Are Newcastle United a Big Club?

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Ooooooh! You're sooooo big! - Jan 13 2008

There's been a lot of crap talked on the telly and in the papers about Newcastle United recently with much publicity being given to Big fat Sam's departure from the club after barely getting his feet under the table at the Toon.

A lot of this seems to centre around the fact that almost without exception; the pundits, journalists et al keep telling us how tremendously huge Newcastle are, and how their amazingly fanatical supporters are right to demand better from this gargantuan club.

I genuinely believe that your run of the mill Geordie man in the street Toon fan does not share this view. They must be pissed off with the way their club gets built up constantly by the media.

If they aren't, and they think that turning up in the middle of winter bare chested and shouting sack the manager & sack the board shows how "passionate" they are about their club, then perhaps they are just getting what they deserve.

Mind you, the clubs owners do little to help matters do they?

Fat Sam's off to the Bahama's with a £4 million super bung and the club finds itself in a media frenzy that will not stop until Alan Shearer & Kevin Keegan are put at the helm of a ship that seems destined to run aground again.

So, are Newcastle United a Big Club?

In one sense they are:
They are apparently the biggest one-club city in Europe. This means that they have a huge catchment area from which to entice a large fanbase.

They have a truly fantastic stadium and the facilities are up there with the biggest of clubs in England & Europe.

In another sense they aren't:
They do not have the pedigree of a big club, and cannot claim by achievement to merit a comparison with real (in footballing terms at least) big clubs.

There are many clubs up and down the country that can match Newcastle's claim to greatness.

I think if we use the weighting system used in boxing to determine fighting weights, we can illustrate this perfectly.

The undisputed Heavyweights of English football have to be Man Utd (Muhammed Ali), Liverpool (Joe Frazier or Larry Holmes) and Arsenal (George Foreman).

I'm not putting Chelsea in there with the true heavyweights. They're more of a Cruiserweight who's getting ready to step up a weight. Probably a Joe Bugner, or Maybe even a Rocky Marciano, but in a fifteen rounder with Ali, they're always getting a slapping.

Next weight down is Middleweight where we have Everton (Nigel Benn), Tottenham (Chris Eubank), Aston Villa (Michael Watson) & maybe Leeds (Alan Minter).

Newcastle (Dave Boy Green) come in at Welterweight.
They're fighting in the same category as Man City (Ricky Hatton), Nottingham Forest (Lloyd Honeygan) & Portsmouth (Jane Couch).

Not real big hitters after all, and I reckon Couch is taking out the Boy Green more often than not.

Having a large ground and a lot of fans to go at does not make you big. Put a forty odd thousand seater stadium in Carlisle (a quarter the size of Newcastle), give them umpteen hundred million pounds and a place in the Premier League and the media will be talking about how big they are, their great tradition and all that bollocks.

You have to have earned greatness by achievement and endeavour over many years. A golden spell of a few years in the 1950's does not qualify.

Win three or four league titles, win a cup or two, make some moves in Europe and you may get the chance to move up with the big boys and deserve to be there.

Are Newcastle United a big Club?
Not Yet.