Newcastle United – Everyone’s favourite second team? | OneFootball

Totally freaking out many fans of other football clubs, especially mackems, the term of Newcastle United once having been everyone’s ‘second favourite team’

I’m going to slightly delve into the origins of this.

Was it a brief phenomenon, or even just a myth.

The Lazarus-like Newcastle United recovery from the brink of relegation to the third tier of English football in the early 1990s, certainly captivated many football fans beyond Tyneside.

This was because of the exhilarating style that Kevin Keegan’s side played the game.

Keegan is an English footballing icon up there with the likes of Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton.

A two time Ballon d’or winner, Kevin Keegan was still as recognisable in his early days as United’s manager as he was in his playing heyday.

Waltzing the First Division in 1993, King Kev began adding certain players to his team. This side would become known as the Entertainers.

After an average start to the 1993/94 season, by Autumn this team had well and truly clicked into gear.

People all over the country were beginning to stand up and take notice of a team that featured the attacking qualities of the likes of Lee, Sellars, Clark, Beardsley and Cole.

By the mid 1990s we were expected to win the Premier League and go on to be the next Liverpool or Man Utd.

I regularly worked around the country at this time and personally witnessed kids proudly wearing Newcastle kits.

Our failure to win the title in 1996 was ridiculed by many fans who had dreaded the thought of a successful NUFC.

However, we were still generally loved, even under the poor stewardship of Dalglish and Gullit, Newcastle United classed as glorious losers.

Sir Bobby Robson arrived in 1999 and the country’s love affair with all that was good about NUFC, seemingly rekindled.

We rode high in the EPL, regularly putting the likes of Fergie’s Man Utd and Arsene’s Wenger Boys to the sword.

We flew the flag in the Champions League in 2002/03 as loveable underdogs.

I believe people elsewhere started turning on Newcastle United after the sacking of SBR and the disastrous appointment of the dour and cold Graeme Souness.

The arrival of Mike Ashley as owner in 2007 and the subsequent appointments of the likes of Joe Kinnear, Alan Pardew, Steve McClaren and Steve Bruce, hence made Newcastle United a national laughing stock.

This actually suited Ashley, who didn’t want Newcastle to be a legitimate competitor. It was just far more lucrative for him to spend very little in the hope of avoiding relegation.

Many football fans up and down the country became convinced that Newcastle United were now in our rightful place. How sad that it had came to this. We had lost the respect of all and sundry.

Scribes and the media have tried to make Newcastle even more unpopular since our Saudi led takeover in 2021. The gullible nuggets that support the Septic Six and the likes of Crystal Palace and little Sunderland play into this.

People still like Newcastle the City and United the team. Don’t let anybody, not even a jealous sad mackem, convince you otherwise.

I was never ever bothered anyway about being anyone else’s second favourite team but we were for a period.

All I know is that there is a lot of pride and romance attached to supporting our famous club. Only a Newcastle United fan can truly get that.