By Ian Caroll
Newcastle United fans are ungrateful, deluded and fickle. You’ll already know this if you read the work of some of the finest journalistic minds of our age- Paddy Barclay, Rob ‘Shep’ Shepherd et al. Those deluded Geordies have actually dared to criticise Alan Pardew after their eleven brave lions were dumped out of the League Cup at White Hart Lane. How very dare they…What do these Northern Clowns expect? Their team had played half decent for nigh on one month out of the last twelve, and yet they have the nerve to give ‘Pards’ some grief over (yet another) heavy defeat, and shockingly awful, performance.
I had first hand experience of this deluded, fickle nature on a train to London on Wednesday. Speaking to two of these “fans”, who pay thousands of pounds a year to follow their team, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. They actually suggested that their team, their club, ought to actually try to win games, win trophies, strive to be better. Who do they think they are? Real Madrid? Manchester United? Hull City? What right minded set of supporters wouldn’t be grateful for four or five weeks of half decent football, amongst a year of garbage?
Don’t they know Mr Pardew had to sell Yohan Cabaye (totally out of the blue, nobody saw that coming) and Andy Carroll, for a fraction of his true value, a mere four years ago? Any reasonable, rational group of supporters would feel privileged to be allowed to watch the likes of Yoan Gouffran, Mike Williamson, Cheik Tiote and Vurnon Anita on a regular basis. Some of the very best footballers in their respective families, and yet these so called ‘fans’ think they somehow deserve better. They even think that they might expect more of their manager. As if!! Don’t they remember he got them to fifth only two and a half years ago?! He’s also saved them hundreds, if not thousands, on pointless cup runs. And speaking of which (I’ll mention this because Alan is too introverted and self deprecating to do it) he got West Ham to an FA Cup Final once.
What Newcastle United fans, and many fans of other clubs, need to learn is that their club can’t be expected to try to get better, to try to win games, to try to improve. Their run of victories against Leicester City (in pretty much the worst game of top flight football ever) Spurs (who were in the midst of losing to everybody at home, and had battered United for the first half) Manchester City (to get through to a League Cup quarter final in which they would phone in a truly rotten performance, against Spurs- see above) Liverpool (don’t laugh) West Brom (another set of deluded fans who aren’t happy at losing and being a bit rubbish most of the time) and The Mighty Queens Park Rangers (at home, against a Rangers team that haven’t won a top-flight game north of Loftus Road for about three years) ought to have shown them that they have a habit of being decent enough in November, and anyone who expects anything of the sort for the rest of the year is an ungrateful, deluded fan who isn’t welcome around here.
Let’s talk again…after the Sunderland game.
