Newcastle United – This is what it is all about | OneFootball

What is Newcastle United all about?

We will all have our own ideas and words to describe it.

However, what I can say for sure, is that Newcastle United is about more than a football club.

I can’t speak for those who find their way to NUFC via other routes.

For me though, born and bred on Tyneside and with long established family ties, Newcastle United and the City of Newcastle Upon Tyne are one in the same.

My pride in being a Newcastle United fan is impossible to separate from my pride in coming from Newcastle Upon Tyne and of course, being a Geordie.

My devotion to the club and my pride in Newcastle United doesn’t derive from whether or not they win trophies or not. ‘Just as well’ I hear you shout!

It has never really bothered me not seeing Newcastle winning silverware.

Would I like them to, yes of course.

However, I can honestly say that if we never win anything in my lifetime then I won’t lose any sleep over it.

Some things are more important than that.

What is most important to me is pride in our football club and that isn’t the same as pride in whether or not you win trophies.

It is about being part of something much bigger than that.

Like many of you, I was taken to matches as a kid, started then going with my mates when I was allowed, then eventually the holy grail of regularly going to away matches. The very best of times.

My pleasure (pride) isn’t derived from picking a team to support simply because they have regularly won trophies, then sitting at home waiting to tick off more trophies as they are won. With no interest in ever going to a match, no interest in going to the city where the club is situated, not even any interest in being able to find that city on a map!

I am not saying you can’t be a ‘proper’ Newcastle United fan unless you come from Tyneside and/or have family ties. Well, after all, if you are picking a club even now based on most likely to win trophies in the immediate future, then you would still have to be a bit daft to choose Newcastle United! If you are from a random place and end up somehow choosing Newcastle United as your team (or Newcastle United chooses you), then if you really buy into the whole thing of our club, then of course you are welcome.

I have met countless people who had no prior connection to Newcastle United and they are just as passionate as your average homegrown fan. What I have found as well is that when these random people from random places get a chance to eventually come to a match, they almost without fail really fall in love with Newcastle Upon Tyne as well as Newcastle United, just like the rest of us.

Not saying this can only happen with Newcastle United but if an outsider starts supporting say Aston Villa do they also fall in love with the dump where their stadium is or Birmingham in general, same with say Tottenham – just how grim is it around there, I would say the same with the Manchester and Merseyside clubs as for starters they have clubs sharing a city and split loyalties, whilst as for the likes of Chelsea… well, it is somewhere that they all (less than 40,000) just visit on a matchday, they never think of it as a place and surrounding area beyond it as a football club and stadium.

Anyway, this is a long winded way of getting around to saying just what a thrill it gives me seeing the videos and images of Newcastle United fans so excited this Friday morning  to get hold of the new Adidas home strip.

Not quite the Keegan Adidas era of late night launches and thousands queuing around St James’ Park BUT we are well on the way back to that!

The queues were impressive this morning though still AND a fact of life that in the mid-90s buying the new NUFC kit online wasn’t exactly a thing!

The fact is that over the course of a decade and a half, Mike Ashley drained so much of that enthusiasm, that love for the club. The light never totally went out but it came close for many fans.

I can honestly say that it doesn’t make any difference to me which division Newcastle United are in, in terms of how strong my support is for the club. It would be like saying I love Newcastle Upon Tyne any less when the city has gone through such tough times.

With Mike Ashley though, he trampled all over our love for Newcastle United and indeed, Newcastle Upon Tyne. It was his revenge for the fans turning on him when he did what he did with Kevin Keegan (and indeed, many others).

Mike Ashley and his shameless associates, never tired of trying to tell us that actually Newcastle United is nothing special, that indeed we were lucky to have somebody like Ashley to ‘save’ us.

My pride in Newcastle United and Newcastle Upon Tyne is pride in a football club and city trying to be the best they can possibly be.

We are THE one club city and no surprise that so many who support other clubs are so jealous of just how mental it is up here, what a great place Tyneside is to be a football fan, just how special Newcastle Upon Tyne is as a place on a home matchday.

If Newcastle United win something one day, great.

However, far more important to me is being part of this magnificent fanbase, having a right laugh when I can get to matches in person, drink myself stupid on beer and emotion pre and pos-match, as well as enjoying the matches on TV that I can’t get to.

So long as everybody inside and outside the football club is pushing for it to be the best it can be, on and off the pitch, that is all I ask for.

I am desperate for Newcastle United to be competitive and go into any game thinking we can win this, which is what we have got thanks in the main to Eddie Howe.

If NUFC end up competitive enough to win enough of these games to then equal winning trophies, then that is simply the cherry on the top, it isn’t the cake (or even the icing!) itself.