Natives are restless

Yesterday saw the start of the new Premier League season. On the pitch incidents involving every lazy journalist's favourite villain, Joey Barton, made the headlines. You do have to ask which other player would get stamped on and slapped and yet still come out as the wrongdoer, but then again, when it's Joey Barton on the receiving end you know that the handwringing press and other club's whiter-than-white fans will demand Barton to be strung up from the nearest lamp-post, despite him being the victim in this. Ok he shouldn't have pulled up Gervinho, but then again it was a yellow card offence and he got a yellow card. End of the story regarding Joey Barton for me!

What was more striking for me than any of the on-field antics was the goings on in the South-East "Strawberry" corner. I used to be in the Leazes corner, a part of the ground specifically given up to people who wanted to sing and make some noise in an ever quieter St James Park. At the end of last season Mike Ashley decided to disband the Leazes corner. Many speculated that this came about because of anti-Ashley chanting. The club put forward the point that they wanted to extend the away fans section, the family section and have a "Youth" area where young uns could congregate together.

Despite assurances from Simon Esland, the Head of Customer operations, that fans would be listened to, and groups such as United for Newcastle and another group fronted by Jordan Robinson, a lad who was behind the "Bring back the noise" campaign were given time to talk with Esland about the moves. We asked the club to consider moving everyone in a block to other areas of the stadium and the Level 4 corner was identified as the area which had the least season ticket holders, and therefore the ideal place to put those being moved.

However rumours came through at the Manchester United game that the previous thoughts of moving us to Level 4 were not going to happen, but that it wouldn't be announced until after the end of the season, leaving the fans affected no chance to voice their discontent at the end of the season. Sure enough, just after the West Brom game it was announced that fans from the Leazes corner would not be moved en masse to Level 4. I know that a lot of fans felt that Esland had strung us along, some going as far to say that they though that he had lied about the situation. What was clear was that the suspicion that Ashley was trying to split up the most vocal fans in the ground up, presumably to try and dissipate the anti-Ashley chanting.

I arrived at the ground at around about 5.10pm last night. After feeling like a total newbie trying to find my seat I finally made my way up into the Strawberry corner. It was obvious that the Leazes Level 4 corner had plenty of spare seats, which was bloody annoying! While Arsenal brought up extra fans, I can't wait to see empty blocks of seats up in Level 7 when the likes of Wigan and Fulham come to town.

There were already grumbles about people standing, before the match started. Once the game kicked off several scuffles broke out between the people who had been previous "corner" season ticket holders and the newcomers. Despite the majority of the newcomers being located in the back rows of the corner, there were some who are located further down.

People who wanted to sit were complaining about those standing impeding their views. People who were standing were complaining as, up in the Leazes corner we were allowed to stand. I saw an older couple who were in the block closest to the East stand get involved in a dispute and end up leaving their seats after about 10 minutes. In front of me, though, was the most shocking incident that I have seen in a long while in the stands of St James Park. A well built, middle aged man and his friends were sitting, two young lads, one aged only 16 stood up briefly as a free kick was taken. A comment was made by one of the men who was sitting and the young lad turned around to look at them. The well built bloke grabbed the young lad by the face and shook him, while his friends shouted horrendous abuse. These men had obviously been drinking, and their reaction to these young lads standing up was completely un-necessary.

Obviously I can understand that there are people who don't want to, or can't stand all match and that was why the Leazes corner was brought into existence. The stewarding up there was relaxed, the atmosphere was one where singing, chanting and (if you wanted to standing in front of your seat was, well not permitted, but tolerated).

There has got to be some give and take in the Strawberry corner, and I'm not talking about the standing really. We all know we are not supposed to stand, and it's against the club's licence, blah, blah, blah! People don't get hurt by standing in front of seats at a football match. They get hurt when fans are moved from areas of the stadium where standing was tolerated and put in to new areas where standing isn't. That isn't the fault of people who have been made to move, it's the fault of the man who orchestrated the move - Mike Ashley!

If the person behind me asked me to sit, I would sit down. Luckily the people behind me are people who have been relocated from the Leazes Corner who were standing too. But if someone behind you wants to sit, and asks you to sit down as they can't see I would say you have to sit too. What isn't acceptable is violence between fans of the same team. Whether it's middle ages fans, or young uns starting on the other it's just not on and it needs to stop.

Come on folks, it's going to take time for us all to get used to each other, but lets not see the kind of violence I saw yesterday. We are supposed to be supporting the same team, getting behind the lads, we are supposed to be Newcastle United!

How much more are we prepared to take?

Lazy journalists like to portray Newcastle United fans as deluded. It's easy to paint that picture, in reality though I have not met a single Newcastle United fan who expects us to be playing Champions League football in two years time, I've not met a single Newcastle United fan who expects us to be signing Messi, Wesley Sneijder or Cesc Fabregas, I've not met one single Newcastle United fan who thinks we will win every game we play.

Real Newcastle United fans are like Labradors, friendly, a bit crazy but loyal to a fault! Over the last four years we have taken more proverbial kicks in the balls than most. We had Keegan appointed, we dealt with the whole "messiah" bollocks that the press spouted, because other clubs don't have a figure or two from their past that their fans think are a cross between Jesus, Superman and Santa Claus, do they, it's just us? Aye right!

We saw Mike Ashley try to castrate Keegan in public, metaphorically of course, by bringing in Dennis Wise as some kind of Director of Football. We saw promising youngster James Milner sold from under him just days after saying he would like to stay at the club, and Xisco and Nacho Gonzalez brought in, which spelled the end of Keegan's second period at the club.  A subsequent tribunal spelled out the shambolic way in which the club was being ran, and that the club was prepared to lie to cover up its dealings. 

We then saw a playing squad ripped apart before our eyes. Shay Given, Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and now it looks like Jose Enrique were broken down mentally by Llambias and Ashley before being sold on. Each player sale has seen the fans divided, but a recurrent theme is that the players have left saying that they don't like what has happened at the club and that there are serious problems with the upper echelons of management in the club.

After the blackest day in our recent history down at Villa park when we were relegated happened, we rightly got rid of dead wood and players who were there to simply pick up a huge wage packet each month. What we were left with was Chris Hughton, a bunch of senior players who were prepared to regroup and build something new, and a group of young players who looked as if they could be promising in the future.

Throughout the season in the Championship not only did we get the results we wanted, but we also gained something that had been lacking at Newcastle United for a while, a proper team. Led by Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton, Alan Smith and Steve Harper it was clear to see that what we had was a group of lads all pulling in the same direction, there was not a big ego show, there was not a mercenary feeling, it felt as if the lads who were left were the ones who really wanted to be at this club.

Throughout last season we again had a massive kick in the nads when Ashley decided that Chris Hughton was not the right man to manage the team. This despite a good start to the season, a thumping 6-0 victory over Villa and of course the immense hammering of the mackems at Halloween. Ashley declared that he wanted a manager with more top flight experience, and who did he bring in? Alan Pardew, a man who had been out of the game a while, and who has a CV which is not exactly groaning with success.

However, to his credit he managed to get this team to a mid-table finish, when 17th would have done 80% of the Geordie fans, you know the ones who the press are happy to label deluded?

Andy Carroll was sold, on the last day of the transfer window, for what was frankly a ridiculous amount of money. However details behind the sale are sketchy and there are rumours that leave a very bitter taste in the mouth.

The happenings with Kevin Nolan seem just as shady. I was at a talk in with Nolan and he was open and honest in saying that he wanted to stay at the club. He was a pivotal figure, not just on the pitch where his goals had a major say in our finishing positions in the last two seasons, but off the pitch, where his stabilising demeanour had been a massive factor in unifying the lads. He was a figure who truly deserved the captains role at the club. But dealings behind the scenes left Nolan feeling that his position within the club was untenable and he was sold to West Ham.

Ashley has done his level best to completely destroy this club. Whenever we seem to be doing ok, Ashley presses his destruct button. Boom! Keegan gone! Boom! Hughton gone! Boom! Andy Carroll gone! Boom! Kevin Nolan gone!

And now Joey Barton is being treated like the proverbial leper. Jose Enrique, who has made no bones about his desire to leave the club, used Twitter to announce that he was far from happy with what is going on with the club and the level of ambition shown. The result is a club fine and a possible move to Liverpool.

Pardew was saying what an important figure Joey was and had him in the captains role for a friendly?

I can't help but think that this punishment has been handed out from above Pardew's head, and that the manager has little influence on much at the club.

And it leaves me wondering where do we, as fans stand. We have been lied to by Ashley and his puppets from day 1. Only weeks ago, Simon Esland, the Head of Customer Operations, was talking with supporters groups about the enforced move from the Leazes Corner, and implied that the club would listen to the request of fans to be moved en masse. It was little surprise to me that this did not materialise and Mr Esland is a lot less forthcoming with his availability as he was before. He left the box office staff to break it to fans that they would not be moved as a group, but would be scattered over the ground, and it was only due to the quick thinking of a really decent lad I know that the fans may have recreated a kind of Leazes Corner in the Strawberry Corner.

Protests fall on deaf ears, all Ashley cares about is the bottom line. The fans will not turn their backs on the team, but are still not prepared to cut off the supply of money to Ashley through merchandising or match day bars and kiosks if the queues in the ground are anything to go by. Personally I will pay my money for my season ticket as its the cheapest way I can support the team, I will go to some away games as personal finances dictate, but only because the money goes to the away club. I won't be buying any more merchandise. I won't be buying from the kiosks. I won't be buying cup tickets for home games.

And if someone can come up with an idea that might actually see the departure of Mr Ashley without us doing the "Poznan" in the ground, singing "Get out of our club" or making bedsheet banners I would be happy to help in whichever way I can. Because Mr Ashley, I am sick of this!