150 weeks ago you would have thought we were speaking about Spurs or Arsenal | OneFootball

Back in the eighties there was this hipster band called Talking Heads, whose biggest hit included the words, ‘This is not my beautiful home, how did I get here?’

Well, to paraphrase the mad bloke in the enormous suit, ‘This is not my beautiful club, How the f… did we get here?’.

What do I mean by that comment?

Well what I mean by that, is Newcastle United circa 2024 bears absolutely no relation to Newcastle 1971, 1991 or even 2021.

Except one thing, When it comes to fans, we will have something to moan about. It’s the same at every club and it will always be the case.

It’s what fans do.

The 70s wanted Westwood out.

The 80s wanted McKeag out,

The 90s wanted mega superstars Dalglish and Gullit out.

The 00s wanted Shepherd and Souness out. Plus XXL Sam of course.

It’s only the 10s who had nowt to moan about.

That’s a joke, just in case my sarcasm wasn’t obvious.

However, now we have arrived in the 2020s, life is great and as Newcastle United fans we really don’t have a reason to moan.

Or is there?

Well of course there is.

Tickets, or the lack of them.

Too long to make a stadium decision.

Too long to win a trophy.

Not making it to Europe.

Too long to move out players who are not at the level we require.

Let me say that all those topics are worth a discussion but come on, if someone had said just 150 short weeks ago that these would be our issues, you would have thought we were speaking about Spurs or Arsenal.

However, we are now a club who will be upset for not making it into Europe and we will be upset If we are not competing for trophies.

These are nice problems to have.

I think we always need to remember is that when these subjects come up on The Mag, ultimately we all want the same thing, a club to be proud of and hopefully a club that wins.

It’s just that we all have different ways to say things and some of us are more forceful with their comments than others.

I like to think that now I’m old, I’m a lot better at seeing both sides of an argument, but I fully accept that was not the case when I was 30.

I used to be a right angry man when I was younger.

I remember being hounded out of the brand new Milburn stand in 1988 for singing ‘Sack the board’ constantly for 30 minutes, while we were being gubbed 0-3 by Coventry.

When I say I was singing, what I really mean is I was screaming up at the board in the seats above me while frothing at the mouth .

The old blokes around me finally losing their rag at my lack of support for the lads on the pitch.

‘F… off back to Seaham you mackem.’

Looking back, I guess I was a bit obsessed about getting change. You know, sit in the middle of the road and block the traffic type of obsession.

I really did get a little “Greta Thunberg” at times.

These days I’m more Ghandi than Greta.

I try not to get stressed about anything. I’ve even stopped watching the news. It’s done wonders for my blood pressure.

So I am not going to lose my head over the lack of a ticket, although it would be wonderful to walk into the ground again.

I’m not going to get upset about Sean Longstaff starting a game, because take it from me, if they tied his legs together , put a blindfold on and made him drink eight pints before kick off, he’s still better than most of those who wore the shirt in 1988!

And I won’t get upset if we don’t move to a sparkling new Bernabeu of the North.

At the same time, I totally get it if anyone does feel passionately about these issues, because I’ve been there.

And I do get the knee jerk reaction on the match day threads, even if it’s never good to do social media while under the influence.

Because all you are wanting is a successful Newcastle United, just like I was back in 1988

However, these days I have other things to keep an eye on.

Like my hair falling out, being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and wondering how long it’s going to be before I’m buying tena men.

Just the normal everyday problems we all are facing.