ISSUE 137
MARCH 2018
17/18
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E-MAIL: editor@true-faith.co.uk WEBSITE: www.true-faith.co.uk EDITOR: Alex Hurst DEPUTY EDITOR: Norman Riley FOUNDED BY: Michael Martin PHOTOGRAPHY: Matt Flynn, Colin Ferguson & Carl Haynes COPYRIGHT: All items(c) true faith. Not to be reproduced without the prior permission of true faith. STATEMENT: This is NOT an official product of Newcastle United FC. NOTICE: All views expressed are the views of the author and do not always represent the views
Editorial......................................................... pg4
Dad, NUFC and Me............................... pg48
of true faith.
A-Z.................................................................. pg6
London Calling........................................ pg52
CONTRIBUTIONS: All
Mike Ashley the story so far............. pg10
contributions to true
Big Slim...................................................... pg18
Book Review: Hillsborough Voices.............................. pg56
My Favourite Match............................. pg20
A Way of Life........................................... pg58
My Identity............................................... pg22
Geordies here, Geordies there.......... pg60
articles, photos etc.
Football in the Kingdom..................... pg24
Postcards from the edge..................... pg66
NEVER FORGOTTEN:
In the Firing Line.................................... pg26
60 second season.................................. pg68
They’re All as Bad as Each Other.... pg28
Come Said Mr Bumble......................... pg70
Suhas - India NUFC Fan...................... pg32 Deep Sleep................................................ pg36
Drums and Wires: Film Reviews............................................ pg72
SUBMISSIONS
State of the Game................................. pg38
true faith Press Forum......................... pg76
/MAR/18 .
Projeto Tóquio......................................... pg42
The End...................................................... pg80
© true faith.
www.true-faith.co.uk
faith are welcomed, encouraged and considered for publication - letters,
L.J. & M. Martin. NEXT ISSUE: TF 137. OUT: /APR/18 .
FOR NEXT ISSUE:
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editorial
Welcome to tf 137. It’s a good job there’s another bumper edition of true faith for you this month. United don’t play for three weeks so there will be much required to occupy the mind, particularly if we don’t take maximum points from Southampton and Huddersfield at home. By 17.00 on the 31st of March we should be much clearer about what the future holds for the manager, the owner and the football club. It’s been a funny old season. The chronic lack of investment in the summer didn’t seem to matter as we sat 5th in the league after beating Crystal Palace. The fanbase started to get excited, if remaining grounded and Rafa briefed journalists about a dip tf 4
ahead. What a dip and what an autumn. No wins in nine. Not much to shout about. The worst result of the season remains losing at home to an Everton side that hadn’t won away from home at the time and haven’t since. The post struck twice and Darlow gifting them all three – on such events relegations are sealed. Since the winter we’ve been better. Drawing plenty, winning occasionally and losing only to those sides that occupy the very top of the league. At the time of writing United have only spent two weeks in the bottom three this season. That’s a stat that should give us hope. There have consistently been a number of sides much worse than us this
tf 137 March 2018 editor@true-faith.co.uk
season and that shouldn’t change. United have been playing well and gone back to defending resolutely. The last team to score two at St James’ was Leicester back on the 9th of December. You’re always in with a chance if a goal secures at least a point. There’s been much debate between mags about the value of ‘points’. I think it’s a little naïve pointing to every draw and demanding that those solitary points be turned into three. We could have lost the games against Brighton, Swansea and Palace and we’d currently be in the relegation zone. United should have seen out the win at Bournemouth and won convincingly. It won’t be until the end of the season that we know the
@tfnufcfanzine
Since the winter we’ve been better. Drawing plenty, winning occasionally and losing only to those sides that occupy the very top of the league.
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true merit of every result. One thing that we do know for sure is that Alexander Mitrvoic has been poor in a United shirt for the last two seasons. That he and Adam Armstrong are doing well on loan is superb for the club, even better for them. That Mitrovic is doing really well in a free scoring Fulham side is crucial to him and his country. It’s good for United as he should come back refreshed and full of confidence next season, or fetch a higher fee. I have to confess that the worshipping of the Serb by sections of the support is nauseating. That Dwight Gayle and Matt Ritchie received a fraction of the acclaim of Mitrovic, despite what they’ve done for United in the last 18 months, is bizarre. The day Mitrovic got his first Fulham goal, his cheerleaders forgot that another of United’s strikers had scored two goals in the Premier League, at Bournemouth. Having a good song, a bit of talent and a penchant for harming other footballers seems to go a long way with some people. I’m sure the majority of mags just want players who can follow the manager’s instructions and runs about a bit outside the box. Mitrovic has talent, but so does every other £15m player. He’s
starting to finally show it and getting all of the praise in the world. I’ll stick to getting excited about the lads in black and white stripes, you know, the ones that are playing for Newcastle. In this issue of true faith we’ve got some belting contributions from around the Newcastle United supporting world (otherwise known as ‘The World’). We hope you enjoy it. True faith now brings you this fanzine, podcasts, video blogs, match day newsletters, live events and much more. It’s all worth it for this mad, badly-run football club we call United. It was good to see mags travel to the SOS this month for the away U23 derby. It was less positive to see some knacker kids attach themselves to what was doubtless a well-
intentioned band of mags and then try and deface the opposition’s stadium. Fools. Speaking of our neighbours, we best stay out of any gloating until our own future is secure. That doesn’t mean that each passing defeat in front of about 18,000 people (the attendances are made up to make themselves feel better about stuff) isn’t hugely welcome and entertaining. Their beleaguered yet popular manager is now doing as a bad a job as the last one who they demanded be sacked. Funny that. Back to the real stuff and this is a massive month for Newcastle United. The ‘winnable’ home games just need to be won and that would probably be enough alone. This is us, though. It’s never simple and it never goes to plan. We all need to be onside
at home. If you want to moan to the people around you because the ball didn’t move quickly enough, boo because you have not been satisfied or scream abuse at our own lads – please stick your head in the sand for an afternoon and stay away from St James’ Park. For the rest of us, expect plea’s from the manager for support. This would be the worst relegation for me as it simply doesn’t feel like a relegation season. We’ve hardly been in the relegation zone and there have always been loads of worse teams below us. We’ve only really had a stinker against Watford as there has been plenty of graft if little quality at times. There’s no such thing as an undeserved relegation I’m afraid. Ten games to go at the time of writing and we should be good for at least ten points. I’m still backing Rafa and the lads to do the business. Alex Hurst Editor FOLLOW @tfalex1892
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FEBRUARY - MARCH
A l ge r i a n s . We’ve never had one play for the club before. Looks like that’s going to change very shortly (if it hasn’t already by the time you’re reading this). Welcome Islam Slimani. tf 6
Burnley. A missed penalty, a 1-0 lead, a late equaliser conceded and all on a deadline day which by the fulltime whistle still hadn’t finished. A stressful day all in all but one in hindsight that could’ve been a lot worse.
NORMAN RILEY @LIKETHEGOAT
Contract. A new one for Paul Dummett. A lad playing for the club he loves, proving many wrong by becoming an integral part of Rafa’s NUFC. Great news and well deserved. Dubravka. What a stunning debut from www.true-faith.co.uk
our on-loan Slovakian custodian. Not just the saves but the way he commanded his box and back four. Never played in England before. Debut versus Man Utd. Clean sheet. Very, very impressive. Endeavour. Another month in which the players have grafted harder than any set of players I’ve seen in my lifetime watching the Club. There’s never anything less than 100% and it will see us right at the end of the season. FA Cup. Miserable draw. Miserable day. However, given the season we’ve had so far, and what the ultimate aim is, the cliché of us now being able to concentrate on the league is bang on this season. Glee. One of the many words that can be used to describe the sheer and utterly unadulterated joy felt by every single person connected with NUFC as the final whistle blew at the end of the Man Utd match. Home gains. A first league win at home since the back end of October. Home form will be vital between now and the end of the season with HUGE games coming up against Huddersfield, West Brom www.true-faith.co.uk
and Southampton. Howay. Istanbul. Bristanbul. See what they did there? Exactly the same level of achievement. Jacob Murphy’s first NUFC goal was a real beauty away to Man City. This kid has real come on since the early part of the season. Growing in confidence and ability. Kenedy. Rafa got his man at last and he has been superb so far. So much raw talent there and already making a difference. The kind of player who gets the crowd buzzing every time the ball is at his feet. LOUD. Saint James’ Park was the loudest it has been all season during the match against Mourinho’s boys. And oh boy did it help the lads on the pitch. It’s what Rafa asks for. When it happens, it’s magical.
out. Mitrovic has gone to Fulham and at least that’s one debate amogst fans (temporarily?) put to bed. It’s an opportunity for him to show what he can do. Let’s hope he takes it. Pogba. Man Utd man mullered by the mighty Magpies magical midfield muscle. Quality. See above. Mo Diamé has been A B S O L U T E L Y SENSATIONAL since West Ham away. Rafa’s talking. Magic Mo’s listening. Wow. Ritchie. Magic stuff from Matt versus the Red Devils. An excellent finish from a superb build-up for his first goal of the season. The goal was the icing on the cake for what was a performance of pure grit and determination.
Nine games and only two defeats. Both against Man City. 13 points collected. 13 points from our next 9 games would give us 41 points with 2 games left to play. BELIEVE.
Shelvey. J o n j o ’s performance wasn’t only his best in an NUFC shirt it was one of the best performances you’re likely to see by any midfielder this season in the Prem. Pitch perfect passing combined with controlled aggression made for the almost complete display. Only a brilliant stop from De Gea denying him a deserved goal. Keep it up, please.
On loan. 3 in but 1 big one
Taxis. Pards so out of his
Mike Ashley. Tr a n s f e r window. three loan signings. No money spent. Nowt else to be said.
Magic stuff from Matt versus the Red Devils. An excellent finish from a superb build-up for his first goal of the season.
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depth in the relegation battle with WBA that his own players aren’t just calling him a taxi. They’re driving it for him. Up n under. Burnley that. They’re in the third season in the Prem and they’ll survive this season. However, if there’s one thing their performance against us and their results since the start of 2018 have shown us is that Dyche is the next generation’s Pulis and Allardyce. Grim. VAR. Divisive and with the potential to be hilarious (witness the Spurs penalty
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decision versus Liverpool). However, could’ve done with it against Man Utd. Another CLEAR penalty not being awarded. Gayle would LITERALLY have to be mutilated to get a pen. Worrying . Our neighbours on Wearside are still in the bottom 3 as this article goes to print. We’re almost in March. Awful stuff. Xavi in his prime wouldn’t get a game in the centre of the park for NUFC at present. Probably. You’ll never walk alone.
Rafa returning to Anfield is always an emotional occasion and Liverpool is always a great city to visit and have a drink in. A result similar to the last time Rafa took his side there would be some achievement. Zone. The Club went into the relegation zone for a couple of hours after Huddersfield’s victory over Bournemouth. We’ve got Islam and Mohammed, Christian and Jesus. Even if religion isn’t your thing, pray it doesn’t happen again between now and the end of the season (it won’t).
Xavi in his prime wouldn’t get a game in the centre of the park for NUFC at present. Probably.
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2007 - 08 15th June. Ashley completes takeover of Newcastle United paying c£134 million to buy the club. Whilst the club is in a precarious financial position, Ashley is not ‘saving’ the club from administration as often cited by his apologists. He is no knight in shining armour. Indeed, Freddie Shepherd does not want to sell the club, it’s Sir John Hall who pushes the deal through. 30th June. Shepherd’s plans to expand the stadium to
more than 60,000 capacity (as well as building two hotels, a conference centre, apartments and offices at the Gallowgate) are shelved by Ashley. Newcastle has the third biggest stadium in England. After ten years of Ashley they will drop to the 6th biggest and see their match day income fall by 26% over that period.
holders after a “change of ownership” clause is invoked in the financing agreement. To finance this repayment and bring the club’s overdraft limit within agreed limits, Ashley loans the club £100m taking his total investment in the club to about £234m. Tough. He should have been aware. He bought the club “as seen”.
26th September. Ashley has purportedly failed to undertake financial due diligence and isn’t aware that the club must pay £45m to loan note
9th January. After a poor run of results (including Derby taking a third of their points total for the season from Unitd), Ashley sacks Sam Allardyce. He is paid
MIKE ASHLEY THE STORY SO FAR! ANDREW TROBE @tfAT1892
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£4m compensation by the club and builds a villa, “Casa St James” in Spain, with the pay-off. Ashley later admits “he probably rushed in too early”. After Harry Redknapp turns the job down, Kevin Keegan returns for his 2nd spell in charge. 29th January. Dennis Wise is appointed as Executive Director of Football alongside Tony Jimenez as Vice President of Player Recruitment and Jeff Vetere as Technical Co-ordinator as Ashley tries to impose a European managerial structure at the club, a decision which was to have disastrous later consequences. 2008 - 09 29th August. James Milner sold to Aston Villa for £12m against Keegan’s wishes. 1st September. Keegan has lined up Luca Modric and Jaap Stam to sign for Newcastle. Jiminez doesn’t www.true-faith.co.uk
think that Modric is good enough and pulls the deal. Instead Newcastle sign Nacho Gonzales (on loan) from Valencia and Xisco from Deportivo. It later emerges that Keegan is expected to sanction the signings on the basis of You-tube videos and the loan deal with Gonzales was a favour to two South American agents. He costs the Club nearly £1m in wages despite not making a single first team appearance. 4th September. Kevin Keegan resigns amidst huge supporter discontent. 14th September. Ashley releases a lengthy 1,644 word statement announcing that he wants to sell United. He’s rumoured to have snubbed a £200m bid for the club from Dubai-based Zabeel Investments, instead demanding £481m. 26th September. Four years after his last managerial
position and ten years after managing in the top flight, to the astonishment of the football world, Ashley appoints Joe Kinnear as interim manager. In his first public interview, Kinnear verbally abuses several national journalists, notably Simon Bird, swearing 52 times. The club’s then inept Head of Media, pleads with the press to treat the outburst as off the record. There are howls of incredulous laughter from the assembled throng. Shay Given writes in his autobiography some years later about how deflated the dressing room was at the appointment. 28th December. The sale of the club is called off by Ashley.
Four years after his last managerial position and ten years after managing in the top flight, to the astonishment of the football world, Ashley appoints Joe Kinnear as interim manage
2nd February. Despite the club’s relegation battle, Shay Given and Charles N’Zogbia (or Charles ‘Insomnia’ when Joe Kinnear’s around) are sold. tf 11
13th February. Joe Kinnear undergoes a triple heart bypass operation. Alan Shearer is appointed temporary manager to fill in for Joe Kinnear until the end of the season. Dennis Wise resigns from his post as Executive Director following Shearer’s appointment. 24th May. United relegated to the Championship following a run of only one win in 8 games culminating with a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa. 30th May. About 150 full and part-time employees of the club are paid off due to the relegation. This is the first of huge job losses that Ashley inflicts on the club. Staff numbers later drop to 258 in 2016 from a peak of 1,354 in 2006. 1,094 job losses lost in ten years. 8th June. The club is officially put up for sale, again, for £100m confirmed through a club statement. 2009-10 28th July. Singaporebased, Profitable Group, tf 12
having expressed an interest in buying the club. They later withdraw their interest, citing “a lack of communication and response” from Mike Ashley. 8th August. Newcastle go into the first match of the season having failed to make a single signing, a caretaker manager, without a recognised right back at the club and with Nile Ranger as their only fit striker. They have sold players for a total of £25.5m. It later transpires that the club valued Andy Carroll at £1.5m and had they received a bid for that amount, he would have been sold. 2nd October. Former manager Kevin Keegan is awarded £2 million damages by an employment tribunal for constructive dismissal. The Tribunal condemns the club for lying in public statements about Keegan’s role and that signings were imposed on him in direct contravention of assurances given.
29th October. Mike Ashley rejects £80m bid from Barry Moat and announces that he has taken the club off the market. 3rd November. Ashley rips up over 100 years of history and announces that the club will rename St James’ Park as sportsdirect. com@stJames’park until the end of the season. The announcement is met with universal derision, graffiti at the ground and even a Commons motion in Parliament in protest at the decision.
Former manager Kevin Keegan is awarded £2 million damages by an employment tribunal for constructive dismissal.
2010 – 11 6th August. Newcastle go into the first game at Old Trafford having spent a total of £1m on transfers (James Perch). The transfer window closes with only Cheick Tiote (£3.5m) and Hatem Ben Arfa (on loan) added. 10th September. The Newcastle United Supporters Trust is banned without any written explanation from the Fans Forum. The club will spend
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eight years declining to answer correspondence and alternatively denying it has received letters from NUST, even though they were hand delivered to club officials. The Fans Forum will afford Lee Charnley the platform to explain to those present that, not in so many words, Newcastle United will not compete in Cup competitions and nor is it particularly interested in qualifying for the Europa League as it is not financially attractive and may threaten the club’s ability to preserve its PL status. He does not add by spending as little as possible but you knew that already. 6th December. Despite leading the club back to the Premier League on a shoestring budget, defeating the likes of Arsenal at The Emirates, Ashley sacks Chris Hughton to the dismay of United supporters and football fans generally. 9th December. Despite being sacked by his previous
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three clubs, Alan Pardew is appointed as the new manager of Newcastle. Sky Sports reported that of 40,000 fans taking part in a poll on who should become the next manager, Pardew only received the backing of 5.5% of voters. 28 January. Alan Pardew states categorically, Andy Carroll will not be sold. 31st January. Newcastle sell Andy Carroll for £35m after Ashley flies the player in his helicopter to Liverpool to ensure that the deal is done. But on the plus side, they do sign Finnish striker Shefki Kuqi until the end of the season. Up to this date, Newcastle have made a surplus on transfers under Ashley of £43.3m. 2011-12 10th November. Ashley announces that the stadium would officially be renamed Sports Direct Arena, as a temporary measure to “showcase the sponsorship opportunity to interested parties”, whilst looking
for a sponsor for possible future stadium re-branding. According to the club, the St James’ Park title was dropped as not being “commercially attractive”. Ashley later admits “I should not have changed the name of St James’ Park. I should not have done that”. But you fucking did, didn’t you? Club Managing Director, Derek Llambias will enter the office of the City Council Leader, Nick Forbes warning him to keep his nose out of Newcastle United’s fucking business. Or words to that effect. Newcastle Central MP whose constituency covers SJP invites Ashley to visit her for tea at the House of Commons. She receives a letter from Derek Llambias instructing her not to bother Mike Ashley again. 2012-13 9th October. Pay day loan company Wonga agree a deal to sponsor the Magpies from the 2013–14 season. The APR on the shortterm loans company is a staggering 4,214%. Nick
Ashley later admits “I should not have changed the name of St James’ Park. I should not have done that”. But you f***ing did, didn’t you?
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Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council, adds that the deal represented a profit at any price culture at the club and warned of the possible social consequences. “I’m appalled and sickened that they would sign a deal with a legal loan shark,” he fumed. 19th October. Fan group Time 4 Change march through the streets of Newcastle to protest about the club’s perceived “lack of ambition”. The Chronicle reports on this with a front page splash and coverage online. 2nd November. Newcastle United bans the Evening Chronicle from St James’ in response to what they perceive as disproportionate negative coverage and their refusal to call the ground “the Sports Direct Arena”. 1st May. United’s battle with an unsympathetic press continues when they ban the Daily Telegraph tf 14
from covering matches at St James’ after they report a split in the dressing room. Ashley later tries to charge the media for “exclusive” access to the club and its players with the offer of a series of packages offering interviews for a fee. 2013-14 16th June. Despite his previous disastrous spell at the club, Ex-manager Joe Kinnear is appointed director of football to widespread derision from Newcastle United fans. Kinnear gives a car crash interview with Talksport making unsubstantiated claims and mispronouncing several names (Yohan Kebab and Derek Lambizee!) and sounds inebriated. 13th November. Kinnear announces a grand plan to invest heavily in the club’s training and youth academy at Darsley Park. There are plans revealed to the media but to date no such
investment has been made. 29th January. Cabaye is sold to Paris Saint-Germain for £19 million. In the seven seasons that Ashley has owned the club, Newcastle United has generated a surplus on transfers of £37.4m. 3rd February. Kinnear resigns after less than eight months in the role. Despite having responsibility for recruiting players, United has not made a single permanent signing during his duration as Director of Football.
Despite his previous disastrous spell at the club, Ex-manager Joe Kinnear is appointed director of football to widespread derision from Newcastle United fans
2014/15 26th January. John Carver is appointed as head coach until the end of 2014–15 season after Ashley allows Pardew to leave for Crystal Palace. 24th May. After having won his case against Newcastle United under Disability legislation for having been discriminated against, Jonas www.true-faith.co.uk
Guitteraz scores one of the goals against West Ham in a 2-0 win that confirms United’s PL status. Jonas has won his fight against testicular cancer but some of the details of the case cause disgust amongst supporters after it is revealed how poorly treated he was by United and there are questions again as to the integrity of Alan Pardew and Lee Charnley who gave evidence in court. Jonas’ mother describes her son as being treated like a dog. During the duration of his illness and recovery, no-one from United contacts him to inquire as to his health. 16th june. NUST reveals that the lease on the land on Strawberry Place previously owned by a subsidiary company of Newcastle United has been transferred
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without any fee to a company owned entirely owned by Mike Ashley. The land occupies space to the rear of the Gallowgate End which is the only practical part of SJP that could be expanded. Ashley will later win planning permission for a hotel, office, leisure and student accommodation though to date no work has yet to be initiated. 2015/16 10th June. John Carver is sacked after managing only 3 wins in 20 league and cup games and narrowly avoiding relegation. Steve McClaren is appointed the club’s new head coach on a three-year deal. McClaren’s pedigree prior to being offered the job is a sacking at Wolfsberg (2011), resignation at
Nottingham Forest (after securing only 8 points from his first 10 games in charge), resignation from Twente after a disappointing return (2013) and a further sacking by Derby (2015). Despite this disastrous record, Ashley opens the purse strings for the first time since taking over and entrusts McClaren with over £70m of transfer funds. Ashley and John Irving both step down from the Board of Directors. 11th March. Steve McClaren is sacked after predictably leading the club into a relegation battle. 11th May. Newcastle United is relegated to the Championship , the 2nd relegation in 8 years. In the 115 years prior to Ashley taking over, the club had
Steve McClaren is sacked after predictably leading the club into a relegation battle.
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only been relegated 4 times. 2016/17 31st August. Newcastle makes a £30m profit on transfers. Over the ten years that Ashley has owned the club, net spend is £22m or £2.2m a season. During this time, TV money has amounted to nearly half a billion pounds. 5th October. Operation Loom sees a dawn raid by HMRC on St James’ Park as part of a £5m tax investigation involving Premier League and French clubs. The papers show HMRC investigators suspect Newcastle of involvement in an elaborate scheme to evade income tax, VAT and national insurance. 2017-18 4th July. Having presented a detailed and comprehensive business plan to Ashley
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during a face-to-face meeting in May, Benitez was led to believe he would be allowed to follow it. Of Benitez’s first-choice targets, only Florian Lejeune arrives. 18th July. So-called superscout Graham Carr officially leave the club before the end of his seven year contract. Rafa Benitez has control of all in-coming and out-going transfers. Don’t laugh. 16th October. Ashley officially puts Newcastle up for sale. Again. Ashley says he wants the club sold by Christmas and is prepared to defer payments to see the sale through. Amanda Staveley is rumoured to be heading up a bid from PCP Partners. Ashley’s apparent enthusiasm for a deal includes him stating publicly he will accept staged payments. At no
time does he mention deferring any sale until the new TV deal is known but fast forward to January and that appears to be the case. 16th January. Amidst claims and counter claims, Mike Ashley ends takeover speculation with Amanda Staveley stating the talks were “exhausting, frustrating and a complete waste of time”. 31st January. Whilst Staveley spoke of huge team investment to be made available for Benitez, another transfer window under Ashley’s ownership passes without a single permanent incoming deal. In the 3 years since 2015, every Premier League club has broken their transfer record. Except Newcastle United whose transfer record is unbeaten in 13 years since 2005.
another transfer window under Ashley’s ownership passes without a single permanent incoming deal. In the 3 years since 2015, every Premier League club has broken their transfer record. Except Newcastle United
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Islam Slimani signed on-loan for Rafa’s Mags during the January transfer window and, whilst he arrived at the death once it became blindingly obvious the Jorgensen deal wasn’t happening, I got a little bit excited.
Slimani, as I’m almost certain will be the case for many others, first came to my attention in that frankly brilliant Algeria side that played at the World Cup in Brazil 2014. The Desert Foxes were drawn in a tough group alongside Belgium (one of the outside tips for possible tournament winners), Russia and perennial World Cup workhorses South Korea. Not an easy group by any stretch of the imagination but certainly not on that Algeria were favourites to qualify from. I planned on watching all their games as they were the side I got in the sweepstake at work! After losing their opening game against Belgium in a very unlucky 2-1 defeat, they then proceeded to batter South Korea 4-2 and draw 1-1 against Russia. Our new man scored in both of these games and I remember thinking tf 18
that Slimani, Feghouli and Brahimi were superb. Players with, between them, pace, power, flair and determination. Qualities clearly absent from Roy Hodgson’s miserable England side during the competition. I was most definitely urging the Algerians on in the last 16 match against Germany. That’s not from any particular dislike of Germany, it’s just by this point I’d taken to Algeria and obviously still harboured dreams of that gigantic £64 sweepstake prize. Lifechanging amounts of cash. They took they eventual champions to extra time and conceded 2 goals in extra time, one right at the death from Özil before pulling a goal back in extratime injury time. They still had a chance to equalise after that but it wasn’t to be. However, they’d most certainly done themselves proud and a part of me was hoping Graeme Carr had www.true-faith.co.uk
cast his eyes over a few of their lads, most plying their trades in Spain, Portugal and France. It wasn’t to be and I remember feeling a pang of jealousy when West Ham signed Feghouli and Leicester paid £28 million for Islam. I thought they’d both tear it up but it obviously wasn’t to be. Feghouli neither suited to the English game nor really getting much guidance from football management’s equivalent to a “Life Coach”, Slaven Bilic, and Slimani failing to dislodge Vardy and Okazaki and then not really being fancied by Shakespeare or Puel, neither of whom had signed him. The Leicester style of Ranieri and Shakespeare definitely weren’t suited to his game. He’ll suit Rafa’s game at NUFC – no disrespect to Joselu who grafts, put tackles in and wins headers. Slimani can do all that, but better and with goals added. However, should he recover from his injury sufficiently, I’m hugely optimistic about his prospects at NUFC. Let’s just look at the raw data! 6ft 2in and built like a tank. Powerful with an obvious eye for a goal and superb in the air. His record at Sporting Lisboa is excellent with 51 goals in 96 games including strikes in European Competition. His record in Algeria is very decent with a goal every other game. Now, I’ve no idea about the standard of the Algerian game but that seems irrelevant now given www.true-faith.co.uk
his obvious pedigree being proven in Portugal. Even his record at Leicester, given how sporadically he was used, is decent. He’s got 12 in 44 appearances but many of those appearances have been as a substitute. He has a very impressive scoring record for Algeria and yes, I know Mitro scores loads for Serbia (he hasn’t) and some of the opposition he’ll have scored against in the AFCON qualifiers is probably abysmal, but he has those World Cup goals! Let’s throw the other big factor in to the mix as well – Rafa Benitez and his coaching staff. I’ve no doubt he’ll be nurtured, coached, given specific instructions and shown how to make himself better. If he does what’s asked of him by Rafa and his team then he will be a success. He’s taken Mitro’s place in the squad and it would be easy to think of them as like for like. This won’t be the case. If Rafa didn’t trust this lad then there’s no way he’d
have gone for him. This is a £28 million-pound player who has scored in a World Cup finals. If he’s fit and given a chance he’ll be an asset. His prowess in the air, his ability to shield the ball and bring others into play and his strength at holding the ball up will be hugely beneficial. Additionally, he’s the type of player who will, if we find ourselves in the last 10 minutes with a onegoal lead, be able to stand firm in the corners of the opposition’s half, shielding the ball and killing time by winning throw-ins, corners and free-kicks. He’s a hugely popular figure at his former club in Algeria, CR Belouizdad, and there were rumours that Sporting tried to get him back during the transfer window. If he proves half as popular here during his short spell at the club, if he helps to keep us in the Premier League, then he’ll do for me. Welcome to NE1 Islam Slimani.
just look at the raw data! 6ft 2in and built like a tank. Powerful with an obvious eye for a goal and superb in the air.
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When asked to think about my best day following NUFC I tried to be creative. I thought about the abstract ways in which they’ve impacted my life in the positive, but I could not get past the 4-4 draw with Arsenal in 2011. It could be simply that the anniversary was recently, but honestly, I’d say it’s because it’s the first match I’ve ever been to where, CHARLOTTE at half time, I truly thought we had no chance, only ROBSON @CHARLOTTEHOPE to be proven wrong in the absolute best way.
My Favourite Match Newcastle United 4 Arsenal 4, Sat 5th February 2011. St James’ Park, Att: 51561. I’d come up from university in London to go to the game. This wasn’t a special one, particularly. Dad had tickets and I wanted to go - it’s pretty much always been as simple as that. I came home regularly
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because even though I didn’t live there I couldn’t resist the familial draw and the lure of a possible win. I ventured up north in February 2011 with no real idea of how the game would go, but with my traditional blind
optimism. My memory fails me on the run up. I feel like it’s almost been totally usurped by the end result. I know it was an afternoon kick off. I can guess that we had lunch before, and
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went to the ground. My memory kicks in around goal three, when Van Persie sent the ball, and my dreams, into the back of the net. Around then, the toon fans started filtering down into the stands presumably for beers to drown their sorrows, or to leave the ground altogether. At this point I (an adult female) was tugging on my dad’s sleeves to say, can we please just go in and have a drink and watch the rest inside or, even better, elsewhere. Or not at all. My dad will never leave a match early. Not since a Newcastle v Celtic friendly in 1968, where Jim Scott sent in the winning goal in the 89th minute. Literally. I was www.true-faith.co.uk
absolutely desperate to leave. I was embarrassed of our performance, convinced that the second half would see us down 8-0 or more. I didn’t want to see my side do that. I love my team and it’s painful to see them do badly. Miserably, I trudged back to my seat to watch the second half. I knew an Arsenal fan from university who was up for the game and he kept updating his Facebook status with obnoxious smug posts, and reading them made me want to throw my BlackBerry on the floor. When Arsenal were reduced to ten men spirits perked. Watching us bring it back was such a joy. I find it quite hard to
articulate how exciting it was. I was gutted for the fans who had left - though a few did sheepishly start returning to their seats. I didn’t even dare think we could get the equaliser as the clock ran down and we were losing 4-3. At that point, I’d have taken that result; considering how we looked at halftime, I was just proud of our side for rallying. When Tiote sent in the fourth goal in the 87th minute, the crowd went wild. It was incredible– I think my dad just about squeezed all the breath out of me. It didn’t quite match up to Jim Scott’s 89th minute winner, but I’m with him on this; I’ll never try and leave a match early again.
When Tiote sent in the fourth goal in the 87th minute, the crowd went wild. It was incredible– I think my dad just about squeezed all the breath out of me.
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‘What is a club anyway?’ is a philosophical question already asked and answered more eloquently then I ever could. Reflecting on this as a 37 year old family man living in Yorkshire, I found myself drawing my own conclusion. Newcastle United is more than just a club, it’s my club, it’s an extension of me. Matt Lewer @GeordieWalrus I left Tyneside in 1999 as a teenager to attend university, whilst there I met a bonny lass from Yorkshire and never moved back. 18 years on I have a wife, two kids and a mortgage, my life is there now. It dawned on me the other day that I have actually lived in ‘God’s own country’ now for as long as I lived in the North East. Despite this I still pride myself as being a Geordie, informing new people I am a Newcastle fan and the earliest appropriate opportunity. I still feel the cock of the North (so to say). This is my identity and for this reason, rather than diminishing like so many others, being a toon fan has actually increased in importance over the last few years. When I first moved away I retained many links to Tyneside. In addition to my team, it was where my family and most of tf 22
my friends lived. At one time I knew the name of every bar, pub and night club in the city centre. It was familiar, it was home. This has changed. I walked through the Bigg Market recently and I noticed nearly all of the bars have different names. Like me, many of friends have also left the area to seek work or romance in more southern cities. Finally, over the last couple of years I was dealt the deepest blow as both of my parents passed away and the family home had to be sold. Where once I had a base in ‘Geordie land’ and a reason (other than the football) to visit, I now have neither. This is why Newcastle United remains so important to me. Unlike the drinking holes of my youth, Newcastle United won’t change its name. It’s had the same name for 125 years. Unlike my friends,
Newcastle United won’t move to the Big Smoke for a job in IT. Unlike my poor parents, Newcastle United won’t get ill and pass away. None of these changes will happen to my club. Not if I have anything to do with it anyway. Reading this you will all have your own personal relationship with Newcastle United. For me, it is much deeper than football, much more important than which league we are in or who is our number nine. All of that matters of course, but for me the club is the last true connection I have to the where I was born, where my mother and father raised me and where the foundations of the person I am were laid and set. Without Newcastle United a big piece of me would be missing. I would lose my identity. www.true-faith.co.uk
Let’s tackle cancer! Make a donation today. Click here. For more information or to donate online please visit www.sirbobbyrobsonfoundation.org.uk Or send a cheque to The Sir Bobby Robson foundation, Room 203, Cheviot Court, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7DN.
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Sarah Al-Gashgari, an 18-year-old student at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, helped to organise Saudi Arabia’s first football match allowing female spectators. Sarah made history after she not only attended but worked at the game between Al-Ahli and Al-Batin. The game was the first time ever in the Kingdom that unaccompanied adult women were allowed to enter the stadium. Sarah was interviewed by the BBC and received the attention of football fans and writers around the world. TF has been incredibly lucky to have spoken with this young football fan and it’s clear that she’s an absolute inspiration. Football is indeed sometimes more than just a game.
@SarahAlgash
FOOTBALL IN THE KINGDOM
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TF: How long has getting women access to football matches been a passion for you? What was the biggest obstacle to overcome? SA: As you know I was part of the organizing team that organized the first ever match to allow Saudi women to the stadium I think from the moment I started to realize the difference between male and female rights and I think the biggest obstacle was the surrounding society. TF: Tell us about Saudi football? Is it the national sport? What type of passion exists for the game? Are the foreign leagues in Europe popular? SA: Football in Saudi Arabia is the most popular sport played and watched by all. We have an uncountable amount of soccer academies for all ages there’s so much www.true-faith.co.uk
passion and love for this sport in particular here in Saudi and also, yes, foreign leagues are very popular. The most popular ones are the English and Spanish leagues. TF: How many people go to the Stadium for the big games? Who are the biggest clubs and rivals? SA: Usually at big games or derbys the whole stadium sells out which can be about over 60k fans. The biggest clubs here in Saudi Arabia are Al Ahli and Al Ittihad which are in Jeddah and then there’s Al Hilal, Alshbab and Al Nasser which are in Riyadh TF: How many women attended the first match? Do you think that it will get more and more popular as a sport for women now they can attend matches? SA: The women attending were more than 7 thousand for the first match and I feel that now that women
are allowed to attend we can expect an increase in attendance and popularity among women. TF: Are there any other issues for fans you would like to fight for? Do you think your work is finished or has it just started? SA: I feel now it’s all great at the soccer community and between fans for women get to see what they’ve always seen behind a screen live but as a patriotic Saudi I want nothing but to see my country flourish and grow and step in the right direction towards emphasizing the roles of women TF: Do you have an English team that you like to follow?
The women attending were more than 7 thousand for the first match and I feel that now that women are allowed to attend we can expect an increase in attendance and popularity among women.
SA: I follow the English premier league and I am a fan of both Manchester United and Arsenal (TF: we won’t hold this against Sarah!). @SarahAlgash tf 25
In the tipsy buzz of a post-Christmas glow, on the 27th December, I sacked off my train back to Leeds to watch what I assumed would be a shellacking from the most beautiful team the Premier League has ever seen.
In The Firing Line SEAN MCMAHON Unsuccessful in nabbing a couple of spare tickets me and my mate eventually resigned ourselves to the corner of the pub. Catching just 30 seconds or so of the pre-match buildup I couldn’t have been prepared for what was coming next. Our performance was frustrating from the off, but that wasn’t the most frustrating part of the evening. Like I’m sure every other Toon fan watching at home or in the pub, I wondered, what the fuck was wrong with Gary Neville? Was he drowning his sorrows after a galling Vanarama League defeat for his beloved Salford City FC against rivals FC United of Manchester? Was he feeling the effects of too much of Neville Neville’s famous leftover Turkey hotpot? Or, like seemingly tf 26
every other pundit, was he simply buying into the twisted narrative about our manager and club that he himself has helped perpetuate? Firstly, let’s just establish this: the job of a commentator is to comment on the match as it happens. As far as I’m concerned it’s a separate job to punditry. That’s why this particular commentary was so infuriating. Neville’s commentary on the game was incredibly shortsighted. Although the first 60 minutes were terrible to watch, within the context of the game as a whole, anyone could see what Rafa was trying to do. Keep it tight, frustrate City, then use the momentum from a festive home crowd to push on in the last half
an hour. And that’s exactly what happened. Despite Sterling’s smart finish, we emerged with some credit and even could have nicked a draw. Unfortunately, Neville had already decided that the way Rafa had set up was beyond the pale. His reactionary commentary was symptomatic of a wider media culture that has become infected with immediate outrage. That applies to pretty much any news story, but it certainly seems to be concentrated when it comes to Newcastle United. We could forgive ol’reliable Souness chipping in,in the post-match analysis to pick at Rafa’s tactics, we expect that. But I don’t see what that drawling, dour commentary added to anyone’s experience, except to confirm that I never, ever
Firstly, let’s just establish this: the job of a commentator is to comment on the match as it happens. As far as I’m concerned it’s a separate job to punditry. That’s why this particular commentary was so infuriating.
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want to have a pint with Gary Neville. Look as a pundit, Neville is pretty sound, and the same can be said of Carra on occasion. The majority of pundits are ex-pros, and as much as fans might beg to differ, they can offer insight that we simply don’t have. However, the way he commentated that game, showed how naive he is when it comes to management. He has never experienced the situation that this squad is in. Along with Carra, we’re talking about two ex-pros who have played at the very top level. Neville has won 8 Premier League titles man, he has never played in a team as limited as ours. He has, however, managed one. Remember, this criticism comes from the man who played 4 fullbacks against Barcelona during his illfated spell at Valencia and still got pumped. 1-0 doesn’t seem that bad in comparison. So, I guess the question is, how much of this rhetoric is about the club and how much of it is targeted at Rafa? Neville
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obviously doesn’t think very highly of Benitez but all this started way before Benitez’s tenure. The national media are only interested in Newcastle United when something’s going terribly wrong, and that attitude can be traced directly back to Keegan. The Entertainers were a beautiful and tragic period in the football club, a period that every fan talks about with nostalgia even if they weren’t alive when the team was around. It was a team full of international talent that played fantastic attacking football. A team that inspired and enthralled and signified everything that we hoped for as a team, but unfortunately everything that seems so far away from us today. Except there’s only one problem, we have absolutely fuck all to show for it. The capitulation that followed, Keegan’s voice cracking on the telly, his draped over the hoarding boards, we can’t escape it. It’s Look, we’re not fucking stupid, it was a catastrophic failure and an embarrassment,
and we have been the butt of the footballing media’s terrible jokes ever since. But in the eyes of the media, we are bottlers, and nothing we ever do will resolve it. If we win the Championship, we should have won it sooner. If we ask for a better manager, we’re ungrateful. When we finally get a world class manager at the club, we’re deluded. The ultimate irony of this article is that this too, adds to the perception that the media has that we are all just a bunch of ungrateful, moany Northerners who should be grateful for Mike Ashley if anything. But who cares, we’re used to it. Truthfully, I don’t believe there is any big national media conspiracy against Newcastle United or Rafa Benitez. But, what there is, is a narrative around the club that isn’t made any easier by the situation we are currently in. All we can hope for is that we dig in, stay up this season and Ashley fucks off as soon as possible, so for once, there’s some good news about us on the back pages.
However, the way he commentated that game, showed how naive he is when it comes to management. He has never experienced the situation that this squad is in.
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As more money enters the English game we’ve seen an increase in unscrupulous, wealthy individuals involved with our football clubs. It’s no coincidence that the number of protests against owners has increased dramatically in recent years as clubs are taken over by people who see them as nothing more than a vehicle to make themselves even richer and not as the historical institutions football fans see them as. We’ve had our own, seemingly, never ending struggles with Mike Ashley. We know all about the shameful practices he employs in his businesses and we all wish people like Ashley weren’t allowed to buy football clubs. But he is far from alone. The game is littered with people who have made their money in ways which are immoral at best or downright illegal at worst.
LIAM REAY @LIAM_REAY83
THEY’RE ALL AS BAD AS EACH OTHER? Stoke City are owned by The Coates Family who are the founders of online gambling company bet365. Like all betting companies, bet365 have made billions of pounds partly by preying on some of the more vulnerable members of society. They have been criticised in the past for raising betting limits for losing players tf 28
and denying payments to winning players. They were fined 2 years ago for using misleading advertisements which falsely promised free bets to customers. West Ham are owned by David Gold and David Sullivan; 2 men who made their name in the porn industry and owned trashy tabloid newspapers
The Daily Sport and Sunday Sport. Papers which would publish fake nude pictures of celebrities and would pay the paparazzi excessive amounts of money if they managed to take ‘upskirt’ or ‘downblouse’ pictures of attractive female celebrities. Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s majority shareholder, www.true-faith.co.uk
is an entrepreneur and owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. The company has a subscription channel called MY OUTDOOR TV which is dedicated to bloodsports. The channel follows people who hunt and kill endangered animals for fun. Down in the Championship where clubs can be bought relatively cheaply by owners who know the big payday that is the Premier League is only one step away, we have seen an influx of foreign owners, with 15 of the 24 clubs being owned by foreign individuals or companies. Sheffield United are now part owned by Prince Abdullah; a member of the Saudi royal family which oversees one of the most oppressive regimes in the world.
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Cardiff City is owned by controversial, Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan. A man who made his money by cosying up with the political and business elite in Malaysia and being handed the government’s first privatisation project, the Sports Toto Lottery. The contract was not put out to tender and there were a lot of unhappy people, especially when Tan then sold 10% of the lottery to a company owned by the Negri Sembilan royal family. A lot of favours and ‘backscratching’ later and Tan was worth hundreds of millions of pounds. After he bought Cardiff City he decided to rebrand the club; changing the club’s shirt from blue to red and redesigning the club badge to include a dragon. But it is the elite where things start to look very
worrying. Manchester City are currently playing some of the best football this country has ever seen. They are managed by the magnificent Pep Guardiola and look set for complete domination. But something very important seems to have been supressed by large sections of the media and ignored by City’s fans while they enjoy seeing their team play beautiful football. The owner, Sheikh Mansour, is a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi and the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. This is a place which does not allow trade unions and has one of the most exploitative and repressive labour systems in the world. There are serious concerns about human rights issues with evidence of torture, confiscated passports and dangerous
This is a place which does not allow trade unions and has one of the most exploitative and repressive labour systems in the world.
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working conditions all being exposed as recently as 2015. Manchester City Football Club is essentially being funded by people who make their money through the appalling exploitation of migrant workers. But why are they involved in football? They haven’t made a profit on their investment and despite us being told Sheikh Mansour bought the club for his own personal enjoyment, he has only been to one game in the past 9 years. Perhaps the true reasons are a very secretive £1b deal with Manchester City council, their ability to beam four state owned companies into homes all over the world and - along with their ownership of New York City FC tf 30
they are able to position themselves in prominent areas and potentially strengthen Abu Dhabi’s political influence. Recently, the Premier League offered their support to the LGBT community by supporting Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign. Manchester City’s players wore rainbow laces while the club is being funded by a country where it is illegal to be gay. Many would say that football as we knew it changed forever in 2004. Chelsea fans won the lottery when Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich bought the club. Since then the club have gone from making up the numbers to
Premier League winners and European champions. A very clever man, whose friendship with the daughter of Boris Yeltsin allowed him to exploit the post-soviet privatisation process which let business people loan money to the government in exchange for cheap state assets. This very shady scheme meant he eventually became the richest man in Russia. Very questionable methods including employing disabled people which would qualify him for tax exemptions and selling oil between his own companies were just 2 of the things he was forced to admit in court. Accusations of money laundering, embezzlement, assassination plots and
Manchester City’s players wore rainbow laces while the club is being funded by a country where it is illegal to be gay.
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even that he is a gangster have followed him around for almost 2 decades. His very close relationship and long-term friendship with Vladamir Putin has certainly played a part in him retaining his wealth and not following fellow oligarchs to prison. Or worse. Like MikeAshely,Abramovic has given money to Chelsea in the form of an interest free loan. Unlike Mike Ashley, Abramovic has employed competent people in every area of the club in order to maximise its revenue streams. It wins trophies, has a thriving youth academy and makes enough money that Abramovich can afford to pay himself back without having to strangle the life out of the first team.
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Dean Hoyle at Huddersfield and Steve Gibson of Middlesbrough are rare examples of local fans that have made money in business and used it to fund the club they have supported since childhood. Sadly, these kinds of owners are a dying breed in a game which is being taken over by the megarich. The biggest clubs are being run by countries, investment funds or multi-billionaires with questionable backgrounds who don’t care about us or our clubs. Occasionally the owners will fund a club that brings them the money and influence they crave and also create a team that wins trophies. In this case the aims of the owner and the fans are aligned and nobody complains
about where the money has come from. You don’t hear anything from Man City or Chelsea supporters about the way their club’s owners have made their money. Most football fans just want to see their team win things. It’s hard to say what Newcastle fans would think about Mike Ashley’s use of zero hour contracts or a staff member giving birth in a toilet at his sweatshop in Shirebrook if we had won trophies during his tenure. I’d like to think we would still be ashamed to have him associated with our club but sadly I think he would still be drinking with the fans and posing for selfies in the away end.
if we had won trophies during his tenure. I’d like to think we would still be ashamed to have him associated with our club but sadly I think he would still be drinking with the fans and posing for selfies in the away end.
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Suhas Iyengar is an NUFC fan from Pune, India. His dedication to all things NUFC is such that he’s even made the trip over to watch his beloved Mags at Saint James’ Park. He spoke to TF about his passion for the Club. Geordies here, Geordies there When did you first decide to start following NUFC and what was the most significant incident in pushing you to make that decision? I did not start watching football until I was 14, that’d be around 2000-01 season. I was a neutral back then. But after getting a taste of premier league for
a season or so I decided I’ve got to support a club that reciprocated the emotions this game brings with it. The games I saw on the telly involving Newcastle convinced me to support the toon for two reasons mainly: 1) The Toon Army 2) ALAN SHEARER! After that, having a manager like Sir Bobby solidified my faith in this club!
Are Newcastle a popular side in your country? Which English teams would you class as the most popular amongst your countrymen? When I first started supporting the Toon, football wasn’t even a popular sport in our country, let alone Newcastle! However, with
@irSuhas
Suhas - Indian NUFC Fan
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Also, when I got to meet the gaffer after waiting for more than 3 hours after the Brighton game, getting his autograph and a picture with him is also right up there. the advent of internet and improved broadcasting of the premier league, our club has found a good backing. We have a group of 100+ faithful toon supporters, we go by the name Toon Army India. Many of us have made a journey to Newcastle to watch our beloved club in the holy grail that is St. James’ Park. The most popular English clubs in India are these run-of-themill teams like Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Chelsea & Arsenal. What’s your earliest memory of NUFC? It has to be Shearer’s volley against Everton! What a rocket that was! To level the game with a goal like that and then going on to win the game in the last minute! What is your most positive or are your most positive memories so far of following the club? Obviously the most positive one is walking up www.true-faith.co.uk
the stairs to St. James’ Park and then taking it all in once I was inside. It was the best feeling ever! Also, when I got to meet the gaffer after waiting for more than 3 hours after the Brighton game, getting his autograph and a picture with him is also right up there. A few others that are etched in my brain are Tiote’s screamer to level the game against the Arsenal! May his soul rest in peace! Jenas’ rocket against Manchester (where Martin Tyler & Andy Gray went crazy) Jenas by name, genius by nature! Sir Bobby’s final appearance at SJP where he was awarded with the lifetime achievement award by UEFA! I cried my heart out that day! Shearer’s 200th goal in the premier league!
still here, we are here because we love this club! No club like this club! Is there any particular player and/or manager you’d consider as your favourite and why is that the case? I think if you ask any Newcastle fan which player/ manager is their favorite, it’ll have to be Shearer and Sir Bobby! Alan Shearer is the reason I started watching
And negative? When Sir Bobby was let go! When Ashley took over our club! Relegation, not once but twice! But we are tf 33
football, supporting Newcastle! There are 200+ reasons why I love this man! Sir Bobby was the greatest man ever let alone manager! A true gentleman of the game, our local hero. We played some of our best football under his reign.
games in the last couple of months has meant we’re back in the relegation mix. Although I hope it doesn’t come to it, but if we’re safe at the end of this season I’d be relieved. We can then build from there, provided Ashley will have gone by then.
How do you feel this season has gone so far and what would be a satisfactory outcome by the end of it?
How popular is the domestic game in India? Can you tell us a bit about how the system works, any big players, attendances at football matches, rivalries?
We started out with a bang. We were in the top four, that’s when we were finalizing our plan to visit Newcastle in the Christmas to catch as many games as possible in a fortnight. However, our poor run of
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We’re still a country dominated by cricket! However, we’re starting to see an inflexion point wherein a lot of people have started watching and
going to the games in the domestic league. There’s a lot of talent here, hopefully one day we’ll see an Indian in Newcastle’s starting lineup! There’s a domestic league here (I-League), which works just like a conventional league (with teams playing home and away) And there’s the Indian Super League (ISL) which is a bit more commercialized and has a league+knockout format. The ISL has a lot of stars from the yesteryears like Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov! Mohun-Bagan vs East Bengal is one of those rivalry which is as fierce as they come. It is a little over a 100 years now. Both
There’s a lot of talent here, hopefully one day we’ll see an Indian in Newcastle’s starting lineup!
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these teams come from Bengal and share the same stadium like the Milan twins! Whenever these two play there’s a capacity crowd of about 65,000! Also known as the Kolkata Derby, it features in FIFA’s list of classic Derbies. Bengaluru FC is another club that is gaining rapid popularity. They have done very well in a short span of time since they were founded. They have a very passionate set of supporters called the west block blues, these guys make the experience of watching the games live at the stadium memorable. BFC has won two league titles in the five years it has been in existence. It has made it to the finals of AFC cup which is the Asian version of the Europa cup. Hopefully many such positive stories will pop up www.true-faith.co.uk
in the future to aid Indian Football. Given the sheer number of people in India, is it a surprise to you that the national team has never really come close to qualifying for a World Cup? Is this an aim of the Indian FA? Do you ever see football getting close to cricket in terms of popularity? Between becoming a Doctor or an Engineer, becoming a professional sports personality is still a far way out in India. Even if someone does decide to get into sports their choice of sport is either cricket or badminton. It is only natural, we’re so good at both these games. However, I feel football is picking up rapidly now, A lot of 5-a-side turfs are popping up on every corner in my city. More and more kids are
playing the game, there’s a lot of talent, the football culture is picking up! With the advent of ISL, I’m hoping the state of play increases rapidly and some day we qualify for the World Cup! @irSuhas
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Newcastle is the greatest city in the country. The people, the sights, the sounds, the atmosphere and the football team are all absolutely first class. Of that there can be no doubt, but the one area where the city may cast envious glances elsewhere is its music scene. Venues are closing at a rate of knots and Cheryl Cole is still among the most famous musicians to have been born in the area. That may be about to change. The underground scene is thriving and
nowhere is this more evident than the ouseburn. Young Geordie bands are doing new and exciting things in basements, warehouses and just about anywhere else with a stage. Nobody embodies this DIY spirit better than Deep Sleep, who’s headline show at the Little Buildings was played out to a raucous crowd with a nice smattering of hits. Last year’s single Soho was the band’s best work to date and 1994 received airtime on BBC Introducing. They topped it all off by performing
alongside some of indie’s biggest names at Kendal Calling music festival. If you want to check out their progress for yourself, you’ll have plenty of chance as the summer festival season rolls around and the band hits the road. Having bumped into bandmate Jak in the away end at Man City, we took the chance to catch up on how the band was doing and all things NUFC. How was formed?
the
band
Dan: It’s a weird one, it
Deep Sleep | True Faith
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started in my bedroom some time in 2014 but it was a bit of a one man thing and we’ve spent the last four years forming a line-up that really works. We picked Snazy, our bassist up in Gotham, we actually stole Conor, our drummer from Casual Threats after a drunk night out at Bongo’s Bingo and I met Jak when he third wheeled my valentines day in 2016. What’re your biggest achievements so far? Dan: I think I’ve got to agree with the lads that last summer was arguably our biggest and best to date, we somehow managed to blag ourselves onto Kendal Calling festival and Tramlines amongst others, but everything’s been massive, I don’t think we’ve ever regressed. We played this mad house party in 2015 too and that was incredible. I’m not gonna stop until we’ve sold out St James’ Park midweek in the rain though. www.true-faith.co.uk
How would you explain your style to someone who hadn’t yet heard your music?
Dan: Has to be Shearer
Dan: Music to fall in love to
or when Rafa confirmed
What’ve you got planned in the run up to summer?
we’re big fans.
Dan: We’ve got a UK tour coming up in March and we’re gonna be hitting up Leeds, Manchester, York, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Carlisle. Plenty of new music to wrap your ears around soon too. What’s Newcastle like for a new band breaking through? Dan: It feels a bit like Manchester in the 90s at the minute, there’s so much talent coming through at the minute with massive names like Sam Fender and The Pale White, I’m really excited to be a part of this movement at the minute.
cracking
that
260th
premier league goal to set the record. Either that his Newcastle takeover,
Jak:
when
we
beat
Sunderland 5 - 1 Worst NUFC memory? Dan: For me, it has to be that home game against Leeds towards the end of the 16/17 season, we deserved the points, they’re just a very physical side who like to throw their weight around a bit. Jak: loosing to Sunderland 3-0 Favourite NUFC player? Dan: SHEAAARER Jak: Shearer and Shola Are we staying up?
Newcastle United
Dan: Is Rafa a Geordie?
Fondest NUFC memory?
(yes) tf 37
Newcastle are gravy again after doing it when it mattered gainer Man Utd. I write this for you preBournemouth, in London. London is the worst. I’m sorry to all my London pals who love it. But NE and DH postcodes are whereall the best people live, except a select few mags who’ve moved away. We want you back. Unconnected to that, here are some things about football. In no particular order, for no particular reason.
VAR Shite. Everyone in football thinks they’re the most important people. The fans do. The players do. The Chairman do. Agents do. The pundits do. The last one, the pundits, is a strange one. You’re reading true faith so you’re already a very good person in my book. It tells me you either hate me and tf 38
are compiling evidence for your upcoming court case against me, or more likely (hopefully) you enjoy fan lead football writing by people who know what you’re talking about about their football club. We’d all be no good at talking about Swanea. Anyway. You may or may not watch ‘the debate’ on Sky Sports. If you’ve seen it, it’s everything you I hate
ALEX HURST @TFALEX1892
about football punditry and more. If it didn’t exist I couldn’t invent it. It’s too surreal. It’s ex pro’s telling lies about football clubs. Some of it is just bad preparation and a lack of knowledge. Most of it is deliberate. These are the Pundits though, the people with a the soap box. They’re the people with the mic. They are the people that want VAR. www.true-faith.co.uk
Steve Mcmanaman was commenting on a game at Anfield. Let’s ignore the fact he’s a Liverpool fan and that selecting him for the game to deliver an expert, unbiased opinion, is a farce. Actually let’s not ignore it. What the fuck, lads? What are you doing? You’ve got loads of pundits not connected to Liverpool or West Brom (Liverpool’s opposition). However maybe that’s not the plan. Get Gary Neville for Man Utd games. Alan Smith (not that one) for Arsenal and so on. It’s football coverage for people who follow these clubs. For them alone. As they have loads of fans and loads of fans who don’t go to games. Here’s where VAR comes in. The only ever time I’ve ever heard anyone all for VAR is on social media or on the television. No match going mag I’ve ever www.true-faith.co.uk
been with has walked out of SJP demanding video technology and that ‘enough is enough’. After Forest Away last season the talk on the way out was about the referee being a bottling, useless, limelight demanding wazzock. Not VAR. that’s because we go to the game, talk about it, write about it even podcast it. Then move on to the next one. We know the score. Refs can be as shite as the teams. It’s part of the game. It’s not like that on social media, for some people. It consumes them. Wrong decisions, particularly for teams with millions of fans around the world, consume them. The debate rages for days and weeks and months. Abuse is common. VAR is for these people. Not all foreign based fans by the way. The best mags
I know live outside of Newcastle and some of the worst live in the North East. I don’t care where you’re from - if you love the city and the club you’re alright with me. It’s undeniable that fans around the world obsess over decisions in my opinions. Even people in this country, who just aren’t at the match. So you’ve these people, demandingVAR, and you’ve the pundits. Back to Steve McManaman who has taken a break in his life from scoring screamers against us in the 90’s, to football commentary. I watched him talk on a Liverpool penalty appeal in this game. First look, no pen. Second look, Liverpool had a case. Third look, pen. Farce. The ref got one look (and called correctly) and Steve had three looks all from different angles and changed his mind every
It’s not like that on social media, for some people. It consumes them. Wrong decisions, particularly for teams with millions of fans around the world, consume them. The debate rages for days and weeks and months. Abuse is common. VAR is for these people.
tf 39
time. He looked like a tit and probably knew it. Shite. That’s okay though. All he needs to do is wait until he see’s the replays. Funny thing is, VAR was being used in this game. He still wasn’t happy. No one was. That’s because it’s shite. The Champions League A sham. The last 16 is less competitive than the FA Cup third round. Hidden away on an obscure expensive television channel so poor people can’t watch it. That’s the plan. Not for you. No one cares anymore as a result. It exists for casual fans in European bars who also like F1. Jamal Lascelles England Probably
tf 40
for
The mackems So so so so fucked. I hope we never play them again. I hope they tell their grandkids about six in a row. Their grandkids will be supporting NUFC. We tried to warn them. The fans will played their part. Going tits every season about finishing with less than 40 points. Over and over again. It breeds a special type of culture. Signing songs about Lee Cattermole. Stuff has consequences. You were happy with the Texan losing millions to beat a moribund NUFC, it was enough for you, you were content. Can’t complain when he’s doing the same but we aren’t around. David Moyes was too good for them. Look at him
now, look at them. Their support is myth. The club put our attendance figures that insult those that do actually turn up. 9,000 free tickets a week in the Prem. People took them, used them. Now Ellis Short is the enemy. Took his golf baited the mags. Where are you now? They’re taking around 1k away most aways. West Brom take more. So do Norwich and Brighton. Wigan sometimes. There’s more to come on this but that’s all to know. I hear people say Ashley could do the same to us. Difference is there’s something for him to destroy. Sunderland Football club died long before Ellis Short arrived. RIP.
David Moyes was too good for them. Look at him now, look at them. Their support is myth. The club put our attendance figures that insult those that do actually turn up. 9,000 free tickets a week in the Prem.
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All of our Podcasts are absolutely FREE and recorded by match-going Mags. We all hope you enjoy them all listen on iTunes or Soundcloud.
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tf 41
“John! Real Madrid or PSG?”, “John! Barcelona or Chelsea?”, “John! Do you think Sevilla can beat Man Utd?”… My Spanish students are going mental for UEFA’s flagship, premier continental tournament. It’s a shame that I have to explain to them what a tepid pile of shite it is that they’ve been conned into thinking is the best tournament in the world.
PROJETO TÓQUIO (Project Tokyo) A few years back, well, maybes 15 or 20, I’d have been up on my high horse espousing the magnificence of our very own FA Cup, and how it sits high above anything else on God’s green footballing Earth in terms of excitement, upsets, boggy grounds acting as ‘levellers’ against the big boys, glory, history and passion. Unfortunately, those days are long gone tf 42
and the FA has done its best to replicate the tepid monotony of Europe’s premier diva showcase. Baals to the lot of them. There is, however, a continental tournament that is a throwback to the FA Cup of yesteryear, that hasn’t been sanitised within an inch of its soul by moneymen, marketeers, prima donna players and moronic,
passive fans accepting their entertainment like a customer accepts their crappy service in the latest, hipster pop-up restaurant. If you want a continental tournament that drags football, kicking and screaming, back to its very roots and soul, that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck, and transport you back to a time when the fans were vociferous and snarling
John MILTOn @ Geordioca
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outside of the elite to progress past the group stages, never mind the knock-out stage proper. The Libertadores, on the other hand, is nothing if not unpredictable.
and edgy and dangerous and passionate and emotional, then all you’ve got to do is look to the New World. The South American premier continental tournament, the Copa Libertadores, embodies everything that a knockout tournament should, and could, be. There are so many reasons why it is light years ahead of the Champions League that it is an embarrassment that it doesn’t get more coverage. Then again, we have to listen to SkySports
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telling us the Premier League is the best league in the world, so what can we expect? Let’s be honest, the single most important thing in a knock-out tournament, the thing that makes it so exciting, is the unpredictability. UEFA has sought, going back decades now, to ensure that the elite teams of European football’s aristocracy maintain a strangle-hold on the tournament by way of financial doping. Nowadays, it’s almost impossible for a club
The qualification process is complicated and varies throughout the continent: only Brazil follows a European style qualification process where the top 4 qualify, although they do allow a spot for the winner of the Copa do Brasil (Brazilian FA Cup), too. The rest of the continent utilises an ‘apertura’ and ‘clausura’ system – a system in which the league season is broken into two separate tournaments (they literally translate as ‘opening’ and ‘closing’), giving far greater opportunities for less-fashionable clubs to qualify. The
effect
of
the
tf 43
Hardly riveting stuff from the European tournament. Obviously, wealth counts for a lot in Europe, hence PSG being talked about as contenders. But what else contributes to the unpredictability of the Libertadores?
qualification process can be seen if we compare the finals of both tournaments over the past 15 years. The 15 finals of the CL between the 2002/03 and 2016/17 seasons have seen just 14 different teams take the 30 available births, producing only 9 different winners – Barcelona lifting the trophy 4 times, and Real 3 times over that period. In those 15 years, the only final to have thrown up a surprise was the Porto v Monaco final of ‘03/’04, a final which attracted less hyperbole and less interest
tf 44
than any other, and an accident, I am sure, UEFA have strived to avoid ever since. Compare that to the Libertadores. In the 15 finals between 2003 and 2017 the CONMEBOL tournament has produced 23 different finalists and a massive 13 different champions. So it’s impossible to predict who will get anywhere near the final of the Libertadores, while predicting which clubs will reach the semis of the CL is fairly straightforward.
First of all, there is the distances that clubs have to travel. South America is a giant continent, so if Barcelona SC of Ecuador have to play River Plate of Buenos Aires, they have to tackle an 11,000km round trip! For that reason, every round is played home and away – even the final. This brings more than one equation into play. Obviously, the away team are at a disadvantage due to the arduous journey, but they will also be at a disadvantage when it comes to support. How many Ecuadorians could afford the time and money
In the 15 finals between 2003 and 2017 the CONMEBOL tournament has produced 23 different finalists and a massive 13 different champions.
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to make an 11,000km round trip to follow their team? Not many. And this gives the home fans the opportunity to shine like in no other competition. For every fan on the continent, the Libertadores is the be all and end all. The title of this piece is Project Tokyo because it became a phrase in Brazilian football in the 80’s, when the Club World Cup was called the Intercontinental Cup and was always held in Tokyo. After a team won the Brazilian league they would claim they www.true-faith.co.uk
have embarked on Pojeto Tókuio, meaning they were aiming to win the Libertadores in order to take on the European Champions. But so obsessed are Brazilians (along with the rest of the continent) that clubs began launching their Projetos Tókuios at the start of their regular seasons! Fans will go to any lengths to help their team achieve their goals, most legal… some not so legal. In the stands, the fan organisations put great time, effort
and money into creating mosaics and displays, flags and pyrotechnics and accompany them with 90 minutes of throat-destroying singing, chanting, cursing and threats. Even my own little club, Botafogo, created some amazing mosaics during their ill-fated tryst with the competition when they reached the quarter-finals last year. Trying to get games illegally stopped is not uncommon. Fans throwing tear gas at opposing players in the tunnel, pelting visiting team busses with rocks, tf 45
pitch invasions to get games abandoned, called off or simply to intimidate the opposition are fairly standard. This passion often trickles down to the pitch, either pushing the players to greater efforts, or by bringing out the darker side of a player’s psyche, encouraging him to engage in the dark arts to gain an advantage. Even meek little Neymar got stuck into a mass ruck after the 2011 final after
tf 46
his Santos had beaten Peñarol. Zico once said that things happened off the pitch which made the Libertadores appear more like a battle than a football game. And when it comes to the travelling, players don’t just have to contend with jet-lag and a lack of support, they also have to contend with hypoxia – the result of being starved of oxygen! Some games are played in extremely
high cities, if you have to play in La Paz, Bolivia, you’ll be playing at 12,000 feet! Former Manchester Utd midfielder, Anderson, was never a slouch, but when his Internacional team went to La Paz to play The Strongest in the 2015 group stage, he was subbed after 36 minutes and given oxygen on the sidelines! On top of all these variables, we have to remember that it is impossible for teams to build a dynasty capable of dominating the tournament as well. European clubs keep a constant eye on the competition and hoover up any player than shines, meaning championship winning teams can be decimated thanks to big-money offers from
Former Manchester Utd midfielder, Anderson, was never a slouch, but when his Internacional team went to La Paz to play The Strongest in the 2015 group stage, he was subbed after 36 minutes and given oxygen on the sidelines! www.true-faith.co.uk
Europe. This makes for an unpredictable and uncontrollable competition. With clubs acting like conveyor belts of talent for European clubs, the breakneck managerial turnovers (not qualifying for the Libertadores will cost you your job), and club presidents being voted out by restless fanbases (imagine…), the only constant in the competition are the fans. So no wonder they are central to the spectacle. They have made themselves invaluable to the competition, so much so that they are free (whether the authorities like it or not) to create unique, bear-pit atmospheres in the stands which directly affect the
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state of play on the pitch. It’s just a big, raw, unpolished, beast of a competition, and is an utterly, utterly tremendous spectacle to behold. “But,” I hear you cry, “the CL has much better players and much better football!” Well, you’d think so wouldn’t you? But what if I told you that until very recently, Europe and South America were neck-and-neck in the Intercontinental Champions race? In fact, the Intercontinental Cup, which was held from 1960 to 2004, was won by the South American champions it 22 times, against 21 by Europe (for political reasons there were no finals in ’75 or ’78). Unsurprisingly,
since the creation of the current Club World Cup in 2005, the trophies have followed the money, with Europe lifting the title 10 times to a meagre 3 titles for South America. So there you are, for the future of football, have a look at the biggest throwback to proper football that is played anywhere in the world today. The Copa Libertadores de América – magic.
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My dad is a very passionate man. He loves movies, music, history and Newcastle United. We’re a close family, and I was an insufferable try-hard as a kid, so it makes sense that my love of the Mags comes from him and my wanting to be close to him. My understanding of how much this club meant to my dad came at quite a young age. I remember it being my birthday, but that could be wrong. My birthday being in August doesn’t match up with any football fixtures from the time, so it must have been another event. I was only about five years old, so you can forgive the memory. What I can never forget is my dad, crouched down so he was at my height, a hand on each of my shoulders with tears in each of his eyes. I didn’t understand. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.
CHARLOTTE ROBSON
‘We lost.’
@CHARLOTTEHOPE
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So began my Newcastle United education. Realising at a young age how much this meant to my Dad meant I was fully invested in it within months. I can recall bitter, bitter jealousy after we beat Man U 5-0, when my older brother and I were sleeping over at my Grandma’s house. He got to his room and she had bought him a commemorative mug with 5-0 emblazoned on it. Excitedly I checked my pillow. Nothing. Indignant, I asked why he had received one and I hadn’t. ‘Oh, I thought you weren’t interested in football…’ was the reply. Incorrect, Grandma. Look at me now. www.true-faith.co.uk
Over the years, my brother’s interest in football fell away. It’s not completely gone; he still goes to matches with us sometimes, but it’s certainly not the same passion that my dad and I have. As his interest in spending his Saturdays at St James’ Park waned, mine picked up. My dad had a new football buddy. I was about ten when I went to my first match. Dad had a season ticket in the East Stand. I couldn’t have been more impressed to see his name stuck to his seat – he left out the detail that he’d probably paid for the privilege. I was left to believe he was so revered by this incredible institution
that they had insisted on commemorating it somehow. Annoyingly, I can’t remember what my first match was – I called my dad to ask him what it was and he offered up which his first one was. Not that helpful, given it was about thirty years before. Being a close family, it makes sense that I tried to align myself to the interests I could see being played out. Music, for both my parents. Football, specifically for my dad. It makes me seem like a real suck up (and indeed I am, so it’s fairly accurate) but as a kid it’s hard to see a parent get so much joy (and pain, but in those
He got to his room and she had bought him a commemorative mug with 5-0 emblazoned on it. Excitedly I checked my pillow. Nothing. Indignant, I asked why he had received one and I hadn’t. ‘Oh, I thought you weren’t interested in football…’ tf 49
days it was joy) from their interest and not want to get right on board with it. It doesn’t take long to fall in love with Newcastle United, especially not when you’re being guided by your dad and 50,000 other fans. Within a few matches, I was hooked. I remember bringing Heinz tomato soup in a Thermos to any winter game. We’d dip pork pies in at half time and discuss the match. My ten-yearold brain didn’t have the high-level analysis that I currently possess (!) but I was just delighted to be involved. I remember my, on the other hand, mum not being delighted when I came home singing ‘the referee’s a wanker’ but that’s what you learn at matches and I took great tf 50
pride in singing it loudly in the car. The feeling before a match is so contagious. Even just at home having a traditional pre-match tea of ham, eggs, chips and beans you could feel it. Now, we check Twitter an hour before kick-off for our teams; then we listened to radio 5 live and struggled to catch the names. Walking up to the ground hasn’t changed for me in all these years. You’re still surrounded by optimistic Geordies (the best people in the world) striding up to their turnstiles, hats on, the slight burger-y smell in the air mixed with total excitement. Dad’s the same. He talks the talk about the ‘Fat Cockney Bastard’ but when we get
there he’s just so happy, and so am I. When they play Local Hero and the team runs out onto the pitch, my dad tenses up in anticipation. I do the same now. It gives me goose bumps – even if I’m not at a match with him, I know how much he’d love it. We don’t have Shearer, Ferdinand, Ginola etc. anymore, but when our squad comes out of the tunnel, we’re behind them 100%. Having said that, I feel incredibly fortunate that my formative Newcastle loving years included The Entertainers. Looking at the club now and back at the last ten years, I’m a bit sad that the only memories of this squad that young people are going to have are going
Walking up to the ground hasn’t changed for me in all these years. You’re still surrounded by optimistic Geordies
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to be overshadowed by an owner without the club’s best interests at heart. I wonder how we’d have approached it if that was the case when I was growing up - possibly not with the same enthusiasm. It’s a silver lining that they’ve got Rafa Benitez to hang on to, because they couldn’t be blamed for disillusionment with the place if they didn’t. I remember going past the ground in between seasons and the corner gates were open to let cars in, and my dad took us right in to go and look at the pitch. He couldn’t pass without stopping the car and trying to go in and showing his kids his pride and joy. We didn’t get very far into the ground without a groundskeeper shooing us out. In hindsight; completely reasonable and actually just a man doing
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his job. But at the time? I felt blind rage that a man had denied my dad and us this experience. Over the years it’s become much, much more than being a kiss-ass. Like I said, it doesn’t take long to fall in love with the toon (do I really need to say that? To this fanbase?) and going to the matches with my dad became much more about the team, about the club. I will always cherish what this football club was able to give me - don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we would have found something else to bond (read: obsess) over, but what I’m sure of is that my dad knew how unifying this club is. The last ten years have been dominated by Mike Ashley news and rumours, a lack of money being put into the club and almost a resigned air to the
coverage of our club. There have been so many ups and downs - a real soap opera of a decade - and for all my dad’s proclamations that we’re ‘not going anymore’ or are ‘done with this club’, they still manage to switch on a magnet on match day and we zoom towards St James’ Park dutifully. Because for all the pain Ashley has put us through, for all the anger and resentment you’ll feel in the pubs before the game (which was never around before), Newcastle supports its club. Yes, my dad phoned me choked up after we were relegated in 2009 and gave up his season ticket, but we still go. I make, and will keep making, the pilgrimage all too regularly, to see my friends, to see my team, and to see my dad.
...but we still go. I make, and will keep making, the pilgrimage all too regularly, to see my friends, to see my team, and to see my dad.
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Last season Gary Neville created a bit of a stir WALLACE WILSON @WALLACEHWILSON when he suggested that the balance of power in the Premier League had shifted from the north to the south. It was on the back of the league title being fought out between Abrahamovic’s Chelsea and Spurs with ManU, ManC and Liverpool struggling to stay in their wake. At the end of last season three northern clubs - Hull, the mackems and the smoggies - were relegated. However, is that just an easy soundbite for a Sky pundit or is there a degree of truth behind it? After all, two of the teams which came up from the Championship - ourselves and Huddersfield - were northern while this season, Sheik Mansoor’s ManC are romping away with the title. The only points they have dropped all season have been on Merseyside. Arsenal are becoming increasingly detached from the big five of which three are from the North West. Is it just a storm in a (Yorkshire) tea cup? Of the 22 teams in the Premier League’s inaugural season in 1992-93, ten were from the north (ManU, Blackburn, ManC, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Liverpool, Everton, Oldham Athletic, Middlesbrough and Leeds) with seven
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from the south (Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, QPR, Southampton, Crystal Palace and Wimbledon). QPR, in fifth, were the south’s best placed team. 25 years later of the now twenty teams in the league we have seven from the north (ManC, ManU, Liverpool, Everton, Burnley, Huddersfield and Newcastle United) with nine from the south (Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Watford and Brighton). So in proportionate terms we have certainly seen a change. In 1992-93 45% of teams were from the north while this season that percentage has dropped to 35%. Over the same period the percentage of teams from the south has risen from 32% to 45%. There
are
theories
that this is due to the increasing imbalance in the economy between the north and the south, an imbalance which has been exacerbated by the 2008 economic crash. In the last decade, for every twelve new jobs created in the south of England, only one has been created elsewhere. At the same time, the industrial centres of the north have been largely left to rot as successive governments, Labour as well as Tory, have shied away from the large scale investment needed to reinvigorate their economic base. Thatcherism oversaw the destruction of Britain’s manufacturing base at the altar of the financial big bang and the north and midlands have never recovered. As a result London is now
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responsible for a quarter of the country’s economic activity and this reshaping of the economy has had an influence on the country’s sporting power base. The money invested in the football global brands of Manchester and Liverpool has largely protected them from this economic fall-out. ManC have obviously benefited from the desire of the rulers of Abu Dhabi to use football as a vehicle to improve their country’s profile. ManU are still benefiting from the legacies of Busby and Ferguson while Liverpool still owes a debt to the success they achieved under Bill Shankley and Bob Paisley. It is the smaller teams the Sheffield Wednesdays, Leeds, Middlesbrough etc - who have struggled as non-traditional teams from the south such as www.true-faith.co.uk
Bournemouth, Brighton and Watford have emerged. Partially this is because of the increasing wealth disparity but, as owners become more internationally diverse, the pull of London cannot be over-estimated. They live in or around London and want a plaything/ status symbol which it is convenient to visit. The money going into Bournemouth and Watford is not coming from their local areas but Russia and Italy. Rich foreign owners are seeing London property as a safe place to store their money as the inflation rate for properties in the affluent areas of the capital outstrips virtually every other legal investment available. Billionaire owners prefer London with its excellent transport links. Even Jose Mourinho lives in a Manchester
hotel and travels back to London after games. At least he goes to the games which is more than can be said for our current owner, who prefers to stay in Buckinghamshire. It must also be said, however, that some of the problems faced by northern clubs have been self-made - the mackems are the prime example of this - while, for example, Brighton are a great example of a club with a local owner who has rebuilt the club from the bottom. So what is to be done? It’s probably too much to expect a Tory government to overthrow the Thatcher dogma of favouring the southern service based economy over an economy that actually makes things so we might have to rely on football to look after itself. There
25 years later of the now twenty teams in the league we have seven from the north (ManC, ManU, Liverpool, Everton, Burnley, Huddersfield and Newcastle United) with nine from the south tf 53
have been suggestions that northern clubs move their training bases to the south to be able to attract players looking to live in London. Universities such as Teesside and Sunderland already have campuses in London which have proved to be more attractive to foreign students. But to follow a similar model would surely be to lose the community links upon which the original Football League (made up of six teams from Lancashire and six from the Midlands lest we forget) was established. So, assuming that they want to do something (and that is far from certain), what could the FA or Premier League do? Well, they could institute a proper ‘fit and proper persons’ test to make it much more difficult for egotistical rich people who operate on the margins of what is legal and use football as a way of washing their money to take over local clubs. I think we can all think of examples of this at
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or near the top of the Premier League but they are also to be found elsewhere. They could also introduce a regular audit of owners’ activities to keep them honest, with the prospect of swingeing fines or removal of Premier League status if they are found to be wanting. The chances of either of these happening are slim to zero and Slim is saddling up his horse… Another option would be to make it compulsory for match day squads to include a certain number of home-grown players. This could be sold on the basis of increasing the talent pool available to the England manager. Hell, it might even make Newcastle improve their Academy… It is possible that the shift down south is just a cyclical thing and it will right itself over time but this feels different as we are seeing an economic shift to the south underpin changes in the football economy. Newcastle United, owned
and managed by a regime that cares about the future of its asset, should be big enough to be insulated from the vagaries of the economic climate. Even with our current owner we are still one of the biggest clubs in the world. A recent Soccer Football Finance report saw us ranked 36th in the world even after a season in the Championship and the other indignities that Ashley has inflicted on us over the last ten years. A couple of seasons in the Premier League would probably see us return to the top 20 where we were regularly placed before he arrived. Our potential to generate money if managed properly is relatively undiminished. However, the longer the current regime stays in place the more vulnerable we become. Despite Ashley’s protestations to the contrary, we are not asking to compete with the wealth of nation states but last I looked Brighton hadn’t declared UDI.
Another option would be to make it compulsory for match day squads to include a certain number of home-grown players.
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Book Review:
Hillsborough voices: The Real Story Told by the People Themselves by kevin sampson - ebury press Without any doubt whatsoever, the Hillsborough disaster is the most important point in my life as a football supporter. I was 25 when the disaster happened. God, that seems a lifetime away. The same age as my daughter, who I still think of as a bairn. I’d been going to away games since I was about 18 and had enough awareness of “bad ends” at football grounds, overcrowding, the behaviour of the Police and the general antipathy that existed towards football supporters and working class people from the authorities. The Hillsborough Disaster happened only four years after the end of the Miners Strike of which South Yorkshire was at its heart (and the most defining moment of my political life still) and Orgreave remains an open wound from that era. I’d been in the Leppings Lane End several times, most memorably for a big promotion game with Sheffield Wednesday, which we lost 4-2 and subconsciously registered how much of a crush it all was with those pens. Ironically, tf 56
I didn’t think Hillsborough was the worst terrace I’d stood on. There were lots of crap grounds but ironically my least favourite was that awful terraced corner between the Anfield Road End and what was the Kemlyn Road Stand (now the Centenary Stand) followed by the awful Park End at Goodison. There was nothing worldly about me. Anyone who went away following United in those days will be able to relate tales of awful facilities White Hart Lane in the FAC in hindsight being the closest I’d come to football disaster on a personal basis though Hillsborough was terrible as well. Anyone with any experience of being part of big away supports really knew what happened at Hillsborough on 15/ Apr/1989. I was never in any doubt of the general cause of the tragedy was down to terrible facilities, mismanagement and the mindset of the Police. Of course, anyone who wasn’t there couldn’t have been alive to the details of what went on, on the day but
my intuition has always been that supporters were never to blame. But even I underestimated the venality of the Police and judiciary. I have Phil Scraton’s excellent tome Hillsborough - The Truth on my bookshelf, wellthumbed and it vindicated everything I thought had happened that terrible day. Its a must-read for anyone who really wants to understand the disaster. I’ve watched documentaries and I’ve followed the twists in turns in the campaign at times bewildered by the legal detail but full of admiration for the survivors and the people of Merseyside who refused to
allow themselves and their loved ones to be disgraced and denied justice. This book was first published in 2016 but I’ve only just got round to reading it for some reason. Everything I’ve read previously about the Hillsborough disaster was a precursor to this book. The author is Kevin Sampson, a Liverpudlian whose name some of you might recognise as the writer of AwayDays but also the lad who has written Powder, Leisure, Outlaws, Clubland, Freshers, Stars Are Stars, Extra Time, The Killing Pool and The House on The Hill. If you are looking for recommendation, I’d go for Stars Are Stars. www.true-faith.co.uk
Sampson has done an outstanding job presenting the experiences of some of those deeply affected by Hillsborough. He presents their voices in a skillful and structured way - from the run up to the disaster until final vindication. But there is a rawness that will reach inside you. There were several moments when I cried reading this book. That’s not because I suffer from the weird form of modern emotional incontinence we see so much these days but because what these people have been through, people just like you and I, has been beyond description in what has been presented to us as a just and civilised society. There were other moments when I felt my fists clench in rage at the treatment of the bereaved and those who wanted answers and sought justice. I was unaware of a bereaved father being being beaten up in front of a senior Police Officer or the wiretapping and thefts from those who campaigned for justice. This was Liverpool, in the 1990s ... this wasn’t East Germany in the 60s. The book is tremendously uplifting as well. Aside from the grotesque injustices visited upon these people like you and I which will enrage any of us, there are numerous stories of kindness - the people of Sheffield opening their doors to distraught Liverpool supporters and www.true-faith.co.uk
their families as well as the humbling determination of those damaged and traumatised by loss. These people were on their own for so long. They were isolated, ignored and often vilified, dismissed and ridiculed. None of us in the football community, as supporters did anywhere near enough and I cringed at a bereaved father being on the end of a thoughtless jibe in the workplace for a man the writer describes as a Geordie. While the SKY dishes were going on the sides of houses and new all-seater stands were being built, these people went through agony and we did virtually nothing to support them. Few politicians come out of this very well - particularly the Thatcher-Major Governments who I believe were culpable in giving the Police a free pass. Neither does Blair’s Government and in particular Jack Straw but in fairness Andy Burnham, Gordon Brown and latterly David Cameron and Theresa May deserve credit of a kind. There is much to admire in Andy Burnham. It took a Liverpool-born, working class lad elevated to a ministerial position to pull the levers to get some justice for those bereaved and damaged by Hillsborough. That’s almost a freak situation and suggests an access to justice based upon random patronage of a kind. Where I depart from Burnham
is in his framing of the context for the disaster and the Establishment cover-up that followed it. Burnham creates an 80s Thatcherite paradigm that explains it all and which might be comforting for some. But he is of course only partially correct.There are other injustices which suggest an institutional malaise going back to the Birmingham Six, Bloody Sunday and I’m sure many, many more smaller and unknown injustices that we’ll never know which have destroyed people. If you are looking for another spectacular injustice unfolding, you should pay some attention to Grenfell. The final passages of this book talk about Hillsborough forming part of the school curriculum. I agree. No account of modern British history, politics, media and social attitudes is better illustrated than the experience of this disaster. But it is says much more for the triumph of the human spirit too. You should read this book. Get it here. See also: Phil Scraton Hillsborough - The Truth. Michael Martin
There were other moments when I felt my fists clench in rage at the treatment of the bereaved and those who wanted answers and sought justice.
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Name: Adam Widdrington Age: 33
How do you earn a crust? I have a digital role working at Newcastle University, in the shadow of the magnificent St James’ Park. Where do you watch United from? I sit in the middle of the
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East Stand, two rows up from the pitch. The East Stand has a reputation for being a bit quiet, but I do try and make my mouth go for the full 90 to compensate. First game? A 4-1 victory over Cambridge United on 28 November 1992. I
watched that game from a box in the East Stand and my biggest memory of the game was of our No.10 Lee Clark hurtling up the right wing causing havoc. Best moment following the club? There are a lot of moments
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I’ll always be fond of but the 5-0 against Man Utd in October 1996 is probably the pinnacle given the manner of the win and seeing Alex Ferguson’s sour crimson face during. Although I wasn’t lucky enough to be at the game that afternoon, I watched it on TV and remember dancing around the living room with my parents celebrating one of the most complete Newcastle performances I’ve ever seen. And the worst? Watching us throw away a 12-point lead over Man Utd in the 1995/96 season. What might have been had we won the league that year... Best player you’ve seen in a B&W shirt Alan Shearer was a phenomenon and a player you just took completely for granted given his consistency season after season. But for pure natural technique I can’t look beyond Peter Beardsley or Hatem Ben Arfa - wizards, the pair of them. Which Club do you dislike most and why? Probably a toss-up between Sunderland and Aston Villa, given the continued classless behaviour from both sets of fans after our two relegations. While it was nice to see Vile sink into mediocrity last year in the Championship after the war-chest they spent www.true-faith.co.uk
on new recruits, seeing the Mackems on the brink of disaster right now is genuinely class.
Sometimes go to the Charles Grey next to Monument, and also Bodega or Trent.
Best away trip you’ve been on?
Ashley is?
Probably to Hillsborough January 1998 - my mum grew up in Sheffield as an owl, but since moving up to Newcastle she’s become an adopted season ticket-holding Geordie. We went to see Newcastle get beat 2-1 against a team featuring Benito Carbone and Paolo Di Canio, and when Wednesday scored in the first minute, she briefly forgot that she was in the Newcastle away end and celebrated on her own. It was pretty awkward. Also saw a rare Jon Dahl Tomasson goal that day! Favourite away ground? I went to see Gateshead play at Wembley in the Conference Playoff back in 2014 and having never managed to visit the old Wembley, it was fantastic to experience a game there, despite it being far from a full house. It’s a really impressive stadium up close. Who do you rely on for opinion/news about NUFC/football the most? The Toon Network and True Faith, obviously. And the least? TalkShite or Paul Merson. Best match day boozer?
The worst. A poisonous melt. Rafa is? An absolute footballing genius, and a genuinely nice person to talk to. His obsessive love for football is utterly infectious. Modern football is great because? The world-class quality of football we watch today is a fascinating spectacle and the Premier League is such a draw for the world’s best talent. The difference in standard from the early days of the Premier League in comparison is mind-blowing.
But for pure natural technique I can’t look beyond Peter Beardsley or Hatem Ben Arfa - wizards, the pair of them.
Modern football is shit because? It’s simply not affordable enough for so many people and that includes watching the game at home on Sky, let alone being able to get to the games home or away. Tell us something we don’t know about NUFC? There was a story going around that I heard about Matt Ritchie breaking loads of records during his Newcastle medical for his levels of fitness. The guy is a complete freak of science apparently, in the best possible way! tf 59
My original plan was to take my three mates to the Milan Derby, however that idea had to be binned when my Inter Siamo Noi (Fan Identification Card- allowing ticket priority purchasing) did not arrive in time. There could only be one alternative, Genoa v Sampdoria, The Derby della Laterna (named after the famous lighthouse the symbol of the city) at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris or Marassi as it is better known and the shared ground of the two clubs. Having read about how special this Derby was and having witnessed the unique atmosphere generated by the tifosi there, it was a no-brainer, this match was the one.
Geordies Here, Geordies There
DERBY DELLA LATERNA - GENOA 0 SAMPDORIA 2 Stadio Luigi Ferraris, KO: 7:45pm, 4/Nov/2017, Serie A, Att: 32,288. Arriving back from our afternoon match (TF 136), we picked up our by now recovered comrade from the hotel, sank a couple of pints at the bar and then made our way out into the dark damp miserable evening for a walk of about a
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mile to the Marassi. Genoa or to give them their full name Genoa Cricket and Football Club are the oldest (1893) pro- club in Italy, set up by Englishman James Richardson Spensley. Their first true manager came from nr Stockport
William Garbutt, later to become known as the father of Italian football. The club’s emblem is half red and blue over-laid with a Griffin, the top third being the flag of St George signifying their English roots. Known as I Rossoblu or Ill Grifone.
Peter Embleton Follow @pefiorentina
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Sampdoria are a much more recent club and came about in 1946 as a result of the merger of two local clubs Andrea Doria and Sampierdarenese to form Unione Calcio Sampdoria, their shirt being an amalgam of the 2 former clubs colours, blue with white red and black hoops. They are known as Il Blucerchiati (blue circled) or Il Doria. I love the approach to any ground for a night match, this one being no different, the floodlights piercing the gloom from this iconic Stadio, which has a distinctly English character about it - four high red brick towers at each corner standing www.true-faith.co.uk
bold and upright, connect four steeply raked stands. I can see the lads are soaking up the atmosphere and we grab a quick bite to eat on the way. I devour a huge hunk of Focaccia bread whilst they purchase burgers and onions from the street vendors lining the route. You can take the lads outside the NE, but not the NE from the lads. The bars along Corso Alessandro De Stefanis, which runs the length of the stadium, are packed, mostly with Genoa fans but with plenty of Sampdoria fans too. (this has been designated the formers,
home match). As you approach the Marassi, from the direction of the city centre, the first of the two ends you see is the Gradinata Sud home of the Sampdoria tifosi occupied by their Ultra groups including the Ultras Tito Cucchiaroni. Genoa occupy the Gradinata Nord, their Ultra groups include the Fossa dei Griffoni. On purpose, we arrive early. I wanted the lads to take in the splendour and atmosphere of this occasion and in particular the build up to the match. It’s strange tf 61
seeing both Genoa and Sampdoria tifosi entering together for such a high intensity Derby. Under the rabbit warren of the un- modernised east stand we wander until we locate our gangway out into the Stadio, immediately the noise from both the Genoa and Sampdoria ends hits you, I take a look across at the lads faces and their expressions are priceless It’s like what the f**k have I landed in here. My mates are literally rooted to the spot. Already it is difficult to strike up a conversation such is the level of decibels inside. By the way there is still an hour to kick off and the ground I would say, was 80% full.
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Where we are sitting, there are ropes stretching down from the upper tier of the stand to pitch level and that can only mean one thing, we are going to be sitting right under a huge choreography. As it happens we are part of Genoa’s contribution, to the night. I’m gutted it could mean no photos of what both ends will have offered up choreo wise - the moment these are unveiled is one of the most spine tingling hair on the back of the neck football moments - it really is truly spectacular. The singing and chanting by both Curvas has been relentless in the build up. As the players begin their warm up and drills they
greeted by a crescendo of catcalls booing and two of the favourite Italian profanities merda and vaffanculo. As kick off approaches, something strange happens. In the North and South stands, all the flags and banners are lowered and the chanting stops. The expanded band of Genoa tifosi at the front in coordination with those in the upper tier slowly lower this huge sheet over our heads Being under this is both exhilarating and claustrophobic at the same time ,we must have been under there for at least 5 minutes before it is pull back. Then all is revealed.
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Genoas Upper tier have hand held cards above their heads depicting the cross of St George. The Lower tier half has huge blue and red stripes the other is predominately white crossed by horizontal thin blue and red strips. In response, the remaining third of the stadium mutates into a swirling mass of waving flags in the colours of Sampdoria. For those Interested the huge banner we were seated under read “Il Genoa E Del Suo Popolo” literally “Genoa and its people”. www.true-faith.co.uk
The match was played at a pace and intensity that befitted this special Derby. No quarter asked non given, end to end The ebb and flow played out to the background of the loudest singing and chants I’ve heard in an Italian Stadio, all coordinated by the Ultra capos perched up high in the stands facing away from the game conducting their respective followers. Never seeing a minute of play!! Sampdoria’s finishing proved to be decisive as befitted the team at the top end of the table Gaston Ramirez (24min) yes that one and Fabio
Qaglirella (84 min) scored both from Duvan Zapata assists. When the goals went in the Sampdoria end went mental, bizarrely in The Genoa end their primeval chant just continued as if nothing had happened, only it was even louder. We were party to a local skirmish in our seats when 2 women rival tifosi became involved in a fracas as a result of over celebration The men folk then became involved insults traded, beer thrown resulting in all parties being ejected. Calm restored. On the final whistle tf 63
the Sampdoria players celebrated wildly with the Granatina Sud for what must have been a good ten minutes after the finish contrasting that with the Genoa players who trudged off after saluting their support. We stayed to allow the stands to clear. Amazingly the two ends were still full thirty minutes after the final whistle still trading songs chants and insults at each other. What a show of support from both sets of tifosi. After the match we
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meandered our way down from the Marassi to the special buses, which take you back to the city centre Despite the no-holds-barred nature of the contest and a disappointing outcome for the Grifone, the street leading down the hill to town – the Via Canevari –was full with fans of both teams in animated post match discussion, a molten flow of people and scooters, a cacophony of horns and noise pierced the night air. In a city inhabited by two teams in one Stadio in divided neighbourhoods, the spoils of victory
will have been argued about long and hard and celebrated for weeks after. Unfortunately revenge for Genoa would have to wait till the next Derby in April. Revered Italian coach Marcello Lippi when asked which is the best Derby in Italy revealed his pick “The most special Derby? I think the Laterna “ Having witnessed them all I would concur with that. Worth a visit? Most definitely. My mates are still talking about that night to this day. Says it all really.
We stayed to allow the stands to clear. Amazingly the two ends were still full thirty minutes after the final whistle still trading songs chants and insults at each other. What a show of support from both sets of tifosi.
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donatE by texting NCLF00 & a £ amount to 70070 OR VISIT OUR DONATION STATION AT GRAINGER MARKET Wed, Fri & Sat: 9am – 5:30pm
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Postcards F rom The Edge Paully
When I penned my previous montage of gobbledygook, I had sincere high hopes that Mike Ashley would no longer be associated with United by the time it came round to knocking out this instalment of gibberish which means that I am definitely a lot dafter than I look. The failure of the takeover to materialise meant that we had to endure yet another January transfer window under Ashley’s ownership which filtered out in the usual fashion. FAKE NEWS (copyright – ‘the Trumpsta’) was once again reported by Sky Sports News which had no doubt been fed to them via that twerp Keith Bishop. ’The Bishop’; as he likes to call himself, is Ashley’s PR advisor and he is certainly earning his coin as the whole Sky Sports arse-rimming of Ashley is cringeworthy. Two staged interviews in three years with the “shy, elusive businessman” says it all. Rafa’s main striker target was seemingly Nicolai Jorgensen whose club Feyenoord (‘aww fwends, mackem fwends’) dangled a £20m price tag over his head so Ashley being Ashley offered £12m, which they duly laughed their bollocks at. This is the same Mike Ashley who labelled Amanda Staveley and PCP’s attempts to buy NUFC as “exhausting, frustrating and a complete waste of time” after they failed to match the price that he wanted. That quote perfectly describes his ten and a half year ownership at
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United and the audacity of him never ceases to amaze. The comparative net spend this season of the three promoted clubs says it all about the owner’s ambition; Brighton £59m, Huddersfield £46m, United £19m. We were completely blitzed in the transfer market by two clubs who have never featured on the Premier League Oxo Gravy Train and whose combined home crowds only just top ours. The excuse we don’t have the money in the bank to compete as we haven’t yet received a proportion of the media revenue is utter bollocks. I’m fairly certain Ashley is fully aware of how a loan works. We could have quite easily borrowed the amount of money that we are guaranteed to receive and used that to fund transfers. Imagine if you were offered the chance to spend a full weekend getting smashed in a hot tub with all four members of Little Mix for the sum of £102.45 but your monthly pay date fell on the Monday after and you were completely skint so couldn’t afford it. What would you do? Spend the full weekend in the house knocking several out over Google searched images www.true-faith.co.uk
Well, what a difference 21 months makes in the mad world of booting a pig’s bladder about. They currently sit rock bottom (and the Rock means ‘ROCK BOTTOM’) of the league that they labelled as “the Championshit” when Rafa was adding another trophy to his collection last season. www.true-faith.co.uk
of the four of them (well, three perhaps) or borrow the money secured against the guaranteed income that you were due to receive just a few days later and enjoy hot water shenanigans with all of them? It’s just another pathetic excuse from the owner which thankfully now nobody is gullible enough to swallow. Rafa stressed in May the importance of signing players early during the summer transfer window. Rafa stressed in December the importance of singing players at the beginning of the January transfer window. Rafa would have got more sense out of telling the Angel of the North’s bum-hole than telling Mike Ashley. Kenedy arrived with eight days of the January transfer window remaining and has shown real quality and it’s no wonder Rafa desperately wanted him last summer.We then secured both Slimani and Dubravka via loan deals on the day when the transfer window SLAMMED SHUT (sadly not on to Jim White’s annoying head). All three signings will be crucial to our survival hopes
they said in an extremely arrogant tone. Well, what a difference 21 months makes in the mad world of booting a pig’s bladder about. They currently sit rock bottom (and the Rock means ‘ROCK BOTTOM’) of the league that they labelled as “the Championshit” when Rafa was adding another trophy to his collection last season. Perhaps they are once again trying to copy us via getting out of the Championship after just one season?
especially the latter two. The real Slimani has yet to feature but Dubravka had an outstanding debut at home Their fans detest Ellis Short to Man U. How many times but he has fully backed every this season have we dropped manager bar last summer. points due to our crop of Their net spend over the forwards’ football boots last ten years is frightening transforming into scuba the payments they diver fins during matches? as are bin managers How many times this season have made to just have we dropped points due which usually happened to our crop of goalkeepers’ prior to a Derby match and arms transforming into then resulted in the ‘new the arms of Jelly Babies manager bounce’ malarkey during matches? Rafa was (shit-houses). desperate for upgrades on It also resulted in them those key two positions avoiding relegation too and last summer but once again were no complaints was not backed (Joselu is a there then. I still limited honest trier who was from their fans up added simply as an extra think that they’ll stay body). If we had have done as they seem to lose nine I’m confident we’d be sitting matches every week but are comfortably in the top half currently only three points with our feet up on the couch off fourth bottom. It took whilst smoking cigars and six years for the vile turd dropping the ash on to the to finally flush from the relegation strugglers below. Premier League toilet and I sadly can’t see that same “Rafa beneath us”, they turd floating down said in an extremely smug horrible one year tone (a phrase pinched another toilet just from the Everton fans later. It’s a case of ‘goodbye relating to Rafa’s successful and good riddance’ from if time at Anfield); “Enjoy the they do drop and I sincerely Championship”, they said hope that they are playing in an extremely smarmy South Shields in a few tone; “Enjoy Burton away”, seasons time. tf 67
60 SECOND
CHRIS LAws
SEASON Players: McInroy, Nelson, Fairhurst,MacKenzie,Betton, Weaver, Boyd, JR Richardson, Allen, McMenemy, Lang, Kelly, Dennison, Cape, Davidson, Murray, Bell, Pearson, Williams, McPhillips, Hughes, Thomson, J Richardson, Imrie, Burns, Leighton, Dryden. Division: After a fifth-placed finish last year, it all came crumbling down at United this season, with the club suffering their first ever relegation. United plummeted from last season’s points total of 49 to 34 after a horrific run of form in the second half of the season
condemned them to football in the Second Division next year.
season this year, as 43,439 descended onto St. James’ Park to see the good guys win 2-1 in October of this season. Weaver being the Tyneside hero, scoring both goals in the win. On the road, the 41,379 saw one of our worst results of the season, going down 4-0 to Spurs at White Hart Lane.
Trainer/Coach: Carrying on with work as normal, it was down to James McPherson Jr. to get the best out of the side on the training pitch.
Lowest Attendance: The lowest crowd on Tyneside in this miserable campaign was 8,098 that came to see a 1-1 home draw with Leicester in the November, with playmaker McMenemy getting the goal. Away from home, a low of 10,356 saw a crushing defeat for the black and whites when we really needed to get a result. A 1-4 reverse at Huddersfield in the third last game of the season put United in an incredible precarious position under the relegation trap door.
Highest Attendance: Sunderland at home brought the biggest crowd that the Magpies played in front of all
Average Attendance: Another small dip in the average attendances happened again this year, a drop of
Manager: Andy Cunningham continued in his role once again this year, however, after a few positive seasons in the last few years (FA Cup win, 5th placed finish) things took a nosedive this time around. He would be given the chance to get us back up next season..
Jimmy Nelson
close to 2,000 left the average attendance at 24,142 from 21 home league games. United never played at home in the cup this season. Biggest Win: New Years Day joy brought us our biggest win of the campaign, and it wasn’t even close, as Newcastle ran riot against Liverpool. An outstanding 9-2 win (our highest victory in the league up until then..) brought smiles to faces on Tyneside. The game featured hat-tricks from two different players, from the influential Weaver and JR Richardson. Both players incredibly scored both hattricks in the second 45 minutes, as the teams went into the halftime break at 2-2 before a second half deluge for the Magpies. Boyd, Lang and Williams also got on the scoresheet. Worst Defeat: Despite a few very hefty wins (more on that below..) our defeats stayed at a relatively average (compared to the wins!) 4-goal margin. We lost by that score
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twice, firstly in the aforementioned game against Spurs, our recordcrowd we played in front of on the road, and finally down the stretch, we lost 0-4away to Sheffield United in March. A result that really left us in trouble and searching for answers. For context, Sheffield United would go on to finish bottom of the league. Something of Interest: Newcastle United were relegated for the first time in their history. A dramatic fall from a few years previous when we went from FA Cup winners and title challengers to relegation fodder. On paper, we had a side that was easily capable of staying up, a squad that would include nine internationals. Injuries were no doubt a factor, one in particular to play-maker McMenemy really hurt United, losing him to a knee injury for close to six months proved massive to our season. The black and whites fell apart from February onwards winning only one of the last 14 games. We travelled to Stoke on the last day needing a win, and ended up suffering a 1-2 defeat. That coupled with a Birmingham victory on the final day set United’s fate in stone. We would play in the Second Division for the first time, after spending 36 years at the top table. Mentioned in Dispatches: Despite being relegated, it’s worth noting that United recorded some sensational victories this year. Obviously, the previously mentioned 9-2 victory over Liverpool was a record at the time, but www.true-faith.co.uk
it was far from the only time we seriously troubled the scoreboard this year. A week before the New Year’s Day demolition of Liverpool, we walloped Everton 7-3 away on Boxing Day. Williams on that occasion was the man who grabbed a hat-trick. We also gave ourselves a brief glimmer of hope in our second last game of the season, beating Wolves 5-1. Imrie nabbing himself the match-ball in that one. Alas, it wasn’t to be. National Interest: In March this year, the 1934 Betting and Lotteries Act was passed, which was trying to limit gambling to 104 days per year on race courses… Meccano introduces it’s first Dinky Toys this year… The “surgeon’s photograph” of the Loch Ness Monster was published in the Daily Mail in April. The photo was admitted to be a hoax much later… Stanley Matthews makes his England debut for England this year, which was the beginning of a record 23year old international career… Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express book was released this year… Legendary Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman passed away in January… Reghional Interest: February 1933, Bobby Robson is born into a mining family in the Co Durham coalfield. Captain Vincent Collier attempts to address a hundred-strong meeting of Oswald Moseley’s British Union of Fascists on Stockton High Street. He and his supporters are battered
February 1933, Bobby Robson is born into a mining family in the Co Durham coalfield and chased from the town by thousands of Miners, Socialists andTrade Unionists from across the North East. The fascists take shelter but not before one of their number (John Warburton of Bury) has his eye put out by a potato stuck with razor blades. They are escorted to their bus by the Police singing Land of Hope and Glory. The majority of them would be imprisoned during WW2 and did not serve their country despite their apparent patriotic ardour. The fascists had travelled to Stockton from Lancashire and Tyneside. The incident became known as the Battle of Stockton. The fascists lost. Heavily. One-
eyed Warburton remained active in extreme right-wing politics up until his death in 2004. The prick. Elsewhere unemployment in Jarrow exceeds 60% against a national average of 16%. Jarrow had witnessed the closure of its colliery, shipyard and steelworks in the early 30s as international money markets had one of their periodic crises. Unemployment benefits are barely sufficient to cover living costs and communities are sustained by a travelling soup van. Chris Laws. Follow @tflawsy1892 tf 69
“Don’t get me wrong (Gimme some money, gimme some money) Try getting me right (Gimme some money, gimme some money) Your face is okay But your purse is too tight (Gimme some money, gimme some money) I’m looking for pound notes, loose change, bad checks, anything Money’ by the rock Gimme some money, gimme some money.” (The lyrics to ‘Gimme Some e, late 2017...) band, Spinal Tap. Found, scrawled in a split bill from a London curry hous Gimme some money, gimme some money.” (The lyrics to ‘Gimme Some Money’ by the rock band, Spinal Tap. Found, scrawled in a split bill from a London curry house, late 2017...) Ah wanting what you can’t have, especially money. The curse of our future. I’m no conspiracy theorist but I wonder whether we are being prepared for a right royal financial shitstorm by our beloved leaders. Everywhere we turn, we are bombarded with media messages to cut back, or to expect cutbacks
Remoaner, centrist dad, mancreammed and bearded Guardianista fops and their gloomy predictions about leaving the EU, the North, especially the North East will be frozen in a permanent 1933. Gradual removal of foreign investment, eating American chicken washed in mustard gas, jobs taken over by robots wearing Ed Sheeran masks, shoes made of cabbage leaves, piped, permalooped Jacob ReesTalking of irresponsible Morgue monologues about coves, if you believe softy, Spitfires played on the workshy, Metro, what hope have we? Metrosexual,
on something or other. To prepare for a permanent 1950s in the 2020s, whether Tory or Labour. To expect no treatment from the NHS, no plastic packaging, no post-Brexit expectations, even to expect a decrease in our weight (pre, not post a dressed lobster luncheon at that!). We have to rein everything in. Further, we are expected to sit and take it. Any grumbles are unpatriotic or irresponsible.
Luckily we NUFC fans have jolly, pleasantly-plump Mike Ashley to thank for lowering our expectations over the course of the last decade. As our dear leader knows, everything in life should be a grind, a grind moreover with no money coming in. Especially Amanda’s. It’s a lesson worth learning by rote for us poor benighted souls born north of Watford, a place where Daryl Janmaat can boast a golden toilet in his yard. Maybe the “we can’t compete with the likes of Bournemouth
, e l b m u B . r M id Come, sa mpously, for it was
somewhat less po e h t e v er bs o o t s g in el fe is h gratifying to e, m o “C ; ed c u d o pr d a h e c en effect his eloqu s ff u c e h t h it w es ey r u o y e Oliver! Wip r u o y o t in ry c 't n o d d n a , et k of your jac er. v li O , n io t c a sh li o fo y er v a gruel; that's s) Oliver Twist - Charles Dicken RICHARD
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FOSTER follow @Incendiary Magazine
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and Watford” mantra was a canny precursor to what our future lives outside the EU will look like. No Daily Mail reader could ever accuse us of being softy snowflake millennials who’ve never fought in a world war and don’t dig the swinging sounds of X Factor. For that alone, we should be grateful to our bubbly Bucks benefactor. Talking of plastics, I am sure everyone is aware we have to cut back on this substance in our daily lives. The consequences for the planet are horrendous if action is not taken soon. After all who wants to eat fish whose flesh has been altered due to ingested plastic particles from a bottle some S*nderland fan pissed in (due to their stadium’s continuing and very public lack of thunder boxes)? Not I, Sirrah.Talking of them down the road, I think, given the amount of empty plastic seats on display, the club could find a more noble and patriotic purpose for them. There is, after all, something very melancholy about an empty plastic chair, especially a scuffed, faded red-veering-salmon pink one. In Sunderland. It’s the stuff of Ian Rankin novels. Maybe they could be melted down to make robots for offshore service industries in our forthcoming, glorious, work-free, cash-free future.
correct parlance) “slammed shut”, daddy-oh. We signed three players. Sing Hosanna. And only one is injured. And if only we’d have got Crystal Palace’s Moses we’d have a full hand of monotheistic faith groups. Religion’s smoke and mirror tricks and the new loanees aside, I still have a lot of time for the current bunch. For example, what a good lad Isaac Hayden seems to be, given his involvement with the foodbank. In fact, if they are all good lads, understanding what the club means, and doing their best where they can. Imagine if this lot were as good at football as Keegan’s ‘90s sides or Robson’s early noughties sides. It’s such a shame they are in the words of David Conn’s blistering piece on Ashley’s NUFC, “willing lads on zero-hour contracts”. To me, a sense of tragic irony often goes hand-in-hand with the best intentions.
It’s February. The month of Kevin Keegan’s birthday. Time to change this column’s tone, stop whining and tell the tale of the time Terry Mac and Keegan gave me a lift from Benwell to town. We’d gatecrashed the press conference at Sid James’ the Friday before and - despite the protests of the arsehole Saahvaan press guys (nowt changes) - got (courtesy of the great George Bailey from Radio 2) an interview with KK & co at the next training I am glad the transfer session on the Tuesday. window has (to give the After getting the Peasant’s www.true-faith.co.uk
Keegan, looking around the wet field with a shrug of resignation said ''get in the back of Terry Mac's car then, and don’t touch the sweets.''” Wagon over to Benwell, we hung around watching the likes of Alan Thompson and Mick Quinn lark about whilst getting wet in the February gloaming. Finally KK jogged over to us. He remembered us. “You lads got a car? We can sort the talk there.” No, we came on the bus... Keegan, looking around the wet field with a shrug of resignation said, “get in the back of Terry Mac’s car then, and don’t touch the sweets.” Imagine. You are in the back of Terry Mac’s BMW, wearing a terrible homemade Cocteau Twins teeshirt, your mates clutching their lecture notes in lazzy bags, whilst careering through the Tyneside’s urban sprawl, asking the shittest
questions known to man, and being sweet-talked by one of the greatest managers Newcastle United ever had. And getting shot down by his Scouse Sargeant (this exchange, I think, is verbatim). “My dad won’t believe I’m in the back of your car Terry.” “You won’t see your fuckin’ da again the way I drive kid.” Dropped off at the ground, KK signed something for the Columba Club’s prize draw (no-one in the club believed it was real till our article was published) and gave us some tickets for the Bristol match. You couldn’t make it up. THAT memory, not managing expectations, is what this club is about..
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I’m a bairn of the 1960s. I was born less than twenty years after the end of WW2. As a child and a young man I knew lots of people who had served in the second world war. It was real.
Darkest Hour Tyneside Cinema. I can vividly recall the seminal World At War TV programme and Laurence Olivier’s magnificent role as narrator. That series was watched in reverential silence in our house. It was the best history lesson I ever had. My parents and grandparents lived through it. They had stories of the Tyne being bombed, of children collecting shrapnel, of gas-masks, evacuations, ration books and relatives going off to fight and never coming back. They spoke of the euphoria of VE Day and the quiet sadness of sacrifice and loss. I’ll confess to a fascination with WW2. I can’t imagine the fear an imminent invasion by Nazi Germany would have generated in every corner of society and its impact on the everyday life of people just like you and I, the people who walked our streets 70-80 years ago, our forbears. World War 2 is without doubt the most defining moment in this country’s long history and
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its aftermath shaped the world we live in today. I’d argue until the election of Thatcher in ’79, what followed WW2 defined this country both socially and politically into a post-war consensus of broadly shared values between Labour and Tory. That started to be pulled apart when Thatcher won the battle for the part of the Tory party. As each year passes and neo-liberal dogma take a stranglehold on political and economic power, so the rapid social progress of the post-war period is put in reverse. But back to this film. I can’t argue that Churchill was a giant of a war time leader and I don’t argue that he saw clearly the danger presented by Hitler and fascism across Europe. However, I’m not buying into the hagiography of the man that this film encourages, though I accept his wider political life was not the subject of the film. There is too much not discussed enough in the
Churchill story to present him as a de-facto father of the nation. This is a good film. It isn’t a great film however. Gary Oldman is superb. He is utterly convincing as Churchill and if his performance doesn’t lead to a flurry of awards then something is going badly wrong. Unfortunately, the Darkest Hour is too much about Churchill. I’m influenced in my thinking by Paul Mason (The Guardian) who suggested that the working class experience of the privations of WW2 is hugely overlooked by modern culture. Indeed in this film, the main characters are high-Tory and royal. Though to be fair they are presented in large part venal, self-serving and cowardly. We hear nothing,
not even in passing of the massive contribution to the war effort of Bevan, a giant of the labour movement. Where working people become part of the film it is in a comic-book manner, treated in an almost patronising manner. The film is beautifully shot and acted. Those who put the sets together and the cast into their costumes have done a superb job. If you missed it, get out and see Dunkirk, which is another superb period drama of this incredible time in British history. Go and see this film but think afterwards, away from the media hoopla, just how good it really was and how much you’ll anticipate watching it again. A 7/10 for me.
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The Post
Fact Independent Cinema, Wood St, Liverpool Don’t imagine I’ve travelled all the way to Merseyside to go the flix. I’m frequently in the very agreeable city of Liverpool working for the Man and often have nowt to do on an evening other than wind up Mackems or rant at Ashley via social media, so a night at the pickchas breaks the week up. A word on FACT. If you are ever in Liverpool with nowt to do and want to swerve the peeve, this is place I’d recommended. It’s a great cinema, obviously independent and has the same love for film as the Tyneside. I don’t think I’ll
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ever set foot in a horrible, corporate, soulless multiplex ever again. Anyway. You put Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in a film and you can’t go far wrong. This is a good story telling the tale of decades of government misinformation, subterfuge, lies and deceit to justify the disastrous Vietnam War. The kind of stuff we’d never imagine the self-styled leaders of the free world, home of the brave and a pillar of western liberal democracy would ever get up to but well, they did. And only 15 years ago the UK did the same on an utterly false prospectus presented by Tony Blair. Both governments have caused hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths,
destabilised whole regions of which the aftermath we are still living with. In terms of a story which pulls you in and has you on the end of your seat it is a bit lacking. We all knew the outcome. The Washington Post, despite huge political, legal and commercial pressures, which threatened bankruptcy and potential imprisonment of The Post’s proprietor, Katherine Graham (played by Streep) did publish. We knew that. The main point I took away from the film was the courage, independence of the press and that is an important one to recognise in these days of Fake News, social media, clickbait and all the rest of it. I’m not going to mythologise a past that never existed but a functioning democracy requires a free and active press. We are probably at a fork in the road with Trump in the Whitehouse and a mainstream media in the UK dominated by billionaire bigots et al. The film is of its time and beautifully filmed within the period. The era is way before the digital revolution and although modern, the inkiness of the print media with rolling presses, hacks calling from phone-boxes and the kind of dashes across town with pieces of paper and late night knocks on the door a world away from how we live these days. If you liked this, you’ll love All The Presidents men. 7/10..
Michael Martin Follow @tfMichael1892 tf 73
Phantom Thread
Tyneside Cinema
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Tyneside Cinema.
Best film I’ve seen in a very, very long time. Beautifully filmed, acted and a great story which is painfully relevant in terms of misogyny, male emasculation, racism and injustice in contemporary life. I loved the stripped down raw heroism of the leading actress, a mother whose pain at the rape and murder of her daughter and its attendant unsolved, apparently ignored case sends her on a journey where there is no compromise. The film challenges notions of traditional femininity
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I’ll be honest. Had I been watching this on Netflix or some such I’d have switched it off. But as I was with the boss and had paid to get in and she was loving it, I was stuck. I think that says more about me than the film to be honest. We are so used nowadays to seeing beautifully filmed material in all walks of life it is often easy to neglect how far the bar has been raised. If I was the ignorant get I’ve been on too many occasions than is good for me in my appreciation of the arts, I’d dismiss this as not for me such is the absence of Italian-American gangsters and heroic battles against fascism 70-odd years ago. It isn’t for me. Maybe I’m far too blokey for my own good. I had no empathy whatsoever for the main
characters. Afterwards we discussed the leading part played by the always excellent Daniel Day-Lewis as a kind of self-absorbed Morrissey with dressmaking replacing Indie crooning. For me the highlights were the sets and the costumes. The acting was superb but perhaps I need to develop emotionally to fully appreciate the depths of this kind of deep, complex relationship drama. I never really got poetry at school and most of Shakespeare bored the balls off me. And don’t get me on about the Brontes. It was the wrong film for me but I never got Radiohead and I don’t deny they have something I just don’t get. Like this film. If you like this, you’ll love Wuthering Heights.. 6/10.
Michael Martin Follow @tfMichael1892
with the leading character refusing to break in the face of marital betrayal and domestic violence, Police complacency and social disapproval. Not that there aren’t moments of the darkest comedy, tenderness and personal renaissance. There is plenty of all of that. This is a truly great story without a tidy resolution and I’d recommend you to get along and get it watched. If you like this you’ll love Mississippi Burning. 9/10.
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E R E H P U N IG S H C T A M Y R E V E EMAILED TO YOU nique pieces u es d u cl in l ia ec Sp The the day n o es m ga ed it n U to tailored ide the perfect they are played and prov match-day read.
s regular true faith writer of ew cr t ea gr a ve ha We rrison, Wallace Wilson, Ha th re Ga , rst Hu ex Al including arc , Guy Hannay-Wilson, M es ok St n ro Aa , hy op Br k Mar ho provide excellent w tin ar M l ae ich M d Corby an so g match of the day but al in m co d an up e th on es piec on in the wider world g in go is t ha w t ou ab k some crac of football. you ctly well on any device rfe pe s ad re l ia ec Sp e Th especially good on its ld or w r ou in t bu e can nam e rfect reading sat on th smart-phones and is pe , in the pub or before ck ba ers ho , ro et M s bu , train the match etc. with true faith, it is Like everything we do absolutely FREE. u don’t need to seek yo ys da n de ol e th e lik Un llers before the match out one of our fanzine se has sold out of copies. ho w nt ge sa w ne a it vis or ster and The Special will All you need to do is regi ke up on match-day. wa u yo re fo be ox -b in ur be in yo ing a subscriber to The be of s fit ne be e th of One of receive advance warning Special is that you will ith coming out and that fa e tru of ue iss w ne e th w in its digital format. again is FREE of charge no
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The closing of the January transfer window saw the second TF Press forum at the Gallowgate Irish Centre. This is an event which is fast becoming a real favourite both amongst NUFC supporters, concerned at the direction Mike Ashley has taken our club in and the NE sports writers who turn up to answer a plethora of questions for free. The evenings have both acted as fundraisers for the West end food bank and a number of their people have been in evidence on each occasion. It’s fair to say that in particular this charity has become close to many of our hearts. The thought of families not being able to
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properly feed themselves in our City makes me feel ill. However, I just chuck them money when I can. These people spend their lives collecting and are modern day heroes. For those of you who haven’t been previously, there are three sittings. In each there
are a mixture of various fanzine folk, NUST people and the sports writers. If / when there’s another one, I’d urge anyone of a black & white persuasion to have a look. It’s informative and at times, very funny (especially when Colin Whittle from NUST is on the mic).
NICK CLARK @CLARK5NICK
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You can get hold of the podcast through the TF site (with an obligatory ask of £5 to the Foodbank) so I won’t try to repeat word for word what each person said. Instead, I’ll attempt to give you my take on things. One of my primary reasons for going is to get any type of insider gossip. I’ll admit it now. I’m a sucker for this type of thing. The now rather large tranche of social media ITK’s are so riddled with the insane, the ‘news’ believing earnest & arse hole pranksters that it’s tough to believe a word anyone says. These NE sports writers, whilst not professing to know everything, certainly appear to have a better grasp on www.true-faith.co.uk
things than the average Mag in the Street. What absolutely shines through is their downright dislike of Ashley and his cohorts. They speak each with great eloquence and with no little passion (and sometimes wonderfully added profanity) about the many examples of strange and detrimental (to NUFC) acts perpetrated by our glorious benefactor.The way it’s described can actually be very humorous, however the empty, self defeating sadness of his overall rule is always uncomfortably close. I went on this particular occasion with the forlorn hope that someone would
tell me not to worry, and that there will be another takeover bid soon. However, I left with those hopes not exactly dashed, but certainly hanging by a thread. The most relevant passage of conversation during the evening was between Luke Edwards (Telegraph) and George Caulkin (Times). Luke, all skinhead and cocker-nee dulcet tones, dresses a bit Kidult, (so do I like, so no criticism there!) He could actually be an extra for the Football Factory. That is, until you actually listen to what he’s saying. His version of the Staveley takeover is that basically, she’s a bit of a chancer.
The most relevant passage of conversation during the evening was between Luke Edwards (Telegraph) and George Caulkin (Times). Luke, all skinhead and cock-er-nee dulcet tones tf 77
It’s delivered with great articulation and no little amount of bottle, given he’s in a room full of slowly peeved, pasty faced NUFC diehards, and he’s delivering bad news in thoughtful but Laahndan geezerish manner! He reckons that she’d love to be involved in purchasing a Premiership Club, but her modus operandi appears to be find a potentially interested seller, stick a bid in, then go looking for backers. Surely, the quintessential example of putting the cart before the horse? George, for the first time
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I’ve ever seen, looked close to being a little flustered. This is probably akin to seeing Roger Moore’s James Bond looking mildly miffed at a poorly poured Martini. But, you get my drift. Remember, he’d had the ‘exclusive’. A visit to Ms Staveley’s luxurious London pad, to give her side of things. When pressed on whether she was for real or not, the best he could respond with was “I’d like to think so.” Other NE heavyweight hacks (stature not size) such as JFK nemesis, Simon Bird (Mirror) and tall, rugged, square jawed Craig Hope
(Mail) seemed to concur with Lee’s overall stance. Maybe they’re all wrong and Amanda will return to rescue us from evil. I went home, slightly worse for wear thinking that it’ll probably have to be someone else if we are to be out of Ashley’s clutches. So, apart from a couple of long winded, pointless questions and a rather aggressive bearded gentleman, who wouldn’t stop chipping in it was a superb night. Maybe, I’ll leave the next one feeling more upbeat. I damn well hope so.
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#ASHLEY OUT
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ael1892
Mic
@tfMich w o ll o F in t r a hael M
One of my earliest memories of games at St James’ Park (aside from being hugely impressed by the very loud adult swearing) is of Frank Clark being hammered by Mags in what was once the West Stand Paddock and what is now the lower tier of the Milburn. Clark, was let us be honest, not known for his Roberto Carlos attacking runs down the left-flank from his full-back berth or his goals. Definitely not for his goals as he recorded only one in 464 games between 1962 and 1975 testifies. “Hang Your Boots Up Frankie Clark” sticks in my memory as a song sung towards a Geordie lad who had joined United from Crook Town, featured in our mid-60s promotion and famous Fairs Cup winning teams and was a member of the side that got to the FAC Final of 1974. Clark was a stoic club servant, unspectacular but found to be utterly dependable by tf 80
his manager, Joe Harvey. His post-playing career as a manager with Orient, Forest and Man City as well as LMA role suggests a man of influence and intelligence in the dressing room. I always thought Clark had the mien of a much older man such was his demeanour and he did indeed seem to “know my father”. When Supermac, Jimmy Smith, Terry Mac et al were doubtless hitting the flesh-pots of Scamps and the Dolce Vita in Newcastle’s 70s city centre, I suspect Clark was tucked up at home keeping an eye on his Building Society book. Not exactly Bob Ferris (Likely Lads – ask your Dad) but certainly his potential neighbour on the posh new Darras Hall Estate. Anyway. As ever, I go around the houses. Clark was under-appreciated. 70s
Mags go misty-eyed about Jimmy Smith in a way I expect the generations which purred to Hatem Ben Arfa will in future and they as the Jinky apostles have done, air-brush his unprofessionalism and unreliability out of the picture for the benefit of the myth. Frank Clark left United to join Brian Clough at Forest. In a golden spell he won the League Championship (1978), the European Cup (1979) and the League Cup (1978, 1979) playing for one of the game’s greatest managers. Maybe Brian Clough knew more than Clark’s West Stand Paddock critics. Jimmy Smith didn’t win anything. Neither will Hatem Ben Arfa but that will not detract from the legend.
Rafa will pick Dummett any time he can. He has done in the two years he’s been at the club. Dummett is a player Rafa trusts, who listens to him and who I have no doubt will improve under Benitez’s tuition.
Clark isn’t the only player to have been under-appreciated by our support. Over the last twenty-five years I’d www.true-faith.co.uk
include Lee Clark, Steve Watson, Alan Thompson, Rob Elliott, Aaron Hughes, Shola Ameobi and Danny Simpson as players who for whatever reason, never really drew the affection and respect of the SJP crowd. Most were allowed to leave, their departures un-mourned as the club turned to more exotic targets as trade-ups on the unglamorous, mostly home-grown wall-flowers who’d largely come through the ranks. Who can really say United did better to move Watson, Hughes, Thompson, Clark, Elliott on after their departures? Who will claim Charvet, Babayaro, Serrant, Georgiados, Bassedas et al did better for us than the lads from round the doors, who were mainly supporters of the club? The club cashed in on dependable, local lads to take risks on foreign players who weren’t coming into play the exuberant roles in the side as Ginola, Asprilla, Robert, Solano did for us. Some might see that as folly.
Dummett does the same job in the dressing room, Ginola ascribed to Lee Clark about his love for the club, reminding the players from outside the area and even the country about how much it matters to the people in the stands and in our city-region. Rafa will pick Dummett any time he can. He has done in the two years he’s been at the club. Dummett is a player Rafa trusts, who listens to him and who I have no doubt will improve under Benitez’s tuition.
has signed a new contract keeping him at United until 2022. Whether Paul sees out his contract here remains to be seen because of all of the shape-shifting that goes on with agents, managers and all of the rest of it. But I’d love to see Paul Dummett spend his whole career at United and provide the dependable, reliability our sides have so often missed. He does for Rafa and he should do for you:
that are important for the team, normally people talk about goal-scorers, midfielders and number 10s but in modern football, there are not too many consistent left-sided fullbacks. Paul is exactly that, he understands the game and you know what you can expect from him week in, week out. That is important when you have a lot of big games. He is a player you can trust.” – Rafael Benitez, Newcastle United manager.
“If you talk about players
Keep On, Keepin’ On
I wonder if Rafa sees something in Dummett he might have saw in an awkward Jamie Carragher at Liverpool. I wonder, if in Dummett and of course, Lascelles the players who buy into the manager’s ethos, central core philosophy of hard-graft and team-work those who set the bar for others to follow. I’m delighted Dummett
And this now brings us to Paul Dummett. I’m going to put my cards firmly on the table. I like Dummett. That doesn’t mean I’m blind to his limitations or his mistakes. However, for stoic application, Dummett provides the team with a stout yeomanry it needs. He’s a supporter and despite turning out internationally for Wales, he’s a Geordie. I think this matters. I’d hope www.true-faith.co.uk
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