Tom_NUFC

at its peak the british empire goverend a quarter of the globe and rules the seas. that's what i'm talking about. 95670[/snapback] It was more like although admitedly, we lost 'the colonies' before we got most of the rest. I've actually been working on a timeline for an alternative present day in which the US was destroyed in the war of independence, and Britain held on to the colonies, and expanded. As a result other European powers held on to their colonies in America as well, although for the benefit of the plot, Brazil split from Portugal (although amicably) and Britain aided Mexico's independence struggle with Spain, and the subsequent Mexican-Spanish war which saw Mexico expand southward (and also retain it's Northern Territories which in reality joined the USA). This is a map of the Americas in the alternative 'Present Day'

BNP Charvers Jordan Idiots from crap commuter towns down south who support Chelsea and get overtly patriotic in an agressive jingoistic way, especially with England games

Every Friday this semester, as part of my Uni course (History) I'm on a work placement in the Local Studies Centre of Newcastle Central Library. I'm doing an exhibition (to go on public display) on Libraries past and present. Anyway, as the plans for the present library originated in March 1963, I was looking through some old papers, and stumbled across a range of articles in the Evening Chronicle on 'Tyneside 2000'. It was a very sixties view of the future, but some things they called right (Computers in most homes with instant worldwide communication, dishwashers, microwaves, multi channel TV, the Metro, music and films on discs etc). Anyway, Here is the article on what Football (and specificly NUFC) would be like in 2000, from the Chronicle, on March 6, 1963 (for the record, the following day, Newcastle thumped Bradford 6-1 at Valley Parade........ in the FA Cup, 3RD ROUND, a match that had been postponed because of bad weather on just the TWELVE previous occasions.) Well, now. What have we here? The time is the month of February in the year 2000. The social habit is much the same. It is Saturday afternoon and all "the lads" are on their way to watch Newcastle United play. But...here's a strange and exciting thing. the snow falls in deep unending clouds. It has been like that since Boxing Day, 1999, when a cold spell suddenly descended after a succession of mild winters. So severe did it become that quickly it had the veterans comparing it with the winter of 1962-63. Was it as bad as that? Worse, much worse, they said. But for the sportsman and especially the football fan and the addict of racing there was one fantastic difference. No referee was ever called to inspect a pitch. No clerk of the course ever announced that racing was cancelled. The football pitches remained as soft, green and inviting as if it were glorious spring. On the racecourses the going was always "just right". Of course this was merely common sense and had been the rule for so long (ever since 1970 in fact) as long ago to be accepted as normal. But it deserved comment this bitter afternoon in February, 2000 if only to stress how times had changed. The winter of 1963 had started it all. At long last the intrepid winter spectators of sporting festivals in Great Britain had rebelled against the attitude of controlling bodies who refused through inertia, ignorance or lack of funds to find a new way to beat the weather. At long last the soccer follower and racegoer had stated with an awful finality that they would attend no more football matches and no more race meetings unless they were treated as civilised human beings. And wonderfully the authorities had acted. It was a fight for survival and they had decided that they wanted to live. First they toyed with the idea of summer football and rejected this because the ingrained habit of the spectator said "no". And Cricket in England in any case was now a mass summer sport with the abandonment long ago of the out moded County Championship, the substitution of three-day weekend matches with festivals during general holidays. This together with the discovery of an unending stream of super-fast bowlers and batsmen who scored at the ratio of 60 an hour brought the football fans to the cricket fields in their thousands. In Durham and Northumberland - the combined side was now rated as strong as Surrey and Lancashire - the game had never been so popular. So summer soccer was out - so what then? The final solution did not come until many of the ancient directors of football clubs had been replaced by go-ahead young men interested in the game and dynamically alive to the fact that it had to be played under the best possible conditions. Under-pitch heating was widely adopted, but this in turn quickly became out of date. From America came the example of a baseball stadium which had been built complete with a plastic dome. Crowds of soccer officials went to see the new wonder and returned enthusiastic. Quickly the idea spread, the more so since so many of the clubs in the new Super League (to which Newcastle and Sunderland most fortunately belonged) were building new stadiums seating 100,000 people in comfort with restaurants, bars and snack bars for all. Why not, they argued fit the plastic domes to the new stadiums? And so it turned out. The dome could swing open and slide into deep recesses in the ground during fine weather and shut tight against, snow, frost or rain that was too prolonged. When the weather turned really fiendish as it had done in the bad old days of 1963 - and as it was doing right now in the soccer season of 1999-2000 - why, there was still no problem. Special heating kept the snow from piling up on the dome. Special air conditioning kept the pitch and the stadium fresh. They watered the pitch occassionally - just to give it a nice stud hold - but that was all. The result of this had improved the standard of soccer out of all conception. (though the old-timers could still get excited over memories of Milburn). The philosophy of "getting stuck in" had been abandoned by managers because it didn't pay off. Now everything was art and science and intelligence because in the Super League when you played Real Madrid and Benfica and the best clubs from South America during their annual tour that was the only way to have a reasonable chance. All in all then, the football picture was bright and it was generally agreed that the disappearance of the old Third and Fourth Divisions in the late 1960s had done nothing but good. For now there was only the Super League, concurrently playing two tournaments against home and foreign clubs and one other league. They called themselves the "near elite" and the fact that the top ten went up each year (and the bottom ten in the Super League went down) provided a tremendous spur to excellence. Of course everything was not perfection. Since there was now a world movement of players and Newcastle currently rejoiced in a centre forward by the name of Leonel Sanchez da Coutinho from Rio (Leo for short from the Geordie crowd), it followed that transfer fees were astronomical. Leo had cost £175,000, which was rather less than the plastic dome. Both were considered worth the money. And yet the Tyneside football fan being what he is, there were still those who hankered for the bad old days. They argued that the old atmosphere was missing and since it was now no longer possible to throw snowballs at the referee, with all that the intimacyhad implied, some of the fierce cameraderie and frantic involvement was absent. To which the younger element replied that they were not old fuddies who did not know when they were well off. This then is the soccer situation on Tyneside in February 2000 and everyone eagerly awaits the World League which should evolve about 2005. For Newcastle and Sunderland, the agonsing question will be: Can they make it? But that, at least is for the relatively distant future. A 1963 artist's sketch of St James Park in 2000.

Would you sacrifice an in inch off the length of your cock for a full head of hair for the rest of your life? No Would you sacrifice a full head of hair for the rest of your life for a extra inch on the length of your cock? No Would you sacrifice a full head of hair for the rest of your life for an in inch off the length of your cock? No

Name: Tom Sex: Male Age: 27 Occupation: History Student

taht is odler tahn tmie istlef

I don't mind Ian Wright. When I was younger I used to sit in the old family enclosure (the benches -and later seats- that used to be under the East Stand). Last game of the 93/94 season, at home to Arsenal (Arsenal had just won the Cup Winners Cup). The players are warming up and some of them were signing autographs. Ian Wright came over to sign some, and there was one kid, he used ask jokingly to every player for their training top. He asked Ian Wright, who promptly took off his training jacket and gave it to the kid who was in shock. Fair play like.

Yeah I think it was. Ha! I remember that chant!

Ah!!!! Blast from the past! We all hated him for a while, cos he always seemed to cheat against us, the diving get! The thing I remember most about David Speedie was on an away trip - v Blackburn, in the 1991/92 season (must have been around February or March). Anyway he fouled one of our players (think it might have been Kevin Brock - but I could be wrong) in the Blackburn penalty area, and then the bugger dived himself. The ref didn't know what had happened and who'd fouled who, so his decision? A drop ball on the f*cking penalty spot. Speedie won it and scored. I think we lost 3-1 or something. I remember visiting my relatives down on the Wirral one time. They're all Tranmere fans, and one of my aunts was on the Tranmere board for a time. Anyway, they were playing Blackburn and they asked if we wanted to come along. So we did, sat in the directors box and went in the directors lounge. After the game, the players from both teams were in the directors box and my brother asked Speedie why he dived all the time, and Speedie said "because it works".

Robbie Savage El Hadj Diouf Paul Ince

I've been going to football for over 20 years now (God, that makes me sound like an old bastard!) and it's improved loads here in that time. I'm not saying racism doesn't exist, unfortunately every now and then you do hear something, but whilst in the past it was very vocal, like Monkey Chants (which still happens in places like Spain and Eastern Europe) these days it's very occasional and one person. I'm not excusing that, it's still horrible to hear, but although it's not non existant, it isn't far off. Racist incidents when England or English teams play abroad do cause anger and disgust in Britain now. Look at what happened when England played in Spain and before that, in Slovakia. The monkey noises directed by the home fans at black players caused a lot of fuss over here. People were genuinely angry about it, and I think that's indication that a lot of progress has been made. There's still work to be done, and in society in general I think racism has shifted a lot. British Black people tend to be much more integrated into society, and more accepted. Nowadays, I think racism has shifted towards the Muslim Community, and as there aren't a great deal of Arabic/Asian footballers in Britain.......

NAF NAF jumpers anyone? I had one.

Nice place if you can get a seat. Seems to be a lot of people like to just sit in there all day drinking coffee pretending their extras from Friends 90454[/snapback] Ha! That's true. Actually a good place to eat on Heaton Road is Khans. I've had some of the nicest currys ever in there. The only down side is that it's not licenced, so they don't do alcohol, but you can take your own along.

Beardsley Van Basten Gascoigne

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that. I'm not neccesarily against it, but I get the feeling that a lot of people are perhaps expecting too much from one game. I hope it continues, I really do, and I'm not saying it can't, but I'm not reading too much into after one game.

Souness has divided this club, but now he has gone. The cancer may have been removed, but the NUFC's position right now is still ill. Regardless of whether you were anti-Souness or Pro-Souness, it doesn't matter anymore. In Newcastle terms the man is history. What the club needs now is love and support. Over the years it has become a cliché that supporters are a 12th man for a club, and this is particularly so when Newcastle United FC is concerned. But it is a cliché because it is true. How we react can make a difference - ultimately of course its down to the manager, players and coaches, but we can influence things. Regardless of what you thought of Souness, regardless of what you think of Shepherd, or of any of the players, the club needs your love and your support right now. Lets back Roeder, lets back Shearer, let's back every one of the players - right now its needed. Lets crank up the volume at St James' tomorrow and let Roeder, Shearer and all of the players that we are with them 100% right now. That is all.

Glenn Roeder scored in the first game I went to. Luton (H) August 1985.

I don't think Roeder/Shearer is anything more than a stop gap whilst the club (hopefully) take their time and sort out a new man.

I thought the time for Robson to go was either the end of the 2003/04 season OR the end of the 2005/04 season. I was pleased at the time, despite disagreeing with the way and the timing in which he went. The problem wasn't so much SBR going, but Souness coming. Having said that, if we'd left SBR in charge until the end of that season, we'd have been OK. When Souness goes, I will be delighted, but I will also be wary about who comes in.

And basically no comment from his mates Lawrenson and Hansen, what a surprise. Where's that humble pie now Hansen? Twats. 87631[/snapback] Aye. They know damned well he's shite, but won't say so cos he's their mate.

Sorry man.

It's about saving face. He's got a big ego.

Souness's excuse list: "I know we've got players coming back from injury, but they're still not 100% and half the team have a bug which didn't exist before kick off but I've just thought of as an excuse." "I planned to sort out some tactics, but the wife started nagging me to go shopping and then I had to pick up the kids from school. My family is important to me you know." "Our minds weren't focussed on the game tonight. Unfortunately we had some bad new earlier on because Clarky's dog died. The lads are all gutted. When a tragedy like this happens, football doesn't seem important." "I, err, I mean Deano stepped on a crack in the pavement the other day. What hope is there when you haven't got lady luck on your side? This club is cursed." "Personally, I blame my father. He should have said 'No, I'll have a wank tonight instead love'."

awful. I feel sick.

I can't say I was really scared. A bit apprehensive perhaps, and when the plane was taxi-ing on the runway, I remember thinking when is it going to get off the ground, then when it, I loved it. I really like flying, it's a great feeling.