Is it just me....

[Oval85]

... or is it hard for you guys as well to actually care at this point?
I saw the first 2 or 3 games, now I just cannot be bothered. The lack of quality in this squad is so bad I it's frightening.
When Shelvey and Lascelles are gone we are so fragile, and with them we are solid but with no threat going forward at all.
Our strikers are a laugh, the wingers don't get passed any defender, the only one capable is Yedlin (the only reason is surely pace though).

The life and energy is gone from the club now, it's quite obvious. I still read the posts both here and on the mag, but I almost never write anymore... It is hard for me to care, it's hard to look forward to anything, especially transfers windows which is where the downfall of my interest started last january. I just knew there would be loan, bargains and a whole lot of nothing to be excited about.

I see people here who still write positives, and I'm not sure they are ignoring the negatives or they are just really happy people in general.
I know I'm a norwegian and some will probably say I don't feel the same as someone from Newcastle, but those do not know how big English football actually is in my country, and ever since the 70's English football has been way bigger than our own league.
I was 9 years old and fell in love with the shirt... Ever since my blood has been black&white and my heart is hurt by watching this magnificent club be torn into pieces by a Rat and his F***ing commercials!

Still enjoy you all though

[bodacious benny]

Tbh we've been on 'apathy cycles' for years now. We have the odd good spell where you get really hyped about things again, but more often than not it's the same old rubbish on repeat (both on and off the pitch). It's tough to get motivated knowing that nothing is going to change and we'll continue to scrape by until Ashley goes. At this point another relegation looks likely either this season or next if nothing changes. The good times can be brilliant, but we don't get many of them.

I do literally feel nothing in a lot of games. As soon as Leicester scored on Saturday I was like 'oh well, that's us lost again' as you just know there's no chance that we're going to score 2 goals without conceding. I'm not a ST so don't know for sure, but I guess that's the feeling in the stadium too. Indifference (sandwiched between chants about Ashley).

[Oval85]

Tbh we've been on 'apathy cycles' for years now. We have the odd good spell where you get really hyped about things again, but more often than not it's the same old rubbish on repeat (both on and off the pitch). It's tough to get motivated knowing that nothing is going to change and we'll continue to scrape by until Ashley goes. At this point another relegation looks likely either this season or next if nothing changes. The good times can be brilliant, but we don't get many of them.

I do literally feel nothing in a lot of games. As soon as Leicester scored on Saturday I was like 'oh well, that's us lost again' as you just know there's no chance that we're going to score 2 goals without conceding. I'm not a ST so don't know for sure, but I guess that's the feeling in the stadium too. Indifference (sandwiched between chants about Ashley).

Yeah, I've been on this rollercoaster myself, but now... there's something different now.
We finally have a real manager after some disastrous ones, and ever since he arrived Ashley seems to have more tricks and "I don't give a f**k about the fans" in his sleave than usual, doesn't it?!

[Colback's Orange Tufts]

Yeah, I'm forgetting to even check scores or watch highlights. Rarely check the match day thread which used to be a must. What can we get excited about. Under Ashley last season was as good as can be expected. meh

[Double Agent Bruce a.k.a DAB]

Yeah same here. But was the matter of time since pardew took away from me the high heart rate during our games. I had it before every single game. But since 0-2 against Bordeaux I had it just few times. Before that was during every single game.

[Toon Ireland]

I'm starting to lose interest in football in general. The lack of excitement with Newcastle is probably a big factor but the amount of money involved these days is just ridiculous. Alexis Sanchez on almost 500k a week and gets dropped from the squad for a bad attitude. Just f*** off.
Enormous fees for average players and agents milking the whole system is a problem as well.
The diving and rolling around doesn't help either.
Going back to the main point though, how Joselu is our starting striker is beyond me, how rafa didn't get to spend his profit from player sales in the summer is beyond me. This club has many ups and downs but the downs are far more frequent now it seems. A few good results or failing that a few good performances might reignite my interest but I don't see where either will come from. Rafa will probably leave in the summer and who knows what happens us after that regardless of which league we're in

[Chappy]

Out of our games so far - I went to St. James' for the Spurs game, watched the Cardiff game... and haven't watched one since. Not that arsed if I miss em as we've been playing s***. Planning to go up for the Bournemouth game, and I'll probably go to a fair few others this season, but yeah... overall feeling is "meh".

[Don Sholeone]

Couple of wins and everyone forgets all the negativity until we have another bad run.

[Oval85]

Couple of wins and everyone forgets all the negativity until we have another bad run.

No, like Toon Ireland said, I also have lost interest of football in general. This damn fog won't go away until Ashley is away.
He is single-handedly forcing a world class manager to scrape the bottom of the barrel after he managed to get us up again, and Benitez will go after this season, then what?

You cannot downplay my reaction on this. I've been quite positive like everyone else on this forum regarding the club since I joined here, but the bloodsucking the soul and money out of the club cannot be tolerated, and certainly not if Rafa actually manages to win some games this season.

Edit: After a while you realize that nothing will change, Ashley is ONLY keeping the club because of all the commercials, it's a gold mine for him.Heh, almost forgot about all of the clubs money as well. Until he is gone my interest of the club will go downhill no matter what results we get.

[bodacious benny]

It does cross my mind if there's a correlation between age and apathy?

When you're younger it's easier to get wrapped up in football a lot more, but when you get older you have so many other (more important) things to worry about that you don't want to waste your time worrying or getting worked up over trivialities like football. Sure it'd be great to be successful and I'd love to see that as much as the next fan, but I'm not wasting my time getting bothered about defeats and s*** performances etc.

It'll be interesting to see if/when Ashley does sell the club if I'll start to feel differently again and whether football will 'matter' as much as it did to me in my teens / twenties. At the moment it's impossible to say whether age or Ashley has brought on the apathy or if it might have occurred to a certain extent anyway.

[Don Sholeone]

It does cross my mind if there's a correlation between age and apathy?

When you're younger it's easier to get wrapped up in football a lot more, but when you get older you have so many other (more important) things to worry about that you don't want to waste your time worrying or getting worked up over trivialities like football. Sure it'd be great to be successful and I'd love to see that as much as the next fan, but I'm not wasting my time getting bothered about defeats and s*** performances etc.

It'll be interesting to see if/when Ashley does sell the club if I'll start to feel differently again and whether football will 'matter' as much as it did to me in my teens / twenties. At the moment it's impossible to say whether age or Ashley has brought on the apathy or if it might have occurred to a certain extent anyway.

Age definitely plays a part, when you are older you don't have the time to let football have a big effect, when we lose I'm pissed off for the rest of Saturday, when we win I'm buzzing for the rest of Saturday but thats where it mostly starts and ends with me, only time I pay full attention for most days is usually during transfer windows and that's mainly just checking twitter when I have a spare 5 minutes.

Also the only time it would change for me is if we competed in cups more and we were getting into Europe, but that would mainly be because we would have more games and weekends would knock on to mid week games.

[Oval85]

It does cross my mind if there's a correlation between age and apathy?

When you're younger it's easier to get wrapped up in football a lot more, but when you get older you have so many other (more important) things to worry about that you don't want to waste your time worrying or getting worked up over trivialities like football. Sure it'd be great to be successful and I'd love to see that as much as the next fan, but I'm not wasting my time getting bothered about defeats and s*** performances etc.

It'll be interesting to see if/when Ashley does sell the club if I'll start to feel differently again and whether football will 'matter' as much as it did to me in my teens / twenties. At the moment it's impossible to say whether age or Ashley has brought on the apathy or if it might have occurred to a certain extent anyway.

Age definitely plays a part, when you are older you don't have the time to let football have a big effect, when we lose I'm pissed off for the rest of Saturday, when we win I'm buzzing for the rest of Saturday but thats where it mostly starts and ends with me, only time I pay full attention for most days is usually during transfer windows and that's mainly just checking twitter when I have a spare 5 minutes.

Also the only time it would change for me is if we competed in cups more and we were getting into Europe, but that would mainly be because we would have more games and weekends would knock on to mid week games.

Problem is, I don't get pissed off when we loose... I actually don't care.

[overseasTOON]

I used to care.

I used to care a lot but then one day I discovered I cared too much when I actually did cut my cock off after signing a decent player.

[UlversToon]

I used to care.

I used to care a lot but then one day I discovered I cared too much when I actually did cut my cock off after signing a decent player.

I hope it wasn't the Joselu signing, that would have been a waste of a cock!

[Heisen]

It's not necessarily just age, although I do agree that's a factor. Just look at how many older fans go blue in the face screaming at each match. When I had my season ticket up in Leazes Corner there was an elderly bald guy who I was convinced was going to have a heart attack by the way he incessently screamed at every foul, every goal conceded etc.

However I do think it's potentially a generation thing. Those of us who have only started 'properly' following NUFC over the past 15 years, what the f*** have we had to be excited about? One fifth placed finish? At least the generation before us had The Entertainers, before that you had the likes of Keegan, Gascoigne, Waddle, before that a few cup finals. We've had precisely f*** all, so it's very difficult to get excited about much.

If you get conditioned to expect constant relegation battles and relegations, an owner who bleeds the club dry and won't invest, then see a truly world class manager struggling to hold the club together, why should we care? You can't keep watching something, and be as emotionally invested in it as you have been, if you know for a fact it's going to end in disappointment. Best just to switch off and save yourself from the inevitable. Losing used to mean something, now it's just the norm. Scraping together 9 wins a season and grinding out a few draws is just not exciting enough for me to care.

I don't think I'll care as much again until Ashley leaves and that's a feeling felt everywhere. It's sad, but I'm not going to waste my time investing my time, money and effort into supporting something that gives me no joy. I've got better things to do with my Saturday afternoon. Even within sport, I find the NFL, UFC and boxing all have me more emotionally involved than football right now and I'm sure that's the same for the sports a lot of you all follow alongside football, something I'd have found ludicrous a few years ago. I'm actually confident we could win the next few games and I'd probably feel exactly the same. Ashley has well and truly broke me.

[krully]

Money kills the interest in football for me, a bunch of egotistical t*** at man utd not being arsed to put a shift in and pundits call for the manager to be sacked. Also we're s**** so that adds to a lack of interest

Also also every time joselu starts I lose interest

[Cal]

I feel like football's been broken for me. I stick the match on and reluctantly half-watch, not expecting to be entertained or invested in the outcome.

Saying that, I enjoyed the World Cup. So I guess Ashley has succeeded in draining my enthusiasm for Newcastle United as it insipidly lingers today.

[Crouching Shola Hidden Talent]

I'm starting to lose interest in football in general. The lack of excitement with Newcastle is probably a big factor but the amount of money involved these days is just ridiculous. Alexis Sanchez on almost 500k a week and gets dropped from the squad for a bad attitude. Just **** off.
Enormous fees for average players and agents milking the whole system is a problem as well.
The diving and rolling around doesn't help either.
Going back to the main point though, how Joselu is our starting striker is beyond me, how rafa didn't get to spend his profit from player sales in the summer is beyond me. This club has many ups and downs but the downs are far more frequent now it seems. A few good results or failing that a few good performances might reignite my interest but I don't see where either will come from. Rafa will probably leave in the summer and who knows what happens us after that regardless of which league we're in

This sums up how I feel. Obviously there has always been money and generally speaking it brings success, but the finance in football now and the astronomical fees/wages that are banded around is ridiculous. It creates a total detachment from the team. Add to that the constant transfers (so you rarely get chance to attach to a favourite player as they get sold and you end up ironically loving Paul Dummett) and you end up with very little emotional connection with the team you pay to watch, as none of the players care about the team. I miss getting excited about football. And that's not just because we are s***, because we have been for a while; it's because we are s*** with no feeling, soul or unity.

[Don Sholeone]

So that pizza thing was last night and a bunch of grown men waited outside for them to finish to hurl abuse at Mike Ashley for the 5 or so seconds it took for him to leave and get into a waiting car

[overseasTOON]

So that pizza thing was last night and a bunch of grown men waited outside for them to finish to hurl abuse at Mike Ashley for the 5 or so seconds it took for him to leave and get into a waiting car

That'll learn him!