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"The Great Betrayal"........Mike Ashley and the cheapening of the Newcastle dream


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I posted this article from a Newcastle United fan within a thread (now deleted) but it got lost in there and deseerves prominence. Well worth a read and relevant to our situation today and the ghost of the future.

 

 

"The Great Betrayal".............Mike Ashley and the cheapening of the Newcastle dream

 

 

"Along Stowell Street and up to Gallowgate, hemmed in by the illicit, everything mam would scold you for; men weaving through traffic, a chuffing of tabs, the ****etty-twat, rat-a-tat swearing, pie-flecked gobs crooning mayhem. A half of orange squash at fart height outside the Strawberry and it is ten to three and tears are prickling and panic clenches and you cannot swallow but the rush is on and you bolt it.

 

Moved and buffeted, onto tiptoes, Dead Sea swimming, but a sea alive, afroth with yanking current, past the walls to the turnstiles though pockets of meat smells, piss and ale. Step-dad on one side and a neighbour on the other – his tickets, his offer, an eight year old’s queasy nod – but nobody had told you it would be this affront to childhood, to responsible parenting. This obscenity, this stench, this first time, this only time, this cesspool.

 

A struggle up some steps and then a struggle to comprehend, a long field of emerald bordered by grey, fringed with concrete, by black and white. Glorious green in a monochrome landscape, vivid and out of context, too vivid to wrest your eyes from. It is what you remembered stuffed between the adults, packed so tightly that you rose when they did, arse-down when they sat. The rest of your view: the back of someone’s parka.

 

No teams, no scorers, no specific date, just a pressing of eyes and that flash of green. Nothing else brought you back, nothing else made sense, certainly not the invisible, middle-distance game you did not witness. Nor the shouting or the scuffle for the bogs at half-time, the leaving five minutes early and the dull, distant cloud-burst of two late goals (you would never do that again). Just that big grey city green.

 

That was how it began and that is how it remains; arrive at a stadium and search out the grass, man-made but natural, defying the stanchions crowding in on it. There would be human heroes – Keegan as a player, Beardsley and Gascoigne, with his chip-fat shine and bagatelle feet – but the tingle of that feeling, eyes wide at the incongruity of an urban savannah, the darkness of encroaching terraces, is what burrowed inside..........................."

 

 

Full article at

https://www.theblizzard.co.uk/articl...reat-betrayal/

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Aye, I read this yesterday and it was quite interesting if the style somewhat difficult to read.

 

I've always found Geordies as friendly and decent folk but you have to get used to the accent, but as with this article, it's usually worth it.

 

It's good to read something written that is honest and comes from the heart of a fan.

This being an important part of why your Open Letter resonated and went 'viral'.

 

The spinning dysfunctional circus that is RIFC needs to go straight, be honest and become meaningfully transparent.,....it won't with the current lot in and around the boardroom.

Edited by buster.
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The post below is from a Newcastle fan on FF.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Originally Posted by magpieranger

"We played over 100 games in Europe in the 10 years previous to Ashley buying the club. We were Man Utds nearest title rivals for a while, qualified for the Champions League, beat the likes of Barcelona and Juventus in said competition, got to 2 FA Cup Finals, broke the World record transfer signing and were a team a lot of neutrals enjoyed watching so just imagine how much we enjoyed it. It was hardly the doldrums to be fair.

 

Ok we never won anything, but we came very close and had the time of our lives in doing so. The hope, expectation, anticipation and downright excitement even just waiting for the fixtures to be released in June was something else and then that used to build up to the beginning of the new season. Great times and they were for me what being a football supporter is all about. I know i'll never see the like again.

 

If anything it shows Ashley for what he is. He has all the raw materials there in front of him, not to compete for the title of course, but to be more than just aiming to be a mid table club that sells its best player every year (money which Ashley trousers) and that sees a cup run a hindrance to the real goal which is Premier League survival and another season on the gravy train.

 

It's boring now. You turn up to have your eyes hurt by tatty Sports Direct signage wherever you look. There's no ambition, the hope has gone and there's nothing to get excited about. Win, lose or draw in the grand scheme of things it's unimportant. If we're looking like making the top 6-7 by next month Sissoko will no doubt be sold because we can't risk getting into that Europa League and those extra games next season and as far as safety is concerned Ashley will see it as job done so he'll cash in. Sadly a lot of fans I know would be happy for the team to struggle over the next 6 weeks as it's gives us more chance of keeping the squad together.

 

If i'm being honest I don't know why I bother. I suppose it's because there's nothing better to do with my Saturday afternoons (shopping, DIY, cutting the grass etc) and I get to have a few pints with mates, some of whom I only get to see on match days. There's 50,000 just like me and Ashley knows it."

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I've lived in the north east for thirty odd years, the Geordies have more in common with lowland scot than southern English, but you'll never get them to admit that fact.

 

And arguably the lowland Scot has more in common with the Geordie than they do with the highland Scot.

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