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Opinion

Another story about a Kevin Keegan era glory hunter

4 years ago
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I have read a few things like this lately so I had a few beers and thought I would post my story.

I’m a born and bred southerner.

Growing up in Eastbourne to non-football supporting parents, my options of which local team to support were rather limited as an eight year old in 1995.

We had Brighton and Hove Albion an hour down the road, battling to keep their place in the football league, Eastbourne Borough (Langney Sports back then) bouncing around between Conference South and whatever the division below that is, or any London team, which as an eight year old after a two hour train journey, might as well be Newcastle.

In the end I picked the Kevin Keegan entertainers. The stereotypical glory hunter choice of those kids that wanted to be a little bit different and support someone other than Manchester United.

Over the years I have always tried to make a few games. Mostly away games down south but have made the effort to get up to St James every few years since I’ve been old enough to fund myself getting up there. The last game I made it to was Palace away in February 2018, nearly two years ago.

Last season I didn’t make it to a game. Although I intended to go to one or two, life got in the way, my dad died, my wife had a baby, I got a new job with demanding hours and football took a back seat in my life. I still would have gone if I had time though.

Since Rafa left and Steve Bruce was given the head patsy job, I have lost all interest in making any effort to go to a game. I still watch every game on TV but the passion has gone. I used to be in a bad mood for days after we lost but now I don’t care. I enjoy it when we score but that’s about it. Where I used to look up the table after a win and think about how high we could go, now I don’t bother, because whenever I do start to dream a bit I know Mike Ashley will pull the rug from under us and bring us crashing back down to earth.

I know some of you will say I’m not a true fan. I’m not a Geordie and my relationship with this club is probably totally different to most of you.

I absolutely love football though and I promise you I have tried very hard to switch teams and had fleeting thoughts about taking my young daughter down the road to the Amex to see a team at least trying to be the best they can be. I can’t do it though. Unfortunately I am tied to United for the rest of my days and nothing will ever change that.

As far as my views go on the current issues surrounding the club, here goes…

I would like to think that I would boycott if I was a local but whether or not I actually would boycott, I will never know.

Another relegation wouldn’t hurt me like the last couple of times and a part of me wouldn’t even want promotion until Mike Ashley sold up (hopefully losing £££ in the process).

We need to go down and stay down or Ashley will never leave. As much as it hurts, it is for the greater good.

The media are definitely in Ashley’s pocket. When I watch Sky, listen to Talksport, or read pretty much anything, I find it absolutely unbelievable how pro Ashley/Bruce and anti Rafa/fans 99% of pundits and journalists are.

Everyone I know completely agrees with my views on Newcastle United and Mike Ashley, so whatever the media tries to make you believe, the consensus down here is pretty much the same.

Hopefully there’s better times ahead for all of us and we can have a club to be proud of once again that can bring the passion back for all of us and give me a reason to buy my daughter a black and white shirt.

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