Disillusioned

[Toon³]

During todays game against Mansfield I had alot of time to think. I was looking up at the upper Leezes tear and the empty seats in it. I personally cannot remember the last time that we failed to fill the ground of an FA cup 3rd round game even though we have played teams from the same or lower levels of Mansfield. Now normally I would have shrugged this off and fair weather fans not bothering to turn up and gone back to the game. The thing is that for the first time I could see myself not coming to a match, I could see myself not renewing my season ticket next year.

This has nothing at all to do with the football on the pitch, I know were are crap and have been bread to know that we will never win anything. My point is that I no longer see Newcastle United FC as my club. It's just another company that takes my money and gives something (allegedly) in return. When I first began going to football in the late 80's there was a real atmosphere, one that is no longer alive anywhere in top flight English football, and a sense of pride and loyalty to the club. Sure the club might have been run by an idiot and the team was crap but it was our crap club.

Since then things have slowly become worse and worse, the club has moved away from the fans that help create it and keep it the way it is. The total lack of perspecive shown by the club is astonishing. They act like they know better than and more worringly are better than us. They are so out of touch with the common fan it's unreal, I have no idea why they think that a player like Kieron Dyer is worth paying £15,000 a week than Frank Lampard, do they not think about how that looks to the fans. The man makes double what most fans make in a year a week. Also this season they have got rid of the Family Enclosure, this is an area of the ground that is all ticket and for U-18's and 1 parent to sit in so they can watch games. It is or was an excellent idea that allowed young fans to watch the club they love. But now this is gone and replaced with 20 executive boxes. No replacement or statement. Look around a premiership ground, how many people under 18 do you see? I bet it's not that many they have been priced or in this case forced out of watching their team. This is the people who in 10 or 20 years time will be asked to pay £500+ a season to watch a team that they haven't watched apart from on TV no and then.

It's not just the Board and Chairman either. If you haven't seen recently Souness has not come out after a game to talk to the press, he sends his assistant out instead. What ************ing right does he have not to come out and tell us, the fans, the people who pay his wage, why the team didn't win? He doesn't he is employed by the fans to serve the fans.

My point is I guess, that it's not ticket prices or bad football that is driving real fans away from games. It is the attitude of clubs to fans. When football economic collapse happens it will be the clubs that are to blame for their own downfall.

Anyway thats my rant over.

R.I.P Newcastle United Football Club 1882-2005

[The Potter]

Don't worry you're just getting old.

[Toon³]

Don't worry you're just getting old.

I'm 21 :(

[sendorange]

You have a point, the commercialism has affected most clubs if not all. It is unpleasant to feel like a cash source being taken for granted, rather than a supporter of a club.

However I would say having a good chairman and good manager rather than bad ones makes things a lot better :D

[Toon³]

However I would say having a good chairman and good manager rather than bad ones makes things a lot better :D

I'm doomed.

[Colm]

Just get rid of Souness and you'll be fine again, Fat Freddy must go to.

[Matt Clark]

A disillusioned Geordie. Now there's a thing. ;)

Your lot deserve better than the club you've ended up with. Or your club don't deserve you lot - whichever you prefer. They take the piss quite blatantly, right down from the board through most of the players. It's so obvious that something like three-quarters of the Newcastle squad couldn't give two shits about the club or the fans - and that's got to be partially the fault of the club's management because when you've got gobshite crocks like Kieron Dyer on £50,000 a week then it's obvious that players aren't coming to Tyneside for the footballing challenge or the quest for glory.

You need root'n'branch surgery mate, the board needs to go, the manager and all his staff need to go, half the playing squad needs shooting and most of the the rest need selling on for whatever you can get for them.

Maybe you should move to Staffordshire and support Newcastle Town?

[King-James]

Over the 02-03 season, Newcastle had the 9th highest revenue of all football clubs. Higher than Barcelona! Their fans do deserve more than this.

[Russian Scouser]

Silly club, silly board, silly players - IMHO just the right setup for the silly fans that follow them...:)))

[nicephoras]

During todays game against Mansfield I had alot of time to think. I was looking up at the upper Leezes tear and the empty seats in it. I personally cannot remember the last time that we failed to fill the ground of an FA cup 3rd round game even though we have played teams from the same or lower levels of Mansfield. Now normally I would have shrugged this off and fair weather fans not bothering to turn up and gone back to the game. The thing is that for the first time I could see myself not coming to a match, I could see myself not renewing my season ticket next year.

This has nothing at all to do with the football on the pitch, I know were are crap and have been bread to know that we will never win anything. My point is that I no longer see Newcastle United FC as my club. It's just another company that takes my money and gives something (allegedly) in return. When I first began going to football in the late 80's there was a real atmosphere, one that is no longer alive anywhere in top flight English football, and a sense of pride and loyalty to the club. Sure the club might have been run by an idiot and the team was crap but it was our crap club.

Since then things have slowly become worse and worse, the club has moved away from the fans that help create it and keep it the way it is. The total lack of perspecive shown by the club is astonishing. They act like they know better than and more worringly are better than us. They are so out of touch with the common fan it's unreal, I have no idea why they think that a player like Kieron Dyer is worth paying £15,000 a week than Frank Lampard, do they not think about how that looks to the fans. The man makes double what most fans make in a year a week. Also this season they have got rid of the Family Enclosure, this is an area of the ground that is all ticket and for U-18's and 1 parent to sit in so they can watch games. It is or was an excellent idea that allowed young fans to watch the club they love. But now this is gone and replaced with 20 executive boxes. No replacement or statement. Look around a premiership ground, how many people under 18 do you see? I bet it's not that many they have been priced or in this case forced out of watching their team. This is the people who in 10 or 20 years time will be asked to pay £500+ a season to watch a team that they haven't watched apart from on TV no and then.

It's not just the Board and Chairman either. If you haven't seen recently Souness has not come out after a game to talk to the press, he sends his assistant out instead. What ************ing right does he have not to come out and tell us, the fans, the people who pay his wage, why the team didn't win? He doesn't he is employed by the fans to serve the fans.

My point is I guess, that it's not ticket prices or bad football that is driving real fans away from games. It is the attitude of clubs to fans. When football economic collapse happens it will be the clubs that are to blame for their own downfall.

Anyway thats my rant over.

R.I.P Newcastle United Football Club 1882-2005

*shrug* If you want Newcastle to be the club you are idealizing (and which it never was, frankly) you have to settle for poor sides. Seriously, its that simple. Without all that cash to splash out on Kieron Dyer and Titus Bramble........OK, bad example. But you should know where I'm going with this. The Newcastle problem is that you're commercializing the club but not winning. In that situation it does make one wonder why one's a fan.

[michaec]

I think everyone is resigned to the need for a commercial aspect to their club in order for them to be able to compete in any way whatsoever.

[Colin Bell the King]

Completely agree with everything you've said Toon.

I made my debut at a game on the Kippax, our old 20,000 capacity standing terrace and the atmosphere was something else. And the camaderie our players enjoyed with the fans was a pleasure to see. Paul Lake being a favourite at the time. He loved us and we loved him.

Nowdays, I pay 25-40 quid for an away ticket, and get treated like crap. If you dare to stand, or show passion for the lads, you have a jobsworth steward telling you to sit down - or worse, be ejected and banned. And for what, getting behind your lads.

I've been disollusioned with football as a general for years. But theres something that it has that keeps me going, and thats away games, where all the regular away goers know each other by sight, and its great fun walking through a strange city, finding a pub with City in it and getting pissed with them. Our own corner of Manchester with one common aim - to see our team get the 3 pts. That spirit and camaderie means I keep going.

Do you get to away games at all Toon? I highly recommend you start going if you dont, and then you'll probably re-discover your original love of football. :) :D

[Colin Bell the King]

I think everyone is resigned to the need for a commercial aspect to their club in order for them to be able to compete in any way whatsoever.

I say screw commerce.

What has commerce done for the game, apart from push away the working class heroes who made going to the game a special event and replace them with total numpties who dont even know half our songs.

It might sound silly, but the point I am trying to make is that I dont care if my club wins the league or not. I'd settle for being a ******** division 2 side for donkeys years if it meant that I could have fun at a home game, bouncing about singing 'lets go f***ing mental' with 20,000 other fans, rather than sitting on my arse, being looked at strangely when I dare to raise my voice or join in with the sparse singing that occasionally breaks out.

[sarabella]

It seems to me that this would be more feasible if you were a "******** division 2 side". Commercialism is more prevalent the higher on the food chain you go. Plus, the better your club is, the more plastic fans you have at the games.

That's just my impression though. I certainly haven't been to or watched as many games as you have.

[Toon³]

Do you get to away games at all Toon? I highly recommend you start going if you dont, and then you'll probably re-discover your original love of football. :) :D

I do go to away games it is the only thing that keeps me sane.

[michaec]

I say screw commerce.

What has commerce done for the game, apart from push away the working class heroes who made going to the game a special event and replace them with total numpties who dont even know half our songs.

It might sound silly, but the point I am trying to make is that I dont care if my club wins the league or not. I'd settle for being a ******** division 2 side for donkeys years if it meant that I could have fun at a home game, bouncing about singing 'lets go f***ing mental' with 20,000 other fans, rather than sitting on my arse, being looked at strangely when I dare to raise my voice or join in with the sparse singing that occasionally breaks out.
I never said it was good, just that it's a fact of life. For Toon2, the fact that they appointed a total idiot in Souness to be manager who couldn't make a success of an under-9 team only heaps another problem on top. The fans are generally the last consideration of the clubs as far as I can see, Arsenal do it, Newcastle do it, Chelsea do it, I bet City do it too. I don't go to every Arsenal away game, but I've never been told to sit down for shouting at Highbury (insert your obvious library joke here) and never at an away ground either.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

I've been disollusioned with football as a general for years. But theres something that it has that keeps me going, and thats away games, where all the regular away goers know each other by sight, and its great fun walking through a strange city, finding a pub with City in it and getting pissed with them. Our own corner of Manchester with one common aim - to see our team get the 3 pts. That spirit and camaderie means I keep going.

Do you get to away games at all Toon? I highly recommend you start going if you dont, and then you'll probably re-discover your original love of football. :) :D

I couldn't put it better myself. Clearly on a smaller scale, but up here I have been considering ditching my season ticket and just going to away games. I'm sick of the direction that football taken and it can only get worse for you as Chelsea continue to extend their dominance. I've seen the added problems that a lack of competitiveness adds to the equation. Chelsea will be what the Old Firm are to Scotland. It's sad but true. I would kill to be back in the lower divisions and away from all of this crap. Everything was better in those days. :(

[nicephoras]

I would kill to be back in the lower divisions and away from all of this crap. Everything was better in those days. :(

I hope your dream is fulfilled. Then you can be happy in a mostly empty Old Trafford watching games against Milwall and Sunderland. (What do you mean they're not relegated yet?)

[Teso Dos Bichos]

1. I was referring to Livi.

2. Man Utd's attendance record has always been great, even when we were relegated.

[Clan]

I would kill to be back in the lower divisions and away from all of this crap. Everything was better in those days. :(

Complete and utter bollocks.