I understand and share the frustration but I disagree with quite a bit of the analysis, Scott. Since Amanda left, Howe has been pretty much the only person from the club to speak in public. Fans have demanded more visibility from the club leadership so we can't moan when we get it, even if it is on Talkshite. Regarding the ambition, you're right BUT Hopkinson's main job, above and beyond anything else, is to raise our commercial revenues. He has to be a hype man to sell the club to sponsors. Positioning us as aiming to be the biggest club in Tyne and Wear is not going to get us the deals we need. Do we know he's talking bollocks about being a top European contender in five years? Yes. Does it do my head in? Also, yes. Might it help us get an few extra millions out of sponsors who are also usually run by LinkedIn-brained management speakers? Possibly, in which case I'll put up with it.
Since Ashley left its been great to just enjoy football again (because what Ashley served up had just about finished me), and we finally won something, would be nice to win some more shiny things before I leave, but I'm not that arsed about world domination (look what that has done to clubs like Liverpool, its more a theme park). I'm too old to take all the rhetoric from CEO's too seriously, maybe its genuine, maybe its not, but I do think the club is in a good place, although we are not strong enough to challenge on all fronts and in trying to do so hurts league form and in turn this unsettles a fanbase, and some of that fanbase turn on the manager, and in my opinion that is a bit shortsighted and stupid, others direct their frustration at owners and others. We will have highs and most certainly lows.
Another lyrical look at reality again there Scott, thanks - I think!
I feel we’re all collectively unwitting victims of some sort of Geordie Groundhog Day.
Yes, yes I know ‘we’ve won our first cup since I was 13 and we’re sticking around in various other comps’! But it doesn’t feel much different when as you say we get dumped on by the same old teams every other week.
And yes I know we did it all with only Captain Eddie on the bridge and no other crew on board the leaky old tub for almost a season, losing vital crew members overboard - or jumping ship when he was trying to avoid the next iceberg.
And yes I hear all the same old PSR inhibitors, fouling our propellers like weeds dredged up from the Tyne as we attempt to set sail for Europe.
But Jayzus! Don’t let the guv’nors tell us ‘we need more money from the fans’! The only consistently successful performer in this club, the only crew member that turns up to put in 200% every week, are the fans. They consistently outperform every other team of supporters in the country.
The supporters themselves have shelled out a fortune, often twice a week, ‘sailing the seven seas’ and covering more miles than a clapped out Megabus once again this season. Probably incurring Christ knows how many family fuckups as a result. THEY DESERVE BETER.
And what sign of the sort of class players we urgently need on the horizon?…nada.
And we have to listen to the latest blow-in bullshitter about being the biggest team in the Universe by..when again?..
Well put it this way, if our owners suddenly woke up and invented some sort of A.I.-driven 3D player printer, they couldn’t churn out enough of the right talent fast enough to stop us suffering the likely humiliation of finishing below almost every arch-enemy this season.
If I was Sandro, or Tino, or Lewis, of even Bruno, I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep my agent (or my family) quiet for another season without seeing much, much more sign - not ‘promise’ - of something about to change for the better. They’re an impatient bunch these days, and there’s plenty bigger clubs with better prospects out there to tempt them away. Even if they kiss our badge every week, it’s hard for them to ignore that.
Absolutely spot on. Hopkinson is a sub-David Brent level embarrassment. And well observed on the wardrobe. Had to admire the brown suede jacket AND shirt combo for the infamous 'biggest club in the world' statement.
The extra £5 for Qarabag is a perfect illustration of the club's total contempt for regular match going fans, who let's be honest are at best an inconvenience to them.
The players on the pitch might be slightly better (and you can argue whether this side is better than the Pardew team that finished 5th...) but the treatment of loyal supporters is actually no better than it was under Ashley
No better than under Ashley? well apart from the small matter of actually winning something, which I believe is the whole point of the exercise. What better way to treat fans is there.
My point wasn't on success/quality on the pitch as I pointed out above. As a ST holder who also goes away regularly, the ticketing for example is certainly worse. Likewise cost (factoring inflation). The Dundee fiasco pretty starkly illustrated the contempt the club has for its members. Is the comms any better?
Stuff like ticketing is, I think, under the remit of the COO but Brad Miller seems to have been hired because of his background in property/infrastructure/construction projects so he presumably has his mind mainly on the stadium and training ground developments (where have have been worryingly few, er, developments). It's not acceptable, though; fans should always be at or near the top of the priorities list and they (whether that's Miller, Hopkinson or someone else) need to get a grip of the membership and ticketing fiascos. No point having a new stadium in 15 years if lots of the fans have had enough and packed it in by then.
Not one person has replied mentioning they who should not be named – Sunderland. There. I said it. I understand the frustration. I know we all want everything done before I eat me next Sunda dinna. But really, having a go at his cardigan and shoes when what’s really pissing you off is the fact Sunderland (I did it again!) are above us? Have you seen the Bigg Market on a Frida or Satda neet pet! Have ya seen the clobber some of that lot wear!
I don’t care if David Hopkinson turns up for work dressed like Liberace as long as he liberates us. I don’t care is the Saudis give Donald Trump a blowjob every week as long as he lets PIF deliver our fantasies.
When we don’t hear from the board we moan. When we do hear from them, we don’t listen to what they say.
Jim White tried to nail Hopkinson to a post – “By 2030, Newcastle United, this great club, will have been Premier league champions. That’s what you’re telling me?” Answer : “That’s our AMBITION”. He also said a plan without a deadline was a fantasy which is true.
Fuck me mate, what do you want him to say?! We’re in danger of becoming third rate? When Richard Dinnis said that (showing me age again) we would have strung him up by his bollocks on the Toon Moor if he hadn’t got out of dodge straight away.
As for paying an extra fiver. If every fan had been contacted in August last year and asked, “If we can get through to the Champions League play-offs would you be prepared to shell out a fiver to watch it?” – how many people would have said no? Nobody seems to mind paying Bruno £160,000 a week to play (£5 x 32,000) but fuck me a fiver to get through to the play-offs and we expect the Harlem Globetrotters?
Where you are dead right, is that the squad needs a complete overhaul. Exits for Ramsdale, Alex Murphy, Krafth, Gillespie, Schär, Trippier, Pope, Osula and Jacob Murphy might well be on the cards. Personally, if we could replace all of them in one go we probably would. Maybe even others.
Calm down son. Have a pint. Then have 10 more. When you wake up tomorrow morning you’ll realise that cardigans, Mike Ashley, Steve Bruce, Sunderland, Talksport and all the other gobshites are just as irrelevant tomorrow as they are today.
Who gives a fuck about what he wears on Talk Sport. And who gives a fuck that he expressed his ambitions on Talk Sport. Go on Hopkinson, deliver the dream.
Hoppy is dreaming big, nothing wrong with having ambition but it needs to be backed up with actions, his prime job is to drive revenue for Ross and Eddie to spend wisely, if he is as good at that as corporate waffle then all good, can only judge on results not words!
Great article and a sobering reminder of how many players (great servants over the four/five years) are gonna have to be on their way, whilst the vultures are already circling the best ones. As for Hoppy he mustn’t have got the memo re our historically strained relationship with TS…
Why doesn’t he go on Total Sport instead of TaakShite, and speak to people who actually know and care about the club? Considering he purports to have been taking soundings, locally, for the last six months, his choice of outlet is absolutely tone-deaf. I’ll give Hoppy the benefit of the doubt for now, but I worry he’s here just to give soundbites well-practiced over many years, and swell his retirement fund.
The remnants of my enthusiasm and goodwill are being steadily eroded by the exact things you so eloquently outline… (long trips to Brighton, West Ham, Marseille, Wolves, Liverpool, Man City, etc etc haven’t helped!)
Ridiculous to be so upset about a fiver - which has been pointed out to me and I don’t disagree - but for those opponents, in a game we really shouldn’t have needed to play, in a tie that SHOULD already be tucked up in bed…? Galling.
Really need them to just deliver something. Anything. No matter how small. Small steady wins and clear progress are “project” management 101… constant huge claims with nothing to back them up just make us look stupid.
That’s exactly what I said to a mate who opined that “we can’t complain about PSR if we won’t pay an extra fiver”… it adds up to one fucking week of Bruno’s wages!
First of all people moan about no one from the club comes out and talks when they do they are pulled to bits who gives a toss what he looks like in a cardigan but too take the piss out of him would it have been better if he had come out in a full strip why don’t we wait and see how he preforms instead of starting off saying he sets himself up to look awful stupid the only person stupid is the writer.
Obviously he isn't stupid. He's a great writer and I love his non-league stuff. Will be watching closely how he 'preforms' as per his on the record statement that we'll be the biggest club in the whole wide world in 4 years.
Making ridiculous claims are there to be ridiculed.
At this point in our journey, Manchester City were on their way to their second Premier League title this far into their takeover, they weren't (and still aren't) the biggest/ greatest club in the world after 18 years.
Considering rules were changed after their takeover, to prevent it happening again, there's not a hope in hell that we'll have global domination by 2030
I totally disagree with you, Mick. I really enjoyed reading this, as I do most of Scott's contributions. You are welcome to your opinion, as we all are, but perhaps you could offer some reasons why you seem to have a negative opinion of this writer. Maybe that would be more helpful.
Yes, I get your point, Mark. I have no problem with that take on Scott's contribution.
I was just making the point that I don't think that that makes Scott a bad writer. I very much enjoy his contributions, regardless of whether or not I agree with him.
Agreed, Mik. Completely. He writes some great stuff but the whole article seemed snidey to me. Mocking what the bloke was wearing ffs. If he’d been on 5-Live would it have mattered. Just seems like toys out of the pram because he’d went on TS
Not altogether sure what you’d want Hopkinson to say. I’m certain that it wouldn’t be the reverse. Something along the lines of aiming to be regular top ten finishers with the occasional cup run?
Better to aim high and fail than to drift along aimlessly. I’m recollect that Keegan said something along those lines.
I also recollect that fourteen years of zero ambition was much worse than today’s ambitions however outlandish they might seem.
Hopkinson may well end up with egg on his face but at least he’s trying to fry it.
I heard this quote the other day and this article has brought it back up in my memory bank - “if you want to be happy, remain stupid.”
I’m not suggesting our fans are stupid - far from it! I think we’re one of the most astute and intelligent bunch of fans on the planet (I would say that though wouldn’t I?)
But all this Mag Member nonsense, endless Adidas merch that really if were honest we all wore the first time round, is merely a distraction to prevent fans asking the totally fine question - “hang on, where are we going here? Because everyone else is getting better and we’re not, you’re selling our best player in the summer (again) and we don’t look like we’re getting in the Champions League?”
The Dude might abide, but how long are we expected to?
To sum it up, I paid a staggering sum of £15 plus postage for an NUFC football to give my daughter this Christmas. Started pumping it up on Christmas Eve to wrap it, she opened it Christmas Day it was flat. It had arrived already punctured. Elite club?
Be the best in Tyne and Wear before you conquer the world. That’s some line. Brilliant article
I understand and share the frustration but I disagree with quite a bit of the analysis, Scott. Since Amanda left, Howe has been pretty much the only person from the club to speak in public. Fans have demanded more visibility from the club leadership so we can't moan when we get it, even if it is on Talkshite. Regarding the ambition, you're right BUT Hopkinson's main job, above and beyond anything else, is to raise our commercial revenues. He has to be a hype man to sell the club to sponsors. Positioning us as aiming to be the biggest club in Tyne and Wear is not going to get us the deals we need. Do we know he's talking bollocks about being a top European contender in five years? Yes. Does it do my head in? Also, yes. Might it help us get an few extra millions out of sponsors who are also usually run by LinkedIn-brained management speakers? Possibly, in which case I'll put up with it.
That's a very fair point, Steve. Maybe talking shite on the radio does indeed increase our revenues. Time will tell, I suppose.
Since Ashley left its been great to just enjoy football again (because what Ashley served up had just about finished me), and we finally won something, would be nice to win some more shiny things before I leave, but I'm not that arsed about world domination (look what that has done to clubs like Liverpool, its more a theme park). I'm too old to take all the rhetoric from CEO's too seriously, maybe its genuine, maybe its not, but I do think the club is in a good place, although we are not strong enough to challenge on all fronts and in trying to do so hurts league form and in turn this unsettles a fanbase, and some of that fanbase turn on the manager, and in my opinion that is a bit shortsighted and stupid, others direct their frustration at owners and others. We will have highs and most certainly lows.
Another lyrical look at reality again there Scott, thanks - I think!
I feel we’re all collectively unwitting victims of some sort of Geordie Groundhog Day.
Yes, yes I know ‘we’ve won our first cup since I was 13 and we’re sticking around in various other comps’! But it doesn’t feel much different when as you say we get dumped on by the same old teams every other week.
And yes I know we did it all with only Captain Eddie on the bridge and no other crew on board the leaky old tub for almost a season, losing vital crew members overboard - or jumping ship when he was trying to avoid the next iceberg.
And yes I hear all the same old PSR inhibitors, fouling our propellers like weeds dredged up from the Tyne as we attempt to set sail for Europe.
But Jayzus! Don’t let the guv’nors tell us ‘we need more money from the fans’! The only consistently successful performer in this club, the only crew member that turns up to put in 200% every week, are the fans. They consistently outperform every other team of supporters in the country.
The supporters themselves have shelled out a fortune, often twice a week, ‘sailing the seven seas’ and covering more miles than a clapped out Megabus once again this season. Probably incurring Christ knows how many family fuckups as a result. THEY DESERVE BETER.
And what sign of the sort of class players we urgently need on the horizon?…nada.
And we have to listen to the latest blow-in bullshitter about being the biggest team in the Universe by..when again?..
Well put it this way, if our owners suddenly woke up and invented some sort of A.I.-driven 3D player printer, they couldn’t churn out enough of the right talent fast enough to stop us suffering the likely humiliation of finishing below almost every arch-enemy this season.
If I was Sandro, or Tino, or Lewis, of even Bruno, I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep my agent (or my family) quiet for another season without seeing much, much more sign - not ‘promise’ - of something about to change for the better. They’re an impatient bunch these days, and there’s plenty bigger clubs with better prospects out there to tempt them away. Even if they kiss our badge every week, it’s hard for them to ignore that.
Sorry. Rant over. The dog walk’ll calm me down.
Spot on
Absolutely spot on. Hopkinson is a sub-David Brent level embarrassment. And well observed on the wardrobe. Had to admire the brown suede jacket AND shirt combo for the infamous 'biggest club in the world' statement.
The extra £5 for Qarabag is a perfect illustration of the club's total contempt for regular match going fans, who let's be honest are at best an inconvenience to them.
The players on the pitch might be slightly better (and you can argue whether this side is better than the Pardew team that finished 5th...) but the treatment of loyal supporters is actually no better than it was under Ashley
No better than under Ashley? well apart from the small matter of actually winning something, which I believe is the whole point of the exercise. What better way to treat fans is there.
My point wasn't on success/quality on the pitch as I pointed out above. As a ST holder who also goes away regularly, the ticketing for example is certainly worse. Likewise cost (factoring inflation). The Dundee fiasco pretty starkly illustrated the contempt the club has for its members. Is the comms any better?
Stuff like ticketing is, I think, under the remit of the COO but Brad Miller seems to have been hired because of his background in property/infrastructure/construction projects so he presumably has his mind mainly on the stadium and training ground developments (where have have been worryingly few, er, developments). It's not acceptable, though; fans should always be at or near the top of the priorities list and they (whether that's Miller, Hopkinson or someone else) need to get a grip of the membership and ticketing fiascos. No point having a new stadium in 15 years if lots of the fans have had enough and packed it in by then.
And what have I seen for us winning that cup?
My season ticket has gone up 60%
Shirts are now a kick in the arse off £100, pathetic when it's considered that they'll only be relevant for a year.
Other merchandise that is priced well beyond most supporters
Eye watering prices for food and drink inside the stadium
Not one person has replied mentioning they who should not be named – Sunderland. There. I said it. I understand the frustration. I know we all want everything done before I eat me next Sunda dinna. But really, having a go at his cardigan and shoes when what’s really pissing you off is the fact Sunderland (I did it again!) are above us? Have you seen the Bigg Market on a Frida or Satda neet pet! Have ya seen the clobber some of that lot wear!
I don’t care if David Hopkinson turns up for work dressed like Liberace as long as he liberates us. I don’t care is the Saudis give Donald Trump a blowjob every week as long as he lets PIF deliver our fantasies.
When we don’t hear from the board we moan. When we do hear from them, we don’t listen to what they say.
Jim White tried to nail Hopkinson to a post – “By 2030, Newcastle United, this great club, will have been Premier league champions. That’s what you’re telling me?” Answer : “That’s our AMBITION”. He also said a plan without a deadline was a fantasy which is true.
Fuck me mate, what do you want him to say?! We’re in danger of becoming third rate? When Richard Dinnis said that (showing me age again) we would have strung him up by his bollocks on the Toon Moor if he hadn’t got out of dodge straight away.
As for paying an extra fiver. If every fan had been contacted in August last year and asked, “If we can get through to the Champions League play-offs would you be prepared to shell out a fiver to watch it?” – how many people would have said no? Nobody seems to mind paying Bruno £160,000 a week to play (£5 x 32,000) but fuck me a fiver to get through to the play-offs and we expect the Harlem Globetrotters?
Where you are dead right, is that the squad needs a complete overhaul. Exits for Ramsdale, Alex Murphy, Krafth, Gillespie, Schär, Trippier, Pope, Osula and Jacob Murphy might well be on the cards. Personally, if we could replace all of them in one go we probably would. Maybe even others.
Calm down son. Have a pint. Then have 10 more. When you wake up tomorrow morning you’ll realise that cardigans, Mike Ashley, Steve Bruce, Sunderland, Talksport and all the other gobshites are just as irrelevant tomorrow as they are today.
Nailed it, Chris.
Who gives a fuck about what he wears on Talk Sport. And who gives a fuck that he expressed his ambitions on Talk Sport. Go on Hopkinson, deliver the dream.
Hoppy is dreaming big, nothing wrong with having ambition but it needs to be backed up with actions, his prime job is to drive revenue for Ross and Eddie to spend wisely, if he is as good at that as corporate waffle then all good, can only judge on results not words!
Great article and a sobering reminder of how many players (great servants over the four/five years) are gonna have to be on their way, whilst the vultures are already circling the best ones. As for Hoppy he mustn’t have got the memo re our historically strained relationship with TS…
Why doesn’t he go on Total Sport instead of TaakShite, and speak to people who actually know and care about the club? Considering he purports to have been taking soundings, locally, for the last six months, his choice of outlet is absolutely tone-deaf. I’ll give Hoppy the benefit of the doubt for now, but I worry he’s here just to give soundbites well-practiced over many years, and swell his retirement fund.
Excellent article.
The remnants of my enthusiasm and goodwill are being steadily eroded by the exact things you so eloquently outline… (long trips to Brighton, West Ham, Marseille, Wolves, Liverpool, Man City, etc etc haven’t helped!)
Ridiculous to be so upset about a fiver - which has been pointed out to me and I don’t disagree - but for those opponents, in a game we really shouldn’t have needed to play, in a tie that SHOULD already be tucked up in bed…? Galling.
Really need them to just deliver something. Anything. No matter how small. Small steady wins and clear progress are “project” management 101… constant huge claims with nothing to back them up just make us look stupid.
So. Anybody looking forward to Spurs or Villa? 🤣
It's not the value of the fiver, it's just what it says for the value the club place on their supporters. And to raise what, £250k? Really?
That’s exactly what I said to a mate who opined that “we can’t complain about PSR if we won’t pay an extra fiver”… it adds up to one fucking week of Bruno’s wages!
Refreshing honest and spot on piece pal.. Quality 👍
Brilliant this like! 👍 👍👍
Scott, thanks ever so much for this. Great writing as usual. It sums up my feelings completely.
Talk is cheap. We want action!
More of this please.
As much as you have some excellent writers I’m afraid this is not one of them.
Just out of interest, which parts of the article did you disagree with?
First of all people moan about no one from the club comes out and talks when they do they are pulled to bits who gives a toss what he looks like in a cardigan but too take the piss out of him would it have been better if he had come out in a full strip why don’t we wait and see how he preforms instead of starting off saying he sets himself up to look awful stupid the only person stupid is the writer.
Obviously he isn't stupid. He's a great writer and I love his non-league stuff. Will be watching closely how he 'preforms' as per his on the record statement that we'll be the biggest club in the whole wide world in 4 years.
We all make grammatical errors, Haz. Even after it’s been checked. Highlighting it is petty.
Absolutely, Mick.
Making ridiculous claims are there to be ridiculed.
At this point in our journey, Manchester City were on their way to their second Premier League title this far into their takeover, they weren't (and still aren't) the biggest/ greatest club in the world after 18 years.
Considering rules were changed after their takeover, to prevent it happening again, there's not a hope in hell that we'll have global domination by 2030
Aim big, by all means, but keep it realistic
I totally disagree with you, Mick. I really enjoyed reading this, as I do most of Scott's contributions. You are welcome to your opinion, as we all are, but perhaps you could offer some reasons why you seem to have a negative opinion of this writer. Maybe that would be more helpful.
Cos it’s bollocks, Mik. Ultra negative and slating a bloke who’s trying to be optimistic about where he wants the club to be.
Yes, I get your point, Mark. I have no problem with that take on Scott's contribution.
I was just making the point that I don't think that that makes Scott a bad writer. I very much enjoy his contributions, regardless of whether or not I agree with him.
Agreed, Mik. Completely. He writes some great stuff but the whole article seemed snidey to me. Mocking what the bloke was wearing ffs. If he’d been on 5-Live would it have mattered. Just seems like toys out of the pram because he’d went on TS
Not altogether sure what you’d want Hopkinson to say. I’m certain that it wouldn’t be the reverse. Something along the lines of aiming to be regular top ten finishers with the occasional cup run?
Better to aim high and fail than to drift along aimlessly. I’m recollect that Keegan said something along those lines.
I also recollect that fourteen years of zero ambition was much worse than today’s ambitions however outlandish they might seem.
Hopkinson may well end up with egg on his face but at least he’s trying to fry it.
I heard this quote the other day and this article has brought it back up in my memory bank - “if you want to be happy, remain stupid.”
I’m not suggesting our fans are stupid - far from it! I think we’re one of the most astute and intelligent bunch of fans on the planet (I would say that though wouldn’t I?)
But all this Mag Member nonsense, endless Adidas merch that really if were honest we all wore the first time round, is merely a distraction to prevent fans asking the totally fine question - “hang on, where are we going here? Because everyone else is getting better and we’re not, you’re selling our best player in the summer (again) and we don’t look like we’re getting in the Champions League?”
The Dude might abide, but how long are we expected to?
To sum it up, I paid a staggering sum of £15 plus postage for an NUFC football to give my daughter this Christmas. Started pumping it up on Christmas Eve to wrap it, she opened it Christmas Day it was flat. It had arrived already punctured. Elite club?