Newcastle United
From Frikipedia
Big underachieving football club from the North-East of England. Though in fairness, when you've been underachieving for 50 years, it is possible that this is just called "achieving" now. Big local rivalry with Middlesbrough, and also with Sunderland.
After a brief period of relative success in the mid to late 1990s, when Champions League football was a regular occurence and the team only missed out on the 1995/96 Premiership title after lapsing into freefall late in the season and letting Manure win it again, the club has recently been suffering the aftereffects of having Graeme Souness as manager for a while, a mistake from which they are yet to recover.
Famous Newcastle United People
- Sam Allardyce (Manager)
Big Sam took over the job at the end of the 2006/07 season from nice-but-dim Glenn Roeder. Allardyce made his name with Bolton by taking a mismatch of unknown Israelis and Eastern Europeans, and a bunch of ageing former international stars and somehow making a solid team out of them. Expect pre-season transfers to revolve around attempting to sign Hernan Crespo on a season-long loan and gradual filling of squad places with people with names like "Zoltán Harsányi".
- Michael Owen (Striker)
Flitty, perma-Wilkinson's Disease sufferer. Signed for the Toon back in August 2005, and has since made around 3 appearences for them. Recently seems to have got itchy feet again, and somehow the fact he has a £9 million release clause in his contract has been made ever so totally public. Chances of him being there for 07/08 revolve entirely around Big Sam convincing Owen that he's more than just a poor man's Lovejoy.
- Titus Bramble (Defender)
Once a highly rated Ipswich player, now less effective at the back than tying a length of soggy kitchen roll in front of the goal. Titus helped ruin many a promising start by Newcastle last season, and may well move away for 2007/08, potentially in a unique transfer deal whereby Newcastle offer Bramble plus cash and expect nothing in return.
Trophy Cabinet
Currently pretty bare, though back in the days when men were men, the Toon won 4 League titles and 6 FA Cups, along with glorious European success in the shape of the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Have continued that proud tradition recently by winning the 2006 Intertoto Cup. Which probably wasn't celebrated with an open top bus parade.
