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Opinion

Boycott? I haven’t been back since Hughie Gallacher eyed up wor lass

5 years ago
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I remember it like it was yesterday.

The 17 November 1926, walking past the Strawberry with my intended, Elsie.

This short bloke heading the other way, my hero Hughie Gallacher!

I went to shake his hand but he just ignored me, the cheeky blighter eyeing  up wor lass instead.

That was it for me, I haven’t been back to St James Park since.

I tried to get the boycott going but for some reason I struggled to get much interest.

Maybe winning the First Division that season didn’t help but I never did forgive the sixty odd thousand that kept going…

Heading back to planet earth and the present day, boycott is of course the word on everybody’s lips.

Will you or won’t you?

As usual, the lunatic fringe on social media are embarrassing themselves.

Those going over the top abusing anybody who might be thinking of still going AND those doing the same with abuse of those intending to stay away.

Cries of ‘traitor’ heading in both directions.

Mike Ashley loves anything like this, the Newcastle United fanbase in any kind of civil war, playing right into the FCB’s hands and wallet.

As usual, anybody putting their head above the parapet in organising any boycott and/or protests is instantly a target for some. Yes, no doubt a few of the people involved this time in encouraging fans to stay away, will be doing it to boost their own profile and their dream of being a ‘superfan’…but the vast majority will just be (as usual) decent ordinary fans who are so sick of what is happening, that they have felt compelled to act. To do whatever they think might help to get rid of Mike Ashley.

It is easy to take cheap shots at groups of normal people trying to influence how a billionaire acts, to belittle whatever ideas they have come up with.

Yes it may well make no difference but if you have nothing good/constructive to say, then don’t bother saying anything.

If you intend to go to the matches regardless of anything Mike Ashley throws at us, fine. That’s your decision/money. Just don’t insult those who have now had enough.

By the same token, it is equally laughable when you get for example somebody who has only now just decided to pack in, who then absolutely savages anybody who hasn’t decided to do the same.

You could justifiably say to such an abuser, why didn’t you boycott when…

Keegan was forced out

SJP was renamed

Chris Hughton was sacked

Joe Kinnear given the job

Ashley treated Alan Shearer the way he did

Alan Pardew given the job

Joe Kinnear given another job

John Carver given the job

Jonas Gutierrez was discriminated against because he had cancer

Ashley relegated the club in 2009

Ashley relegated the club in 2016

After any one of 20 or so transfer windows when Mike Ashley has taken the pi..

I am happy to state my position, I will be boycotting BUT I don’t feel the need to slag off anybody else because of their choice, whatever it is.

We all know the pull the football club has, the desire to go to matches, after all that is why we are bothered about Newcastle United in the first place. It isn’t as though any of us have decided to be a ‘Toon Army Fan’ in order to simply count off the trophies like a Man Utd gloryhunter…sorry, Man City gloryhunter, as they will be now.

When it comes to those who have already committed to season tickets, it is particularly counter-productive for knackers to be screaming at them that they should still boycott all season. We should be trying to get everybody onside and persuading them to support single game boycotts such as the Arsenal opening day one,

The reality of course is that nobody will be boycotting because of a campaign or any fan group wanting you to.

Instead, it is because you will have decided for yourself what you want to do, that Mike Ashley and the way he runs the club and/or the rubbish football/team that is the eventual sure result of his malevolence and neglect, have brought you to this point.

Blaming other fans for whether you boycott or not is about as daft as me blaming Hughie Gallacher for my boycotting these past 93 years…

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