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Newcastle is still a club with massive potential if it was managed properly. Last year Newcastle were announced the 9th richest club in the world. It can boast the second largest stadium in the country selling out every home game for 14 successive seasons now. Only one club can boast that type of attendance record in modern times - Manchester United, 8 times Premiership winners and a host of other meaningless trophies won along the way to add to their haul. Newcastle fans spend more money following their club than any other set of supporters, despite failing to win a single domestic trophy since 1955. You could consider Newcastle one of the most underachieving sides in existence, but it has also been a story of remarkable success.
One only need to cast their thoughts back to the 24th of April 1992 to get a real sense of just how successful Newcastle has been. In the last minute at the end of the season we were staring at relegation to the old third division for the first time in our history, we needed a win but the seconds were running out. Right at the death David Kelly unleashed a rocket of a shot which sent thousands of fans pouring onto the pitch. Had David Kelly skewered that shot wide, today Newcastle may not exist. Owing millions to the banks, losing thousands a day and with a team full of bairns and cast-offs, it was feared that the powers that be might pull the plug. Three years later and Newcastle were at the top of Premiership looking down at Manchester United and the following season broke the world transfer record to bring Shearer back to his hometown club.
What the club has achieved since 1992 is nothing short of remarkable and a testament to the potential of the club. Back then it was a pipe dream to rub shoulders with the likes of Spurs, Everton and Villa - today we tower over them. We may have finished below them in the League the season just gone, but in every other sense, they lag way behind Newcastle in almost all aspects.
Indeed has there been a more successful club over the last decade given the leaps we have had to make in almost every single department? Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal et al were giants of the game well before Kelly's goal sealed our future and were winning trophies as they always have done and always will do while we were battling to keep our heads above the water. They haven't been to the depths we have. They have always operated at the top. We weren't even a sleeping giant in those dark old days, we were in a coma and the life support was about to be switched off. To even consider joining their elite status never mind muscling in on it as we have done, was beyond the dreams of all Newcastle fans at the time.
Who knows what the next 13 years will bring? That elusive trophy will come eventually, it has to. The following clubs have all won something since Newcastle last did:
Villa, Spurs, Everton, Sunderland, Oxford, Coventry, Luton, Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Man City, West Ham, Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich, Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Leeds United, Stoke City, Watford, Wimbledon and more.
Many of those have fallen by the wayside but we're still here. Keep the faith!
Last edited by evil_bastard on Jun-13-2005 at 18:25
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