True faith 124

ISSUE 124

15/16

FEBRUARY 2016

NEWCASTLE UNITED FANZINE - THE ALTERNATIVE VIEW - 2015/16 SEASON

W O L L FO THE

L

R E D A E

E-MAIL: editor@true-faith.co.uk WEBSITE: www.true-faith.co.uk EDITOR: Michael Martin DEPUTY EDITOR: Gareth Harrison ART & DESIGN: Glenn Ashcroft & Michael Martin ILLUSTRATIONS: Marc Jennings marcjennings.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY: Matt Flynn, Colin Ferguson & Carl Haynes PROOFREADING - Neil Huitson WEBSITE: Glenn Ashcroft & Michael Martin

Editorial.................................................... pg4

Cartoons.................................................. pg57

TBAWE...................................................... pg6

Introduction: Jonjo Shelley............... pg58

Introduction: Andros Townsend...... pg10 Jon Shelvey - One Way or Another!.. pg14 Pavel and me......................................... pg16 Introduction: Henry Saivet............... pg20

Money and share................................. pg62 O Rei......................................................... pg66 Going down?......................................... pg74

Friends across the water.................... pg24

Coulda, woulda, shoulda................... pg78

He’s the keeper!.................................... pg26

Postcards from the edge................... pg82

Geordies here, Geordies there......... pg28

60 second season................................ pg84

Branded: Adidas..................................... pg32 Jimmy Hill football man.................... pg36 News from nowhere........................... pg40

Pie charts and badges........................ pg86 Pavel, Pavel Srnicek............................. pg90

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 of true faith.

CONTRIBUTIONS: All contributions to true faith are welcomed, encouraged and considered for publication - letters, articles, photos etc.

NEVER FORGOTTEN: L.J. & M. Martin.

NEXT ISSUE: TF 125

Windows 2016..................................... pg96

OUT: 25 MAR 2016

Feel every beat...................................... pg47

Bowie - a life......................................... pg98

SUBMISSIONS FOR NEXT ISSUE: 10 MAR 2016

A kick about with Rob Lee................ pg54

The End................................................... pg102

© true faith.

Drums and wires................................... pg44

www.true-faith.co.uk

tf 3

editorial

Welcome to tf 124.

So, here we are in and around the relegation spots, which is pretty much where we have been throughout the season and where we were last May. For me, we are where we are on merit. Since the last issue was published we’ve had some decent performances, some woeful ones and as we head into the final straight for this season all we have to savour is a grim battle against relegation.

The pre-season ambitions as articulated by Charnley that the club was targeting a top eight finish and a good go at the Cups are laughable given what we have witnessed throughout 2015/16.

Things have been different this season however. For much of Ashley’s tenure we tf 4

have bemoaned his lack of investment in the squad.

It is arguable the position we find ourselves in now is directly as a result of the cumulative impact of that lack of investment over an extended period. For all that we cannot dispute what has been reported as having been invested in players over the last year and a bit. The analysis of Ashley’s United now shifts from lack of investment to questioning how prudently club money has been spent and the spotlight falls upon Charnley and Carr in particular.

For roughly £25m between them, Thauvin and Cabella came and delivered little.

Mitrovic at £12m has shown in flashes what Carr valued in him. There are others – De Jong and

tf 124 February 2016 editor@true-faith.co.uk

Riviere who have yet to demonstrate anything much to suggest they can be assets of Newcastle United FC. These are players who have been scouted extensively by Carr but from the very moment they crossed the white-line in the Premier League they have never really convinced.

Of course there have been successes too – Janmaat , Mbemba, Perez, Wiljandum and Sissoko are good players (there are others who have come and gone too – Cabaye, Ba, Debuchy) but when placed alongside Marveaux, Santon, Obertan, Goufrann, Mbwia there are more misses than hits.

Money and lots of it is being wasted. There is the whole separate issue of Hatem Ben Arfa as well.

The latest transfer window

@tfeditor1892

saw the club shop in the domestic market and bring in Shelvey and Townsend.

On initial showings they look to be very positive acquisitions and obviously it’s to be hoped serve the club for many years and reach their full potential here. It is good to see United release itself from a strait-jacket of its own making in regards to its recruitment policy.

However, the priority positions the club has needed to recruit for at least 3-4 seasons remain.

At the end of this season I understand both Colo and S. Taylor will leave United.

That will leave us with Dummett, Lascelles and Mbemba as our available central defenders.There’s no way Curtis Goode will ever kick a ball in the Premier www.true-faith.co.uk

League. So, no matter what division we happen to be in next season, we have to the market for two centre-halves and at least one with some pedigree to replace Colo in particular.

It’s my opinion, having watched Santon labour on his wrong side that we’ve lacked a proper left-back since Enrique left the club.

The club’s failure to recruit a left-back in January places a big question over the whole Carr-Charnley axis.

But it’s in attack where we are sorely lacking a good, proven goal-scorer.

United appeared to be linked to several strikers with a massive amount of money offered for West Brom’s Saido Berahino failing to tempt the Baggies Chairman Jeremy Peace. Charlie Austin on the other hand moved to Southampton for £4m.

Ultimately however, the club failed to get the player they have needed since Demba Ba hit the road to Chelsea three seasons ago and so we were left with Seydou Doumbia on loan from Roma who has been variously described as fantastic business or a poor consolation prize. We are going to have to wait and see on that one.

Of course how the team has been set up is vital.

We’ve played really well on occasion and in particular

We’ve played really well on occasion and in particular recently were full value against West Ham and West Brom at a purring SJP. But we’ve been largely dire away from SJP on far too many occasions.

recently were full value against West Ham and West Brom at a purring SJP. But we’ve been largely dire away from SJP on far too many occasions. McClaren seems incapable of setting the team up on its travels and we look confused, frightened and vulnerable too often. Over the season the Head Coach has flipflopped with various tactics and formations but the most successful for me is one where we play on the front foot and attack. Big questions remain about McClaren and I’ll be honest he’s done little to convince me he should last longer than this season at the most but if he goes so should Charnley and Carr who are as responsible for this disgrace of a season as

the man they brought to coach the players.

on our club. But so should the “proper” media too.

More positively, the popularity of this daft wee fanzine goes from strength to strength. I am staggered by the numbers downloading and reading true faith and I know I keep repeating this but one of the best decisions we’ve ever made has been to embrace the opportunities afforded by the digital age.

It’s no hollow boast to say true faith is the most widely read fanzine in the UK and it is certainly the number one Newcastle United Fanzine and the same applies to our podcast and newsletter.

We are happy to bend the knee to the peerless nufc. com as the go to place for proper, click-bait-free news

There is a tsunami of content available via the internet but we believe well-written, original pieces of the type we’ve been providing since 1999 but now with added bells and whistles are still far more valued by you all than regurgitated, chopped up crap to drive clicks and in turn advertising.

That’s not our game and we’ll remain committed to the ethics of fanzines but take advantage of the technological opportunities of the modern era – just as this movement always has done.

We all hope you enjoy this issue.

Keep On, Keepin’ On…

Follow Michael on twitter

www.true-faith.co.uk

tf 5

thru black & white eyes Dec 11th - McClaren reckons that the only way is up following the bonkers win against Liverpool and that we ‘have enough’ not to battle relegation this season. Time will tell but Spurs away looks like a daunting prospect. No home defeats this season and the only game they lost was an opening day defeat against an abject Manchester United who didn’t actually have a shot against them. That sounds like something Newcastle United would do. Our recent record in the league at White Hart is good, oddly. It’s odd as we’re the worst statistical away side in the league from the ever present teams since promotion in 2010. The massive caveat was the League Cup quarter last year which I’m just finishing counselling for.

tf 6

Dec 13th - Hahahahahaha what a ridiculous win.

Didn’t really deserve to go behind, and we showed some attacking intent.

Cisse played well and Mitro and Perez are MILES better from the bench coming on as impact players. We get days like this so rarely. On telly, in front of the nation.

It doesn’t normally happen to Newcastle United. It did.

Get in Dec 16th - Fair play to McLaren. He’s had a rare good week or two as United boss. He’s not getting carried away and is advising that there’s never a crisis far away at Newcastle United.

He’s spot on. The next run of games in winnable starting with Aston Vile at home – the biggest game of the season. Don’t mess it up. Vile are terrible.

Dec 18th - If you’re not sure about why we want to smash Vile so much – I wrote a reminder, here.

Dec 19th - Sigh.

Dec 20th - Yesterday was a pile of wank. We drank all day before hand as I wanted to celebrate United’s continued good form and the ruin of the worst club, with the worst fans, in the worst place – in the world.

Instead Vile were the better side in the second half. Siem De Jong man. What a joke of a miss. 2 0 down and I could be sat on Christmas day watching the repeat of that game over and over as we go on to score 5 or 6. Instead, we face Everton and West Brom – 6 and 8 points ahead of us in the league. Cisse’s injury looks bad. Mitro is a good player – I think he’ll be great. He

isn’t a senior striker. Cisse is the senior striker and his restoration to the starting 11 has coincided with an upturn in fortunes. He doesn’t miss sitters either.

We need him.

Dec 22nd - Attention turns to January as the striking situation remains severe.

Confirmation Cisse is set for (another) lengthy break is tough to take. Riviere is not good enough and not fit, so we go into Everton without a striker on the bench. I don’t think any other Premier League club is as badly equipped up front as we are. The next two games are massive.

Dec 26th - One down, one to go. These ‘crucial’ two games begin with an absolute sucker punch which the season may never recover from. 93rd minute.

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It’s poor from Elliot. He’s proved me wrong by the way. He is good enough to play in this league. He’s so slow off his line and ponderous when the ball is in the air. He’s cost us a point, but he’s won us more than he’s lost. One goal against two of the worst defences in the league in the last week. Relegation stuff.

McClaren will be doing his nut with Mitro. Two sitters missed – one so easy to score I could have knocked it in. We’re drawing games we should win and losing games we should draw. It’s all very 2009.

Dec 28th - Farce.

Dec 29th - That was just rubbish. McClaren has come out with guff, again, saying we deserved something. We were a bit unlucky. Should have had a pen, probably did enough to score A SINGLE goal, but that’s it. McClaren is a dinosaur. Stuck in the past.

Bournemouth miss chances for fun but they create 7 or 8 of them a game. McClaren thinks having two shots a game, and missing one of them as sitters is enough.

It’s not. This is a man who’s Boro sides scored just 12 goals in 19 away games in TWO seperate seasons.

He’ll take us down. One point from Vile, Everton and West Brom who are all bottom 8. Pathetic.

Jan 1st - A new year.

Newcastle United won just seven games from 38 in 2015. Good riddance.

Jan 2nd - This is getting ridiculous. Played well, got beat. What did I say about losing games you should draw? We could have won this game arguably.

Arsenal prosper yet again.

Steve is delighted with the performance. I’ve seen United play far worse and win, but on the run we’re on – it doesn’t matter. We have less than a point a game after more than half a season. That’s utterly disgraceful. No one seems to panicking. A lot of noises about incoming players. It’s a massive January. We’re going down at the moment.

We can’t score. We need a central midfielder who can pass the ball, a fast winger and most importantly a centre half with PM

experience and a striker with the same. I’m not holding my breath.

Jan 9th - Out the Fa Cup. AGAIN. Hard tie, away from home to a Prem side.

At least he played a full strength side. 8th and a cup seems a long way off, Steve.

Jan 12th - A signing! A real, Premier League signing.

Not from France (though apparently there’s a lad coming in from the French league) but from England.

An international no less.

Shelvey signs for £12 million and Henry Saivet signs for around £5 million from Bordeuax. He plays every position on the pitch apparently. Well done all involved at the club. None of you should be involved in a club this size but at least something has been done about not having any central midfielders at the club. Shelvey is a brilliant player. Often frustrating though, his genius can be masked my mediocrity, but it’s there. I hope sections of the support don’t get on his back for a couple of misplaced passes. There’s

also a game tonight.

Jan 13th - Last night was good. The first half performance was dire. The media are full of patter about Man Utd being ‘back’ as an attacking threat.

They’re absolutely not back. A competent side would have stuck 4 or 5 past United in the first half, instead the team from Manchester only got two.

The second half was very good. Great save by Elliot at 3 2 to keep us in it. That makes up for Everton right there. Dummet. What a hit. Huge deflection. Even better. We need to beat West Ham though, who’ve won at Bournemouth tonight and are flying. It’ll be tough. We can’t start playing football on 40 minutes against them and expect to win the game.

Jan 16th - Jesus Christ what was THAT. Well, immensely enjoyable. It’s the first time United have played properly well at home since the win over Chelsea in early 2013 after we signed all the lads from France. Ever since then it’s been poor games or counter attacking

thru black & white eyes football. West Ham are genuinely the fifth best side in England and we made them look average for long spells Jan 17th - Transfer speculation season has gone well into overdrive. All sorts of patter about who we’re ‘trying to sign’. Austin has gone to Southampton for £4 million. It’s a steal.

He never wanted to be a Newcastle United player, apparently for family reasons. Fair play to him – no blame attached to the club on that. If they fail to sign a replacement however…..

Jan 19th - Saido Berahino of West Brom seems to be the one the club are nailing their colours to. I can’t see West Brom selling to a potential relegation rival, but then again Swansea did.

I sincerely hope the club do whatever they need to do

tf 8

to get their man as another ‘Lacazette’ style chase they knew they’d never win, would be most displeasing.

Jan 23rd - Another away defeat this time at Watford.

Our third defeat of the season to them. Steve McClaren’s black n white army.

Jan 25th - I can’t get my head around how good we were against West Ham, and then McClaren changing things like that.

What was he thinking? Is he thick? The first genuinely good performance of his tenure and Rolando Aarons is played at wing back, next game? Another defeat though. Damaging.

Jan 26th - AndrosTownsend signs. Good. Pacy and direct.

Tall and lean. He isn’t what Newcastle United has been over the past three years, so that’s good. Another

England international as well. I need to lie down.

This is good from the club.

Big money. Good players tend to cost you a few quid.

Still, need that CF, LB and CB...

Jan 29th - No game this weekend so loads of transfer speculation. Aside from Berahino loads of speculation about lads I’ve never heard of coming in.

McClaren is tetchy when asked about a striker coming in – the signs aren’t good.

Feb 1st - We don’t get our man from West Brom.

Never stood a chance. We take a lad called Doumbia on loan. I’m not that good at names so the correct spelling of his name maybe ‘GAMBLE’ but time will tell. For fucks sake.

Again. Charnley cannot do anything right. Apparently it took Ashley to call Levy

to sort out Townsend.

How embarrassing is that?

Having to get your boss to speak to your equal at another club as he won’t deal with you. Come to think of it Charnley is like a shorter Levy, worse at his job. Chances are we’ll get relegated now. We cannot score away from home.

McClaren is probably fuming, rightly so. Let’s see how he reacts against Everton.

Fed 3rd - He reacts by throwing the game. Of course that’s not true but I’d rather think of it like that than the fact he had 10 days to prepare for it, and churned out THAT. Going down with this man in charge!

ALEX HURST - FOLLOW ALEX ON @tfalex1892

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“We may have the cart financially, but we now need to bolt the horses on”; Mike Ashely, May 24th 2015. Newcastle United found themselves 18th in the Premier League, with the serious threat of relegation looming over their heads.

September 1st, 2015, and Newcastle United spent a total rumoured outlay of almost £50 million pounds. Not a single proven Premier League player through the door, all foreign imports barring the little known Ivan Toney, signed from League Two outfit Northampton Town.

January 1st, 2016, Newcastle United find themselves 18th in the Premier League, with the serious threat of relegation looming over their heads. It all sounds all too familiar.

January 31st, 2016, and Newcastle United have so far spent a total rumoured outlay of almost £30 million pounds. Two proven Premier League players through the door, both English, with another face in Saido Berahino also potentially set to arrive at St James. It all sounds too good to be true.

down the barrel of a gun set to shoot us with another painful season of Championship football.

Mike Ashley, in all fairness, has stuck to his word this season regarding financial input into Newcastle United, a club so starved of investment, it’s become somewhat rotted to the core. Players have come in (and, in Flaurian Thauvan’s case, swiftly gone), yet we still find ourselves facing

However, the £12m spent on Tottenham outcast Andros Townsend may well represent the biggest change of direction at the club since the ill-fated

LIAM NORRIS

How a club who spent almost £50 million on players in the summer continues to find itself in a desperate, dogged relegation scrap six months later is somewhat unbelievable.

: n o i t c u d o r Int

ANDROS

TOWNSEND

tf 10

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day Mike Ashley took the keys to St James off Freddy Shepard way back in 2007.

The change can be defined in three words.

Proven. British. Talent.

If Mike Ashely is honest when he says he has no say in transfers, then a far bigger proportion of blame must be attributed towards chief scout Graham Carr. For every Yohan Cabaye, Moussa Sissoko and Gini Wjinaldum, is a lengthy list of expensive, foreign flops featuring nightmareinducing names such as Yoan Gouffran, Remy Cabella and Siem de Jong.

However, with the signing of Townsend, it seems there’s been a massive shift in focus at the club. I always asked the question ‘why have we spent £12m of Flaurian Thauvan and Remy Cabella, when players www.true-faith.co.uk

of better, proven, British quality are out there at a similar price?’

What you can guarantee with Townsend is a player hungry to prove just what he can do on a regular basis, in front of a manager, and fan base who are willing to give him time to show us how much talent he really has.

The boy has his admirers, myself included. I thought his performances at Spurs were exciting, even if his end product at times was lacking. But he’s only 24, and has never been given a proper run in a team to improve on what is already a very talented and gifted game. The end product will come with the right training and encouragement.

He’s featured in England games too, and impressed on that stage too. Since his debut in 2013, he’s featured in ten games,

scored in three of them, and shown he can mix it with the best players in the England set up. If he’s good enough for England, he’s sure as hell good enough for Newcastle United.

Sure, the question can be asked ‘where will he fit into a midfield which now features Jonjo Shelvey, Moussa Sissoko, Gini Wjilandum, Henri Saivet AND Jack Colback?’

Its midfield packed with decent players- a stark contrast to the much lamented front and back of the Magpies starting eleven.

However, for me at least, the answer is obvioushe HAS to start. What we lack, and have lacked arguably since Hatem Ben Arfa, is a thoroughbred winger- and in all honesty, Ben Arfa was hardly what you’d call consistent.

Since his debut in 2013, he’s featured in ten games, scored in three of them, and shown he can mix it with the best players in the England set up. If he’s good enough for England, he’s sure as hell good enough for Newcastle United.

tf 11

In Mitrovic we have a powerhouse striker, a player who can hold the ball up with ease, has the potential to be lethal in the air, and brings other front lying players into play. So far this season we’ve been forced to play too direct at times, not really being able to utilise his ability in the air directly in front of goal.

With the addition of Shelvey, we now have a Cabaye-esque creative midfielder. In Townsend, we now have a proper winger on our hands to give us more direction and options in getting the ball into the box and ultimately score goals.

Furthermore, Townsend could well reveal whether Mitrovic is going to truly come good here, which is arguably the most difficult thing to fathom so far this season. The Serb has talent without doubt, and the majority of his performances have been massively encouraging.

However, there’s one rather damning problem for our marquee frontline signing - goals, or rather, the lack of them.

Townsend will get balls www.true-faith.co.uk

into the box, while Shelvey will ping balls to him from nowhere- much like his devastatingly effective debut against West Ham earlier in January.

That brought goals, and adding Townsend into the equation is only going to create more.

There is hope, for now, that after a reasonably satisfying January transfer window Newcastle can stay up. With the money that has been spent, it should be comfortable.

A lot of hope, expectation and responsibility lies at Andros Townsend’s doorstep now. If not on a professional level, then on a personal level, as he claims to be in the best shape of his life, and has always had bags of selfbelief. The onus is firmly on him to prove his potential right, and make a late break for a boarding pass on Roy Hodgson’s trip to France in the Summer for the Euros.

However, the spotlight is firmly on you, Steve McClaren. Ashley has invested, Carr and co have bought British, and we now have a squad that should stay up- and with ease.

In Townsend, we now have a proper winger on our hands to give us more direction and options in getting the ball into the box and ultimately score goals

Steve McClaren, you now CANNOT afford to fail as you did so at Derby, Forest and England. Money has been spent by the bucket load- albeit in the wrong places for so long, but that has changed this winter.

There is no hiding place,

we don’t do brollies up in Newcastle, and there sure as hell isn’t any more excuses for continued disappointment no more.

The ball, quite literally, is in your court, Mr McClaren. tf 12

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tf 13

Jonjo Shelvey divided fans at Swansea City for the entirety of his two and a half year stay at the Liberty. Many fans didn’t even want him in the first place, I though believed at £5m he could have real potential and it was a good piece of business by Michael Laudrup.

On his day he can be fantastic, you’ve already seen first-hand in your win against West Ham that he loves to play the ambitious pass and when they come off it’s a joy to behold. He can be equally deadly when shooting from twenty yards.

However he can also have off days and when those long range passes don’t come off (and frequently they don’t) he fails to recognise that sometimes the simple ball can be more effective than the ambitious one. He can have a rush of blood to the head as well and commit

silly fouls and is prone to the odd red card. He is also very inconsistent, capable of doing something brilliant one minute and awful the next.

If there was ever one game to back up what I’ve just said it would be when his former club Liverpool visited us in September 2013. He scored after just two minutes by dribbling into the box, producing a nice turn to open up space before scoring with a brilliant left footed shot. The Swans fans were still celebrating when he received the ball

just outside his own box and went to slot it back to Michel Vorm and failed to notice Daniel Sturridge lurking beyond the last man who accepted the gift to level the score just two minutes later.

STEVE CARROLL Editor of Swansea City Fanzine, Swansea Oh Swansea. follow @StevenSOS1987 sosfanzine.com

He ended his first campaign with six goals in thirty two games. A good return for his first year of regular football in the Premier League and it included one of the best strikes I’ve ever seen – a 40 yard half volley at home to Aston Villa.

In 2014/5 he didn’t start so well and picked

JONJO SHELVEY One Way or Another! tf 14

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up five bookings in the first seven games, many of them for dull things like kicking the ball away. He was then sent off for two yellows at Everton and received a retrospective ban after an elbow on Adam Lallana at Liverpool which caused Garry Monk to hang him out to dry in the press.

This public dressing down seemed to work though, and he was a stand-out performer in the second half of the campaign, he managed to cut out some of those needless bookings and although he didn’t score as many as he should have he was adding some vital assists to his game and was rewarded with a new contract in the summer.

This season he was started www.true-faith.co.uk

like a house on fire, a particular highlight was his assist for Bafetimbi Gomis in the 2-0 win over the Magpies in August. However like many since then he has failed to perform and that is why Swansea have only won twice since the first four games.The club needed to raise funds to sign a striker they so badly needed and obviously decided that Shelvey was a player we could do without. The player also revealed in his unveiling press conference one or two things went on behind the scenes which may have also contributed to the decision.

In theory more than doubling your money on a player who hasn’t improved a great deal in two and a half years is good business.

But I think we’ve taken an unnecessary risk selling to a direct relegation rival. If he can realise his potential then the chances of you staying up at our expense will increase considerably.

Swansea should have tried to sell him to a team in mid-table if possible.

From Newcastle’s point of view it’s also a risk; £12m is a lot for a player who may never become the finished article. But then again if Steve McClaren can improve his consistency and curb his rash tendencies it could be a master-stroke. In the long term he will probably divide your fan base, but if in the short term he helps keep you up I’m sure there will be no complaints at St James’ Park.

But I think we’ve taken an unnecessary risk selling to a direct relegation rival. If he can realise his potential then the chances of you staying up at our expense will increase considerably.

tf 15

You’ll have to forgive the title of this, as it gives the impression that I knew Pavel personally.

That I didn’t is most definitely a sad thing for me, as I listen to and read tributes paid by former colleagues and friends. It appears that he was fun to be around, enjoyed a laugh, and was, in true Geordie terms, a ‘canny lad’.

Pavel and Me

Lofty

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What I’d like to do is give an account of two of my own brief meetings with one of the most popular blokes ever to represent my football club, and one of my own all time favourite players. He’s on a canny list with Shearer and Beardsley!

I think they both confirm the feelings expressed by so many others about him as a person.

My first experience of Pavel was back in around 1992 or 1993. I was working for the North East Ambulance Service at the time, taking patients to and from hospital appointments in Newcastle.

A pretty mundane day was unfolding on the way to the RVI to be honest, but it was brightened when I spotted Pavel standing in

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the car park at the old A&E entrance for some reason.

I must admit to having no regard for fellow road users or the passengers in my ambulance at this point in time as the danger inherent in slamming on the brakes seemed not to register.

Completely star struck, I managed to wind down the window ( no leccy windows in those days man) and stutter a sentence asking if he was alright.

Quickly sensing that I was causing mayhem in the entrance to A&E, Pavel quietly,politely and patiently told me he was fine and was just waiting for a friend.

By this time car horns were being sounded behind me on Queen Victoria Road,

but Pav took it all in his stride and instantly calmed the situation by giving the people behind that massive smile of his and a thumbs up. Order restored for seconds as the next few cars did the same once they realised who it was!

Eventually regaining some semblance of professionalism, I looked back at the bemused faces of my passengers. Expecting harsh words for the hold up I offered the only apology I could...” It’s Pavel man!!”... job done and no complaints about being late for appointments. He had that effect on people.

My next encounter was at the height of the entertainers period. Hundreds upon

Anyhow, this didn’t put him off spending a good ten or fifteen minutes with my little nephew and posing for a photo at the end.

A small thing, but those few minutes of his time have stayed with both of us all these years later...

tf 17

hundreds of people milling around Maiden Castle in Durham as Kevin Keegan encouraged open training sessions. I took my young nephew to one of these sessions and with him being the goalie in his school team, he was attracted towards the session involving Pavel, Mike Hooper and a young Steve Harper.

A good hour spent watching ended with a cheeky request from me to Pavel to allow my nephew to take some shots at him in the goal.

Fearing rejection, I needn’t have as Pav instantly gloved up again and shouted over to the retreating Steve Harper ( You need to imagine Pav’s Czech / Geordie accent here) “ Stevie, Stevie. Give me one ball”.

One ball later, and the boy flicks it up and half volleys a shot straight at Pav’s face. I don’t think he’s hit a sweeter shot since. Time stood still tf 18

as I pictured Pav with a broken nose and missing teeth, but reflexes and self preservation kicked in and he parried the shot away. “ Jesus!” cries Pavel ( again with that great accent) but then realises he’s swore in front of a child, and immediately apologises!

Anyhow, this didn’t put him off spending a good ten or fifteen minutes with my little nephew and posing for a photo at the end. A small thing, but those few minutes of his time have stayed with both of us all these years later.

Now these two tales are minute instances of Pavel as a bloke, and they are completely true. I’ve not remembered them with any emotions other than to try and portray his effect on people and I wanted to try to do the man justice.

They say you should never meet your hero’s because

you’ll be disappointed. Well I’m glad I’ve returned to writing this the day after his death (can’t believe I’ve just written that) because I’ve continued to read about him, and look at pictures of him with countless starry eyed children – and adults - and they all give a sense that no one was ever disappointed when they met Pav, however briefly.

Pavel got what the football club meant to us all, but he also got us as a people and an area. And when you put those two things together, you get an outpouring of emotions akin to one of your own passing away.

Pavel got what the football club meant to us all, but he also got us as a people and an area. And when you put those two things together, you get an outpouring of emotions akin to one of your own passing away

Our own personal feeling of loss obviously can’t compare to that of his family, but I hope they can take comfort in knowing that we will always remember him as part of our family too.

Pavel is, and will always be, a Geordie... www.true-faith.co.uk

PAVEL SRNICEK - 1968-2015 www.true-faith.co.uk

tf 19

Another window, another gamble. Introducing 25 yearold, Senegalese international Henri Saivet. Mike Ashley is a man who likes a gamble- it’s only a handful of years since he won £1.3m on a single spin of a roulette table- but at what point will he stop gambling with our football club, and change his tact in a transfer policy that certainly in recent seasons has failed. Simple as that. Failed. Too many players for the future, and not nearly enough players for the now has seen United slump into successive relegation scraps, and if you thought last season was a close call, you can bet this season is- at this rate at least- is going to be even closer. Closer to the point where the question has to be asked- A gamble too far, Mr Ashley?

Now, I’m by no means writing off Saivet before he’s even kicked a ball. On the contrary, Saivet looks far more ready for the Premier League than many of those who have flown into Newcastle International before him did. At 25,

he’s more mature, more physical than Remy Cabella, Flaurian Thauvan and Siem De Jong combined.

Powerful, compact, quick and clever with his feet- not to mention a fine header of the ball- there are many reasons to get excited over

LIAM NORRIS

the potential here. But there it is, that word again.

Potential.A by-word for new signings at United. A word that in absolutely must be replaced by ‘proven’, and fast.

Signed from Bord- eaux for a report- ed £4.5m Saivet leaves behind an array of a d m i rers in

Introduction:

HENRI

SAIVET

tf 20

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France given his somewhat remarkable turnaround in form this season.The youngest player ever to be handed a professional contract at Les Girondins, Saivet’s career got off to a bright enough start, becoming a constant presence on the team sheet under Francis Gillot.

Hopefully not an ominous fact, but during the 2011/12 season Saivet played on the opposite flank of current United flop Yoan Gouffran, and helped Bordeaux qualify for the following years Europa League campaign, a campaign in which he would face and impress United during the group stage.

As it happens, the 2012/13 campaign would prove to be Saivet’s most fruitful to date, as he scored nine goals in all competitions. Proving himself to be industrious and powerful, coupled with a creative edge and maturity which won him many plaudits in France, it would be the two games against United amongst many more during this www.true-faith.co.uk

particular season which first piqued United’s interestand Saivet’s stock would only grow the following campaign as the Senegal international started 33 of Bordeaux’s 38 league games, scoring in six of them.

Despite Bordeaux’s erratic form, Saivet has sparkled in France this season. Many, despite the enormous hype surrounding the former French U21 international, had prophesised Saivet as another for the scrapheap following the previous campaign which was somewhat stunted by injury and time rotting on the bench. Starting his career as a winger, Saivet has moved into a central-midfield role this season and has thrived.

It’s fair to say given our defensive frailties this season, Saivet offers the sort of protection from midfield that has been sorely lacking. Where Tiote once excelled as a midfield rock, his performances in recent seasons have been so porous he’s more akin to sand rather than the

mountain that in times gone by attracted the attention of Manchester United and Arsenal.

As for Anita, his reputation has never fully recovered after such an unconvincing and lame start to his Newcastle career. The hope is that Henri Saivet is the man to act as a plug to a very leaky defence, and boy do we need it.

Saivet arrives with international pedigree, and it’ll surprise nobody to hear that the now Senegalese man donned the blue of France for the majority of his junior career.

Born in Dakar, Senegal in 1990, Saivet’s French connection comes due to the fact he grew up in France, making him eligible to play for either nationality.

Breaking into the France U16 squad in 2005, he impressed massively, playing in 15 games, scoring on 8 occasions.

The youngest player ever to be handed a professional contract at Les Girondins, Saivet’s career got off to a bright enough start, becoming a constant presence on the team sheet under Francis Gillot

His stats were equally impressive at U17 level, playing 21 times, and finding the net on 9 occasions. His tf 21

game time was restricted somewhat at U18 level due to injury, managing only four appearances, however, he again proved an asset, scoring once.

His involvement at U21 level was restricted mainly to friendly appearances, as he only featured in two of France’s qualification games for the U21 European Championship in 2013, a tournament which the French U21’s failed to qualify for.

At 22, Saivet’s allegiance with France ended, instead choosing Senegal as the country he wanted to represent. Making his debut against Zambia in the Summer of 2013, his Senegal career has been encouraging, if not somewhat curtailed by injury. It’s interesting to note that Saivet’s deployment for country differs to that of club. When on international duty, Saivet is a right winger, rather than the central defensive midfielder we signed from Bordeaux.

Versatility is only to our benefit, though.

So, what does the signing of Henri Saivet represent to Newcastle United? Well, clearly it seems our transfer tf www.true-faith.co.uk 22

committee continue to see the French market as one that can be exploited. One the one hand, it’s clear to see why - a league awash with young, technical players available far cheaper than our English counterparts.

But for every Moussa Sissoka and Yohan Cabaye there’s ten, twenty or even thirty Yoan Gouffran’s and Remy Cabella’s. We can’t continue to pursue and risk inexperienced overseas talent when our immediate aim is survival.

What good is building a dynasty from the depths of the Championship?

As our first signing of what is arguably the most important transfer window in the club’s history, there’s pressure on this boy to perform from the outset.

For everyone associated with Newcastle United, this transfer must prove to be successful. Saivet, on paper, ticks all the boxes - much like many before him did.

But looking a good fit on paper is far different to looking a good fit on the pitch.

With Jonjo Shelvey now a done deal there’s slightly less of an omen on Henri Saivet to be an instant hit.

It is hoped, and expected,

When on international duty, Saivet is a right winger, rather than the central defensive midfielder we signed from Bordeaux. Versatility is only to our benefit, though

that more are to follow the Senegalese through the door. You can’t help but feel if Saivet was the last of a handful of signings and his entrance low key, we wouldn’t be kicking up as much of a fuss about the player’s origins.

It’s a another French foray, and at £4m,a steal according to many in France. Let’s just hope this particular foreign import works out a little better than many of those who have come- and gonebefore him. Here’s hoping. www.true-faith.co.uk

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tf 23

I’ve always been a huge sports fan. I grew up playing soccer, baseball, and basketball, so sports were always big in my life. I’m a huge NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL fan, but I never really watched English football, mainly because of the lack of coverage it receives here in the states.

However, through the encouragement of my best friend, a diehard football fan, I started watching just before the 2014 World Cup. I was immediately enthralled by the sport. The game is beautiful, from the simplicity of the objective – to put the ball in the net – to the intricacies of a wonderful string of passes that culminate in a magnificent finish. In comparison to other sports, where a game with plenty of scoring could be a snooze fest, I can find myself thoroughly enjoying a 0-0 football match. Another thing that has drawn me to the sport is the way in which English football’s leagues are constructed.

In American sports, the worst team receives the highest pick in the draft.

However, in English football, the bottom teams move down to a lower division!

This truly makes every game vital to each team,

and gives each match the intensity many games in the states lack. I also love the smaller proximity of the teams that play in English football.

Many times in the United

States, teams travel thousands of miles to play opponents. However, in the Premier League, the farthest distance between clubs is around 300 miles.

The geographic proportions of the clubs add to the

Alex Picchietti

R E T A W E H T S S O R C A S D N FRIE tf www.true-faith.co.uk 24

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I would cheer for a club that represented my fan hood – a group of fans that truly backed the club no matter WHAT...

intensity of the sport, as away fans are often able to travel and support their club on a weekly basis.

The rivalries, or derbies, as they’re called in England, are another thing that I love about English football.

When I first saw the picture of the proximity of Anfield and Goodison Park, it blew me away. To have such rivals be so close in distance is amazing, and it absolutely tells the story of how crazy derby week can be. Finally, I love the fact that there are so many players from so many different places and countries coming together to play the sport that they love. In the United States, most of the players that are professionals were born stateside. Every so often, you will see a player that comes from overseas, but it is few and far between. To see the wide spread demographics in English football is incredible. It is great to see Spanish, Dutch, Italian, French, English and other www.true-faith.co.uk

nationalities playing on the same pitch, putting their different skills and techniques together and playing the beautiful sport.

Now, for how I came to support Newcastle United.

First, a bit about myself.

As I mentioned before, I am a die-hard sports fan.

When I support a team, I am 100% behind them until the bitter end. As I was choosing a Premier League club to follow, I definitely did not want to just pick one of the “Big 4”. I didn’t want to pull for a team just because they were in Champions League, or spent the most money in the transfer window. Rather, I would cheer for a club that represented my fan hood – a group of fans that truly backed the club no matter what happened.

Everything I ever read about Newcastle United was that their fans were the best fans in the Premier League, and at the end of the day, if the players played their

hearts out and went for it every week, the fans would be happy. It wasn’t about winning titles (although that would be welcomed), but it was about making the city proud. So I chose to support Newcastle United.

I have been watching, and have watched every single match since the beginning of the 2014 season, and have been infatuated with the club ever since. I’ll admit that it hasn’t been a very smooth start to being a Newcastle fan. From the questionable intents of the owner, to struggling through months of John Carver, to a lack of leadership in the squad, it has been painful to watch most matches. And to be honest, some of my friends that support clubs like Barcelona, Liverpool, and other bigger clubs, often ask me, “Why do you still support Newcastle?”

To be honest, I’ve taken the club as my own. I feel it’s a part of my life now – I am constantly reading transfer rumors, checking injury

updates, and sitting on the edge of my seat during each match. I so badly want to see NUFC turned around and to be the club the fans deserve. I will always stay loyal to the Black and White until they return to the glory that I can only read about now.

This is another reason I love supporting Newcastle – the history. I read about and watch videos on YouTube of the better days, often pulling up videos of the absolutely incredible Alan Shearer and reading older fans reminisce about the times that were. While it seems like contending for a Premier League title is so far away, I have fallen in love with the club, the fans and the history, and will stand behind them until they get back to that point. I can say that after two years of watching the Premier League weekly, I’m a massive football fan and an even bigger Newcastle United fan. tf 25

Rob Elliot was born in the Spring of 1986 in Greenwich, London. He has thus far had what can only be described as a modest career. After over a decade of being a professional goalkeeper, he only has circa 170 games under his belt at the likes of Charlton Athletic and even lesser luminaries, Accrington Stanley & Notts County. Despite all of the above, he is now undoubtedly a hugely integral player if United is to survive the dreaded drop this season.

HE’S THE ‘KEEPER! Under Alan Pardew’s tenure, Rob featured only intermittently. He was clearly very much number two to Tim Krul and whenever he did get the chance to play, particularly in his earlier days, Newcastle United based social media was not kind. I read some rather nasty keyboard warrior types trolling not only his performance but his physical appearance also.

I think this is where part of the problem lies. NUFC supporters, used to this regime’s abject penny pinching judged him before tf 26

ever properly seeing what the lad could do. Whilst, every time I saw him play, the unjustified criticism which had come his way had me expecting a bit of a duffer, I was generally rather impressed by what I what I was seeing.

He has been thrust into the limelight this season following Krul’s unfortunate long term injury and whilst I was sorry for Tim, I was pleased that Elliot was getting a proper chance. As it stands, I firmly believe that Rob is the better of the two custodians. For me, Krul

has given up on trying to control his box and was being beaten with alarming regularity by shots which frankly, he should be stopping. Nacer Chadli’s 25 yard ‘effort’ at the back end of last season a hideous example of which I just can’t seem to forget. Krul has also has developed a tendency to parry shots back into play - something I loathe in a keeper.

How good is Elliot?

Well, the evidence provided by some recent performances are very promising.

Against Bournemouth www.true-faith.co.uk

he was astonishing, versus Spurs and Everton he rightly gained many plaudits for his overall performances however I would temper this by saying he could’ve done better on the goals against in both of those fixtures.

In my opinion, alongside his ability and experience, even more important elements Elliot brings are his drive and personality. Here’s a guy used to mainly being a substitute or playing in various English football backwaters and being thrust into the relative limelight of Newcastle United clearly suits him. I have read that he is particularly vocal in the dressing room and you can see a bond is definitely developing between him and the supporters. At www.true-faith.co.uk

29, he should yet to be coming into his prime as a stopper and this should hopefully be to our mutual benefit.

I honestly wish we had a couple more in his mould.

We need more Captains on the pitch. He has similar battling qualities to the likes of Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton.

These are the type of players we require in our current mire. Hopefully, one day our owner will cotton onto this fact. As I sit here, finishing off this article, I have another glance at Newsnow NUFC on my laptop and all I read about is the odd foreign player I’ve never heard of and trophy future mercenary types such as Lyon’s centre forward, Alexandre Lacazette (!) If ever there was a January

for him to see the light it’s this one.

Will Ashley suddenly abandon his stringent “cheap young, continental - with future sell on potential” model and in effect, see the light?

I honestly wish we had a couple more in his mould. We need more Captains on the pitch.

He has similar battling qualities to the likes of Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton.

Despite the precarious and potentially financially disastrous position he sees his relegation threatened club currently residing in?

Amazingly and tragically, I think we all know the answer to that one tf 27

A good thing about living in southern Spain is that you don’t have to travel too far to have a good summer holiday. Where I live there is loads of good beaches and we are also on the doorstep of Andalusia (Ed: Spanish Bombs in …) . Last summer we decided to take a family holiday down in the Algarve (Portugal). Only a matter of loading the car up and taking a leisurely seven hour drive down there with a few stop offs in Andalusia.

Tony Higgins

GEORDIES HERE, GEORDIES THERE...

BENFICA 0 SPORTING LISBON 1 Super-taça Trophy - 09/08/2015, Algarve Stadium) Attendance: 28,717 I received the usual preholiday pep talk from the wife “NO FOOTBALL!” and to be fair I was in total agreement with that. We

tf 28

were staying in a picturesque little fishing village, next to Tavira, 17 km east of Faro and only a few miles across the border from Spain.

The idea was to relax and to have a few days sightseeing along the full stretch of the Algarve and its Atlantic coast line, which is very impressive I should add.

Anyway a few days into the holiday and I’m lying on a sun lounger reading the local sports paper.

S

V

B

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Reading Portuguese isn’t that different to Spanish but understanding the spoken word is another story. So, there I am reading an article about Benfica playing Sporting Lisbon, in something called Supertaça Trophy. “Look at this” I said to my oldest lad “Canny game, we will try and sneak away and watch it in a bar”, at that point thinking the game was to be played in Lisbon. Then my attention was drawn to the time date and venue.

20:45, Sunday 9th August at the Algarve Stadium. I had been to the stadium, when Newcastle played a friendly against Braga in 2012, and I knew it was only about ten miles along the road. Wow! I thought, the Portuguese Derby Eterno on my doorstep! I couldn’t miss that! Now, only the prickly issue of raising football with the wife. It’s not that our www.true-faith.co.uk

lass doesn’t like me going to football , it is just that I have form when it comes to this sort of thing and she thinks that I plan it. During past holidays it has happened a few times. Once in Taragona (Catalonia) our holiday was interrupted when I found out that Barça were playing Boca Juniors and also I can remember being in the Italian Lakes when Milan played Inter, two games, I am sure you will agree, difficult to miss. I will spare you the detail of how the negations went but I wangled it and we were off to the game.

We arrived at the stadium and happened to park at the end where the Benfica fans were congregated. I didn’t have the pleasure of going to the REAL Stadium of Light when the Mags played there in 2013 but was told that everyone had

a great time in Lisbon and that both sets of fans got on well. However, looking at the Benfica ultras they looked like the type of lads not to be messed with. Think of extras on an American prison movie or drama series to get my drift.

Their ethical mix certainly reflected Portugal’s past colonial exploits.

It reminded me of cold dark nights, on the Seven Sisters Road, after Spurs away in the 80s.

However, looking at the Benfica ultras they looked like the type of lads not to be messed with. Think of extras on an American prison movie or drama series to get my drift

Next we had the small hurdle of not having tickets to get over and to be honest I thought this could have been major issue. Nevertheless, getting our hands on some spares wasn’t as big a problem as I had envisaged. We were soon approached by a tout, as we were sticking out like the proverbial sore thumbs, and when I started speaking tf 29

Spanish he retorted by answering “Don’t worry I speak English” which he did perfectly. Thinking he was on a good thing, with clueless holidaymakers, he tried to sting us with some OTT prices, which I laughed off and told him we would try our luck elsewhere.

Which thankfully we did and soon we came across two lads offering us two tickets for the Benfica end at face value, €15 a pop!

That still meant we needed another ticket so I decided to chance my arm with our mate the tout. When we approached he had a big grin on his face, “Nothing doing then eh?”

“Yes and no I said, we have two tickets so now we only need one” The smile suddenly went from his face and let’s just say we then wangled a good price for a decent seat, however it was for the Sporting end.

We decided it would be best if my oldest lad went in with the Sporting fans and me and the youngest made our way to the Benfica end.

Once in the queue we again stood out and soon some fans were asking where we came from. The Benfica lads had nothing but good words for Newcastle United tf 30

and their fans. I once had a similar experience at Athletic Bilbao, where I wasn’t allowed to buy a beer once they knew where I was from. Things like that always give you an immense sense of pride.

Inside the ground the atmosphere was electric as both sets of fans put on tifo displays and the usual array of flares, all backed up by a cacophony of noise. The match itself was quite good too as both teams went for each other from the off.

Plenty of skill was on display as the Portuguese league is awash with Brazilians.

However, it was another South American, Peruvian Andre Carrillo, who scored the only goal of the game, in the 53rd minute, to win the trophy for Sporting. The goal can be seen below.

The Benfica lads weren’t too happy with that outcome and a good few flares were

thrown onto the pitch as the game game to a close.

This made me a bit worried on how I was going to retrieve my oldest lad from the other end of the ground but as it happened, through the wonders of Whats app, we were able to meet up without an incident.

So then to finish off, anyone that knows the Algarve Stadium, an out of town Meccano job, will know it’s a ball ache to get back into Faro from. Nevertheless after a few quick drinks, in a local hostelry, we managed to get a taxi and rendezvous with my wife and daughter. They had spent a nice evening in a restaurant at the marina, oblivious to the fact that one of the biggest derbies in Europe was taking place a just a couple of miles away. Alls well that ends well!

The Benfica lads had nothing but good words for Newcastle United and their fans. I once had a similar experience at Athletic Bilbao, where I wasn’t allowed to buy a beer once they knew where I was from.

You can read Tony’s excellent e-book: A Homage To Murcia, get it here www.true-faith.co.uk

true faith has been established since 1999 as one of the most successful, influential and best-selling fanzines in the country. Its success is based upon the contributions of Newcastle United supporters. As we move into the digital age and take up the opportunities for new forms of supporter expression, true faith is at the forefront of the new fanzine culture and develops its digital fanzine (what you are reading now), its match-day e-newsletter, The Special, its Podcasts, its video-blogs and of course the website. We hope to be positioned for anything else that develops over the next few years as well.

Write for true faith true faith has always provided a platform to fans to write about their club and give their own opinions on what is currently going on at United as well as the different perspectives of our club’s history and the wider game. Oh, we love a bit nostalgia and history.

There is no typical true faith writer, they come in all shapes and sizes and include home and away zealots. young lads and www.true-faith.co.uk

lasses, veteran fans, season ticket holders, exiles and whatever else you care to mention.

true faith and in fact we welcome those that are completely opposite in honesty.

You don’t need to be a previously published writer or have any fancy qualifications. All we care about is whether you have a love for Newcastle United and a will to inform and entertain your fellow supporters. We don’t care if your opinions are the same or are similar to the editorial position of

You might want to write detailed exposes of the United financial and business model or you might want to do a matchreport or you might want to do something we’ve never ever considered.

We also like dipping our toes into the waters of music, film and fashion

so if that’s your forte, just drop us a line as well.

Don’t forget, we welcome all cartoonists, photographers and designers to join us as well, so whatever your talent, we can put you to work with the aim of establishing true faith as the best fanzine for the best supporters in the whole world.

All emails to editor@ true-faith.co.uk tf 31

Many of the brands mentioned within this series, are synonymous with the subculture of football casuals. It could be argued, that certain labels actually owe their popularity within the United Kingdom, to groups of away fans travelling the continent. There is one in particular however, that due to its mainstream popularity and worldwide acclaim, was popular throughout many walks of life before it made its way to football terraces across the UK .

BRANDED: ADIDAS Founded in 1949 by Adolf “Adi” Dassler in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Adidas is widely regarded as one of the best and most recognisable brands within the world of sports.

Originally set up in his mother’s kitchen, Dassler intended to produce sports shoes for athletes shortly after his return from World War I. Joined by his brother Rudi in 1924, the pair began producing footwear together, under the moniker “Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik”. As the company expanded due to exposure at the 1936 summer Olympics (Dassler drove from Bavaria tf 32

to the event with a bag of running spikes, successfully managing to persuade participating athletes to compete wearing them), the brothers were selling in excess of 200,000 pairs of shoes a year in the years leading up to World War II. With business booming, the pair would split in 1947, after a bizarre

Ross Jenkins Follow @_Jenky88

miscommunication within an air raid shelter a few years earlier. Rudi Dassler went on to create rival

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company Puma, with Adi Dassler founding Adidas in response. The popular thought that the name is an acronym for the words “All Day I Dream About Sports”, is actually an urban myth-the brands name simply being created around the name of its founder, Adi Das(sler).

When it comes to the brand’s place in the hearts of football casuals and those on football terraces, the love affair began at the same place as it did for Dassler himself-footwear.

In 1979, Adidas released the Forest Hill silhouette.

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A simple tennis shoe, it comprised of a white leather upper, a yellow midsole and gold three stripe branding-this was to be the trainer with which the bond between football fans and Adidas was born.

Many other Adidas styles followed that would appeal massively to those fond of casual style (and many of their remakes still do, which we’ll get onto later). The brand followed up with classics such as the Beckenbauer, SL 72, Samba, Gazelle, Spezial, Hamburg, Trimm Trab and the Adidas Handball, just to name a few. Often derived from

football boots the players they were watching from the terraces were wearing, the silhouettes mentioned above, among many others, quickly became a staple of the casual style and the three stripe branding was imperative to be had on your feet if you were to be recognised.

Like most other casual trends, where the origins of Adidas within the subculture began is still argued about to this day. Like many of the continental brands brought back to the United Kingdom however, the

When it comes to the brand’s place in the hearts of football casuals and those on football terraces, the love affair began at the same place as it did for Dassler himself-footwear

tf 33

change in style from that of the “boot boy” casual (to any young readersthe song probably makes more sense now), to the much smarter, sportswear orientated casual is largely attributed to Liverpool fans.Their reasoning for the change was that they felt many police officers would still be on the lookout for those in Doctor Marten boots with shaved heads, whilst they would be able to go about their business in a far less hassled manner given their sharp, high end appearance One of the brands most popular ventures, was that of the City Series.

Originally released in the early 70s, the pack was launched in two separate parts-European Cities and then North American (the latter being released in the late 70’s and finishing tf 34

in the early 80’s). Many silhouettes were released however the Berlin, Hamburg, London and Stockholm models were particularly popular. The colours were striking and the series was seen as something different to the standard Adidas trainers available at the time. In keeping with this line of thinking, one of the brand’s most notable ability was to keep up with the ever changing styles within football. Whilst brands would come and go (what was once Fred Perry and Slazenger, quickly became Lyle & Scott and Lacoste.

Next were Fila and Sergio Tacchini as sportswear became the man of the hour before high end brands such as Armani, Valentino and eventually Stone Island took over), Adidas was always a constant. For all there were numerous

other sports related brands that were popular with casuals at the time, another choice of footwear (at least when it came to trainers) was rare after the affiliation was born. Adidas were able to evolve and produce silhouettes and that complimented the ever changing, fast paced casual brands list and style, allowing them to remain the main choice for the fashionable terrace goer.

Fast forward to the modern day game and for all as we’ve said before, football hooliganism has decreased massively, the casual style is still there and with it, is Adidas.

Still a staple on stands around the UK, the Adidas Originals series along with numerous special edition remakes and re-releases of old classics ensure that the brand is still a

One of the brands most popular ventures, was that of the City Series.

Originally released in the early 70s, the pack was launched in two separate partsEuropean Cities and then North American

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favourite with football fans spanning all ages-either those wearing remakes of originals they used to own, or the timeless silhouettes still appealing to younger fans as they have done for the last forty plus years.

To return to some of the styles mentioned earlier in this piece, you’ll only have to take a quick look around SJP on a saturday afternoon to notice plenty of Geordies, young and old sporting a pair of Spezial’s, or Hamburg’s. One of their most celebrated silhouettes ever that has seen a gigantic rise in popularity over the last 24 months is the Stan Smithwhilst not necessarily a huge favourite back in the prime of casual fashion, it is a trainer you will see so regularly in the stands today, you will almost become immune to it. It is also further testament to Adidas’ ability to stay relevant as a brand, along with being able to continue and strengthen that bond not only with the game of football, but with those who love it so.

Adidas as a brand, but their trainers in particular are regarded not only as classics, but as current favourites, simply because the name resonates with football fans around the world. Whilst others such as Nike and (to a lesser extent) Umbro sponsor teams and produce gear that many of us enjoy wearing, Adidas, when it comes to footwear, is the one everyone agrees on. www.true-faith.co.uk

Adidas brand consultant, Adidas X Spezial curator and self confessed trainer addict Gary Aspden summed the brand up excellently within the world of football for me, when he said: “Despite the way that the whole football casual fashion would change really quickly, Adidas is one of the brands that remained constant throughout it” Us as a group of fans in particular, probably hold Adidas closer to us than many others within the footballing world. In an era when we’re stuck with shite Puma numbers that closer resemble bin bags than football shirts, I constantly find myself looking back at the old Adidas efforts that my Mam and Dad would repeatedly buy me as a bairn (head to toe-socks and all, worn only with a pair of Adidas Predatorsthat means the boots on the pitch and the trainer alternative off it). That grandad collar from 95/96, the shield on the back of the 97/98 kit, the away kits of both 95/96 and 96/97these are the memories of Adidas I have and cherish and that love has adapted into an appreciation for their footwear as i’ve grown older. I’m sure many other fans are the same and it is for that reason, the bond between football fans and Adidas, footwear and all, will continue to stand the test of time.

Adidas as a brand, but their trainers in particular are regarded not only as classics, but as current favourites, simply because the name resonates with football fans around the world

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Jimmy Hill: Football Man

WALLACE WILSON Folow @WallaceHWilson

Jimmy Hill left a legacy which is unparalleled in the modern game. You may not like everything he did but he was largely responsible for the way professional football looks today.

Hill was not an outstanding player, appearing for Brentford as a teenage before joining Fulham in 1952, helping them to promotion to Division One in May 1959. He played over 300 games for the Cottagers, appearing alongside the likes of Johnny Haynes and Bobby Robson. tf 36

The highlight of his career was scoring five goals in an away match against Doncaster Rovers.

It was as a union organiser that he first came to prominence, however, campaigning through the Professional Footballers’ Association against the £20 maximum wage until it was

scrapped in 1961. One of the chief beneficiaries was his old mate Haynes, who moved on to a reputed £100 per week, more than five times the average salary at the time.

After he retired Hill took over as manager of Coventry City, leading them from Division Three to the First www.true-faith.co.uk

Division. His wide ranging innovative approach was soon in evidence from changing their kit to Sky Blue to introducing the first colour match programmes.

He even penned a new club song called The Sky Blue Song, based on the Eton Boating Song and organised pre-match entertainment to persuade fans to get the match early and spend their money in the ground.

A career beckoned as a successful manager (his win percentage with Coventry was 44.5%) but instead he opted to enter the world of broadcasting, becoming head of sport at London Weekend Television.

As he became more widely known he was compared to Bruce Forsyth, having a similarly over-endowed chin (usually covered with a goatee beard). However, he quickly became recognised for his incisive mind as he revolutionised the way football was presented on TV. He fronted ITV’s coverage of the 1970 World Cup and it was his suggestion to introduce television’s first

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panel of pundits - Malcolm Allison, Derek Dougan, Paddy Crerand and Bob McNab. They were each paid £500 but instead of being flown to Mexico they sat in a studio in West London and argued about what they had seen through a live feed. England’s Alan Mullery (later a pundit himself) was so annoyed at what was said about his performances that on his return to England he went to the studio to throw his England cap at Allison. The viewers loved it.

One incident sums up his enthusiasm for football. In 1972, the linesman (still linesmen then), pulled a muscle and was unable to continue. A request went out over the tannoy at Highbury (still Highbury then) asking for a qualified replacement or the game would have to be abandoned. As a qualified referee, Hill donned a tracksuit and trainers two sizes too small to step into the breach. He loved being involved and in front of a crowd. His involvement with Arsenal predated that

as he wrote the lyrics for their Cup Final song ‘Good Old Arsenal’ in 1971 which subsequently won a gold disc!

Following his successful transfer to the TV studio with ITV, the Beeb poached him to head up Match of the Day, taking over from the peerless David Coleman in 1973. While heading up the BBC coverage he provoked a long-running feud with Scottish fans who believed that he had a bias against players and clubs north of the border. Some Scots even turned up at England Scotland matches wearing false chins and unfurling banners claiming ‘Jimmy Hill is a Poof’. Nevertheless, he anchored the programme for 15 years, making over 600 appearances before he, in turn, was replaced by Des Lynam. Most fans of the show thought he had overstayed his welcome.

Inevitably, in such a position he was responsible for a number of on-screen gaffes: ‘England now have three fresh men with three fresh legs’

He fronted ITV’s coverage of the 1970 World Cup and it was his suggestion to introduce television’s first panel of pundits

tf 37

“It’s a cup final - and the one that wins it goes through’ ‘We’re not used to weather in June in this country’ ‘And there’s Ray Clemence, looking as cool as ever out in the cold’ Even here, however, not quite a match for Colemanballs…

Whilst at the BBC Hill returned to work at Coventry City first as Managing Director in 1975 and subsequently as Chairman. It was in this role, at a crucial relegation match at home to Bristol City at the end of the 1976–77 season, Hill was advised to delay the kick off by 10 minutes for fans still outside caught in the heavy traffic. The mackems, who were also facing relegation, were playing at Everton and kicked off on time, eventually losing the game 2–0. The Sunderland result was flashed up on the scoreboard at Coventry. tf 38

Coventry’s game with Bristol City stood at 2-2, a result which meant that both teams stayed up and the mackems being relegated.

Hill was subsequently accused by mackems of making his players pass the ball around in their own half for the last 10 minutes of the game, thereby saving Coventry from relegation at their expense. Hilarious!

on an industrial estate near Heathrow did not stop Hill from claiming he was just popping out to the garden when in fact he was heading out of the fire exit.

A subsequent Football League inquiry was held but Hill, who at the time was also in a senior position at the Football League, did not stand to one side while the inquiry was held. Coventry were asked not to interfere again but the result stood.

Obviously everything was above board.…

“In that context, you wouldn’tthinkthatwordslike n****er were particularly insulting: it would be funny.

Without meaning to insult any black men, it’s us having fun... I mean, n****r is black - so we have jokes where we call them n****s because they’re black. Why should that be any more of an offence than someone calling me chinny”?

In 1999 Hill moved to Sky Sports where he headed up Jimmy Hill’s Sunday Supplement, a discussion programme which was supposed to take place in Hill’s kitchen over breakfast.

The fact that it was filmed

While with Sky, he caused outrage by defending Ron Atkinson’s racist comments in 2004 which he said was the language of the football field. Hill went on to say

His comments were described as ‘mindboggling’ by the then director of Kick It Out, football’s antiracism group

His comments were described as ‘mind-boggling’ by the then director of Kick It Out, football’s anti-racism group. He should have been sacked. www.true-faith.co.uk

But it was as an innovator that Hill is best remembered.

He commissioned the first English all-seater stadium at Coventry, lifted a ban on player media interviews, introduced the first electronic scoreboard in 1964 and in 1965 was the first to show a live match via CCTV on four giant screens while at Coventry.

He has also been credited with the introduction of the three points for a win system, pioneered in 1981 which has subsequently been introduced worldwide. This, more than many of his other innovations, could be seen as a positive development, persuading away sides to go for a win where before a draw was seen as a good result (still is in some places).

These innovations have had a significant influence on the way the game is played and watched across the world. The introduction of all-seater stadiums was seen as the panacea after the Hillsborough disaster although subsequently the

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truth has come out that it was primarily due to crowd control mismanagement by South Yorkshire Police on the day. It gave top clubs an opportunity to control the environment within their stadiums while maximising revenues from supporters.

Over recent years we have seen a reaction to this sterilised experience with the campaigns for standing in British stadiums, based on the German model, giving people a choice of match experience.

The shirt sponsorship Hill introduced while at Coventry, has led to the desecration of club shirts, becoming little more than advertising hoardings for a variety of organisations, ranging from Unicef to w***a. I am not alone in thinking that the classic shirt featuring a club badge on the front and a number on the back looked just fine but it did not produce the money the apparently inexhaustible greed of the current game requires.

As ever, when someone joins the choir invisible, there is a tendency to overlook the negative and highlight the positive but overall, Hill’s contribution was a mixed bag. Some of his ideas have led to a move towards a more commercially orientated game - shirt sponsorship, all-seater stadia and so on.

Some were justified - the lifting of the maximum wage, 3 points for a win.

Some were flawed in the implementation football pundits - I give you Robbie Savage and Paul Merson. Some were just plain wrong - ‘Good Old Arsenal’?! However, what was unusual is the breadth of his innovation and influence. Only Gary Lineker has managed such a successful TV career after retiring from playing. He is also remembered fondly

by Coventry City fans who named a bar after him in 2007. Jimmy Hill died on December 19 2015 at the age of 87 after a long battle against Alzheimer’s Disease.

Some of his ideas have led to a move towards a more commercially orientated game - shirt sponsorship, allseater stadia and so on. Some were justified - the lifting of the maximum wage, 3 points for a win

tf 39

I can by no means call myself a fully paid up member of the Heed Army but I do have a huge soft spot for Gateshead FC. Over the last twenty odd years I have tried to get to a few games every season, obviously this is more difficult than it sounds because I live in Southern Spain.

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - GATESHEAD REVISITED Gateshead 1 Chester 0 International Stadium, 28/11/15, Att: 842 Due to that geography issue and work I missed their run to Wembley in 2014.

However, I was there when they played Darlo in the semi-final of the FA Trophy in 2011. That game goes down as one my favourite away trips in recent years.

Gateshead had a good few of well let’s just say the more excitable type of fan with them that day.

At the end of the game we were all in a fine Darlo hostelry, enjoying a postmatch beer, when Durham Constabulary entered the bar to kindly advise us that a group of Darlo fans were waiting in another bar. Their intention was to give us a

tf 40

less than friendly send-off back to Tyneside. This was the trigger for one Heed wag to pipe up “Whey why divint ye lot f*ck off then?” the look on the plods face was priceless!

Anyway, this pre-Christmas trip home, to see my parents, coincided with a home game against fan owned Chester FC, a club that I have a lot of time for. Chester FC was formed by fans from the ashes of liquidated club Chester City and you can watch their story here.

So then it was a no brainer, I was off to the match

and the editor of this fine publication said that he would join me.

I decided that a few pre match bevies should be partaken on Gateshead High Street , I hadn’t drank there for years and thought it was a good a place as anywhere.

Behind the glitz of the Sage, Baltic, Millennium Bridge, new cinema and new Tesco there is still an overriding stench of poverty and hardship on the streets of Gateshead. The Northern Powerhouse, I wonder eh?

Pawn shops, charity shops and bookies…same old story. By the way I miss the iconic Get Carter car park

Tony Higgins @higgins1892

www.true-faith.co.uk

and the Trafalgar pub, which always was so welcoming, especially for Chelsea fans.

After a couple of beers I decided to walk the short distance to the ground, just as the mid-winter dusk and cold began to cut in. I had forgotten how quickly it gets dark at that time of year in the North East. As I walked along, pulling my collar up to protect me from the winter chill, I surveyed the landscape. Clarke Chapmans, that employed thousands of people, now gone and replaced by new houses, which make up the new Old Fold Estate, which probably has a different name now? I read a big sign that states “Love Innovation, Live Gateshead, Love Gateshead”. Behind the sign lies a huge plot of derelict wasteland.

I reached the ground just before kick-off to find the bar closed and bizarrely, just a few weeks before www.true-faith.co.uk

Christmas, the club merchandise shop is closed also. So with nothing else to do I go and find a seat, in the sparsely filled Tyne & Wear Stand. It has been written many times before but Gateshead FC really

PA and that takes my mind off the cold for a bit.

need to have their own stadium soon. No disrespect to Gateshead council, who have provided a place for the club to play, but the International Stadium is just not a football stadium and to make matters worse is freezing on a late November Saturday afternoon. As I find my spot Groovy Train by The Farm is playing over the stadiums

team boss Micky Cummins took charge. Aspin’s first interview as Heed boss here.

The match was the first one for The Heeds new manager Neil Aspin. Gateshead lad Aspin watched the game from the stands as reserve-

The match was the first one for The Heeds new manager Neil Aspin. Gateshead lad Aspin watched the game from the stands as reserve-team boss Micky Cummins took chargE

tf 41

Gateshead’s Hamilton, who had been lively all game, received the ball on the left-hand side of the box and his shot across goal was turned into his own net

by Alex Whitmore on 82 minutes.

Gateshead started the game brightly but it was the visitors who came closest to opening the scoring. Tom Shaw collected the ball in the area and managed to slip it underneath Sam Russell, only for Simon Ramsden to clear it off the line with a last-ditch slide. The game ebbed and flowed but at the interval the teams went in level at the break.

The second half was much of the same fayre and it took an own goal to break the deadlock. Gateshead’s Hamilton, who had been lively all game, received the ball on the left-hand side of the box and his shot across goal was turned into his own net by Alex Whitmore on 82 minutes.

A nervous eight minutes or so ticked by but thankfully Gateshead manged to hang onto the welcome 3 points.

The Heed had only won one of their last nine before this game. Match highlights can be seen here. tf 42

After the game Mr. Ed and me decided to head to the official home of The Heed Army,The Nags Head Pub in Gateshead Town Centre. For me there is nothing quite like a post-match typical British boozer. Instantly I got the feeling of camaraderie and togetherness, something I have to say I feel is missing somewhat a couple of miles across the river. I am asked what I want at the bar and I opt for a pint of Exhibition, a drink I hadn’t seen for years. “Are you sure?” my match going companion asks. One sip and I now know the reason for the quizzical question, its rancid, sentimentality and being on home soil has

got the better of me! We settle down and on the TV Leicester City are playing Manure and they are winning, which is continuing their great run. The tunes on the juke box are top notch, the Clash, the Jam etc. and

the atmosphere in the bar is truly what going to football should be all about. Then unfortunately it’s time to go but I will be back, I just don’t know when.

I opt for a pint of Exhibition, a drink I hadn’t seen for years. “Are you sure?” my match going companion asks. One sip and I now know the reason for the quizzical question, its rancid, sentimentality and being on home soil has got the better of me!

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I love Public Enemy but I haven’t seen them live before so when I was messing around on t’internet in the summer and saw that they were supporting the Prodigy at Newcastle, I bought myself a couple of tickets and promptly forgot all about it. Roll on end of year and I realised that I would need a likeminded idiot with a tendency to drink excessive amounts and who possesses a ‘colourful’ past.

He would be the perfect person to accompany me on the trip to musical heaven.

The Prodigy/ Public Enemy

Newcastle Arena , Nov 26th, 2015 Step up Mr Greaves who was equally as excited about seeing the bands as he was for getting pissed on a school night in the toon. Actually, he had seen the Prodigy back in the day at a rave (hardcore – you know the score) whereas I’d only seen them supporting Oasis at Knebworth the night before the charity shield game again manure (we lost 4-0, what a surprise).

My recognition was one

tf 44

of them blowing Oasis away so seeing them again was good crack but it was Public Enemy I was there for.

We boarded the train in Durham and made our way through to the toon and quickly found ourselves a spot in the Irish / Dickensian Library / Railway Bar opposite the station (whatever it’s called now) and made our way down to the arena early to see PE. Quite

a few other people had decided to do the same. It was here where I realised how much of a dick I really am. I’d bought seat tickets which sounded good (and looked good) on line, but are shit when you are at a gig with a nutter. We promptly decided the floor was the place for us and blagged our way in there ASAP. They opened with ‘Miuzi Weighs a Ton and Rebel without a Pause’ (one of the greatest

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Hip Hop anthems) and kept up the majesty from then on. Highlights for me were Bring the Noise, Don’t Believe the Hype, He Got Game, Fight the Power and the closing tune of ‘Harder Than You Think’ but there was a little solo DJ Set by DJ Lord in amongst which was spectacular to say the least – gotta love a hip hop DJ spinning ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ into his set. Chuck D is a hero of mine by the way – his voice is brilliant and hasn’t aged a second.

After caning as many bottles of beer as we possibly could in the interval between bands, we made our way back onto the dance floor and waited for the Prodigy to start. There was a canny mix in the crowd like with everyone from teenagers

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and students to wizened old drug addled ravers (Mr G) with the odd housewife and curious school teacher type. It is always at this point where your choice of companion is key. If you are with a ‘decent lad who likes a drink but is steady away’ type then you are probably going to take a safe spot in the crowd and enjoy the band. If you are with a ‘like-minded loony who still thinks he is in his drug crazed 20’s’ type then you are probably going to make your way down the front and have a bit of a jump about. We chose the second option (and regretted it heavily for the next two days).

As the band ripped into ‘Breath’, we knew it was going to be a good night.

I’d personally forgotten how good The Prodigy are live as their mix of hard core dance and rock really

hit the spot. A set packed with gems (especially ‘Nasty’, ‘Voodoo People’ and ‘Firestarter’) got the crowd going and the mosh pit was excitable but not menacing in anyway. Any gig finishing with ‘Smack my Bitch Up’ is fine by me and it was refreshing to see men in their 40’s like Keith Flint, Maxim and Liam Howlett jumping around like idiots. I bet their knees weren’t as f***ed as mine on the Friday morning though!

All in all, a great night to see a band I have always loved and one which enhanced their reputation as a great live band and a great event. The venue is shit mind and nothing will ever change my mind about that. Give me the Academy/City Hall or any other venue in Newcastle first!

...and it was refreshing to see men in their 40’s like Keith Flint, Maxim and Liam Howlett jumping around like idiots. I bet their knees weren’t as f***ed as mine on the Friday morning though!

Ted Edwards tf 45

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SPURS 1 NEWCASTLE UNITED 2 White Hart Lane, Sun 13th Dec 2015, 4.00pm, Premier League, Att: 35,768 An astonishing victory at a Spurs side seen as outside contenders for the title saw us reprise our visit last season by being dogshit in the first half before winning the day with a second half turnaround. It was more a last quarter turnaround here mind. To be fair, we started quite well – de Jong had a goalbound effort blocked by his own man in Cisse but we still went in behind when Dier met a corner and saw his header palmed in by Eliott in our goal.

We didn’t hold out much hope in the second half and we were going nowhere until first Cisse and then de Jong were withdrawn. Within seconds of Mitrovic coming on for the latter, he had us level, tapping in from about an inch out after Mbemba’s header evaded the keeper to send the away end into delirium. We sensed a chance for victory but our chance looked to have gone before we won it deep into injury time at the end. This time, Mitrovic turned provider, steering Wijnaldum’s ball into the path of Perez who struck his shot perfectly to see it squeeze past Lloris and nestle in the back of the net. Class.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett, Anita (Gouffran), Sissoko, Colback, Wijnaldum, de Jong (Perez), Cisse (Mitrovic).

Our Fans – 9 – Cock(erel) a-hoop

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Their Fans – 6 – Second only to Chelsea in the Cockney knobhead stakes.

Media View – ‘Perez grabs late winner to lift McLaren’s side’ (Telegraph).

In-Form – The introduction of Perez and Mitrovic up front turned the game...

Out of Form – ...mainly because Cisse and de Jong were gash before they went off.

McClaren Watch – Back to back wins against top ten sides. Heady days.

tf 47

NEWCASTLE UNITED 1 ASTON VILLA 1 St James’ Park, Sat 19th Dec 2015, 5.30pm, Premier League, Att: 48,234.

We failed to build on the back of our two highly impressive victories with only a point against a piss poor Villa side in a poor game that we still should have won. With half of the country underwater, the game didn’t look like it was going to go ahead and it looked odds on to be abandoned coming up to half time when we took the lead through an unlikely source. De Jong put over a grasscutter corner and it found Coloccini at the back post and his shot went in via a poor attempt at a stop by Guzan.

We should have wrapped it up after the break when the bloody awful de Jong nodded wide from about a yard out with an open goal to aim out. Absolutely shocking miss from one of my least favourite players, which is really saying something in this side and they levelled shortly after when Ayew lashed a fine shot home. Worryingly, both sides seemed semi-content with a point but we still had chances to win it late on, Perez missing the best chance at the death but all in all it was a poor afternoon’s work against relegation certainties.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett, Anita (Thauvin), Sissoko, Colback, Wijnaldum, de Jong (Perez), Cisse (Mitrovic).

Our Fans – 6 – Nervous.

Their Fans – 7 – Thought they were supportive of a shocking side. Still can’t wait till they go down.

Media View – ‘Magpies pay the price for missed chances’ (Chronicle).

In-Form – Colo has been better of late and the goal was a bonus.

Out of Form – De Jong is a waste of time, fuck him off asap.

McClaren Watch – Back to being underwhelmed.

tf 48

NEWCASTLE UNITED 0 EVERTON 1 St James’ Park, Sat 26th Dec 2015, 5.30pm, Att: 51,682.

A frustrating afternoon saw us leave empty handed when we deserved a point, albeit no more than that despite McLaren’s post-match claims that we should have had three. In reality, we hardly had a kick for the first half hour before Mitrovic glanced a header wide from a great position in front of goal. Wijnaldum also headed wide when he looked as likely to score and we continued our momentum into the second half, when we were well on top for the 20 minutes or so after the break.

We had a fantastic chance to take the lead on the hour but again Mitrovic demonstrated his possession of a fifty pence head when he headed wide from a fine Sissoko run and cross when he was no more than six yards out with Howard completely beaten. Terrible miss and our ‘Sweet and Tender Hooligan’ looks like he’s got sweet fuck all chance of getting half a dozen goals this season, never mind the 15 or so we likely need to keep us up. Conceding in the last minute of injury time was a cruel blow and it was a truly shit goal, Cleverley managing to head in from the edge of the 18 yard box over three inch tall Rob Eliott and two statuesque defenders on the line. Baaals.

We are, in every way a rotten football club at present.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett, Anita, Sissoko, Colback, Wijnaldum, Perez (Thauvin), Mitrovic.

Our Fans – 5 – Not much Christmas cheer to be had.

Their Fans – 7 – Excellent turnout but not as noisy as usual.

Media View – Late Cleverley header stuns Magpies in dour conditions’ (Express).

In-Form – Mbemba is starting to look like a top defender.

Out of Form – Mitrovic is starting to look like a big fucking plank.

McClaren Watch – Grinning while we bear it. www.true-faith.co.uk

WEST BROM 0 NEWCASTLE UNITED 1 The Hawthorns , Mon 28th Dec 2015, 3.00pm, Att: 26,313.

We bid good riddance to 2015 with a suitably awful performance, losing to a shit West Brom side and again looking completely goal shy in a poor game. We huffed and puffed and probably had the better of the first half – Colo hit the bar and Gini had a decent chance but failed to beat the keeper when put through on goal but it was a game short on quality and clear chances. Darlow was pitched in for his debut shortly before kick off because of an Eliott feeling ‘ill’ – nee idea what sort of illness kept him out like, but we felt ill every time a ball came over to Darlow as he reprised the ghost of Jak Alnwick past.

The second half was no better – Mitrovic should have had a penalty but otherwise was a big plank and Dummett hit the bar as well but lost the game to an absolute shocker – Fletcher’s tame header squirming beneath Darlow to gift them victory. The noisy away support vented their frustration with the side and the rotten club at the end.

What a year, eh?

Newcastle United – Darlow, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett, Anita (Tiote), Sissoko, Colback (Thauvin), Wijnaldum, Perez (de Jong), Mitrovic.

Our Fans – 8 – Team is undeserving of them.

Their Fans – 6 – Canny enough bunch.

Media View – Fed up Newcastle fans boo their team off’ (Star).

In-Form – Christ, nee-one really.

Out of Form – We were collectively shite but Darlow had a nightmare in goal.

McClaren Watch – Difficult to see how he’s going to get us out of the bottom three.

ARSENAL 1 NEWCASTLE UNITED 0 Emirates Stadium, Sat 2nd Jan 2016, 3.00pm, Att: 59,257.

Well, at least we’re finding varied ways to lose games I suppose as we played very well here and still ended up with nowt. We were by far the better side in the first half against the league leaders and had a handful of good chances to go in at the break ahead but Mitrovic from an overhead kick came close, Mbemba should have done better and Wijnaldum had the best chance, firing straight at Cech from a backpass. He then had our best chance of the game just after half time when Perez slipped him in with a lovely pass but again he shot straight at the keeper. Mitrovic then contrived to knee the ball over from about an inch out – to be fair the cross from Perez caught him a bit unaware but fuck me man, we should have been out of sight.

Needless to say, they won it from a daft goal when Perez went to sleep from a corner and Koscielny nipped in behind him to poke the ball past Eliott. We still had chances to level but our lack of a goalscorer is going to send us down, it’s as simple as that and a defeat is a defeat, no matter how well you’ve played. Desperate times.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett, Tiote (de Jong), Sissoko, Colback (Thauvin), Wijnaldum, Perez, Mitrovic.

Our Fans – 6 – Came in hope more than expectation.

Their Fans – 6 – You wouldn’t think they were top of the league.

Media View – Koscielny shows instinct of a striker as Gunners march on’ (Mail).

In-Form – Out of Form – McClaren Watch – No points for gallant losers. And we are losers under him at the minute.

www.true-faith.co.uk

tf 49

WATFORD 1 NEWCASTLE UNITED 0 Vicarage Road, Sat 9th Jan 2016, 3.00pm, Att: 18,259.

It’s time to see if we can start opting out of the FA Cup as we bowed out at the first available opportunity for the 63rd time in a row, when George Robledo was the last United player to score a winner in an FA Cup tie. Eyebrows were raised by the ‘strength’ of the team named. I say strength, it was still broadly shit but it was also pretty much our first team with Mbabu but even that wasn’t enough to beat a Watford side that rested more players than us.

The first half was piss poor but we had good chances from Wijnaldum and a lumbering Mitrovic before they went ahead just before half time thanks to a laughable goal from Deeney, who could hardly believe his luck when Wijnaldum played a suicidal backpass that he was able to intercept to round Eliott and slot home. We huffed and puffed a bit in the second half but really our only threat came from Sissoko trying to run through players, with guile in short supply. He almost played in Mitrovic, whose acceleration, akin to a supertanker wasn’t enough to connect and substitute Thauvin took a break from rolling around on the floor, being booed and avoiding any sort of responsibility to toepoke an effort into the side netting at the death but it wasn’t enough.

What does this say about McLaren? Pardew rightly never recovered from Stevenage and Brighton, before going on to a thousand more offences. Where does he go from here?

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini (Lascelles), Dummett, Tiote (de Jong), Sissoko, Mbabu (Thauvin), Wijnaldum, Perez, Mitrovic.

Our Fans – 6 – Furious, fed up.

Their Fans – 5 – Barely noticed.

Media View – ‘Fans turn on Thauvin and Ashley after cup defeat’ (Shields Gazette).

In-Form – It comes to something when you choose Sissoko, for putting a shift in.

Out of Form – Thauvin got the majority of the abuse when he came on but there were a few dismal performances – Mitrovic looks two fucking stone overweight and ten year older than he is. Shite.

McClaren Watch – I don’t know whether the fact he played a full strength team is in his favour or damns him even further.

Pathetic. tf 50

NEWCASTLE UNITED 1 MAN UTD 1 St James’ Park, Tue 12th Jan 2016, 7.45pm, Att: 49,673.

What was billed as the most boring game in the world in the build up actually ended up being a thriller as we shared six goals with a ropey looking Man United side. Given that we barely score and they barely concede, we got off to a bad start when Mike Dean, who was fucking minging all night awarded the softest of penalties to them for an Mbemba handball inside ten minutes. Rooney scored and we could barely get hold of the ball in the first half hour. Things got worse when they went two up through Lingaard shortly before the break. Wijnaldum then had a great chance to equalise but fired straight at de Gea before hitting the target a few minutes later to send us in with a shout at half time.

We were a different side in the second half and thoroughly deserved our equaliser – our first penalty in 36 years which was awarded when Mitrovic got pulled owa by Smalling from a corner. The big Serb stroked the spot kick away and we battered them for a ten minute spell but couldn’t convert. We looked to have been robbed of a point when Rooney curled a fantastic effort home from the edge of the box with just ten minutes left but the deflation in the ground turned to elation when Dummett of all people lashed home a loose ball in front of the Gallowgate in the last minute. Home draws are no good in the grand scheme of things but there was satisfaction in the performance and spirit after the ‘efforts’ we’ve put in of late.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett, Tiote (Toney), Sissoko, Colback (Gouffran), Wijnaldum, Perez (de Jong), Mitrovic.

Our Fans – 7 – Noisy in the second half, moribund in the first (courtesy A.Partridge).

Their Fans – 6 – Andy Cole and Shearer songs a-plenty.

Media View – ‘Cracking comeback earns Magpies a point’ (Chronicle).

In-Form – Wijnaldum was fantastic again – our best player this season by a mile.

Out of Form – Perez isn’t at the level he has been, which to be fair is excellent.

McClaren Watch – Things seemed to markedly improve after half time, to his credit. www.true-faith.co.uk

NEWCASTLE UNITED 2 WEST HAM UTD 1 St James’ Park, Sat 18th Jan 2016, 3.00pm, Att: 50,031.

A long overdue and much needed win capped an all too rare good week for NUFC and we properly paggered them for the first half hour with the feel good factor of having a midfielder who can pass a ball more than three yards in a straight line and in a forward direction clear for all to see. Shelvey played a key role in both goals – the first was a beauty as he picked out Wijnaldum, whose cute lay off was curled home expertly by young Ayoze – satisfying goal all round and great to see the little fella back on the scoresheet. The second was even better as Shelvey picked out Janmaat with a pinpoint 50 yard crossfield ball which the fullback took on the run and pulled back for Wijnaldum to smash home. Two up inside a quarter of an hour and it could have been at least a couple more before half time.

They came back in the second half and pulled one back just after the break through Jelavic but we were as dangerous as they were as the game drew on and but for some wasteful finishing, we could have won more comfortably. That would be splitting hairs though, it was a far better performance and things feel a bit better all of a sudden, despite the fact we’re still firmly in the clarts.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Dummett (Saivet), Shelvey, Sissoko, Colback, Wijnaldum, Perez (Gouffran), Mitrovic (Lascelles).

Our Fans – 8 – Something to shout about at long last.

Their Fans – 6 – Plenty of them but pretty quiet.

Media View – Shelvey stars on Magpies debut’ (Independent).

In-Form – Shelvey had a great debut, but Gini was the man again.

Out of Form – No-one had a bad game. Saivet looked a bit off the pace for his half hour cameo.

McClaren Watch – It’s been a good week for him – good signing and good results, he has to build on it.

www.true-faith.co.uk

WATFORD 2 NEWCASTLE UNITED 1 Vicarage Road, Sat 23rd Jan 2016, 3.00pm, Att: 20,611.

Annnnnd back to the drawing board. I didn’t feel good about this when the teamsheet was announced, McLaren is always desperate to drop Perez, the prick but to bring in Aarons who has barely kicked a ball all season in his place after scoring last week? Lascelles at full back, Saivet straight into the middle – fair enough those two were forced but we looked disjointed although it was the all too familiar failings that cost us – Gini going missing away from home, Mitty Whitehurst incapable of scoring in a brothel with twenty pound notes tied round his chopper, shite defending, falling asleep in the five minutes after the break – there for all to see and Watford took advantage to break their own run of poor form to beat us for the THIRD time this season.

I might as well just cut and paste from the other reports – Mitrovic had our best chance in the first half and could have scored, Ighalo took advantage of the fact we’d been taking wobbly eggs at half time and scored within a millisecond of the restart, Cathcart got another after some miserable defending and although Lascelles pulled one back with a fine header, we were left planted in the bottom three. Eight days to buy a minimum of one top class striker, isn’t going to happen so we’re going down.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini (Riviere), Lascelles, Saivet (Perez), Shelvey, Sissoko , Wijnaldum, Aarons (Gouffran), Mitrovic.

Our Fans – 7 – In pretty good voice with a clawing sense of déjà vu.

Their Fans – 6 – Inoffensive enough.

Media View – ‘What now for United after damaging defeat?’

(Chronicle).

In-Form – Difficult to pick anyone out – possibly Lascelles if only for the header Out of Form – Gouffran was a disgrace when he came on.

McClaren Watch – Fed up with the usual ‘we played well, we’ll be fine’ dogshit after the match, he called the line up completely wrong and is presiding over us being relegated.

Fuck off. tf 51

NEWCASTLE UNITED 1 WEST BROM 0 St. James Park, Sat 6th Feb, 3:00pm, Premier League, Att: 50,152.

EVERTON 3 NEWCASTLE UNITED 0 Goodison Park, Sat 6th Feb, 3:00pm, Premier League, Att: 36,061.

So where does that rank in our shittest performances of the last shitty five years? I’d have it in the top half dozen at least as we absolutely stank the place out, being lucky to get away with just three put past us in an absolutely shambolic performance. The formation was all to pot from the word go, with Perez parked up front as a lone striker and it was a minor miracle that we only went in one down to a Lennon goal in the first half as they completely dominated.

And let’s bear in mind that they were on a dreadful run themselves and short on confidence.

The second half was no better at all and again, it was only a surprise that it took them until so late in the game to get the goals to kill us off, both from the spot. Aarons, ludicrously brought on at half time to replace Dummett at left back, ludicrously hauled Lennon down to allow Barkley to convert from the spot and then Lascelles got himself sent off in injury time after hacking down Barkley . This time he chipped in his spot kick and I felt sorry for Eliott – the rest of them can all go and fuck off. Oh and we’ve now got three defenders injured/suspended for the weekend. Still, at least we’ve got strength in depth hey? Dreadful night.

Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Mbemba (Lascelles), Coloccini, Dummett (Aarons), Shelvey, Saivet (Mitrovic), Sissoko, Wijnaldum, Townsend, Perez.

Our Fans – 5 – Tired ‘Scouser’ songbook.

Their Fans – 6 – Couldn’t believe their luck.

Media View – ‘Barkley shines as Toffees get back on track’ (Mirror).

In-Form – Eliott is the only one to emerge with any credit, saving us an embarrassing scoreline.

Out of Form – Wijnaldum might as well not bother getting on the bus for the aways, Sissoko was MIA and Dummett was abject. The others were different shades of shite.

McClaren Watch – If he honestly thinks, as he suggested after the game that the scoreline flattered Everton, he needs his head looking at. And his fucking hair. tf 52

A must win that we won got us out of the bottom three and left us scratching our heads as to how the fuck West Brom have got any points, let alone 29, they were that bad.

We were the better side for ninety minutes, had three good half chances in the first quarter of an hour and thought we’d taken the lead on the half hour, but Tiote had his swerving effort from outside the area ruled out for offside.

The injustice didn’t last long as Mitrovic kept his head to coolly convert a lovely pass from Shelvey, whose all round play is improving us.

We should really have had another three in the second half – Wijnaldum headed over when he should have scored, Townsend hit the post and Sissoko shot just wide and Albion resembled a pub side, with loads of overweight lads humping the ball aimlessly up front. They nearly got a completely undeserved equaliser at the death but Rondon fluffed his lines when he could have squared for Berahino but in the end we were well worth our victory. We need another five from somewhere before the middle of May. Newcastle United – Eliott, Janmaat, Taylor, Coloccini, Aarons, Shelvey (Saivet), Sissoko, Tiote , Wijnaldum, Townsend (Perez), Mitrovic.

Our Fans – 6 – Plentiful, nervy, ultimately relieved.

Their Fans – 3 – As nondescript as their team.

Media View – ‘Mitrovic ends drought to haul Magpies out of drop zone’ (Express).

In-Form – Janmaat was excellent going forward, pretty much everyone played well though.

Out of Form – Wijnaldum was quiet.

McClaren Watch – By God did he need a win here and he got it.

Gareth Harrison - Follow Gareth on @truefaith1892

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NORTHUMBERLAND WE ARE THE MAGS £17.00 Visit site

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tf 53

On Saturday morning (before the West Ham game), the tf weekly pod lads were kindly invited to take part in a game of football and chat with NUFC hero Robert Lee. We were treated to a round robin of 7-aside football, with Rob taking a turn on each team followed by a casual Q&A with some great stories told about the NUFC of the 90s (when we were good!).

A KICK-A-ROUND WITH ROB LEE

The event, jointly organised by Play with a Legend and Last Night of Freedom was terrifically run and was a resounding success. Josh and the lads did a great job of running the event whilst taking time to engage and involve everybody there.

As clichéd as it sounds, Rob Lee was a real gent.

Everything I would have expected from one of my tf 54

childhood heroes and how an NUFC captain should be! It’s hard to imagine your modern footballer interacting with fans in the same way. Can Colo even speak English yet??

The Footy Played at Soccer League in Gateshead, each side got a couple of short games with the main man involved. In true Entertainers style, with

Simon Campbell (tf Weekly POD)

Rob on the True Faith side we had some ludicrous results. First game, TF absolutely dominated with Rob Lee in the middle - about 10 shots on target in the space of a 12 minute game.... Final score, 0-4, obviously. The goalkeeper and eventual ‘man of the tourney’ had our lives.

Game 2, as we were short of numbers, Rob Lee www.true-faith.co.uk

kindly stayed on our team and some wrongs were righted! Courtesy of a Si (Pod) screamer and a Rob Lee Penalty, a 3-0 win booked our place in the final.

In all seriousness, at 49, and nearly twice the average age of our team, Rob Lee put us all to shame. He’s still got it! Touch and pass that (before seeing Shelvey that day) none of the current NUFC midfield come close to.

Rob joined up with the legends lads again for the final which they eventually won on penalties. No names mentioned for who missed for tf.

After the Game After a quick photo session with the group (some of

www.true-faith.co.uk

us looking disgracefully worse for wear after 45mins of exercise) We all got to sit down to a Q&A session with everyone before Rob kindly allowed us to do a few more questions, recorded just for true faith. Some cracking stories of better times at United. Amazing to hear how different things were just 20 years ago. Players getting mortal weekly – which was perfectly fine ‘as long as we were winning’; David Batty, absolutely hating training.

The most humbling stories he had were of Kevin Keegan and how he ‘made every player feel 10 foot tall going out on to the pitch before a game’. A further reminder, if needed, of how unique

and brilliant Kevin Keegan was and is.

Can you imagine Steve McClaren instilling that kind of feeling in the lads today? Giving Vurnon Anita the confidence to match the Yaya Tourés of the modern game? No. Not a chance.

Seriously though, a cracking event and thanks again to both the organisers @PlaywithaLegend and @LNOF. I would recommend both for their great efforts in providing a memorable day. This was made better still by a class performance and fucking vital win over West Ham.

In all seriousness, at 49, and nearly twice the average age of our team, Rob Lee put us all to shame. He’s still got it!

You can listen to Micky’s interview with Rob Lee here.

tf 55

Cartoons

www.true-faith.co.uk

tf 57

Mark Haddon is best known for penning the award winning novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’. The book is full of intrigue, plot twists and confusion, whereby the ending reminds us an awful lot of the introduction. You might call it satisfying symmetry.

However, I’m far more interested in the tale of Jonjo Shelvey, a tale you could call ‘The Curious Incident of the Outcast at The Swans’. It’s a story full of intrigue, plot twists and confusion, whereby the ending is nothing at all like the introduction. Add in a good mixture of promise and hope; misery and woe; ecstasy and anguish, and you’d be forgiven for thinking Mr Shelvey and Newcastle United are a somewhat perfect fit Jonjo Shelvey is a player who needs no introduction.

He’s made quite the impression since his reported £12m move to the North East from fellow strugglers Swansea, and arrives at St James’s with a rather chequered history. A player who has been both wonderful and woeful in

equal measure, Shelvey departs Swansea with a point to prove. There are both good and bad aspects to this transfer, we can only hope that in time the good far outweighs the bad.

a small proportion that when Yohan Cabaye comes to mind, on the opposite end of the scale comes Remy Cabella, Romain Amalfitano, Yoan Gouffran and the likes.

One of the biggest positives of this transfer is that Jonjo Shelvey represents a stem in the tide of foreign influx that has so frustrated fans for the last five or six years.

Whilst a proportion have been a success, it’s such

While the arrival Shelvey isn’t a guaranteed nor definitive end point of our current policy, it’s significant in the fact at some level within the club change has not only been signalled- but followed through. Furthermore, with rumours of bids tabled for To t t e n h a m ’s Andros Townsend and want awayWest Brom rogue Saido Berahino, it seems encouragingly likely Graham Carr an co are now going for Premier League proven quality rather than the aforementioned unknown quantities- and my word, not a moment too soon.

LIAM NORRIS : n o i t c u d o r t In

O J N O J

Y E V L E H S

tf 58

www.true-faith.co.uk

It gets better than that, though. Since Yohan Cabaye jumped ship, quite literally, to join PSG in January 2014, everything that was good about Newcastle fast dried up. Goals dried up, the defence became leakier than the rock beds of Lake Windermere, and our form dipped dramatically, culminating in the situation we currently find ourselves in- zero creative edge and scrapping in a second consecutive relegation dogfight. What Shelvey brings us is not just knowledge of the Premier League, grit, character and fight, but creativity in bags full. There’s no doubt about it, the boy can play.

During his time in the early part of his career at Charlton Athletic, Shelvey wouldn’t just create goals, but he would score them too- something us Magpies would soon find out ourselves during his Liverpool and Swansea days.

He made a huge impression during his time at The Addicks, who at the time were used to slumming it at the bottom end of The www.true-faith.co.uk

Championship- not much has really changed in recent times on that front mind.

In the two years he spent at The Valley, he featured in 42 league games, scoring seven times. It wasn’t long before Shelvey attracted somewhat more desirable suitors, and it was a certain Merseyside club that won the chase for his signature.

Shelvey signed for perennial big-heads Liverpool for £1.7m in May 2010, having been convinced by then Liverpool gaffer Rafael Benitez that the upcoming 2010-11 season was ‘going to be their year’. Benitez resigned two months later. Putting the managerial merry-goround of Liverpool to one side, Shelvey spent the early part of his Reds career out on loan, briefly having a successful spell at Blackpool, before being recalled due to Liverpool’s massive injury woes. During his three seasons on Merseyside, Shelvey impressed hugely, but couldn’t quite nail down a starting eleven place consistently enough under Roy Hodgson and

later Brendan Rodgers.

It was midway through his time at Liverpool that Shelvey was called up to the England squad, making his debut in October 2012 against San Marino. Hardly world beaters, but a start nonetheless. Liverpool could be viewed as a big step slightly too soon. While it was apparent in time, with the right coaching and guidance, Shelvey could do it at the top level, age, poor temperament and bad timing led to an exit, 170 miles South and a jump across the border to Swansea was next, and this is where the Shelvey story becomes clouded, colluded and awfully confusing.

Shelvey and Swansea seemed a catch.

Swansea needed a thoroughbred playmaker, a passing craftsman...

The question has to be asked- What the hell happened at Swansea?

Signed in July 2013 from Liverpool for a reported initial fee of £5m, Shelvey and Swansea seemed a catch. Swansea needed a thoroughbred playmaker, a passing craftsman, while Shelvey needed a Premier League club on the up, where he could settle, grow and cement his place in the tf 59

England fold. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it all started very well, actually. In his debut season at The Liberty, Shelvey fast settled into life at The Premier League’s most successful foreign club, scoring six from his midfield hub, while assisting seven in a season which saw The Swans finish 12th, a handful of points and a couple of places lower than ourselves.

So far, so good. The following season, however, is where things begin to get confusing. Having firmly cemented himself as a first team regular and a fans favourite, Shelvey had the world at his feet. Enjoying England call ups and first team football in what was a very good footballing side under Gary Monk, from the outside it seemed Shelvey could do no wrong.

From the inside, however, rumours of a bad attitude and a hellish ego were rife, and again his Achilles heel appeared to be his temperament- something which Monk had no qualms about criticising in a very public manner in January of last year. Disciplinary and attitude concerns aside, last season proved to be another extremely fruitful one for Shelvey, scoring three and setting up six as Swansea soared to an all-time high of eight- putting Newcastle firmly in the shade.

2015/16 has been the most baffling, unpredictable season in Premier League history. Undisputed. Jonjo Shelvey is a metaphor for tf 60

how England’s top flight can be summed up so far this term. Dropped by Swansea for poor form and bad attitude, goes on to be man of the match for England in September against San Marino. Quite simply, bizarre. After being dropped by Swansea before the Man City game this season, Shelvey reportedly rang Swans chairman Huw Jenkins almost in tears asking what was going on.

His reply was something along the lines of “your heads not in a good state”, and that was seemingly that. Confusing really. All players have dips in form and it very much seems Shelvey has been outed as the fall guy for Swansea’s atrocious fall this season.

Unfair? Justified? You’re better of asking those in South Wales what they think of Jonjo Shelvey’s exit from The Liberty Stadium.

Whilst it’s great to see a six-time capped England international arrive through the door, Shelvey does so with a rather wrecked and dogged reputation, a temper as short as his haircut and having been branded with an awful attitude- sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it… Joey Barton, anyone?

We can only hope Shelvey settles an awful lot quicker and calmly than Scouse gob-shite Barton did.

Jonjo Shelvey could well be Newcastle United’s saviour. Finally we have a Yohan Cabaye-esque player, who not only has talent, but a massive point to prove. can only bode well for us that Shelvey’s parting gift to Swansea was a warning, a warning that the Welsh side have made a huge mistake in letting him go, and that he’ll fly high with the Magpies. It’s a cliché in football that when a player moves clubs he does so with a point to prove. Judging by his debut performance against West Ham, Jonjo Shelvey seems determined

to see his point gets across.

The start is good. The tale of Jonjo Shelvey continues, I for one hope that, much like ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’, the end mirrors the beginning. As I surmised at the start- satisfying symmetry. It would be the perfect remedy to what so far has been an almost fatal season for Newcastle United

Jonjo Shelvey could well be Newcastle United’s saviour.

Finally we have a Yohan Cabaye-esque player, who not only has talent, but a massive point to prove. It www.true-faith.co.uk

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Here we go again. The joys of another season battling it out with such illustrious football giants as Bournemouth, Norwich and Sunderland to avoid another ignominious drop to the Championship.

After our practice run last season, we’re obviously attempting to go one better in 2016.

MONEY AND SHARE ANDREW TROBE

But to be fair to the club, they are showing some signs of at least attempting to remain in the top flight.

At the time of writing, Henri Saivet and Jonjo Shelvey have arrived for £16m. Rumours (probably started by Lee Charnley) are that more will follow (what’s Shefti Kuqi up to nowadays?).

So how much will the club spend in January? Well, second guessing Mike Ashley is never easy.

In the past, his strategy was to spend on the basis of what they could afford (i.e. they wouldn’t spend any more than they earned through their various income streams). That’s resulted in profits in the last four sets of published accounts. tf 62

In January however, I think their spending will be driven by a different factor.

That factor is the amount of money that they could potentially lose in income if they are relegated. In other words, they will not be concerned about making a relatively small loss this season because relegation will result in an absolutely colossal loss next season.

So what would relegation cost the club?

The financial costs of relegation have never been higher. When we were relegated in 2009, the impact on our finances were pretty shocking - a £33.6m or 39% drop in our income.

And that was just one season. If we hadn’t bounced straight back, that % drop would have got progressively worse as sponsors dropped away, parachute payments ceased

When we were relegated in 2009, the impact on our finances were pretty shocking - a £33.6m or 39% drop in our income

08/09 £m

09/10 £m

Change £m

% Change

Match Day

29.0

20.9

-8.1

-28%

Media

37.6

16.1

-21.5

-57%

Commercial

19.4

15.4

-4.0

-21%

Operating income

86.0

52.4

-33.6

-39% www.true-faith.co.uk

and even our stoic support waned.

region of £100m in media payments alone.

And since then the cost of relegation has got a whole lot worse. And the reason it’s got worse is down to the TV deals. That’s changed everything. Let me explain.

Whilst the impact of losing their premier league TV money would be pretty dire for Newcastle, there are clubs who would suffer even greater consequences.

The more reliant on TV money, the more severe the impact. The table below shows the percentage of turnover generated by TV income in 13/14.

Media Whilst relegated teams will receive £65m in parachute payments (over 4 years), the TV income in the Championship is buttons compared to the Premier League’s. Under the current TV deal, Premier League clubs are guaranteed a minimum £63m a season in the Premier (made up of merit money, facility fees and TV income). Next season that’s estimated to rise to £99m! So a relegated club will probably lose over £80m in media income every season. Ouch.

And when you consider that £99m is estimated to be the minimum media income for a Premier club (i.e. for the League’s bottom club), the costs of relegation in reality are likely to be much higher. For example, each place you climb up the Premier League table, currently earns a club an extra £1.2m merit payment.

So the costs of relegation compared to even a midtable finish will be in the www.true-faith.co.uk

Crystal Palace

81%

Hull

79%

Cardiff

78%

Stoke

77%

West Brom

76%

Swansea

75%

Southampton

73%

Everton

71%

Sunderland

69%

Fulham

69%

Norwich

68%

West Ham

64%

Aston Villa

62%

Newcastle Utd

60%

Tottenham

50%

Liverpool

38%

Arsenal

31%

Chelsea

29%

Man City

28%

Man Utd

21%

Match Day Newcastle’s attendances held up remarkably well in the Championship when we were last relegated.

The average attendance dropped from 48,750 to 43,388 (an 11% drop).

When you consider the lower away followings in the Championship then that means over 90% of NUFC fans stuck by their team. Stunning support.

So a relegated club will probably lose over £80m in media income every season.

Ouch.

However whilst average attendances dropped by only 11%, match day income reduced by 28%. And this despite an additional four home games. This has to be down to prices. It’s an inferior product in the championship (though not necessarily less enjoyable) and the prices reflect that.

Newcastle’s last reported match day income was £25.9m (13/14). If relegation resulted in another 28% reduction then that means the club would suffer a hit of over £7m.

Commercial It is now commonplace for sponsorship deals to have clauses that pay out a lot less in the event of relegation.

With our last relegation, commercial revenue dropped by 21% from tf 63

£19.4m to £15.4m in the Championship. Northern Rock’s extended deal was worth only £2.5m (about half the previous contract of £4.8m).

In my opinion, Newcastle are still suffering for that relegation now. Despite five consecutive years in the top flight, our commercial revenue has only just recovered to that prerelegation total (although we haven’t yet had the 14/15 figures). In 2007, our commercial revenue was greater than Tottenham’s.

Now it’s less than a third.

We are still unable to command the commercial deals that the ‘big 6’ clubs can negotiate. And the reason for that is that we’re a relatively newly promoted club. It’s about the club’s profile. We simply haven’t got the commercial muscle of the top clubs to demand the big money. The clubs that command the big commercial deals are the most successful. Certainly not those that have been relegated recently and battle relegations on a perennial basis.

Playing staff Well run, profitable clubs in the Premier League will tf 64

suddenly face huge losses in the Championship. This is the commercial risk facing all but the top sides. Do they gamble on investing in the playing squad or do they attempt to maintain their premier league status on a championship budget?

Take Swansea. Generally regarded as a model club for their finances, they made a £21m profit in 12/13 (up from £17m in 11/12) and have no debt. But if they were to be relegated then suddenly these profits would be transformed into massive losses.

To mitigate against this risk, clubs have added relegation clauses to players’ contracts which substantially reduce their wages in the event of the drop.

Of course, Newcastle never anticipated their relegation in 2009 and had to pay their contractual obligations in full. I’m always tickled by the myth that Newcastle determinedly held on to a core of players in the championship which they had expertly assessed as having the character to return the club to the top flight. The truth is that the players we kept were those we couldn’t offload as clubs

weren’t prepared to match their wages. Who on earth in their right mind would pay £50k a week for Alan Smith? Er, apart from us, obviously.

Financial compensation A further cost which most clubs are likely to incur when relegated is the compensation paid to their manager (and back room staff) after the inevitable dismissal. In 2009, we paid out compensation of £5.3m as we went through a managerial merry-goround. Presumably sacking McLaren and his staff would cost something similar.

Debt Despite huge cost cutting after relegation, Newcastle’s net debt rocketed by £43m to £150m in 2010. It’s since reduced to less than £100m. Relegation would see the debt rocket again.

In my opinion, Newcastle are still suffering for that relegation now.

Despite five consecutive years in the top flight, our commercial revenue has only just recovered to that pre-relegation total

Summary If Newcastle get relegated, the cost to the club will be north of £100m. Ashley will be acutely aware of this. He won’t spend to give Newcastle supporters a side they can be proud of. He’ll spend because of the fear of what he might lose. www.true-faith.co.uk

Long standing true faith writer, Tony Higgins who regular readers will recognise from his Real Spain articles has his first book out now. Travel with Tony through the und ergrowt h of Spanish football and life for only ÂŁ4:99. Only in digital format.

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tf 65

Pelé‘s story is one that transcends your average rags-to-riches, kid-from-thebackstreet-to-global-superstar, fairy tale. In fact, his story beggars belief. So when the editor asked me to give it a bash I rolled my sleeves up, hit the books, and pieced together the journey of the little black kid from the backwaters of Minas Gerais to FIFA Player of the Century as best I could.

O Rei Edson Arantes do Nascimento was born in the rural state of Minas Gerais in the small town of Três Corações (‘Three Hearts’). His father, João Ramos do Nascimento, nicknamed Dondinho, was a player of some ability who played for various small clubs around Minas Gerais state. Dondinho moved his family to the dilapidated neighbourhood of Bauru in São Paulo where he played for Bauru Atlético Clube until ligament damage forced tf 66

him into retirement at the age of 35. Dondinho was desperate for young Edson to follow in his footsteps but his wife, Celeste, constantly reminded her son of the precarious life a footballer leads: the family were in constant money trouble due to Dondinho’s inability to earn a decent living. She urged Edson to pursue a career in medicine or teaching.

It was obvious that Edson, then known as Dico, was

The boy from brazil a gifted player. His father, obviously chuffed, advised, guided and encouraged his son. It was at around this time, when Edson was about 8 years old, that he picked up the nickname ‘Pelé’. I’ve heard various stories where it came from but it’s most likely that it came from young Edson’s mispronunciation of the name of his favourite player at the time, Vasco da Gama goalkeeper, Bilé. Pelé claims to have forgotten exactly how he earned his new

JOHN MILTON Follow on @ Geordioca moniker and it sounds like it wasn’t complimentary, but the more Edson objected, the more it stuck.

Despite the teasing he received from his peers, Pelé began to dominate the local football scene.

The amateur teams he played for were winning tournaments around the city and young Pelé was getting noticed. At the age of 13 he was taken on at the youth team at his father’s club, Bauru, where he was www.true-faith.co.uk

coached by Waldemir de Brito – an ex-player who had represented his country at the 1934 World Cup. With Pelé leading the team, Bauru won 3 state youth championships between 1954-56.

In 1956 Brito took his star player to the port city of Santos for a trial with Os Peixes. After a single training session Santos signed Pelé, he would stay with the club for the following 20 years. Pelé scored against Corinthians in his first game at the age of just 15, by the time the 1957 Campeonato Paulista (São Paulo State Championship) started, the now 16 year old had broken into the first team and was getting regular starts.

Although Santos would lose their title to São Paulo FC the boy wonder didn’t fail to impress, ending the tournament as top scorer.

Despite setting the Paulista football world alight during his debut season, Pelé was a complete unknown

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to the wider Brazilian football community. As well as being without the television saturation of the sport that we have today, there was also no national Championship. Until the first national league was established in 1971 it was the State Championships which were the be-all and end-all to clubs and fans alike. Each Championship was played out in almost complete isolation with only the results of the strongest tournaments (the Carioca (Rio de Janeiro) and Paulista) attracting attention. With Carioca and Paulista football dominating the Brazilian game, it is little wonder that the national team was made up from the cream of these two tournaments.

Pelé had made his breakthrough at the perfect moment – as top scorer in the Paulista just one year before the World Cup, he had caught the attention of Brazil’s rotund, jovial and

maverick coach – Vicente Feola. Today Feola has a reputation as being too relaxed, for allowing his senior players to run his teams, and for even taking naps on the bench during training sessions and matches. However, that reputation is beginning to be challenged today, mainly be the players who had played for him. Feola, above all else, was an innovator.

How else can you explain his decision to include an unknown 17 year old on his quest to gain the Holy Grail of Brazilian football?

On the day the squad for the ’58 World Cup in Sweden was announced there was widespread confusion and scratching of heads all over Brazil. Even the stars of the Carioca tournament were bemused, Mário Zagallo and his colleagues from Rio nudged each other on seeing the little black kid from Santos at the training camp – ‘Quem é ele?’, ‘Who’s he?’, they asked

each other. They were soon to find out.

That squad was the best prepared squad in the history of football at that time. They added Soviet style sports science to their natural South American flair. They took an army of backroom staff including physios, doctors, dentists and even a psychologist. Luckily for

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world football, Feola knew far more about football than Dr. João Carvalhaes: the psychologist declared Garrincha too naïve and Pelé too immature to play.

Feola also knew quite a bit about kidology. Hiding his secret weapons during the first two group games (a 3-0 win over Austria and a 0-0 draw with England) he unleashed what would be Brazil’s greatest ever attacking partnership, Garrincha and Pelé, in Brazil’s must-win group game against the fancied and feared Soviet Union.

To keep his opponents guessing Feola lined his team up in random positions while journalists visited during training sessions, meaning nobody knew what to expect when Pelé and Garrincha took to the field. What they got has been described as the greatest 3 minutes of football ever played as Brazil launched wave after wave of attack from the get-go, usually down the right hand side with tf 68

Garrincha obliterating the Soviet left back time and again. With the legendary forwards Didi and Vavá bolstered with Brazil’s two newest superstars, Vavá was able to put both goals past Lev Yashin in the Soviet net for a 2-0 win.

Wales were next up in the Quarter Finals but were without John Charles, while Brazil were without the injured Vavá, meaning even more pressure on Pelé to perform for his country.

Despite plenty of intent from the canarinhos the game remained 0-0 till midway through the 2nd half when, with his back to goal, Pelé received a pass from Didi. He controlled with his chest, swivelled, knocked it past his defender and buried into the bottom corner for his first ever World Cup goal. That goal was enough as Brazil moved on to the Semi-Final where a formidable France, and eventual tournament top scorer Just Fontaine, were waiting.

Report of Pele’s ‘chapeu’

‘58 Final www.true-faith.co.uk

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Vavá was restored to the team and Brazil were ready.

Vavá scored in the 2nd minute and all seemed well until Fontaine equalised just 7 minutes later. The perceived mental fragility of the Brazilians came under scrutiny – thankfully, however, Didi scored an absolute Thunderbastard™ before half time to restore Brazil’s lead. 2-1 and the game looked in the balance, but nobody had calculatedin the Pelé factor. Grabbing the game by the proverbial scruff of the neck, the youngster grabbed a 23-minute, 2nd half hattrick as France were blown away. An 83rd minute goal by Piatoni was hardly consolation as the game finished 5-2.

Into the finals and Brazil faced the biggest threat to their dominance to date.

No, not the hosts, Sweden, who had also made it to the final, but their own selfdoubt. Brazilians are an insanely superstitious breed and their superstitions were almost their undoing. As hosts, Sweden rightfully requested to wear their yellow shirts, but Brazil refused to acquiesce. It became quite ugly as the

Benfica x Santos tf 70

CBF refused to back down.

Eventually a coin-toss was agreed upon and justice was seen as Sweden won it. Panic spread quickly through the Brazil camp until a quick-thinking trainer begged some spare shirts from the French squad.

Handing the modified strips to the team he told them it was a blessing: the blue was the colour of the patron saint of Brazil, Nossa Senhora de Aparecido.

Sweden scored a quick goal which really knocked the stuffing out of Brazil, but the imperious captain, Bellini, slowly picked the ball out of the net and calmly walked to the spot.

By the time he had given the ball to the forwards the team had settled. Vavá scored two goals (both set up by Garrincha) before Pelé scored a third. Zagallo added a fourth before Sweden pulled one back through Simonsson. Pelé rose in the 90th minute to score with his head – a goal that would provide wonderful symmetry with his exploits in 1970. With the goal came the final whistle: 5-2. Brazil were World Champions!

While Garrincha was confused (“Is that it? But in the Carioca we play them twice!”) the moment was not lost on the baby of the team. Pelé, overcome with emotion, could not cope with what had just happened. He broke down in floods of tears, images of the boy burying his face in goalkeeper Gilmar’s shoulders as he sobbed uncontrollably endeared him to football fans the world over.

Having left Brazil as an unknown 17 year old, Pelé returned as the most famous player on the planet. Now dubbed o Rei (The King) he would be received like a pop star wherever he went. Luckily, unlike so many other footballing greats, Pelé was well prepared for fame. He had a fantastic attitude and was fully aware of all the trappings of life in the public eye. His emergence coincided with that of Garrincha, they would play together for the national team until 1966 during which time Brazil didn’t lose a single game when they played together – an astounding feat.

Having left Brazil as an unknown 17 year old, Pelé returned as the most famous player on the planet.

Now dubbed o Rei (The King) he would be received like a pop star wherever he went

Pele x Portugal, ’66 www.true-faith.co.uk

Although many (myself included) argue that Garrincha was better player, Pelé was by far the most professional of the two. In fact, these two legends could not have been more different from each other off the pitch.

While Garrincha has been described as the most unprofessional professional to have played the game, Pelé was always a coach’s dream. Garrincha would go on 5 day benders before waking up on a Sunday afternoon and destroying whichever unfortunate left back was up against him that day (he usually didn’t have a clue who he was facing) before meeting up with his mates to do it all again. Pelé trained hard, he took care of his body, he understood tactics and he knew his worth. Garrincha relied on his natural ability and enjoyed the high life, Pelé worked hard to improve on every aspect of his game.

By the 1966 World Cup Garrincha was overweight, knackered with injuries and struggling with alcohol. He www.true-faith.co.uk

was finished. Pelé would have another World Cup in him.

Back to 1958 and Pelé was now a global brand and a one that his club, Santos, were eager to exploit. They went on epic tours, usually around Europe, where the public would pay top dollar to see the boy wonder. In the 4 years before the ’62 World Cup Pelé played a huge amount of games and the goals kept coming.

After his debut season in 1957, Pelé would dominate the Paulista scoring charts, ending as top scorer in 9 consecutive seasons from ’57-’65 (including an astonishing 58 goals in the 1958 tournament). Added to this were his goals on tour and for his country – he won the golden boot at the 1959 South America Championships with 8 goals.

By the time the 1962 World Cup came around Pelé was in hot form – this was meant to be his tournament.

Unfortunately, by then most teams had given up trying to find a legitimate way of stopping him and

he had become a marked man. In Brazil’s opening group game against Mexico Pelé scored the 2nd in a 2-0 win but in the next game against Czechoslovakia he tore a hamstring and his tournament was over. Not only was this a disaster for Brazil, but it was a disaster for FIFA, too – Pelé was the star attraction! Not to worry – Garrincha stepped out of Pelé’s shadows and took responsibility.

He inspired his team and did what only one other player has ever done: single handedly won a World Cup.

“Without Garrincha I would not be a 3 time World Champion.”

Pelé, although obviously disappointed, was as gracious and humble as ever – he has always thanked that team for winning the Cup, “Without Garrincha I would not be a 3 time World Champion.” It was this humility that had endeared Pelé to the world and it would be this attitude that would continue to cement his place in fan’s hearts around the world.

Despite the disappointment of ’62, fans didn’t have to wait long for Pelé to be given the chance to shine tf 71

on the international stage.

Santos won the 1962 Copa Libertadores (the South American version of the Champions League) putting them up against the European giants, Benfica, in the Intercontinental Cup. In the 2-legged final Pelé would be up against the player dubbed ‘The European Pelé’ – Eusébio.

The first leg was played at Rio’s Maracanã, it was a nervy affair with some cutand-thrust. While Europe’s pretender failed to score, the real deal scored 2 in Santos’ 3-2 victory.

In the return leg, held in the real Estadio da Luz (Stadium of Light) Pelé would play what he has described as his greatest ever game. In a blistering display of raw power, deft touch and positional awareness Pelé produced dribbles, back-heeled passes and tricks galore as he

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single-handedly tempered Benfica’s soaring pre-match confidence. By the time Europe’s finest were able to get to grips with the South Americans and their rampaging forward they were already trailing by two Pelé goals. Where his first was a simple sliding conversion, his second was a stroke of genius – after a feint allowed him to go past his first marker his sheer strength allowed him to power past 2 defenders, despite stumbling, before smashing a left foot shot into the bottom right corner. His feints and dummies continued to cause consternation, constantly ghosting past or powering through groups of 3 or 4 defenders at a time.

He continued to torment his opponents in the 2nd half, which allowed Coutinho a simple tap-in after being left in acres of space in the Benfica box

– the Portuguese by now being completely transfixed on Pelé. Pelé’s hat-trick came with the goal of the tie. Collecting the ball just inside his own half he dribbled and powered his way past 4 Benfica players into the box before his shot was saved by Pereira in the Benfica net, but the goalie could only parry, allowing Pelé to pick up the pieces and slot home. Pepe scored Santos’ fifth before Eusébio and Santana got consolations in the final 10 minutes. Pelé was a World Champion again, following a now-familiar 5-2 scoreline.

The following year followed a similar pattern for Santos – they successfully defended their Libertadores title which meant they would face AC Milan in defence of their Intercontinental crown. In the first leg Santos lost 4-2 in Milan, O rei getting both goals before suffering an injury

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which ruled him out of the return leg. Despite this blow, his team reversed the scoreline, notching a 4-2 win at the Maracanã. The decider was played in the same stadium and it was a vicious affair as the Italian team, including Trappatoni and Maldini gave as good as they got, indeed captain Maldini was sent off along with Santos’ Ismael. Santos got the goal they needed through Dalmo and they were now considered the most formidable side in world football, and Pelé the undisputed king.

In the period between Pelé’s breakthrough until the ’66 World Cup Santos built a dynasty to rival that of Europe’s best – in their all-white strips and huge success it is little wonder that they were called ‘The South American Real Madrid’. This golden era brought them 2 x Intercontinental Cups, 2 x Libertadores and 6 x Paulista titles. And Pelé was the beating heart of it all.

1966 is black hole in Brazilian football, firmly placed in the ‘best forgotten www.true-faith.co.uk

about’ column. Most Brazilians don’t know when England won their World Cup because it happened at this tournament. Pelé was at the height of his powers. He was 25 and had been top-scorer in the Campeonato Paulista for the ninth time. But unlike Pelé, the seleção was nowhere near ready. Feola had been hastily drafted in at the last minute, the meticulous preparation and attention to detail that had accompanied the ’58 and ’62 victories had been abandoned and the squad was largely made up of the veterans of the previous campaign. They were out of shape, aging and illprepared for the rigours of tournament football.

Garrincha in particular was a shadow of his former self – having been ravaged by injury and alcohol.

sure how accurate that is, what we do know is that Brazil were abject. All 3 of their group games were at Goodison. In the first game Bulgaria were beaten 2-0, both Pelé and Garrincha rolled back the years with a goal apiece, bringing hope that experience would be enough. It was, however, a false dawn.

They lost 3-1 to Hungary before Eusébio came looking for revenge with Portugal. They knew they could beat this Brazil side and they weren’t wrong.

Another 3-1 defeat and the defending champions were sent home.

physicality, and they might have a point. Pelé had been left unprotected in all 3 games before finally suffering an injury that would rule him out for the coming months having been kicked mercilessly by the Portuguese.

Pelé and Brazil have always maintained that this World Cup was too aggressive, that the officials allowed too much

Gratefully, this wouldn’t be the last chapter in Pelé’s phenomenal story.

He trudged down the tunnel having been unable to finish the game. He was dejected and despondent.

Disgusted with what had happened, looking back at the pitch he made his mind up that he would walk away from football.

He resolved never to play a game of football again.

To be continued...

It was a disaster from which the coach’s reputation, and those of many of his squad, would never recover.

It is said that Pelé carried an injury into the tournament, we can’t be

Song – O nome do rei é Pelé (Jorge Bem Jor) tf 73

Richard Smith @richysmith100

Going Down?

As I sit here ahead of what I see – as an absolutely crucial FA Cup 3rd round fixture for Newcastle at Vicarage Road tomorrow, I find myself astounded at the number of mags who would happily see us get beat. It would appear that Mike Ashley and Charnley’s nonsensical propaganda has finally caved down the walls of hope, belief, and dreams in some of our fan base. There is little proof that going on a cup run impacts on form in the league, and in fact – looking at the past few years of early cup exits on Tyneside, that theory is almost turned on its end.

We haven’t made it past the 3rd round in the past four years, and look how good our league performance was – nearly three relegations in that period. Anyway, how does this all link to my article? Well, regardless of our FA Cup performance this season, we find ourselves in an all too familiar sticky spot with relation to our top-flight status. In 17th position at the halfway point of the campaign, are United finally going to be doomed for the division they have flirted with in recent years?

Where do we stand right now?

Probably the most black and white way of evaluating our predicament is to look at our current league position, and compare this to recent miserable seasons. Following our defeat at Arsenal, we find ourselves nestled in 17th position, two points ahead of the mackems, but more crucially, two points behind 16th placed Swansea. Arguably, we are about nine points away from a position of comfort given the current standings.

Perhaps worthy of note is our miserable goal difference, which given the number of poor sides in the league this year could end up being a critical factor. It speaks volumes when pre-season relegation certs Bournemouth have a four-goal cushion on our goal difference. So how does this compare to other seasons? Well exactly a year ago it was a

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stark contrast. United sat in 10th position on 27 points, a comfortable 10 points from the drop zone. A pretty mediocre seven wins had been achieved, yet that looks momentous when benchmarked against this seasons return of four. We all know what happened afterwards under the desperate watch of Carver, however our position at this point in 2015 looks like a comfort blanket compared to 2016’s sheet of newspaper.

Looking at league position further, perhaps a more tangible comparison would be to look at where we were after twenty fixtures in the relegation campaign of 08/09. Depressingly – we were further ahead than where we were now by a crucial five points in fourteenth position with a paltry five victories. To put it into Lehmann’s terms, we are in a worse league position now than we have ever been since our involvement in the Premier League.

Gulp.

The Form Book Whilst I’m a firm believer that league position does not tell any lies, can any hope be scraped from our form this season?

Looking at the previous ten matches, United has won three, drawn two, and lost five. Over the course of a season, this type of form would PROBABLY see you www.true-faith.co.uk

safe – with a rough mental calculation seeing a return of close to 40 points. Its not as transparent as that however, as if you saw united return the same second half of the season to their first – that would see a total return of 34 points. That total would have seen us relegated last year. We can take heart that our better form this season has came against the so called stronger sides in the league – picking up massive victories in recent weeks against Liverpool and Spurs.

The problem is, our Premier League safety will not be based on us gaining surprise victories against this profile of side, but against the clubs whom we are battling with in the bottom half of the table. Looking at the six clubs around us – United have beaten only two of them after the first round of fixtures, with two losses, and two draws. It’s a fair old mixed bag against the weakest sides in the division, and therefore probably www.true-faith.co.uk

quite telling of where we find ourselves. Ultimately, without meaning to state the obvious- in order to survive the drop – Newcastle need to massively improve their form. 23 points stand between their current total and the magic 40, which to keep things simple – would need United to double the number of wins they achieved in the first half of the campaign.

Our relegation rivals I always balk at the comment which gets pushed out every season from certain corners that “you shouldn’t be concerned about the results of other clubs – worry about your own team”. Given that relegation battles are always fundamentally about how many points other teams achieve, then this statement is utter bollocks. When your team is struggling to pick points up on the pitch, the ONLY thing you can rest your laurels on is hoping that your relegation rivals do not steal a lead on

you. I’ve already eluded to the state of the quality of other sides in the bottom pit of the Premier League, and that has to be seen as a glimmer of hope. Villa have somehow managed to relegate themselves already, and the mackems-despite beating us again are as toilet as ever. Whilst the bookies are nigh on certain that our local rivals are destined for the drop this year, you’d be a fool to forget how they have managed to somehow pull themselves out of similar drastic positions time and time again. Often down to new manager syndrome admittedly, but the reality is that they have the experience of pulling themselves out of trouble when they need to.

Swansea are a team on a rapid decline as far as league position is concerned, and rolling the dice by sticking with caretaker manager Curtis has an air of the ‘Carver’ about it.

Bournemouth frustratingly has started to pick up form

Looking at the six clubs around us – United have beaten only two of them after the first round of fixtures, with two losses, and two draws.

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when you would typically assume it to be the other way around. I can’t help but feel that their lack of squad quality will finally take its toll however – similar to Burnley in 09/10. Norwich are again a side who have started to pick up form in the past four weeks, and you would assume Chelsea will start climbing the league now. Taking this all in to consideration, unlike last season – we aren’t blessed with a plethora of sides to fight it out with as it stands.

What about us…?

Well in small bursts, we have seen the improvements in playing style compared to the dross we have been served up in previous seasons.

Whereas last season, it was hard to come up with a word to describe United’s playing style – McClaren in parts, has given us more of an identity. The truth of tf 76

the matter is that playing style counts for very little when you aren’t scoring goals whilst conceding them – something, which our Head Coach appears reluctant to admit.

We have the strongest squad we have had since 2012/2013, and on paper – a lot better than the clubs around us. Despite that, the same gaping holes we are sick and tired of complaining about still exist in our playing staff.

Lack of options at the back , limited creativity in the middle of the park, and nobody putting the ball in the back of the net up front. Add to this our desperate lack of quality Premier League hardened experience, and alarm bells will ring when pinning hopes on players who have little know-how of grappling out of these situations. Whilst clearly disillusioned and pissed

off at how another season has ended up like this, the fans are not (yet) in as much revolt against the team and manager as they were with Pardew and Carver. The team needs to give something back to the undeserved support they get week after week.

To summarise Weighing all of the above up, the future does look somewhat bleak as far as our Premier League status is concerned. Being in a position we have never found ourselves in before at this stage of a campaign is testament in itself to the job the club have in front of them for the second half of this season. The January transfer window is absolutely crucial to our fortunes moving forward, with much strengthening required.

Something tells me not to hold my breath.

The January transfer window is absolutely crucial to our fortunes moving forward, with much strengthening required.

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For years the transfer market has been a period of hope and wonder for Newcastle United fans. The dreams of landing the next Shearer, Cabaye or Laurent Robert. Uniteds owner, the shrewd and ruthless sporting goods chain owner Mike Ashley has had the wool pulled over his eyes by incompetent senior operators at the club.

John Brown Follow @downt0wn

COULDA, WOULDA SHOULDA.

It begs the question. What if we had some competency in place. Personally I dream of local legend and God of the Geordies Alan Shearer in a director of football role. Somebody who understands the fans, and can seek recruitment and would garnish respect from agents and owners alike.

The likes of Joe Kinnear, Dennis Wise, Derek Llambias and Lee Charnley. Men who were given jobs to handle player recruitment with the assistance of chief scout Graham Carr for one tf 78

of the wealthiest clubs in the world had no business in doing so. Frankly I wouldn’t let them operate a toaster let alone Newcastle United.

Looking back through the years the absolute cock ups and inexcusable mistakes that have been made by this club.

Surely unbeknownst to Mike Ashley in the transfer window who is always keen on turning a profit from player sales makes one think. Did he just hand the www.true-faith.co.uk

we were tipped for a double swoop for now in demand striker Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and fellow St. Etienne defensive prodigy Kurt Zouma. We offered a reported measly €10.5 million for the latter. keys to St. James Park to these idiots.

It wasn’t until this past summer we saw some proper investment in the club. Investments that should have been made over the last five years. But what’s even more amazing is the deals we just “couldn’t get over the line” let’s have a look at some of the bigger names that slipped away by offering pathetic and derisory offers who have all turned out to be quality players. It’s just not how business is done.

Newcastle were heavily linked with a Dutch striker who, inevitably arrived at the NUFC on loan by the name of Luuk De Jong. We were heavily linked with him in the summer of 2012, where additions were surely needed going into the Europa league on the back of a wonder season never of us will forget. The sums being bandied about were anywhere from 8-10 million pounds. Ironically then, manager Steve McClaren of FC Twente was holding out for a sum closer to £15 million for his 21 year goal scorer who netted 25 times in the Eredivisie.

When we picked him up www.true-faith.co.uk

on loan he was out of form and never given a proper chance under the tutelage of Alan Pardew and has since guided his country to a title and through to the knockout round of the champions league Secondly, many will remember when recruitments were brought in to fend off relegation in our Europa league season. Legend has it that Mike Ashley was directly involved in the rather swift recruitment of Haidara, Sissoko, Mbiwa and the like in the January window of 2013.

Many forget that we were tipped for a double swoop for now in demand striker Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and fellow St. Etienne defensive prodigy Kurt Zouma. We offered a reported measly €10.5 million for the latter. Looking back now it’s upsetting to think what could have been, and no doubt the profit Mr.Ashley craves.You wouldn’t argue if he went for £30 million plus now.

This one hurts, Loic Remy.

The man who got whisked away from our grasp by QPR in a last minute 180 move

for more money. Is he a mercenary, damn right. But in today’s game all players are. The man who arrived finally on Tyne side for a loan spell that saw him single handedly keep Newcastle safe had a very minimal £8.5 million buy out clause in his contract. A little ambition from our hierarchy would have had the move made permanent.

He’s a natural goal scorer who, much like Demba

Ba has seen his talents wasted on the Chelsea bench. Both of which now seem to have realized the grass isn’t always greener.

Oh how we could use his goals now!

The rumour mill tears at the hearts of NUFC fans all over the planet with names like Wilfiried Bony, Delle Alli and the list goes on that we’ve been linked with over the years that have proved to come good. With a little foresight imagine the team we would be fielding.

Fluke seasons that saw us in Europe under Pardew would no longer be one offs, but rather become the expectation. This window maybe Mike Ashley’s last chance to make a mends, most fans after watching his shock interview gave him another chance after some big promises to come good. Money was finally spent but I fear too little to late. Fingers crossed fellow supporters of our great club that we get out of our mess that has been brought on solely by ineptitude in the transfer market. tf 79

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In latter years, the true faith Podcasts have become one of the most popular elements of our content.

Now led by Pod-Father, Alex Hurst and his PodSquad we are now putting out regular episodes to an ever-growing band of listeners across the Black & White planet. They are becoming MASSIF.

T S A C D O P Y L TF WEEK W O H S O I D A R AND Tune in on radio northumberland 7.00pm Friday night Listen here The Podcasts regularly include guests and special features. Like everything true faith does, they are absolutely FREE.

to and from matches via public transport, in the car, or just as anyone would listening to the radio in the house etc

Our listeners tell us they variously listen to the true faith Podcasts via their smartphones on the way

The Podcasts aren’t a closed shop and if you would like to join the podcasts as a contributor,

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just get in touch with Alex via the TF Weekly Podcast Twitter account and we’ll see what we can do.

More recently, the Podcasts have taken a further step forward by adding a weekly Radio show and Friday

nights at 7pm via Radio Northumberland. We are also now taking calls from listeners and attempting to develop a real Mag-led Talk-In show feel which will be something of a first in fanzine culture.

Get involved and make it happen.

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Postcards F rom The Edge Paully

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“If I can deal with Hatem Ben Arfa, then I can get Emmanuel Adebayor playing again”, Alan Pardew. The audacity of this smarmy bull-shitter is outrageous. It’s like Josef Fritzl claiming that he was a fantastic father.

It boils my urine that the media don’t question the complete and utter tripe that comes out of his daft annoying lips. I suspect that they afford him a lot of leeway due to the fact that there aren’t many rent-aquote gobshite managers left in the Premier League what with Mourinho and Saggy Bracket now not managing. I’m intrigued to know exactly what he meant by “deal with”. We all know that HBA is not the clean and sacred son of Jesus Christ and his head can sometimes become as frazzled as an out of date packet of Frazzles but Pardew’s treatment of him was disgraceful. ‘The king’ (as he has referred to himself before in the past) selected the likes of Gosling, both of the Ameobis, Obertan, Gouffran and Raylor to name some ahead of HBA in his position.

He completely ostracised the most naturally-gifted footballer that we have had since Ginola and it’s a travesty that he’s still not ripping the bum-holes out of defenders for us. To think that we literally paid to give him away and have so far spent £25 million

on two players to replace him who we have deemed are not good enough is a balls-up that not even Alan Partridge could muster.

I’ve said for a long time that centre midfield was our weak area so I’m very pleased with the signing of Shelvey and we did extremely well to get him before Harry Potter got a hold of him. We’ve missed a centre midfielder who drives us on and who constantly looks to pass forward ever since the departure of that beautiful Frenchman. He’s also a bit of radge packet too like Cabaye which is a good thing in my book.

With Shelvey in there, we certainly won’t get bullied in the middle of the park even if Bully from Bullseye is playing for our opponents.

Anita and Wearside Jack are far too lightweight as a combination and offer virtually zero protection towards our centre halves.

The ginger one should be a squad player at best and he also should have had three of his fingers chopped off when he signed for us because of that photo.

Shelvey should improve our set-pieces but then again, a rhino confined to a www.true-faith.co.uk

Very sad news that NUFC diehard Cliffy Ahmed has passed away.

Anyone who has travelled to away matches over the years will have definitely come across him.

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wheelchair could probably deliver better crosses than what we’ve produced over the last few seasons. My only concern with Shelvey is that during an extremely hot day, if his baldy nut deflects the sun too much on to Colo’s perm then there is a going to be a severe fire which could turn out to be catastrophic. Hopefully, the presence of Mbemba with his hair-free noggin near Colo will stop this potential disastrous situation from occurring.

The style of football that we’re playing is the most pleasing on the mince pies since Pardew stumbled upon (and quickly got rid of) that 4-3-3 with Ba, Cisse and HBA causing complete pandemonium up top. There are no aimless long ball hoofs and we constantly try to play out from the back. You have to give Schteve credit for sticking by his philosophy even when results haven’t been going our way. Our recent performances have warranted a lot more points

than what we have gained but if you fail to convert simple chances then you will get punished. We could quite easily have taken 12 points from the four matches that surrounded the season of the fat, daftbearded, house-intruding, red and white pig. De Jong missed a virtual open-goal header at 1-0 vs Villa and I’m amazed that he didn’t fracture his hairline in doing so. He’s primed for a role on Casualty every week once he hangs his boots up (not as a doctor either). Mitrovic did likewise with a similar chance at home to Everton at 0-0 and we were denied a blatant penalty at West Brom with the score at 0-0 when Mitrovic was taken to Suplex City by Brock Lesnar. The biggest hat in Hat-land is not big enough to contain the chances that we missed at Arsenal again at 0-0 with Gini’s the easiest of the bunch and we were duly punished. We are missing a natural finisher and we simply have to bring somebody in during January because we’re thinner than

an anorexic stick insect up top. It could well be the difference between staying up and going down.

Very sad news that NUFC diehard Cliffy Ahmed has passed away. Anyone who has travelled to away matches over the years will have definitely come across him. He was an eccentric who followed us everywhere. I’ve been on hundreds of buses with him and one trip to Holland for that rather lively UEFA cup encounter in Breda stands out. It was a trip organised by another two NUFC diehards who have both also sadly been taken away, Billy Swift and John the Badge. He decided to write “For sex, phone Clifford” with his phone number on to numerous beer mats inside of a bar on the day of the match. I assume he didn’t receive any phone calls because he hadn’t included the international code never mind the area code of his phone number.

R.I.P Cliffy. tf 83

60 SECOND

CHRIS LAws

SEASON again this year.

Players: Lawrence, McCracken, Hudspeth, Curry, Low, Finlay, Aitken, Ward, Harris, Smailes, McIntosh, King, Hagan, Hampson, Mooney, Pyke, Dixon, Gray, Phillipson, Mitchell, Ramsey, McDonald, Roxburgh, Russell Division: After finishing 8th last season, we improved somewhat this campaign, finishing 5th with 50 points from 42 games. We finished 9 points behind eventual champions Burnley.

Manager: New year, same old!TheDirectorsCommittee continued to pick the team for NUFC this season.

Trainer/Coach: James McPherson took the side

Highest Attendance: An opening day 61,080 gate at home toWBA was our biggest league gate of the campaign.

They saw us start the season with a 1-1 draw at home to the Baggies. Including cups, a mega gate of 62,073 turned out to see us play Liverpool in the 2nd round of the FA Cup in late-January. United won 1-0 thanks to a Neil Harris strike. The attendance was a record crowd at SJP. Fantastic.

Lowest Attendance: A gate of only 15,000 turned out to see our mid-April league clash at home to Bolton Wanderers, the size of the crowd quite a surprise considering both sides were at the right end of the league (Bolton would go on to fin-

ish 3rd, 2 points above us).

NUFC got the better of the game, winning a tight match 1-0.

Average Attendance: Around a 4,000 jump from last year, as Football began to settle back into the nation’s lives after the war.

41,243 was the average gate at SJP over the 21 league matches played. That figure jumps slightly when you factor in our three FA Cup ties at SJP (Nottingham Forest x2, Liverpool) to 41,921.

The Forest tie was originally scheduled for Nottingham but was moved to Tyneside in agreement. When the

first match ended in a draw, the replay took place, as it would, on Tyneside.

Best Win: One result stands head and shoulders above the rest. 09/Oct/1920; Newcastle United 6-1 Sunderland. Our biggest result over our rivals. It was a masterclass of attacking football from United, Stan Seymour, Smailes (2), Neil Harris (2) and Ted Ward all netting in the win. United would go on the week after to play Sunderland again,this time on Wearside, and complete the double, winning 2-0. Another six-star performance from United came later in the campaign, as we beat Manchester United 6-3 on New Year’s Day 1921.

Worst Defeat: There wasn’t one big defeat that got to United this year, it was more a culmination of poor results towards the end of the campaign that stopped NUFC’s title challenge in its tracks. In a one-month period from mid March to mid April, United lost at home to Blackburn Rovers (1-2), OldhamAthletic(1-2),Derby County (0-1) and away to Bolton Wanderers (1-3). The campaign never got back on

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track after it.

Something of Interest: Obviously, the derby demolition of Sunderland took centre stage this season, especially as United were in with a chance of title silverware for the majority of the campaign, being as high as third in early-April with 6 games left, only to fade away and finish in 5th place. The Liverpool cup game was also noteworthy, given the record attendance that was there that day, as Tyneside showed it’s passion for the FA Cup. After being rewarded with a 1-0 win, United were drawn against Everton away in the next round, and fell to a 3-0 defeat, being outclassed on the day by a team that would finish three points below us at the end of the season.

Mentioned in Dispatches: Newcastle were once again the big spenders this year, breaking their club record fee and also paying big bucks for a hat full of players. Neil Harris came in from Patrick Thistle for £3,300 (a club record) and would prove to be worth the outlay, finishing the club’s top goalscorer with 19 goals this season. County Durham native Stan Seymour returned to the North East after a very successful spell with Morton, £2,500 the fee. He’d finish the campaign with 10 strikes. Billy Aitken and Tom McDonald were bought from north of the border, at Rangers, for a combined fee of £4,500.

NUFC suffered their first loss in 17 years on the continent this season, as FC Barcelona beat United 3-2 on 17th May in a post-season kickabout. www.true-faith.co.uk

National Interest: Car tax disks are introduced in early January.. Winston Churchill is appointed Colonial Secretary in February..

With unemployment now over one million people in the UK, the government announces an increase in unemployment benefit..

Tottenham Hostpur beat

2.2m in the summer.. Bloody Sunday occurs in July, as clashes between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast result in 16 deaths.. On 11 November, the British Legion hold the first official poppy day.. The driest year in UK history happened in 1921, and it hasn’t been close to being broken since..

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 at Wembley in the FA Cup final.. The province of Northern Ireland is created in May this year within the UK..

The British Legion is founded as a voice for ex-servicemen.. Unemployment rises once again, from one-million earlier in the year to

Regional Interest: The first council houses are built in Newcastle. They are part of the Government pledge to ex-servicemen of homes fit for heroes, an expression repeated with bitterness as unemployment rocketed in the North East. The aftermath of the Easter Rising and the fight for Irish self-determination was felt keenly on Tyneside, where there was long established a large community with strong Irish lineage. Numerous political groups proliferated with the Irish Self-Determination League strongly supported but Jarrow was also home to a specific IRA brigade and

officially recognised by the army council following an oath led by Liam McMahon.

Richard Purcell became the Officer Commanding, Gilbert Barrington the Quartermaster, and Joseph Connolly the Adjutant. An inner circle also held membership in the highly-secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), including Purcell and Barrington.

Women were not admitted to the IRA itself, but had their own organisation - Cumann na mBan (League ofWomen).

There was a branch in Jarrow, under the leadership of Cissie Brennan. The Jarrow IRA brigade carried out numerous operations across Tyneside including bombing oil refineries and before the treaty was signed in Ireland there were plans to blow up the High Level Bridge. Several of the Jarrow IRA received prison sentences..

Chris Laws.

Follow @tflawsy1892 tf 85

Happy New Year fellow sufferers! As readers of this column will know, I am not fond of football stats. There is nothing to be gained from knowing football stats. And we should rightly scorn anyone who has the affront to accost us outside Greggs and tell us about the varying directions in which Vurnon Anita kicks a football. And who wishes to wake screaming in the night with the memory of Sammy Ameobi’s cross completion rate on Wyscout? Not me, Squire. This knowledge is fool’s gold in any case. It won’t save us from the ravages of Isil or the (never ending) bloody chocolate offer at WH Smiths.

However football stats can “stat” in the form of a pie serve a purpose for us, the chart. lumpen proletariat. When in A teacher friend once visual form they can clarify showed me an assignment a situation better than any from his school. The task outburst on Facebook or was to show how pie charts, Twitter. A case in point is graphs, and the like work as the rumoured new badge a visual analysis. The visual for Newcastle United. In my correlation one of his pupils opinion the new Newcastle chose was the link between United badge should be a

fruit eating and differences in hair colour. A herculean task you may think, but no stone was unturned in a long report stuffed with graphs, pie charts, the names of many fruits, and the hair colour of classmates. The Achilles heel in the project was, undoubtedly, the

Pie chartses and badg

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evidence pertaining to the depressing uniformity of the class’s hair colour. Hair colour was described thus in a pie chart: “brown”, “light brown”, “mostly brown”, “dark brown”, “lighter than average brown”, and “very dark brown”. Realising that something special

RICHARD FOSTER Incendiary Magazine

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we need to know what on earth is Steve McClaren smoking before these pressers was needed to divert attention away from the damning evidence of said chart, a discussion of the merits of various fruits was undertaken; (the raspberry being too full of seeds, and apples apparently proving indigestible) before a conclusion worthy of any member of the Charnley family was delivered. To wit: “Although the evidence I used has proved me wrong, my analysis was proved correct”. This is magnificent, and worth much more than the 1/10 for effort that the report received.

This pupil’s pie chart got me thinking about the proposed new Newcastle United badge. Using the pie chart as our visual template, the new badge could encapsulate the current state of affairs at the club, and can give an expert résumé for any potential investors. Colour co-ordination is vital, as I am sure you will agree; so for the colour, I have chosen dogshit brown. The wording on the badge’s pie slices will be as follows: “shit”, “terrible shit”, “mostly shit”, “deep shit”, “worse than average shit”, and “very deep, dark, shit”. A strong and accurate www.true-faith.co.uk

message, no doubt.

Moorhens and Star Wars Actually, thinking about the kid’s pie chart reminds me of Newcastle United’s recent woeful displays against the press. Forget the disappointments on the pitch over the festive season, we need to know what on earth is Steve McClaren smoking before these pressers. Has he been reading Steve Black’s motivational notebooks in the Benton “Throne Room”?

Recent forays have involved standing toe to toe with West Bromwich Albion, refusing to get swept away (probably to Hebden Bridge) and - most bafflingly - an assertion that, he is furiously paddling underneath a calm exterior. Because he has more information.

About what, or paddling where? And in a boat or as a bird with webbed feet?

That, we will never know.

I fear Mr McClaren has been watching the new Star Wars film with Steve Black and Bobby Moncur at some terrible festive get together, and now sees himself as some kind of knight fighting against the evils of a corrupt system and an uncaring fanbase

who can’t, or won’t, see the “real” Emmanuelle Riviere for what he really, really is*. Maybe the information being kept secret is that Steve McClaren’s torso straddles dimensions; bravely paddling to keep at least half of his body in the real world. Eschewing the light sabre or starship, maybe McClaren has opted to morph into a creature that is half man, half aquatic bird. If only his players could see how hard, and with what unyielding vigour he was paddling, and how his backroom staff supported his paddling, then maybe they could paddle too. On the surface a Premiership manager, but beneath a cosmic incarnation of bird and man; a worthy successor to Loki or Odin, but cursed by the fact that only an elect few see his powers of motivation.

It’s interesting the birdrelated metaphor that Wor Manager picks.

Not for Steve McClaren the imperious cry of the majestic eagle, the swoop of the keen-eyed falcon, the rapscallion thieving of the crafty magpie, or the

mystic insights of the wise raven. No; we get paddling with a calm exterior, which leaves us with bad tempered nutcases like mute swans or divers (aka loons), any kind of duck (for argument’s sake let’s at least pick an attractive one, the pochard) or boring nonentities like coot, grebe, or moorhen. Fie, Sir! (Yet another indication that the strictures imposed

by Ashley’s proto-Stalinist regime can drive people to talking utter rubbish. Think of your family Steve.)

A Strip Too Far It seems that recently, many poor deluded Mags actually seeking entertainment, enjoyment and a smidgen of success from football (fancy that!) have resorted to following non, or lower league games. Whether at Blyth, Spennymoor, Gateshead, North Shields or South Shields, there is a wide choice in the area.

I too, am no stranger to this trend. Ever since the Foster family seat moved southwestwards to Lancashire, I have tacked my “second club” pennant to the mast of the good ship Accrington Stanley. I can’t

tf 87

really say The Reds have live with that, however. But given me that much room what I draw the line at is to cheer over the years, but looking at the new kit. I won’t I have many fond memories offend my readers’ sensibilities of the Crown Ground, some with a picture. Suffice to say very funny days out, and it’s red and white stripes. How some marvellous highs. dare they. How can I go now?

I also love the fact that This aversion to cheering on Newcastle East End wore g these colours a red top (like Stanley’s) a team wearin and that East End was the has meant that (since living footballing club for Stanley in The Netherlands) I can’t CC (Geddit!?!?). Historical imagine paying to watch synchronicity most blessèd. Sparta Rotterdam (friendly, Until this season. There have cult club) or PSV Eindhoven. been dark changes afoot. I’m not going back to Stanley Firstly, the club’s ground till they get rid. And they’re is now named the Wham doing really well this season. stadium; luckily after a brand Buggeration. of plastic goods, not the effete 1980s singing duo. *A new signing, of course!

But still, the name brings mixes up queasy memories of Here are ten tunes and those appalling songs, prissy various that should consign appearances on Toppy, and the Austin Maxi of 2015 to some fearful outfits. I can the crusher of history.

The Sound of Belgium - New Beat mix 1

“Happy Birthday to You”

“Jingle Bells” - Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble (PRK)

Angelia Prince - No Bother With No Fuss

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Byron Lee & The Dragonaires - Love At First Sight

Max Berlin - Elle et Moi

Pat Kelly - I’m Coming Home

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tf 89

First spotted in September 1990 for his club Banik Ostrava in a 1-3 UEFA Cup defeat at Aston Villa, Newcastle United manager Jim Smith invited goalkeeper Pavel Srníček for a one month trial before a £350,000 fee was agreed in February 1991.

Pavel, Pavel Srníček Making a reserve team debut soon after, the 22 year old former soldier played a further 13 games including a 1-2 defeat at Everton the night before he’d make his first team debut. League Cup finalists and promotion chasing Sheffield Wednesday visited St James Park as new manager Ossie Ardiles turned to youth to try and spark life into an ailing United.

Following a steady if unspectacular first match (1-0), Pav soon admitted his debut had given him mixed feelings:

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“I’m sorry that John Burridge was the man who made way for me. John has given me a lot of advice and help since I arrived at Newcastle. He has been very kind and spent hours working with me as I’ve tried to adapt to the English game.”

Despite the clamour of the supporters to give Budgie a farewell once it was confirmed he’d depart in the summer, Srnícek kept goal for the remaining 6 games but failed to add further clean sheets as United finished 11th, some 10 points off the play off places.

Speaking of Budgie’s looming departure Pav would say: “I will be sorry to see him go but I suppose that is football.

It’s a job and I have to try and make the most of this opportunity.”

MARC CORBY

Despite Ardiles intentions of putting his faith in un-tried youngsters, United were one of the favourites for promotion to the top flight going into 1991-92. However the first 11 games returned only 1 win, 23 goals conceded and 0 clean sheets as The Mags were rock bottom.

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In acknowledgement to the words on the top, a new chant of ‘Pavel is a Geordie’ bounced around St James Park At this point our Number 1 was experiencing a torrid time and his credentials became morem suspect as United conceded 3 at 3rd Division Crewe and 6 at Tranmere in the cup competitions.

A home game v Leicester followed and despite a 2-0 win and a first clean sheet since his debut, Pavel made way for Tommy Wright for the remainder of the season. With Ossie sacked and replaced by Kevin Keegan in February 1992, Pav only featured in one game at home to Tranmere as United, heading towards the 3rd Division, lost 2-3.

Wright returned for the next game and safety was guaranteed on the final day of the season.

With Keegan confirmed as manager, backed by the board to revitalise United and the supporters fully behind him, The Mag’s beat all before them in the first 11 games of the season taking maximum points. Keegan had kept faith with Wright only giving Srnícek match time in the Anglo Italian Cup before the Irishman got injured in a 3-2 midweek game at Birmingham where midfielder Kevin Brock replaced him in goal. Pav would return for only his www.true-faith.co.uk

2nd league game in 13 month and kept a clean sheet in a 0-0 televised draw with Swindon.

Winning the next 4 games with 2 more clean sheets achieved, the returning Wright was still expected to replace Srnícek but Keegan confirmed it was “Pav’s shirt to lose” and the Czech would keep goal for the rest of the season as United marched impressively towards the title and promotion to the new Premier League.

Despite the odd error, Srnícek kept another 10 clean sheets in the league including 3 in a week at the end of February. As his confidence grew, alongside a massive improvement in collecting crosses, we first witnessed the benefits of training under Keegan.

Keen to show off his footballing skills, part of his repertoire would be to deal with a back pass by nonchalantly throwing the attacker a dummy before shifting the ball directly to a team-mates foot. The supporters loved it.

season lap of honour. In acknowledgement to the words on the top, a new chant of ‘Pavel is a Geordie’ bounced around St James Park and from this point it was clear Pav had endeared himself to the supporters and earned him cult status.

Starting life in the Premier League as Keegan’s Number 1 choice showed how much Pav had improved since his early days. However he would see red in the 2nd game of the season and failed to replace Wright in the league upon his return.

H e

Get Pavel is a Geordie here

Famously, following the 7-1 annihilation of Leicester on the final day of the season, Lee Clark handed Pav a t-shirt to wear before the end of tf 91

did feature in the League Cup where an unforced error gifted Notts County a shock lead before United won 4-1.

Keegan shocked supporters by selling Wright and signing Liverpool reserve Mike Hooper for £550,000. Explaining this some years later, the manager explained he was “swapping one goalkeeping style for another as we had a lack of height at that time.”

Hooper stood 1.5” taller than Srníček and despite only playing an average of 7 games a season over 8 years was the new Number One. With United getting off to a slow start in 13th place, Hooper’s signing coincided with a massive upturn in form as United won 11 of the next 17 matches and Keegan’s tf 92

decision appeared astute as 7 clean sheets were achieved.

faith in him by instantly restoring him back into the team.

However, a failure to move for a Matt Le Tissier free kick in January appeared to turn supporters against Hooper and following poor displays at Luton in the FA Cup and Wimbledon in the league he’d reached an apparent point of no return. Keegan threatened to quit if the terrace abuse from a minority didn’t stop but reinstated Pav for the remaining 15 games regardless. It was a popular and ultimately correct decision as United won 10, qualified for Europe in a hugely impressive 3rd place and Pav played his part keeping 7 clean sheets.

Keeping a clean sheet on his International debut in October, Srnícek went on to become the most selected United player that season.

His 52 League and Cup appearances returned 17 clean sheets but The Mag’s finished a disappointing 6th.

As the 1994-95 season kicked off, there was a sense of déjà vu as Pav was sent off at Leicester but Keegan appeared to have complete

Shaka picked up a thigh injury away at Chelsea and in the days a keeper wasn’t always named as a substitute, Pav came on to

Starting the followinseason suspended following a 3rd (and final) United sending off in the penultimate home game v Tottenham (3-3) the previous season, new signing Shaka Hislop replaced Pav for the first 17 league games of which United won 12 and sat top of The Premiership.

It was a popular and ultimately correct decision as United won 10, qualified for Europe in a hugely impressive 3rd place and Pav played his part keeping 7 clean sheets. www.true-faith.co.uk

face, and then pick a Dan Petrescu free kick straight out of the net in a 0-1 defeat.

However the next game v Everton saw the Czech’s finest moment. 1-0 up but down to 10 men in the last 10 minutes, Pav pulled off a save that Gordon Bank’s put in his “all-time top ten great saves.”

The Independent’s match report stated: “The Newcastle goalkeeper capped a sparkling display with a stunning save, changing direction in middive to keep out a deflected Anders Limpar shot. It saved United 2 points.”

Rather criminally, the save was left out of the season’s

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video review ‘So Close’ but the spontaneous ovation from the supporters that repeated itself at full time was well received and fondly remembered by all who were there as well as the ‘Adopted Geordie’: “That feeling when the whole stadium stand up and clapped and shouted my name. I don’t know if too many players experience that” he told Martin Hardy for his ‘Touching Distance’ book. “It’s something people will never have.

They will win trophies and money and everything they dream of but they will never have this.”

Winning 6 of the following 7 games where a further 3 clean sheets were achieved,

United were still top and favourites for the title but an awful run of 4 defeats in 6 with 12 goals conceded saw championship aspirations fade.

Following a 3-4 defeat at Liverpool, Pav and defender Warren Barton would be the fall guys losing their places for the remainder of the season where 4 wins in 7 wasn’t enough to pip Manchester United to the title.

At this point Pav had 4 caps prior to a call up to the Euro 96 squad hosted in England. Failing to make an appearance due to the form of Petr Kouba, he soon became The Czech’s first choice. He would retain if for the next 5 years before

...Pav pulled off a save that Gordon Bank’s put in his “alltime top ten great saves.”

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bowing out on 49 caps following a 0-1 defeat v Belgium that ended their 2002 World Cup hopes.

Pav would play at Wembley for United in the 0-4 Charity Shield defeat to Man United but lost his place to Shaka for the opening day defeat at Everton before claiming it back for the following game (a clean sheet at home to Wimbledon more memorable for Alan Shearer’s first United goal) and the following 17.

The uncertainty over who was first choice keeper was later explained by Keegan: “We were always trying to find the next great goalkeeper and we never told Shaka or Pav that they were number one. It was up to them to earn that status, and they were given equal opportunities to do so.”

At the time Pav shrugged off rumours that Keegan had bid £4 million for Blackburn’s Tim Flowers saying: “Ever since I came here Newcastle have been tf 94

connected with goalkeepers.”

other

He earned a further 3 clean sheets in that run, including one in a memorable 5-0 win over Man United, before a terrible run of form returned only 1 win in 9 games and a drop to 6th place. Keegan would change keepers again before quitting and Shaka would maintain his place under new manager Kenny Dalglish.

Despite a game free last weekend in April, United received no help from the FA who honoured SKY commitments over re-shuffling fixtures. This meant The Mag’s, aiming to be the first English club to qualify for the Champions League in 2nd place, faced the tough prospect of playing their final 4 games in 8 days.

Srnícek was surprisingly recalled for the 1st game at Arsenal and kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win.

Goalless draws at West Ham and Champions

Man United followed but United were still outsiders. Needing to better Arsenal’s result and hope Liverpool failed to win, Newcastle ran riot against a relegated Nottingham Forest side winning 5-0.

While the players were on the habitual end of season ‘lap of honour’, news of Liverpool’s draw and Arsenal’s inferior scoreline confirmed United had earned a place with Europe’s Elite.

As the summer developed, it was apparent Dalglish was willing to cash in on major assets to keep the newly formed PLC happy and Srnícek, arguably played to be put in the shop window, was transfer listed once Dalglish signed the highly rated Shay Given www.true-faith.co.uk

from his old club Blackburn.

Despite named sub on a few occasions, Srníček’s last start for United would be a 1-1 home draw with Blackburn in October 1997.

Leaving soon after supporting United at Wembley in the FA Cup Final defeat v Arsenal, Srníček eventually signed for Sheffield Wednesday and received an extremely warm and gracious welcome on his Owls debut, at St James Park in November 1998. Despite being part of the opposition, his ritual of applauding both corners of the goal line for as long as possible would be performed.

Following Wednesday, Pav played for a host of

June 2007, rather fittingly his competitive career had ended on Tyneside.

Despite starting life at United inconsistently where an error one week would be matched by a world class save the next, Pav, enhanced by a far superior back 4, improved immensely and his popularity soured as he became an integral part of the 1993 promotion winning campaign.

He simply got what it meant to play for such an ardent and fervent crowd and this small clip celebrating Newcastle’s win over Sunderland in April 1993 shows a mutual appreciation that has grown ever since.

What they said: Kevin Keegan: “A very good shot-stopper. Prone to the odd mistake but at Newcastle that weakness was exaggerated by the way we played – it didn’t make life a bed or roses for defenders and goalkeepers.”

Mick Quinn: “[He was] shy, only a kid and I seen him go from a shy kid to blossom into this lovely personality. He had this wicked sense of humour. If you’ve done well for Newcastle, they never forget you and they were singing ‘Pavel is a Geordie’” Lee Clark: “He was liked by everybody, he was the one that everyone took too. You wouldn’t meet a more popular guy and he was a fine goalkeeper. We seen him come through and improve year after year to become one of the best in the Premier League.”

Journalist Martin Hardy: “[Pav was] someone who caught what their football club meant to the people of Newcastle, who matched the warmth and generosity of a region that grew to love him.”

Paul Joannou, The Ultimate Record.

“An untested goalkeeper who eventually commanded popular backing”

For The Record: other clubs in England and Europe before returning to Newcastle as goalkeeping cover in October 2006.

Named as a sub on 10 occasions due to injuries, Pav came on for the injured Given to a rapturous reception for the final minutes of a 3-1 win over Tottenham at Gallowgate.

Starting on Boxing Day in a 1-2 defeat at Bolton, Pav was named sub for 15 more games without dirtying his gloves. Departing again in www.true-faith.co.uk

A tremendous athlete, agile and a brave shot stopper, us supporters embraced Pav, adopted him as one of our own and watched him play a massive part in Kevin Keegan’s revolutionising of Newcastle United that, looking back, really were the best of times.

His cult hero status is part of the romance in this game that will never fade away.

Thank You Pav. R.I.P bonny lad.

League Appearances: 149 (2) Goals Conceded: 157 Clean Sheets: 51 Other Appearances: 38 (1) Goals Conceded: 50 Clean Sheets: 12 tf 95

The transfer window – the overhyped rhetoric making giddy men who have never kissed a girl, excited over a loan deal for their football club has passed again. This time Newcastle United were involved to the full. They strengthened and not with the usual influx of cut price foreign footballers from inferior leagues. Not that buying from inferior leagues is always a negative, Gini is prime example of that. Yet this time we have been linked and actually purchased young, England international footballers, added pace and if I am honest a bit of an unknown in the shape of Henri Saivet.

Jonjo Shelvey arrived from Swansea for a potentially bargain £12m. Only time will tell whether the South Welsh club will regret selling a top quality, if somewhat inconsistent talisman to one of their current rivals in the league table. He started like an express train and his first half performance at home to West Ham had a lot of fans purring.

Yet he went off the boil a touch in the second half and was fairly anonymous at Watford (mind, who wasn’t?). If we can get the consistency from him as he ages, matures and curbs the ill-discipline that has seen numerous yellow cards tf 96

and flash points in recent seasons then we could have some player on our hands.

At 23, he is young enough to grow out of that, whilst maintaining the fire that ultimately fuels players of his nature. He has a good range of passing, can score a goal, likes a tackle and as important as anything for me, can use both feet properly!

Henri Saivet is a bit of an unknown in terms of watching him play regularly.

Those who watch French football regularly (really?) will tell you he was a winger that Bordeaux converted into a defensive midfielder

and has been one of their stronger performers this season. He started our playing for the French national team but has decided now to play for Senegal and that could cause us to miss him when the African Nations comes around. Yet positively he adds more strength in a position where the frankly average (and that’s being kind) Colback, the finished Tiote and the overworked Anita have been toiling since the start of last season. Anita is a good player and divides support, but ultimately he’s probably too small physically for this league. www.true-faith.co.uk

The signing that really gripped everyone’s attention and showed Newcastle’s intention in the window was that of Andros Townsend. I’d been tipped the wink that he was coming in February and got on at 14/1 so I was even happier when the deal was finally done. Daniel Levy’s insistence that we pay £14m for a reserve player was met with dismay by most but to be fair to Newcastle United we stood our ground and paid £12m for an England international who could really add a spark and some desperately needed pace to a mostly very static side. It will be fascinating to see how he links up with Shelvey and Gini both intricately and with his pace in behind the defences of the opposition.

We all know his tendency to want to be on his left foot but I have seen him a couple of times recently for the u-21s (I know, brass neck of me going on about watching French football, but it was only to see him, honestly) and he wasn’t

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as reliant and one-footed as when I have seen him against us in the PL. On the subject of pace we finally made the striking addition we needed in the shape of Seydou Doumbia who comes to the PL with a dodgy record in Italian football but a sparkling one in the CL. The 29 year old netted against Man Utd this season, from the rebound of a penalty and has a good yard of pace and hopefully will bring his European record here, and not his Italian one. Ultimately we needed something alongside Mitrovic and Gouffran and Riveire were not the answer; unless the question was ‘what’s less worthwhile than having the two old women from The Les Dawson sketch show up front?’.

We attempted to make a couple of other signings in and around the deadline day including want away striker Saido Berahino. I’m not sure how I feel about their reluctance to sell, because on the one hand I

would love to see us show that resolve but on the other, the lad isn’t playing and it makes little sense to keep someone, who is palpably unhappy at a club for the sake of an iron will.

Ultimately, he wasn’t for sale and we move on. There were also moves for two Spanish left backs which went west and an attempt to reunite us with Jose Enrique, yet he decided to stay in Liverpool and eat his own weight in tapas.

Generally speaking most NUFC fans would have been pleased had they been canvassed after we failed to beat Villa on December 19th about our transfer dealings had they known the outcome would have been like this. Some, myself included would be even happier if Sky’s ultimate prized prat (and let’s be honest he’s up against some pretty stiff competition) Jim White had keeled over in the forced excitement.

Until May, let’s win some games, have some fun and enjoy supporting NUFC again eh?

Generally speaking most NUFC fans would have been pleased had they been canvassed after we failed to beat Villa on December 19th about our transfer dealings had they known the outcome would have been like this

tf 97

It still doesn’t feel real. Almost two weeks after the news of his sad and unexpected death from cancer, the knowledge that David Bowie is no longer with us on Planet Earth just doesn’t feel right.

As I was preparing to go to work on Monday 11 January 2016, I flicked over the news channels and there it was. ‘Breaking News – David Bowie has died after an 18 month battle with cancer’.

This simply couldn’t be. The media was awash with Bowie videos and features for his birthday on the Friday before and the imminent release of his album, ‘Blackstar’. He was, in my mind and most people’s, alive and kicking, and ready to receive the plaudits for what many people were describing as his best album in years. He couldn’t possibly be dead.

BOWIE - A LIFE But he was. David Bowie – a perennial, permanent and magical figure in my life – had died.

I can remember coming back from a family holiday in Wales and the news that Elvis Presley had died. I can remember when John Lennon was shot. I was very young when these events happened but I understood that these events meant something.

The relationships people develop with music and songs and artists and pop stars and are complex and powerful. Whatever it does to the human mind, you can’t ignore or dismiss the fact that it can be a profoundly deep and enriching experience. You grow up with these songs and the people who write and perform them, and develop a strong emotional bond with them, sometimes veering into idolatry or tf 98

fanaticism – and it feels good to have these people – these idols, these stars, these heroes, in our lives, even just for one day. And with David Bowie, it felt more than good to have him in our lives.

It felt great.

Regular readers of my contributions to true faith will know that I lost my mother to cancer in 2013. David Bowie was her favourite artist, and one of my earliest memories of her was her singing “Rebel, Rebel” to me. One of our first family holidays, when I was a small boy, was on a barge on the Norfolk Broads (Ibiza came later) – and I can’t listen to “Life on Mars?” without being

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transported back to that holiday and to the early to mid 1970s in general really, it’s so of it’s time. In 1987, when David Bowie announced that he was to bring the Glass Spider tour to Roker Park of all places, my mam bought tickets for the family, and the one and only time I was ever allowed to bunk off from school was to see the man himself. So, when I heard that news on that Monday morning that David Bowie had died of cancer, a load of other emotions were stirred up too.

So, growing up, Bowie was there on Top of the Pops, on the radio and on our stereo – my young mind absorbing his utterly unique singing voice and his wonderful ear for melody, with those distinct key changes that were one of his many signatures. Writ large throughout his glorious www.true-faith.co.uk

career was his ability to reinvent himself and create personas whilst still being David Bowie. The Bowie of “Space Oddity” morphed seamlessly into the Bowie of “Ziggy Stardust” – a creation of a perfect pop idol that evoked Iggy Pop and Lou Reed via The Man that Sold the World.

There’s absolutely nothing good about the death of David Bowie, but one of the few crumbs of comfort for me is the knowledge that there’s a whole body of work that I only have a limited knowledge of. Yes, I’m familiar with the singles, but Hunky Dory, Diamond Dogs, and Alladin Sane are all out there, just waiting to be listened to.

He decamped to the US after releasing these albums and regenerated into the ‘plastic soul’ of Young Americans releasing one of his finest singles, the utterly

prescient “Fame”, where he worked with a young Luther Vandross. (Another major influence on my early youth from the 70s also regenerated and was not of this earth.)

BBC’s brilliant documentary ‘Five Years’ showed just how meticulous and focused Bowie was during this period to create this new sound, to reinvent himself and move away from the glam rock sound of the early 70s. He also discovered the excesses of the music industry, which in the mid70s, unsurprisingly involved high-grade cocaine, and his appearance on the Dick Cavett show saw him sniffing, twitching, and drawing imaginary shapes on the floor with his cane.

But America loved him, and he was fast becoming a global superstar.

Then came his next persona – The Thin White

Writ large throughout his glorious career was his ability to reinvent himself and create personas whilst still being David Bowie. tf 99

Duke, which, given his “astronomic” cocaine habit, was quite apt, and saw him bridge the soul and funk of Young Americans into the abstract electronica of Heroes and Low, with Station to Station, an album influenced by the icy Teutonic grooves of Neu!, Can and Kraftwerk.

Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express actually name checked Bowie, who returned the compliment with V2 Schneider These influences saw him move to Berlin (Bowie described Station to Station as “a plea to come back to Europe”), starting a trend amongst musicians to move to the city to tap into the magical creativity in the air, the water supply, or maybe just the drug supply. Here, famously, he began working with Brian Eno, and embarked on what is now considered as his most creative period - the resulting albums, Heroes, Low, and Lodger producing some of his finest moments.

It’s worth pointing out that, in 1977, David Bowie was tf 100

a bona fide rock superstar, and a mainstream star and moved to Berlin to record two albums that, despite containing two of his best pop songs “Heroes” and “Sound and Vision”, were, to all extent and purposes, exercises in the more avantgarde spectrum of modern music containing as they did, a high percentage of gloomy, atmospheric instrumentals.

In the mid-70s he also starred as the titular character in The Man Who Fell to Earth, which started a long association with the cinema. Two of my favourite films, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, and The Hunger, starred David Bowie in central roles, and his appearance on screen was always intriguing and interesting. His performance in The Hunger is beautifully understated and poignant as a vampire faced with the unexpected realisation that, after all, he wasn’t an immortal as his partner Catherine Deneuve was. Life imitated art in the long run.

He also worked with Martin Scorsese, playing Pontius Pilate inThe LastTemptation of Christ, and with David Lynch on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. This all added to the perception of my mind, that he was an omnipotent presence. He featured in so many of the things that brought me joy in life. And who else could appear as a Goblin King, wearing those tights and that mullet, dancing and singing with puppets, and still retain his credibility?

My next Bowie encounter would have been aged eight seeing him dressed as a clown in the Ashes to Ashes video. And this song will always take me back to 1980.

The burgeoning New Romantic scene held Bowie up as a figure head with his divergent approach to music, fashion and art, and he featured many of the ‘Blitz Kids’ in the Ashes to Ashes video including the late Steve Strange. He was also a direct influence on many of the bands I

The burgeoning New Romantic scene held Bowie up as a figure head with his divergent approach to music, fashion and art

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went on to follow such as Joy Division and Depeche Mode.

The next milestone in my memory was the Let’s Dance album. A highly polished Nile Rodgers-produced affair and probably his commercial peak. Bowie firmly embraced the MTV generation – and the album contained a number of hit singles with memorable videos, along with the theme for Cat People, working with Giorgio Moroder – another demonstration of his affinity with cinema.

For me, “Loving the Alien” was probably the last classic Bowie single, although 1995’s “Hello Spaceboy” was a camp and highly enjoyable Eurodisco romp with the Pet Shop Boys. He then toured his Glass Spider show, coming to Roker Park on Tuesday 23 June 1987. I was there on that gloomy summer’s day, and I’ve since discovered that Bowie’s opening greeting to the crowd was “Good Evening Newcastle”. Now, Bowie is a fairly knowledgeable

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bloke who should know the difference having played both cities over the years.

Either he was wrapped up in his rock star bubble, or, he was taking the piss out of the Mackems. Let’s go with the latter shall we?

Anyway, I was there, and I’m so glad I saw him in the flesh, performing on stage.

Thankfully, Bowie didn’t go acid house or techno towards the end of the 80s and into the 90s, creating instead his noisy rock Tin Machine project and touring his greatest hits package, Sound and Vision. He did however, flirt with drum and bass on 1997’s Earthling album, and he embarked on a UK tour that saw him visit Newcastle’s legendary Riverside. A former colleague at Newcastle City Council used to live next to The Riverside’s Andy Balman, and she told me of the morning she looked out of the window and saw a rather dishevelled David Bowie stumbling into a taxi.

In Wylam.

In the period immediately

after his death, the media was awash with personal stories about the man, and it made his death even sadder, as tale after tale described how funny, how encouraging, how personable, and how bloody brilliant he was. His appearance on Extras is still hilarious and brilliant. His final album, Blackstar, was his goodbye gift, and it felt in retrospect like a final act of conceptual art in keeping with his entire career - a dark meditation of a man facing his own mortality.

Which we’ll all have to do at some stage. That final photo of Bowie smiling, looking dapper with a hat on, on a New York street, suggested a man that had found some kind of peace with his situation. If you’d had his kind of life and career, I’m sure you might as well.

His final album, Blackstar, was his goodbye gift, and it felt in retrospect like a final act of conceptual art in keeping with his entire career - a dark meditation of a man facing his own mortality.

So, he’s gone, and it’s not hyperbole to say that he was one of the greatest artists the UK, and indeed the planet, has ever produced.

Travel well Starman.

tf 101

Having decided to cancel my season ticket and make my weekends ‘the best they can be pound for pound’, I saw the recent transfer window as an opportunity to pause and reflect. Not just the efforts to address long-standing failings with some pre-crisis investment, but the increasing realisation that Ashley is becoming easier to predict and, whisper it quietly, is significantly

weaker than he was on taking over United in May 2007.

No longer do national commentators talk of Ashley as the misunderstood or maverick private sector success story unloved by the parochial, state dependent northern monkeys demanding he invest squillions or they will boycott the new away top. No, huge momentum has built around outing Ashley’s business practices as short-termist, flawed, unresponsive to a changing environment and stocked with unqualified personnel.

The parallels with United are stark: For Kinnear, Llambias, Charnley and Moncur read the whimsical appointment of future son-in-law Michael Murray to the £250M property of arm of Sports Direct, including a directorship of a certain

tf 102

Strawberry Place Newcastle Limited. One time student party organiser Murray represents a further example of Ashley’s penchant for putting faith in an under-qualified inner circle. Concerns among shareholders about the composition of corporate governance within Sports Direct - the discernable lack of expertise, challenge, rigour, strategic acumen - is mirrored in our very own ‘board’ - a kind of beige junta of self-preservation who are now seemingly late converts to the idea that scouting Belgian youth fixtures will not keep you in the Premier League.

Then we see Ashley’s pledge to invest £10M to boost the wages of Sports Direct employees following The Guardian’s expose of working practices at Shirebrook HQ, followed by the line about making Sports Direct the “best high street employer behind John Lewis”. No laughing at the back but how many of us are sure that this was some kind of moral awakening or maybe these rare public utterances are linked to £400M being wiped off the share price, declining profit forecasts and even a risk of dropping out of the FTSE 100. Rewind to the “bolting the horse” statement from Ashley before the final fixture of last season and we know that Ashley and his acolytes will say or do just enough to avert a crisis.

When a £5.136Bn TV deal is shared among EPL clubs between 2016-19 (including www.true-faith.co.uk

between £105M - £118M ‘prize’ money for Charnley’s target places of between 10th and 16th) then the recent transfer window should be viewed as one of expediency and no more a change of philosophy than George Osborne’s U-Turn on tax credits.

We also see the widening of cracks in the Sports Direct business model over-stocking shops with in-house brands, only 10% of transactions completed on-line (Ashley’s brother is ICT lead at the company, by the way) and customers’ growing mistrust of the constant ‘discount’ and ‘sale’ signs - little wonder almost all city analysts feel that Sports Direct is ceding ground to JD Sports. The point is surely that Ashley is fallible and has a blind spot for the zeitgeist. People want low-cost goods, but they also want quality and higher-ticket brands. Like our transfer policy, sourcing cheap and selling on gets you only so far.

Ashley’s share meddling with Debenhams, Tesco and Findel has caused much angst among Sports Direct shareholders and his tendencies to dabble as a hostile investor are hemorrhaging into public farce at Rangers. Cronies booted off the board and now reprimanded by the courts for “ridiculous” litigation against Dave King, a man used to winning, domineering and being in control is slowly learning to tuck tail. www.true-faith.co.uk

My relationship to the club has been reduced to little more than a transaction so the single most significant action I can take is to cancel my direct debit making August 2016 the first time since the 1950s that a member of my family will not be present at SJP for a home game.

The sports pages may talk of Shelvey and Townsend, McClaren may speak of a new era of investment but history and Ashley’s footprints across current affairs suggests we should interpret recent outlay to be last-ditch, reactive throwing the hedgehog at the dartboard, if you will.

Ashley is an ideologue whose broad hypothesis is that NUFC could not go on living beyond its means following the Luque, Owen, Boumsong hedonism of the Shepherd years so has reverted to the only operational model he knows without any understanding of how this translates to running a Premier League football club, delegating responsibility (but never control) to a loyal inner circle who will never rock the boat. It is classic global supply chain economics.

Arrivals to SJP are sourced through similar logic. I recently read a defence of Graham Carr’s methods, citing the expensive errors of Viduka, Smith and others but this misses the point.

No-one want to return to that, but they do want

to see the club bring through academy players, use the loan market, buy established top-flight performers interspersed with properly scouted potential from European leagues. McClaren is right when he talks of the squad needing development over 3-4 windows (making folly of his earlier comments about judging him after 10 games) but what does this say about NUFC in 2016? What is the plan, the strategy, the underpinning philosophy? The jury is in - there simply isn’t one. Ashley can’t and won’t change so United can’t and won’t change.

Plan B? There is no Plan A - just expediency and an obsession with the bottom line from a distracted owner surrounded by the grateful dim and that culture has permeated every aspect of the football club. There is absolutely no connection or emotional bond between any of the key personnel and people in the street.

Thousands used to watch NUFC training sessions, now they send you an email. Wins always feel like false dawns and defeats

which once used to ruin a weekend barely register - like an aged boxer, the punches have stopped hurting.

Jumping back to The Guardian investigation into Sports Direct, I recall the opening paragraph of the article without needing to check the text; “Cogs in the machine would be a cliche, but that really does not capture the disdain of Sports Direct towards its workers”. For ‘workers’, you could transplant ‘supporters’ and if we learn anything from the revelations that Sports Direct staff are searched before leaving Shirebrook (among other Dickensian, penny-pinching practices) it is that Ashley likes to sweat the margins.

My relationship to the club has been reduced to little more than a transaction so the single most significant action I can take is to cancel my direct debit making August 2016 the first time since the 1950s that a member of my family will not be present at SJP for a home game.

That’s me done - I am walking away. tf 103

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