I’m not claiming any moral high ground. I’m just laying out a means by which conscience Newcastle fans can live with it.

Well, I live in Leicester so I rarely get to attend a game. I play hockey on a Saturday so I’ve never been a season ticket holder, even as a kid. And my replica shirt is from the 2000/2001 season. Is that all ok with you?

Because as you say, these people don’t get to steal my club from me. They don’t get to take this part of my identity, the team my Grandad supported and the link to my Geordie roots. Fuck them, and all they stand for. Because they are not what football or sport is about.

Your piece follows the classic template though - pointing out the issues without offering a solution. That’s not a criticism, but it does allow fans to shrug and say “but what can we do?” My approach is the same as it was under Mike Ashley (who I also hated). Support the team, not the regime.

Great piece Barney. As a Toon fan, Guardianista, and holder of a degree in International Relations, I’ve long wrestled with this. I feel football is a reflection of society. Right now the sport is a microcosm of post-industrial capitalism, where investment by any means is the only thing that matters

Very happy to take our place alongside them, Baz.

(Would that be Premier League winning clubs Blackburn and Leicester, btw?)

Skip it?

Again, I 100% agree with you that the *application* of the law last night was a joke. It’s another in a long list of ways that VAR has ruinously infringed on the spirit of the game. There was no advantage; play on! But the law is there for good reason (imagine Mourinho’s approach if it was removed)

It really isn’t. Your quote of the law itself doesn’t interrogate what it’s actually there to ensure, which is that the kick is taken from 12 yards out. You mention chipping/volleying, but the more obvious advantage would be to tap it (say) six yards closer to the goal on an angle then blast it in

I agree this was absurd, and the penalty should have been retaken, but surely you understand that the law is there to stop the taker dribbling the ball from the spot to the goal (which would clearly confer an advantage)? The law mentions a 2nd touch; implicit within that is outlawing a 3rd, 4th etc.

The headline makes it sound like he’s been missing.

We won the Fairs Cup in 1969 (56 years ago). Even if you only count domestic cups, our last FA Cup win was 1955, significantly longer-ago than England’s World Cup. So either way this stat is a bit mangled.

What we can agree on, though, is being a 37-year-old Newcastle and England fan has been fun.

Thanks, I really needed to hear this. Chasing that second ring in my biggest/best league, agonising over sitting a player that’s been a mainstay all year. You’re right though, he starts. Merry Christmas! 🏈 💍 🎄

End portion of today's pod was some of the best podcasting anywhere, anytime.

Both pissed myself laughing at John’s reaction to Wilson’s dream dinner guests (and Max’s Pele/Hucknall story), and shed tears at the stories of grief at the end. All in public, while travelling to the in-laws for Christmas on a packed Christmas Eve train. So… thanks? I think?

I don’t have an X account any more so can’t send @itwaspod a message, but I feel you should do the story of West Auckland FC becoming ‘world champions’ twice by winning the Sir Thomas Lipton trophy in 1909 and 1911.