaten 2-0 away on October 11th as the Magpies opened the season with ten points from their opening six matches.

Hard times then befell the club over the next two and a half months with only two victories being collected from some eleven outings. These were at home to Grimsby on November 22nd (Rutherford scoring the only goal) and Blackburn on December 20th (Alex Caie with his only goal for the club in 35 appearances over two seasons).

Three times in the FA Cup over the previous decade a Tyne-Tees derby had been witnessed, however, on October 18th, the first league meeting since United’s debut season in the Football League (1893-94 against Ironopolis), and the first ever in the top flight, would take place. Newcastle United and Middlesbrough met on what would be a losing debut for young Peter McWilliam as the Boro won 1-0 at St. James’ in front of a 26,000 strong crowd.

Of the other defeats that were heaped on the club towards the end of 1902, the one on November 29th would be a humiliation. Again travelling to the Midlands, Aston Villa would come away clear victors in a seven goal battering. Including those goals by Rutherford and Caie in the victories against Grimsby and Blackburn, the Magpies managed just four strikes during what was a horrendous thirteen match barren

spell which extended into the New Year. The other two goals would be scored by Roberts in what were consecutive 2-1 reverses against Liverpool (home) and Sheffield United (away) in November.

Although it would finish in a dour, goalless draw, a highlight during that spell was to be holding rivals Sunderland to a 0-0 draw at their Roker Park home on December 27th. The return fixture would be even sweeter.

It would be that of January 24th before a victory was to be witnessed again, the club’s third in two, long months as Andrew Gardner notched the only goal in a home success against West Bromwich, avenging the earlier embarrassment before a further four losses in six outings put the Magpies divisional status in jeopardy. A 2-2 home draw with Notts County was followed by successive defeats against Middlesbrough (1-0), Wolverhampton Wanderers (4-2) and Liverpool (3-0) and Grimsby (1-0) with a goalless draw against Sheffield United prior to the Grimsby loss. Prior to the reverse against Boro, United exited the FA Cup at the first hurdle for the third time at the opening hurdle, this time losing 2-1 away to Grimsby.

The home straight though would see survival emphatically secured with twelve points collected from a possible sixteen as the Magpies flew to six victories and two defeats in their final eight matches, not bad going considering they had won only four times in the previous eight months. Gardner (Alec) and McColl were proving to be the clubs saviours as the duo netted ten between them during the run in.

Back to back home victories were collected against the Villa (avenging the earlier humiliation) and completing the double over Everton on April fool’s Day as Gardner struck twice against the Toffees. He would

THE  1902-03   SEASON

follow that brace up with another two three days later at the City Ground, United losing a five goal thriller against Nottingham Forest.

Safety was still a slight issue though but three home wins on the bounce assured Newcastle’s future would be atop flight one when Derby County (2-1), Bury (1-0) and relegated Bolton (2-0) were beaten. McColl scored both against Bolton and then netted again in a 3-1 reverse at Blackburn in front of just 8,000 before a humdinger of a finale.

It was deemed as being ‘the most important Tyne-Wear derby ever’ as rivals Sunderland arrived in Newcastle for the last match of the season on April 25th. League leaders Sheffield Wednesday were a point ahead but had completed the fixtures; Sunderland had one match remaining and was in second place; victory and the League Championship was going to Wearside. Newcastle would have both the final say, and the last laugh.

A crowd of over 26,500 packed St. James’ which included near 600

from Sheffield knowing that anything other than a Sunderland win would give them the title. Even without defenders Andrew McCombie and Sandy McAllister, the Wearsiders were still confident. Surprisingly the FA sent League Invigilators to the game due to their worrying that the Magpies would roll over and let their rivals claim both victory and the title. Like that would ever happen!

An even, but end to end, first half, would finish goalless before the Magpies made a minor alteration to their frontline after the interval. Bill Appleyard took on the centre forward role and it paid instant dividends when, in a move that began with Veitch, through Appleyard, played in Alec Gardner. He slipped past two defenders, played Appleyard back in and his precise pass to McColl left him with just the keeper to beat, and, from the narrowest of angles, United’s Scottish international shattered Sunderland’s dreams, scoring the only goal of the game. It was to be Sunderland’s first

league defeat on Tyneside, and their costliest. In fact Aston Villa claimed runners up on goal average as Sunderland slipped to third.

McColl’s goal would see him finish atop the scoring charts with ten in thirty, but the big names were arriving on Tyneside, one in particular whom would set tongues wagging. Aston Villa’s Robert ‘Bobby’ Templeton joined for then princely sum of £400, a then club record fee. It would be about Templeton that it was once wrote, by William Pickford in 1905, that

To watch Templeton at his best is a sight for the gods, to watch him at his worst was to see at a glance the frailty of things human.

Newcastle United was starting to make waves and that first, elusive piece of silverware, was just around the corner.

For more by Peter Mann, visit his website www.pmannsportswriter.wordpress.com

Newcastle United, Football League Champions 1904-05: (back row, l-r) Andy McCombie, director GT Milne, director JW Bell,

director GG Archibald, Jimmy Lawrence; (middle row, l-r) director R Oliver, director JP Oliver, Jack Carr, Billy McCracken,

chairman J Cameron, vice chairman Joseph Bell, Peter McWilliam, Joe McClarence, director J Graham, ?; (front row, l-r) sec-

retary-manager Frank Watt, Andy Aitken, Jock Rutherford, Jimmy Howie, Bill Appleyard, Ronald Orr, Albert Gosnell, trainer

JQ McPherson, assistant secretary Frank Watt Jnr

WORDS//PETER MANN

16 17

HANGING  ON  THE  TELEPHONESo let’s start with papa Joe and his crazy brain…. Penning this piece almost 8 weeks since he claimed to be able to speak to all the world leaders or something similar on talksport we are still waiting for him to get his new mo-bile phone sorted out it appears. I really do think he was shown to his office at SJP and he looked in and thought “what a lovely room” and he sat down at his desk rested his big round head on it and fell into a deep sleep where he is still snoring now and dreaming of his magical contacts book. He will be

woken up on transfer deadline day all fresh and raring to go…and just you watch who he gets ‘over the line’….in all seriousness though we are pretty much all in agreement over the farcical appointment of this buffoon…he does as they say “exactly what it says on the tin’…he is a liability in just about every way possible. But why get animated at him? He was offered the job and he’s never going to turn it down, why would he? The staggering fact here is that Mike Ashley is the guy who has made this appointment …it says more about Ashley than any-thing else. So yet again we are left open mouthed staring up to the gods and thinking “what the f**k

have we done to deserve this” ? Joe Kinnear would not get a job at a lower league club never mind a premier league one…yet here he is at Newcastle United and yet another crazy chapter is written for our ‘laughing stock’ Christmas annual. Well done Mike, one of the areas that didn’t really need address-ing (the scouting/bringing in of talent) now has a clown at its helm.. What’s that saying “if its not broken don’t fix it”…its well and truly smashed to bits now it would seem. So, hey Joe !! I hope you prove me wrong…give me a call if you do,

Welcome …you are now entering a sky free zone… no breaking news yellow bar will flash across this page telling you that someone you’ve never heard of has just crimped his eyebrows or some other ‘exclusive’ shite.. you may agree, you may disagree…these are just my (mostly)lighthearted views on whatever I think may strike a chord with you…I hope you enjoy my loan period and if I play well then who knows? Joe might get on the phone and get a permanent deal done for me….i obviously won’t be holding my breath !!

Well it’s time to wrap this up, hope you kept on all the way to the end, if you did then thanks !! I’m on twitter @fireandskill add me if you fancy it ,I hope you all enjoy ya summer and that we do manage to get a few signings ‘over that famous line’ !! Personally i think we have a very decent first 11 and we obviously need quality additions and I’m also under no allusions that this is not an easy task, but my gen-eral opinion is that the quality that is undoubtedly in our side is in no way matched by the team there to manage/coach/ it…I do fear losing players, I hope this is not he case, please prove me wrong !! For the one thing all of us NUFC fans surely must agree on is that we all want to see an entertaining and challenging premier league club this coming season…just give us heart and 100% and we will be with you all the way….as always.

‘IN  THE  CROWD’A  SKY  FREE      ZONE

TIME  FOR  ACTION

WORDS//ON LOAN

TWITTER:  @FIREANDSKILL

This is a plea from the black and white heart….we get huge crowds at games surely we can do better on the chant front man….no more jimmy saville shite, no more “youre support is f*****g shit at every opponents fans irrespective of how vocal they are and don’t forget ya singing at fans who have actually bothered to make the journey to SJP anyway (chanting that at a Europa game to fans who’d trav-elled thousands of miles FFS !) its cringey man ! its not funny so don’t look around at me with a grinning face and expect me to be thinking you are the funniest guy on the planet you tit. And ‘Don’t sell Cabaye’ ? is it just me who just shuts their eyes and thinks “please shut the f**k up. lets get some new tunes, new words, some clever humour, howay man. ..Big fat Mike should have brought in a songwriter instead of a DOF, that would have went down well…but then again wasn’t it Joe who wrote all of the beatles stuff, ahh yeah that was Joe …so howay Joe wake up and write a few dittys for the chanters in the crowd…”shoes off if you love Kinnear shoes off ….” Aye right….”…pogo if ya love Ashley pogo if ya……….” ‘nuff said !!

Now I hope you get a little bit of my personality through these ram-blings, I’m not one of the bedsheet brigade at all, I don’t waste my time hating people and wanting everyone at the club ‘out’ for every little episode, but its fair to say that the last few months at NUFC have been pretty shit to be honest…and I do declare that this is definitely for me the most disillusioned I’ve ever felt going into a new season…the end of 2012/13 season was truly awful and I for one had totally lost faith with our manager and after almost every game I was left with the same thoughts of how tactically inept he was…and then he would comment afterwards and I would cringe…I don’t dislike Alan Pardew nor disagree that he wants success for

us, but I honestly don’t believe for one moment that he is the right guy to take us forward..what was said to the players at half time that made them become clueless cloggers after the interval of games?..” look lads you’ve done well 1st half now go out there and fuck it up”. They play the way they are told to play, simple as that and on too many occasions we were woefully inadequate. The obvious stand out games were the home ones against the mackems and then that unbelievably dire surrender against a Liverpool side who in all fairness never got out of 2nd gear and even seemed to pity us at 6 nowt and totally took their foot off the gas. As I said I’m not one for kneejerk reactions but that

performance there married with plenty more would have had better managers packing their bags and heading off into the sunset, he is a very lucky man to be still manager of NUFC…and no doubt that there will be people reading this saying “be careful what you wish for”, “what’s the alternative” “he got us 5th the season before”..yeah yeah yeah he did get us 5th but then equally on that argument he nearly got us relegated for gods sake a year later(and yes he wasn’t helped by the lack of backing last summer) but ultimately the shocking use of the players at his disposal coupled with appalling tactics got us totally in the situation we found ourselves in at the end of the season. But now with all the farce of joe Kinnears

arrival and the ‘Pardews gone miss-ing month’ he is cast as the victim in this and a bit of a outpouring of sympathy has swung his way. I can understand this to a degree but per-sonally I don’t judge someone who I think is pretty shit by a person who is a canny bit shitter ..if you get me drift… they are always going to look better… but then he comes out of hiding and he opens his mouth and I yawn and think “oh god here we go again” … and the frightening scenario obviously is that we are almost taking bets into what game Joe will step in to take over as Alan clears his desk. (Norwich seems the favourite at the moment) a truly hor-rendous thought I’m sure you will agree…but that doesn’t detract from me not wanting Mr Pardew as man-

ager of my club and it also doesn’t mean that by wanting him gone I want Kinnear…and I will fight anyone who dares even suggesting such a fucking lame throwback at me ( well I wont fight you but al get me big mate too and hes massive !!) . Once again I will finish by wishing Alan Pardew all the best as manager of our beloved club, its nothing personal mate, I do hope you get it right and we have a cracking season and I’m made to look like a total nob ! that’s how much I love NUFC but that’s equally why that what is going on is like an ever twisting dagger to the heart….oh and Alan if you do see Joe on your travels at his oak desk, gently shake his shoulder and wake him up, he’s meant to be doing something I think, cheers.

ALAN  PARDEW:  ALPHA  PAPA

18 19tim  krul

Steven  Taylor Fabricio  Coliccini Davide  SantonMapou  Yanga-­Mbiwa

hatem  ben  arfa Moussa  Sissoko Sylvain  MarveauxYohan  Cabaye

Papiss  Cisse Yoan  Gouffran

AS IT STANDSAs we approach the new season with no signings, many of us are wondering who will be in the starting 11 for the opening game away at big spenders Manchester City. This is the team I would pick if all are fit to start. Hopefully we can go into the new

season with a renewed belief in our own ability after a horrendous season last time round. I can honestly say it was one of the worst in my memory.Mike Ashley has not done anything

to show us he wants to improve our squad, adding only to his catalogue of balls ups by employing JFK. Why he has come back to Newcastle United, none of us know but he has already caused embarrassment with his loose tongue and I can see it happen again and again. Only time will tell if he will end up as manager again. I wouldn’t bet against this scenario happening before the season is fin-ished unless we manage to get some good, early results and get some confidence into the team.The best way for us to get results is

for us to have a go - you only have to look at the way Swansea approach games. Swansea go out to win. When they want a win, they will have a go at City, not play for a draw and hope to sneak one at the death. Man City

will take us apart if we sit back. They may take us apart even if we have a go but at least we, the fans, can have a team we can be proud of and just maybe, we can go there and win. Manchester City are in a different league to us but beating them is not impossible and being our first game, we could take them by surprise.I want to see Marveaux get a few

games under his belt and settle into the first team. With him and Ben Arfa in midfield we would have flair, pace and most of all, chances. All Pappis Cisse needs is a half chance to start firing in goals and with the Gouffran running alongside him, I think they could do well.

The TargetsWe definitely need another forward

for competition and injury but attempting to buy three forwards seems to be a little over the top unless they are buying with an eye on selling Cisse? I think we could do with another play maker in midfield and offload Cabaye. He has been too inconsistent since he joined and as I have said many times before, he goes missing in games far too often. I am also a little concerned about our goalkeeping options. If Krull doesn’t get fit for the start of the season and his injury drags on, or he sustains

another injury, I don’t know if we are in safe hands with Rob Elliot. He has made a few good appearances and some fantastic saves but in my opinion, he is not ready for first team at St James’ Park. Our number three, Jack Alnwick, is surely not ready for first team football but he could find himself in the first team if we suffer injuries like last season so another tried and tested goal keeper would be a sensible target for us.Our defence is looking ok at the mo-

ment and I hope Debuchy can force his way into the team as he is a great player although he didn’t impress last season. He seemed to lack pace and in the Premier League, pace is an attribute many managers are looking for. He does like to get forward but with Ben Arfa playing on the right, we need a more stable defence. Mar-veaux, Sissoko along with Ban Arfa, will provide enough attack.I have lost a little bit of hope for

Newcastle United as of late but it only takes a decent run to get everybody going again and hopefully the lads can do just that. As it stands though, I am not happy with the ongoing circus Newcastle United has become.Thank God England are playing decent cricket in the Ashes.

WORDS//MAX FLINDERS

I have long held the view that Newcastle United are not exactly your average football club. And I am not talking about events both on and off the pitch, because I don’t really feel like going down that path!

No. I am expressing a view that this institution represents far more in terms of simply footy.

This is a little, canny proud region, somewhere between England and Scotland, only recently described as having many parts which are unin-habitable, remote, and, well, deso-late. That came from some buffoon in the House of Lords. So what.

The key point though, as John Hall once put it, is that Geordies – loosely defined, that is – are the Basques of England. Fierce, proud, passionate identity, never to be surrendered. And therein comes the place of New-castle United in people’s lives here.

Whether NUFC fans have a season ticket, travel to every away match,

live in Australia, never get to a match, or a just a Granny in a cafe, so many people in this region see this club as quite an important part of their lives. Their culture. And that is felt with intense passion and pride. Not just because it involves football.

No. It involves far, far more than that. It does not represent just a city. It represents a region with a wee bit history.

Am I biased on this view? Probably. So I will name, in passing, some, only a few of people who have recognised that. Obvious suspects came from within this odd part of the UK. Bobby Robson, Kevin Keegan via his Grandad, and others of course, from the world of pop to politics.

But then, just branch out slightly into players, managers, and so on, who have been associated with this club. Robert Lee springs to mind, Micky Quinn, Les Ferdinand, Ginola, to name just four off the top of my head.

I can personally vouch that this recognition goes even wider , that this football club is far, far more just, well, a footy club! Due to previous jobs, I have foreign friends who have visited our place, and obviously been taken to a match, as well as soaking up the culture of the region. Some stayed far longer than they should have done.

And of their common themes? Often expressed with surprise, incre-dulity, shock. They recognised that this was NUFC thing was no ordinary institution. They thought it seemed to be a massive part of the region’s entire culture, and therefore, they understood that it was no ordinary club.

So. What I am rambling on about? I suppose that I am trying to say that it is a honour, a privilege, to represent this NUFC institution. And if you cannot feel that, or understand that factor, then do not bother to put that shirt on, manage it, or own it.

JUST  A  FOOTBALL  CLUB?  IT’S  FAR  MORE  THAN  THAT!

WORDS//BRIAN HALL - AUTHOR OF LIFE OF BRIAN IN BLACK AND WHITE

20

The Newcastle United side of the mid-nineties, Kevin Keegan’s side, the Entertainers, took Europe by both surprise and by storm, on more than one occasion.

Having had four UEFA Cup outings two seasons before, the Magpies wanted more and they received that when they qualified for the 1997 European campaign courtesy of a fifth place league finish the season before. Then, in the summer prior to the campaign beginning, the Hall-Keegan factor brought in £15 million record signing, Alan Shearer, to add to the attacking prowess already at the club’s disposal. Shearer would join the likes of Peter Beardsley and David Ginola, Les Ferdinand and Faustino Asprilla. And, prior to that one night in Barcelona, this was to be ‘Tinos tournament.’

In reaching the quarter finals the goals that were netted by Faustino Hernan Asprilla Hinestroza saw him finish behind Ganz of Inter, Ikpeba from United’s eventual conquerors Monaco, and Meller of Brondby, it was to be a European campaign never to be forgotten from the enigmatic, Colombian frontman. Asprilla bagged five in this European adventure.

Keegan, and United’s cavalier approach, was at it from the off, even though the attendance from the opening match was to be the lowest home gate of the season, registering under 35,000. Their opponents in the first round arrived in the shape of Swedish part-timers, Halmstads BK; they were destroyed.

The United manager went for an all-out 3-4-3 formation and the visitors had no answer to the threat that was posed. ‘Sir Les’ opened the scoring with a customary header inside five minutes alongside later finishes from centre-half Philippe Albert, and the evergreen Peter Beardsley with a delicate chip into

the left corner of the net from the far right of the box, as only he could. The pick of the bunch though came from the man of the moment as Asprilla fired home a flying volley from a deep Ginola cross and giving Nordberg no chance in the Halmstads goal.

The tie was all but won with a 4-0 first leg success and United took their foot of the gas in the return fixture in Sweden. Ferdinand would open the scoring with a volley for the visiting Magpies to open up a five goal lead just before the interval. Two late, second half Halmstads goals, from Arvidsson and Svensson, gave the underdogs a 2-1 second leg victory, United taking the tie 5-2 on aggregate.

Flashback to the success of 1969 saw United pitted against Hungarian champions, Ferencvaros, in the second round and fans would be treated to a five goal thriller in the Ulloi Ut Stadium, the hosts claiming a 3-2, first leg lead. Keeper Srnicek seemed edgy in the Hungarian cauldron and it showed, united being two down inside ten minutes. By the

interval though the Magpies were level courtesy of their twin terrors, messers Ferdinand and Shearer; Lisztes though would net his second and the hosts third, early in the second half. Come the return, and a balmy night in October, it was to be a memorable European night for the hosts.

Asprilla was on fire, Ginola was majestic, United hitting four without reply for the second European tie in succession. Beardsley missed a penalty before Tino struck either side of the interval, and then came the coup de grace, a moment of sublime majesty etched into United’s history from the mercurial Frenchman, David Ginola. Goalkeeper Szeiler punched away Gillespie’s corner as far as the edge of the box and, before the defence had recovered, Ginola controlled, evaded a challenge, switched to his left and fired a rasping shot into the top right corner. Ferdinand then tapped the fourth in injury time to seal an incredible, come from behind, 6-3 aggregate win.

Then came the French, and, with United bereft with injuries for

CONTINENTALTRAVELS

THE 1996-97 UEFA CUP //PETER MANN

Faustino Asprilla scores his second goal for Newcastle United against Metz

GIRLS, GUNSAND GOALS

1969 is best known for man taking his first steps on the moon, the birth of Monty Python and Newcastle United Football Club winning a piece of silverware, it was also the year that Faustino Hernán “Tino” Asprilla Hinestroza was born.

He was brought up in Tulua an impoverished city in Coulmbia and was playing football from an early age. He started out at Carlos Sarmiento Lora School and was picked up at the age of 18 by Cucuta Deportivo before being transferred to Atletico Nacional where he scored 35 goals in 78 games. It didn’t take long for the big teams to sit up and take notice of this bandy legged goal machine and Italian giants Parma won the race for his signature paying over $10M US dollars. Tino had hit the big time and he was going to enjoy every minute of it.

“ I played football from an early age and was determined to make it to the very top level. I always had a good eye for goal, it just came naturally to me and when my big chance came with my move to Parma I grabbed it with both hands.”

Parma from a football perspective was the most successful time in his career as he helped his team win the European Cup Winners Cup in season 92-93 scoring four goals in eight matches. Injury denied him the opportunity to play in the final and he sat on the bench as an unused substitute as Parma ran out 3-1 winners against Belgian outfit Royal Antwerp. Parma then went onto win the European Super Cup over two legs against Milan with Tino playing his part in both games. The following year saw them reach the Cup Winners Cup Final again but this

time they lost 1-0 against Arsenal. Season ’94-95 saw Tino finally grace the Cup final stage and he didn’t dissapoint. He had been instrumental in Parma reaching the UEFA Cup final with three goals over two legs in the semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen and he played both legs of the final which saw Parma defeat Juventus 2-1.

“ Parma was a very special time in my career. I loved the place and loved the people and we had a very successful team. Missing out on the Cup Final against Antwerp was a bitter blow. It made the win over Juventus in which I played both legs of the final very special.”

His reputation as a World class player was cemented with inclusion in the Columbian national team and expectations were high as the team won the South American qualifying group for the 1994 World Cup Finals. “ We had beaten everyone in our group including Argentina 5-0 and the people of Columbia expected great things. We finished bottom of the group after 1 win and 2 defeats. It is one of the lowest points in my career.”

The players all headed home and were told to take precautions on their return because feelings were running high in the country and there were rumours that big gambling syndicates had lost millions on the teams demise. One of Tino’s team mates Andres Escobar had the misfortune of scoring an own goal for his country against USA and whilst socializing in the Medellin suburb he was surrounded by three men and shot dead. Over 120,000 people attended his funeral.

“ Andres death shocked us all. He was a great

TINO ASPRILLA// BY STEVE WRAITH

21

CONTINUED

22

22 23footballer and a good friend and he

did not deserve to die like that. I had

traveled back from the World Cup

with him and he had warned me about going

out to soon on our return. I’m so glad I took his

advice.”Off the pitch his reputation as a player that

liked a party built up momentum to. In 1995

he fired eight shots in the air outside a disco

in Columbia. He was arrested and charged and

was eventually given a suspended sentence. In

Parma rumours of all night house parties, late

night liaisons with beautiful women and a fight

with a local bus driver all surfaced during his

time in Italy but were quickly denied by the

player know as ‘The Octopus’ in his home

land because of his voracious appetite.

“ I admit I missed the 1993 Cup Final

because of my argument with a bus

driver in Columbia. He crashed into

my car and I really angry. I got out

of my car and tried to get onto the

bus to confront him but he shut the

bus doors. I kicked the doors but my

foot went through the glass and I ended

up injured. I did like to party a lot when I

was younger and I’ve always had a fascination

with guns and girls which have both caused me

a few problems in the past.”

Tino found himself out of favour the following

season in Italy and after making only six

appearances in the opening five months of the

season found himself on a plane to Newcastle

in February 1996 to join Premiership leaders

Newcastle United who were managed by Kevin

Keegan at the time.

“Newcastle had to gain a work

permit for me to enter the country

which was proving difficult due to

my firearms conviction but they

overcame the issue and I flew to

Newcastle to meet manager

Kevin Keegan. Kevin sold the

club to me in one meeting. He

had such an enthusiasm for

the club and the area and they

were top of the League at the

time. I remember arriving at the club and it was

snowing quite heavily. I had never seen that

type of white stuff before!”

Christened Tino by the Geordie fans he

made his debut in the Tyne/Tees derby after

sinking a glass of red wine at the pre-match

meal much to the amusement of his new team

mates and astonishment of his new manager.

He had a lot to lean about the dos and don’ts

of Premier League football. It did not affect his

performance as he went on to set up the winner

after coming off the bench. His first goal came

soon after and his wild cartwheel celebration

became a regular site at St James Park in his

first season.

FROM...

21Newcastle lost a 12 point lead in the Premiership that year and were beaten to the title by Manchester United. Many neutral fans and commentators blamed the arrival of Asprilla as the catalyst for the Geordies failure, something he is keen to dismiss.“ One man cannot be guilty of a teams failure. It was not meant to be. Our team played some wonderful attacking football, certainly the best football in that league at that time, but we conceded too many goals. Manchester United would win, 1-0 at home and then 1-0 away. Ultimately their two victories over us won them the title.”

During his spell at Newcastle there were two great clubs. One the bastion of invincibility at St James Park and the other a small nightclub called ‘Julies’ on Newcastle’s Quayside which Tino would frequent most weeks.“The Newcastle women were referred to as dogs by one of the owners but I always found them to be very attractive. They seemed to like me to. It’s a city that never sleeps and one of the party capitals of the world and that is why I look at Newcastle as my second home. My soul is in Columbia but my heart remains in Newcastle.”His career at Newcastle was inconsistent to say the least. His best form came in the following two seasons again in the UEFA Cup where he had performed so well for Parma. Five goals in the competition in 1996 including one against FC Metz where he celebrated by removing his shirt and hoisting it into the air on a corner flag and that unforgettable hat-trick

against the mighty Spaniards Barcelona meant

that he would never have to buy a drink again

on Tyneside. “ Those European nights were very special

and more so at Newcastle. My celebration with

the corner flag was my way of telling the fans

that I felt Newcastle should be at the very top

of the world because of their support. The night

against Barcelona in the Champions League

was of course very special to me and I will

never forget the feeling when the third goal

went in. The bond I have with Newcastle and

it’s people is down to that moment and for that

I’m very grateful. It’s a game I almost missed.

The manager Kenny Dalglish was angry that

I had not returned on time from International

duty. I had decided to stay an extra night to

party. I was surprised to see my name on the

team sheet, but I guess it worked out well for

both of us in the end.”

Controversy was never far away though and

in 1997 Tino found himself in the witness

box at Southwark Crown Court, after giving

money to a fellow Columbian to help with

an accommodation issue. The friend was

subsequently arrested in possession of 41.4g

of cocaine. He was found guilty and jailed

for possession. Tino knew nothing about his

friends habit but the story had given him

headlines for the wrong reasons once again.

Those three goals against Barcelona would

prove to be his last for the Magpies and he

was sold back to Parma in 1998

with manager Dalglish finally

losing patience with the Columbian

CONTINUED

26

26 27enigma.

“ I could not really understand anything that

Kenny Dalglish said so we we did not really argue. He obviously did not feel that I suited his teams style and a move back to Parma suited us both.”

In football they often say you should never go back to a former club and Tino struggled to find fitness and form in Italy. After a second short spell at the club he moved to Palmeiras in Brazil

where he had success in both league and cup. His career petered out with a handful of appearances for the likes of Fluminense, Atlante, Atletico Nacional and Universidad Chile. In 2002 a return to the UK made the headlines when third division

Darlington under the stewardship of former safe blower George

Reynolds offered him a contract. Tino was paraded in front of the fans but this would be the only appearance he would be making.

“ The contract I was

offered over the phone and what I was offered face to face were two completely different things. I wanted the move to England but the money was obviously not there and so the deal was off. I felt sorry for the fans but it wasn’t my fault.”

In 2007 Tino found himself back in the headlines once again for all the wrong reasons. He was linked to Newcastle gangsters through a mutual friend who were planning to forge links between themselves and South American drug cartels. Tino had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had no idea of what was going on around him at these meetings.

A year later he was placed under house arrest after allegedly going on a shooting spree with a machine gun near his farm in south-west Columbia. He was charged with criminal damage and illegal possession of weapons. The Police claimed that Asprilla had sprayed the machine gunfire towards a security checkpoint after they had refused entry to three females and a bodyguard in April of that year.

At the time Tino was quoted as saying “ This situation

reminds me of the film Minority Report, in which people end up in jail even before you’ve committed the crime or even been tried.”

Nowadays Tino spends his time between his farm in Columbia and Newcastle. He has posed naked for a well known South American magazine and appeared

on two reality shows. His ambition is to return to football in the UK in a coaching capacity.

“ I have had talks with Newcastle United about

coaching and about a possible role in Columbia looking

for new talent but as yet I have no offer on the table. There are a lot of talented youngsters in Columbia looking to play at the top level in the UK and I promise they are very well

behaved young men.”So can he still do the

cartwheel celebration?“Yes, but these days I

save that for the bedroom.”

FROM...

23

The name St James’ Park enjoyed an unbroken 119-year link to Newcastle United until a cold and undoubtedly damp November day in 2011, when a statement was released stating that the name St James’ Park was no longer “com-mercially attractive”.

Derek Llambias then explained: “Our aim for Newcastle United is to continue to deliver success for the fans and everyone associated with the club. We must make this club financially self-sufficient in order to deliver that success”.

“To grow sustainably and allow us to invest in our future, we will need to rely increasingly heavily on commercial income”.

“These are very difficult economic times and the board have a respon-sibility to maximise all revenue streams for the benefit of the club.” The result: meltdown.

If ever a decision was made that showed a complete lack of understanding towards the heritage and history of an institution it was this one. Within hours Newcastle supporters worldwide were voicing their opinion. So too politicians, the city council and local as well as national media.

A Facebook campaign was started by fans under the title “St James’ Park; always was always will be” and it became apparent very early on that supporters would simply not tolerate the name change. I support-ed the campaign; the organisers had right on their side and they were

passionate about saving the name. In February 2012 I made contact on their behalf with Newcastle City Council asking if they back a call by supporters for the council to rename a small area of the city surrounding the Football ground as St James Park, in the same way as some areas within the city are known by names that tie them to a particular heritage, such as Grainger Town and Brandling Village. This would be a symbolic but nonetheless important show and help cement the decision by the council to continue to keep signage of St James’ Park in place.

The suggestion was for the area along Strawberry Place, from the junction of Barrack Rd, including the Metro car park and Metro Station, Leazes Park, Terrace Place, St James’ St, Leazes Tce and the Leazes car park be officially designated as St James’ Park. The heritage of the old name could then be preserved until such time as the name St James’ Park returned to the football ground.

While awaiting reply from the council, I became aware that despite what I previously had heard, the two sets gates that adorned the Barrack Rd North entrance to the stadium and had the name St James’ Park emblazoned across the centre had not been melted down for scrap when ground redevelopment had taken place. Instead one set had been stored with the intention of being used to adorn the entrance to a planned training ground that was to be built in Woolsington.

The location of the second, slightly smaller set remains unknown. The training ground at Woolsington never transpired, as it became bogged down in planning arguments and the gates themselves remained “forgotten”. The information came from Steve Wraith, who at the time was working on putting together a Sportsmans Lunch commemorating 30 years of the Magpie Group; local businessmen who fought and won the fight to remove the club from the hands of an inept Board of Directors; sound familiar?

Armed with this information, together Steve and I worked on the makings of a plan to see if we could somehow get these gates erected near the ground; a lasting adornment to the name that was so horribly removed by hammer and chisel from the walls of our great club. That action was in itself a disgraceful episode; a sight that showed up the club owners actions as lacking any integrity or feeling for supporters; any respect for the name or any in-tention to treat the club as anything but a rag to do as he and his acolytes saw fit. They acted on orders and woe betides anyone who stood and questioned such actions.

By March 2012, backed by the members of the original Magpie Group we were sat in front of the City’s then Lord Mayor, Geoff O’Brien lobbying him for support. We showed that we had a strong hand and as a

WORDS//@OLDHEATONIAN

CONTINUED

28

28 29

result we were invited to submit more substantive plans for consideration.

The momentum was now there and the desire to do something was grow-ing by the day. Budget constraints meant the council would not be able to provide financial support but that did not deter anyone. Indeed, it sim-ply focused those now involved, with Steve Wraith and Graeme Cansdale offering to provide financial support should it be needed.

The proposition was to erect the gates on Strawberry Place; presenting them as a focal feature within the footprint of a proposed “St James’ Town”; becoming part of the city heritage trail and close enough to the ground to cause maximum wind up. Yes, we wanted to get under the clubs skin; wanted the St James’ Park name back up and prominent and I remember a un-seasonally hot March day as we accompanied Stephen Savage from the city council on a survey of various locations. Possible sites included directly opposite Shearer’s Bar; to the west of the Strawberry Pub and Sir John Hall’s preferred choice opposite Shark Bar at the end of St James’ Boulevard. The only issue encountered was who owned the land in those locations and land searches conducted by the planning team determined that permission would be needed on virtually all counts from Newcastle United’s owner!

It took a while but eventually Sir John was able to take these matters up directly with the club but to say that the response was not positive would be an understatement. That avenue seemed closed so we plodded on with the Council and members of the Magpie Group seeking solutions and resolution. Graeme Cansdale did excellent work helping to put to-gether a very reasonable quote from a local company; supporters willing to uplift and refurbish the gates at cost price and advise on all aspects of their re-siting. We made it our aim that these Gates would be erected with or without the club’s backing.

The turning points came however when Lee Marshall was appointed Fans Liaison Officer and we met with Jon Irving, the club’s Finance Direc-tor. This provided us an opportunity to pitch our case directly to the club. We left that meeting in a positive frame of mind and the club subse-

quently removed their objections although as yet, no tacit approval was forthcoming.

Then came the breakthrough; Won-ga were announced as club sponsors and the St James’ Park name was reinstated. There then followed a call from the club asking if we could meet again. They acknowledged that they had been wrong to object in the first instance and stated that they backed the idea, wanted the Gates up and were willing to pay for installation. Naturally we were scep-tical, but we nevertheless met and accepted the offer. Our objective had always simply been to see the name St James’ Park returned to NE1 in perpetuity and to that end it looked like we had met our objective. The financial burden had been removed, the legal liability was no longer in our hands and the refurbishment and installation was now the responsibili-ty of the club.

On the 14th of June the Gates were uplifted. The club stated they would be located on Barrack Rd before the West Ham game and a small plaque will go on the wall adjacent to the gates acknowledging their presence. No names; no political statements just a simple acknowledgment of the importance of St James’ Park to the fans, club and city.

They are not Wonga’s Gates; there were no thirty pieces of silver involved. Their return is entirely due to fans determination that the right thing is seen to be done concerning a crass and poorly thought out decision to erase the name St James’ Park. Hopefully, now that the true story is out there, the critics will see that this

was played out not for the benefit of the club, sponsors or those with an ego or agenda. It was done to bring back a symbol of the heritage that the name St James’ Park holds for our club and city. Almost 2 years of planning and scheming; coaxing and cajoling others to see the benefit of what we were trying to do

Ok; so they’re not some antique set from 1892, but they are the gates that stood as an imposing entrance on Barrack Rd at a time when the word entertainers and football went together like bread and jam. But the re installation shows that sometimes as fans we don’t simply have to accept every decision that is made for the “good of the club”. Sometimes we can make a difference, fight for what we believe and get things done; have a voice, change opinion and find those willing to listen and take action.

A big thanks to Malcolm Dix, John Waugh, Peter Ratcliffe, Sir John Hall and the Magpie group; to Lee Marshall, John Irving and Wendy Taylor from the club for listening; Geoff O�’ Brien who as Lord Mayor provided so much assistance and to Stephen Savage from the City Council; Jane Brown and Davey Brown (not related) from the �‘St James�’ Park Always was Always Will Be�’ Facebook group for fight-ing the name change; to those who have supported and follow Nufc fans Utd and to Graeme Cansdale and Steve Wraith; good and hon-ourable supporters who only want the best and whose drive helped see this through.

Former Newcastle United owner Sir John Hall, stands with one of the former gates from St. James�’ Park It was the end of the 2011/2012 season

and we’d been battered at Goodison Park by a hugely over-respected Everton side, but never mind I was off to Spain on holiday and United were off on our European tour.

Before arriving in Spain I noticed I had a dull ache in my lower back and abdomen, but had no idea why. I noticed a lump on my right testicle whilst in the shower after a knock on holiday. I was worried, but thought ‘It’ll be nowt”. I went to the doctors when I arrived home and was sent for scans and after a 3 week wait was told I had testicular cancer after having my right ball removed. The cancer had spread a small amount outside of the testicle and I would require chemotherapy to kill it. I was pretty scared. The World I knew had been flipped upside down and I didn’t know anybody else who had cancer at my age, 27.

Whilst going through cancer I felt slightly alone. I was angry about not being told to check my testicles and also the lack of support for young men. This has the highest cancer rate amongst 15-40 year olds and nobody ever told me what to check for and what to do if I find something. I really just wanted advice and to talk to someone who had actually been through it. That’s when I stumbled across Phil Morris on twitter, who runs “Check’Em, Lads” charity which raises awareness and offers support to those going through cancer and post chemo support, as well.

I underwent chemotherapy treatment lasting 3 months, at 27 years old, and I’ve now been in remission for 7 months. It was a tough time, but I got through it with the help of the wonderful NHS and my family. I was still angry though. Why is this not talked about more amongst men? What; because

we’re embarrassed? Possibly. If you check once a month

and seek advice if you find something you’re worried about then the survival rates are over 95%. There’s no need to die of embarrassment. Testicular Cancer has amongst the highest survival rates. I was quite lucky to get it checked out quickly.

“Check’Em, Lads” now have a small army of helpers who are all unpaid survivors and we all really enjoy what we do with checkemlads.com charity. I’m running a campaign in Tyneside called ‘Howay the Nads’ going into colleges, football teams, workplaces, etc with the intention of getting men between the ages of 15 and 40 to check themselves once per month after taking a bath or shower. It takes 2 minutes. If you’re worried about anything then seek advice from your GP, or if you’re going through chemotherapy then you can contact me for advice (@2NarMe, @HowayTheNads). I know what it’s really like to go through it and come out of the other side.

We all have normal day jobs but all make time for such things as awareness talks in schools and work places, offering telephone support, awareness through social media and the internet, visiting hospitals to offer help and advice to men and their families going through this illness.

I don’t want anybody to have to be as confused as I was and unsure of what to check for and what happens when having scans, blood-tests, chemo and injection’s. We should all be checking ourselves every month. Go on, what are you waiting for? Your life, in your hands.

Advice available at www.checkemlads.com or speak to howaythenads@hotmail.co.uk or tweet me @2NarMe or @HowayTheNads

HOWAYTHE  NADS

WORDS//ANDY MCPHERSON

FROM...

27

30 31DEJA  VU?DEJA  VU?Deja vu? Well, although the lack of transfer activitiy at St James’ Park is very similar to last year, it is actually much worse and more worrying this time around because we now have a true clown to complete the circus.

Joan, I mean Joe, Kinnear, could cause trouble in an empty house and his radio interview defied belief. One of his first acts was to stop the well advanced transfer of international defender Douglas who we were about to get for nowt. No, I can’t figure that one out either! Especially when a free transfer is right up Ashley’s street and the club spent a lot of time and money tracking and monitoring this player. Then Kinnear shoots off on holiday after telling the world we’d have a new striker in by Friday. That was Friday, July 12th. I am writing this on Monday, July 29th, but there’s still no sign of that striker. Maybe Joe lost him on his way through customs or the player is on the luggage carousel waiting to be claimed?

At the time of writing, the failure/refusal to bring in much - needed reinforcements to the playing staff has alarm bells ringing in many a fan’s ears. Rumours persist about Ashley and the now departed Llambias claiming that the players they bought in January were in fact the Summer signings brought forward. I’ll tell wor lass that the shoes I bought her in May were actually her Christmas present. I’d deserve a slap for that. And so do these fools for thinking they can palm us off with any old shite as and when it suits them. The St James’ Park’ transfer window script is now very boring and predictable.’We tried but

just couldn’t get him over the line’, ‘There wasn’t enough time’, etc, etc. If they’re not going to buy anyone, at least spare us the indignity of the post - transfer window patronising and the insults to our intelligence. We wouldn’t want anyone becoming cynical and thinking Mike Ashley gets his kicks out of winding us up now would we?

Which brings me to Alan Pardew. The purveyor of many a statement akin to the aforementioned tried and tested excuses. And despite being a man who likes to have his say, his silence was deafening after

the appointment of Kinnear. Why? Maybe he was keeping a dignified silence? That would be admirable if it was the case as the vast majority of people would lose it if an idiot like Kinnear came in and instantly undermined their job. Or maybe he had his orders to keep his own counsel? Either way, it added fuel to an already wild fire in the form of frenzied speculation regarding Pardew’s job. The most popular, yet most feared opinion/theory, is that Kinnear is hovering like a starving vulture waiting for Pardew to jump or even be pushed. Time will tell.

Pardew has often been labelled a puppet with Mike Ashley pulling his strings. He tells us he is very much his own man but he’s never sounded convincing. Some of his comments sound like he’s reading from the Mike Ashley handbook and some are just bizarre. At the end of last season he rambled on about ‘big offers’, ‘hard to turn down’ and other thinly veiled invites to the likes of PSG to

get their wallets opened. ‘This is a big season for Adam Campbell’ was another. Was that said in

case we don’t get a new striker in or because we’re NOT

getting a new striker in? For someone who claims

to be his own man, he doesn’t do himself any favours with statements like these. I was

WORDS//DAVEY BROWN

FREEDOUGLAS - FC TWENTE

CONTINUED

32

Well, well, well, where do I start about NUFC? Although I enjoyed most of last season my dad will disagree (I’m not allowed to say what he thought ha ha). My favourites were the Chelsea game at home, as well as Southampton at home. Though I’ve never been more upset than getting beat off the unwashed 3-0 at home in my first ever derby day, think I carried my dad home that day.

As for transfers I thought the players we got in January should have been bought earlier in the summer, all those European games and injuries took its toll on a thin squad even more so when we sold Ba, which upset me a bit as he was my favourite player at the time. Then fatty came up trumps in January with the players to just get us over the line.

Let’s get started on Cisse. What’s he bloody playing at? I’m not happy about Wonga, but if I earned as much as him a week I would wear a mackem top. Even though

I hate the cheesy chip eating scum ha ha. Who is Joe Kinnear? My dad tried to tell me but I still don’t know who he is? He’s just a joker and a liar as far as I can see. I thought the whole Yohan Kebabs thing was funny. Let’s see if he can get us the strikers we need, which I doubt but ya never know. He reckons he’s the dog’s bollocks I bet he was Kate Middleton’s midwife. Sure I’ve seen him there on the telly. As for Mick Harford,

I don’t think my dad was born when he played for the Toon, so glad he knocked us back. Let’s hope these clowns get us the players we need to have a good season and fingers crossed.

I just want to thank Steve Wraith for letting me do this and wish Pardew and the players all the best for the new season, I can’t wait .You can also catch me in the NO9 before every home game and follow me on twitter @littlejoeallon, thanks Little Joe Allon.TOON TOON FTM

JOE ALLONTHE LITTLE

COLUMNWORDS//@LITTLEJOEALLON

 TWITTER//@LITTLEJOEALLON

Cisse finally pulled on a Wonga shirt

32 33

one of many who wanted Pardew out at the end of last season. I thought he

ran out of ideas around December and it went downhill from there. His tactics are one - dimensional and opposition teams sussed us out very quickly. Some of his team selections and substitutions were bizarre. Yes we had a lot of injuries but when we had a full, or almost full, squad to choose from, we still just went through the motions. 4-3-3 was a very effective formation yet Pardew stopped using it. Why? When you have players like Ben Arfa and Cabaye at your disposal, you make good use of it! While Gutierrez will graft, etc, it’s hard to see what his actual role in the team is. And how Obertan even gets a shirt defies belief! He has got to be the one of the worst players I have ever seen. He’s bone idle and his body language while he’s on the pitch suggests he is arrogant with an attitude problem. When he ‘played’ at Brighton in the cup, he was a disgrace. I don’t think he actually moved for the first 20 minutes apart from a couple of 5 yard jogs to make himself look ‘busy’. But Pardew obviously has a soft spot for him as he keeps picking him.

That cup game at Brighton was one of the major contributory factors in me saying ‘enough is enough’ with Pardew. It was embarrasing and an insult to the fans who traveled to the opposite end of the country.The team and tactics that day were chosen to get us knocked out of the cup. I don’t care how many injuries there were, how small our squad was and how many games we had to play, when a team steps out onto that pitch, they play to win! Anything less is not acceptable. We did well in Europe but in the end, it just wasn’t meant to be. The Europa League adventure provided Pardew with something he seemed to enjoy throughout the season: the opportunity to roll out more excuses. I just don’t accept tiredness as an excuse for professional footballers. They are athletes in prime physical condition and 3 games in 7 - 8 days is hardly a triathlon! We were told the ‘long journeys’ took their toll. Long journeys? The team flew in a chartered luxury jet but Pardew made it sound like they had to hitch - hike back from these far flung places such as Belgium and

France. I presume the players were moonlighting as hod carriers or doing 12 hour shifts down the pits as soon as they landed back in Newcastle. Why strive all season to qualify for Europe then spend the following season whinging about it once you’re there?!

So, if the end of season reports are to be believed, Pardew escaped the sack by the skin of his teeth with Ashley seemingly raging at the poor season we had. Nowt to do with the lack of investment last Summer, eh Porky? Why give a manager an eight year contract if you’re not going to back him properly? My main problem with Pardew, apart from his weird tactics, etc, is the fact that he does nothing to even attempt to shake off the ‘puppet’ tag. Fair enough, Ashley owns the club and what he says goes, but you’d like to hear of Pardew braying on his boss’s door demanding proper investment in the team. You’d expect him to realise that we’re sick of all that ‘couldn’t get him over the line’ bollocks and change the record to something at least resembling the sound of discontent at the greedy owner who is blatantly using him as a fall guy. In other words: man up!

With the new TV deal in place, Mike Ashley stands to score for a reported £60million. This is in effect FREE money. He hasn’t earned it. He didn’t have to sell anything to generate this money. It will be given to him as his share of the new deal. Add in the £4.3million NUFC made from the EuropaW League games and that is a tidy sum. I can’t wait to hear where this money is going! New bulbs for the floodlights? New paint to mark the training pitches bought with the Andy Carroll money? A new office for our Director Of Football?

Maybe a rail season ticket would be a good investment for London - based Kinnear. If anyone who backs Ashley with the ‘but he’s got the club in a great financial position’ garbage wanted proof that this man is only here to line his pockets, the refusal to spend this vast amount of FREE money which is about to

land in his lap should do the trick. IF he was that good a businessman, he would invest that money in the team and through the subsequent improvement in league placings, a potential return to Europe and even, dare I say it, winning a trophy, he would reap the rewards in many ways. But Mike Ashley doesn’t work that way. He’s a corporate locust. He will land somewhere, feed off it until he’s had his fill, then move onto the next cash cow. He likes the quick profit scenario. He likes to make a killing in an instant.

Part of me feels sorry for Pardew, especially now Kinnear is here, but a bigger part of me feels he is part of the ‘Cockney mafia’ thing and that is why he doesn’t put up much of a fight against Ashley’s ridiculous ways. Until he does, he’ll always be labelled a puppet. The player he has made the most noise about is Darren Bent. Despite the ‘interest’ in Gomis, Remy, Bony, Aubameyang and whoever else we’ve been linked with, Pardew’s main interest lies in a player who couldn’t get a game for an awful Villa team. Villa are trying to claw back as much money as possible on Bent with £5-6million being the ballpark figure mentioned, yet we offered £2million for him! With all that extra TV money sitting there, this is more proof that Ashley & Co are taking the piss. We haggle over players like tourists in a tacky Morrocan market. Ashley won’t budge on what he wants to pay.

Football isn’t like that and there has to be some flexibility, especially if you really want a player that much. I’m not saying spend silly money on every transfer target. Just have the sense to realise that sometimes you might need to go a little further to get something you want. If a player wants a bit more in wages give him

it if it means we get quality in. Newcastle United can afford it. What else would the club do with that extra bit of money a player might have wanted?

Well Joe Kinnear has allegedly been paid

£20,000 per week since he was manager. That money could have been paid to a top player rather than one of Ashley’s pals. Think

about it: Kinnear Can�’t even afford £5-6m for Darren Bent?

FROM...

31

The fury that erupted after the appointment of JFK which led to the resignation of Derek Llambazee and culminated in the FansUtd meeting at the Labour Club at the end of June really could prove to be a watershed moment in the modern history of NUFC.After the Trust released a statement which was so toothless and banal it didn’t receive coverage, for the first time in nearly 5 years a non-affiliated open meeting was called for fans to have their chance to question club officials on the direction the club is being led. Our little organisation caused a bit of a stir for having the temerity to say what most neutral observers/fans of other clubs have known for a considerable time.But let’s make this clear, the MAOC did not hijack the meet; the tone was set by an open mike session whereby countless fans got up to describe their feelings of alienation and utter despair at how the club treats them whilst continuing to follow a road

that is now without doubt a one way ticket to Palookaville. If we remain a so-called ‘big club’, then we must be the smallest minded big club in the world. At the time of writing, Swansea having captured their first major trophy last season, are busy speculating to build on their success, whilst other footballing giants, Cardiff, Southampton, Palace and yes, even little old Sunderland are spending. Meanwhile at NE1, our beleagured Patsy of a manager is repeating last summer’s excuses whilst waiting for his boss/equal /replacement in waiting(?) to return from a well earned and immaculately timed holiday.Now that it is starting to dawn on the dullards that the ‘five year plan’ was no more than an ad hoc ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ jape, orchestrated by the deadly duo of Mike and Del, we would like to offer you a crumb of comfort. Amidst all the furore about the brain addled ramblings of JFK, see that the deadly duo are no more. Llambazee is gone. Rejoice! This may well be the first chink in the armour of the Ashley regime and a major error on MA’s part. We may never find out what exactly happened behind the scenes which led to Delboy’s departure, but the right hand man - Smeagol with a hatchet - has gone and it is quite clear it was not amicable. We detect an air of rebellion amongst other NUFC fans’ groups

and the willingness to at least “do something” to show the owner that his mismanagement cannot

continue without some reaction. It may not be an uprising on the scale of the ‘Arab Spring’ as yet- but maybe it could develop into a ‘Geordie Summer’? One thing that every fan could and should do, is totally boycott the relaunched and hopelessly renamed NINE bar. We hope never to see again the depressing scenes of 2008 when protesting fans were moaning about

the treatment of KK whilst sipping overpriced Australian lager

outside Shearer’s

Bar, thereby directly feeding the corporate monster who had caused all the trouble. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, what is now NINE and the Terrace Bar are NOT franchised out, they are Ashley’s outright.The MAOC has since it’s inception existed as a pressure group to ‘out’ the Ashley lies and has the absolute conviction that for the club to have any chance of fulfilling it’s potential, the t-shirt salesman and child labour exploiter has to go. We will continue to do our thing but it seems others are now willing to come forward and say ‘enough is enough’. We hope we can continue to grow and form some kind of united front against Ashley’s abuse of power.Wendy Taylor and Lee Marshall - the nice faces of the regime ( were they Grattan catalogue models?)- have a list of questions as long as a Liam O’Brien arm from the meeting. But don’t expect many answers back from them; they are PR spin doctors and it isn’t even clear who their immediate boss is now! So much for ‘lines of communication’ eh?The only disappointment about the public meeting was the absence of certain groups and individuals - never shy behind the keyboard to voice an opinion- who just didn’t bother to turn up to even observe proceedings. A great shame really, but commercial interests may have taken precedence; not the first time, or we suspect the last time, that they will have missed the boat on gauging the mood of the ‘grassroots’ Newcastle fans (their purported readership!). Anyway, this brings us nicely to the point. If you want to ‘do something’ don’t look to people who sell magazines and run websites. Just do ‘it’ yourself! Don’t tell us nothing can be done, it can. Just watch the news if you don’t believe us. Don’t tell us no one is in the market to buy football clubs - Fulham has just been sold in the time it has taken to write this article! If the team struggles next year, don’t blame us; just look at the one man who has had us on

MIKE ASHLEY OUT!JOIN US NOW//WINSTON SMITH

34 35

I’m sick of football, I’m sick of Newcastle United. I’ve been going to games since 1985. We were no great shakes then even, however my first game was against Liverpool and we did actually win, but don’t let that fool you, we were as shite as ever.

My current mood may be attributable to the two most horrific home games I’ve ever seen. Two in a row. I’m not saying that to be controversial, the last two home games are the most horrific we’ve ever seen. I’ve seen us lose 4-1 at home to Wolves, I’ve seen us humbled off Bristol Rovers at St James’ Park, but the cowardly showing and horrendous results against two teams many of us detest more than any other, are the worst anyone in their 30’s, maybe even mid 40’s have EVER seen.

My feelings about how frustrated I am about football and Newcastle United run far deeper than that though. Don’t get me wrong, I’d never stop going, because like many others, I’m a mug. When you fall in love with Newcastle United, it never leaves you, you take them warts and all, and the two biggest warts we have with any connection to the club are Alan Pardew and Mike Ashley.

We’re told with great regularity that “we can’t compete with the big boys on an even level footing”. Granted when you look at the turnovers of the clubs in the Premier League, Pardew and “Mike” may have a point. What I want to know is in simple terms, why were we far richer than say Tottenham before Ashley came in, and now they generate far more than us.

2012  FIGURES1. Man Utd £320m 2. Chelsea £261m

3. Arsenal £235m4. Man City £231m5. Liverpool £188m6. Tottenham £144m7. Newcastle £93m8. Everton £80m

Now this was for the 2011/2012 season, in 1998 this was the status quo (worldwide).

1. Manchester United £87.9m 2. Real Madrid £72.2m 3. Bayern Munich £65.2m 4. Juventus, Italy £55.3m 5. Newcastle United £49.2m 6. Barcelona £48.57m 7. AC Milan £48.55m 8. Internazionale £48.2m

Startling figures. We all know Newcastle are a big club, but our stature as a club in 1998 dictated that we had income in excess of Barcelona, a club who could put an argument up for being the world’s biggest now.

Seven years ago we were generating £30m per season more than Tottenham, now with a stadium attracting 16,000 less every week they generate £51m more than us. Absolutely startling figures. The fact is this Newcastle United made more as a business in 2002 than we did in 2012. Manchester United’s income has trebled in that timeframe. I’m no financial wizard but that is a disgrace. There are lots of people to blame.

My feeling is this, Newcastle United commercially are being ran like Reggie Perrin’s empire. We’re cheap and chatty, commercially we are a disaster. He basically has got a casino manager to run what was without doubt one of the biggest clubs in Britain a decade ago.

Shepherd got lots of things wrong, we certainly couldn’t

sustain the expenditure we had, but commercially Newcastle WERE “one of the big boys”, we’re not now because we’re downgraded, we’re told to think small, because we are small. We’re not Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City so pipe down toon fans. This message has been drummed in to Pardew from that fat bastard from his first day on December 8th 2010. He comes out with it at least once a month. No other club in football has a manager who comes out with this with such great regularity. Pardew is a mouthpiece for Ashley and if we stay up we’ll have to get used to him because they won’t find a front man like him. Newcastle United is a hindrance for Ashley, if he could get every penny he put in back now with a little profit, he’d take it.

I’m sick of being told that we can’t expect to compete with the “big 6”. This season has been a disaster waiting to happen. If we had Daniel Levy as chairman I have absolutely no doubt we’d be a far wealthier bigger club.

The financial side is killing football as a whole, and FFP will make absolutely no difference. Look at Manchester City. Before they were bought out they were generating the same revenues as Sunderland, now they’re the 7th richest club in the world. But are they? It appears that they are, but people are already finding ways around FFP. Their sponsorship with Etihad is worth £400m. Etihad are their owners. Chelsea have Abramovic. So fair enough we can’t compete with those two clubs, but why can’t we compete with Tottenham and Liverpool when we did for years? No one has been able to give me a proper answer. Mike Ashley is the scourge of this club, he doesn’t care about where we finish as long as we make a profit.

You have idiot Newcastle fans who he has sucked in, who would gladly have a turnover of £93m with £3m

DIVIDE  AND      CONQUER

profit, than a turnover of £160m with £0m profit. We’re under valued by the hierarchy of this club, we’re told to think small, expect small, view ourselves as small. It will never ever change as long as Ashley has control of the club. He took over the club in 2007 “to have some fun”, since then we’ve come in the top 10 once, been patronised with alarming regularity, been lied to, been ridiculed, been forced to listen to a chirpy southerner coming out with remarkably stupid blatant lies like “on me first day ‘ere I put some petrol in me car, and there was a 50 year old bloke, in full Newcastle kit including socks”, I’ve lived here

my whole life and never seen that, all of these reasons are why I’m utterly fucked off with Newcastle United. I was when we came 5th, I hate the fact that they’ve divided and conquered and people accept that we can’t compete.

I hate the fact so called long term fans have forgiven him for his abhorrent treatment of Kevin Keegan.

I will never accept them, if we won the Champions League I wouldn’t accept them, they’re vermin and the day he sells up, and takes Llambias somewhere else they can show “how narrrsty they can be”, will be one of great delight for me.

WORDS//@LEAZESLAD

So much for fair play! Manchester City�’s Etihad Stadium was sponsored for £400m

Pardew continues to tell us �“we can�’t compete with the big boys�”

36 37

A state of civil war rages on within NUFC. Within the boardroom, within the dressing room, even now spilling onto the terraces as the fan base starts to fracture and turn on each other.

There is no doubt that the potential for this has existed for some time and perhaps we are seeing just a small part of what went wrong last season. The solution the owner has come up with simply baffles. Joe Kinnear. International peacekeeper, heart surgeon, Nobel Prize winner, Michelin Starred chef, rampant fantasist, social hand grenade.

From the minute he appeared on radio to give one of the most breathtaking (for all the wrong reasons) interviews of the age it has staggered almost everyone associated with NUFC. Except the owner. It has become apparent since his appointment that between Alan Pardew, Derek Llambias and Graham Carr there has been plenty of finger-pointing and trying to apportion blame for mistakes last season. And it would appear all was not well between them.

Lines have been drawn and situations becoming more entrenched. And in other ways when they did produce a united front perhaps the owner did not like it.

The JFK solution was, in my mind, intended to be a nuclear option. Something to cause a rapid clear out and mass resignation. Flatten it all and start over. So far the only one to go has been Llambias. Meanwhile it seems Rome burns and the new Director of Football (when he’s not delivering royal babies or on peacekeeping missions in Syria) has talked much, upset many and done little. As I type the squad is thinner, we still need strengthening in critical areas, at least 2 incoming transfers have been vetoed and important issues, such as Papiss Cisse and

Wendy Taylor and Lee Marshall within NUFC. I also believe he had started to “get it”. Perhaps that signalled his end with the owner. Who knows? I doubt he will be remembered well, with good reason, and not many will mourn his departure. It has always been my belief that had he had the right person alongside him, a football person, someone who understood the game inside out (and no I don’t mean the Billy Liar we have now) things could have been very different indeed.

Yesterday an announcement was made that Papiss Cisse was prepared to return to the fold after an exile brought about by his reluctance to wear anything branded with our new sponsor, Wonga.

This has been festering for some time and while we were too busy internally bickering this was left on the must do pile along with many other important footballing issues. We all know what the argument was about so I’m not going to rake over the coals again. Reaction to Cisse’s stance has been mixed and again contributed to widening divisions even amongst the fans.

Once pictures of Cisse apparently playing blackjack in a casino emerged his case was somewhat weakened. However we still have little in terms of proper quotes attributed to anyone in this sorry affair and lots of speculation. I’m in no position to tell anyone how to apply their faith, no one is. Matters of faith meant so much to many. However as a club NUFC have done so much to accommodate and include all faiths and have regularly been praised for this. Complex is not the word. Living in the UAE has afforded me to chat with many NUFC fans over here in the middle east, Muslim and non. We now have

up and running Newcastle United UAE (@NUFC_Dubai) and link into @NUFC4Arab, a network of 75000+ Arabian Geordies (you can Tweet me @geordiedentist too). Generally Cisse hasn’t done himself any favours with those over here, many citing the same reason. There is obviously a lot more to this than meets the eye. My suggestion. Get over it and all move on together, UNITED!

The Church of England say they want to see Wonga out of business by setting up credit unions and offering alternative ways to access loans for Wonga’s target lenders. Wonder if they will start to do shirt sponsorship as well? Imagine someone like Doncaster running out with “Come to Church, it’s Great!” on their shirts! Anyway wasn’t Jesus supposed to have thrown money lenders out of the temple? I probably need to stop thinking, I may sleep better at night.

One piece of good news that you may have missed is that we managed, on appeal, to get the Academy upgraded to the highest status. It now ranks with those well established facilities on Wearside and Teesside. For years we have lagged behind in our region and this is excellent news for the club. We should be shouting about this. But it’s another thing on the “to-do” pile along with a launch date for the new home shirt (which has now been announced by Puma in the USA and worn by the U-21’s without a peep from the club). This is where Derek Llambias probably had an agenda and would have had something in hand. Yet under Llambias’s control the academy missed out on top class status. Interesting. And perhaps more reason to suggest you need football people alongside the businessman in top flight football these days.

We have Walter Mitty. Grim.

SONS OF THE DESERTWonga, left to fester and create more wounds within. Time is ticking Joe, and no it’s not a bomb for you to defuse.

As ever it’s only really once the season is underway and transfer window is closed that you can assess any team’s performance in a transfer window. Right now we appear to be looking at the broken biscuits and the close to sell by date offers rather than the prime cuts and exciting fresh international cuisine. Worrying times!

Derek Llambias departs Newcastle and leaves a football club in turmoil, but a business running well, if you look solely at balance sheets rather than team sheets. That was always his job; to get NUFC running in a self

sufficient way. That he was better at then football decisions and interacting with football people in my opinion. He seemed to revel in a panto villain role that would give certain fanzine editors a run for heir money. He didn’t care if he was the hate figure. Nor at times did he seem to care how mis-timed, crass announcements caused mayhem and mass upset within he ranks of NUFC supporters. I had the

pleasure of meeting him on a number of occasions.

It’s fair to say the early meetings didn’t go

well! Eventually he did gain some sort of understanding (until we were relegated and the shutters came down again).

I know however he had started to listen again, mainly

due to the hard work of good

people like

WORDS//@GEORDIEDENTIST

38 LLAMBIASTO THE SLAUGHTER

WORDS//PETER MANN

It was supposed to that dawning of a bright, new era and the bring-ing of Newcastle United Football Club into the new, billion pound, business age.

The days of the Sir John Hall ‘dreams’ had long since petered out, Kevin Keegan’s Entertainers with it, and new blood, if you will, was needed within the boardroom. In fact, in an in-depth interview with the former United supremo, Hall was quoted with Toon Talk Editor, Steve Wraith, that it was in fact the arrival of Chelsea’s Russian billionaire, Ro-man Abrahmovich, which signalled the end of his reign at the north east club. The reason’s provided, stated in Issue Five, were that “I decided to sell my shares because of Abrahmov-ich.

“It took me just over two years.....I was keen to know why they wanted the club and they were quite honest. They wanted to market their sports goods in the Far East and would use the club to help do this. To me it made sense to market the club globally.

“When they took over they put Chris Mort in to run things and went private. It was a good move. He’s not a fool and like Mike (Ashley) he came in with the best intentions. His subsequent departure caused a few problems and Mike made a mistake listening to the likes of Paul Kelms-ley at Spurs.”

That, in essence, became the beginning of the end for the football club. Mike Ashley had eventually gained full ownership from Hall and associates in 2008 and, within months of the takeover, there was a change behind the scenes. Mort was soon departed from the club,

relinquishing his role as chairman having arrived with Ashley the previous summer. Sam Allardyce was manager at the time and after results went awry following provision of a vast transfer chest; ‘Big Sam’ was soon out the door. Ashley-Mort had a solution though, replace Allardyce with the legendary Keegan, but ‘King Kev’ had ideals beyond that of the United hierarchy and there were often clashes over funds and the like.

News of Mort’s impending departure started filtering through in early May of 2008 and, within six weeks, ‘Dekka’ Derek Llambias was ‘shepherded in’ as the replacement, assuming the role of Managing Director. Llambias himself was quoted discussing his new role at the Premier League club that “Since coming to work at Newcastle United I have quickly begun to appreciate the passion

people have for the football club. “I firmly believe we have the right

people with the right expertise, with Kevin Keegan back as manager and being fully supported by Mike Ashley and the directors, to take the club forward again. At the same time I would like to pay tribute to all of the hard work done by Chris (Mort) during his time at St. James’ Park and wish him every success in the future.”

Little did Newcastle United’s famed Toon Army supporters would know as to what would come over the next five years. Their football club being ridiculed and dragged through the mud, embarrassed and humiliated at the hands, or mouth as the case

may be, or a ‘man’ who made bold claims of

support to the

39

CONTINUED

40

During the clubs formative years of 1897 and 1902 ‘Jock,’ real name John Hope Peddie, became the frontline fulcrum of the Magpies attack, partnering compatriots such as Wardrope, McFarlane, Fraser and Campbell.

At the time United had only played football professionally for four seasons prior to his arrival.

Peddie arrived three months into the 1898 campaign, and after the side had registered six victories from their opening nine matches, Wardrope netting seven times. At a cost of £135, Peddie joined from Scottish side Third Lanark, his debut coming as Newcastle travelled to Bank Street, the home of Newton Heath, the Magpies winning 1-0 with Wardrope netting his eighth in a productive start to his season.

Peddie waited another fortnight before the next match was played, his home debut against Small Heath. Campbell would net a double, Wardrope another for himself and, in front of an 11,000 strong crowd, Peddie crowned his home debut with a goal, the first of many in a black and white shirt. What was more fitting is that he was wearing the number nine jersey that day as well.

Come New Years Day 1898 the Peddie bandwagon was in full motion. Goals in successive home matches against Walsall and Loughborough in January showed his ability in front of goal. Just three weeks into 1898 and Peddie would have also registered his first treble for the club, Leicester succumbing 4-2 at St. James’ on January 22nd. Peddie was again at it four games later, netting all three goals in a 3-1 victory away to Darwen.

A three match spell between March and April would see United score ten goals, Peddie registering six of them in what was part of a six match winning sequence. For Peddie though he would score twice in the 4-0 home win over Grimsby, a treble in the 5-2 demolition of Gainsborough. The last of what was

a productive debut season, arrived in the 1-1 draw away to Leicester Fosse.

Alongside bagging a double in the FA Cup First Round success at Preston, Peddie would finish that debut season at Newcastle as the Magpies leading goal scorer with an impressive eighteen goal haul. Not only that but promotion was achieved through the end of season ‘Test Matches’ with Stoke and Blackburn, a series of matches that were themselves riddled in controversy.

Peddie’s second season, Newcastle first in the First Division, was just as productive, the Scotsman top scoring again, this time with twenty goals, eighteen arriving in the league. It would also be hard going as United took over two months and ten matches before success was first tasted. Peddie though began on the opening day when, in front of 20,000 at home, he would score both United’s goals in a 4-2 reverse against Wolves.

Newcastle’s first victory in the First Division would see Peddie net twice in a 3-0 home win over Liverpool, compatriot and recent signing from Airdrie, MacFarlane, netting the other. Braces arrived on four further occasions throughout the season including what was to be an early Christmas present for the Magpies.

December 24th 1898 would forever etch a then 21 year old Peddie into United folklore, the black and whites making the first of many visits to Roker Park, the home of rivals, Sunderland. It was the first Tyne-Wear derby and, after Wardrope had equalised, Peddie struck a double in the hearts of the enemy, with a goal in each half, sealing what was a famous 3-2 win.

He would begin the 1900 season with five in six culminating in a 6-0 home demolition of Notts County on October 7th Fraser (2), Peddie, MacFarlane, Stevenson and Wardrope, all registered. One win and no goals for Peddie in ten followed though

before five in four including a brace in the 4-1 home win against Blackburn on January 13th, the others coming against West Brom, Glossop NE, and Everton.

Seven goals, including a double in the 3-2 home win over Villa, in front of more than 19,500 spectators saw him finish his third season at the club with sixteen goals, again topping the scoring charts, and United finishing in a respectable fifth.

Peddie some three matches to get started at the beginning of the 1901 season, following two goalless draws he opened his account in the 2-1 home win against, and then followed up with the only goal against West Brom. Braces then followed in the 3-2 reverse at Bolton and a 2-1 win away to Nottingham Forest on December 29th.

Only five goals would be netted during the remainder of the season which included goals in successive 1-1 draws with West Brom and Derby. Peddie’s sixteenth of another productive campaign came in the match at Manchester City, in front of 18,000, and claim his spot as the club’s leading scorer. United would finish the season in a respectable sixth, seven points behind champions Liverpool.

Peddie’s final season at the club, before moving to Manchester United, would see a return of eight from eighteen. Of those, a treble was the highlight as Notts County were routed at home on October 26th. Orr would lead the way with a four goal haul and Roberts the other in what was an 8-0 demolition.

Peddie’s last strike in a black and white shirt arrived from the spot in a 1-1 home draw with Sheffield United in mid-December, United going on to finish the season in third place. The Scotsman though had played more than his part in the formative years of Newcastle United, his final tally reading an impressive yield of 78 goals in 136 appearances.

THE  NUMBER                ’SWORDS//PETER MANN

40 41new regime upon his own arrival.

Llambias though was now at the football club and with his feet firmly under the proverbial table. And, with the new board-room changes heralding in a new dimension in the form of a new management team underneath that of Ashley and Llambias that saw the formation of what became known as ‘the cockney mafia.’ Llambias, a busi-nessman in his own right following some three decades in the leisure and entertainment industry would head this new team which consisted of David Williamson (Executive Director of Operations), Dennis Wise (Executive Director of Football) and Tony Jimenez. According to Hall, and the vast majority of the Toon Army, this was the first, big mistake within the club, and it would only get worse, continuing to do so as the club enters the 2013-14 Premier League season.

The Ashley-Llambias jigsaw was all but complete, just a few more pieces needed then they could get on with dismantling the club from the inside out. That completion would soon arrive in the form of Londoner, Alan Pardew, and a move that far from going down well with supporters and would become the sixth man at the helm in what was then a two year timeframe.

Under the new regime Keegan lasted eight months, Chris Hughton (then Keegan’s assistant) a handful of matches as interim, the ‘legendary’ Joe Kinnear another eight months and the master, Alan Shearer closing that 2008-09 season with a few months at the helm that culminated in relegation. Hughton returned tak-ing the position on a full time basis and led the club to promotion with the Championship title under his belt but lasted months in the top flight, the new regime ripping the heart out of the club and replacing him with Pardew in December of 2010.

So, what did go wrong after all of that? Well, where do you actually be-gin as it really has been one dilemma after another?

Llambias’ five year spell at the foot-ball club has been tarnished through-out with some rather alarming events being placed upon his timeline, be it directly or indirectly, but ultimately connected to the man ‘affectionately known as ‘Dekka’ to the masses –

Ashley’s right hand man, Ashley’s puppet master supreme. And, irrespective of what went wrong at the football club over those five years, you can be all but assured that those behind the scenes were at fault, either in part or in full.

The past two years at the club though has been nothing but hell for those connected to the club. Granted Pardew has all but won over the fans, leading the Magpies back into Europe last season (2012-13) after finishing a respectable fifth the previous one. However, results last season show that those cracks, and the connection to those above him, burn deep.

Back in late 2011 the supporters were hit with Llambias’ verbal attacks on club legends, former players/managers Alan Shearer and Kevin Keegan stating that “Shearer was my choice and I have to hold up my hands – the wrong choice,” and “Kevin Keegan can’t take the pressure, his head is all over the place.” In all, blaming Shearer for the club’s fall from the Premiership in 2009 and this was coupled with news that crushed all in Newcastle; the hi-erarchy were to rename the stadium, effectively bringing to an end 119 years of history that had enveloped St. James’ Park. The sole response from the club when changing the name to the Sports Direct Arena was ‘done in order to generate revenue.’

There was the unceremonious sacking of Hughton in December 2010, eventually replaced with Pardew and which Llambias said, nearly two years later that “we had a different view of where we needed to be and what sort of character we needed to push this dressing room forward.

“That was the decision. It wasn’t a question of skill fits or somebody

doing a bad job. We needed to kick on. That’s what happened.

“Alan (Pardew) we felt, had all the ingredients for what we needed for us personally.”

A dressing room incidentally that Hughton more than had full control of, as well as the backing of the fans. A dressing room that was ripped apart by the sacking and eventual departures of star names during the 2011 transfer windows, star names such as the clubs number nine, Andy Carroll (January 2011 for £35 million), and midfield duo Kevin Nolan (June 2011) and Joey Barton (August 2011). Then, having replaced Carroll after an extended period proceeded to sell Demba Ba after he proved to be a success in front of the Gallowgate.

Now, with the addition of loan ‘giants’ Wonga investing in the club, murmuring of stadium name changes et al have again been ongoing since October last year. What happens there will though is anyone’s guess, fortunately though ‘Dekka’ no longer has a say in matters.

Upon his recent resignation from the club (June 2013), Llambias stated that “I have had an incredible jour-ney during my five years at the club, including some challenging times.

“I will reflect with great fondness on my time in the northeast and, in me, Newcastle United have a lifelong supporter. I want to thank the staff for their hard work, our fans for their support of the club, and wish them, all well for the future.”

Sure in the thought that the Toon Army will welcome ‘Dekka’ back into the fold with open arms anytime. Maybe in his dreams that is! For more by Peter Mann, visit his website www.pmannsportswriter.wordpress.com

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Before I go on, this isn’t a whinge saying how i’ve fallen out of love with NUFC. I very much love my club, our club, and I always will. But, to quote Sir Bobby, what is a club in any case? The noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. I feel a lot of these are on the wane for our once great club.

I’ve been considering over the past few weeks just what is wrong with football. It’s hard to put your finger on it.

The best way to start I reckon is to think ‘what made me like football in the first place?’ As a youngster who was born into a family where football was much of a non event (my dad had never been to a game and, bizarrly, my mum had only been to one game – an away game at Chelsea in the 70s I believe). I, like many kids in the 90s, got into football on the playground. The ‘jumpers for goalposts’, using ‘numbers’ to pick teams over school dinner, hoping for the best player in the school to be on your team type of game. Personally I was always the goalkeeper. I don’t know why I chose that position, but over a number of years I actually got decent there. Plus, I’m cack outfield.

The game grew on me, as you’d expect, because I enjoyed playing it. That got me into watching it. Unfor-tunately, just as I was really getting used to playing daily over lunchtime my folks upped sticks, I was taken out of John Vianney school and taken down to Kettering. At this age I wasn’t that much into NUFC as it’s more about the playground, so being a young Geordie lad down south isn’t easy and I suppose it could have

gone one of two ways when I moved there. It would either be I’d join the ranks of the local glory hunters, be-ing a Man U, Liverpool or Arsenal fan at the time, or I could be the polar opposite and, despite my young age, stick firmly to my roots. Thankfully (hmmm) I chose the latter. At this age it was firmly in the time where we were in the prime of Rob Lee, Beards-ley was in the twilight of his career, Sir Les was snapped up, Ginola and Barton came in. I went to a pre season friendly down there, Rushden and Diamonds vs NUFC, pretty sure we won 3-1 but if someone could confirm that it would be nice......

I was hooked. I looked at the New-castle side and even as a schoolboy I could tell we were ‘different’ to other clubs. We were special. The type of

football we played was like having 11 of the ‘best kid in the school’ playing for us. So fluid, exciting and entertaining. So Keegan. The noise from 36,610 inside SJP was deafen-ing, even as I listened to the 5-0 on the radio. There was a magic about NUFC and, dare I say it, football in general? Euro 96 had the nation all together as one and, as much as you hated them, you had a lot of respect for the other teams around us. So, all in all, the entertainment and the pride of where I was from, who I was, was what made me love football.

All summed up by Bobby’s quote. Even though I was an 8 year old kid living 200 miles from NE1, I was part of the club. A club that was built on the beliefs that its sole purpose was to entertain it’s adoring fans.

Fast forward 18 years and we’re unrecognisable. Often at work people tell me how much of a joke NUFC are and I will defend us to the hilt. “Who else would get 52k with no trophies for 50 years”, “i’ll think of you when I’m on my European tour’, ‘you’d dream of having players like Ben Arfa and Cabaye’. It’s an assumed duty to be defensive about your club. It’s the classic thing of we can slag them off, but if someone else does then we’ll defend them. The sad facts are that, save for a couple of magical years under Bobby and riding a crest of a wave under Pardew last year, we’ve been on the decline since 1996.

We’ve ‘expanded’ as a club, got a bigger stadium, more globally recognised. But IMO we’re a 10th of the club we were back then. The whole ethos of the club has changed. I

WHAT  IS  A  CLUB  IN  ANY  CASE?  THE  NOISE,  THE  PASSION,  THE  FEELING  OF  BELONGING,  THE  PRIDE  IN  YOUR  CITY.BOBBY  ROBSON

“

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42 43genuinely believe when we had Shepherd he wanted the team to do

well. Yes, he was a fucking idiot with his comments, decision making and crazy signings, but I think he wanted us to do well. He was just a buffoon who was steadily taking us down.

Ashley came in as the big geezer, splashing the cash on a load of big signings, and trying to be the hero by bringing in Keegan. I actually think that could have been a masterstroke. When Keegan came back he brought a buzz that hadn’t been here for years, and I think he could have taken us back to being a regular top 6 side, even without the money to spend. Keegan was special, and I honestly feel ashamed when some of our younger fans slate him. They don’t appreciate what he did for us in the 90s. It’s not their fault they don’t understand, but sometimes I find myself resenting them. How dare they slate him? The very man who gave us the opportunity to become something special.

It was a sad day when he left under such a cloud. My club and my hero at legal loggerheads was hard to take and that took a lot out of me that season, so half an eye was taken off relegation. It almost paled into insignificance for me. Football, for me, is about heroes. It’s about your Gazzas, Shearers, Bobby Lee’s, Bobby Robsons, and Keegans. Hell, even your Laurent Roberts, Ben Arfas and Nobby Solanos. It’s about grafting your arse off all week so that you have the cash to spend on going to be entertained. It’s not only about winning, if anyone supports NUFC because they want us to win trophies, then you’re supporting the wrong team. Winning games is great. But dont be fooled by the media bollocks of “we’d rather lose 4-3 than win 1-0’ because we wouldn’t. It’s bollocks.

I suppose that’s where I get round to today (We’ve just lost 1-2 at home to Reading). If we were given that choice of the 1-0 win i’d be delighted, but I want us to do it in the right way. I don’t want to be one nil up against fucking Reading and sub off our only two attacking midfielders and end up with FOUR defensive midfielders on the pitch to ‘see it out’ (granted we now know Cabaye was injured and we couldnt see it out). Jonas, Bigi, Perch and Anita all on at the same

time against one of the worst teams in the past 5 years of the PL. Bobby would shudder. Keegan probably is.

I don’t want this to turn into a Pardew bashing because his failings are obvious, so don’t need to be repeated. Similarly, Ashley’s are too. The saddest thing of all for me is the fact that money dominates all in football. It’s all about seeing games out now. 2-0 up and clubs shut up shop. If my club ever got to the lofty position of being 2-0 up i’d want us to stick 4, 5, 6 past the opposition. The thought of doing that is simply gone in modern football. Clubs see cups as not worth going for as they’re not financially viable. Personally I couldn’t give two hoots if the Europa League isn’t financially viable. If it takes 16 games against Scandanavian farmers in front of sub 20k crowds in the snow to win it, then so be it.

A lot of people say football sold its soul when Abramovich came to Chel-sea but I don’t buy that completely. For decades it’s largely been a case of he who has money does well. It’s just largely more highlighted now be-cause of the Sky era. The sad thing I think is that because of the complete vastness of his and the Man City’s wealth, it means we start a season

knowing that the best that 17 out of the 20 clubs can hope for is 4th place… a depressing situation.

It eliminates the skill of coaches and management, almost making it worthless. If Allardyce got his dream role at someone like Man U, they’d still more than likely end up in the top two. It’s sickening seeing people get paid millions to be very average and have very little input into work, when 10k people are being made redundant from Blockbuster, Comet, HMV, Jessops etc…

I’m waffling now so getting away from my original point, what is wrong with football? The answer would probably be ‘nothing’ if Abramovich had bought us, or even if we’d seen out a win against Reading today. But he didn’t and we didn’t.

There are significant issues at our football club both from boardroom level down to the pitch, but it’s noth-ing new. What is new to us, is we now have a club that’s sole purpose isn’t to entertain us. It’s to be profitable. We may benefit in this window with a couple of panic buys so we don’t miss out on the new TV deal, but ultimately it’s going to leave us with a constant feeling of a half full club. Keep the faith.

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KEEGAN  WAS  SPECIAL,  AND  I  HONESTLY  FEEL  ASHAMED  WHEN  SOME  OF  OUR  YOUNGER  FANS  SLATE  HIM.“

It’s a pretty fair observation to say that most Newcastle fans do not hold a lot of love for the summer transfer window. A period that holds so much promise and possibility for most teams usually ends in nothing but disappointment and frustration for us. In fairness, we have picked up the odd gem in recent years like Cabaye and Ba, but overall Mike Ashley’s relentless penny pinching has left most pretty pessimistic when it comes to the transfer windows these days.

With only Cisse and Shola as the only senior, recognised strikers currently at the club (at time of writing), we are woefully short of numbers up front. This summer we were hoping to see the club linked with a whole host of strikers and forwards, and to be fair we have, problem is, none have actually signed!

Loic Remy, Bafetimbi Gomis and Darren Bent have all been strongly linked, yet not have made it “over the line” as Alan Pardew frustratingly likes to say. Sadly, the main reason for the clubs failure to bring in a recognised striker this summer has largely been down to their own doing; namely Joe Kinnear.

After a relatively calm couple of years on Tyneside, Newcastle returned to their usual ways this summer by well and truly imploding in spectacular fashion once again. Nothing unusual for a Premier League club to suffer a tumultuous summer you may say, but this is Newcastle, and as we know only too well, what makes us so special is that time and time again, we do it to ourselves.

We all know that last season wasn’t great, we were poor all season long, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t quite the disaster

it could have been. We weren’t relegated, we still possess the nucleus of a half decent squad and by the start of June we were all set to put last year behind us and start a fresh this season. This clemency lasted about a week.

This horror show of a summer kicked off mid-June when Mike Ashley decided that a shakeup was needed. Out went Managing

Director Derek Llambias and in came Joe Kinnear. In his infinite wisdom Mike had decided that he needed his own ‘football’ man to be his eyes and ears at St James’ Park. A director of football was needed to keep Pards in check and ensure no one forgets who’s ultimately in charge. Whilst many fans would not have objected to

THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT

WORDS//JONATHAN ANDERSON

Transfers targets like Bafetimbi Gomis are still to make it over the line

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44 45a director of football being brought in to work alongside Pardew

after lasts years debacle, the choice of Mike’s drinking buddy ‘Mad Joe’ was greeted with disbelief and anger.

Six weeks into the job and Joe’s signed no one, embarrassed the whole city with a couple of ludicrous interviews, had a holiday (yup, a bloody holiday!!!) and even had his old mate Mick Harford turn down the chance to work alongside him. Things need to pick up for Joe and they need to pick up drastically, because be under no illusions, if the squad is not sufficiently strengthened by the time the window closes then the shit will well are truly hit the fan both on and off the field.

If all this JFK nonsense wasn’t bad enough, then came the potential loss of the clubs one decent striker. Unbelievably the Papiss Cisse/Wonga saga threatened to cause the end of the Senegalese striker’s spell on Tyneside. With the player refusing the wear the Wonga emblazoned shirt on religious grounds both parties were at a stand-off. The funny thing about this whole issue is that Cisse had

no issue with Virgin Money as a sponsor, and seemed to have no issue spending time gambling in Aspers! If he’s angling for a move and wants off then it’s better for all parties if he just came out and said it rather than spending the summer hiding behind his supposed moral code and stringing us all along.

Regardless of the player’s true motives and desires, the dust does now seem to have settled with Papiss backing down, however this is Newcastle and anything could still happen. If Cisse did end up leaving then we will then need three new forwards just to be competitive. Jesus, at the moment Joe can’t even sign one let alone three! For now all is quiet, but once again another potential shit storm looms at St James.

So on the back of all this, will Newcastle go into the new season a stronger unit than they were last? Well, it certainly doesn’t look like it. At the moment we’re three senior players down thanks to the departures of Danny Simpson, Steve Harper and scandalously James Perch.

Whilst all three might not have been world beaters, all were reliable, honest, British players who never let the club down and worth far more to the team than their financial value suggests. Like Graeme Souness’ ridiculous sale of Aaron Hughes for £1m in 2005, the sale of hard-working, utility man Perch is a transfer that is going to irritate me for years.

So as the new season approaches at an alarming rate, there is little doubt on Tyneside that this summer has been nothing short of a car crash for Newcastle. The only saving grace is that surely it can’t get much worse and that hopefully the striking reinforcements will soon be installed. Hang on, what am I saying, this is Newcastle, and Mike Ashley’s Newcastle at that, of course it can get worse, it usually does!!

Sadly, the best we as fans can hope for is that Cisse stays and that a couple of decent forwards are signed to help him out before Mike and Joe lead us all into the next self-inflicted, embarrassing farce of the Ashley era. And people say Newcastle fans are deluded…...

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THE  SALE  OF  HARD-WORKING,  UTILITY  MAN  PERCH  IS  A  TRANSFER  THAT  IS  GOING  TO  IRRITATE  ME  FOR  YEARS.“

NUFC  FANS  UNITEDMINUTES  FROM  THE  LABOUR  CLUB,  31ST  JULY  2013

INTRODUCTION  AND  WELCOMESteve Hastie gave a brief introduction, outlining the agenda which all attendees received copies of, before introducing Newcastle United’s Supporter Liaison Officer, Lee Marshall. Lee began by talking about some of the things that have been achieved by the Club working in partnership with Fans United. These include the return of the Gates to St James’ Park and Steve Harper’s 20 Years Charity Match.

NEWCASTLE  UNITED  FANS’  FORUMLee provided information on the Fans Forum recently announced by the club. He stated that much of the format and views have been shaped following meeting and talking to fans and fan groups. The club want to establish a robust structure for the forum so that it will stand up to scrutiny. They have worked to do this by working in consultation with the Football Supporters Federation who have provided feedback and constructive criticism to the club. They have also looked at examples from other clubs where forums are already operating. The forum will contain 15 fans. Three of these will be held permanently by established fans groups, NUFC Fans United, Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) and Newcastle United Disabled Supporters Association (NUSDA).

The 12 remaining fan seats are open to all Newcastle United fans to apply and they will represent different segments of the clubs fans base. These will include season ticket holders in the Milburn, East,

Gallowgate and Leazes stands, an Away Season Ticket Holder, A Long Distance Traveller (attending at least five home games a season), a Young Person’s representative (under 21), an over 65s representative, a supporters club seat (for the secretary or chair of any supporters club containing a minimum of 20 members), a Black and White member (non season ticket holder), a corporate member and an equality representative. Two board members, John Irving and Lee Charnley will also sit on the panel, along with the club’s heads of safety, security, ticketing and media. The Newcastle United Foundation and Wonga will also be represented. Lee stated that the forum will meet for the first time in September. Lee stated that the introduction of the fans forum does not signal the end of him attending Fans United meetings and that the club will continue to attend. When questioned about how non-ST holders can be represented by the Fans Forum, Lee explained that that was why the Trust, Fans United and NUDSA have permanent seats on the Forum. We can act as funnels, gathering views and opinion from fans and non-ST holders and feed that back to the Forum. People were concerned that the Fans Forum is just a UEFA box ticking exercise as UEFA have a directive about improving supporter engagement with Clubs and the Supporter Liaison Officer (in NUFC’s case Lee Marshall) is a UEFA mandated position. Lee accepted this, but went on to explain that although the SLO is a UEFA mandate; the Fans Forum is not. The Fans Forum has been set up to give fans a line of communication with the boardroom, and two senior directors will sit

on the Fans Forum when it meets quarterly. People were also dismayed that Mike Ashley will not be in attendance and once again the question of why he does not address the fans, talk to the fans or explain his plans and motives for the Club to the fans was raised. It was suggested from the floor that Mr Ashley writes the programme notes occasionally as this would provide him with his own unedited platform to tell fans what is happening. Malcolm Dix, Steve Wraith and Ian Cusack all said at various points that the Forum is great progress, coming from a regime that has had such a poor relationship with the fans; and that it should be given a chance to see what it can achieve.

YOU  TUBELinking in with Lee’s information about the Fans Forum, Steve confirmed that Fans United will use our seat on the panel to pass on queries, comments and issued that have been raised by fans through ourselves. In addition to being able to do this via the meetings, social media, website and emails, Steve also announced that Fans United intend to create a You Tube account. This will allow fans to send video comments which will be uploaded to the Fans United website and can be viewed by other fans.

GATESBoth Lee and Steve updated the meeting on the progress of ‘the Gates’. They are currently undergoing restoration which is nearing completion. They are set to be installed on Friday August 23, the day before the first home game of

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46the season against West Ham. There will be an installation ceremony on

the day of the game itself.

TICKETING  ISSUESIssues concerning away ticket allocations have been raised with the club previously through a number of sources including Fans United. The club has not always taken full allocations due to clubs having to reimburse the home club for unsold tickets. The club has pressed the Premier League to change this ruling and has obtained support from a number of other clubs. This has resulted in the Premier League changing the allocation rules to allow away clubs to take up the full allocation without being charged for unsold allocations, which is at present being ratified. A number of ticketing issues from the floor were raised with Lee, in particular problems experienced as to how tickets are linked (with regards to applying for away games with friends/family members), and also the fact that though season ticket prices are frozen the compulsory membership fees are still rising year on year. These are issues that Lee will feed back to the club on.

STEWARDING  

Questions were raised with Lee regarding the possibility of allowing fans to bring in flags, banners and surfers. It was noted that on occasions the club and or sponsors have had large scale banners and surfers in the ground, yet fans have not been allowed to bring their own on the grounds of health and safety. Lee agreed that if this is the case, it needs to be looked at. He stated that fans wishing to bring flags and banners should contact the club, to meet with the security team for advice. It was raised from the floor that fans had already done that were

generally fobbed off with health and safety commonly being used as an excuse. Lee invited any fans who would like to work with him on this issue to contact him. After a point raised from the floor, re flares and smoke bombs, Lee explained that prior to the Man City game all away fans were not routinely searched on entering SJP. Following the flare incident at that game, NUFC changed their policy and ALL away fans are routinely searched. Steve Hastie added that it might seem hypocritical to outsiders that we complain about away fans bringing flares into the ground when our away support routinely let off flares and smoke bombs during our Europa Cup campaign. Wendy Taylor (NUFC Head of Media) confirmed that NUFC were fined heavily for both flares and streakers by UEFA last season. Points from Twitter included “why is the stewarding in the Strawberry Corner so aggressive and OTT?” and “even after Man City, flares are still a problem at SJP”

SINGING  SECTIONCalls for the return of a singing section have been brought up with Lee previously and the issue continues to be brought up with Fans United. Lee was asked if he had any further progress on the issue. Lee has fed this back to the club and the matter is being discussed within the club, though he does not have any specific updates or information at this time. NUFC Fans United will continue to press the Club on this matter. The consensus from Twitter was if the singing section is to be reinstated can it be located in The Strawberry Corner.

JOE  HARVEYSteve talked about the recent Joe Harvey tribute night.. The organisers have raised £10,000 for a plaque which will be installed at St James’ Park. NUFC Fans United extent their congratulations to the Fairs Club for their sterling work in ensuring that the Joe Harvey Memorial Plaque will be installed.

NUMBER  9  PLATFORMA new online fanzine, The Number 9 launches in August and hopes to become a platform to promote various NUFC related angles online. The fanzine and Fans United hope to establish a regular #NUFCHour on Twitter to help in this.

ANY  OTHER  BUSINESSLee was asked if there was an update on the issue of the club providing/running its own travel club for away games. No update as yet. It was also suggested that the club set up regular ‘Footballers Dinners’ events at St James’ to allow fans and players to engage with one another.

WENDY  TAYLORAt the end of the evening Wendy Taylor stood up and explained that although she and Lee might appear to be relatively junior members of staff, they do work at the Club and there aren’t “twenty layers of management” between themselves and Mike Ashley. She meets Mr Ashley “every few weeks” and feeds back what she hears from the fans; “he does get the message”. The meeting took place on the fourth anniversary of Sir Bobby Robson’s death. It was suggested that in the future a regular pre-season tournament could be established involving Sir Bobby’s previous clubs. This suggestion proved to be popular with those in attendance. The meeting ended with a minute’s applause in memory of Sir Bobby.To find out more about NUFC Fans United then log onto these pages:Website: http://www.nufcfansutd.com

FACEBOOK:  HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/GROUPS/NUFCFANSUTD/TWITTER:  @NUFCFANSUTDEMAIL:  NUFCFANSUTD@GMAIL.COM

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